I have hardly slept the past few days then yesterday Sophie woke up with a 101 fever. Poor baby girl. She was absolutely miserable. I was so thankful once again for having the life I do. I had already been all set up at home since Sunday night. Every other Sunday or Monday I pretty much bring my studio home to work at home for the week so I can have the kids with me right after school. So I got her on the couch all bundled up, got her some medecine and got to work after getting Noah off to school. For the past four years the week before Christmas is my craziest. I hardly sleep and am painting until 2-3am each night getting christmas presents done in time. Last week any orders to be mailed out had to be done and wrapped to ship this past Monday. This week are the locals left that can come to me to pick them up. My back is aching, my eyes are bleary, but when I see the faces on the people who ordered my art it is like a shot of adrenaline. Yesterday i had to have Soph come up tot he studio with me to deliver to two clients. She was all bundled on the couch and watched as people got their art. Afterwards as we drove to the store to get oj, chicken noodle soup and some more medecine she said, "Wow mama, your art makes people cry they get so happy. That lady sure said a lot of nice things to you!" I just smiled. "I'm really lucky, I guess, to have this job." I said. "Yep, mama you sure are!"

Then we stopped at the Blockbuster because I had seen one of Sophie and my favorite movies on sale for $3.99 this past weekend. It is Just Like Heaven with Reese Witherspoon. Oh, my god we love that movie! So i got that, we drove home and she had some chicken noodle soup and orange juice and I painted next to her on the couch. Just Soph and me watching one of our favorite girly movies. She kept rubbing her little toes against my back the whole time. At one point she said, "Oh! I'm not making you mess up am I??" "No, Soph, you are making it perfect." Insert big happy sigh.....

I have two big paintings left and two little ones left. I leave town Friday, so at least I know some sleep is in my future soon. In the meantime, I will leave you with this: When you squeeze a paint bottle that got sealed up at the top and white paint explodes all over your couch and you are just stunned for a minute looking at it and your boyfriend sees you just shocked at the white mess for a minute then snaps you out of it for a second by saying, "WHAT SHOULD WE DO??" Remember that the answer is lots of water QUICK!! Oh, and that when a glob of paint shot up into your hair too, and you just wipe it out quickly with great annoyance with your hand and you forget about it until the next morning even though your boyfriend very kindly suggested washing it out now? You should listen to that advice because hair that has dried with a big gob of acrylic paint is VERY, VERY hard to get out. Live and learn.