a little jaunt

Right after we took the kids to one island we turned right around and headed to another island to see the Police in concert. We had planned this trip prior to the retreat. We stayed at a beautiful hotel, and spoiled ourselves with room service and movies. One evening there was a great hula show by the pool with native dress and dances from all of the islands plus Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti. The above photo was from our last day. We rented this kayak and paddled around in the beach area right in front of our hotel.

The concert was great. Sting was awesome and I felt like a college kid again.

protection

This was taken by my friend Jenny. We came upon this sweet scene leaving the beach one afternoon. The mama bird sat so still and protective. It was the perfect image of peace for our retreat experience.

nearby

We took the kids to a retreat held at our friend's home. Annie, our wonderful sitter who is now on going to grad school on a neighbor island, was able to come and help. It is so beautiful there. Our friends live on a large property with many fruit trees. They also have a fruit farm close by.

Highlights of the trip included getting upgraded from a dumpy moldy place to a beautiful huge new house, the kids running around and sliding on shiny wood floors, all of us and some others and the neighbor's dog riding in the back of a pick up truck - local style, long walks on a very secluded beach, fresh smoothies made from frozen pineapple put through a juicer, quiet time for prayer and reflection for Gary and I, sharing meals with wonderful people, Gary and Annabel leading the group in songs, eating freshly picked longan and rambutan fruits from the farm, and going out to dinner in town.

annabel becomes 9

At the top she is in all her glory, telling a story to her class at school during the traditional Montessori "Walk Around the Sun." For her party we played traditional games of freeze tag, egg on a spoon race, and 3-legged race. Gary and I also devised a clever, multi-step scavenger hunt. The kids loved this. We composed the hints on our way to the movies during our date night. We made all of the clues rhyme. This was a cupcake year, adorned with gummy bears.

news

In 2006 I had work published in a book written by 2 extraordinary women. Carol was a graduate school art therapy professor, who is a great artist, and Peggy was a colleague, a wonderful poet and poetry therapist that I worked with in my earlier days as an art therapist.  The book is a series of essays, poetry, and artwork by artist/poets.  It was quite an honor to be chosen.  Most of the people in the book were far more established professionals than I.  My contribution includes poems I wrote about Shawn as a baby and a colorful abstract painting that I did that I love.  Note: The painting was done after waking up one morning a few years ago and realizing I had let 10 years pass since I had done a painting!  To date it is one of my favorite paintings.  Below is the Amazon link:

Portrait of the Artist as Poet by Carol Thayer Cox & Peggy Osna Heller (Paperback - Feb 1, 2006)

mom and dad...

...came to visit this winter to escape the cold New York winter. They stayed in a condo right down the street and were here for three weeks. It was great. We had so much fun, mainly hanging out eating dinners, shopping, taking walks. The kids enjoyed going to their place after school and having a snack, watching cartoons or playing games. Gary and I took them out to some nice places for dinner and Dad got to sample all of the unique local foods. Dad likes anything exotic. "Be adventuresome!" is his motto. You should have seen us in Mexico years ago, trying everything on the menu, including frog's legs. Yikes!

The second photo is of the sun's rays. Whenever the kids see this they say, "Look it's God!"

trampoline antics

Annabel took the photos of Sky, and Sky took the one of Annabel. Every once in awhile the girls beg me to use my camera. It's always interesting to see what they come up with. They are definitely the children of an ex gymnast! This trampoline has been a lot of fun, and it's in our back yard. I would have loved one of these as a child. The net makes it so much safer.

what a view

View of the ocean near the previously mentioned blowhole. Perspective is everything, eh?

old tropical town

some seriously cute kids

Pictured here is one of my favorite photos of our children. They are on our local beach - a walk from our house. We were getting ready to take them out to dinner at their favorite restaurant here - "The Bistro." The girls always get dressed up when we take them out to dinner, including wearing their jewelry.

the sun'll come out tomorrow

Annabel took a theater workshop this year and performed a few songs from Annie on the stage at our local mall -- hence the raggedy "costume." She even had a line, and had to sing a couple of lines solo. She is becoming more and more confident in singing and acting.

holiday show

The children attend a Montessori school here in town. This year they did a holiday show, with the theme being the four seasons. Annabel was chosen to play guitar and accompany the musical director, who played piano. I remember leaving the house with nicer shoes for her, but somehow they must have gotten left in the car! These photos aren't great, but you get the feeling. All of the kids were adorable. There is a vast range of ethnic backgrounds where we live, and it shows at the school. I love that our kids have friends of all races.

our sky

Beautiful cloud formations during a typical sunset

splendor

This was taken on a day when I took the kids to see a famous "blow hole."

This mountain was not too far from there. In order to get to the blow hole you had to walk way down a long path to sea level. Down there was a natural hole in a huge rock that butted up against the ocean. Every time the waves came crashing in at a certain strength, the water would get trapped under the rock and come bursting up through the blow hole, at least 15 feet high. Eventually the tide started coming in and we had to head back up the mountain. Annabel and I went separate from the other two kids, and our sitter, Nadya. I got disoriented and ended up walking Annabel well out of our way. She seemed to know the way, but I didn't listen to her. When we discovered we were far from our car, the other 3 people looked like tiny dots in the distance. Oh well, we got a lot of exercise. The air that day was cool and fresh.

here we are

All of us. So now you have been officially introduced to the whole fan-dam-ily. It's a sweet life these days. The children are relatively civilized. We are out of the diapers stage, the sleepless nights of newborns, and we can actually take the kids out to dinner in a restaurant. They don't make a huge scene or throw food. They color, then eat their dinner and carry on a pleasant conversation. Actually they are great kids.

Our newest thing as a family, that seems to be here to stay, is music. There is a celebratory attitude these days. All of the children are musical in their own way. Sky writes and sings songs like Dad, and has recorded 2 albums. Annabel is practicing singing daily for her Broadway debut as an actress/singer. Her goal is to be as good as Julie Andrews. Both girls play piano, guitar and harmonica. Shawn is the family drummer. Our entire living room is taken over with about six guitars, a mandolin, a huge piano, and a drum set.

The kids talk about having a band with one another. Tonight the girls were talking about writing a theater show and having Sky do the comedy parts and Annabel do the dramatic parts. I love how our kids think. Two years ago the girls acted out the entire two hour show of Peter Pan, complete with all of the songs. Mrs. Claus made costumes which she sent via Santa. They were quite extravagant.

she married a rocker

Yes, it's true. In fact before I even met Gary, I was a fan of his music. The first time he played for me he was pretty amazed to see me singing along to one of his songs.

When I was in high school I did musical theater. My freshman year I was cast in a play as a chorus member (among about 100 other kids in the chorus). The show was Babes in Arms. There was this really cute guy who was a senior, and he had the male lead. He was a great piano player and all of the teens would gather around him and sing while he played -- popular music, show tunes, etc. I remember thinking how fun it would be to marry a guy like that.

Well I did.

http://www.garymarksmusic.com/ If you go to this website you can hear samples of his music.

Gary is actually a songwriter, as well as a great singer, piano, and guitar player. He humored me a few years ago by letting me sing backups on one of his albums. Granted my voice is mixed in with several layers of his voice, but still, I got to sing on a record. My claim to fame.

Gary has several albums and has been writing music his entire adult life. He has created several albums since our marriage in 1995. He still writes songs and recorded an album last year. I think he is great, and fully expect him to become an even more well known mainstream songwriter in years to come.

portraits of skylar

This is my oldest child. She is now 11 1/2. We have a lot of fun when I take photos of her. She is actually learning to use a camera as well, and is a great photographer! She is ready for her own camera and she is doing a blog herself. She is a musician, like her dad.

Here is her blog: http://skywritingmusic.blogspot.com/

portraits of shawn

This is our youngest child, and our only son. He just turned five. He is a hilarious, goofy, happy boy. He is really feisty, and loves loud music -- the louder, the better. He is showing great propensity for drums. Oh boy! He likes the Police, the Beatles, Don Henley.

Sorry Raffi.

portraits of annabel

Annabel as C.S. Lewis for Halloween

Since Annabel is the middle child I will feature her first. Annabel loves to sing.  I love taking portraits of my children. They are my most available and interesting subjects.

our forest

I think I miss the forests most of all when I think of our old life in California, and my childhood in rural upstate New York. So this is a treat, the forest. There is a preserve here where a certain amount of trees have been planted in rows. But once you walk past this you are in a natural setting. This is located not far from where we first lived when we came to the island.

We took the kids for a hike in this forest over their October break. (Remember, I am catching you up from many months of going on "explores.") We went with several families from their school. The first time we took Shawn, a few weeks earlier, he looked up and said, "WOW look at the trees!" in a whisper, with so much awe and wonder, it was so sweet. I realized he had never seen trees that large in his life.

The children gathered pine cones, moss and bark. The soil there was so rich, I couldn't help but give the kids a quick lesson about how the earth makes the perfect soil to help the trees continue to grow. I even got some of the girly girls to sniff a handful. These kids just love me. I am known in their school as the lady who teaches them about worms.

first post

I feel inspired to finally do this. I have thought of it for a long time.

My husband and I both are from the east coast of the mainland U.S., and since we live so far from our families and many friends, I thought this would be a fun way to stay in touch. I also want to share my art, and am hoping I might even provide inspiration for others.

I come from a long line of artists. My maternal grandmother was an artist with many talents, my maternal grandfather was an inventor. My paternal grandmother painted. My mother has a knack for design, my sister is an awesome poet. Even my dad is an engineer who loads the dishwasher like nothing you have ever seen.

We moved to the tropics when our younger daughter was a baby, then we returned to the mainland. We returned to the tropics when our third child (a son) was a baby. So much of our life here has been bringing up babies, and being quite housebound. This year our son will turn 5, and we are nudging toward more freedom as a family, and with it, the ability to explore. And I have rediscovered my love of photography.

Not that this is a prize winning photo, but to me it is the quintessential image of tropical life-- local style. A simple banana tree. Bananas grow in huge, heavy bunches. They are cut with a machete when one begins to turn yellow, and left hanging for the rest to ripen. Then the tree is knocked over so a new baby can grow.

This was taken from an outing to the rain forest side of the island. My girls were getting ready to Tarzan into the falls. A few minutes after this happened, I went and did it too. It was so much fun! I have more to share to catch up and I expect it will only get more fun. Thanks for reading.
I will leave you with one thought:

Gratitude. I am so grateful for all of my blessings.