Trying Something New

I have been home alone all day, and I am pretty bored. I washed, dried and folded 3 loads of laundry, did the dishes, took care of a sick kid, and graded a stack of papers. After doing that I decided to play on my laptop. I have been trying to find a website that I like to store my photos on that I can also use to post them on my blogsite. I think after trying several, I still like Photobucket the best. It has a lot more features than I originally thought, and I have been pleased with it since Aunt Patti showed it to me last year. I do still like DropShots, though because it is so easy to upload the pics AND they give you a tag for all the thumbnails of the photos. So, I guess for now it is a toss up between the two. I have pics posted at both sites. While I was uploading some pics to PhotoBucket, I saw an ad for Flock...which I originally thought was just their Uploading Tool so you could upload more like DropShots. Well, it is and it isn't. It is more of a web browser. It had some features that I thought would be cool....like it said you can drag your photo into the Comments box on Blogger and post pics in your comments. Well, that sounded fun to me, and neat....but alas it doesn't work. Every time I do it, I get the message that My HTML cannot be accepted. I don't have a clue how to make it acceptable, because I have tried several things, but the point was for it to be easy, and if I have to do something else to make it work....it's not easy! So, I am posting this blog entry through Flock to see how easy that is and whether or not it is worth keeping Flock running on my computer. I am leaning towards getting rid of it, but I just wanted to try this out first. It also said I could post pics onto Facebook, which really sounded good, because that is some slow uploading, but I cannot figure that one out yet either. There is one more option for me to try on it, but I don't think it will make it worth me keeping it. If any of you have any ideas about any of this (hint hint, Michael--my bestest big brother ever) let me know your thoughts.

My Date

Last night Ben and I had the opportunity to go out on a much needed date. The church was offering free babysitting from 6-11 p.m., so we decided to take advantage of that. We both dressed nice and set out to spend time together. Now, remember that Longview is a small town without many options of things to do for a date, so it was basically dinner and a movie...but in the opposite order. Once we arrived at the theater we realized that our options for movies were limited also, and since we don't watch horror flicks and weren't interested in either of the 2 children's movies that were playing, we ended up watching the wonderful and terribly realistic Ghostrider. I must say that this is a movie that definitely should be watched only on TV, because the commercials that would come on intermittently during the show would be the best part of it. Of course, there were memorable lines from the show...."You are alright?"
"Yeah, I'm good. I feel like my skull is on fire, but I'm good." Also, the caretaker calls him Bonehead....really clever for a guy whose skull is his head. Or this one..."I'm the only one who can walk in both worlds. I'm Ghost Rider." Ooh....that got me motivated to want to watch him kick some demon butt. After the movie we went to eat at the Outback. We picked it because we hadn't been there in a while and because it is relatively quiet. We normally would have picked the Roadhouse, but we didn't want to be in all that noise. Our service at Outback was terrible for the first time ever and the food wasn't that great. BUT, Ben and I had a great time just talking and laughing without having to tell kids to stop fighting, or wipe up a spilled drink. We picked the kids up about 10:30 and then headed home. Cole was complaining about his finger hurting because he bent it playing basketball. I just dismissed it as a bruised finger and a tired boy, so I told him to go to sleep and he would feel better in the morning. Didn't I say the same thing to him 2 weeks ago about his eye? I was wrong then, and I was wrong this time too! I have got to stop saying that!! He woke up with a swollen, purple finger and he refused to bend it or touch it. After talking with the doctor on the phone, we decided it was probably jammed and now he has two fingers taped together to hold them stable. He still won't touch it or use it, but I think it will get better soon.

Ring Around the Rosie

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share PhotosI found this video of my kids singing Ring Around the Rosie. I guess Annalisa was about 1, Jacob-3 and Cole 5. I thought it was cute and wanted to share it with you.

I Love My Husband!

So lately I have had some rough weeks at work, and Ben has been very supportive of me (especially when I stayed home for 2 days and did NOTHING!). I have been thinking lately how very much in love I am with him, and how I am so glad that we are friends too! So many people don't even really like the person they are married to, but I am glad to say that Ben is my best friend. On Friday of this past week he surprised me by sending flowers and a card to my school. He was hoping that if I had had a crappy day it would make me feel better....well, he did a great job! It made me smile and laugh and forget about all the crappiness of the day because I was so happy to be married to someone who thinks about and cares about me....so anyway as we get closer to Valentine's Day, I just want to express my love for the man I married! And Ben, I said it first!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Just a quick post to wish my baby boy a Happy 7th Birthday. We let him pick where he wanted to eat, so it was none other than Chuck E. Cheese! Yay! I was so very excited about that! Then we went to the Marble Slab Creamery for some yummy ice cream. Jacob got quite a few presents from his Aunt Susan and Juan. He also got something from Cole, Annalisa, Mom and Dad. His Nana and Papa sent him balloons and candy to school....who can beat that?? All of friends were jealous! Jacob, who normally frowns, had the biggest smile on his face when I saw him after school today!! I know I went crazy taking pics, but I hope you enjoy at least a few of them!

Jacob's Birthday

Eye Trauma

The sound of the fan kept me sleeping soundly in my bed until another sound awakened me. It sounded like one of my children crying. I looked at the clock...5:00 a.m. I wondered who was crying, and more importantly, why. I got up, slowly walked down the hall and looked in the kids' bedroom. Cole was standing in the middle of the room crying. I asked him what was wrong and he told me something was in his eye. We went into the bathroom where I looked in it and found nothing, but we rinsed it with cold water. I gave him a cold rag to put on it and told him to go back to bed. I figured he had had an eyelash or something in it that irritated it. I thought it would get better if he just rested. He came in my room around 9:00 a.m. and his eye was red and swollen. He was holding it and moaning. I still could find nothing in it. He said it hurt every time he blinked. I am so sensitive that every time I saw him blink and his eye would start to water, mine would too! At about 11:30 a.m. I decided that there was nothing more I could do, so I took him to the E.R. First they asked him to read the eye chart on the wall. He did fine with his left eye, but with his right eye he didn't make it past the 2nd line of large letters. The doctor came in and at first said she thought it was going to be pink eye because of his age. "However," she said, "it could be possible that he scratched his eye while he was sleeping." Apparently, some people don't close their eyes all the way while they are sleeping, and they can cut (scratch) their cornea on their pillowcase or sheet. She had to put some drops in to numb his eye...which burned at first and made him not too happy. Then she put some yellow medicine in and turned off all of the lights. The medicine glowed when under a flashlight and would stick to any part of his eye that was cut/scratched. Sure enough, at the top of his iris there was a cut. So, now that we had a diagnosis, we had to talk about the treatment. They would deaden his eye again (with drops), dilate his pupil (with 2 sets of drops) and paralyze his iris (with drops). Let me tell you that after about the 4th set of drops Cole was telling them "NO". I felt so bad for him. He was in so much pain and so very tired. We got it all done, and his least favorite part is that he has to wear an eye patch. He is very sensitive about things, and I don't think he wants anyone to see his eye patch. The doctor said it should be healed in 24-48 hours, but if not we have to go to an eye doctor. Cole is sleeping soundly on the couch now, thanks to a dose of Tylenol with Codeine. I am not one to take my children to the hospital or doctor for just every little thing, but I am glad I decided to go this one time!

Captivating

Ok....so I copied Michael's idea of his online Bible Study and I made a new blogsite for my Ladies Bible Study: Captivating. If you would like to read my thoughts and share yours with me please visit me at http://captivating-caci.blogspot.com
I hope you get something out of what you read.....but don't expect something new EVERY day!!! Oh, and boys can read too...but just be warned that it is about women and girlie things!

Feeling Froggy

This is just a short post to let you know that Cole has his blogsite back up and running. He has even posted a new entry. If you are interested in viewing what Cole has to say (every once in a while!) go to http://colenewton1.blogspot.com.
He will enjoy reading your "croaks".