New Perspective

It's been a rough week - no, a rough month really. I have actually started to feel like we're being tested to see how many "one-more-things" can be loaded onto our lives during a one-month time period. Our breaking points have been a little closer to the surface the past few weeks. However, Chris came home from work last night with a new attitude. He was smiling and laughing and hugging and didn't look exhausted and frazzled, which I was kind of expecting because I knew he was going to have a hard day at work. He performed a funeral for a family that he didn't know, whose 25 year-old son had died. The circumstances were a little different here because this boy had been diagnosed with encephilitis when he was six months old and had hardly any brain function. He had never spoken a word or laughed or smiled or done anything at all. I think that he was basically in a vegetative state for 25 years. As Chris perfomed his funeral, he was reminded of how blessed we are with our 5 healthy and active boys.

Among many other things, we've been stressing out about what decision to make regarding club soccer for Jacob. The price tag to be involved is pretty high, both financially and with the time and effort required to get him to all of the practices and games - and Jake is just 1 of 5 kids who are involved in sports. We want to do what we can to help him pursue his dreams, but at some point the question always comes up, "Does the end justify the means?"

When Chris came home yesterday, it was like he had a burden lifted off of his shoulders. He told me that he had been thinking about how small our problems and decisions are in light of what is really important. He said, "We've been stressed about deciding if and where Jacob will play soccer this spring when what is really important is that he is healthy and able to play soccer at all." I thought that was very insightful, and I'm so grateful for a new perspective today. Lots to do today; I'd better get after it!

My brand new cell phone fell in the toilet

Literally. I've been trying to dry it out for three days. Most of the buttons still work, but the Power Off/Send button does something wonky every time it is pressed. I have it in a sealed container of rice and under a lamp in an effort to dry up the moisture.

I think my "Technology Queen" status in our home is in jeapordy. My subjects just don't respect my title as much now that I've dropped my new superior technology in the toilet. That seems to have tainted things...

Between the crashed computer, the iTunes fiasco, and now this, it's been a bad week...

Another computer crashed...

Keeping our many technology devices all up and running has turned into another part-time job for me. I worked for over 4 hours trying to get iTunes operating correctly yesterday. (GRRRR...) And, today the laptop that I just bought for the boys in August seems to have crashed - black screen - nothing. Joe was just sitting there playing some game on it and then came the menacing black screen. I went to the acer website and typed in the problem, and I was directed to just send it in for repair - no attempt to troubleshoot. Thankfully, it is still under warranty, and we don't store photos or important stuff on that computer. I've been thrilled with that little machine until now. We've never had a problem with it until it just crashed out of nowhere. It reminds me of what my laptop did when the motherboard was fried a couple of years ago (shudder...).

That reminds me that it would probably be a good idea to back up my laptop tonight. I have a jazzy back-up drive that I employ fairly regularly - and the crash of the boys' laptop is a good motivator to take the time to go ahead and back up again.

So here's my public service reminder for the weekend: "Have you backed up lately?"

In closing, I leave you with a couple of recent 8"x8" pages. These will go into my Snapshots Albums from 2008/2009. Both pages were made using The ScrapRoom's February Kits. :)

Jacob and his buddies before their Freshman Homecoming (10/08)


Josiah is "one cool dude!"

Momma's moving up!

I'm not particularly a big music gal. I like music, but with the constant chaos and noise that comes with living in a full house, I will often choose quiet over music when given the choice. However, I do love my ipod with all of my favorite songs organized into perfectly proportioned playlists just for me. Here is "Mom's Ipod," as we affectionately refer to her in iTunes and among her ipod friends.

Yes, Mom's ipod is an ancient version of the ipod mini. They don't even make em' like her anymore. She's a music-only player - no video, no phone, no extra cool features, but in her heyday, she could shuffle songs and play them with the best of them! I bought her used, but she has served me well for several years. We have good memories. However, lately "Mom's ipod" is just getting worn out. She's just not holding a charge like she used to, and even though I'll charge her for hours, she'll only give me just a few minutes of music. It's time to let her rest and bring on the next generation of ipod to carry on the music-playing torch.

I have three boys who are also ipod-lovers, and we have a few different members of the ipod family that have joined our family. Jeremiah has this cute little guy - the ipod nano; he plays videos.


And Jake and Josh have the larger ipod classics cause they're men and they needed more gigs for all of ther teenage music. These were the ipod of choice when they bought them a couple of years ago.


I considered all of these options. The nano would have been big enough for my rather narrow and no-longer-expanding music tastes. But, I've watched enough TV to know that "There's an app for everything," so I started asking questions about the iTouch. All I had to hear was that I could surf the internet and wouldn't have to purchase a monthly data package and I knew my search was over. I went out that very day and purchased this little beauty. We affectionately refer to her as "Mom's iTouch."

We got her all set up last night, and we even found some cool new "apps" to download. The boys are just as smitten with "Mom's iTouch" as I am. My teenage boys have even recognized me as the new "Queen of Technology" in our house, and since they won't be upgrading anytime soon, I expect to retain my throne for many years.