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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.