Happy blessings

You know those odd sightings of the virgin Mary on burnt pancakes & grilled cheese sandwiches? I've had a sighting of my own in Zachary's birthday cake, fresh from the oven:

Do you see a smiley face like I do??? I believe this portends many happy blessings for Zachary for his birthday! 

Happy 1st birthday, Zachary!

(No, iPhoto is still kaput. I'm testing out the email-blog thing I've never tried before.)

It's Christmas card season!

Truly one of my very most favorite things about the Christmas season is the deluge of Christmas cards I receive each year. I love, LoVe, LOVE them...I love hearing from dear friends & family, hearing about all the great things in their lives (yes, I read those brag letters from beginning to end, even the most long-winded ones, always!), I love all the many beautiful card designs & especially the creative ones...and what's better than going out to the mailbox every day and finding a stack of cards amidst the bills?

Anyway...I have my cards being printed as we speak and really hoping and praying they make it here soon. I'm pretty good at keeping my address book up-to-date BUT if you have moved and not passed along your new address to me...OR if you hadn't received a card from me last year but would like one, please email me your address here. Or if you'd like to mail me one of yours and don't know my address, I will happily share that with you too.

Here are a few of my favorites from years past (I'm not going to show you this year's! You'll have to wait patiently for that!) I've been drawing our Christmas cards ever since George & I were first married.

This was our 2nd Christmas in 1999...we had no kids yet, so George & I are the 'kids':

As our family has grown, I've gradually phased George & I out of the picture (and aged us rather quickly too)--I think this was actually the last year George & I appeared in the drawing...this was 2003:

See, this is 2007, and it's all about the boys now:

I don't always do shepherds though you might think so looking at these. I try to alternate between religious/Santa-themed drawings each year. I always pull my hair out trying to decide what I'll do but it's so worth the effort--it is so fun to look back at all the cards over these last 12 years (and this year's is the 13th one!)

All images above copyrighted...please DO NOT USE without consent from me!

I love Christmas cards!!!

AAaaaaaaaaaaAAAAaaaaahhhh!!!

That is my scream of utter frustration.

I am having major iPhoto problems--ever since we "upgraded" to iPhoto '11. I HATE it! It freezes my computer & when it does work, it moves at a snail's pace (and we've even divided our photo library so it has less to work through.) GRRR!!!

Take this as a warning, fellow Mac users...until they fix this, DO NOT UPGRADE to iPhoto 11!!!

So yeah, I promised all these fun things to share now that the book is (mostly) behind me but I am having such an incredibly annoying time with my photos that I usually say forget it. I got the hair pictures up by sheer force of will and way too much time for what it was worth.

So...in the meantime...here is a short list of some of the things I've been wanting to put up here but have given up under the circumstances:

*progress on the boys' bathroom (remember this? It's been in the works for so long that I wouldn't blame you if you have no idea what I'm talking about.)

*progress on the kitchen (same as above. Neither project is completely finished yet...but getting close.)

*newly expanded attic space (I know that sounds dreadfully dull, but I tell you it's about the most exciting thing ever...we are so HUNGRY for storage space in this basement-less house! You'd agree if I could get to the stinkin' photos to post!)

*our 'snow day' a couple days before Thanksgiving...all of you in snowier climates (which is pretty much everywhere except maybe AZ & CA & those other year-round sunny places) would get a laugh out of that.

...and so much more. I gave a lesson to the YW on Sunday about optimism...I'm stretching hard here to think of a silver lining to all this iPhoto mess....hmm. Thanks to the difficulty in using my computer, I am using my time for other more worthy pursuits. I've almost finished a 540 page book in no time flat. How's that? : )

Hair.

Sorry for the delay in sharing the new do. Didn't mean to keep you in suspense.

The before. 

I wish I'd done something pretty with it, but this is more or less what it looked like every day anyway. Blah humbug.

And the after. 

So, I went with the 'B' option. George was most in favor of 'B'...and as much as I value all your wonderful opinions, he's got an extra-large vote. I personally still love 'A' best (and thank you for saying so as well) and have already made up my mind that that's what I'll do next.

I'm not crazy about the way it looks in these photos. It was at the end of the day by the time we got around to getting the pics so that's my excuse. 

I think it ended up a little longer actually than what I expected/wanted. That's fine though...I will make this length work for a bit until I go shorter.

The best part about it all though was that we got a full 12 inches out of it that I can donate to Locks of Love! I've never done that before. Not that my tiny little ponytail will contribute all that much--my hair really is SO fine. It's pretty surreal to hold my own hair like that.

I always notice a haircut most in the shower, don't you? So weird. The best part though was afterward when I combed it out and hit not one single tangle or snag. : )

Thank you all for your help!