islandmom

Good stuff...

I just wanted to post about Janet's "For the Love of Chocolate" article at TDD for my non-digi friends because I think they will LOVE it!!  I also posted an article today about font management for people that have lots of fonts installed on their computer.  The last thing is that we have a favicon at TDD! :) I am sooo excited about it!  What's a favicon?  The little image the shows up in the address bar, tab, or your favorites of course! :) Have a good one! :)
Steph

Soundtrack Sunday 44

Fall of 2008 I found myself dreading winter.  I knew that during the winter I suffered from a serious lack of motivation and I didn't look forward to it.  One day, it occured to me that maybe I suffered from SAD.  I told my husband that I wanted a light for light therapy for Christmas and he followed through on his orders..haha.  I did the light for a week before I started to notice a difference, but I did start to notice a huge difference!  The best way for me to exlain it, is that in the Spring, I think most of us feel a surge of energy and motivation.  That is how I feel after doing my light therapy.  Instead of feeling irritable, unmotivated, and all around sad, I am happy and have energy. 

This winter, I have everyone in my family doing light therapy and they have all noticed a difference (except the youngest one, but WE have noticed a difference for her..haha).  I found myself often singing this song as I am doing my light therapy in the morning (it only takes 10-15 minutes). 

Dr. Oz has said many times that if you live North of Atalanta, you don't get enough sun!  So, if you find yourself feeling like you need to hibernate in the winter, but you aren't that way in the summer, go get a light, I promise you will thank yourself for it!!!

Soundtrack Sunday 43

(yes, i took that photo!)

 

I have really debated about posting this Soundtrack today.  But, I learned a lot of lessons this week and this song was definitely part of that soundtrack...so...here it is...

This past week, I took my daughter to voice lessons.  Since we homeschool, we get to go during school hours, and it's a bit of a field trip.  After her lesson, we went to Best Buy and then to the mall.  As we drove around to the back side of the mall (back side to me) I was shocked at all of the remodeling they have done.  It is very nice and they have brought in some upscale stores and restaurants.  I commented to the kids about how nice the mall is now and how maybe we need to visit there a little more often. 

We went in and got the item we needed and left.  As we walked out of the mall, I thought to myself, "What would be the best way to get the kids in the car and keep them safe and what would I do if a carjacker came?" We loaded up in the car and we were fine and I sighed with relief!  Why would I think something like that you ask?  Well, I was raised by the parents of four daughters...they taught us a lot about how to be safe.  Not to mention that I know this mall is NOT the safest area of town!

I had promised the kids that I would take them to get a donut...big treat for us.  As I drove, I decided to take the long way to get there.  As we entered the parking lot, I scanned it and took mental note that there were several spots close to the donut shop. I also noticed that there were not many cars in the lot and there was a group of maybe 5 people standing around the hood of one car laughing and joking.  They were dressed in business attire and were holding fountain sodas, men and women.  We parked the car and I got out.

The rest of this happened in a very short amount of time (seconds), but I will relay my thoughts and what happened, so it may seem longer.  As I stepped out I heard a man's voice yelling "GET DOWN! GET DOWN!" I started to crouch by the side of my car and looked around and saw two men with guns running toward my car!  One had a large rifle and the other a hand gun...I looked for uniforms and they had none.  They were about two spaces away from my car on the passenger side (my son tells me it was really three spaces...either way, it was too close).  I jumped back in my car, hit the locks and struggled to get the keys in the ignition.  All I could say, over and over was "Oh NO! OH NO! OH NO!"  In my mind, a crime had gone down and gone bad somehow and these men were looking for hostages.  My only thoughts were how I was going to get out of there safely with my kids.  My oldest daughter had been looking at her music from voice lessons and so she had not opened the door to get out and hadn't seen anything.She said, "What Mom?  What is it?"  I could hear my baby girl saying, "What happened mom?  I help you!" I heard a short siren and looked to my left to see police cars and undercover police cars everywhere.  They were surrounding me!  I was very relieved, but would have preferred to be able to leave.  I looked back to where the men with guns were to see that they now had a man on the ground with their guns pointed at him.  I have never felt so much relief in my life!  The men with the guns were the good guys!  I started to cry.  I really don't think I have ever been that afraid in my life.  I then wondered if the group of people were undercover cops and saw that THEY were crouching on the ground looking at the cops to find out if it was safe.

One of the cops saw that I was crying and slowly...ever so slowly came over to see if I was okay.  I told him that I was fine, but I had just seen men with guns and didn't know that they were the good guys.  He helped get the police cars moved out of my way so I could get out. 

Part of me (a small part) has wondered what happened and why the man was being arrested.  The other part of me is really glad I don't know!

I told my husband that night that it was pretty ironic that I had been thinking earlier about how nice the mall is now and that we should go there more often, but within minutes that changed to not wanting to ever go there again!!  The instant I said the word IRONIC, this song came to mind.  And the donut?  We didn't really need one after all!!

Go check it out...

The post at TDD today is not my first post, but it is my first post that I wrote specifically to be part of the daily posts...haha...does that even make sense???  Anyway, there is some pretty good information there (if I don't say so myself).

Have a GREAT day!! 

Soundtrack Sunday 42

This song was one of my first songs that I purchased when I got my iPod 2 years ago.  I was just cruising around on iTunes looking for some fun songs for my kids when I found this one.  It just makes me happy!  It makes me want to dance and it makes me feel like I can do anything...move mountains I guess, just like the song says!  My favorite line is..."look in the mirror, your moppy hair is a crazy site to see!"---makes me giggle inside each time I hear it! Enjoy the song and have a happy day!

Inspired

I have had conversations with several people this week (over the phone and face-to-face) about time and what we fill it with.  During some of those conversations, blogs were discussed and we talked about what we like about the blogs we regularly read.  One thing is true...they are inspiring..  The blogs I look forward to reading are the ones that make me want to be a better person.  I read THIS post by Janet last week and have thought about it a lot!  That list that Janet made...that's what I want too!  One of the people I was talking with said that post of Janet's was probably the most inspiring thing she has ever read on a blog, I agree.  The other person said that it moved her to tears.  It made me want to be a better person...better mom...better wife.  So, go read it and be INSPIRED! 

Soundtrack Sunday 41

A few years ago I was asked to volunteer and help out at church in a way that was surprising to me because of my age and the age of my children.  I was asked to help be responsible for a geographical area of girls 12-18 and their leaders which totaled about 200.  I was asked to serve with 3 other women and together we were referred to as the Stake Young Women's Presidency.  We planned many, many activities for the teen age girls and their leaders.  We got to see many, many miracles.  We saw how much the Lord loves these girls and the people that give up their time to help them and mentor them.  The women that I worked with were truly kindred spirits and eternal friendships were formed. 

When we were first asked to do this, I didn't really know any of the other women, but something magical happens as you cook, clean, plan, cry, and pray together on behalf of these girls.  We quickly began to learn each others strengths and talents.  As we were planning, we knew what each person would take care of and what each would be best at.  We knew that together we could move mountains...and move mountains we did!! 

We had only been serving together a very short time when we had to plan and throw a New Year's Eve party and dance for all of the boys and girls in the 14-18 year age range.  We invited youth groups from the surrounding area and...if I remember right, we were planning nachos, hot dogs, sodas, and cookies for about 350 teens.  It was that night that we also started calling ourselves "The Dancing Queens" a few months later the same song with different lyrics became "The Camping Queens" as we helped put on a week long camp for the girls. 

When my husband became sick and I was struggling to keep a pregnancy, changes were necessary.  I always said that the only reason I was okay with not being able to serve with these women was because I was going to get a long-awaited baby out of it!  Then, as time went on,  people moved away and other changes were made.  But, lucky for me, I was just recently asked to help head up the summer camp  planning and get to work with one of those sweet ladies again!!! 

I cannot hear this song without thinking of those sweet women and all of the wonderful memories we had together.  Laughing so hard that we literally cried and sometimes crying so hard we couldn't talk.  All the time getting to see the Lord's hand in so many things and so many lives...what a wonderful, wonderful blessing!  How fun to have the Camping Queens be able to come full circle!

We are live!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  I have stayed up waaaaay beyond my normal bedtime and ushered in the New Year.  But, more exciting than that is my BIG news about this new site!!  I have been honored to be able to work with Janet on this project and I am soooo very excited about it!  I was fortunate to meet Janet almost a year ago while vacationing in her "neck of the woods"...or what used to be anyway.  She is an amazing person, scrapper, mom, and wife and I am thrilled to be working with her!

For several months now, I have been wanting to find a way to easily share what I know about the ins and outs of the digital scrapping community with people.  I have wanted so badly to be able to HELP people be able to scrap!  My poor friend that has had to listen to me talk about this so often over the past few months.  When Janet emailed to tell me about her project, I felt like a prayer had been answered and I was going to be able to see a part of my heart come to life...the fact that Janet used one of my fonts for the site design, was just icing!  

So, if you have been wanting to learn how to digiscrap on any level...if it's just to put a quick album together or really learn the ins and outs of Photoshop, head on over there and you will find some information to help.  There is something there for everyone!  The idea is that we will be bringing the information TO YOU in little bits each day, so you can spend more time with your family making memories!!! :)