M is for Minnesota

My friend Lynanne sent KK the most special gift...a personalized and signed copy of "M is for Minnesota" - she has a connection to the author (shame on me for cutting off the author's name in the photo below. It is Dori Hillestad Butler!) It is such a great book; Ms. Butler chose the perfect things to represent each letter.
The arrival of this gift was great timing, too, because guess where we are??? Yah, sure...we are in Minne-soh-ta, yah know?! (The longer I am away, the stronger the accents are when I return, and I LOVE it!) We'll be here for a week visiting friends and family - it's so good to be here! Thank you so much, Lynanne, you know how much KK and I love the book!

P.S. We do miss you Daddy and BuddyBuddy!
P.P.S. Do you think KK could have flown us here herself with those airplane wing ponies?! : )

No Needles Tattoo Co

Are you looking for a fun and creative gift for the littlest ones in your life? Check out Auntie Sunshine’s new etsy.com store!!

This is the one she made for KK on her first birthday...I love it! She can paint ANYTHING, and will do custom orders too. Go check it out and tell all your friends! : )

Tonight I am working on my last two months of deleting/backing up of photos. Lordy. This was a bigger mess than I even realized. At least 5000 images have been deleted, and I've backed up nearly 3000. Flickr is history for this purpose - but I will be using it to organize my very favorite pics of KK and will give everyone access when it is done. I have spent LOTS of hours on this crazy project and I'm thrilled to be almost done. Unfortunately, between staying up until 2am working on it and then getting up early every day to cover my boss at work while she is on vacation, I have made myself sick. My throat is SO sore and I want to sleep for a week. Oh well, I feel so much better knowing that if this computer crashes, my little treasures won't be lost.

Of course I have still made time to take MORE pictures, but apparently I'm too tired to focus the camera very well. Heh.

Sierra's Walk and Run

Today, we walked for Sierra. KK also did the kid's fun run with her little girlfriend, holding her hand most of the way. They were so cute! We also got to see Baby Addy, all bundled in her little snowsuit. It was windy and cold, but it didn't matter. We were there to honor Sierra, and it was a beautiful day. Hug the ones you love a little tighter today...because you just never know.

I do not heart flickr

I still have a long way to go with the uploading, but have run into another annoyance. So flickr has this great deal with Target where you can order prints online and just pick them up...but your only choice is glossy prints. I prefer matte. I much prefer matte. So I called Target to see if I could call ahead and request matte instead of glossy (like I can do at Walgreens) and they DON'T DO MATTE. Ever. At all. WTH? Sure, I can order matte prints through the mail, but then I have to pay an arm and a leg for shipping.

AAAARRRRRGH.

So - tell me why glossy are just as good as matte? Or do I start over and just upload all of my pictures to the Walgreens site....and tell flickr to FLICKR OFF!?

Thanks for all of the tips Lynanne, you're the best. I have used Picasa, but not very much. Usually just to get rid of redeye or switch to B&W, but I haven't done any of the creative stuff. Elements would be perfect - I always stop to drool over the box at Sam's Club, and it's certainly a great price, but I just can't bring myself to turn my life over to it yet. I will get it soon, though - once I get this uploading project done. And the scrapbooks started. (Well, so maybe not soon...) : )

Flusterated!!!

So this week, I have finally attacked a beast of a project that weighs on my mind about 23 hours a day: backing up my photos. Our computer is a little older and not acting happy, and my only other backup is a My B00k, which my friend Lynanne has had problems with. So, I finally decided I MUST do this before a disaster strikes. I chose flickr, and I'm not sure I'm happy with that decision. It's not free, but not necessarily expensive - and over the past couple of years I've followed a lot of flickr journeys - so I thought it was the best choice. I'm not so sure now. My uploads keep freezing, the photos are not uploaded in the same order I select them, and my sets have gotten messed up more than once. Some of this is likely user error - and I know I'm uploading up to 100 images at a time - but still. I've spent HOURS doing this and I'm not even half done.

I've also deleted about 2000 images (on purpose). Back when KK was only a few months old, even the blurry photos had to stay. They are all a moment in time that I wanted to hold onto forever, but now I'm a little more liberal with the delete button. I just can't keep 5000+ pictures, even if she is my one and only. It's painful to see them go, but I'm getting better. Now if this dang site wouldn't be such a pain in the arse!

Here are a few of my 'old' favorites:


(That's Donkey!) : )

I desperately want (want want want!) Photoshop, but then I would be seriously obsessed with this insane little hobby. And it would probably kill this old computer. For now, back to the uploading project....arrrrgh!

Some things never change...

..and thankfully some things do!!!

Bon Jovi 1987:


I must preface the next photo by saying I swear that every drink was non-alchoholic! Seriously! Looks can be deceiving - Suzie is holding a juice box for crying out loud!

....

I think the best change is that we no longer have to MAKE our concert outfits! I mean, as hot as the red fringed ghetto shirt and Auntie Sunshine's gold lame trash-bag-dress were, it is just so much easier to buy our clothes now. (Lisa's dress was cute, but if you've read her blog lately you'd know that she actually knows how to sew!) And RED TIGHTS????? Please forgive me.

Bon Jovi 2008:
(has it really been more than TWENTY YEARS?????)


And here is a sneak peek at what I will look like at Bon Jovi in 2040:
Isn't she the cutest?

I leave you with Jon and Richie. Enjoy!