You Are Loved (Don't Give Up) - Debbie West Coon & Justin Williams
I just love the passion in this song. I could just listen to it over and over.
(did you see him wink at her at min 3:31?)
::sigh::
~a
update: I purchased a copy for my Itunes here. Only 99 cents.
While writing the last post on Christmas Surprises, I had trouble downloading pictures, placing them where I wanted them and getting the text to go to the right spot. As a result, I hit publish before I was ready. So in order to see the whole post, if you are reading this from a Reader, you will have to click on my site and go read the whole thing. I started writing this at 10:30 pm, and didn't actually finish it until 12:15. Almost two hours.
The way blogger works right now is it downloads your pictures while you wait. It used to download them in the background and suddenly pop up at the top of your blog. As annoying as this was, I think I much prefer it to just drumming your fingers as you wait for it to download all your pictures with no way of editing or writing.
So I got clever and clicked a new window open and began to write the text for the blog. But the bad part was, it didn't save any of my text, and therefore I had to go back when the other one was finished and try to remember what I had written. Also I clicked publish before all the pictures were approved or clicked on, so I lost all those that had downloaded. The new blog program allows you to chose where each picture goes, and click OK with each one. I was just trying to get them all on, then insert text, but that is not so easy either.
As I downloaded the pictures one more time, I clicked on a new window, and started a brand new post. Calling this one "2"
When the other one finished downloading the pictures, I clicked back and forth, copy/pasting the text into the original post. Then I deleted "2".
Had I been extra clever, I could have just renamed the post and deleted the one that was giving me fits, and it wouldn't have shown up in your reader or your email.
Now you will have to be inconvienenced and go to the original post or you will miss out on a fun post. Sorry
~a
Some things I have been waiting to blog on were Christmas Surprises, and I had to wait to post them until after everyone opened their gifts.
Now that Christmas is over, I can share what I gave the grandchildren.
Earlier this year, I was talking to one grand daughter on the phone. She always asks for stories of when I was a little girl. The one I shared with her that day was about my ZB. We used to share a room, but after a while I moved to a different one. We were so close, that we would miss each other, and after bedtime we would call each other on toy phones. They looked just like the real Princess phones, but these had batteries and real wires to connect them to each other. We would talk into the night. I cannot imagine what we talked about, because we had spent the day with one another, but we managed to chat almost every night on our Princess Phones. My grand daughter expressed a wish to own a toy telephone, and my idea began to sprout.
After searching the internet, I found some fun phone/walkie talkies. But when they arrived, they didn't seem so spectacular, so another idea began to bubble.
Earlier in the year, I had admired some darling Cupcake Totes made by fellow blogger, Suzanne at Just Another Hangup. I managed to find a pattern for these totes and ordered it. Suzanne sells some of the most darling Cupcake totes in her etsy shop.
As with most patterns, I decided to change it a little. Suzanne had mentioned she narrowed the bottom sides to give it more of a cupcake shape rather than a square shape. I did that, plus I added a magnetic snap to mine.
The phones came with a place to put in a picture of yourself plus interchangeable face plates. I acquired pictures of all the children and inserted them inside. On the outside, I inserted a piece of fabric from their purse.
For the boys, I made little pouches that hang from their belt loops and the fabric matches the pouch. For some of the boy's I used some fabric I had used in baby blankets I had given them. Others got dinosaurs.
I'd like to do my part. For one week I will donate all of my proceeds of a number of items in my Etsy Shop to relief efforts in Haiti. I can't go there in person to help, but I can pledge to assist in my own unique way. One hundred percent of the proceeds from my designated Etsy sales will be donated to an organization that charges no overhead and where 100% of your donation will go toward humanitarian efforts in Haiti. You can be assured that your money will be put to good use, and you'll receive a little something in return from my Etsy shop for your generosity.
I'm published.
I've always wanted to say that. I am a wannabe author, and would LOVE to write a book that is so compelling that it becomes the hit. Kind of like Harry Potter, or Twilight. I look at those authors, and say to myself, they were once just ordinary people, like me, but something compelled them to tell a story, and unlike me, they possessed a talent to tell it.
That's not the case with me. My words that made it to a book were few. Six to be exact.
About a year or so ago, I saw a challenge online, to tell a story about myself in six words. The first thing that came to my mind was my first daughter's birth, and that's what I wrote. In order to submit those six words, I had to fill out a form with my name and email. Which I did.
I promptly forgot about it until about 6 months later when I got an email telling me that my submission was being considered for the next book, and would I give them permission? Which I did. Then I forgot about it again until last November when I got an invitation to come to their grand opening, or whatever it is you do to celebrate the printing of a book. (that's how close to becoming an author I am, I don't even know the terminology. heh) I checked out the location, and wrote back, thanked them, but I couldn't possibly travel to New York to read my six words. But I did find out the name of the new book. It All Changed in an Instant - More Six-Word Memoirs.
So now it is published and for sale on Amazon. I got one more email asking for my address so they could send me my copy of the book. Which just came in the mail.
How nice.
I got a copy of the book.
I thought it would be one of those things they do with the High School students when they tell you that your son or daughter just got nominated to be in the Who's Who of High School Students. What an honor, you think! But when it all comes down to it, it is just a book filled with a list of names of youth in High School. And it cost $50 to possess your own copy. It felt like a scam, but I dutifully purchased the copies for my children who were honored at first.But after the third one, I asked the other kids if this means anything to them, and the younger ones turned them down. (thanks kids)
I thought this would be the same kind of thing. But it wasn't, at least the part about selling you a book containing your name.
After it arrived, I eagerly opened the package and began to read.
As I read everyone else's entries, I found that many of them did not even pertain to the title. But there were some who fit. For example:
"Sentences got shorter. Suddenly became novelist." Jessica Anthony
or
"Eye punctured. Soul window forever broken." Michelle Morales
I found my entry on page 8.
"Sent home. Baby born in bathtub."
So that is my claim to fame.
I hope you are having a wonderful day.
~a
Lately I just discovered her Blog. She had made a comment on my blog and told me she had a surprise for me. I am not sure of the significance of the words Ultimate MeMe Award, but the words she said about me were very humbling and touching. Thanks Bowbie. You are a sweetheart and I love you.
Last, but not least, I want to express gratitude for all the grandchildren. This little guy is our newest edition. Such a beautiful little boy. He reminds me of his dad. Look at all that hair! I am constantly in awe of the parents of these beautiful grandchildren, (my children and their spouses) 
I feel SO Rich!
I have been on the receiving end of some giveaways lately and I would be most ungrateful if I didn't post about them.
The first was during a contest put on by Quiltmaker, the magazine. It is an amazing magazine with many wonderful patterns and quilting suggestions. You were supposed to go to each of the blogs of the talented quilt designers who had made the Quiltmakers 100 Blocks, and make a comment on their blog, or follow their specific rules. One of the quilt designers, Dodi Poulsen requested we send her our information in an email. I got such a cute response from her in an email just a day after I had entered her contest.
Hi Annie of Blue Gables-I was so amazed at this sweet act. I wrote back and told her of the two I was choosing, also told her that my three son's wives had all expecting a baby, (and one had been born that very day) She wrote back to tell me that her daughter Meg (the creator of Little Londyn) was excited about the baby and decided to put two of her patterns in the mix as well.
Can I just say how much I love your e-mail address? It is so adorable, I wish it were mine!
I just want to let you know how much I enjoyed your e-mail this morning. It really set my day off to a great start. I haven’t answered any of the other 200 e-mails…oh my goodness, we had no idea! But I wanted to take a moment to send a note to you.
Your was particularly touching to me-
1st my favorite roommate from college was from (your home town) and I spent many a weekend from Utah State down there. That brought back memories that I hadn’t thought of for some time. (this was many years ago mind you!)
2nd I loved the quote at the bottom of your e-mail. I suppose I wish I were as brave as you to be able to post that at the bottom of an e-mail to someone who I did not know.
(-- The Lord has two homes: Heaven and a Grateful Heart. ~Thomas S. Monson)
Thank you for sharing your that thought… I gave the quote to my friend who is RS Pres and she immediately put it in her RS newsletter this week. I teach Gospel Doctrine and am planning on using it as a start for my lesson.(squeee! I guess she is LDS too! ::happy dance::)
SO, there- you have inspired us today! As a token of my appreciation I am going to send you my personal copy I just received of the magazine…shhhh…don’t tell anyone!(I guess it's OK by now, since the contest is over) And I want you to go onto our website and choose 2 patterns that might interest you, either from Two Sisters or Little Londyn . I will get them off to you ASAP.
Thanks again for being you!
My Best,
Dodi
These note cards are so beautiful. How did she know I LOVED note cards. I will have to use one to send her a thank you note.
I'm not sure what this is made of, but it is so beautiful and stands alone. I will hang it on my tree now. Kim doesn't realize it, but that bow matches the velvet ribbon that is on the tree!
And speaking of Kim and shoes: a funny but small-world story. Most recently, Calamity Kim asked for a Volunteer Elf to test a pattern she wants to put on Etsy. I guess I didn't realize it was the SAME Kim whose contest I won. I answered her call, by asking a question about them. She sent me a pattern, and I felt like, even with Christmas rush, I needed to give back and do this for her. But I didn't realize that the person I was giving back to was indeed the very person whose box arrived in the mail the next day! So here is a picture of those darling baby shoes whose pattern I tested. By the way, the blanket this was photographed on was from another sweet lady in Blogland. I had joined her Pay It Forward blog and she sent me the blanket, then right after that I won a giveaway she had for the purple checkbook cover, which I use ALL THE TIME.
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