This is mainly to test to see if my new Twittepress plugin works. And, to say that I created a Twitter account, so go add me! I can’t promise I’ll provide anything interesting (or often), but I wanted to see what all the whoopla was about.

Not only has the beautiful, warm weather kept me away from blogging land this week, so has the many trips to my little brother and sister’s school for various reasons. Lunch with one, lunch with the other, watching talent show try outs, or simply picking them up after school. I can’t imagine how many school visits there will be once Savannah is that age!

But really, the main reason of my absence: a new hobby. Gasp! I know, and I’m in love. With digital scrapbooking! I dove in it one afternoon earlier this week and it’s been my nightly craft every night since (carrying me way too late into the night…). I realized I had so many pictures I wanted to do stuff with (ya know, besides sit in my flickr account or, the few that I actually print out get stuck on a shelf hidden away) and the computer seems to be the only way I get things done (I think if laundry were virtual I’d be on top of things!). I had grand plans of making scrapbooks for Kaylee and I to give me something to do after her birth and capture memories for us way back in 2004. Family and friends were extremely generous and bought me very nice supplies. From albums to pens, papers, cutters, organizing folders and even a scrap booking book bag! I had everything I needed, I still do. I made a grand total of 3 pages. And those pages? Nothing to do with Kaylee. And all that stuff now sits in a big box in the garage. So, I thought that maybe going digital was the way to go for me.  Here’s why I love it:

1) Saves time. Don’t have to mess with cutting pictures and decoration papers by hand. Just point and click and it’s always a straight line!

2) Saves money. The graphics you buy online you can keep using over and over, mixing and matching, unlike paper and “real” decorations. Once you use it, it’s stuck.

3) No printing individual pictures! I just don’t have time for that. It’s easier to get one page created within just a few minutes and send it off to be printed and mailed to me already in a book.

4) No MESS! Especially with a 1 year old running around, I’ve got enough mess on my hands. And, I’d rather not have my nice pages and hard work destroyed. Plus, with our living situation, there just isn’t room for me to spread all my things out! With digital everything is held nice and organized on the computer, away from small hands and where I’ll actually use it.

Get this though, everything I’ve done so far has been FREE! I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and all the backgrounds and elements I’ve worked with have been found at various digital scrap booking sites for free. I couldn’t afford the newest Adobe Elements, so I bought an older version at a much cheaper price (it’s being mailed to me as a type). This program really makes scrapbooking easy! Everything is pretty much open the picture/graphic and drag to where you want it. I’ve learned a lot through tutorials to help get me started.

And now, a taste of my joy:

1) The BEST place for awesome freebies (where most of the above is from):  Digital Scrapbook Place

2) Tutorial- How I learned to use the program: Free Digital Scrapbooking 

3) Tutorial- How I learned to colorize photos: Photoshop Momma on YouTube 

4) More great free stuff: Computer Scrapbook 

*sigh* I wish I could just scrapbook and write all day. I’d be in heaven.

Well, it’s here. She’s now one year old (minus a few hours).

And? None of the cameras are working (we have 2). Brand new batteries are zapped, the battery charger is broken, the camera screen isn’t working. I don’t have a car to get more batteries. This is bad, bad. It’s her 1st birthday! And I won’t have much to show for it *sigh*

Actually, my mother-in-law will be going out later to get last minute birthday balloons and food, so maybe there is hope after all.

Anyways, it’s here. She’s one. And she could care less, but I sure do!

Happy Birthday, Savannah!

Alright, I got things more under control over here in the blog world. (But still a strange black back ground to my Visual Editor, hm.)

I’ve got a new theme going on, a little less color than I’d like, but I added what I could.  I still think it looks pretty good, no?  And the best part?  My posts/pictures/pages will format right!

Also, I’ve added a new page of my testimony (Forewarning: it’s kind of long).  For those new to this blog and my story, this explains more of our adoption story and digs more into “feelings” (and updated to the present) compared to the one I wrote 3 years ago at Birth Mom Buds that is more detailed.

Some one commented asking if Kaylee knows who I am. Well, yes she does. Not only am I just a familiar face, she knows that I’m her birth mom. She is still too young to grasp that concept, the puzzle pieces are still being put together. But, with the help of her big brother (also adopted and knows his birth mom), she’s starting to get it more. It’s neat to see pieces filled each visit.

Anyways, things are better in this technical world.   Now if only my daughter would take her nap!

Technology just hates me right now. I can’t find a theme that 1) looks decent 2) is my style 3) easy enough that if it’s not my style, that I can change it 3) doesn’t have formating issues like I’m having right now (it won’t respond to <br> or aligning pictures where I want them). So, I’m back to the one I’ve been using and 4) is free (because our tiny budget can’t afford a custom one *sigh).

But now? I’m currently typing on the wordpress screen…with the black flowery black ground that on my site. Why in the world has it taken over my wordpress screen that’s supposed to be white?!

Oh, technology. I guess this is what I signed up for when I asked for a domain.

Help, anyone?

Note to add: Apparently I’m not the only one that has this formating issue.  But the black back ground in this WordPress Editor? I have no clue.

Please ignore the website mess right now, I’m in the mist of changing the look. I got sick of dealing with formating issues day after day. A new theme is in order.
So, bare with me!

A big problem. I’ve got a picture stealing, name using, story maker-uper person to deal with. Apparently my life is so interesting that some one felt compelled to take my life and pictures and create their own life with it on line!

This “Leah” and blog is a fake. I repeat: a fake. I’m not 17 years old, not still in HS. Savannah is already born and almost 1 now. Mark and I are already married. I do not have problems with Mark’s parents or my Mom. My Mom was not an alcoholic, etc. This is disgusting, immature, and just plain rude. I will see to it that the site is taken down.

Thank God, she did not touch the pictures of Savannah yet, because then there certainly would be hell. You just don’t mess with other people’s kids.

Seriously, immature. And scary.

Now, with that said. My flickr photos will now be moved to private, so if you still want to view them make an account and add me as a friend. And as far as this blog goes? I’m going to have to re-think about some serious privacy issues. Any suggestions?

Lord, help this world.

I love half.com.  It’s my new best friend, seriously.

Mark and I had 11 text books to sell from last semester and I decided to go with this little brother of ebay to go about business.  I don’t know if you guys have any experience with the original ebay.com, but trying to get something online for people to buy can appear tricky. What shipping to offer customers? How much should I charge? How can I catch the customer’s eye and accurately describe the product?  (okay, that doesn’t sound bad, but trust me, it can be a confusing task with many options to chose from for a newbie). And, they get you with the little fees. And, you can only have an item up for about a week and either it sells in that time, or it doesn’t.

Well, what I like about half.com is that it takes all that guess work out.  It’s made for just media type things (books, CD’s, movies, video games, etc.) to sell/buy at reduced prices.  It’s really great for buying textbooks (that’s all we’ve bought/sold so far, haven’t tried the other categories of products) at lower prices, because university stores are ridiculous. With 11 books, it took me hardly any time to get our items listed. I was able to tell them the exact product (what edition/cover/author/everything!) with just entering the ISBN number (therefore, saving time), entered the quality of the book, described the book (like, if it had markings), and listed the price. Click. Done.

What I really liked?  Instead of the guessing of what I should list it for, it gave me a recommended price based on what other people had/are listing it for so that I could list it competitively, but fairly.  It was usually spot on, too.  And, what I really like? No bidding.  I like that I can buy a book at ebay prices without sitting at the computer for an hour fighting over an item. And what I really, really like? It doesn’t have a time limit.  It stays up until it sells, or until I take it down. And, no listing fees. It just takes a very small percentage out after a sale is made (like, two dollars).

Within just a few hours? I’ve already sold 2 books.  Score.

Of course, the extra cash will go right back into buying new text books. School starts for Mark on Wednesday, and myself on Thursday. Ugh. I’m not ready for vacation to be over.

We started our Christmas early yesterday morning at 6am when my little sister came to wake us up. Savannah woke up soon after and we headed down stairs for the Christmas day fun to officially begin. I think Savannah enjoyed playing in the wrapping paper more than the actually gifts, but what can you expect from a 10 month old? She was a very happy girl throughout the day (minus a trying-to-skip-a-nap-fight in the morning), loving the attention from family, the toys and posing for the camera. Santa brought her a push toy to help encourage walking, and she loved it until she topped over when she got too excited at her new talent. That scared her a bit but hopefully she’ll get back on the horse, er, legs and try again! She has taken up to 4 steps completely by her self in the past 2 weeks, walking is not too far away.

Mark finally, finally got the Xbox360 he’s been wanting. Along with every game he could ever want, so I don’t think I will see him until next Christmas. He got me a gorgeous green amethyst ring surrounded by diamonds (looks a lot like this one but square and cost way less!) . It’s amazing. Through, I did pick it out myself over our Thanksgiving trip to Maryland. But still, it’s a wonderful gift with special memories!

Like I posted previously, my big gift this year is my own web page. My Dad helped me pick out a good host (we went with Host Gator). But, it’s turning out to be far more complicated than I ever dreamed. Stuff just isn’t working right, I don’t understand what I’m doing and just when I think I’ve figure it out, something always goes wrong. Blah. Eventually I’ll get there. I hope.

Of course, Christmas is not all about the presents. For me, it’s about spending time with family and celebrating the life of Jesus Christ. All day my heart was filled with joy and thanks for all that He’s blessed us with. We really are lucky. My heart breaks thinking about the families that can’t even afford a ham to eat, let alone Christmas presents. I hope some how God provided for them.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. It’s been a wonderful season for us, filled with many firsts. Eventually pictures will be up, but I’m sure my husband didn’t think to pack the camera cord to upload pictures, so it will be a while!

So the exciting news I’ve been referring to?

We’re moving! Well, virtually, that is. We’re moving web hosts so that we (I) have our own website. I’m so excited!

I’ve enjoyed this past year using wordpress.com, it’s given me a start into the public blogging world. It’s connected me to other great bloggers, it’s been easy to use but also helped me to grow and get to know about this blog thing more. I’ve been proud of the work I’ve done on here. But, I’ve started to feel really limited. Since it’s a free blog there are a lot more rules. Especially in the design area, it only allows you to pick out of the few design choices they offer unless you pay an extra fee per month. Easy enough, but if I’m going to pay something per month, I’d rather just have my own website where I can do practically anything I want! Also, as an extra way to earn a little money, I wanted to put up some tasteful ads from BlogHer Ads, but that wasn’t allowed (understandably though, since the blog is free).

I’ve been wanting my own space for a long time. I’m ready to learn new things about the internet/blog world. I’m ready to change graphics to my own taste and have a domain name established that doesn’t include .wordpress.com at the end. I’m ready for a header that doesn’t turn blurry and pixely when I upload it.

With money being tight (ya know, school supplies, diapers, baby food, Christmas presents, etc.), I asked for a website for Christmas. Luckily, my Dad is a high tech kind of guy and “gets” this sort of thing and gets why I would want one. During our week and half stay with my Dad, that will be father-daughter project. I’m so excited!

And so, I’m joining in on The Big Bloggy Move Party! Hosted by After a Cup of Coffee…or Two and SortaCrunchy (I would post a link to her as well, but I can’t find one that works).

February 11th, 2008 (how in the world is it already close to being 2008?) they will be posting all the links to the new websites that want to join in. Post your own when the time comes and check out everyone else’s new site! It’s a great way to get new readers and traffic. Of course, I’m hoping my new website will be way done, up and running by February 11th, but like I said, it’s a great way to get the new site out there. Go see if you qualify if you’d like to join in on the party! Did I mention…there will be prizes!

Happy Moving :-)