hAllOwEen FuN!

Just wanted to post some pictures of the kids on Halloween night. They had a lot of fun dressing up and trick-o-treating. They filled their buckets up to the top and then had fun dumping them out to check out the goods at home. Hopefully they can sleep well tonight. They all had about 10 lbs. of candy to eat right before bed, so I'm sure they have sugar running through their veins. Good times!

Creating Blog Templates

I have been wondering for sometime now how to make a cute blog background and how to change the template to make it look a little more like me (my style). I see others with cute backgrounds and want my own, however, it's not that easy. So I have started playing around with my blog template and learning all about HTML coding. This stuff is HARD. Anyways, after many hours of reading, experimenting, and playing around I have figured out a little bit. I can now easily change the background and wrapper color (that is the black part of this blog). So I have been tossing around the idea of starting a small business of creating cute blogs for people. What do you think? Is there a market out there for this stuff? Check out my link to my flickr site www.flickr.com/photos/maniacmom/
These are all blog templates I have created. I have included a few sample pictures in this post too. Let me know if you want one and I'll e-mail you the template. Or if you have a copy of a background you like, just e-mail it to me. If enough people are interested, maybe I'll start a little design blog business. I figure word of mouth is the best advertisement, so if others seem interested let me know.

Autumn Greetings

I've been having a lot of fun with photoshop and Elements. Slowly but surely I am figuring out new ways to play with and manipulate photos and graphics. I think my next step is getting a decent camera. But, I make do with what we have and fall is a great time to take fun pictures. These are some pictures and my creation from Morton Arboretum here in Chicago today. The kids and I spent a lot of time enjoying the leaves and out doors. It is a toss up as to whether I like summer or autumn better, but I think right now fall is my favorite.

Oh KIDS!

So Lily's teacher walked her out to our car this afternoon and wanted to tell me a cute/funny story about a conversation between Lily and another little boy in her class. It went like this:
Hi, what's your name?

Lily.

Hi Lily, I'm Ryan. Do you want to be my friend?

No, not today, maybe next week.

I guess I thought we had taught her to be nice and friendly to everyone. I am noticing lately she has become a little picky with her friends and not exactly "nice" to the people she is not too fond of. I am glad the teacher thought this conversation was "cute" and that Lily said it in the nicest way possible. We have had to have the talk about how Heavenly Father created all of us and that we are all His children. She has been noticing the differences in people's skin, hair color, and languages. She has been asking a lot of thoughtful questions regarding different people. I am hoping that we are responding and explaining things to her so that she will one day learn to respect and understand all types of cultures, races, handicaps and religions.

Then, yesterday we were at the Aquarium, and we saw a couple of Muslim women. They of course had all black on and their heads and were completely covered except for their eyes. Jack stopped about 2 feet away and stared with horror. I was praying and hoping he didn't start screaming and crying right there in front of them. Halloween has scared my kids a bit, and lately they are afraid to even go into WalMart in case there are stones (skeletons) displayed. I can only imagine what was going through Jack's mind when he saw this totally veiled women in all black. Luckily, he waited until I pulled him away to say, "mommy, what's that?" Bless their little hearts as they see and learn new things in this big world.

St. George Report

We had a great time in St. George. We did a lot and saw a lot of people in a short amount of time, but it was well worth it. The kids really enjoyed hanging out with the horses, acting like cowboys and cowgirls, riding the tractor and playing farm at my mom's house. We were able to see Millie and Laurie, play at Haley's cute house, see Matt Hammons' fancy dental office, eat at Cafe' Rio, attend the marathon, visit with Matt's parents and sister, hang out with Omi and Opi (great grandma and grandpa) and grandma and grandpa, watch a little conference, and meet with some Cleveland friends for lunch at the park. Here are some pictures from our trip. If you click on them you can see them a little bigger.


Here are some pictures of Matt during the race and after. He sat in that spot for over 30 minutes. He said he couldn't get up or move or he would get a cramp. His recovery is almost complete. He pushed himself pretty hard, but really wanted to qualify for Boston. The other picture is a bunch of friends from Cali. that all qualified for Boston too. So we'll be meeting up with them in April.
On Sunday we met a bunch of old Cleveland friends and their cute families. It was great to get together and catch up. Everyone's kids are so cute and growing up so fast. We missed a couple other families who didn't make it, but I think we had a pretty good turn out.

So Proud Of My Matt

Just a quick post to brag about how great my husband did in the St. George Marathon. 3 hours and 6 minutes! Way to go! Love ya and hope your legs feel better soon. Boston bound. I'll post pics when we get back to Chi-town.

Here We Come St. George Marathon 2007

We are leaving to St. George, Utah this evening. (Not looking forward to the 3 1/2 hour flight to Vegas and then 2 hour drive to St. George with the kiddos.) But we are so excited for the St. George marathon on Saturday. At the time of this post there was officially 2 days, 17 hours, 4 minutes and 51 seconds until the start. Matt will be running in it for his 3rd....maybe 4th time. In addition we have some amazing friends running as well. You go Katie and Tresure. Just wanted to wish everyone luck and let you know what respect I have for all of you training and entering this race. It is definitely one of my life goals. I don't know when or which marathon, but one day it will happen. We also get to see Matt's parents, his sister from Cali., my mom and her husband, my grandparents, and other local St. George friends Haley and Laurie. Should be a fun weekend. If we don't touch base with you all before the race, we'll watch for you at the finish line. Maybe we can get together for ice cream or at the park. Just remember at mile 20, when you hit the wall and all you want to do is stop, that you are amazing and you can do it. This is a quote that I like,

"I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain - and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is "Don't overdo it" and "Don't push yourself." Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond." - Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame.

Trying Out My New Photoshop Elements 5

I have so many creative friends, I figured it was about time to get on the band wagon. No, I'm not ready to start scrap booking or anything crazy like that, but I do think it would be fun to design my own Christmas cards, maybe my blog heading, and stuff like that. So I ordered Photoshop Elements 5 (the day I got it in the mail, I realized Elements 6 came out). Anyways, here is my first attempt at a"layout".......if you want to call it that. Yes, this is not that creative and it looks pretty simple, but it took me TWO days to figure out how to do just this alone. I have so much to learn. It took me hours just to figure out how to open a new file. I suppose just taking a class would be the easiest. Any tips would be appreciated. I will admit, it is kind of fun to get my creative juices flowing.