Mary Ann

She waits in the hotel lobby
her husband in a meeting.
They have a date for dinner and he's due
anytime.
She spent the day shopping
while he listened to lectures.
The day was a success:
She found a pitcher painted with pears
for her sister-in-law who collects anything with pears.
She'll save it for a Christmas present.
The bronze bracelet she bought
will complete her ensemble
for the upcoming office party.
Her outing was finalized with the purchase of
red, strappy sandals
that just happened to match the skirt chosen for dinner
that night.
After a day of walking
her green flats would be more comfortable
but she had just enough time to paint her toenails ruby red
to match the dainty new pumps.
The blister on her pinky toe tingled
as she bounced the foot of her crossed leg.
She wondered if her black jacket
clashed
with the brown in her purse.
Maybe she should run up to the room
to get a different jacket.
No, his meeting might let out anytime now.

The Animal Kingdom

I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom with my parent's last weekend. You wouldn't believe how bad gorillas smell. There is absolutely no way to describe it, but it does give a movie like King Kong a whole new perspective that I didn't necessarily want.

Strauch

Feel free to make comments of any kind.

Jabba the Hutt Meets Mary Poppins and Everyone is Happy

More Kid Art: Creating Creatures

These watercolor paintings were created by students in kindergarten and first grade after reading "Where the Wild Things Are." We talked about different ways of coming up with our own "creatures." (Combining different animal parts, using different textures and patterns, etc.) Do you have any names for them?

Mykonos, Greece

Mykonos was our favorite place that Jeff and I visited on our honeymoon. This is the first contour drawing that I've finished of it. I'm taking it to get framed tomorrow, and I took the photograph of it quickly and didn't realize that the light was so uneven. Sorry about that... hope you can still see it. Oh, and see if you can find Jeff.

Winter Park

Yesterday, Jeff and I went to downtown Winter Park near Rollins College. There is an area of shops within walking distance of a lake, a golf course, and a beautiful, little train station. If you are part of the Lies clan and are planning on attending the reunion in June, we are entertaining the idea of spending our last day there (Saturday) and eating dinner at one of the excellent restaurants there. They have shops like Ann Taylor, GAP, Nicole Miller, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Restoration Hardware, Storehouse, Tuni, Synergy, Bebe, NFX, Shoe Boutique, and many more. There are also several art galleries, coffee shops, candy stores, an antique store, a golf store, and several jewelry stores. Many of the shops are in their original downtown buildings; Pottery Barn is in an old movie theater that was built in 1939. They also have an $8 boat ride that you can take that will give you a tour of Millionaire's Row. It's a beautiful area ... if this sounds like something you're interested in, let me or my parents know. And anyone else that is not attending the Lies family reunion, if you come and visit us, we will still be happy to take you there.

men and money

This picture is the work of a first-grade girl. We were discussing illustration, and each student was given a letter to illustrate to help the kindergarteners learn their alphabet. In first grade, this little girl already has a firm grasp on what's important in life.

Kinda looks like candy

Colorful glass flowers on the ceiling.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day! I had to show you this picture that one of my kids at school made for me. (He called it a Valentine). When he gave it to me, he explained what everything was: The figure with the brown eyes is me, and you can see the red beetle that I drive over on the left hand side of the picture. When I asked him who the other figure was, he said- Oh, that's your husband! Check out his face! Sorry... I thought it was hysterical and I had to post it.

Piazza della Rotunda: Contour Drawing

This is a drawing I just finished of the Piazza della Rotunda. It's the piazza right in front of the Pantheon, but the Pantheon is not included in the picture (It's behind the viewer). I found it amusing that there was a McDonald's right across the from the Pantheon, and the McDonald's is included in this drawing. You can click on the picture to enlarge it; you'll be able to see it better.

Walking Along the Tiber River

I took this picture on our honeymoon when we were walking from our hotel to Vatican City. It would have been great fun to walk down the wall underneath the trees, but it was a pretty steep drop down to the banks of the river. Considering how clumsy I can be, I decided to settle for a picture. . . I can always pretend.

Chinese "Bobbles"

These are some decorations that were hanging from the ceiling in the conservatory in the Bellagio. They are celebrating the Chinese New Year and I have no idea if these specific decorations have a name, but I thought they looked like they should be called bobbles and I thought they were pretty.

Flight of the Navigator

So. . . How many of you out there have seen Flight of the Navigator? I LOVED that movie growing up, and Jeff and I came across the spaceship they used in the movie when we were at MGM Studios a couple of weeks ago. I can't hear the song "I Get Around" without thinking about that movie.

I love kid art!

This picture was created by one of my 5-year old Kindergarteners. FIVE YEARS OLD!!!! They were learning about foreground and background and how things in the foreground are bigger and things get smaller when they get far away. You'd be surprised at how hard this concept is for them to grasp, but I thought that the little girl that made this did a pretty good job. To clear any possible confusion, she has drawn a picture of a man walking down the street in the process of taking off his hat. The buildings in the background were drawn smaller, proving that she understood the concept- Now we just need to work on the fact that buildings sit on the street and don't float in the air. I love the extremely confident line quality that you get in drawings done by children that are so young, and I'm sure this will be the first of many pictures I'll share with you.

Grandaddy's 80th Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday to Grandaddy! The Lies family just celebrated the 80th birthday of The Patriarch himself! We had a blast gambling, shopping and of course . . . eating. The picture you see here was taken the night before his birthday when 29 of us (30 if you count Marilyn) piled into an SUV limo that was probably meant for about 15. Marilyn sang Happy Birthday to "Daddy Doc" while cruisin' the streets of Vegas. For any of you that may read this- I had a great time, although I wish I could have spent more time with you, and I'm looking forward to June! Also- CONGRATULATIONS to Jim and Ginny!!!!!! I'll have to visit you this summer since you obviously won't be in Orlando on June 18. Maybe we can meet at Grandaddy's. Let me know if you plan any trips there. For those of you that are not exclusive members of the Lies clan. . . I'm sorry if I have left you out of this post, but feel free to comment on our bizarre behavior. . . We quite enjoy laughing at ourselves.

















view from Grandaddy's room- THE LIGHT SHOW IS EVERY 15 MINUTES!!! and it changes. . .