As everyone in my family knows, I’m a huge fan of making my own birth announcements and party invitations. Sadly, after number four hit the scene, there isn’t as much energy left at the end of the day to put into crafty paper cards. I’ve always used a photo Christmas card inserted into a homemade card, but last year I got lazy and just inserted them into a normal store bought card (if they even got a card at all). Funny how life sneaks up on you! I’ve seen several Photo Birth Announcements that are perfectly cute. My friend even uses them as invitations to special events in her children’s lives. I never thought of that! After spending hours on the cards I made for the baby shower last Sunday, I’m thinking the photo card is the way to go. They cover every event and have cards for every occasion and holiday, and they usually end up tons cheaper than my trips to the craft store for supplies!

My boys and my husband are in watching the 14th inning of the All Star Game. The news is on hold until it’s over and they just did a teaser. “Possible clues into the life of the Lipstick Killer”. Grayson’s (8) response…”Why would anyone want to kill lipstick?” So sincere…so funny!

Last September sometime my sister in law wrote about a book she was reading. “It consumed her”…so I thought I would pick it up based wholly on her inability to put it down. Mind you, I haven’t lived near this sister in law for like 10 years…I don’t know her book tastes…who’s to say I’m going to like it! But I should also point out, I’m not one to read a book to glean something amazing for my life. If it happens, great…if not, I’m good! I read books to be taken away. To lose track of time and space, and for that one brief moment find myself in the life of someone else. See those books in the right side bar? Everyone of them took me away, that’s why I like them. But this post is about just one of them.

Twilight!!

When I bought the book I refused to even read the back cover of the book. I was going into this blindly to see if it “consumed” me too. After about 20 pages, I put the book down. B.O.R.I.N.G.!! Consuming nothing!! However, I hadn’t checked the book out, I dropped $10 bucks for it, so I was going to finish it! So to help me out, I read the back of the book. I shouldn’t have done that! It was a VAMPIRE book? My sister in law was consumed by a vampire book? (are you feeling sheepish yet, KA?? ) It didn’t help draw me in, but again, I was going to finish this book.

It wasn’t 10 pages later until I was, consumed!

I finished the book the next day, and purchased books two and three at the same time (so I wouldn’t have to wait for the book store to open if I finished book too late at night). I finished all three books that week and was thrilled to find out Book Four was in the works. I’ve had many conversations with said sister in law (after apologizing of course) about the books. She’s read them many, MANY times. I have not. I wanted to have a ‘forgetting’ period so that when I read the book again, it would be almost as fresh as the first time. As with all of the Harry Potter books, I re-read the series before the newest book was released-finishing the last installment just in time to start the new one.

So, the time has come! I have started Twilight again and I have to say, the first 20 pages were great this time, Boring…nuthin’!! I have forgotten enough to be truly enjoying the same intensities that I felt the first time and remember enough to be excited about ‘what comes next’. The newest book is due out in just a couple of weeks, and since I’m not spending every minute of my day reading, I should finish Book 3 the morning of August 2…just in time to head to the book store for Book 4.

If you haven’t read any of these books yet—click on one of the books in the sidebar…you still have time to finish all three, before number 4 hits the shelves! The movie for book one hits theaters in December…and I have to admit, I’m a little skeptical on that one! Sorry Kel!!

At the end of the baby shower yesterday I took my mother in law’s photo card upstairs to upload the pictures to the niece and nephews Photobucket account. As I was looking through the hard drive to find the pictures I had just put on the computer I ran across pictures of my boys that I had never seen before. These were from a Cubs game back in 2003 when my in laws (men) took my husband and boys to the game so that I could get the house ready for a surprise party for my husband. He had just been made Executive Chef and everyone in the family was coming over for the party. I NEVER knew anyone had taken pictures at the game! So I uploaded these photo’s to my photobucket account, and how fun they are to see!!

These were taken May 26, 2003. Jake is 5 (now 10 1/2) and Grayson, in the overalls, is 3 (now 8)! What darling little boys they are!

I woke up Sunday morning with the plans to frost my castle cake, cube cheese and wash grapes for my pasta salad and curl Blake’s hair in ringlets. Funny…fate didn’t have the same plans! As soon as I was conscious enough to be aware of my body, I knew something was wrong with my right eye. When I felt it it felt sunken in and it hurt worse than anything. Shots of stars would explode around inside my eye when pressed and I just assumed I had an opthalmoplegic migraine. So I figured I would just get up and take some Advil and a half a Vicodin and call it good.

It wasn’t until I nearly fell on my way to the mirror to check it out that I realized something else was wrong. I couldn’t even open my eye–and I was suddenly very nauseous. So many eye problems ran through my mind, detached retina, scratched retina, migraine, anything but at WebMD I discovered that it was most likely only Pink Eye. Only…now I couldn’t frost a castle cake or cut cheese and grapes for the pasta salad. And if I didn’t get over the sick stomach and inability to open my eyes, I wouldn’t be able to drive to the party anyway. It was awful!

I got in the hot shower and let the hottest water I could stand wash over my closed eyes, and then I snuggled up in bed with a heating pad over my eyes. To my surprise, my husband came right home from work and was there to help get the kids together to go. We stopped and bought a cake at the grocery store and he finished up the pasta salad. He even drove us to the party.

What a great guy!

OK, for those of you waiting to purchase one of these things…wait no more! It’s as cool as it looks! I’m still sick, so you will have to forgive my ‘maiden voyage’ with the camera. This is Barrett, and he’s so shy I’m just amazed I got him to say anything at all.

After I finished the video I flipped out the little USB connector and plugged it right in to my computer…it took over all by itself. After it’s uploaded you can edit the video…I shortened mine by about 2 minutes (hence the sharp ending). Once you save it, it takes you right to YouTube to upload it. And voila!!

This is exactly the reason I ordered the camera. My video camera is so old and huge and clunky…and if I record with it, I can’t upload it online…but I never want to get it out and fiddle with the cords. This little boy is 3 and I have very little video of his life. His first steps, words any thing. I have still photo’s, but my 11 year old is going to go into puberty soon, and his little voice will be gone forever…it’s already not the same. But to be able to carry this in my purse with my digital camera (they are the same size) and whip it out as needs be…I’m just thrilled!

I ordered mine over at LoveTheFlip.com on Saturday…and it’s already in my house taking videos. So Cool!!

And all of the fun and exciting things that come along with it—–sloshing through the family. We had burgers and dogs last night at my mother in laws house. I only ate half of my hamburger because it tasted funny. No one else seemed to notice. But today it’s the hubby, me, Grayson and Barrett, all sick!

My cool new video camera came today. I have to say–IT’S AWESOME! I’ve only played around with it from my bed (cause that’s where I am), but the picture is clear, even the digital screen on the back is crisp. You can zoom in or out–it’s just a piece of cake to use! When I feel a little better later on, I will get a video up so you guys can see just how cool this little thing is!