Thursday, October 23, 2008

Inkubook

Two posts in one day, I know you are all shocked, but I must tell you of the great customer service at Inkubook

.

This morning I received an email from Inkubook's Product Marketing Manager. She had read my blog and was concerned over my thoughts regarding my photobook.


As I stated, it really is a great book. There were just some small things that were not what I was expecting, like the pages not being vertically center.


She was very helpful and directed me to their blog that explained how to make sure my pages were perfectly placed. She also offered to allow me to adjust my pages and they would print me a new book for free. Shipping included. I don't know about you, but I frequent places that have great customer service.


Thank you, Inkubook, and you can be sure I will be back.

Artscow

For all of you who read about ArtsCow, here is another offer for you.


Use these coupon codes to receive a 30 page photobook for $11.99 with free shipping. These would usually cost you $14.99 with shipping.


I have to be honest and tell you I have yet to order a photobook from ArtsCow, but I do know someone who has. You can find what she has to say here: Digitreats.


These coupon codes only last until December 8th, so if you are interested please try it out. Also remember every code can only be used once. If you try one and it does not work, try another.


Enjoy!!

ZWEKNR8

ZK14H65

ZYY22PA

ZSZE3YW

ZV91J57

ZUBM8L3

ZYHSYR6

Z2QM7X2

ZV9UFHL

ZYY4939

Remember to go to ArtsCow.com.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

It has arrived!

My photobook I ordered from Inkubook has arrived. It was not exactly what I thought it was going to be, but it is nice. I really like it.

It was great to see the pages printed out and in a book.


It is not printed on photo paper, but it is definitely high quality paper. It is very securely bound and looks to be durable.


I also noticed that the pages where not exactly centered, but that could have been my fault. They have a great program that you use to build your book and I might not have been paying close enough attention.


Other than that, it is going to be a great treasure for my family to have. I did it on our vacation this summer to Kansas. The girls have already looked at it several times and just in that, it is a treasure. They loved being in a book.


Well, the only other new news is that I am pregnant and for my two readers, you all ready knew that.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Update

My blog is definitely a work in progress. I will keep at it though until I get what I am looking for. Let me know what you think.

Other Freebie

I am so sorry I did not get back here yesterday. The day went by way to quickly.


I do want to give you other freebie I was told about by Vicki from A Work In Progress. The website is called Inkubook and they are offering a photobook at just the price of shipping and the invitation of someone to view your book.


You do have to download a small program to be able to do it, but it was a very simple program and they have great livechat service. I purchased my book Wednesday and I will let you know what I think of it.


I put together a book about the vacation that my family and I took this summer. I am very excited to see it.


I am working on a project for Miss Bailee for Christmas, so I am going to get back to it. Chat at ya soon.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Free Stuff

Yesterday, I was reading the Digitreats blog and she had found a site that gave away 1200 free prints to new customers. The site is ArtsCow.


You sign up for free and they give you 600 4x6s and 600 5x7s. You are not able to use them all at once, but over a few month period.


I have to admit that I do not know what type of quality it is, but I am going to order some pictures and find out. When I do, I will let you know.


I also received a coupon for a free photo book. I have to pay for shipping, but that is a great deal especially since I was thinking of giving photo books for Christmas.


I am excited to see God's provision in my life. God is so good to provide for all of our needs even gifts.


I also have one more freebie that I heard of, but I am going to wait until tomorrow to mention it.


I did want you to see of the my 13 year old daughter I have been telling you about. She is beautiful and she has started taking pictures of herself in Vogue-esque style. She is actually good at it. Most of her pictures turn out great. Here is a recent picture she has taken.



I also finished my layouts from our vacation this summer. I am hoping to get a book made of them. They turned out really well. Here is the one I made for the cover.

This layout was done using "September" kit by by Jeanelle Paige. I just loved the colors.


I need to get back to my life and girls now. For those of you who do not know, I homeschool and I have been putting off starting. It is time though. Have a great day.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

New Look

Truly, I am going to try to keep this up to date.


Today I am trying to update my look. I am hoping I can get it worked out soon. I got my header updated and some new colors, but I am also hoping to get something done with the background.


Let me know what you think.


Well, I am going to get back to it.

Monday, October 6, 2008

HUH!!

How in the heck does the time fly by so quickly?!!! Honestly, I am on the internet everyday, but do I take the time to jot a little something down, !NO! Should I? !YES!

I really do want to maintain this blog and have actual people read it. Ange and Becky, I am so thankful for the two of you. I know if you did not read it no one would.


Well, enough drama. I actually do have an excess of drama here in my house, but I will try to share it with you.


I am doing great. Now that my daughters are taking dance again I am busy. Not only do I have to be there bus drive to and from class, but I also do the bookkeeping for the school. I am not complaining though, because this allows my girls to go at a discount.


The big news in my life is that my eldest daughter will be turning 13 this month. I am not sure if I am ready, but I am excited for her. I remember 13 and just feeling like you could take on the world. I know I will be the one she mostly takes on, but that is okay. My mom and I had a lot of practice in the art of verbal battle when I was a teenage. It was not all good, but I did learn a few lessons.


Something completely different about my daughter as an almost-teenage and me as a teenager is her need to share everything. She cannot keep anything to herself. We receive the minute-by-minute rundown of the things that are going on in her life. I know I should not complain, but sometimes I know I am going to go crazy if she does not stop talking.


My new most favorite thing is digital scrapbooking. I have to admit that the majority of my time on the internet is spent reading people's blogs on this matter and downloading the free stuff they are so gracious to share.


If you are a traditional scrapbooker, I highly recommend checking this out. I love both. I love the opportunity to work with my hands, but then I love when I can get on my computer (and with no mess to clean up) create a layout in an hour. If you are ever interested let me know.


Have a great evening.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Here I Am Again!

We are home. Well actually we have been home for a week now. We had a wonderful time on our vacation.

Our trip to Wichita was a bit long. Our youngest, Makayla, was sick throughout the whole trip. She had what we determined was "hand, foot, and mouth disease", which is definitely not something you want your children to have. She had a high fever and sores in her mouth making it hard to impossible to eat.

Once we got to my brother and sister-in-laws house, things were much better. We had a wonderful time together. We went shopping at malls Bailee enjoyed. We spent one day at the zoo. They have a great zoo there.

One thing we did was buy a box of Jelly Belly jelly beans. This particular one was called a "Bean-boozled" box. It contains eight different types of jelly beans. For each of these jelly beans, there is a nasty flavor. Flavors like skunk, pencil shavings, throw up, and booger. I have to say that this was quite an experience. We dumped all the jelly beans into a bowl and then we each took a turn take one jelly bean. What you got is what you got. All but one of my beans was a normal flavor. The one yucky one was the skunk.

SKUNK!! If you have ever been driving down the road and encountered fresh skunk, you will understand what I am saying. That smell that fills your senses became a taste on my tongue. It took quite some time to get rid of the taste. It was fun though. I wished we had video-taped the experience. Watching as each person took a bean and determined whether they really wanted to eat it.

Our trip home was a lot smoother. Everyone was feeling much better and we saw Mount Rushmore. It took longer than we had anticipated, but at 4am Wednesday morning, we arrived home.

We traveled through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Denver, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. I would not mind living in Montana, Northern Wyoming, and South Dakota. I would not want to live in Nebraska. It is all corn fields. Denver I have to admit that I did not see much and what I did see was at night. If I had not seen Wichita, I would not want to live in Kansas either. If you have ever looked out over the ocean and seen how it just goes on forever, this is what you find in Kansas except of course it is land you see. It goes on forever though.

If you have not taken a road trip lately, I would encourage you to do so. Of course, I realize gas prices are a killer right now. But if you have the means, go. See some of the country you have never seen before. Or maybe just see some of the state you live in that you may have never seen before.

Monday, July 14, 2008

HA! Less than a Month!

So I was at a little family function yesterday and being ribbed about how I do not write in my blog often enough, I thought to myself well I will show them.

I wish I had a picture, but when they pulled out their SRLs, I though better of bringing out my point and click. I know my sister-in-laws got some pictures. I am thinking I will get a few from them and then I will add one.

In other news, my family and I are getting ready for a road trip to Wichita.
This is the advice I have received thus far:
1) DVD player a necessity - As one person said, "How did we survive without portable DVD players?"
2) Bring audio books, because there truly is nothing in Wyoming.
3) Pray you return with your sanity. Some of my friends cannot imagine making this trip with our three girls.

I will let you know how this little venture goes. We leave tomorrow and return a week from Wednesday.

We are very excited. We are going to visit my brother Jake and his family. This moved to Wichita at the beginning of June, but it seems much longer.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A Month

I truly wish that I was more consistent with this, but life just seems to mow over me and I become overwhelmed.

Life has definitely been chugging along for about a year now. Last September a good portion of my family moved to Kenya, Africa. While there one of my brothers got married. Then this last month one of my other brothers and his family moved to Wichita, Kansas. Now I wait for one of my sisters to have a baby and my brother and his new wife to visit. Life hopefully could not be busier, but this is really not what I was going to write about.

I want to tell you about a book I have read recently. It is called The Shack and it is quite controversial. I did not realize this when I read it though.

I have met many people who did not like it. I agree that the push off place for this book is quite emotional and heartrending. But I think that tragedy in our lives is definitely what draws us closer to God.

There were definite aspects of this book that I did not agree with, but what I found in it was a desire to make my relationship with the Lord more intimate. I realized from reading this book that it was I that had put limitations on who God was and what my relationship with Him would be.

I encourage you to at least check it out. You may not like. In fact, you may read the bulerp about and say "No way", but at least check it out.

If you read it, let me know what you think. I have found the the views regarding this book to be very broad and I love to have my personal opinion challenged by those who have thought about their's.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

YIKES?!

Does life ever get on the fast track for you? It is like someone has a remote controller that controls your life and they hit the fast forward button. My life seems to go through cycles of that. I cannot believe the last time I wrote one of these was in January. At least it was this year.

I have a friend, who is always encouraging me regarding my blog, so this one is for her. Annette, thank you for taking the time to encourage me. I really appreciate it.

I was reading in my Bible today, which is something I have not done a lot of lately. When my life gets on fast forward, it seems that my times with God are the first thing to go.

Why? I am not sure. It is definitely one of the most important parts of my day. I think I begin to think that I can handle my life just fine on my own. Then I find out that I cannot. I really always knew I couldn't, but something always assures me I can.

Back to my Bible, I was reading in 1 John and verse 3 says this: "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are." It actually says more, but this is the part that really spoke to me.

Those of us who went to Sunday School are regularly taught that we are the children of God, but I think sometimes God will take those truths that we all ready know and increase our understanding of them. He has done that for me. Really He has placed within me the desire to have a greater understanding. It is like a treat to a child knowing they will take it and want more.

I have found that when I want to study a scripture I need to know what all of the words in the scripture mean. Some are just plain obvious, but others I need to look up and really understand their definitions.

"Bestowed" is just such a word. I have an inkling of what it means, but I really want to understand it fully. When I looked it up, I found this definition: to present as a gift or an honor.

This verse reminds me again that nothing I do will earn my right as a child of God. It is a gift and an honor.

Do you know how much God loves you? He loves you so much he gave you the gift of sonship or daughtership, if you will accept it. I encourage you to find the God that freely brings you into His family by His Son, Jesus. Know that you are loved with no requirements other than believing in Jesus and the gift He gave of His life for you.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Timing

I find that timing is everything in life. I wish I had better timing. So many times I am too early or too late in something. With relationships, I find that is definitely true. I wish I could be who I want to be for people.

With my mom gone I have really had to reevaluate who I am and how that affects others. I find it fairly ironic that I look like my mom in more ways than one, but I am definitely my father's daughter. I did not acquire many of the people skills that my mom has. I did, in fact, inherit much of the lack of people skills that my father has.

The amusing thing is that my husband really is not better than I am. How did that happen? Usually you find a balance in a marriage, one is very social and the other less social. That is not mine and Jeremy's marriage though. We both struggle with being social.

Not social in the sense that we do not want to be around people, more in the sense that neither one of us have really deep relationships with those outside of our family.

You know I am trying to express things that I have not fully developed in my brain. I guess I just write this to let you know that I am trying. Or at least, I am aware. I am not sure what to do about it, but God is in on it and hopefully he will have a fix for it soon.

God knows I need friends and so do I. I am just not sure how to cultivate them.
So here I am just recording my thoughts to hold myself accountable. For tonight I find that I have searched my soul enough. Maybe tomorrow will bring illumination to the questions and help in finding the answers.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Waiting

I am sitting here thinking of how easy my life is. I am buying things off Ebay. Thinking about what I will fix my family for dinner knowing that the food is there and if it weren't I could got to the store with no fear for my life and get more.

My power went out two different times today and I began to think what would I do if this were a permanent thing. Would I be ready for such a situation? I am not sure if I would.

My family is living in a land that 1000s are fleeing. They know that their lives are in grave danger and so they are leaving. They are leaving with the very little they have and they are seeing their homes burning behind them. Have you ever thought about someone running you out of your home? I cannot imagine being in so much fear for my life that I would need to move to another state or country.

My parents are well at this time. The situation is becoming more tense and from our news media it looks like they are on the verge of civil war. Anyone watch the movie, Hotel Rwanda? One news venue remarked how the situation was becoming close to that one.

I personally have never seen it. I watch movies for entertainment. I must admit that I am shallow in that way. I do not want to be depressed or sad after watching a movie, but I know what it is about. And I now know that my parents are living the reality of it.

If you are interested in keeping up to date regarding my family, please go to leisterkenya.blogspot.com. I will be doing the upkeep on my mom's blog while she is not able to.

Please continue to pray. God knows. I believe that He is holding my family in the palm of His hand. He will keep careful watch over them. I do not know what the final outcome of this situation will be, but I know that God is good. So I am looking for His goodness.

Draw close to those you love, because one day they will not be there.
Jess