Life By Lindsey Rae

Thursday night was the long awaited Nashville Zoo benefit auction. As I wrote in a previous post, I had heard about it a couple of months ago and we really had wanted to go to get a Meerkat painting.
There was quite a few different paintings there by a variety of animal "artists." I had only seen Elephant paintings previously and would like to get one of those someday. Those are actually really neat, because they elephants have a really distinct style and their paintings actually look like something, since they teach them to use a paintbrush.
Most of the paintings were animal footprints on paper. But there were some different styles too. They had one where they put paint on a horses whiskers and he put his whisker prints on paper and another where a cow had made tail prints on paper. I kind of wanted a cow painting too.

Anyhow, our goal was to get a Meerkat painting and there were 3 for sale. It was a silent auction. We bid on all of them. Jerrod wanted to get all of them, but there was a girl who was wanting 2 of them and she sniped them by sitting beside them in her wheelchair until the end of the auction. She kept watching us and was very irritated when we came over and bid them up. Fortunately for her, we had won our painting a little earlier and so we let the last two go...we thought the one we got was the best anyway. But, that other girl was lucky to have won hers because I get pretty competitive with auctions, so I might have kept on bidding just because I want to win! Jerrod wants to go back next year and possibly get another painting and build a collection. It's for a good cause, I guess. And, it's very original art!

A couple of nights ago, I was out in the garage working on a mosaic table. While I was breaking glass with a hammer on the floor (Jerrod's favorite thing to see. haha) I happened to have my head up for a moment an saw a furry tail in the air. My first thought was that it was a neighbors cat come to annoy me again, and in the moment I would have gone to try and get it away, I realized that it was actually a skunk! As I was sitting in my garage, a skunk walked right in and sat down almost beside me. I panicked! But, silently, thank goodness, because the usual kind of loud panic I usually have when I see a bug or something would have not worked out well in this situation.
I ran into the house to tell Jerrod about it and he said to just stay inside and that it would go away. But, I said, I don't think that is a good idea, because he might wander further in and decide to hide somewhere and then when won't know where he is and when we need to close the door later, we have no way of knowing if he is locked in!

So, Jerrod said to go watch him. So, I had to go watch him. I went out and stood in the driveway, behind the car and tried to keep my eye on him to see where he would go next...hoping it would be out. But, he wasn't in any hurry to leave. He made himself quite comfortable curled up in a little ball in a corner. It was in this moment that I realized that I had never before thought of how to deal with an intruding skunk. Because, trying to make him leave could be disastrous. So, I was more annoyed then anything because of the fact that he interrupted me while I was hard at work making a mess with glass.

After a little bit he finally did waddle away. I was pretty glad about that. I have seen skunks around in the flower beds and stuff before, but they have never actually tried to come inside. He better not come back though. Not that he would really care what I think and I'm pretty sure he would win if we ever got in an argument about it.

Below is a picture of the table I am working on. I get stained glass scraps and broken glass and break them with a hammer to shape them closer to how I want them. I also put silver leaf on the backs of a lot to add a metallic shine and to lighten up the color. That takes a long time. Then. I arrange them, kind of like putting a puzzle together and glue them down and then after that, do the grout. It's got a way to go until it will match the previous one I made, which is below this.
These are a few pictures of a coffee table I did last year. Unfortunately, the pictures really don't show what it truly looks like because it's almost impossible to capture the look of stained glass and mirror in a photo. It looks much better in real life...but this is a little bit of an idea.


And a few other things I made with my broken glass....The first thing I tried was this mirror covered box. I got a wooden box, painted it and covered it with broken mirror. The mirror was all free because I ended up getting a ton of it from some people on craigslist who gave me some old broken ones for free! This was an experiment to see if I would like doing mosaics.

These "Love" letters were done on letter forms with mirrors and black grout.

I found this big pot and plant stand at my appartment...someone didn't want them, so I claimed them for free! I painted the stand with textured paint and then did the rest in mosaics with the matching pot.


This globe was another Craigslist find. It was a regular globe, I got for $4. I sealed it and then got tiny pieces of glass and covered each country with a different color.
I really liked it the best before it was finished, but now wish I had not done the ocean area with mirror. It reflects too much and takes away from the colors of the stained glass. I don't like the white grout either, so I might try staining that. It has become a very heavy globe. That's a lot of glass on there!

I heard about this video on TV and had to go find it on youtube. I never knew I could be so easily entertained. It's so funny.

Jerrod directed me to this website one day when he said I was "badgering" him. This is my new favorite website.

www.badgerbadgerbadger.com

Make sure you watch all the way to the end. Haha.
My only wish is that I had found it first so I could have sent him to view it.

I was just thinking about Cocoa...but I shouldn't...because it makes me sad everytime I do because I don't have her anymore. I miss that cow! Not that I would really have any place to put her...but I would almost be willing move and get a place for her to live! I can hardly wait until I can get back on a farm and get some cattle again.
Although, I would still rather have just Cocoa, because she was my favorite.

This past Saturday night we were able to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Concert in Nashville. Jerrod and I went and took Jerrod's friend from work and two other people we know who are voice instructors who Jerrod does computer work for. We had dinner first and then walked downtown to the Gaylord Entertainment Center, where they had the concert. This was the first time the Choir has been to Nashville in over 30 years, so at church, they were really encouraging everyone to go and to tell our friends from outside of church about it too and bring them. I was initially disappointed when I heard that they would do the performance here. There are so many great places in Nashville that would house this type of performance so much better...places that are truly designed for the arts, but the Gaylord is the Nashville Predetors home and other sports and then used for concerts for the big, loud, pop/country type artists. So, I wished that they were going to be somewhere fit for classical type music. I guess maybe either the other places were booked too far in advance or maybe they just wanted to get the biggest place possible so that there would be enough room for as many as could make it.

Anyway, back to the choir. It was really, really good. The only time I could remember hearing them in person, at least in recent years, was about 6 years ago when I went to General Conference with some of my high school friends in Salt Lake. I remember I was blown away by how truly good it was to hear them live. This time was no exception (other than the fact that the sound could have been fuller in a different venue...but enough of that). They started off with the National Anthem. (No not mine...but thoese Americans) and really, it moved me and brought tears to my eyes to be able to hear that sung so well, so close to independence day and feel the spirit tell me that we trully are blessed to be living where we are right now.

They did some really cool pieces; folk songs from other lands that were just so right on. Everyone loved it. I loved the classical peices they did: works by Mozart, Verdi, Rochmoniof. And of course loved it when they sang a couple of arrangememts I had sung before in my own choir, so I knew all the parts; that was fun.
It made me want to just get up and sing...want to be a part of a good group again. Not that I have ever been in a group that good, but I have had some good choir friends and it's just a good feeling to make good music. I miss that and would like to get involved again, but it's difficult to do that when you are not in school.

Anyway, to end, it was a great concert. I think there was a sense of peace and warmness among everyone who attended. I think that the spirit was strong. Witnessing that all this beautiful music, even if it wasn't religous music, it was good and righteous and it testified of the Lord.

They finally got the roads on our future street recently. This is very exciting because that was the big thing that needed to be done before they can start building. They also put up a sign to show our lot is "under contract." However, ours got run over...hope that's not a bad sign of things to come! Anyway, I ran up there on that pile of dirt, in my high-heels, and nailed it back into the ground with a rock. But, a few days later, it is down again. Oh well. Since then they have also put in curbs and storm drains....now they just need to get building permits from the city. So, in July it should actually get started going up. We have to make decisions now on what kinds of things we want for options....in fact, we have our design studio meeting next week. It's stressful. I am always worried about making the right choice. My tastes are somewhat artistic and I would like to do some bold things, but then at the same time, we are trying to pick things that will appeal to future buyers since we are not looking at this as a long term home. So, that means we have to try to keep things somewhat neutral. Not as fun as some of the possibilities that are running through my brain, but I guess when we plan to keep our house for awhile I can do more artistic things.

Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary. I can't believe how fast time goes by. But, at the same time, it does seem like awhile since our wedding. As Jerrod said a couple of months ago, life is progressing. Got married...got a green card...getting a house. But anyway, back to the wedding: That was such a fun day. I wished it could have gone on longer after all the preparation I did for it! It was nice to be able to see so many people I wanted to visit with at once at the reception and then of course, going the temple with Jerrod was an amazing experience. It was definitely the best moment of my life. Best decision of my life to get married there. What a horrible thing it would be to not have the knowledge that our marriage would be forever. I can't imagine how scary that would be. It is really truly something that makes life worth living and I am very grateful that we both have the same goals so that we can keep doing the things we need to do to have an eternal marriage. And to finish those thoughts...a few pictures from that good day!





I wanted to add a few more....but Jerrod rebuilt my computer this week and my pictures folder is missing. So, I need to reclaim it first!

Last week I had to go see an oral surgeon because I am supposed to have some preventative dental work done sometime. So, I went for a consultation. Although I was told by my refering dentist it probably wouldn't cost anything as a consultation, I wanted to be sure before I went in, just in cause I they decided to charge me some outrageous amount as a surprise at the end. So, I asked the receptionist about 3 different times what or if there would be any charge for this appointment. She pretty much avoided giving me an answer for whatever reason, so I tried to make it clear that basically I didn't want to see any dentist if it was going to cost a bunch of money....I didn't really want to see a dentist anyway. Well, she told me that there was a couple ways they could bill my insurance so it shouldn't be a problem. So, I went in...saw the surgeon and all that and then he says that I should have the surgery and so he wants to take 3 pictures of my teeth as kind of the before pictures for his little "before and after" book and also, so they can send it to the insurance for their billing stuff. Well, at the end of all this I meet with insurance lady so they can tell me how much it is going to be for my surgery. Ok fine. At the end of all that, then she says that my insurance will pay for my visit today but that I have to pay a fee for the pictures they took. So she has to check on the price of these. Now, I get a feeling that they are going to give me a cost that is going to be high and that annoys me, but I guess it is what it is. Now, keep in mind the dentist just snapped 3 poloroid pictures of my teeth. So, this lady comes back and tells me that the pictures are going to be $27. I am pretty irritated because I know that obviously It does not cost $27 for the dentist to take 3 poloroid pictures. So, then, she says, "How would you like to pay?" and as I give her my check card, she says, "ok, that will be $81."
"What? You just said $27."
"Well, that is for one picture. So it's $27 times three."
So, I threw my card at her and she takes it to be processed and I instantly got so mad. When she came back, I asked her, "How can you possibly just take my card and charge me that? That is less than $2 worth of film. Don't you feel kind of bad about doing that? I mean, you may as well just have stolen the card from my wallet, because you really are stealing money from me!"
So, that initial receptionist comes in. I said to her, "I asked you several at the beginning to tell me what you would be charging me for this visit and you didn't make me aware of this." She stumbled through excuses, but she really didn't make any sense. They wouldn't listen to me. And I was so mad. I was already extra irritable and not feeling well from the migrane medicine my neurologist had given me a few days before. So, I left because I didn't know what I could do. I called Jerrod and told him and he explained that they could only charge what the reasonable and allowable for the insurance was and that I should go find out what the code from the insurance was so I could call the insurance and find out if they had followed that guideline. (Americans and their insurance...I don't know anything about it.) But I really didn't want to go back there. So, I talked Jerrod into taking care of it. He called them and right away they promised to refund my money. Then, they called me to appoligize! He can always make people do what he wants and nobody listens to me!
Anyway, I got my $81 back, which was very good. But, is that not the most terrible thing that the surgeon would charge that? It's dishonest in my opinion. Well, I don't trust him to cut my mouth open now and don't want to give him my business. If he charges $81 for everyone who gets snapshots at their consultations, he probably doesn't need my business. Anyway, he doesn't accept any medical insurance, only dental and using my dental it will still cost me around $2000 to get the surgury with my co-pay. But, I did find out after all that, that my medical insurance will most likely cover it through a different provider and I have 100% coverage with that...so that's an no-brainer.

Since I am allergic to cats and dogs, I have decided that this is the animal I should get instead. They are found in England, I think. They were having a problem with them eating crops or something. I think I need one of these guys. Good idea for a pet, eh? I would teach it to walk on a leash and take it down the street. It would entertain the neighbors, I think.