Project 365 Day 31

No photo today, but I do, however have a short video. Emily told me to run outside and look at the sky. It was the strangest thing. I figured it was a fire, but there was no sign of smoke anywhere, so we didn't know what it was. You have to really be focused on the video to see it, but in real life, it was lighting up the entire northwestern sky. It would pulsate light then dark, light then dark. Morgan was scared out of her mind. Haha.

Maybe you can see it better if you put the video in full screen mode.

Turns out it was a land rig burning a flare right up the road.

Itching to take pictures!

It's beginning to get to me. This weather is not allowing me to use my camera the way I'd love to. If it's a beautiful, warm day, I'm Mrs. Busy Bee. If I have a slow day (wait, do I have those?), it's raining or entirely way too cold! I am just itching to go somewhere to take photos and I don't even care if they are of the girls, other people, or just landscapes! I just want to take some pictures! Ok, I think I've made myself clear. I'm going to try to keep calm for the time being.

I no longer have my much needed Photoshop program. Our computer had a virus on it a few months back and someone in this house(NOT ME) did a complete restore on it, completely wiping out my programs. That was like ripping my very being away from me. Have you ever priced Photoshop? Um, yeah. It's not one of those things we just go out and buy on any given day, especially for a computer program. But, I did download a free trial of Photoshop CS5 and am using every photo I have to take advantage of it. It only makes me miss my CS3 version all the more, but at least I have it for the next 27 days. After struggling to remember how to do what I used to do with it, I also learned how to do more editing that I absolutely, whole heartedly, cannot contain myself, LOOOOVVVVEEEE!!!! Bring on the warmth before my free days are over! I may just have to pile on the layers and go with it.

On another note, Clayton has to leave to go to work this morning. I can't believe he was only able to be home a couple weeks this time. Usually it's a month on/off, but everything is changing for him at the moment. He'll be gone about 5 weeks, he says. Good thing about that is, though, he won't be in Brazil. He's going to be in Mississippi, so we will be able to drive out to see him soon. YAY! :) Hmmm, maybe I'll be able to get some really cool pictures then. We shall see!

Project 365 Day 30

Easy lunch today. Emily wanted to make a sandwich like one of the things I had at the party yesterday. She was so proud and kept saying she's going to work at Subway when she's old enough to get her first job. I think I'll have her prepare lunch on a daily basis because this was one great sandwich!

Project 365 Day 29

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday because we had a birthday party for Clayton and Allison. I wanted to make things easier by just buying snacky things to munch on instead of a full blown meal like BBQ, so went shopping for just those type of things. Turned out it was much more involved than just having a BBQ, but oh well. A buggy full of junk food but it was all so good!

Project 365 Day 28

Today the girls and I took the loads of clothes and household items to the Women and Children's Shelter. Emily has an old porcelain doll that has just about seen its last day and she asked if she could donate it too. Ok, first of all, I have tried throwing that old thing out more than once and she simply won't have it. Now she wants to donate it? Oh well, at least she's in the giving spirit. It still didn't make it to the shelter though. :/ I think I caught Emily a little off guard. ;)

I couldn't help but post this picture also. Emily's cat, Izzy, was toying with a lizard today. He never would actually kill it, just torturing the poor little guy. The lizard had had enough and took hold of Izzy's lip and wouldn't let go! This cat couldn't shake that lizard and was going crazy! Such a good laugh.

Project 365 Day 27

One of many trips we are making tomorrow to the Women and Children's Shelter. Such a nice idea of getting all this stuff out of my way. My Jeep is packed to the core! (and again, this is only one of many trips we will be making)

Project 365 Day 26

So, today was pretty uneventful, other than finishing putting the fabric on the rest of my boxes for my utility room. I did, however, start working on something for my dining room. Since I have a fireplace in there, I need something above the mantel and have been searching and haven't satisified my need yet. When all else fails, as it has, it's time to bring out my Cricut. I have 3 empty canvases, so thought I'd do something with them. It's too late tonight to actually do any cutting or painting, so this is just an idea of what I want, which is subject to change before I even finish this post. This is just the image I'm working with right now on the program I use for my Cricut. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the colors are just because of the different images. They won't actually be this color...just the shapes.

I'm not sure yet. We'll see.

Project 365 Day 25

Ok, so an update on yesterday's Project 365, but not the end. I covered the box in fabric. Looks kinda snazzy, I do believe. Still not finished though. I want to add something else to it and then show you the finished product. I mean products. :) Later though.

Project 365 Day 24

My Project 365 picture today may seem a little odd, but it's only part of tomorrow's. I tried something tonight and it actually worked. Stay tuned...

Project 365 Day 23

Tonight, my sister-in-law told me about a book she's interested in reading. After describing it to me, I knew I was going to have to go out and grab a copy, so I did. Can't wait to dive in! (Now, if can keep Morgan and Allison away from it long enough)

Project 365 Day 22

I always keep a pair of old rubber boots by my back door for something easy to slip on and off going in and out of the house. It's very convenient. Maybe a little too convenient.

Tonight, Clayton wanted us to go out to eat for a change of pace. Poor guy had to wait for us all to get dolled up, which takes a while with 4 of us women in the house. When we were all feeling pretty confident about the way we looked, I in all my bling and dressed up nicely, we set out. It wasn't until about 15 miles out of town when I realized I had my old rubber boots on. NICE. Oh well, it's healthy to laugh at yourself, right?

Project 365 Day 21

While doing some Bible study tonight, I reached for my Strong's Concordance. To my surprise I found this dogwood pressed between the pages. I have no idea when it was put there, but it was such a pleasant surprise just the same. Makes me anxious for spring when they are all in bloom for a short time here. It's one of the best things about living where I live.

Project 356 Day 20

Our dishwasher went out this morning so I had to make a quick trip to the ever so dreaded Wal-Mart to pick up some dishwashing liquid and do them by hand. So glad I went when I did, because I ran into a couple people I dearly love. My Aunt Debbie and Uncle Dudley. I didn't take the original picture of this, but took a picture of a picture she had online. *Sigh* I love my Aunt Debbie...

Project 365 Day 19

Picked up the hubster from the airport in Houston. It was his last trip home from Brazil. He's so glad to not have to go back, but we thank God for his job!

Poetry by my youngin'

Morgan wrote a poem about 5 or 6 years ago (6th or 7th grade) when she was still in public school. She was always the worst of my bunch to forget about a project until the night before and I'd always wind up having to help her complete it. This time, the only thing different was she wouldn't let me help her. The project was for her to write a poem on any inanimate object. It took her probably 30 minutes tops to come up with her poem. I had come across it a couple years ago and after showing it off, I couldn't remember where I had put it. :( The other day, we found it on our computer and I was THRILLED! I had it professionally printed into a small poster and it came in a few days later. This is what it read:

"Kinderland"
Gazing through a lot of stuff,
I find a familiar book.
I'm sure that you have heard of it,
It is quite a look.

Two kittens on the cover,
Some flowers and a bow,
A cuddly heart is on the front
With "Diary" written below.

Unlatching the lock
I peer inside
To see what secrets
It has to hide.

So many adventures
That could be shared
Like what made me laugh
And what made me scared.

Tales of paper angels,
Christmas trees and lights,
Of how the decorations
Made the room shine bright.

Closing the pages,
Locking the latch,
Making the cover
Line up and match

I never thought I'd find this book,
The one held in my hand.
I doze off to sleep right now
To dream of Kinderland.

Isn't it great? Her teacher thought so too!

ALSO...this and two more projects she's done the night before, after bedtime (one the morning it was due), the teacher has KEPT for examples to future students. This recognition never helped my battle with her procrastinating!!

Project 365 Day 18

Ok, now this catches me up on Project 365. I LOVE getting packages in the mail. I order online quite frequently and even though I pay for the packages, track the shipments, and know exactly what I'm getting, I still can't contain that inner child excitement when something is stuffed in my mailbox or left at my door. I ordered a load of things this month, so I forgot all about this little package. Cuttlebug folders. Yay! Can't wait to play. Not tonight though. I have to get ready for Clayton to come home!

Project 365 Day 17

I'm a day late in posting this, but I didn't have time yesterday to post. This is a card I made for my mother-in-law yesterday for her birthday in February. The paper doily flower looks huge on here, but it's not quite that dominant. Still pretty but I feel like it still needs something. This is it for now, though. Hope she likes it.

Project 365 Day 16

The girls and I will be getting down to the nitty gritty with Valentine's Day cards in the next week. I played around this morning while they were still sleeping and decorated this tag. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it just yet, if I even use it. More than likely on one of the grandma's calendars for February 2012, but we will see. I know it'll be just an embellishment, though.

Project 365 Day 15

For Day 15 (my day 1, but I'm behind) of Project 365, I decided to take a picture of my favorite morning routine. It consists of my favorite study Bible and my massive mug Clayton brought back to me from work. Unfortunately I don't get to have this luxury every morning, but on most days, yes. Oh and yes, the coffee is tan. I like my coffee either with a LOT of creamer or totally black.

Homeschooling My Senior

Up until this year, homeschooling the high school years hasn't been all that tough. Well, really not tough at all, to be honest. This year, however, the only maths I saw at first for Morgan to take, were maths I never had. When I was in high school, 3 maths were required, and the ones I took were Algebra I and II and geometry. That's about as hard as it got and I aced them. Morgan, on the other hand had her algebras and geometry, but I couldn't seem to let her go a year without a math, even though she's had all that's required of her.

At the beginning of the year, all I saw was calculus for her to take. I cringed at even looking at the word, along with her science that was available...physics. (I took Earth Science, Biology I and II. Again, easy) With calculus, I tried and tried, and up until the end of the first semester, I could teach it. It just took a while to remember things and to be honest, it wasn't any fun. Morgan dreaded it and it took too much of my time away from lesson planning to where I was falling behind in everything, which in turn, hurts the other girls. Last month I decided to do something else. That's the glory of homeschooling. If it doesn't suit, you can change it without having to worry about anything.

Morgan has always been an accelerator in academics. Always. She's always been behind in everything else in life. She didn't learn to ride a bike until she was 8, and that was after she watched Allison doing it at 4. She couldn't say her "Rs" until she was 9, well after her baby sister was learning to talk. She's going to be 18 next month and still can't drive. She's just very afraid of learning new things. She wants to learn, but she's too scared once she's behind the wheel. Allison is very self sufficient and can cook whatever it is she can find in the kitchen. Morgan, eggs. That's it. When I'm not home and she gets hungry, she asks Allison to cook. Up until a couple years ago, she wouldn't check out at a store unless one of her sisters went with her. That's just Morgan. Nothing has happened to traumatize her, that's just her.

Knowing she's a senior in high school and she's really got to start getting in the groove with things, in a hurry, I decided to change her math to something that's going to be more useful in life than calculus. We chose comsumer math.

I'm really excited about this math! I just know it's going to be so much fun and useful! We just have to double up on it since it's a full year and we only have one semester left. No biggy, though.

As far as the other things I felt like she really needed, she's also taking life management. Another useful subject. As you can see on the front, it covers quite a few areas in life:

When I began homeschooling, 3 years ago, I wanted to definitely give all the girls a home economics course. I bought the curriculum but never really used it. We never could get past the first few lessons. I was just starting out and felt if there was more time left in the day, they could do more math or something. I didn't need a book to show me how to teach them to manage a home, right? Well, that time never really came...not on a regular every day basis anyway.

Her new home economics course:

As you can see, it comes with a lab manual. Can't wait for her first one! I'll be posting each one she does.

My baby's grown now. Bittersweet.

Snow Day

I wouldn't really consider this snow, but when it's avoided you like it has me, any amount of white on the ground is considered a "snow day" for us. It was supposed to have snowed for hours but it didn't, and by the next morning it had turned to ice. Still a little bit was fun enough.

Emily and I woke early the day after the snowfall and with nothing to eat at my mom's, we decided to take off to McDonald's for breakfast. We got there about 10 minutes before they opened, so I parked in the back to quickly be able to swing back through the drive-thru when they were finally open. As we were sitting in the car, Emily decided she wanted to get out and play in what snow ice that was left on the ground. Where she was playing was on a tiny bit of a slope and as I watched her play, the joy in her eyes and big grin on her face made me jump out of the car and look in the back to see if there was possibly anything at hand she could use for a sled. Sure enough, Allison had a plastic bin back there. I quickly grabbed the lid and gave it to Emily and watched her race back up to the top of the "hill". Love quick little fixes like that.

McDonald's finally opened so we grabbed our food, went back to Mom's, packed up and headed out, killing hours of time on a very cold day, all day, in Shreveport. I was too afraid to drive on the interstate and really had to wait until I knew it was open again.

There's a place there called Norton's Art Gallery (I believe), so we decided to go check it out to see what it looked like with a little bit of snow on the ground. Since it's very hilly terrain, Emily grabbed the bin lid once more :)

That didn't work out as well.

So, I'm steadily freezing and the girls didn't want to leave just yet. They just kept wanting me to snap pictures of them acting silly. They are blurry because even my anti-shake couldn't keep up with my shivers.

I wonder who my girls get their personalities from... ;)

Home Sweet Home

Last weekend the girls and I traveled to Shreveport to visit with my sisters and mom. It wasn't the greatest of weekends and if I could, I would have done things a lot differently. My mom and I had a HUGE fight, which I regret, but what do you do? On the bright side, it snowed a bit, so the girls finally got to see a little snow stick. I'll post pictures soon.

Since I missed my Monday organizing this week, today will be my Monday. The girls and I planned to go to Galveston today to scope out some places for me to take senior portraits for both my nephew and Morgan. I just think it's going to be too cold to do so today. I plan to just stay at home and chill. (it's quite cold enough for that!) It's the middle of January (already??) and the majority of my craft supplies are still in boxes in my itty bitty craft room. Since we are bound and determined to do a Christmas ornament each month of this year, make cards for every occasion, and gifts for family members and friends, I think I need to focus on making everything accessible. So, for this week's organizing, I'm going to finish my craft room. I have to paint it and get an armoire out of there, so it's going to take more than just today to do so. I also have almost everything in there to organize, but I'm going to start with just one area at a time. Today I'll be emptying boxes and gathering like items together. I have stamp sets that need to be put in binders at least until I find I don't like that way of organizing them. All other things will have to just be put into bins or something until I can get some storage in there. I have zilch storage total in that room. I'll take pictures once everything is out and the walls are primed. I won't have to buy paint because I have a mother lode of left over paint from when colors just didn't work here. In there, I'm not too worried about the color.

My coffee cup is now empty so I guess I'd best get off my tail, teach my kiddos some lessons, and get busy with the rest of my day. Stay warm, folks!

HOLLYWOOD!!

My family and I went to Los Angeles a couple years ago and had an ok time. Well, I think the family had a great time, but me, not so much. We were there for an entire week and I still felt rushed and didn't get to do all I wanted to do. It was more wasted time than anything.

I really had no desire to ever go again, but my sister is turning the big 4-0 in March and I've been wanting us and our little sister to start going on annual trips together. We've never done anything like that, which I find to be a shame. So, with her birthday coming up, and she and my little sister have never been, I thought, Hollywood, why not? I just talked to both of them and we are all so excited about it. We are going to drive up there so we can stop at various places I wanted to stop at when I went before. It's going to be so much fun! My sisters are so fun to hang around and we just never get that chance. It's gonna be great! Can't wait!

The girls and I are going to get our hair done today. Imagine the cost of 4 ladies getting cuts and color...whew! Maybe I'll even take pictures of them somewhere if I can find a nice place. I don't know. I haven't taken pictures here since they were little bitty.

I'm going to try to get Emily to do her little project tonight...the one I promised last week. It's great, so keep looking for the video.

BEYOND ECSTATIC!!!

Years ago, before the digital camera age, my husband bought me a Canon SLR. I loved it and still have that old thing, but when digital came out, he bought me a digital SLR. I had it for just a few months when there was a milkshake accident, ruining it. I then bought another one from Ebay, which I failed to see that it had a shutter problem, so it's been junk from day one. I went for a while without one, not even going back to my first SLR. I finally broke down and bought myself another DSLR and had it for about a year when all of a sudden, it wouldn't shoot. I knew nothing damaging had happened to it, but was just so down and out about it. It would shoot sometimes, but not when I really wanted it to.

This morning, I decided to go ahead and call Canon to send it in for repair but didn't know exactly where I had put my camera. After talking to the agent on the phone, he said for me to call him back whenever I had the camera in my hand, that it may be something that could be managed over the phone. He told me it wouldn't be a setting, so I didn't know how he would be able to walk me through the problem in order to fix it.

So, I just figured I'd call back later, just whenever. In the meantime, the thought of him possibly being able to fix the problem over the phone intrigued me, so I looked online for possible problems. Now, you have to know I have had lenses with all these cameras, and with trying to save money, I'd buy Canons so I could use the same lenses with all of them. With that being said, I have 3 lenses that are basically the same, just factory lenses that came with each camera and a few larger lenses I only use periodically. With the 3 lenses that are basically the same, I would just grab one, without even remembering which one went with what camera and start shooting. That's where I went wrong. As I was reading for possible fixes, I came across one post where the person was having the same problem I was having. Someone replied to her post asking if she was using older lenses in a newer camera. If so, that may be the problem since the lenses have firmware that may be out of date to the newer camera.

I quickly found my camera bag in the back of my closet and decided to give it a shot. It didn't work with the lens that was still on it, so I grabbed the lens I knew did go with that camera and it worked! WOW, it worked!!!!!! My battery is still charging right now and can't charge fast enough! Two years...TWO YEARS without my camera and all it was was outdated firmware in one lens! UGH and AH!!

I feel like I have found myself again. No more fuzzy pictures on this blog!

Just wanted to share...

Emily made a dump cake tonight. Yes, the very easiest of desserts to make, but hey, she's 10. Just wanted to share how it turned out even though the taste can't be. Yummy blueberry goodness right here:

Great job, Emily! Can't wait until cools down so we can eat it!

Today's the Day?

Did I say Monday I was going to start gathering those discs in one place and find them a home? What I meant was...no just kidding. I am off to a slow start, but I have gathered what I have seen. I just haven't figured out what I want to do with them yet. I want something that's going to be easy for everyone to put them away immediately, but there's nothing easier than having the movies in the drawer right below the blu-ray player and sometimes, no one knows just quite how to open the drawer to put them back. That's not really a problem, though because those get cleaned up and put away at the end of the day or whenever I see someone in the process of leaving them out. The problem is all the picture, music, programs, etc. that have somehow been mixed together and stored in the original container of blank CDs. I never know what's used and what's not. Not being organized leads to spending more money, and you know how it is, you go buy a replacement of something lost and as soon as you do, the old one is found. That's my life's story.

So, as of this moment, I've gathered what I immediately saw and have them ready to go through to see what's on them. As I'm doing that, I'm putting them in new cases and separating them for future storage. Morgan had a cool idea as to what to do with all her music CDs and I'm hoping she'll do the same with her movies. She's going to leave them in their cases and velcro the cases to her wall, side by side and up and down, making a piece of artwork, so to speak. I think it'll look pretty awesome.

Right now I have to make a quick trip to Sam's. Gotta get my bulk stock for the month. That's always fun.

TTFN!