Giveaway winner

Congratulations, Sherri! You are the winner of the 18x24 poster print giveaway! In the next few days, you'll receive an email from UPrinting with a link to claim your prize.

Overheard: Does everything have a food reference?

Josiah [explaining his ideal day of meals]: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, snack, and dessert!

There have been times he has suggested that we have breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, supper, snack, and bedtime snack. It's no wonder he's growing so quickly...

~~~~~

Josiah [after I accidentally put salsa on his tortilla]: Awww...I didn't want salsa.

Me: Oh, yeah--you're not much of a salsa person.

Josiah [nodding vigorously]: I'm more of a cake person!

~~~~~

After his first math lesson involving Venn diagrams:

Me: Now, what is this called?

Josiah [shaking his head, and completely serious]: I don't know...a canoli-gram?

~~~~~

Click here to enter my giveaway for an 18x24 poster print of one of your digital prints! Hurry--this giveaway ends March 30th!

Overheard: Birthdays

Me: I've heard that little song so many times, I've had it in my head all day.

Jason: What, the "Happy Birthday" song?

Grrr...that's not what I meant! I was referring to the little (and, fortunately, not annoying) song this cute My Little Pony toy sings:


~~~~~

Grace: Mommy, I think you should go to your Secret Sister's house, take a picture of her, and put it on the blog!

Well, I can't do that, with her being secret and all, but I can put photos of what she gave me on the blog:

My very first Edible Arrangement!

Everything was wonderfully delicious! And isn't this the best-looking pineapple you've ever seen?!


On top of that, I also got a generous LifeWay gift card! Thank you, Secret Sister! :)

~~~~~

Click here to enter my giveaway for an 18x24 poster print of one of your digital prints! Hurry--this giveaway ends March 30th!

You Capture: A Moment

Be sure to see the details on my giveaway for an 18x24 poster print at the bottom of this post!

Wow...it's been a really long time since I've participated in the You Capture photo challenge hosted by Beth at I Should be Folding Laundry. I started thinking about this week's challenge, though, and immediately some photos I'd taken this week came to mind. (And I'm working backwards on this, since I found out the theme of "A Moment" just today...)

The first moment that came to mind was this one, taken as the kids and I left comfortably spaced out in our "new" minivan to run errands:


As I thought more about the theme of "A Moment," however, another moment came to mind. This moment happened on Tuesday, when my friend Kathy and I went to a web-based communications class in Duluth at the Georgia Baptist Missions and Ministry Center. First, there was the moment depicted on the ceiling of the Old Covenant Lobby as we first walked into the building...Creation.


(I wish now that I'd gotten more photos of that one.)

In the moment we approached the elevators to go to our floor, we spotted the ceiling of the New Covenant Room with a beautiful replica of the globe.

North America

South America

Asia

Africa

Australia

It only takes a moment to make a decision to accept Jesus' sacrifice for us...

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

Click here to read more about the mural artist, Frank Murphy. There is a video on Murphy's mural here as well.


Click here to enter my giveaway for an 18x24 poster print of one of your digital prints! This giveaway ends March 30th.

Our newest addition to the family

After a careful search, van fever, and saving up the cash (not in that order), I am quite pleased to announce the arrival of our new addition...


This was taken as I was following Jason home after the purchase. Better photos coming soon... :)

Click here to enter my giveaway for a professionally printed 18x24 poster print! This giveaway ends March 30th.

Giveaway: Customized 18x24 poster (CLOSED)

How would you like to have a favorite digital photo made into a professionally printed 18" x 24" poster?




All you have to do is leave a comment to win a photo enlargement poster print from UPrinting.com!

UPrinting does a fantastic job with the entire online printing process. Whether or not you have ever worked with a company to print online, I can wholeheartedly recommend UPrinting! I have already had two photos enlarged with poster print offers from UPrinting that I used as Christmas gifts for my children, and they loved them! This is what's in Josiah's room:


This is what's in Robert's room, where I used a photo he took at a car show with a little lot of PhotoShopping to personalize it for him, including a tag with his favorite band, Family Force 5:


I will also receive an 18x24 poster print for hosting this giveaway. My husband has great plans for using the poster print to promote the Children's Church ministry at our church.

The details:

• 18x24 Poster Print for One (1) Winner
• Paper Stock: High Gloss or Semi Gloss
• Specifications: 1 Business Day Turnaround
• Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
• Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only; ages 18 years and older
  

To enter to win, leave a comment on what you plan to do with the custom poster print! If you subscribe to my blog posts by email or by feed, leave an additional comment for a total of two chances to win. Your second comment can be as simple as "I get your email." (Want to receive my blog posts in your inbox? Click here and enter your email address when prompted.) When you leave a comment, make sure I have your email address. I don't necessarily see your email address when you leave a comment, and I must have your email address if you are selected as the winner!

I will select a winner from the comments at 9:00 p.m. on March 30, 2010. Prizes will be awarded via a coupon-coded link emailed to the winner.

What would you have printed as a poster? Leave a comment and let me know!

Comments are now closed.

Van Fever

We are currently looking to buy a fantastically low-priced and fantastically well-taken care of minivan. Clearly, we have very reasonable expectations. I didn't even mention low mileage...

But I could.

I'm wishing the whole van purchasing process could be sped up even more after today. Today the kids and I went grocery shopping after lunch time. Today is the day before Spring officially starts. And it was hot.

No, not really hot--not as hot as it's going to get soon enough. But it was hot enough to make me remember how it was last summer in the car with no air conditioning and Grace's car seat that is black and already eliciting squeals of "Too hot!! Too hot!!" from her as soon as her bum hits the seat. (I've started keeping a towel over her car seat again, so now it's covered.)

On Saturday, we took a minivan we were interested in buying to have it checked out by a mechanic friend, who promptly told us to run from this one about the wreck the van had been in and how things weren't aligned properly because of the wreck, etc. However, while the trip to check out the van was a bust, I managed to get a very interesting photo.

This is a tree I spotted as we drove to the van owner's home. I took the photo on the way back while Jason was driving the van. There was no one behind me and I slowed to nearly stopping in the road to aim my camera in the general direction of the tree...and got it nearly perfectly. Except for the blurriness, of course. I did have to drive, after all. Y'all, this tree has character.


Lots of character.

Being Four

I asked Grace earlier this week if she felt like she was going to be four in just a few more days. She said that she already felt like she was four. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but she has been a little sillier lately. Maybe that's it.

Grace's birthday is the day after mine and she was so very excited the day of my birthday, knowing that hers was just around the corner! She was so excited that, even though she went to bed early the night of my birthday, she awoke around 11:00 p.m. and stood in the living room to talk to us.

"This was so silly...I woke up and thought, 'Why am I by myself? Where is everybody?' So I got out of my bed, walked out here to find everyone, opened the [hall] door to come into the living room, and closed the door, and there you were! I was so surprised! Isn't that so silly?"

Jason and I were looking at each other and then her again and again while she spoke her animated and quite long monologue as she stood there blinking from the bright light. I knew then that she wasn't going back to sleep again any time soon...

Boy, was I right...

But she was quite entertaining while she wasn't sleeping and the two of us were hanging out in the living room:

Grace: Is it still your birthday?

Me [seeing that it was after midnight]: No.

Later...

Grace: Mom, it's not your birthday anymore.

Me: You're right; it isn't.

Grace [in a singsong voice]: I took your birthday! It's not your birthday!

And later...
Grace [stopping to look at the footed pajamas she was wearing, and speaking with genuine surprise and wonder] My pajamas still fit me! I'm still the same size!

Aren't you glad you don't automatically grow larger with each birthday?

~~~~~

We both eventually went to sleep (2:30 a.m...ugh) and the next day we ate lunch at Stevi B's to celebrate Grace's birthday.


I commented to Jason that if the boys had ever been given "only dressy clothes" for their birthdays, they would have thrown a fit. Grace, on the other hand, was tickled pink.


Ahhh, Stevi B's...where a kid can be a kid, the parents don't go crazy from the constant noise and action, and everyone can eat better pizza than you can get at Chuck E. Cheese.


Back at home, Emily immediately dressed up in her new dress



that matches Grace's dress.


Jason has remarked several times recently, "Is there anything cuter than a 3 year old in footed pajamas?" I think the answer to that is yes: a 4 year old girl in footed pajamas
blowing out her birthday candles...


and asleep inside the little princess tent she also got for her birthday.

Happy birthday, Grace!

Update on the jeans

Thank you so much for the thoughtful replies with suggestions on how to remove the paint from my black jeans! I thought I'd give an update on the progress I've made. So if you were expecting some birthday photos, please bear with me...they're coming soon. :) Honest. :)

The "before" shot:


And the out-of-focus "after" shot:



The vast majority of the paint is GONE! Whoo hoo!! A good bit came off with simply the baking soda paste (wet the material, sprinkle baking soda on the area, rub, let it sit, and wash) and the rest came off with a Spray 'n' Wash stain stick, even if it did bleach it out a little. I had suggestions to use Goo Gone or Goof Off, which I am definitely going to pick up the next time I'm at the store, as well as some other products, but the stain stick was what I had on hand to try right away. I had to rewash the jeans yet again simply because the stain stick residue didn't come off the first time. The only place where the paint didn't come off was between the stitching on the pocket...I am not above using a Sharpie on my jeans to get them looking back to normal so I colored the remaining paint in between the stitches with a fine point Sharpie. I lightly rubbed a Sharpie over the part that was slightly bleached, too.

I was so glad neither of my younger children walked in while I was doing this. They certainly don't need any ideas.

Thanks again, everyone!

Help! I need somebody...with ideas about removing paint

Does anyone know of any great ideas for removing paint from black jeans? I went to Goodwill today with Grace, and they had recently painted the doors of their dressing rooms. They had opened up one set of dressing rooms and had the other set "closed" while letting the paint dry...only the door of the dressing room I used on the supposedly dry side was not completely dry. I found this out the hard way, and now I have the strangest shade of orange on one back pocket of my black jeans. (Seriously...orange??)

I've washed them now after scrubbing the area with a baking soda paste, and a good bit of the paint has come off with that. I'm still working on it (and still keeping the jeans wet), but I thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas. I'm about to try scraping the paint with a blunt knife.

By the way, I told the Goodwill manager about what happened, and how this was the first time I had worn the jeans (ugh), and she gave me a $10 credit on my purchase. (So, on the upside, I bought 3 new shirts and 3 new skirts for me, plus a pair of white dress shoes for Grace for just over $20.) I'm just really, really, really hoping to get the paint out because I really, really, really despise shopping for new pants. Really.

So, any ideas?

The week Josiah becomes totally self-conscious about the size of his feet

On Tuesday, we drove to Athens to celebrate a couple of March birthdays (my brothers/the kids' uncles).

The birthday boys

After leaving the restaurant, the kids and I ran over to Academy Sports because they have the best prices I've seen for baseball cleats, and Josiah just began Spring Ball practices. I had him check the size of the shoes he had on (because I seriously can no longer keep three growing kids' shoes sizes in mind) and proceeded to hand him size 6 cleats to try on. None of them fit him.

Then, of course, Josiah tells me, "Oh, yeah, these shoes I have on are a little tight on me now." OK...the largest sizes I've seen in the cleats has been size 6. Josiah found a store employee and we asked her if there were any size 6 1/2 cleats in the kids' section. Um...no...the size 6 1/2 shoes are in the men's section.

Excuse me? My seven year old is now getting shoes from the men's section? Really?!?

Really.

As we were laughing about this shoes shopping experience and walking to the front of the store to check out and buy Josiah's first pair of men's shoes, Josiah sighed and said, "I guess I'd better get some age on me to catch up to my feet."

;)

The next day, I measured my socked foot against his socked foot and found his is only about an inch shorter than mine, and I don't have dainty little feet. I wear size 10. Robert's feet are bigger than mine already, but he is, after all, nearly thirteen and nearly as tall as I am already.

Josiah went to batting practice on Friday night and the first thing his coach said to him was, "Hey...What size shoes do you wear?!" (When Josiah reported this to me, I thought he was joking; he wasn't.)

So, please try not to stare. He's getting a little self-conscious as it is. He told Jason, "You know how Mom said that when I hit size 13, I have to buy my own shoes? I'm afraid at this rate, I'm gonna have to make my own shoes..."

Ummm...Did I mention he's a little dramatic?

Waking up is hard to do

If the video doesn't appear above, you can click here to see it.

And, yes, these are actual anesthesiologists--you can learn more about them here. And here's Mister Gasman, and Breathe if you want more videos. :)

I think I'm going to be singing my own version of this in the morning, 'cause it's in my head now...

Don't take my cloth away from me*
Don't you leave me here in misery
She didn't sleep
Nor did I, too,
So waking up is hard to do.

*I sleep with a cloth over my eyes, like this:

Grace at 18 months old, imitating Mommy's sleeping habits

(Thank you, Kirsten, for sharing this YouTube link!)

~~~~~

Click here to enter to win 250 FREE custom stickers or labels! This giveaway ends March 2nd at 9:00 p.m.