Up Up And Away

Mary and Amelia went on their first airplane! Uncle Justin (Jeremy's Brother) and Aunt Becky were married in Albany, NY on May 24. Instead of driving two small children we chose to take a plane up to NY for the wedding. We had two flights going up and two flights coming back. Mary did suprisingly well and by the end of the trip was a pro at air travel.

Mary watched her new movie, Elmo in Groutchland, for a lot of the trip. She read some new books, too. She enjoyed looking out the window and signing/saying plane. Amelia slept during a lot of the travel, which worked out well. Overall everything went smoothly and we all had a lot of fun.

Finally Finished!

I rarely, well I guess I should say never, have time to paint or draw for fun, but on occasion I get an excuse to take time out and actually complete a picture. Justin (Jeremy's brother) got married on Saturday May 24th. As a wedding gift I gave them a portrait done in chalk pastels. With my crazy schedule I only had three days to work on it and only a few hours each day, but with Jeremy's help with the kids I finished it on time for the wedding. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it before we got it framed, so there is a glare from the glass which makes it hard to see the detail. Anyways, I am pretty happy with it. I am my worst critic and can always find things to fix. Maybe one day in the distant future I will have the time to actually devote to art and be able to improve myself like I'd like to. For now it's nice to have a reason to sit down and draw or paint.

Justin and Becky Tryon

Diploma and Gold Bar

Yeah! As of May 10, 2007 Jeremy is officially a college graduate! Saturday morning Mel and Nancy (Jeremy's parents) and I went to Jeremy's graduation at Stanford Stadium. Jeremy graduated with a Real Estate degree from UGA's Terry College of Business. Even though the past few years have been full of surprises and trials, Jeremy still managed to maintain a 3.4 gpa. He will be starting his first "real" job since the military on June 2nd with Metro Appraisals doing commercial real estate appraisals. Although the graduation was nice, the real excitement came later that day when Jeremy received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. The commissioning was held on campus at the university chapel. Uncle Mike (Ret. Lt. Col. Michael Tryon) came from Ft. Benning, GA to swear Jeremy in. His daughter Shana and her son Max also joined us for the ceremony. Several family members came to the commissioning to show their support. Thank you so much to all of those who attended: Mel & Nancy Tryon, Richard and Julie Conyer, Uncle Mike, Cousin Shana and Max, Richard & Kelleen Hemsley, Ginny Hemsley, John Hemsley, Jason & Rebecca Hemsley, and a special thanks goes to Ashley Caputa who babysat Mary during the commissioning. Thank you so much for sharing in Jeremy's accomplishments and making the day that much more special!

Swearing In


Pinning of Gold Bar


First Salute and Presenting of Commissioned Officers


Max, Jeremy, Uncle Mike, Shana


One Proud Family

Totally Rad!!

Saturday night, my good friend Jaime had her 30th Birthday party. It was an 80's themed party complete with Karaoke, totally Awesome outfits, and a ton of fun!!! Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite kind of music is 80's music! We had a great time. Jeremy didn't have much time to get his outfit together, but it turned out pretty good. I bought most of mine at Goodwill for $10. I won for best girl outfit and got a Rubiks cube (which I totally love)!! Thanks Jaime for having such a great party!! We all had a blast!!

The Girls! (we all had big hair at the beginning of the night, but because of the humidity we lost some of the height... How did we keep it up so high back then?... aerosol, I guess!)

Amelia is 8 Months old!

So my sweet baby is now 8 months old! I can't

believe how quickly time goes by! She

has brought so much joy to our lives in the past 8 months.

She is the most smiley and loving baby I have

ever known! I love her so much and I am so proud of her!

She is now officially sitting (a BIG accomplishment for

children with Down Syndrome)!! Yay!! She is doing

great with her fine motor skills and can pick up a cheerio.

She crunches them, but hasn't gotten used to swallowing

something with that much texture, so she spits

them out most of the time. She laughs all the time!

Mary is her biggest fan and cheers for her and hugs her (a lot!)

Mary's won't go anywhere without her and if we start out the door

or out of the car without her she screams, "no, my nana."

Amelia loves Mary more than anything... even her hugs!!

Mary was hugging and tickling her tonight and

Amelia was just smiling and laughing! I love watching them together!

Art Classes

After a long break I am teaching art classes again. I was plannnig to start back up last fall after Amelia was born, but her unexpected diagnosis and health issues delayed everything. I am excited to start teaching again. It helps me to remember how much I love art and how passionate I am about it. I have been teaching art lessons out of my home for almost 3 years now. I started off with 2 classes which consisted of my 2 nephews and their friends. Now I have 5 classes and if I had time I could probably add about 2 more. Each class consists of about 4 kids ranging in ages from 4 to 16 (the classes are separated by age group.) I do really love art!! I am such an artsy-fartsy geek, especially when it comes to the technical part of what goes into a piece of artwork. I love how the elements of art/design (line, shape, form, space, texture, value, and color) are the building blocks of every work of art, whether an artist consciously thinks about them or unconsciously uses them as a basis. I love the theory of composition and balance and all of the principles of design (the way inwhich the elements are organized.) Sorry, I could talk all day about art, but I won't. I am so glad to be able to teach lessons to children and young adults and help them appreciate and maybe even aquire a passion for art (and of course it doesn't hurt that I make a little money doing it, too). When I was studying fine art at Georgia State University I remember making a conscious decision to become a mother instead of a great artist. In my opinion to become a great artist you must be devote your time into studying and creating, which is very hard to do with children. You must be selfish (I don't mean that to be negative), whereas to be a mother you must be selfless. I knew that I could still create artwork and that art will always be a part of my life, but that I would never create a painting or drawing that would inspire thousands; I had to sacrifice any great masterpieces that might have been. Instead I choose to create living masterpieces who are their own work of art and even though they are not always perfect they inspire me and hopefully will grow to inspire those around them.

I had to add one more....

This is a collage of my girls that I am using as a photo-signature on my Downsyn.com forum.