Giveaway Winner

We drew Jodi as the winner of last week's giveaway, Skid.

I'll try to get it in the mail tomorrow, Jodi.

I just realized I have no other books in the wings to review for Multnomah or Waterbrook. Oh my......It appears I may have to go buy some books from the authors I've been meeting and enjoying. ::snort::

Congrats to Jodi.

Simple Pages

My pages have been fussy. I wanted to be sure you know that Smilebox does allow you to do simple pages too. This "storybook" design template is simple and less fussy.....I wish it had more options to customize the layouts, BUT they are done. LOL I hear that smilebox is very open to suggestions....

Stacia woke up at 4 and needed ME and I can't go back to sleep....so I did 7 or 8 pages from Religious Education. These two I can share because they are either my children (or Debbie said I can show her family) or adults.

If I had a program I could manipulate Ivan there and the text box would be switched....

AND I would add text or some title to the white space here....


I also realized sometime in the night that I have MY writing ready to scan and send to Darcy to get my OWN writing in a font. With a program I THINK I could use my own writing for journaling and I would like that.

I signed up for a 2 week free trial at smilebox. The learning curve is about zero. I have made 49 pages in 3 days. I plan to keep making them, saving them, and searching for somewhere to print them. I am quickly noting that I like digital scrapbooking. I'm debating if simply doing these quickly with design templates saves me enough time that it is worth the lack of total choice....or since I enjoy this so much I would perfer to learn a program that allows me to do just what I see in my mind. LOL In other words I am trying to decide if I will want to learn the program softwares in the next year or if I'd be happy using templates for a year or so. LOL It is nice to have new design templates pop up every week or so.....

The great thing about smilebox is that if I see nothing in my mind - I can simply put a photo in THEIR vision and wala - it looks fussy and fancy. ::snort::

I hear stirring so I must head to the gym.

Weekly Fitness Goals (click button for more info)

Weekly Goal - 300 Minutes (60 minutes most days)
Total Weekly Minutes - 125 minutes
Annual Goal - 11,700 minutes
Minutes to Date - 5,317 minutes

Hmmm....so much for giving it my all. I fell off the exercise wagon Wed - Fri. Mike and I did a powerwalk on Saturday but Sunday is hopeless.

Ah well - it's about LIFESTYLE change - not one week.

It is amazing to me how quickly it becomes routine NOT to work out. I thought I liked to work out but I haven enjoyed having that extra 90 minutes in my day......and that is not a good discovery. ::snort::

Update- I weighed at the gym today to be sure. I've lost 1 1/2 - 2 lbs this last week. BUT I WASN'T WORKING OUT - SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???? ::snort:: 2 more to go and I'll be back down to my post-thyroid-storm HIGH. Ah well.....it could be worse I could still be gaining 3 - 4 lbs a week. LOL

Monday - 55 Minutes (25 min ARC, 30 min weights)

Tuesday - 40 Minutes (20 ARC, 20 min bike)

Saturday - 30 minutes (Power-walk outside Mike)

To read accounts from more participants - click here. To join us, click the icon above.....

SUNDAY......

There have been changes in the planning at the local chapel and today is the day they were implemented. I'll spare you the details - it's enough to say that very few really understand all that goes into keeping a chapel humming...how each decision by A will ripple down and affect schedules down to Z. I'm not sure those who attend or work there totally understand. ::snort:: For us this meant that our traditional service went to 10:00 a.m. Wow. Folks liked this and were happy. It really puts it back to where it was 2 years ago before decisions rippled down causing us to move to 11:00 a.m. LOL Our 6 p.m. service, the contemporary, was moved to 1:30 p.m. Hmmm.....THIS was a bit rockier. Over 1/2 the congregation forgot about the time change. But those who remembered were happy at the new time. ::snort:: This may not be where this service lands. We shall see.

It was nice to be done at church by 3:30. Mike stayed up at the chapel until about 10 minutes ago.

Mike says we can buy a pool for the back yard. The boys and I were going to level the yard today....but it was 101*; we didn't.

Josiah was invited to the lake with some friends from work. He invited Jamin and Jared to go with him. They had a good time.

The younger ones played here.

I explained the United process to a new co-op member, worked on digital scrapbooks (18 more pages today), cleaned house, did laundry...not a very exciting day.

Josiah, Jamin, Jared and Nolan then went to a local school. They met some friends there and visited and played a bit of ball.

I got the MAY photos digiscrapped. I'm not sure what I think. There were 42 pages. I get way more photos on a page with my naked albums. Though these are fun. I'll have to keep thinking about it. I am having fun with it and I have two free weeks. I may be able to get all of 2008 done in that time. LOL I made a slide show of the 42 pages; I was very excited. THEN I realized that you can see locations and minors and I can't break that rule. LOL

Some point during the day we realized that Stacia had climbed onto a bar stool. When did she learn THAT?

But she didn't know how to get down. "Jamin - I need HELP!"

Then up again and down again - over and over....

This I have Time For....

I am trying to get May scrapped and then I can have them printed somewhere and feel that I'm current SOMEWHERE! ::snort:: I did discover that the key to saving time with digiscrapping will be to make a "principle" for myself NOT to change albums. I found a new design template for birthdays this a.m. that I thought would be great for Arielle's birthday photos....but she LIKED the one we did yesterday. If I were to start second-guessing designs this would NOT save me any time. ::snort::

Here are some less fussy pages.

I have a great squadron page but haven't asked permission and they are minors.
This page has just Jared and the commader (who is NOT a minor) Yes, he found out Wed that he is May's Cadet of the Month. He also filled all the requirements for Tech but won't be able to pin it on until June.

( On the above I switched from plaids to a plain brown background, removed their title and put in my own, and Jared wanted "med" embellishments)

Here's one of Nolan and Miss Natalie (I used full embellishments but went with brown - a manly unfussy color instead of plaid and stripes)

I continue to research "options" for digital printing - full bleed, color corrected, paper weight, prices. I am still hoping to find a place HERE that will print 12 x 12 prints. If you have more experience than I with printing things out, I'd love any tips you care to share....favorite place to order prints online, favorite options, albums, things to watch out for....

Preparing for the Bridegroom

This afternoon was our PWOC "spring" Tea. Our theme was Preparing for the Bridegroom. We fondly remembered those things we did in prep for our weddings and marriages. These women are good! Several mentioned learning what they could about the military lifestyle as they were about to become military spouses. WOW - I hadn't thought of that and it tied in with how we can spiritually prepare for our Spiritual bridegroom. We can learn about his lifestyle, study how we can be fit to help etc. We then talked about having a Tryst - "a secret, arranged meeting between lovers"; instead of a "spiritual discipline". I thought of passing out silky pjs but figured these ladies may not know me well enough for that. ::snort::

Trish had sent me the "insides" for 3 of the journals she makes. Thanks Trish.

The afternoon was fun...though I was a tad bit spacey. I loved that I didn't have to do anything except show up at 1:40. Here are some glimpses:

Vera & Debbie did all the set up. Everything was so pretty. Vera invited us into her lovely home.

Yolanda, made the elegant flower arrangements....and we all brought finger foods to add to the scones, crackers, cookies and drinks that Vera and Debbie had provided.

I'm not sure if you'll be able to see this little lady. I knew she would be the perfect hostess gift for Vera. She says "ready for love" and we talked about being ready to receive and give love to our Bridegroom. My children thought it was inappropriate for Miss Vera....but she seemed to love it.

I loved how God worked out the Tryst Journal doorprizes. Laura (nearly 20), Yolanda (30's?), and Evelyn (older than 30) all won.....isn't that great? Trish, all liked them. And there I am on the right in my new dress...I look rather matronly with my hair up and all. I was surprised how many didn't recognize me. I really need to get out of jean jumpers and capris more often. ::snort::

Saturday Summary

The day began early as I prayed through what I would say at our PWOC Tea.

Our United co-op order is coming up. I sent out emails about that, set up the order form at google docs, sent the link to everyone, fielded questions from several new members and then....

Jamin wanted to drive to work. He's driving with a permit and will soon have a license. I jumped in the shower so that I wouldn't be caught in pjs at the mall.

I decided to run into the mall and find a couple of springy dresses that would fit me in my fluffy stage. ::snort:: I also bought gift bags for door prizes at the tea.

Standing in Halmark I realized I was shaking, my head was light, my muscles were rubbery, and I was sinking. Hmmm. I hadn't eaten and it was 11:30 a.m. I suppose I need to face the fact that metabolism is not the only reason I need to remember to eat every few hours. I seem to be having wild sugar swings. I came home and Mike stuffed a banana in my mouth. I told him I'm going to find a medic bracelet to wear that says, "If I seem spacey - FEED ME CHOCOLATE - QUICK!" ::snort::

I ate a banana. I prepared door prizes and a hostess gift. I made a fruit tray. I loaded things up and left for the tea.

I'll do a seperate post on the tea.

The littles and I went to price above the ground pools. It's HOT around here and only getting hotter. We also checked for a local spot that can print 12 x 12 prints for us.....no luck so far.

I shopped online for spots to print out 12x12 digital pages. I've checked 9 spots and have lots of factors to compare now.

Mike got home and fixed my mouse so that I could work on some digital pages. BEFORE I began that we went out for a powerwalk. He has longer legs than I - that isn't very fair. ::snort:: I haven't made it to the gym for 4 days so I knew something drastic like this would be coming my way. It was fun to huff, puff, talk, and get a workout in. It was more of a workout for me than him.

I made 10 pages in an hour while we waited for the call to come to pick up Jamin at work. That's 24 pages since 4 p.m. yesterday!