IT'S A NEW WEEK!

My friend Irene sends me the COOLEST emails! So many of them have incredible pictures or messages. This one is about a woman in Louisianna with hummingbirds eating out of her hand. And you can click on her website for a little more information.

Then check out It is the Veteran...

Just wanted to explain the "peace sign" in the photo of Nathan and Jared with Lincoln Brewster from the last post. He told them to do that and a couple other hand movements in a song that he sang at his concert. True peace can't be found apart from God...

Let the Praises Ring that he sang at the concert.

Oh Lord my God in You I put my trust
Oh Lord my God in You I put my hope
Oh Lord my God in You I put my trust
Oh Lord my God in You I put my hope

In You, in You I find my peace
In You, in You I find my strength
In You I live and move and breathe
Let everything I say and do
Be founded by my faith in You
I lift up holy hands and sing
Let the praises ring!

Oh Lord my God to You I give my hands
Oh Lord my God to You I give my feet
Oh Lord my God to You I give my everything
Oh Lord my God to You I give my life

Had a very nice weekend with Jim's mom. We just hung out at home, but the weather was gorgeous! NOT typical of April here in the Northeast! It's been more like late May! The buds are bursting on the trees, and it won't be long before we can't see the strip mall on the other side of the creek behind our house! Gotta love that! And it won't be long before we're smelling the sweet scent of LILACS! Call them weeds if you want, but to me they're beautiful flowers that God made for little boys to pick for their mamas! Yep, I mean dandelions! Here's Owen with Jim's mom. She's trying to show him to to pick way down on the stem, because he was picking off just the top!

Some cute pictures of Nathan & Jared from the past...


Until next time...

blessings, joie

Photos from the Past

Greetings!

I recently was able to use my scanner again, and I've had a blast scanning TONS of pictures -- old and not so old! Here is a picture from the distant past. This is my maternal great-grandfather, Rudolph, (my mother's mother's father) in his younger days. He was born in 1875, so I'm guessing this is right around the turn of the century. I just love photos like these! We have several that we can't identify -- other than "family back in Hungary" -- but I'm thankful to be able to identify many of them like this one.

Great-Granpa G.

And here is a photo from the recent past -- last Sunday to be exact. This is Nathan & Jared with singer, songwriter and worship leader, Lincoln Brewster. Doesn't he have a great name?! The concert was very uplifting and very much focused on the Lord. It was pretty loud for this old mother of 46, but I'm really happy we went. The boys, of course, loved it! Jim stayed home with Owen and "did something special".

Lincoln Brewster with N & J
...finding true peace in God

I have to share something cute that Owen said. Rewind back to Jared's birthday, February 16th: After crying when we gave the Lincoln Brewster tickets to N & J, Daddy promised to do "something special" with Owen the night of the concert. Fast forward to last Sunday afternoon: Owen says at the dinner table "I have a idea! We can go to the playgwound and then get some melted icecream and bring it back home and eat it!!" Icecream is too cold for his liking, so if he eats it at all, he'll wait until it's kind of melted! THAT will have to go on a scrapbook page!!

A couple fairly new scrapbook pages...

Jared & Owen last summer in our dandelion field!

These pages are much brighter in person -- don't know why
my camera took such dull pictures of the scrapbook pages...

Love this picture of Owen at 18 months.

That's it for today! I'll try to post more often.

blessings, joie

BACK...

I can't believe that it's been exactly a month since I last posted. I'm not really sure why... Life is pretty "normal" here. I recently did some room rearranging -- again! It seems that as the boys grow, I have to find different ways to make our small home functional. Upstairs is pretty set with Nathan & Jared in one room and Owen in the other -- and of course Jim and I in the third room. So it's the downstairs that has changed a lot over the years. A few days ago, the boys and I moved our computer and main desk area BACK to the main living area. This isn't the biggest reason, but it frees up space in our "office" for me to scrapbook! Again, I have to reorganize my supplies and workspace so I can get something done other than THINK and daydream about scrapbooking!

It's good to be back! I plan to write more tomorrow and include lots of photos...

I'll leave you with this old photo that I found in my husband's magnetic photo album. He's in 7th or 8th grade sitting on the FREEDOM TRAIN in '76!
blessings, joie

Happy Birthday Nathan & Jared

We had the boys' birthday party with family and neighbors last Sunday. It was a fun time with loud conversation... that's typical of me and the women of my family. We're loud!! The boys received the model train set that they wanted, plus gift cards for bowling & Subway, a cool MarbleWorks set from Discovery Toys, 20 Questions games, and cash for spending!

McKinley Explorer by Bachmann

20q games

Trying to clean up my scrapbook area, so I have to go!

blessings, joie

SO BUMMED!

I'm UNHAPPY to report that Winkflash has changed their pricing. Prints are now .08 instead of .12. That sounds great, HOWEVER, the special .99 shipping (for 4x6 prints) is discontinued and regular shipping charges apply. I have 65 pictures in my "shopping cart" on Winkflash. With the new shipping rates, each photo averages out to .18/picture. I'm so sad; I really loved ordering from them! If I get my prints done at Walmart -- which I have before, and I liked the quality, it'll be cheaper! Going to pick up pictures is more of a hassle for me. I will be looking elsewhere and will let you know if I find any bargains on line for mail deliveries! I'm really bummed!

Yesterday was my birthday, and the boys made me a cake.

They managed to squeeze in over 30 candles (I'm 46, by the way)

love the Magic Splash coloring system!

me with Nathan (almost 11)

Yesterday, we went to the airport because it was so sunny and nice -- okay it was barely in the 40's but it was still nice compared to what it has been! We also stopped at JoAnn, and I bought DCWV's (Die Cuts With a View) The Stack 5. I LOVE the paper! It's 180 sheets (3 each of 60) for a sale price of $9.99 -- that's 50% off, which is a pretty regular sale. I need it like I need a root canal, but it was a birthday gift from me to ME! All papercrafting supplies are 40% off besides, so I bought a set of chipboard letters as well.

Today the boys were playing outside in t-shirts. The high is supposed to reach 47. You or I wouldn't go without a jacket, but THEY would! CRAZY! By Sunday, the boys' birthday party day, it'll be 29 for the high! So winter is NOT over yet!


Until next time...
blessings, joie

UPDATE: I just checked Walmart's photo website, and prints are now as low as $.09 each! I'm guessing that that's for pick up in-store, couple days. I guess that's the best way to go for me. Even with tax added, it's still a better value. If I pick them up while already out running errands, it won't cost me gas money!

2nd UPDATE: I was mistaken. If you order them to pick up in the Walmart store, the price is .15 each. The .09 price is for home delivery, and there's shipping added to that. No deals there. It still comes out cheaper than winkflash though...

BABY'S GOT BLUE EYES

I LOVE this! The blue eyes just make this a FABULOUS picture! It's such a cool thing! THIS is the picture that I wanted to do the Magic Splash kinda thing with since last May -- before I even knew about Magic Splash (which I learned about 2 days ago!! Check it out!

OWEN under santa hat

blessings, joie

This is SO COOL!

I stumbled across this website last night -- Magic Splash. You can change your photos from color to B&W with COLOR! I realize that my pictures aren't perfect, as I got a little sloppy with the mouse, and I don't know if I can erase my mistakes (takes practice!). It is SO COOL! It cost me only $14.95 to alter unlimited photos! The regular price is $19.95 -- don't know how long the $5 coupon is for. In the picture of Owen and the blue sock, -- Owen has one white sock on and one blue sock on. It was cute enough in color, but this makes the blue sock stand out even more!! Did I mention this is SO COOL?!



I have always wished I could do this, but the photo editing program I have is very limited. Now I won't need to spend a large amount of money on expensive PE programs! WOO-HOO!

blessings, joie