Ummm.....how can you just delete your blog?

Jena came downstairs last week and said, "I think I just deleted my blog."

My response: "I can fix a lot of computer related issues, but I can't fix that."

Meanwhile what was going through my mind: There is a clear delete button with an additional warning, "Are you certain you want to delete this blog?", after the delete button is clicked. How could she just delete her blog?

Well.....she did.

And she told me how she managed to do it. Which the how really doesn't matter. It's done and there's no changing it.

So this evening Jena gave me a job: find old archives of her blog entries so she can copy them into her new blog she's creating.

Sure, piece of cake......give me about 15 minutes and I'll have it for you!

Ummmm.....the words......almost impossible.....are running through my mind.

But actually there is logic to that and I know a way I can get back to her old blog; I just have to find the website that I visited a month or two ago. I'm subscribed to multiple Internet techie newsletters and blogs and somewhere I received word of a site where you could go back to a day in history, type in a website address and see what was on that site at that time.

I recall going there and not only checking out my own website, but also Google and Yahoo and it was interesting to see the dull, almost lifeless pages back in the 1990's! So I should be able to go back and retrieve her previous posts, but I need to find that site first. Because in reality, once you've posted something online, it will always be there, even if you've deleted it. There are old archives of Internet files that can be found years after they've been changed or deleted.

I did find a blog feed that has some of her posts listed and if I can't find that site, I may be able to recover a few recent posts.

So that explains the late hour of this post and why I really need to get off the computer and get to bed!

Another Wednesday night gone....

Today is Wednesday so Jena and I taught Kid's Club at church this evening. This semester the theme from now until Spring break is the Armor of God.

Jena's heading up the Scripture memory part this time since I did it last year. She had the kids lay down on the floor and draw themselves on newsprint paper. Then we hung them up on the wall. With each verse the kids memorize, they will get to put on a piece of armor on "themselves".

It's rather neat to see a line of "people" on one wall in the fellowship hall! Jena even made a sign above that says "The Army of God". Hopefully it will challenge and encourage the kids to memorize Scripture to gain more armor!

I'm doing the teaching this time, which had been challenging. I've tried to involve the kids and keep their attention as much as I possibly can. It's a good challenge to work with 5th-8th grade kids since I am much better at teaching the little ones. Trying not to talk down to them as if they were younger is something I do struggle with when teaching. But so far, it's worked out well.

I even took my camera this evening and planned on taking a few photos of "our army", but totally forgot once I got there. Oh well, maybe next time.....

Email chimes

I found it rather funny last week when Dad told me that I must get lots of email because my computer was downstairs beeping every little bit.

My Inbox is set to chime everytime new email arrives and most of the time, I have Outlook closed, but apparently I had left it open to go upstairs. And earlier that morning I had the volume turned way up since I was in the other room working and trying to listen to some songs on iTunes. Yeah, I know, it would have been extremely loud if you were in my sewing room, but I was the only one home at the time......:)

Anyway, so when Dad was in his office, right next door to my sewing room, he heard chime after chime after chime. I'm sure that was rather unusual since his email account upstairs (basically now his computer since Jena has her own) on the desktop does the same thing, but....um.....doesn't.....um......receive the numerous emails I get every day.

And when he wonders why I'm staring into my computer screen for a couple hours every day, I'll just remind him of the chimes - that could possibly be the reason.

But who can resist receiving loads of email every day from people every where?!?! Email is wonderful; I'm just glad there is not a postage charge for each one, aren't you? :)

It was going oh-so-well until I discovered...

...that I was video taping upside down.

Yes, I've spent the day video taping techniques for my online quilt class...upside down. Let me tell you...it just doesn't work very well unless you want to stand on your head to see the lessons and read the notes on your computer screen.

I know what you are thinking...I should have rewound the footage and made sure the camera direction was correct. Well.....I did.....but you have to understand that with a video camera suspended from the ceiling that my LCD is upside down. I turn the screen around so I can see what I'm taping.

And I always do a test run to be sure everything...lighting, fabric, etc looks ok through the camera lens. Which I did do.....except when I viewed the test footage, I was looking at the screen upside down, but it auto-corrects itself, so I was really looking at it correctly.....or so I thought.

Clear as mud, right?! Yeah, that's why I thought it was right when it really wasn't.

It was only after I had taped almost the entire lesson and moved my camera to a different location, that I noticed what I had done. I looked at the screen, thinking, "no that can't be right...I'm sure I didn't do that...I'll take the tape out and back in and it will be correct...maybe once it's in the computer, I can correct it."

Ummmm....let's just say I spent well into the evening and night retaping. Because no matter how many times you take the tape in and out, the picture remains the same. And there is no way to flip the image once it's been downloaded to the computer.

Jena walked through my sewing room just after I discovered what I had done and her response was, "That's pretty funny."

Funny.....maybe so, but frustrating......most definitely!

Lesson learned: Tape a test segment. Take the camera down, look at the footage and MAKE SURE everything is correct. Then continue taping.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Malachi 3:6

As I have been cleaning and sorting through things over the last few weeks, I discovered this that I had written in my daily devotions last May and as much as it was an encouragement to me then, it still is now.

Malachi 3:6 - For I am the Lord, I do not change.

What a comfort to know that God never changes. I change. My goals in life change. My plans change. My relationship with the Lord changes, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But God or His Word never, ever changes.

He's there, ready and willing to forgive us when we disobey Him. His promises never change. He never leaves us (Hebrews 13:5), He's always there, ready and willing to bring us back into a restored relationship with Him when we fail and follow our own desires. He's there to give comfort and encouragement when we need it the most.

God never changes. He's always there. I can truly be thankful for the great and unchanging God that He is!

A cat almost named "Suitcase"

Did you see this story? A cat who makes her first airplane ride in a suitcase and then arrives at the home a stranger!

Read the full story here....

I can see something happening like that to little Skittles. Yesterday I accidentally locked her in Dad's closet. I only had the closet door open a second to hang up Dad's clean shirts, but she must have snuck inside. After I had gone back downstairs to work, Dad heard her meowing, opened the closet door and she jumped down from the top shelf.

And there is no way to get on the top shelf of that small closet unless she crawled up the clothes.....btw, she has excellent claws which probably are due for another trimming! :)

This is what happens when.....

....I'm ignoring my cat who seems to desperately need my attention.

There won't be any toilet paper left on any roll in this house when we are gone for Krissa's graduation in May!

A new variety of potato soup

Yesterday wasn't freezing cold and a day that really called for soup, but I've been wanting to try a new recipe for potato soup that a friend gave me for a couple weeks and haven't had a chance. Yesterday seemed like the perfect day.

Creamy Potato & Ham Soup

1 bag (26 oz.) shredded hash browns
1 cup chopped ham
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 cup frozen french style green beans
1 cup ham juices/gravy
2 tablespoons butter
2-3 cups milk
2-3 tablespoons flour

Put the hash browns, ham, onions and green beans in a crockpot. Melt butter and stir into ham juices; pour in crockpot. Mix in flour to slightly thicken milk and pour in crockpot. There needs to be enough milk to cover contents in crockpot. Let simmer for 2-3 hours.. May need to salt and pepper to taste.

It's easy to make by pulling the hash browns, green beans and ham from the freezer. You could also use canned green beans in place of frozen. Since I chop and freeze onions in large quantities, that wasn't difficult either. And I had saved the leftover ham drippings from last week when I cooked a ham, so that worked perfectly.

The ham adds lots of flavor to it and the green beans make it different than just plain potato soup. I usually am leery of using leftover ham dripping in anything mainly because ham has so much salt in it. But the potatoes counteract the salt in the soup and I even had to add a little additional salt.

We all loved it! This recipe is definitely a keeper! :)

Jena joined the land of laptop computers!

It's official.

Jena has officially joined the rank of laptop computer owner just as Krissa and I.

Jena ordered a laptop computer over the holidays since they were running such good deals and she just loves it. But, after all, who wouldn't.

She can now be the third person in the house who carries a laptop from the schoolroom, to the kitchen, to the family room, downstairs to her room at night and then back upstairs in the morning - in other words, basically all over. Isn't that a privilage?!?!

It was actually rather funny when Krissa was home over Christmas break. All three of us girls would be sitting in the family room, computers in our laps, ipod or mp3 player with earphones plugged in (I guess Krissa might break up the group since she uses her computer because she doesn't have an ipod/mp3 player) and cell phones nearby.

Laptop, ipod and cell phone - the perfect combination. Oh and you've got to remember that the laptop is connected to the Internet or that ruins the entire party!! :)

Now just to get Dad in on the group.....the cell phone and mp3 player is taken care of, but the laptop is another story......(I don't forsee that happening in the near or distant future!)

My mouth is watering for pickles...

I'm sitting here at the computer, uploading some inventory to my site and my mouth is watering for a yummy, crisp pickle!! Unfortunately Grandma had one jar of her pickles - absolutely the best pickles in the whole wide world! - which we used at Christmas time.

With none of her pickles available and since our attempt at making Grandma's pickles failed, the next best kind and closest to them is Claussen pickles. I don't buy that brand too often because they are much more expensive than others and they still don't compare to Grandma's, but they are second best.

And they'll do when a pickle craving hits at 9:00 pm at night! So I'm off to the refrigerator for a plate-full of pickles!

Pizza boxes??

This morning I spent my time in Dodge. I had a hair appt. early this morning, stopped at the library to confirm my class schedule, did some grocery shopping and my last stop - ran by Pizza Hut to pick up some empty pizza boxes.

Dad thought it was pretty comical when he saw all the empty pizza boxes in my car when I came home! But they work great for storing fabric in my sewing room! :)

Back to the grind of schedules, classes, late nights and being busy...busy...busy

Krissa left yesterday morning, bound for her last semester of college. She is so excited that in just a few months she will be graduating!

She drove to St. Louis Monday night, stayed the night there with her roommate and then they both headed to Greenville today, arriving about 8 pm. I don't think classes start until Thursday, but she has a hectic schedule planned with being Collegian editor, her classes, her internship with the local magazine and everything else she's required to do.

And then in May comes the decision as what to do next...which she hasn't figured out yet! :)

A new year means time to clean!

The beginning of a new year must mean time to clean in my mind. This past weekend I did a top to bottom cleaning of my room - it desperately needed it. Plus I also moved the furniture around, which I happen to like the new layout better than the old.

I haven't moved the furniture in my room around for several years. When my sisters and I first moved downstairs to our own rooms, we started out moving our furniture around every couple of months. Dad quickly called a stop to that and the new rule was we could only move it around every 6 months. That 6 month mark is long gone....:)

my wonderful, clean room

The only place I didn't completely clean was my shelves with all my collectibles. I did straighten up a few things, rearrange all my books and clean a little, but I really need to take everything off the shelves, dust the woodwork and clean all my little trinkets.

But that is a huge job. I have so many little, bitty things that it seems to take forever getting everything off the shelves and then everything put back on. But that is on my list of things to do...hopefully later this month that will happen!

Then my cleaning moved to my sewing room/office. I had bunches of paperwork, invoices and accounts to file for December that I let slide before Christmas. So all that needed to be put away, plus I started getting all my paperwork together for filing my taxes in the next month or so.

on the last pile of paperwork to file away

I'll probably spend the rest of this week working/cleaning/straightening in my sewing room. I have a little rearranging I want to do, my shelves of fabric need to be resorted, some new inventory arrived that needs to be uploaded online and I have some new business plans for this year that need to be planned and implemented.

For now, I'm off to bed and then tomorrow starts another day of sorting...:)

Holiday recap: Laughing videos

The last two years we have video taped our card games and it so hilarious to watch and brings back so many memories and fun times! This year we had many episodes of laughter, silly conversation and missing cards.

During our game, the phone rang. No big deal excepts when you have been laughing for the past hour, you can't help but laugh on the phone. Thank goodness it was just Grandma on the other end and she knows us well enough that she knew were crazy and laughing.

In this video we were all laughing so hard that Dad was the only one still sitting at the table. The next day Grandma asked what in the world was going on when she called last night. We just had to tell her we were laughing so hard we could hardly talk!

Here's the phone conversation:

And here are some snippets of our family fun evening:

Holiday recap: Card Game Night!

Every year around Christmas/New Years we plan an evening to play cards, eat snacks and laugh way too much! And this year was no different than in years past. We laughed and giggled and had way too much fun! I think the punch I made had way too much sugar in it; could that possibly be the reason??? :)

Here's a few shots from our family fun night and you can see more by clicking here.

Holiday recap: Christmas

I've haven't written anything for a while...mainly because the last couple of weeks have been hectic. But here is a recap of what the last of 2007 and beginning of 2008 was like....

First of all we celebrated our little family Christmas on the 24th. Jena worked Christmas Eve and day, so we spent some time together the evening before Christmas.

Then we had everyone in the Jantz family at our house on the evening of the 27th. And just about everyone was here...Uncle Gerald from CO, Nolan from CA and Derek, Kristin and Eisley from NC, plus all of the Jantz family around here. What fun it was to get together!

We all were over at Uncle Ron's and Aunt Cherie's on the 28th for our Christmas dinner and more fun times together.

Here are a few photos and you can see more by clicking here.

Krissa & Dad

I love Jena's expression!! :)

Dad and the newest cousin to the family - Eisley

Grandma and our uncles in the kitchen

Grandma and Eisley

the girls table - I don't think we'll ever outlive the title of "the girls" :)

Christmas dinner