Just had my first sale of the book. I’m a very happy woman.
Archives for 2007
quiet as a church mouse
It was a quiet evening that capped a quiet day. Scott and I went to the gym and out to eat before picking up the girls at ILs last night. When we got home, we let the girls watch tv/play computer games before going to bed.
This morning the girls are back at camp and Scott is working on the deck. I’m busy with work and it’s quiet again. Not sure hwo I know how to act with all this quiet time here.
I’m really excited about my book. I doubt anyone will be interested except family but I just love looking at it. I can’t wait to get my copy. I’m disappointed the date is on some of the pictures and the software warned me the resolution was too low for a few of them so I’m interested to see how it turns out. I have picked out all the pictures for the past 5 years to do a family book. I think it will be more difficult since there are so many more pictures. I’m also thinking of inserting some excerpts from my blog into this one. This is like the fast, digital scrapbook for me! This one I’m pretty sure I won’t sell but use as gifts for our parents and siblings and such. I already do a mini photo book from Snapfish every Christmas for our parents and grandparents. This will be like a culmination of all the years. Now I want to go take a ton of pictures!
i guess i’m an author
I happened upon blurb.com when I was researching Google’s new Picasa API. I downloaded their book-making software and went to town. I had just uploaded a bunch of pictures to my picasa account of all my favorite pictures of flowers and such. I just love looking at them and I remember taking them and they all just bring back good memories. So, I created a book and added some scriptures to each page that reminded me who created all of it. I had planned on printing one and then showing my family and possibly printing more for Christmas gifts if it got good reviews. But I decided what the heck, I’d go ahead and make it public for anyone interested. I only make $3 from each and I’m thinking of donating the profits. So, here it is. The book preview only shows about half the pictures so you’ll have to buy it to see all of the pages.
The badge you create on the site is NOT working, so here is the link.
quiet day
The girls headed to the first day of summer camp at their preschool. Apparently they were 30 minutes late as it starts at 8:30 vs 9:00 like school did. And they get out at 12:30 instead of 12. That makes for a very nice, long morning working, especially since Scott is off all week and can take them since this was supposed to be the family beach trip.
So today has been work, pick up kids from school and have lunch at Taco Bell and then back to work. MIL and FIL had to pick up Skyler from school since SIL had to work today so all 3 girls went home with them for the afternoon. So really, this has been a quiet day around here.
Scott has been in the yard all day. He put down paver things in the back yard that leads from the back porch to the pool deck. They look really nice. With the week off and quiet mornings, he should have the deck done this week, barring any rain or other hurdles.
I’ve been in a funky place in my mind. Reading some blogs and stories about cancer patients and other hard times. Looked through a bunch of old pictures of the girls. Even some all the way back to our cruise in 2000. I was so young and that was only 7 years ago. I’m not sure if I can verbalize how I feel except to say I’m so ready to live life now and not look back, not look forward, not look at other people’s life, just live my own and enjoy it.
One other note…my manager tells me I’ve exceeded his expectations and he’s planning to work with his boss and my contracting company to get a bill rate increase…woohoo! What’s weird is Scott JUST asked me when I was due for a raise THIS MORNING. Ironic, I say.
i’m home
just a quick post to say i’m home. the ride was long but we actually made good time. there were a ton of people on the road and we actually saw a wreck 2 cars in front of us. the same car that i let go in front of me so she would quit riding my bumper hit the car in front of her. just glad it wasn’t us. the kids were excellent on the car ride home. nary a peep for 4 hours while they watched movies until lunchtime. lexi started to lose it there at the end but i can handle 10 minutes of meltdown for 7 hrs and 50 minutes of pleasantness.
like it or not, vacation is ov-ah
Yeah, so it’s already Saturday night. Everything seems to be packed, or mostly packed and ready to go for early in the morning. I think I’m ready to go home. Finally today felt like a vacation. It was busy but it wasn’t so hectic somehow. I think we had finally found our grove and now it’s time to go. I know the girls are ready to go home. Lexi’s been saying that since 30 minutes into the road trip up here. I mentioned today was busy…I’ve been up since about 8am and it is now 11:45pm. Here’s what went down:
- I got up with the girls and got them fed, etc until Mom got up then I
- Went for a run. Which only lasted for about a mile because it was hot and hilly roads are apparently harder to run on than on a elliptical in a cooled room. So I finished walking home where I
- Got ready and took the girls to the park myself while Mom and Dad went to do some shopping. I called them after I had
- Taken the girls to Dollar General for a treat and to McD’s for lunch. I headed home because
- Mom brought us steak subs home to eat. Afterwards we
- Went swimming at my aunt’s where she fixed us watermelon, homemade lemonade and fresh, sweet corn. All were very yummy. I also took some pictures of her lovely garden and began watching Big Brother 8 until Mom told us to come home because
- We went to eat with my grandfather and his wife at a steakhouse. I was very disappointed at the overcooked, tough filet although their ribs were delicious. We parted ways after dinner then we
- Went to pick up my grandmother at the house and went to look at a house for sale that Mom and Dad are thinking of buying as their next investment house up here. They had a realtor come to appraise this house tonight and said they could get twice out of it that they bought it for. Go Mom and Dad. So after that, Heather predicted there was a blizzard in the forecast which promptly led us to
- Go to Dairy Queen for an ice cream snack. Emma and Lexi thoroughly enjoyed their dipped cones while I was quite content with my peanut butter cup blizzard. When we left there we
- Brought the girls home and put them to bed promptly. Mom, Grandma and I then
- Headed out to Wal-Mart to buy our birthday presents, Emma some more earrings since hers fell out and Mom some dryer sheets. Since then we
- Came home, packed some more and now I’m spending sleep time writing this.
Today was a long day. So all of that puts this vacation to an end. The girls were very well behaved today. I was less frazzled, feeling a little more in control of what we did together. I’ve been quite busy with the Flickr thing. I think I have a sort of photo-journal of the week. I hope my cell phone bill isn’t insanely high next month. It was sort of fun taking stupid pictures of myself and things around me. It was things I would never take pictures of with a regular camera yet all the things I stared at during the day. No posed family shots or fake cheesy smiles (ok, maybe one or two of those). Just objects I ran into and me in the places I found myself. I may do that on other trips, not sure how much on a daily basis though.
So I should go to sleep since I’m going to be in the car over 8 hours tomorrow. God, give us all lots of patience tomorrow.
Oh, by the way, my FIL has no broken bones, just a hurt knee that is bruised. I think he’s on some pain medication but that’s all. The wreck wasn’t his fault so he’ll get what the car is worth which is about twice what they paid for it, so all in all, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
07-07-07
Ten years ago on 07-07-97 Scott and I got engaged. Interestingly and unplanned, we were married on 08-08-98.
We were at Myrtle Beach that week with his family. He had asked for my hand in marriage from my dad and I knew he had bought a ring I had helped pick out. In fact, my parents bought it and he paid them back $50/mo. I wasn’t sure if he had brought the ring to the beach but I thought he might have. One evening after dark, we went for a walk on the beach right near Cherry Grove’s pier. He stopped us so I was facing the water and he was facing me. I don’t remember anything he said to me. I do remember he had to get the ring out of his back pocket and dropped it. He had to find it in the sand which thankfully didn’t take long and wasn’t quite as awkward as it may seem. Anyway, he got down on his knee and proposed. I was so happy I was laughing and crying at the same time and never said yes. He said, Well, say yes! Which I did of course. On the beach, under a full moon. It was quite a romantic setting. I remember going back to the beach house we were staying at and telling his mom we were engaged. I remember her giving us a hug and then start crying. I don’t really remember much else about the week and the rest you could say is history.
you learn something new every day
I just learned from one of the girl’s cartoon programs that giraffes do not have vocal chords. I always had trouble producing the giraffe sound when coming to the giraffe in an animal book with the girls. I feel redeemed.