No not today…later this month and I will be 33 for those of you curious. I just wanted to write and tell you about my birthday GIFT. I am sooooooo excited about it!!! I am a Thomas Kincaide fan and I was dreaming recently about owning a large print to put over my electric fireplace that I am wanting to purchase. Jim and I were looking at the Kincaide gallery and checking out the prices on the prints. Spending over 1000 for the prints and size I would want is totally out of budget for us but I loved looking just the same. My mom has an oil painting by James Lee and it is really beautiful and more in our range so I was going to consider checking his line out. After much discussion though I finally talked my husband into the best birthday gift of all. HE agreed to make my oil painting!!! He doesn’t have much experience with oils but FOR ME he is willing to try. I have so much faith in his creative ability that I just can’t wait to see what he does. We are going to blend a few paintings into our own and then he will draw and paint it. The artist in him wants to hand draw it first. Jim is awesome with perspective and shading so I think he will “get” the light effects of Kincaide. The risk to Jim of course is what if it turns out he is really good at this?:):) He thinks he will hate the project which is why it took me so much begging time. Very time consuming endeavor – especially when you haven’t worked with oils much. I have so much faith in him though and irregardless, putting a plate on the picture that say’s “James P. Brinkman” will be worth far more than anything I would ever pay for a Kincaide…because my lover made it for me. I’ll have to keep you updated on the progress:)

It was a very interesting discussion we had over this project actually because I learned something about Jim that in 11 years of marriage I had not discovered. He is a little afraid to start this project because his childhood dream was to pursue art and ultimately he abandoned it based on trying to make wise family supporting choices. Now he is a bit concerned that if he dabbles in it, the flame will resurrect and he feels he doesn’t have time for this passion. I disagree. I think if God gifts you, you should feel privileged to exercise that talent and maybe even a bit obligated because God doesn’t gift everyone the same so if you got it – He wants you to use it. Maybe Jim will find another hobby that he can make side money from in the years to come? Goodness knows he could use it if he is going to insist on purchasing every new XBox release! Yes he just bought the darn 360. Boys and their toys! (To Jodi and Heidi: Let the boys have their toys and be a fan of the man:)