Holy Cow, We May be Done...

I think nearly all the bugs are worked out of my upgrade to Windows 7. Sadly, there's some wishblade files that did not make it, and I'm pretty bummed about that, but there's not much I can do about it, fretting, fitting, crying, or raging won't change anything so I guess I just need to move on. Sadly, I lost a quaterly club worth of downloads for vacation and summer type files. I also had this great Tiffany style lamp file that I won and it's gone too. I also had some original designs that I lost. Luckily, I had a back up from some point so I'm not starting completely from scratch, but I'm not close to having my complete library either, I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. As far as Windows 7 itself, I have to say, I HATE, with a passion, the change they made to the side bar. Vista had space set aside for the side bar, more than three gadgets on it and it gave you another page, you just flipped to them. You could even choose to leave them on top, and the other screen sizes would adjust so that gadgets like twitter, blogger, and pandora were always in view, always easy to monitor and respond to. The screen didn't cover the gadgets and the gadgets didn't block your screen. That's gone. Windows 7 has DESKTOP gadgets, they're not kept in a neat tidy pile in the side bar, you can scatter them all over your desk top if that floats your boat - but it covers those gorgeous desktop photos they give you and just drives me crazy. I like seeing nice neat columns. The other draw back? Your screen will cover them. You can choose to keep them on top, but then they block portions of your screen. I will have to adjust my screen sizes manually each time if I want to be able to see updates that roll across, or tell Pandora never to play a song again. Right now I have my gadgets layered under other gadgets trying to keep them all contained in one column. I have enough of the bottom ones peeking out that I can still click on them when I need them, but until I do, they're hidden away. On the plus side, I think W7 is faster. I've noticed a significant difference in start up time as well as logging onto the internet, and that makes me happy. I finally have full control of my touch pad, but drivers had to be downloaded for this to happen. My wishblade finally works right, and my outlook account may or may not alert me consistently when I receive a message. It's set to, but hasn't yet. We made one change that I hope will help. Through this all, my brother-in-law, Lonnie at Computer Techs ( http://www.ctkcmo.com ) has been there to help me. Thank you brother! I would probably throw the computer across the room, and never have any fun using it ever again if it wasn't for you! I also had some of the ladies at paperthreads.com helping me out with suggestions when my wishblade wasn't working right, so a great big thank you to them too! You helped keep me from going completely crazy, now I'm just somewhat crazy, but that may not have had anything to do with this update ;) So, now, I'm going to step away from the computer and relax, get over the stupid gadget change and mourn my lost wishblade files and move on.

Merry Christmas!

Don't know if family will actually make it here today considering the small blizzard we got. I'm hopeful though, because the snow plow has been down our side street at least once today, which means it's been down the larger roads. Unfortunately, not all my family has had the same experience, so we'll see. We've told them that we'd be here and ready if anybody still wanted to come over. I need to brave the roads and go out and get the chips I forgot yesterday...grr... We're making a hot dip, so they're kind of important. That reminds me, I need to get that going. It's 13 degrees with a brisk 5 mph wind kicking up the fallen and falling snow. Too bad it's so cold. I'd love to make some snowmen, Calvin and Hobbes style! Last of all, Merry Christmas! At the close of the year, thanks to all who've made it memorable for us. We love appreciate all of our friends. Most of all though, I'm thankful for this day we have to celebrate the birth of our Savior. I am eternally grateful and indebted for that selfless sacrifice. During this cold time, may the spirit of our Redeemer warm your heart. God bless, Alta

For My Brother

My baby brother, who is no longer a baby, left last week for Navy boot camp. He's at the same location as my sister who left in November.

Tomorrow is her graduation, and we hope we get to see him too.

Before he left, he requested a picture of my heels for motivation. Are you thinking - what the heck? How is that motivation? Let me tell you.

When they purposely teased me, I would take off a shoe, chase them around the house and smack them with it. I got a lot of good hits in too! Always though, the shoes I used were flats, but I made sure they had a floppy sole for maximum flicking.

I guess he thought the spikes would be an even bigger incentive.

Instead of just sending giving him a picture of my shoes though, I dressed it up a little for him. I've got an old frame I'm not using, so he can hang it if he wants. I hope I can give it to him in person on Thursday or Friday, but if not, I hope I can leave it for him. Most of all, I hope it brightens his time there.

Some Christmas Cards I finished up this morning. The images are digital stamps from Mo. I fell in love with Holly the Christmas Fairy. I had a blast coloring her too. Isn't this pig adorable, it's also from Mo at Digital Pencil Too. This is Harry, and he needs a hand. I used my prisma color pencils, some CTMH paper, and of course, stickles! Thanks for stopping by!

Smart Doesn't Mean Common Sense

This is my 12 year old...yep, his tongue's stuck to the metal post out back. I think it was about 9 degrees out there.

I was sitting in the rocking chair and heard a muffled, "hep". I wondered what the sound was, it kind of sounded like my son calling for help, and then it came again, "hep!" I was positive I'd heard it this time, so I peeked out the back door - this is what I saw. It wasn't a joke - I checked, I didn't want to go out in that weather if I didn't have to.

He wasn't joking, he also didn't look upset, so I told him I'd get the cameras first. If he was going to make me go out there, I figured he owed me.

Anyway, I snuck a few pics from the shelter of the deck, and got a small conversation on the camcorder. Then I rescued him with some warm water. His lip got stuck too, and it bled a bit, but other than that, he was okay.

I asked him why, and he did think about it. Here are his brilliant, although flawed deductions:

I thought if I did it fast enough it wouldn't stick.

I thought it would be more comfortable than the fence line if I got stuck.

The freezer downstairs must not be as cold, cause I rescued myself from that one.

This is the kid that took the ACT today...as a 7th grader. He's in the challenge classes as well as the gifted program. Just goes to show you that common sense and being smart are not necessarily related.

Won a Book!

Just won a signed copy of the soon to be released anthology Heart of Darkness from Gena Showalter's blog - how cool is that? I rarely win anything so this is exciting!

My Stamps are Here!

Just got my Coronado Island Design stamps today. Let me tell you how cool they are! Besides having great images - I'm now the gleeful owner of all the mermaid and winged images I've been drooling over since this summer, they gave me some knockout customer service. I buy unmounted from them, it's half the cost, and I can use them with my acryllic blocks. I forgot to mark one of the stamps as unmounted, they caught it and fixed it, adjusting the price accordingly for me. They also advertise free shipping on orders over $100. I assumed that would mean after the 50% discount. That total didn't reach $100, even though the total before the discount did. They were nice enough to base the shipping costs on my total before the discount. I am totally thrilled with this company so far. I forgot to mention too, they were nice enough to display some of the projects I made with their stamps a while back. If you're interested in mermaids and winged people and horses, check out Pam Ford on their site, that's who created all my new goodies. I also appreciate that they recycled paper for my packing list. There's a story on the back of my list, and I'm just fine with that. You can check out their site at www.cidesignstamps.com

They have a gallery that blows me away, be sure to check it out. Great inspiration!

Dead Game, an Emily Stone Novel by Jennifer Chase

I had the opportunity to read this a month or so ago, so it's not as fresh in my mind as others, with that being said, I enjoyed it. The dynamic between Emily and Rick has changed since Compulsion and it's great to see their relationship changing and evolving, to watch the loaner (Emily) learn to work with a partner, and to watch Rick step back and let Emily do her thing. Compulsion was written in present tense, which threw me a bit. If you're like me, then you'll be happy to know that Dead Game is written in past tense, and none of the excitement or drama was lost in this change. Along with the action, the drama, and the daring escapes there was an emotional connection. How far would you go for the ones you love? What are you willing to give up? If you are a fan of Compulsion, Jennifer Chase's debut novel, you won't be disappointed with Dead Game! If you haven't read either yet...Christmas is coming up, maybe if you ask nicely Santa will leave both under the tree for you.

Christmas Cards

I've done a few, but they're not ready to post yet - actually, they're not completely assembled. I'm waiting for the glitter to dry. Unfortunately, I think I damaged my thumb applying all this glitter glue. In the scrapping circles I'm in, we call this stickle hand. Sadly, I wasn't using stickles, it bottles are a lot easier to squeeze the glitter out of. Hopefully there's feeling in my thumb again when I wake up in the morning! It makes me feel better though, knowing the effect turned out pretty neat, and hey, if I loose all feeling in that thumb, next time won't be so bad - I won't feel a thing! Good night...

Hi Sabrina!

Welcome aboard!

NOW I Feel Like I'm Done :)

Last week I thought I was done with my second draft, ready to hand it off to my buddy Kathy, but not everything sat well with me, so I spent another week (not a whole week because of Thanksgiving) tweaking it. There was a scene I didn't even know about that's in there now, and I corrected the punctuation that needed it. There's still a few things that I'm not too sure on, but I think I can hold off until Kathy reads through it and we can bounce ideas off each other. So, mostly, I just have to print it and get it ready for her :) I have 240 pages to print, so I called kinkos to see if it would just be better to print it off there...it's 10 cents a page! I'm not great at math, but I'm pretty sure that's more than I want to pay- the draft would cost more to print than the finished book would! So, yeah...I'm doing it myself.