Free Desktop Wallpaper

So, for a long time I've been getting my desktop backgrounds from a digital scrapbooking site. Well, I finally decided to try my hand at creating my own using a digital scrapbook kit. You can find the kit I used here.

Anyway, if you are interested here is what the background looks like:

And if you click one of the links below you can have your own 'copy' and paste in whatever pics float your boat.

1024x768 Screen Resolution

1280x800 Screen Resolution

If you happen to use the background, let me know and I will post the one I make every month.

Also, if you need any help getting the wallpaper to work for you, let me know. I am more than willing to help out. (You will need a paint program other than just Microsoft Paint to get your pictures posted onto the wallpaper)

What Happens Next...

Come On...Help A Girl Out...

So, just because I get bored and I really, really, really would love to get $100 for "free" I did this. And now, I want you to do the same.

This girl is writing a thesis on blogging and needs all the responses she can get AND she is offering a $100 gift card to Target. Woot!

So go here and do what she asks...or don't. If you don't that leaves me with more chances of winning. ;)

What Happens Next...

Funny Thing About Peer Pressure...

See this:
This is my cute "baby" brother. He is at the ripe old age of 14 and will turn 15 this Summer.

So a few months ago, I see this post on Facebook that he was going to try out for the part of "Jafar" in their school's play of Aladdin. I about died. I never knew this kid was into acting. Sure, it was something that my older brother, one of my younger brothers and I enjoyed. But, I thought that's where it would end.

Well, a few months go by and I find out that baby brother got the part of one of Jasmine's suitors. I knew that I had to go see the play. I figured the older kids would enjoy it, but was kind of frustrated that I had to take the little boys, not knowing how they would react. But I also knew that if I just stayed home I would regret it.

So, Thursday after school the kids and I headed to my parents house. I wanted to have some time to relax before needing to head over to the play. (Didn't want to make the kids sit longer than necessary...) After being at my parents for about a half hour, my little sister and I decided it was time to go get dinner for us and the kids.

We brought dinner back to my parents and had to eat somewhat quickly, so that we could get to the school and get a decent seat. HA! Hardly anyone showed up. I'm not sure if it's cause it was on a Thursday, or what, but it really wasn't that crowded at all.

So, we all sat anxiously awaiting the show to start.


The play the school did was actually a shorter version of the Disney movie, Aladdin. They had to change the dialog up a bit to make it all fit and they took parts out of it, but it was still as enjoyable as a Jr. High production can be. It's interesting as well to see Jr. High productions because you can see where the talent is and where the talent isn't.

Anyway, so little brother comes out to do his part, which interestingly enough isn't even a speaking part. All he had to do was show off his muscles and act really macho. When it came time for him to join in the chorus in some scenes, he hardly even sang. I thought that that was pretty funny. I then found out that the only reason my little brother tried out for the play was because his friends all convinced him to do it and then they quit. But because little bro got some sort of "part" and because we were raised to see things through, he couldn't quit.

All in all it was a fun night spent with the family and as I thought the older kids enjoyed the show quit a bit. Lex got a little antsy as he couldn't see real well and my older sister took care of Nate, so I'm not positive as to how well he was acting.

I was upset that I didn't get a good shot of my brother in his costume. He is the dude in the middle of all 3 princes. Apparently the kids couldn't go see family until they changed out of their costumes...Thankfully, little brother allowed me to take a few pics of him, even without his costume. But after only a few shots, he was done and immediatley took the makeup off.

What Happens Next...

A Wee Bit O' An Update...

"If it seems like I've been lost in 'let's remember', you think I'm feeling older and missing my younger days, then you should've known me much better cause my past is something that never got in my way..."

So, I figure it's been a while since I posted anything of relevance or anything - so figured I'd do so today. It's not that anything too exciting has happened lately, just the opposite actually, thus the reason for no real posts. Life is just the same as always, with a few exceptions.

Firstly, Eric got a new job (thankfully) and started a week ago. He now works four 10 hour shifts from Monday - Thursday and then he has Friday's off. This has taken some getting used to as he leaves around 6 in the morning and doesn't get home until after 7 at night. Some days are harder than others and I'm sure when summer comes I'm really going to hate the long days. I am loving his Fridays off, however. Though technically he's only had one so far.

This past Tuesday I got to take the Gestational Diabetes test. (Oh, good news - with the new job Eric got, my doc still accepts the insurance) Because Eric had just started a new job the previous day, he wasn't able to come with me this time. So, I enlisted the aid of my little sister. (I needed someone to keep an eye on Nate). I also had to drink the drink during the drive since you have to finish it a half hour before your appt. and the dr. office is at least 40 minutes away. This time around I chose the Fruit Punch flavored drink. And yes, I am one of those crazy people who doesn't mind the taste of these drinks too much. Although, it did make me a bit spacy afterwards...Lil' Sis' will attest to that one. The blood draw wasn't that bad either. I prepared myself for pain when the nurse stuck the needle in and when she changed vials, but I was pleasantly surprised. I had very little pain. And I haven't heard any bad news, so hopefully that's good. I was also surprised when I went to make my next appt. that they told me it was for 2 weeks...Seems too early for that.

On Friday, Eric and I met up for lunch with one of his buddies. (Okay, truth be told - I tagged along, but only cause we had plans afterwards) The boys decided on a Chinese food place that they both love and frequented while they worked together. I am a very picky eater and Chinese food has never been big on my list. True, I've only tried it a couple of times, but I never cared for anything I had. I decided I would be a big girl on this day and tried something new: Orange Chicken. It was something I actually liked okay. I couldn't eat a whole lot of it as it did have a funny taste at times, but it was still a good lunch and I was proud of myself for eating something new.

After lunch, we headed over to IKEA to buy a new bed for Nate. With Baby Girl coming in just a couple weeks, he needed to get used to a bed and I wanted to crib in place in Shaylyn's room. It was just one of those things I wanted DONE! We had looked at IKEA a few days before and knew what we were going to get, so it was just a matter of getting the numbers and getting it home. This is the bed we bought:

And yes, it's just taken off the IKEA website. I am too lazy to take a pic of Nate's actual bed and post it. It's just how I feel lately. Aren't the sheep so cute? I wanted to get the blue bed, but Eric (being the logical being he is) made us get the white one so that Baby Girl could use it in the future as well...DANG IT!

Saturday was spent cleaning Shaylyn's room and making room for the crib. What a job that was. I apparently did way too much though as I was in pain for the rest of the night. One of these days I'll learn exactly what is too much...Strange thing is, I didn't do any heavy lifting or moving - just cleaned.

Eric had the job of taking the crib apart and reassembling it in Shaylyn's room, then he got to turn around and put Nate's bed together. He did it quite quickly and without much complaint. I was really surprised at just how quickly he got both jobs done.

And that is pretty much it from our side of the world. Right now we are just watching these strange dots that have popped up on Nate's face...Our first thought was Chicken Pox, but he hasn't really seemed to get any more and they are mainly just on his face. Kinda resembles pimples, but is it possible for a kid to get so many and then another one on an ear and one on the back??? I dunno...

What Happens Next...

Must Be 30 or Older To Read...

So, Eric forwarded this to me in an email today and I thought it was just too good to not share...

ENJOY!

Oh, and I did change a few words from cuss words to slang words, just so you know. ;)

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in heck I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a darn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the darn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butt! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a darn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OMG !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

What Happens Next...