Archives for January 2009

A Contest to celebrate you!

Edited to say….
Okay you guys, no one has left not even one comment. And the stuff is free. What’s up? Do you not like them? Are they ugly? Are you all busy? What’s up?

To celebrate you, the weekend, and the wonderful people at Photojojo I’m having a little contest. The winner will be selected at random as soon as some people actually post a comment! So what do you have to do? Tell me where you are going to put these wonderful restickable wall decal photo frames in your home. The winner gets a set free!

Want to know more?
Thought so….
Here’s what Photojojo has to say about them….

Re-stickable Wall Decal Photo Frames
8 retro infinitely re-positionable wall frames.

We have a bit of a thing for simple things that let you change up the photos in your home quickly and without fuss.

After all, who wants to look at the same photos day after day? So it’s no surprise that we’re crushing on Re-Stickable Decal Photo Frames.

Each pack contains eight stylish frames cut from pliable, premium vinyl. (The same material used to make high-quality wall decals.) The low-tack adhesive sticks to your walls or windows but is a cinch to take off and re-apply. And it won’t damage walls or paint.

Tired of the photos you put up? Just peel your sticker frame off the wall and slip in a new one. Want to move a frame to another room? It’s just as easy.

It’s the fastest way to frame your photos.

8 frames of various sizes included
Removable, reusable
Safe for all kinds of walls
Rearrange anytime, swap in new photos in seconds
Room diagram included for help planning
Sizes include: 4×4, 4×6 (four), 5×7 (two), 8×10

To view these full size just click here! Then come back and post a comment here.
(US Residents Only)

Hey, thanks for entering!

(Contest sponsored by PHOTOJOJO)

9 Comments

Posted: January 29, 2009 by Julie |Category: Uncategorized | Tags:

To Thine Own Self Be True

My good buddy, Scooper, has an interesting post you should read about self discovery. She’s witty and funny and she’s really way cooler than she thinks she is. I love her.
Her post got me to thinking about my own self. Is anyone out there struggling with homeschooling this time of year? Oh it’s a chore right now for me. I tell myself all the right things…
– enjoy your children
– be grateful, some women must work
– love each day as God gives it to you
But there are times that all this just feels overwhelming. And like Scooper said in her post I GOT NOTHIN….well, I got nothing.
No extra energy.
No motivation.
No drive.
No get up and go.
Nothing to share or give.
NOTHING.
I got nothing.
Life has presented it’s own set of challenges for our family as of late. Rocket Man has a new job. It’s stressful but keeps him home at night. He’s worked out of our home for 10 years. I miss him during the day.
I wonder what my kids think when they look at me. I’m certainly not all sparkly and shiny right now. Loving? Not sure that word qualifies either.
So here I am.
Words of encouragement? wisdom? advice?
Any one have a sweet vacation spot in Maui and want to watch 4 kids for a week?
I’m open to suggestions…..

4 Comments

Posted: January 27, 2009 by Julie |Category: Parenting | Tags:

Just One Question

Well, I had two but now I can’t remember what the second one was…..

I’m looking for the perfect pot holder. Most of them I despise! They’re too thick and cumbersome or they don’t keep heat out.

Anybody have one they LOVE?? Where did you get it? What does it look like?

Please share.

1 Comment

Posted: January 25, 2009 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

White Balance Lens Cap

Have you guys seen this nifty new toy? I’m hoping to get one for my birthday in March, until then I just have to drool!! This photo was taken from the Photojojo website. Here’s what else they have to say! Priced between $45-$65 it’s a great addition to any camera bag!!!

You may think automatic white balance is good enough. But if you’ve ever had to fix dozens (or even 100s) of photos with just slightly different colors, one-by-one, you know the true meaning of pain.

The White Balance Lens Cap leaves you no excuse for not properly white-balancing every situation you encounter.

Simply flip your camera into custom White Balance mode, snap a photo with your White Balance Lens Cap on, and your camera creates a perfect profile of the actual lighting in front of you.

Best of all, unlike a gray card, the White Balance Cap takes no extra room in your gear bag. Just replace your existing lens cap with this one and you’ll always be able to white balance with no additional equipment.

Squeeze the White Balance Lens Cap’s side tabs for easy attachment or removal, even with a lens hood in place. The center pinch-release mechanism prevents it from accidentally being bumped off, while in your bag or shooting in a crowd.

Each White Balance Lens Cap comes with both a neutral and a warm color dome. Pick whichever you prefer and give all your photos perfectly consistent white balance.

Available for lens thread sizes 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm and 77mm. (Don’t know your thread size? Just check the outer rim or bottom of your lens for one of these numbers.)

Note: You may look a little silly setting your white balance by taking a photo with your lens cap still on, but the results are worth it. We promise.

You can use this link to purchase your very own!
White Balance has never been so easy!!
Have fun!

No Snow…Rats!!!

We were hoping for just a little snow with the cold weather and the moisture heading towards upstate SC but alas…..NONE. It’s so disappointing for the kids (and me).
We’re visiting a homeschool group today called Classical Conversations. Then off to Spanish and a DR appt. Fun day, huh? Did I mention it’s 30 degrees out? COLD.

I know, Janet, it’s like 20 below in WI!
How do people live there??

Have great day before humpday.
Back to school as normal here tomorrow.

1 Comment

Posted: January 20, 2009 by Julie |Category: Happenings | Tags:

Jamestown Figurines

Several of you have asked where I got the plastic Jamestown figurine thingies we were using the other day. They came from Hobby Lobby. I found them at Christmas. There was a tube (yep, tube) of Settlers (complete with John Smith), Indians, and one of a train. There were several others there too but those are the ones I selected.
So get on over to Hobby Lobby and see if they have them!
Check out this interesting and strange photo I downloaded from my camera after the kids had it.
What in the world is it???

I’m thinking they are doing science experiments without me!!!

2 Comments

Posted: January 16, 2009 by Julie |Category: Homeschooling | Tags:

Fred the Rather Large Cat – WINNER and a homeschool lesson

Well the truth about Fred is out!
He’s a hefty…..drum roll please…..

16.7 pounds!

And the winner is Cathy over at At Home On Basket Flat
Cathy, email me with your address and I’ll get your Wendy’s card right out! Hey, and enjoy a frosty on me!!

Nancy, how many chickens you think that will get me??

In other news….
I’m actually posting another homeschool post!
I know, you’re floored!!
Today I had enough energy to do something other than just plain ole school work. So history got acted out with some Christmas toys!!

We’re studying Jamestown and the first 13 colonies. We sang them to the tune of "Happy Birthday to You". And it worked pretty well. We remembered about 5 of them so we’ll practice again tomorrow.

Here are a few snapshots from today…

In our history book Jamestown was originally triangular in shape so we made ours the same way.

Complete with women cooking…

and men working…

Here’s our corral. Pioneer Woman would be proud!

Between the settlement and the woods where the Indians lived there were wild animals. It was a very dangerous time!! (alligators, bears and wild horses)

Here’s the general layout of the land!

Those sticks in the middle? They’re woods!!! The woods separated where the Indians and the Settlers lived.

Here is the Indian camp…

And here is our ship. It’s docked out at sea.

Then we fast forwarded about 200 years or so and added the transcontinental railroad. Notice the similarity of the locomotives from that day (ha!)

It was a great morning.
What did you guys do today??

5 Comments

Posted: January 15, 2009 by Julie |Category: Homeschooling | Tags:

Homeschooling

Wow!
A post actually about homeschooling!!!
What do you know? It is, after all, a homeschooling blog isn’t it???

Before I post the winner of Fred’s weight (aka: find a set of scales) I wanted to share a great tool with you. One of our kids does some tutoring work at Sylvan and he’s come home asking for Versa Tiles!
"What are Versa Tiles, son?"
"Oh mom, they are so cool! I LOVE them!"

Love?
Did I hear the LOVE word?
From my son? About school?
Where is my inhaler?
Anybody have some water?

This one son does not use the words school and love in the same sentence! EVER!!

So, I call my good friends at Sylvan and what do you know? There’s a website. There’s such a bugger called Versa Tiles!
And they are cool! Check it out here!
You can also see how they work HERE!

So here’s a quick version of how they work.

Your child has a a set of tiles and a workbook
They match the number of the question with the letter of the answer. For example: If the the answer to question 1 is "day" then you put the tile number one on letter E (day).

See how each answer has a letter and each question has a number?

If the answer to number 2 is letter B then the tile goes there:

This continues until all the tiles are placed on a letter.

After all the tiles have been placed the child closes the case, flips it over and opens it. Then a pattern is revealed.

If all the colors are together and the pattern matches the one at the end of the page then the child knows he got them all right! See the patterned blocks at the bottom left hand corner of the workbook page?? See how my pattern matches it?

If the pattern doesn’t match then the child knows he got something wrong and reworks the page. It’sawesome, self correcting and wonderful for independent work. They have Versa Tiles for each grade and sets for Math, Science, Kindergarten and Language Arts. Go check out their website!

Gotta run to Spanish…..

4 Comments

Posted: January 13, 2009 by Julie |Category: Homeschooling | Tags:

Times Up!

There has been a few good guesses on Fred’s weight. Now I have to figure out how to weigh him. Hmmm…
Any suggestions?
I have a postal scale but don’t think that is going to get it, do you??

Even my sister put in her vote! Yea Sis!!!
(I miss you)

Baby girl had a friend over to spend the night and I got a few photos of them outside. I had my shutter speed a little slow so a lot did not come out well but here’s a few from the other day.

I’m wondering if I’m brave enough to post a picture of myself and have you guess my weight…….

Nah……
Bad idea!

So here’s baby girl.

I babysat a friend’s kids today and then another friend came over with her 3 (for moral support) so we had 11 kids running around today. Thankfully, no one got hurt, died, or needed to go to the ER. That’s a good day!!

My hubbie started a new job today. He said it was like the first day of school. Wonder if he had to remember a locker combination? That always freaked me out. I still have dreams about not being able to remember mine!

There are probably doctors for that, huh?

I’ve kinda gotten tired of referring to my husband as hubbie here so in honor of his new job he is now officially “Rocket Man”!

He’s in the aerospace field now!

I’ll announce the contest winner tomorrow.
Hmmmm…..I can smell the chili!

2 Comments

Posted: January 12, 2009 by Julie |Category: Uncategorized | Tags:

Fred the Rather Large Cat

(subtitle…..What happens When the Kids Get the Camera)

Well old Nance and I were chatting via email and blogs the other day about trading chickens for cats and she felt as if she needed a more accurate photograph of Fred the Rather Large Cat. So, because I’m the obliging kinda gal, I’ve include a few more pictures to go along with my last post about Fred.

And because this is feeling sorta “contesty” the person who can most accurately guess Fred’s weight gets a $5 gift card to Wendy’s for some yummy chili and a frosty or whatever you really want. (Mom, here’s a chance to win back that card!)

Oh, and about the subtitle…..
All these shots except the first were taken by my kids. See, we have two camera’s in the house (hey, I’m down from three!) and the smallest (A Fuji Finepix that I love!) gets stolen from my purse quiet often and I’m never quite sure what’s going to show up when I stick the card into the computer.

Tomorrow? More of What Happens When the Kids get the Camera!

Contest rules:
There are none. Just guess. The person the closest without going over wins! Remember to leave an email or something so I can get in touch with you. We’ll run this for a day or two.
By the way, I have no idea how much he weighs and we have no scales so I’ll be borrowing some for the contest!! Anyone have a set of scales??? I’ll need them to settle the matter of the winner!

The full side/frontal view of Fred:

The “from the back and side view” compliments of whoever had the camera this day:

We’ll call this one “Cat licks my toe” shot:

And the “If you look at me this way I really do look kinda skinny” shot:

Happy Guessing!!!
IN HIM…