More vacation pics

You know how you will just be driving along and you will see something out of the corner of your eye that makes you say "HUH???" Well, that is what happened to us on the drive to Dillard, Georgia. We are just booking along, and all of a sudden Jamie spots a sign that says "Goats on the Roof" and he looks over and says "Hey! There really are goats on that roof!" So he whips a fast u-ie and we go back to take a look. We squealed up in front of a very unusual tourist trap and got out. First thing we noticed, yup...there were indeed goats on the roof of these buildings. We wandered around and found that the object of this unusual attraction was to do various things to send food to the goats. Peddle a bike, and a cup of food goes up to the goats. Turn a hand crank, and up goes a cup of food. Goats scurry from place to place, listening for their little bell to ring telling them when food is being dumped. Quirky as it sounds, it really was cute! Inside the building we found a very nice gem mining place, a candy shop, and an Amish country store with homemade jams and jellies. It was a lot of fun!









After we were done playing with the goats and watching the snow fall, we headed on up to Dillard Georgia to eat lunch at the Dillard House. Family style dining, all very delicious. Sorry I don't have pictures of the food, but I was too busy eating the BBQ chicken, fried chicken, smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, squash casserole, acorn squash, green beans, creamed corn, tomato cucumber salad, rolls, biscuits and cornbread that they plopped down on our table. And oh my goodness...the coconut cream pie was delicious! However, outside I did snap a picture of the lovely tulips in bloom as I walked around trying to force out a burp to relieve some pressure from the vast amount of food I ate. Jamie tried to force out other things, but I won't elaborate on that.....just enjoy the tulips y'all...

We also went to Helen Georgia during our stay in the mountains and really enjoyed it there. Marissa had her name blown in glass and was proud to pay for it herself!!! We loved the toy shop with all handmade wooden toys adn of course...the candy shop!





One of our favorite places in Helen is the Bear park. They have bears there that they have rescued from abusive situations and you can feed them apples and bread with peanut butter. The big grizzly will respond if you tell him to show you a trick, and he has quite an arsenal of cute moves to ensure that he racks up the yummies!

Pictures from Apple Mountain Spring Break Trip!

Our first stop on our Spring Break trip to North Georgia was Babyland General Hospital, home of the famous Cabbage Patch Hospital. We had been many times, but this was the first time Marissa had her OWN money to spend. She shopped wisely! This is our last visit to the hospital at it's original location on Underwood Street in Cleveland, a new and much larger hospital is scheduled to open this summer.




The resort we stayed at had so much to do! We played Putt Putt, disc golf, board games, regular golf, pool, and Capture the Flag.










Now this was Marissa's first time to play golf with her dad. They played 9 holes before she was worn out, and was only 5 strokes behind her daddy's score! On the driving range she hit a ball 85 yards!!!! We may have a golfer in the family!





I will post again later with pictures from our outings and the other fun things we did. Have a great day!

Spring Break

We are home from our trip to the beautiful mountains of North Georgia. We did all sorts of things....golf, mini golf, arcade games, disc golf, watched movies, played capture the flag, played board games, fed goats, went to a petting zoo farm, watched Muppet Movies, soaked in the hot tub, walked the streets of Helen, visited an actual surviving scrapbook shop (one of few I am sad to say), found a pair of Easter shoes for Marissa, played in the snow flurries and saw a lot of beautiful scenery in between it all. We are home now, after picking up Marissa's cousin in Atlanta. He will be here through the weekend and we have lots of fun things planned! I will post pics ASAP!

Hope you all have a very blessed Easter Sunday!

Chicken goes.........

This post is inspired by the post on my other blog about cooking chicken ahead. It made me think...and brought back a funny memory!

When Marissa was about 18 months old, she was learning her animal sounds. I guess all kids do this about that age. When we would drive my some cows she would kick her little feet in her carseat and yell out at the top of her lungs" MOO MOO COW!!!! MOO MOO COW!!!!!!!!!" It was cute...at least to us :)

One of her favorite past times was to go through her entire repetoir of animal noises to entertain herself. It really was very cute, at least the first 4,000 times.

Funny how we as adults don't link things together, BUT.....

One night we were at the dinner table and Marissa was slow about eating her dinner. I urged her to take a bite of chicken. Out of the blue she yelled "CHICKEN GO BOK BOK!!!!!!!!!" Then it clicked.....she looked at her plate.....looked at me...looked at her plate.....looked at me.....

And scrambled down out of her booster seat.

Dinner was done.

I love this place!

This blog is also posted on my I'm Not Cheap I'm Thrifty page, because of it's low price and good value. However, I would eat there even if it wasn't inexpensive, just probably not as often!

We are going out to eat tonight, probably at our traditional favorite little place, El Potro.

The restaurant is about 2 blocks from our house. We have gone there at least once a week for over 11 years. It is a very down to earth place, very basic, no frills. Just good food, good service, and lots of memories.

We usually get the buffet. It is offered Mon-Fri for lunch, Friday night, and Sunday lunch. Lunch is $6.35, dinner is $7.35. I love Mexican food, but usually it is very spicy. Not here. Of course they have spicy things on the menu, and will spice up anything you want, but the average choices are not spicy.

So why do I really, really love this place????
Let me list the reasons why.....

1. They have happy orange walls. Ok, maybe that is a stretch but the walls used to be a yucky aquamarine. The happy orange is much better.

2. The KNOW us there. As soon as our butts hit the cushion, our drinks are on the table. They remember, Diet Coke for me and my daughter, tea for the rest of the crew.

3.Also, since they know us, they know we do not like jalapenos in our cheese dip. Therefore, they make it for us. Fresh. No jalapenos. They are the only place in town that doesn't serve the canned queso. They make it fresh.

4. Since I don't eat red meat, they will make me 2 cheese enchiladas to go with the buffet at no charge.

5. The waiter (Gus) is tops. He is prompt, friendly, smiles a lot, always asks where someone is if one is missing from our party. He has also helped our daughter with Spanish homework.

6. They are fast. Food is muy rapido and mucho delicioso!!!!!

7. They like us. They really, really like us. They greet us as family, bring us samples of new stuff, and say they missed us if we don't go every week.

All this is to say, I love this place. It may not be the newest, shiniest, flashiest place but to us, it is home. There are at least 4 other Mexican places in our small town, but this is the only place for us.

HOORAY FOR MY HUBBY!!!!!

BIG NEWS! I am doing the happy dance and I am so glad no one is close enough to be subjected to that torture and retinal scaring.

My wonderful, smart, brave and handsome hubby finished his first class Friday with a final grade of.....

Drumroll please........

A 95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOO HOO! clap clap clap clap whistle whistle cheer cheer BIG YAY!

Only one person scored higher in the whole class, and they only got a 96. I am so happy of my husband! Great job honey, I knew you could do it!

Now just 2 more classes to go before he leaves the great state of Maryland to return home. I just can't wait!

Layouts to share

I have been rather remiss in posting layouts lately, but it isn't because I didn't want to share them. It is simply because I haven't DONE any! I managed to do 2 one page layouts Saturday, and I realized I have not posted the last few that I did a couple of weeks back so I am posting them all today. Please pardon the crappy photography and crooked pages, they really look much better in person than my editing shows! Next time I will actually prop them up on their little easels or the clarinet stand so they look better, but for now, this is what ya get. Forgiven????
This first layout was of our most recent trip to Krispy Kreme. Since Jamie has my camera in Maryland, I snapped these on my phone which at times takes really, really poor photos. However, the memory was too sweet not to share.

This next layout cracks me up. In case you can't read the journaling, let me just tell you that our town has a long standing history of having issues with the lights on the tree in our park. Funny small town humor. :)

This is a layout about the beach house that belonged to some close family friends, that I called Granny and Grandpa. I went by the old place a week or so ago and snagged this pic of the house. I wanted to record some happy memories.

Somehow the next 2 page layout got uploaded in the wrong order, so you see the first page last. This was our New Year's Eve dinner at Tybee. YUMMMMMMMMMMY!


This layout was just about a direct copy of one I saw in CK a few months back. It documents how I miss Jamie when he is on the tugboat for a week at a time. :(

This pic is one of my faves, so I did a layout to show us, just the 3 of us, just being us.

Now this one was a lot of fun. I wanted to document the steps we take to reduce, reuse and recycle. Since our town does not offer curbside recycling because the town leaders must live in the STONE AGE, we take our stuff to the closest recycling facility. Once again, the photos were uploaded in reverse order. OOPS!


This is probably one of the geekiest layouts I have ever done, at least in my daughters eyes, but it is one of the most meaningful to me. We went to the movie theatre and because the totally JACK YOU with candy prices, we sneak in candy in ziploc bags and just get hot popcorn and drinks there. While the movie was going on, Jamie twisted our buttery napkin and inserted it into the rolled up ziploc bag. On the way home he stuck it down in a empty Coke bottle and made me the sweetest flower bouquet I have ever gotten.

Last but not least, this layout documents our trip to Burt's Farm and the pumpkin patch. The pic of Riss was so great I had to blow it up to 8x10 to showcase it!


So, whadda ya think??????

Update on school stuff for Jamie

Just when you thought you had been blessed beyond measure...God shows up in a big way again!

Jamie has done very well in school. He has made an 88 and a 92 on his tests so far. He is on a good team that works well together. Yesterday in the rowing rest in the lifeboat, it started SNOWING on them while they were out on the water. Then, Jamie said the snow felt kind of hard and it had begun to HAIL as well. Now, the mom/wife/obsessively protective type in me became outraged at this. I thought they should have stopped immediately and gone back inside until the weather cleared. Well, a quick slap in the head of reality told me that if I were on a ship and needed a lifeboat, I wouldn't want those in charge of it to say, "NO, it is cold and rainy. Let's wait until the weather clears." Chalk up yet another "DUH!!!" moment for me. All of the students completed their assessments safely and made it back to shore just fine. At least now we know that if can handle a lifeboat in that kind of weather, he could handle it in just about any situation. One week of this class down, one week to go.

He has made some friends there, and they are studying together. Today they went as a group into the nearest town and ate at a Chinese buffet and went to WalMart. I am glad he has made some pals to help the down time go by faster!

An update to our plan however.....

The second class he needs is offered the week after the week he is supposed to leave. (There would be a week in between with nothing for him to do.) So, they offered him to stay over and take the other class he needs, and they will put him in a computer class on the off week. The computer class is not mandatory, but he will earn a certificate and that will be good to have in his record. So, instead of being gone 2 weeks he will be gone 4. However, it will save him a trip back up there. Also, there is no guarantee that his boat here will be out of dry dock on time, (it hasn't ever been before) so this is another way he is making money when he might not have here at home

Our plan is to take the train up when he gets out of school April 3, which "happens" to be when Spring Break starts. Then we will all come back together and stay at the time share resort in North GA before heading home. It will be nice to have time together as a family!

Please continue to remember us in your prayers. Remember he is only getting half pay for this 4 weeks, but God will provide. This is the longest we have been apart since he got out of the Navy, and the longest that Marissa has ever been without him that she can remember. Remember to ask God for continued clarity of mind and good memory for Jamie on his tests, and safety while they are on the water.

Thanks so much for all of your support!

Can you find the miracles and blesings in this post as well??? (Hint they are in bold type :)

Let's Stir Up Some Fun!

I posted this picture on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and it got quite an interesting response. This is me, made shortly after I moved to Hawaii in 1989. I know, hard to believe, but it really is me in that picture. I am bracing for the coming comments about big hair and/or acid washed jeans.....but I want to know....
What do you think is with me in this picture?

Miracles in our lives

Sometimes we chalk miracles up to "good luck". As a Christian, I know that good luck doesn't just happen. God has good things planned for us of course, His word promises us that in Jeremiah 29:11. ("For I know the plans I have for you" says the Lord. "Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future".) Therefore, I do not think that when good stuff happens we can just automatically call it good luck of good fortune or karma or whatever the word of the day is. I have found that if we look a little deeper, we can see the miracles God is working in our lives every day. There are also those miracles you don't see....like when you run late for something and don't realize that God had kept you from leaving on time to prevent you being in an accident, etc.

However, this past week has been has been miraculous in so many ways I just had to share it with you!

Last Thursday, Jamie called me from the boat. He was due to get off Friday morning at 8:00. He told me he had bad news; that one of the boats in his fleet was being pulled into dry dock to do an engine overhaul. This means that 2 crews would be displaced. Due to seniority, that meant he would be laid off. Of course, he would be placed on the relief list in the top position for call out work because the only other guy laid off senior to him had already been assigned a shift.

I began to pray as he was talking. You must understand here that call out work sometimes happens, sometimes doesn't, but he wouldn't be able to draw unemployment because he still had a job with the possibility of call out work. So, we would be flying by the seat of our pants so to speak, wondering if he would work during those 2 weeks or if we would be without income until the 5th of next month. Although this post is getting wordy, it is important for you to see the set up here. :)

Then he got an inspired idea, which I fully know that God placed in his heart. There are several school that he needs to attend to get his next license in the maritime industry. These school mean time off work, which equals no pay. That is why he hasn't gone to school before now!

So here is what happened next, in order of the pending problem and the resulting miracle.

First problem: Was there even a class that he needed during the time he was laid off?
First miracle: A quick call found that yes indeed, a school was available.

Second problem: The classes fill up quickly, was there by chance a space for him?
Second miracle: Yes indeed, a spot was open.

Third problem: Due to being out of work with the broken wrist for 14 months, his union dues are slightly behind. Since this was a union school, would that be an issue?
Third miracle: Union dues need to be caught up, but have nothing to do with eligibility for school.

Fourth problem: School requires letters of verification of time served on board each vessel. Jamie's new boss has never written such letters, nor knows exactly what is needed. No time to make mistakes, no time for trial and error.
Fourth miracle: Another phone call to records dept. to explain issues reveals that a quick check on his SSN shows that his time served is recorded in the online log and is completely up to date, including his Navy time. No need for letters for him.

Fifth problem: Application must be submitted and mailed in with copies of medical card showing fit for duty (which you may remember is why we had to go to Jax last month)and union card.
Fifth miracle: Application was onhand at his job, medical card and union card were also in the aforementioned online file. No need to fax them.

Sixth problem: School is in Piney Point Maryland. Nearest airport? 2 1/2 hours away, so trying to get a buddy pass from our friend for travel was useless. Decided driving would be best, but no gas money.
Sixth miracle: Friday morning there was to be a safety meeting at work, where he would get his annual safety bonus. Presto! Gas money.

Seventh problem: Money for lodging and food for 2 weeks.
Seventh miracle: Along with the school paid for by the union, so is lodging in a nice hotel on campus and 3 full buffet meals prepared by cruise ship chefs in training at the same school campus. All free.

Eighth problem: A quick check on the car shows a big bubble in the front tire, not safe for a 10 hour drive. Truck has small radiator leak, also not fit for long trips.
Eighth miracle: Mechanic Father in law drove car to work Friday to see about finding a used tire deemed safe for travel. Drives home with 4 brand new tires as a gift.

Ninth and final problem: Cell phone service may be sketchy at the school. Not sure how we can keep in touch. Wish we had a laptop.....
Ninth but certainly not final miracle: A quick call to a computer repair guru pal who had been keeping an eye out for a fixable laptop for us on the cheap revealed that he had just gotten a laptop for us. He tweaked a few minor problems and dropped it by to us Friday night. No charge for the laptop or for the repairs.

I say that was not the final miracle because so many more have happened that are seen and unseen. Jamie has suffered from insomnia since his mom died, and he was able to get a good nights sleep Saturday night before leaving at 5:30am Sunday. Time change did not affect his sleep. He was granted safe travel, an easy drive, never got sleepy on the way, and is getting an incredible 25.3 mpg in our 15 year old grannymobile. He is settled in, everyone is very nice, has a private room, and orientation starts today.

And did I mention that in addition to having his school paid for, he also received his pay from his company? Half on his regular check, the other half when his license from the Coast Guard arrives. Not bad for what looked like 2 weeks with no pay!!!!

Now...pray for me to have the grace and peace to survive until he gets home in 2 weeks!!!!

(photo of Jamie about Tug Bulldog by J. Tirpak 2007)

Computer problems....

I'm not sure what is happening. A couple of weeks ago, the mouse for Marissa's computer stopped working. It was a sudden thing, and very strange. Grasp mouse firmly, wigggle wiggle, no response. We got another mouse and it is working fine, but I think since then we have figured out what happened to the first mouse.
How it met it's untimely demise...





Julio ATE it! LOL!
Actually my sweet but not so superbly bright kitty just loves the warmth a monitor provides. And he looks so cute nestled between her Happy Meal animals and her Valentine Snoopy!

Spring Break

It is that time of year again.....and I need your help! We need ideas for things to do on Spring Break. It's around the first of April, and it needs to be EXTREMELY budget friendly. We have done St Augustine and Jacksonville.....many times....gone to Charleston....several times.....We thought of Washington DC or St Louis because of so many FREE things to do there but because of layoffs with the airline that Jamie worked for part time, we no longer enjoy free travel privileges. Therefore it will have to be someplace in driving distance.

Any thoughts? Any suggestions? HELP PUH--LEEEEEEEZE!!!!!!!!!

BRRRRR!

Oh my goodness...I can't feel my feet! It is unseasonably cold here right now. Our mild coastal winter has gone away and been replaced with a blanket of arctic air! I was on the beach two days ago and tonight I have my outdoor plants covered up and my faucets dripping! And my poor husband...out there on the river on the tug boat. BRRRR! Hurry home honey! This is snuggle weather!

Cooking ahead

Have you checked out my blog entry on my other blog "I'm Not Cheap I'm Thrifty"???? There is a post there about another blog I have started following called Mommy Making Money and she had the most fabulous ideas about preparing meat ahead of time and freezing it. I tried her idea with the boneless skinless chicken, and also I did her ground beef version only I used ground pork and turkey because I don't eat beef.

Saturday I made chili with the precooked meat. It was so easy to just dump the bag in and add all of my other ingredients, turn on the pot and GO!

Tuesday night I made tacos and enchiladas with the prepared shredded chicken and they was delicious! I just thawed the meat, wrapped the enchilada shells around it and threw it in the oven. Tasty and good! QUICK TOO!

Tonight is baked ziti with the prepared ground meat mix. It will be so easy! The meat is thawing, now all I have to do is boil noodles, open a jar of sauce and throw it all together. Put in the pan and throw cheese on top and pop it into the oven. Now that's the way I like it....quick, easy and GOOD!

I decided to compose a list of reasons why I like doing the meat ahead so much:
1. I only had to handle raw meat one time. This is a major ICK factor for me in cooking, and also the reason I keep rubber gloves on my microwave.
2. I only had to chop raw onion and cry once.
3. I could easily see how many meals I had enough meat for when I stacked it in my freezer.
4. The Ziploc bags of cooked meat take up much less room and store flatter that the bulky packages of meat.
5. The precooked meat makes it super quick and easy to throw together easy homecooked meals. It was quicker to put the tacos and enchiladas together than to order pizza.
6. The flexibility of the cooked meat makes trying new recipes easy and enticing again, even when I don't feel creative. :)

If you have not checked out the idea of cooking ahead, please give it a whirl. It took me about 2 hours to do both the chicken and the ground meat, and I have enough meat prepared now for about 12 meals.

Let me know what you think!!!!

Not Valentine's Day, but.......

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband? Not only is he a wonderful husband and an excellent father, but he is my very best friend. We have been married almost 13 years, and while I would like to say they have all been simply blissful, that is not the truth. We fuss and fight just like any other couple. In the early years, we would yell and scream and basically make fools of ourselves. Then came the pouting and the stomping around the house and the door slamming. Thankfully, now most disagreements are settled with only slightly raised voices and minor pouting :)

There was a time not so long ago however when I really didn't think we were gonna make it together. We were like sandpaper against each other...nothing made either of us happy...we spent a lot of time not really talking or spending time together. We sort of coexisted in the way that roommates do, but we were not really partners.

I am not sure what really changed things, although a near tragic situation that arose certainly didn't help. It wasn't a sudden change, more of a softening of hearts that occurred. I learned to be more tolerate, he learned to be more attentive,and all in all things began to improve. Fast forward a year to our Tres Dias weekends, when God totally melted our hearts and put everything in perspective for us both. That was a painful process but it was so worth the journey! I remember when I came home after my weekend, we just talked all night long, looking right into each others eyes. We cried, we laughed, and we discovered a love that had never been there before. It was an amazing thing that happened between us...

We discovered that putting GOD first and each other second really made all the difference in the world. I stopped putting him down, and he started listening to me more. It made me feel so unvalued when he would only half listen to me spilling my heart while he watched TV. He would be so hurt when I would make snide and hurtful comments about him to my friends....often in front of him.

We learned a lot about what God can do in a marriage IF YOU ALLOW HIM TO DO IT. It has been so much better for us. We are spouses....partners....friends...doing this crazy thing called life together and loving every precious moment we have.

Valentine's day is nice,and although we usually end up spending it apart due to his job, I prefer to think of every day as a day to celebrate out love and our friendship. I thank God for opening my eyes before I lost something very precious.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello everyone...here is a big {HUG} for you on this special day! I saw on my niece's facebook page where this is sometimes referred to as 'Single Awareness Day" and that kinda cracked me up. I had never heard it called that.

I guess I am kinda single this year too, because Jamie left for the boat yesterday. He is working night shift, so I won't get to hear from him until after 8:00 tonight. Before he left we both bought each other valentine cards, and we are planning to go out to eat somewhere when he gets home for a late Valentine's Dinner.

This morning though I got up to find a box of chocolates and a card from my wonderful inlaws and that was a very nice surprise! I gave Marissa her goody bag from her Daddy and me....it had a teddy bear that we wrote messages on, a chocolate bear, a box of sweethearts, some Croc bits and a card. The card was very cool...it was a Hannah Montana card that allows you to record a 10 second message inside. After your message, a Hannah song plays. (We lucked up with this one because after she opened it I learned that this is her current favorite Hannah song. Of course I played it off like I had planned it that way)

We are getting ready to make some heart shaped sandwiches and some cookies for a special Valentine's lunch. Strawberries, cookies, and heart shaped sandwiches with red Kool Aid makes for a very nice treat on Valentine's day.

Hope your day is happy and filled with love...like mine has been. :)

Jacksonville

We went to Jacksonville this past weekend. With everything going on this past week we really needed a break and since Jamie had to go to the union hall and also have his physical done at the industrial medicine in Jacksonville anyway, we just made a long weekend of it.
Our first stop was the Budweiser plant on the north side of Jacksonville. It was a really neat tour!

We had a great time walking along the riverfront there on Jacksonville Landing. We shared a yummy snack of crawfish nachos at the American Cafe and sat outside on the deck. It was a beautiful night.



Sunday we walked around Treaty Oak. The tree is over 200 years old and the city has built a park around it. Since it is a live oak, it is green all year round and the branches swoop very low. It was a really neat place!




One of the highpoints of our trip was eating at our favorite restaurant there, a place called Jackie Lee's China Bistro. It was so delicious! Sorry there are no pictures to post of us inside--I was too busy enjoying the delicious spring rolls and honey chicken and the delightful tea that smells just like fresh honeysuckle. Mmmm...wish I had a pot of that now!

Thank you!

Thank you all so much for your support and prayers after the death of Jamie's mom. I wanted to share this picture with you of the sunset at the memorial service last night. It was so beautiful!

I would like to thank each one of you for your prayers during this difficult time. I had mentioned before that I would post details of the arrangements for my mother in law as soon as they became available. Although these plans are not final, they are what we are planning as of now.

We will be having a memorial service for her on Saturday at 2:00 at the Second
Baptist Church in Forest Park GA. As soon as her cremains are ready, we will bring them back to Savannah and scatter them at a place that holds special significance to our
family.

We are hoping to have a memorial service held at Westside Christian Church in
Bloomingdale on Monday or Tuesday. The day will depend on how soon her cremains
are released to us.

Thank you again for remembering us.

Clarifying.....

Just a quick note.....
The mother in law that passed away is my husbands biological mother.
The mother in law that lives with us is his step mom, Kathy, who has her disability blog posted on blogspot.
Sorry for any confusion!

Prayer request

I would like to ask all of my readers to remember my family in your prayers. My mother in law has passed away suddenly and my husband is traveling to make the arrangements for her. I will post the details when I know them.

Sorry Mr. President!

Don't forget to check out my mother in law's blog about her disability. Her last post about a "presidential" error is hilarious! She may even need a Presidential Pardon! LOL!
http://disabilitybs.blogspot.com/

Computer stuff

YAY! My computer is back and it is working like BRAND NEW thanks to my friend :) It moves so much faster and everything is just perfect. Looks like the bad power supply and all of the junk inside of the files was really making it work extra hard and slowed it down. I had not realized it had slowed down, I guess it was such a gradual thing that it took it getting fixed for me to remember how FAST it used to be! I am just zipping through stuff now!!!! YAY ME!

And I forget if I mentioned that the virus protection thingie that the Geeks wanted to charge me $150 is the one that my pal was installing for FREE???? And how about the geeks had already installed it before they decided to offer it to me and try to rip me off??

I am steadily compiling my pictures into folders and burning them to CDS. It is amazing how many I had on here just filed under "misc pics". Now I have to go back and try to decide roughly when they were taken! (Note to self...save self stress next time.....always always always label folders with date!!!!) I wonder if there is a way to set up like a shock collar thing if I try to label something else MISC?????

My baby is home!!!!!!!!!!!!

My computer arrived home this morning, safe and sound. Since I don't particularly excell at anything electronically, I am waiting on Jamie to get home tonight to hook it up for me. (This also lets me avoid crawling and squirming under the desk to connect the cables)

The report?

A bad power supply. Now fixed. :)

Now you might be wondering about the $150 program the Geeks tried to sell us....Funny thing is, they had already installed it before we picked it up. According to my friend, it is a very good virus protection, the same one in fact that he was going to put on my computer for me for free. He also installed a better spyware program than the one I had, and a better disk defragmenting program so he cleaned up a lot of space for me and said the computer runs about 100 times faster.

I am excited to get my computer back up and running. The biggest thing is that I want to get my pictures off before anything happens again. That really scared me....to realize how many pictures I had on the harddrive that would have been lost if my computer had indeed crashed. It was a VERy good reminder to me to GET THOSE PICS OFF NOW and store them either on an external memorty stick or disks or something!

So my question is....how do you organize and store YOUR digital pics? Do you have a system or a schedule to remove them? How do you file them? I am trying to come up with somethign better than waiting until there are so many that I can't find what I am looking for. Do you remove them monthly? Weekly? After you print what you want? After you scrapbook them? What is YOUR system? I need some advice so I can figure out the best way to handle mine. As a scrapbooker, I take tons and tons of pictures, hoping for a couple of good ones to turn up in the mix. :)
I am getting overrun by digital files.....

Any advice?

Computer update

I am still missing my baby. :(
My friend came and picked it up, and emailed me last night with what he found. The power supply WAS INDEED bad! He replaced that and said that it had been up and running all day. He did find several spyware thingies lurking, which I knew about because when I discovered them and tried to open the Spyware Doctor to remove them, the computer froze up and I had to shut it down. (That was when it wouldn't come back on the next day)

He removed the spyware and said it was working 100% better already. He said that he was going to install a virus program that he has used for years and see if anythign else needed cleaning up.

Then he sent another interesting note that simply said.... "Wait til I tell you about the program he wanted to charge you $150 for".

????????

Stay tuned for updates......I will let you know what he found when I know. :)

Stuff

Hello happy campers....
I am actually not so happy.
My Mom in law picked up the computer yesterday for me, and the guy at the shop really ticked me off. First off, when we took it in, we had a coupon for a free disgnostic. When he looked at it, he said it booted right up and he thought the issue was a bad pwer cord. Said he had extras, he would just give us one when we came to pick it up. Cool beans. The he asked if we had virus protection, and we said yes, we have McAfee that came with Comcast. (We also had Norton at one time but hated it so we deleted it.) He said he had a better program, would run $75. We said thanks, but not right now.

Ok, so when Kathy went in to get the computer, he tells her that while it was there he decided to run a virus scan on it and he found over 100 viruses. He tired to convince her to buy a virus removal thingie for $150. She said she was just picking it up, and that she knew we didn't want the other virus protection because she had already heard us talking about it the FIRST time he tried to sell it to us.
So the guy proceeds to tell her that he removed some of the viruses, but that some would only come off with his program. (???) He went on to say that he had removed McAfee.

Wait just a minute...did I authorize him to remove anything????

So again she tells him she is just picking up....and he tells her "Well that's fine, but they will eventually be back for me to remove those other viruses."

THE HECK YOU SAY!

What kind of customer service is this???? I did not ask for this. I did not authorize this. And the last time I checked, there are MANY computer repair places in town...and I am sure they are all adequately equipped to remove viruses. I do not think this guy has any special anti-virus powers.....oooo.....

Anyway, a good friend picked up my computer today and he is fixing whatever is wrong with it as a favor to me. Now that just rocks. My friends are just so good to me! ;)

In the meantime, I am still using Kathy's computer, so I cannot upload pics at this time, although even if I did I am not sure what they would be...all we have done is snuggle under blankets and watch TV lately because it has been cold enough to freeze our tail feathers!!!!

Computer issues...

Thursday morning after I got Riss on the bus I came to my trusty computer and sent a couple of emails. I tried to sign into my blog but the computer froze up and wouldn't do anything so I had to turn it off on the CPU as a last resort. Later, I tried to boot it back up and it wouldn't come on. Nothing. Nada. Zilcha.

I woke Jamie up and asked my hero and fixer of all things that I broke, and he was puzzled by the situation too. We tried everything we knew to do. Finally we took the CPU out of the desk and slid in my mom in law's instead. We trotted it over to Tweaks by Geeks and they ran the diagnostic.

Yesterday they called to say that it booted right up. They think it was a power cord issue. With the coupon we used, the diagnostic was free and they threw in a new power cord at no cost either. I am picking my baby up MOnday and hopefully everything will be ok. The worst part was that I had some pictures stored on my harddrive that I was very worried about not being able to get back, but now it looks like I worried for nothing.

This was a good reminder to me to get those pics off the harddrive before something major happens! Although most of them had been printed already, I still want to save the digital files.

I will update Monday once my baby is back!

The weird thing is my Mom in law's computer doesn't do spellcheck on my blog or on my email.....so there is no telling how many mistakes you all just caught! :)

UPDATE ON OUR CROP

Ladies,
It has come to my attention that our crop is about 3/4 full! If you are planning to come or think you may be able to come, please let me know so I can reserve you a a spot ASAP!

New blog

My mom in law has created a blog about her struggles getting the disability payments she is entitled to. Please go check out her blog and dish a little encouragement!

www.disabilitybs.blogspot.com

UPDATED******ATTENTION ALL SCRAPBOOKERS!

UPDATE~~WE ARE ALREADY ABOUT HALFWAY TO CAPACITY! RESERVE YOUR SPOT TODAY!

Ok ladies, ever since our beloved Savannah Scrapbooking closed it's doors last March, we have all missed each other and longed for a time to get together and crop! Well, ladies, here it is:

Jamie (of Sav. Scrapbooking, not my husband LOL) and I are putting together a crop on the westside of Savannah. That's right ladies, all of you in Pooler, Bloomingdale, Rincon, Statesboro, Guyton, Eden, Ellabell, etc.....a crop is coming to OUR SIDE OF THE WORLD!!!!

The crop is scheduled for February 28 in Bloomingdale. The cost will be $20 per person and will include a FULL DAY of cropping, lunch and some fantastic door prizes!

Please let me know if you want to sign up, as space is limited. Call your friends and come as a group! Let everyone know about this please! Email, call, text, send smoke signals, whatever you need to do to get the word out. Let's get together and get some pages done.....and eat some chocolate!

Contact update

I think I have the hang of this! The contacts are comfortable, and very freeing! I can see so much more clearly and everything looks so much better! I am so happy that I took this plunge!

Now my husband has decided that he wants to try them. Not sure if he can manage this, but he has an appointment at 3:00 Friday so we will see! :)

The only problem I had is that it was SUPER WINDY today and my eyes got kinda dry, but a few drops and I was back in the clear!

Thanks for the support! It means a lot!

Guess what I got?

No, it isn't a new car.....no, I didn't get pregnant over the holidays....no, I did not lose my mind an adopt another cat.

I got contacts!

I had wanted them for several years, but I never really thought I could put something in my eye. I decided that if I can give birth, I can put in a contact. So at my eye exam Monday, I discussed contacts with my doctor. He said "sure, why not give it a try?" So I did. He said that I put them in easier than anyone he had ever seen before. I came home excited about my newly found independence from glasses!

Then the headache came. It was in the back of my head, pounding. I laid down for a few minutes in a dark room. Didn't help. Took Motrin. Didn't help. Took a blood pressure pill, justifying that I had been out for a week so maybe that was it. Nope. Didn't help. I gave up. Took the contacts out.

Guess what? The headache stayed. At dinner I realized I had not had any caffeine all day, so I made some tea and drank it. Headache went away. (yay that it was gone, boo that I am dependent on caffeine)

So this morning I got up to try again. I told myself to drink something with caffeine in it, then insert the contacts. Right one in....no trouble. Left one....WHAT????? There was a chunk missing out of my left lens. Sigh.

I put the old lenses back in their case and trotted to my eye dr. (Luckily they are 2 blocks away) They gave me a new kind to try and I scampered off to pay some bills, then got home and popped in the news lenses.

Guess what? No headache so far. Easy insertion. Now my sight is a bit blurry but I was told to expect that as my eyes adjust. Say a prayer this works.....I kinda like this contact vision!