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Entry for May 31, 2006

Although we stayed very busy today, I still feel I have a lot of spare time on my hands. Since I took over 1000 photos with my new camera during the month of May, I get a lot to play around with. I love technology.

Edit: I don't think people are picking up on the fact that this photo is sepia with Jonas in color. So, I thought I would try another one, for a more dramatic effect:

Entry for May 31, 2006

I blame this mess on my brother. Have you ever seen the picture on the box of hot wheels tracks, the one with the room filled with track? Caleb got new track from about the time he was 3 until he was about 8, for ever gift giving occation there was. My brother told me, his goal was to create that room on the box. The kids had forgotten about the track up until about two days ago, and now I can't get it out of the living room. That big blue box, still has TONS more track in it. We have lost a few pieces over the years, and over the moves, but, they still have an impressive setup. The mess is Kevin's fault.

We walked the the Riley library for the first time. I figure we should support it, if Iwant it to stay open. They had a small selection of books, but not too bad. It is a rotating selection, it rotates every 5 weeks (I think) and new books come in to enjoy. I signed the kids up for a story time, which Caleb announced he was too old for.

The boys came up with their own 50 cents each to buy a soda while we were out and about. Caleb was the only one with money. He had one dollar, and shared with Alex, Alex agreed to earn 50 cents for Jonas, so he cleaned, accepted his money, and passed it on. It made me a proud mom.

A slide show

A slideshow

http://apps.rockyou.com/rockyou.swf?instanceid=26986332

It's part of an experiment, to get the slide show to pop up automatically here.  This is the best I've got so far.

How to Put a photo in the middle

Here is how I put a photo in the middle, for those fans of mine, who want to do it themselves.

First, you need a place that stores your photos online for you. I use flickr. It's free. If you join, you can come comment on my photos. Fun for all. Then, after you upload photos there (it's simple to do). Click on the photo. You now need to get the static url for the photo. To do this, at least in flickr, click on "all sizes", then, I pick "small". Now, at the bottom, it gives you a tag. You want option number 1. You only need the second half of that tag. But, for ease of explanation, you can use the whole thing. It works either way. Here comes the tricky part that took me several experiments to come up with. On your compose a blog page, under the box you're typing in, check "View HTML Source". If you're not familar with HTML, it's going to look slighty weird, but you've got to do it.  I tried to do it without this step, and it never worked. You might also want to look into learning some basic HTMLing, so you can center your photos, or properly space stuff. That's covered on many, many websites.

Now scroll down to the bottom, click, and copy and paste section 1 from flickr onto your compose blog area.

Now, I personally, like to add two more tags to center my photo. To do that, you have to type "center" and "/center" at the begining and end of the photo tag. You have to replace the "" with .  (It wouldn't of typed it out, if I would of done that). And, that's it! Now you can do it over and over again. 

I hope this made sense, somewhat. There might be an easier way, but, that's how I figured it out. Enjoy. 

Entry for May 30, 2006

My eldest son, the wonderful person that he is, has such a hard time being a happy kid. We spent the morning grocery shopping, and had to also buy overpriced baseball pants and belt for Caleb (Our secret, but he has to share them with Alex), the topped off our outing with a trip to the park, to use up some of that energy before bringing them home.

Caleb was grumpy about everything. Grumpy he has to eat popcorn chicken for lunch (one of his favorite foods), grumpy he had to get baseball pants, grumpy he had to go to a park, it had a hot slide, and some girl kept following him around. Someday he'll be thrilled that a girl is following him around. Not today. Grumpy he has to wait until AFTER lunch to hang out with his friends. Grumpy that I won't dig out all of his batteries for his remote control cars BEFORE I put away the groceries (I did point out if I got help, I would be done quicker).  I hope he finds happiness soon, or we will have a very long Summer vacation. Side note, he's also grumpy that there are not more thrill rides at Walt Disney World. Great. Just Great.

Entry for May 29, 2006

What a great idea Sarah had! So, the boys and I picked up a cheap small scrapbook at Hobby Lobby while in Manhattan today, and stopped off to play at a park on our way home. We also got a second scrapbook, so that we can start doing letterboxing. We will carve our rubberstamp for the project this week, and start hunting. How great, to have a free (well, I paid $3 for the scrapbook) project for the kids and I to do all summer. I will also put the photos on flickr, for everyone who doesn't want to drive to Riley, KS to see our scrapbook.

Entry for May 27, 2006

Here is Jared and Mini Jared, making the fire. They did great. Great fire. Sorry I didn't mention that in the last blog entry. Wonderful fire. Lucky me, two great firemakers.

Entry for May 26, 2006

We celebrated the last day at school, begining of summer at the lake this afternoon. The kids cooked hot dogs over a camp fire for the first time ever, we had smores, and other yummy treats. Alex caught a grasshopper. All three boys threw rocks into the lake. Alex climbed a tree. Caleb made sure that the fire was all out, before we left. It was a nice, relaxing cookout.

Entry for May 26, 2006

My baby boys are off to their last day of school, equiped with cookies to celebrate. Caleb was suppose to bring in something nutrition. He really wanted cookies though, he's going to tell everyone to save them for last. I emailed Alex's teacher, to see if she wanted cookies too, and she told me, they will NEVER turn down cookies! So, two batches of cookies.

The first time they walked by themselves, I was more than a bit nervous, but I knew they could handle it. It's only 2 1/2 blocks. In the begining they came straight home, and arrived by 3:30, now, I typically don't see them arrive home until 3:45, they're too busy socializing to come straight home.

Alex had baseball practice last night. It was a scrimage against the other 1st and 2nd grade Riley team. No score was kept, everyone had fun. The boys had fun playing against their friends on the other team. Alex's first game is this upcoming Tuesday, we have no clue who he's playing, and we don't even have a uniform yet, it should be interesting.

Entry for May 24, 2006

Today, I decided to be productive today, and update the kids' "school days" books. I remembered to have the kids put in their signature last year, and I asked them the questions, i.e. friends, favorite subject.. but, no photos. So, I dug through, found last years school photos, along with this years, and was doing wonderful. Jonas got his first entry, for his first year of school. I double checked Alex and Jonas' baby books, and I was amazed that Jonas' was right on track. Alex however, is lacking the past two years. I updated the entries, and just need to find some appropriate photos for his 6th and 7th year of life. He's so close to finishing the book.

I also noticed, when Caleb was the only child with a school days book, I filled up his pages with tons of photos, then, when I had multiple books to work on, my photos went downhill. I'm going to hear about this in 20 years, if I don't work on fixing it right now.