Step one: make a salad.

Step two: sit down all comfy-like at your desk to read blogs and eat lunch.

Step three: give half your salad to your hungry daughter.

Last month, I had the chance to download – for free – some digital scrapbooking software to try it out.  My earlier post with photos from Mary’s birthday was made with this software.  It is super easy.

I made a few more pages, and turned it into a movie.  The quality I chose was “web-quality” which is fairly low-quality.  I did have other options, with higher resolutions, so I assume that they would be even nicer (but would be annoying slow for a browser).

Since I promised My Memories that I would do this review weeks ago, I don’t have the time to fully investigate the software’s many options.  What I did use was simple to manipulate and customize to suit my personal taste.  I am not a scrapbooker, because I just don’t think I’m that artsy…I’m more of a written word kinda gal (hence, I blog).  But I do think the ease of this software and the many templates available in the package or online (some are free and some are for a price) will help even a right-brained type like me be able to produce lovely keepsakes for their children.  And if you are the creative type, I’m sure you will find even more uses with the program.

Last year’s birthday party

photo shoot montage

Now, what would you do with these pages?  Once you have a pretty page or album, what could you do with it?  The scrapbooking software allows you to “share” your pages in many different ways.  One way is to turn each page into a jpeg.  One way is to email friends and family a movie.  You can print the pages and form a paper photo album (the “old-fashioned” kind) with the added bonus of being able to replicate it if it is lost or damaged.  I think, if I have the time, that making a slideshow or movie that summarizes the past year would be a fun and interesting way to send updates to distant family and friends in lieu of an annual “Christmas letter.”

Now, My Memories is so wonderful that not only did they give me their software for free, they have offered to give the software away to another lucky person.  In order to be eligible to win, you must go to their site and then come back here (or on FB) and comment on your favorite template or background.  If you “like” them on Facebook, tell me that you did so, and I will enter your name a second time.  And if you visit their blog, let me know that, too, and I’ll enter your name a third time.

Contest will be open until midnight on Sunday, October 16th.  Sometime on Monday, I will randomly pick a winner.

Lastly, if you don’t win, but you decide you want to order this software, you can receive $10 off by using a special promo code.  Not only do YOU get $10 off, but I get money for referring you.  Use this code: STMMMS61090

I finally updated my sidebar photos.  They were a bit…old.  Or young, I guess.  The kids have changed a bit.

The older ones haven’t changed too too much.

FRITZ (not much change)

before

after

BILLY (who won’t cut his mop head)

before

after

KATIE (the shorter hair makes her look older)

before

after

JENNY (who FINALLY has some teeth growing up front)

before

after

PETER (an older, wiser imp)

before

after

MARY (not even the same girl any more)

before

after

My once a week posting is rather pathetic.

These are busy times.  I know so many of you have only really just begun schooling, but here we’re around week 8 or 9.  Got a bit behind last week, since our Oktoberfest was on Saturday, and I had tons to do.  My sister was here all week, and she was a tremendous help in baking, cooking, cleaning, and decorating.  I would have done no school at all if she hadn’t been here making me feel guilty for neglecting my children and doing more than half the work to get ready for the party.

I’ve sold 4 ACU stockings already.  That’s quite an early start to the Christmas season, even for overseas shipping. 

Last night was the LAST practice for flag football and the last game is Saturday.  Woohoo.  It’s sad that I am so happy when the seasons are over.  I won’t have my Monday evenings completely back, but now I only have one child doing an activity that night instead of 4.

Fritz and I did the Life Chain on Sunday.  There were one or two rude people, some supporters, but the vast majority were apathetic.  Apathy is much harder to fight than hatred, because at least people who hate have passion that can be turned to the good.  People who don’t care at all are much harder to get fired up.  If you haven’t yet seen this movie, it’s worth the half hour.  Unfortunately, talking to every single individual for a half hour in order to change his or her mind is a tedious job, especially when their lack of interest just has them walking away. 

I took pictures a week or more ago of all the kids to update the sidebar.  Mary does not at all look like that any more.  Most of the kids look older.  Go figure.  Someday I’ll get around to updating them.  Jenny had her 8th birthday a few weeks ago.  Mary’s 4th birthday is Saturday.  How does this happen? 

And speaking of feeling old, Bill and I celebrated our 16th anniversary on Friday.  We met and started dating 22 years ago.  That’s a long time.

Must kiss hubby goodbye for work.  Perhaps I’ll post again before next week.

I still have to finish blogging about our trip to Atlanta.

(I never finished blogging about our trip to Disney…that was last January…so many photos, never posted…my children’s memory books will never be done…)

My book giveaway for The Invisible World was never claimed by Marylu.  Email me!

I feel like I’m on that playground ride that spins and you have to hold on tight or you’ll fall off.  Make.it.stop!

If you want to read that article about my husband’s unit without buying the magazine, the link is here.  No photo spread, but at least you get the story.

We’re on Week 6 of school.  I am flogging my children daily.  If they were A-types like me, we’d be on Week 8 or 9, but I won’t make them do more than their daily assignment M-F.  I secretly wish they would want to do school on Saturday or at least one extra assignment every day, but am resigned to the fact that they are not me.

Have a great day.

Marylu, you are the lucky winner selected by the random number generator!  Please email me your address and I’ll get a copy of The Invisible World by Anthony DeStefano out to you as soon as I can.  It definitely won’t be before Tuesday.

Congratulations!

After this blog post, I have three book reviews to do.  If you don’t hear from me for a year, it’s because I have vowed to not blog again until they are done.

I want to post some pictures form my camera before I never get them up.

This one is of Fritz and my brother, Glenn.  They had been doing that guy-thing of exchanging smacks and punches and obnoxious insults which men-folk consider signs of affection.  When I brought out the camera to catch them in the act, they decided to pose with smiles and hugs.

This is birthday baklava.  Yummy.

My sister and her family (except for the deployed husband).  You can see (if you look closely) the tinsel in my sister’s and my niece’s hair.

Not a great shot, but shows the tinsel in my hair.  We have the same parents.  Why does she get the easy-to-tan complexion?  Compared to her, I look like a ghost, but I’m tan, I swear.

Barb and Mary.

Katie’s birthday cake, before the meltdown.  TEN candles.  {sigh}

 Peter threatens to help her with the candles.

 But she gets them all in one shot. 

We’re supposed to be moving away in about 6 months.  Fritz’s Scout shirt, which he got as a Webelos II (age 10), was getting a bit small.  I forbade him to grow until we moved, but he did not listen to me.  So, new shirt and lots of patch sewing for me: council patch, troop patch, Arrow of Light, purple world crest patch (why do they not put this on there already??).  All of these were done on the sewing machine.  But two more to go were his rank and his position, both of which go on pockets.

“Do you want to use the pockets?” I asked him.  Of course he did, and he knows the rule: hand-sewn patches are done by the Scout, not the Mom.

I couldn’t get a good (non-blurry) photo (he wasn’t being very patient), but he did the sewing.  Trust me, it’s obvious.

I’m proud of him, even if it looks like a 13 year old boy did it.  I’ll do his Eagle rank, if/when he gets there.

We are a bit disappointed that Hurricane Irene chose to bypass Georgia…by hundreds of miles.  Last night, though, we got to see some of the outer bands zooming by, north to south.  We didn’t get a single drop of rain, but it was neat to see.

Even more neat was that ten minutes later, the sky was clear.

And now it’s just hot and humid.

A great concept when applied to potatoes.

Not so great when done to birthday cakes.

“Typing” blog posts on an iTouch is tedious.

I’m celebrating my sister’s birthday with her this week by doing all sorts of new things.

I had my eyebrows threaded. I think it pinched more than waxing. They say it’ll last longer. Since I have fair eyebrows, I only do it a few times a year anyway. Maybe I won’t look as wild the next time I think of shaping them.

I had eyelash extensions done. I looked like a trollop. They were supposed to last up to three weeks, but they were off the next morning. The adhesive was irritating my eyes, so I rubbed them, which loosened the lashes (and got more adhesive in my eyes, making me rub them more). I think they might have been nice if I was going out and was all dolled up, but I just don’t think I can pull off heavy makeup.

I took a zumba class. It’s like aerobics to salsa music. It’s fun, and I would go again with my sister or a friend, but on my own, I prefer the solitude of running. I can see why the classes are popular: it’s great motivation if people know you and expect to see you, or if you pay for a class and you don’t like wasting your money. If you’ve never done it and think you want to try it, I will warn you there’s a learning curve. Expect that it will be 3 or 4 classes before you get the hang of it. I was very happy I was in a back corner, out of the way.

I went to a yoga class. It made my arms sore. I think I need to incorporate more stretching into my weekly exercise routine. I did not worship any false gods while at this class.

I went to a Pilates class. My sister is a YMCA groupie. This class was fine, too. I didn’t mind going, but I don’t see me doing it on my own. At least not at this point in my life.

I had a pedicure. This is not a new experience, but what is new is that I was very very careful with my toesies for a full two hours, so my polish is still mainly intact.

I had tinsel put in my hair. Have you seen this fad? It’s cute. It’s inexpensive. It’s temporary. It’s instantly reversible.

I had baklava as birthday cake. What the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets.

Tomorrow we go to my parents’ house. The kids will hang out with my dad while my sister and I go and play bunco with my mom as part of a church fundraiser. I have played bunco before, but not before noon, which I suspect means there will be no alcohol served, making the event, likely, a bit less rowdy than other bunco events I have attended. Mom promises great prizes, though, and she made potato salad for the luncheon, so I don’t think I’ll miss the adult beverages.

Plus I have a husband at home waiting for me. After all that exercising and late nights watching Downton Abbey with my sister, a single glass of wine at lunch would have me pulling off the road for a nap long before the Georgia state line.

Fritz made a glass of iced coffee (decaf) and walked into the living room, slurping. A moment later, Katie began howling. Fritz returned to the kitchen, a look of disgust on his face.

“I told her it’s not my fault I took the last of the iced coffee. She should have gotten some earlier if she wanted it.”

He slouched against the counter, finishing his beverage.

“Hm. Maybe next time you could say something like, ‘I’m sorry, Katie. I didn’t realize you wanted some’. Maybe that would sound better to her and she wouldn’t be so upset.”

He was silent for a moment.

“Hunh,” he grunted, thinking it over. “That might work.”

Yeah. It might.

It’s not malice. Just immaturity.