Veteran's Day

It is the Soldier
Father Dennis Edward O'Brien
It is the Soldier,
not the reporter, who has given us freedom of press.

It is the Soldier,
not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier,
not the campus organizer, who gives us freedom to demonstrate.

It is the Soldier
who salutes the flag,
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.

Be sure to thank a veteran for everything they have done, so you may enjoy the freedoms you have today. Thank You DAD (Viet Nam), DH's Grandpa (Korean War) and my Great Uncle (WWII Pacific Theatre and POW). Thank you for your service to our country.

Hard to Believe...

that September is here. And with it not even reaching 70 today it had a taste of Fall in the air today. It's been busy around here and with the kiddos in school, the "To Do" list is pretty long. Last month I made some tops for the girls and a dress for DH's cousin's DD. They turned out pretty cute and we took pics of them dressed up for DH's Grandpa. Below is the fabric I used. I bought it at Jo-Ann's and it is so darn cute...

The picture below is the end result...

And we are now in our 3rd week of school. Here is what the kiddos looked like the first day of school...

And Now It is August...

Summer has really flown by and in a little over 3 weeks, school begins, YAY!!!!! We've done some landscaping around here this Spring. I was surprised how well the Petunia's did, considering how much rain we had in May and June. They didn't grow for a while then in July they really blossomed. Had I known how big they were going to get, I would have planted them between the Boxwood's. I think I may plant some Mum's inbetween the Boxwoods for this Fall.



This is a rainbow I caught after some of the many rains we had this Summer.

July Already!

Summer is flying by! Now that softball and T-ball are over, it is time to get some projects done around here. We went down to ATL to see DH's sister over July 4th and had a fantastic time. The only exciting thing we did was go to the Braves Game. It was just nice to get away and relax. Here are some highlights from the Braves Game. Chick-fil-a had a big cow in the upper level in the outfield as their advertisement. The Coca-Cola bottle was really cool. Up close it is decorated with bases, baseball bats, baseball jersey's, gloves, catcher's gear, etc. Then when the Braves hit a Home Run, they shot fireworks out of it. Pretty Cool!

Over by where the above items are located is a kids area. They had an area where the kiddos could run before, during and after the game. We took the girls over there to blow off some steam before the game started. You started at home plate and ran to first base. They did this several times.

In the same area they had these really cool chairs that looked like giant Coke bottles. The one thing I love about Atlanta, there is a never ending supply of Coke products!

After the game there was about 15-20 minutes while they were getting ready for the fireworks show. They were playing some really cool music and Miss A and a girl in the row in front of her were dancing to the music. We got to see ourselves on the Jumbo Screen out in center field.

They had a really good Fireworks show after the game. It was all synchronized to the music they played in the stadium. Fabulous show!

Crazy Weather.........

lately. The Midwest has been battered with lots of rain and tornadoes and it seems that last night it was our turn. After my oldest's friends left yesterday afternoon, something told me to get all of my photos (about 500 of them) saved to disks. Since they are high resolution, it too about 4 hours to do that. About 7:30 I looked at weather.com and it had a tornado warning for our area...WHAT????? I read the info and a funnel cloud was sighted in a town about 1/2 hour away and the storms were racing at 55-60 mph. So I had everyone get their shoes and socks on and get stuff to take to the basement. About 20 minutes later it got really freaky looking...
Then we looked to the SW towards town and a bunch of dirt started to swirl upwards. We couldn't see a funnel, but there was definitely some rotation going on there...
And about 20 minutes after that the storms had blown through. There are quite a few trees down in the area and north and east of us there were a few tornadoes spotted. The kiddos playset in the back yard, which has been there for 6 years through many nasty storms, was knocked over and some how missed hitting the deck.

Below are some random pics I took a few days ago of a storm that went north of us. The lightning was fantastic!

Barn Raising Take 2

The insurance adjuster was out the Monday after the framing blew down and about a week and a half after that the new lumber arrived. They got going on the barn again and when the weather man called for some windy weather again, DH brought over his dad's CAT tractor and they tied the west end it as seen in the first two pics below.


This is the week before Memorial Day and they are almost finished.



And here is what it looks like this morning, now that it is finished. Last night we received some strong storms and 3/4 of an inch of rain. Now onto the next project, a clothesline.

It's June 1st!

This year is flying by. Lots going on around here and the computer is off more than it is on. As long as I have the computer turned off, I'm not tempted to sit and check out websites online. A lot has gone on since the last post so I will be posting in installments since blogger only allows you to upload 5 photos to each post.

Late April we had a builder come and build us a new machine shed. The first two photos show the start of the project. They had 3/4's of the framing done when we had a wind storm the afternoon May 1st.







The last photo shows what 50+ mph winds did to the framing. The builder is licensed and insured and it was a total loss. It was a couple weeks when the new building materials arrived and construction began again. Photos of the finished barn will be tomorrow.

We're Alive........

and doing well. Busy doesn't even begin to describe this month and next month. Whether it is Spring Musicals, Spring Field trips, Softball, T-Ball, Bible School, Honors Academy, it is just nuts, LOL! And when Spring planting finally gets underway, it will be NUTS! Hardly anyone has corn planted and pretty soon it will be time to plant beans. I wish some of this rain would go south for a week or two (where they really need it) so we can get going the just send it back to us in June, July, August and early September. Abbie did well in her first T-Ball game. It was pretty comical watching them chase after the ball, or in some cases, the boys tackling each other to get the ball, LOL! Ashton's scrimmage went well and she got on base every time she was up to bat. Once she smacked the ball way out into center field. She made it to second base and scored 2 runs on that hit. We were lucky with all the rain lately, yesterday was a beautiful day to be at the ball diamond. Later Gators! :)

P.S. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I Feel The Earth, Move, Under My Feet.........

literally this morning. Many of us here in the Midwest got a shock this morning when we felt our beds and homes shake, rattle and roll. There was an earthquake located near West Salem, Illinois this morning and was felt as far away as Des Moines, IA and Atlanta, GA.

Here is a link to the article on the AP news wire: Earthquake Shakes Midwest

I woke up hearing the handles on our dressers rattle. I thought one of the kiddos had come into the bedroom and bumped into the dresser. So I turned on the light and they started rattling again and I saw the ceiling fan move. It lasted for 10 seconds roughly. So I turned on the radio waiting for the local news and sure enough we had an earthquake. The kiddos were mad because they slept through it, LOL!

Ya, long time, no post. We've been busy around here and it will get crazier with softball and T-ball starting now and planting just around the corner. I can't complain, it is good to be busy.

Later...................

February..........

Flooding. We've had all our snow melt plus 3 inches of rain in two days and this is what happens. The first 4 are taken at the Fort Grounds at the Library and the last one is from the Domersville Rd. bridge. Right now the river is at 17 1/2 feet and they are sand bagging around the library. Findlay and Ottawa are flooded again, second time in 6 months. Mother Nature must have hit menopause or something..............................

Where Does the Time Go?

Seriously. seems like January has flown by, which is fine by me because that means that Spring is getting closer. With the winter weather we've missed the maximum days of school and now have to make up one day and I'm sure we will see more snow in February. Usually we get at least one more good snow storm before it warms up. Since January can be boring the elementary has "Jazzy January" where they take one day a week and do something crazy. The pick below is the "Wild Hair" day.

I didn't get a pic of "Western Day" or "Crazy Hat" day. This month they have "Fabulous February" and I'll dp better getting more pics......enjoy.

Stitching Part 1

This is how I scan and stitch my 12x12 layouts.

First lay your layout in the scanner lining up one side with the edge of the guide line (like the one in the picture below). Scan and save the pic to what folder you want. On my computer I go to My Computer>Scanner>Microsoft Scanner & Camera Wizard>OK>Next. Then I click on Preview. Once the preview is up I will move the dotted lines to each edge then click Next, give the pic a name then click Next. Once it scans the layout then the Other Options Screen comes up, the circle next to "Nothing....." should be checked then click Next, then click Finish. Then my MY Pictures folder opens and shows me the scanned image.
I will scan my layout 4 times as the scanner will not scan the bottom 1/4 ro 1/2 inch of the layout. To scan the bottom move up the layout above the guide line (where the arrow is pointing to) to the edge/lip of the scanner and make your second scan. As you see above, my scanner top opens from the side, so once I scan one side twice, I have to flip my layout so it is upside down, then scan the same way as I did above. If you have a scanner that opens from the top, then you don't have to flip the image, just slide over the layout so the other edge is lined up with the guide line and scan, then move it up and make the second scan so it gets the bottom. like in the images below.



Since I can only upload 5 images to a post, the rest is explained in the post below.

Stitching Part 2

Once you have your 4 parts of your layout scanned into the computer and saved to your My Pictures folder, open your version of PSE. Then click on File>New>Photomerge Panorama. A box will pop up and click on the browse button, then click on you layout you want to merge. Do this for each of the 4 parts, or if they are all together, you can click and hold and highlight 2, 3 or 4 parts then click OK, whichever is easier for you. When you click OK, PSE will then merge the 4 parts into one picture like below:

If you see some lines from where the layers overlapped, you can check the advanced blending box, then click preview. When you are done looking at the preview click on exit preview. If you liked it with the advanced blending, leave the box checked and click OK. If you didn't like it uncheck the advanced blending box then click OK. Clicking OK will save it like this, then I will crop it, resize the image to a 12x12 and adjust the color if need be, then save the new image.

BCS Frustration!

Another year and another BCS championship loss. Oh well, we have a very young and talented team with a very bright future ahead, a team that wasn't even expected to win the Big 10 or go to the BCS Championship game. Looking forward to September and the start of another great season for Ohio State...GO BUCKS!