Belated thank you note

• Thank you, Lisa Doty Guerrero and Kim Harper Frances, for teaching me to ride a bike at grandma and grandpa Doty's house. Lisa brought infinate patience, Kim brought passionate motivation--it was the perfect storm, and the bike got rode.


• Thank you, Rachel and Riley Doty for the American Royal, trips in a big grain truck with too many people in the cab, trips to Silver Dollar City, trips all over. I hope there's a travel plan in heaven.


• Thank you, Bob and Joyce Doty, for taking me to the Camelot Hotel in Little Rock, AR when I was 14, and showing me for the first time what man made splendor was.


• Thank you, Julie Doty Mankins, for being my first best friend. Thank you Susie Harvey, for being the last best friend I'll ever need.


• Thank you, Elaine and Clyde Harper, for the camping trips and the pies made out of white bread and cherry pie filling, cooked over a campfire.


• Thank you, Chris and Sharon Harper, for buying all kinds of stuff I sold when I was in school for this or that. I always think of you when I see a little kid with an order blank in his hand.


• Thank you, Laura Harper McWilliams, for showing me in adulthood what peace looks like, and for all those late night little girl talks under the Nadia Comaneci poster in your room back in the day.


• Thank you, Lisa Brass Ross, for the funny, funny, oh so funny.


• Thank you, Lisa Viets, for freshman year in high school, and not having to walk the halls alone.


• Thank you, Barbara Anderson Bickford and Stephanie O'Neal Beck for the 80s funny, funny, oh so funny, and how many times did we sing The Rose on some sort of stage, or at least in front of people? Too many. Bette Midler called. She wants her song back.


• Thank you, Andrew and Tiffany Lough and Michael and Alicia Moore, for Branson. Each and every time.
• Thank you Terri Hines, for several thousand dollars' worth of lunches. I'll never live long enough to pay you back! And for being my friend, and funny and for helping me face all those doctors . . .

I know I'm forgetting somebody . . . I'll probably have to do this again with a second list.

Mom and Dad, Brandon and Karen, Shauna and Matt, Monte, I'm always thankful for you, and hopefully you know what for.

I love Photoshop Actions

Because they turn the little guy on the left, into the little guy on the right! Boom! Yea color boost, yea lightener, yea yea yea!

Also, for those of you keeping score at home, Mozilla Firefox is faster, less flaky and a far superior browser than IE7, much like the MAC is superior to the PC in every way but third party software availability. Take that, Microsoft.

Oh MY!

My sister's year and a half old baby Ben is a spirited little guy who loves to scream and throw and run and bite and grin and laugh and play. He is a typical boy, and as a typical boy, he likes to rip the pages from books instead of looking at them and gently patting the pictures. (I have several books with no pages in them anymore. We switched to board books after the doctor announced the second Ellis baby would be a boy too.) But Shauna's Ben has done an artful job of ripping the above book, and Shauna wonders aloud, "Is he trying to send me a message?"

Yes, Shauna. Yes he is.

Welcome baby Caden!

So, I was helping to plan this baby shower for my friend, when baby Caden James arrived early and threw everybody off schedule! It's okay, he's just cute enough to get away with it. The little guy is just under 4 pounds and 18 inches long, with lot of hair! (All my babies were so precious, but also so bald. I've always been jealous of babies with lots of hair!)

Fritz's

GeoTagged, [N39.08325, E94.58183]

A few weeks ago while in Kansas City for LTC, we ate at Fritz's in Crown Center. Fritz's is a train-themed burger joint, with a black old time corded telephone for customers to "call" in a food order, and each booth was decorated with a train car-looking window that shows paintings of scenery, I guess to simulate what it might look like if you were on a real train and looked out the window or something (I've never been on a train, so I'm wildly guessing here). Anyway, the cutest part is that instead of people, an actual mini-train brings the food (people still bring drinks--they're not completely insane). It's on an overhead track that goes around the perimeter of the restaurant, and a little mechanical arm drops down in front of your table stop when the food is for you. Then, when the train passes by over head, the arm drags the food off the train and on to a tray, which is lowered down to your table. The boys couldn't stop staring at the process of each table getting their food. One box of food nearly fell off the tray while it was still in midair because the train went by kind of fast, and we jokingly wondered to each other if any of the trays ever topple over and pelt people with burgers and fries. The Hajicek family ate at Fritz's the same night, and I guess when you're both lawyers, you don't just wonder things and move on, you verify with people who know. So they asked the waitress if the food ever actually spills on unsuspecting customers, and she told them that, no, it didn't happen very often, only about once a week. We all agreed once a week represented a high incidence rate of food falling from the ceiling, not a low one, but even though we went back once more during the weekend, we never got to see anyone wearing a burger hat or fries for hair. But wouldn't that have been so cool?

My Favorite Websites . . . right now

If you know me, you know I don't live long without technology. Even camping I take my cell phone and make sure we can use Google Earth on it or some sort of GPS to make sure we can find the tent again. I do a lot of my shopping online (no crowds), nearly all of my banking (again, did I mention no crowds) and even track how far I've walked with my Nike+ shoes (to get AWAY from the crowds).

So it would seem I have a teeny tiny expertise in the area of rampant internet consumerism, and for one lucky post, all my knowledge can be yours. Shall we begin?

MY TOP ELEVEN FAVORITE WEB SITES (in no particular order)--That's right, eleven, deal with it!!!

1. The Shabby Shoppe digital scrapbook store: http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/
   I just like this lady's digital scrapbook kits and designs. Plus, I use them for a lot more than scrapbooking . . . the spring kit will figure prominently in baby shower decorations in the next few weeks!
2. Pioneer Woman Photography: http://thepioneerwoman.com/
   Has awesome Photoshop actions, Photoshop tutorials, Photography hints, and even other website sections related to cooking and home schooling. The recipes look great and her pictures of them look even better. She can keep the home schooling, though!
3. Oh My Crafts: http://www.ohmycrafts.com/
   Everything scrapbooking, and it's cheaper than at the stores. Plus, sometimes they offer free shipping, or a discount on your total order, which makes all your craft items an even better buy!
4. Nelle and Lizzy: http://www.nelleandlizzy.com/
   Personalized silver rings and necklaces, and in a style you can't really find anywhere else. You can have your baby or sweetie's name in silver on your finger or around your neck, just in time for Mother's Day! These pieces are the bomb!
5. Columbia's Kitchen (formerly Super Suppers): http://www.columbiaskitchen.com/
   It's like having mom cook for you, then freeze the dish! Delicious, better than supermarket frozen food, and cheaper than eating out. I highly recommend the Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf and the Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas.
6. Ancestry.com: http://www.ancestry.com/
   Let's face it. If you're doing family history research, you're eventually going to have to get on this site. I know, I know, rootsweb and genweb are free, and this involves a membership, but still, you can get more info, in less time, with easier search tools and better hints from the mama of them all. Ancestry still rules the genealogy game.
7. Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/
   I have a thing for the past, especially old time radio and TV broadcasts (for my purposes, old time radio and TV involves anything originally broadcast in the 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s--in some cases I'll include 70s and 80s if I'm being nostalgic for my own old time lifespan.) Hulu has great TV shows you can watch on your computer for free, if you don't mind a few commercials. They have some of the old 60s Dragnet TV show, and of course, some newer stuff, depending on your taste.
8. Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/
   And, if you don't mind a few bucks a month and sitting at your computer monitor instead of your television (or at your TV if you have Tivo hooked up to Netflix, but I digress), you can watch even more old TV with no commercials. Plus some movies. I love this service--it's really worth the $14 a month to get the Rockford Files any time I want me a little James Garner in 70s polyester plaid.
9. iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/
   I love downloading old time radio and listening to it while doing the stuff I don't want to do, like laundry and such. It makes the separation of whites and darks so much more interesting, if Boston Blackie or The Shadow or Perry Mason are solving crime in my head! Plus most of the OTR podcasts on iTunes are free. Can't beat it, unless you don't have an iPod or other MP3 player. But seriously, that's like not owning a microwave anymore, right?
10. Pro Bar meal replacement bars: http://theprobar.com/
    I love the Cran Lemon Twister, and the Cherry Pretzel ones the best! If you're out or busy or need a little snack, these babies can either be a pick me up or a whole meal, depending on how much of them you eat (350 calories per bar). They really fill you up if you're hungry and lunch is still a long way off--and you can slip them in a diaper bag or purse or car glove box or hide them under your bed or in your underwear drawer! Think of the options! Plus, after you find out how good they are for you, you can buy them here (or at Clover's, but since this is all about the web, we'll gloss over that.)
11. One True Media: http://www.onetruemedia.com/
    Get all that footage out of your camera and into everyone's e-mail inbox! You upload your clips to OTM, add in some (for the most part) free styles, effects, transitions, music, whatever, and then you can share it by e-mail, to another person's Tivo, buy a DVD of it, any number of options. You don't have to invest in footage editing software or burn your own DVDs or try and get Grandma to understand how to open the MPEG file you sent. I use this site a lot!

Ta-da! Oh, and of course, blogger.com, but then again, you guys knew that!

PS: Other sites I love, but that didn't make the list because it was getting too long: http://www.bellasnaps.com/scripts/default.asp; http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=18797&cmd=tc; http://www.heavenlystitchesembroidery.com/ (yes, that's Hayden, it's Kristin Lasiter's site);
http://www.otr.net/; http://www.papertreyink.com/; https://lty.s.upromise.com/secure/cookiedHomePage.do and http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/shop/

Sometimes you want the drama

Mason's LTC drama participation (turn the sound up--my camera didn't catch the sound very well). It's a call in radio show, where the host, Ferris C. (Pharisee--get it?) played by William Kallenbach (yes, he's ready for his close-up) isn't all that fond of that radical Jesus guy, until the very end . . . Mason plays Peter, one of the diciples.

Life, Light, Word and Exhaustion

We spent the weekend at Leadership Training for Christ, a church based retreat in Kansas City where kids 3rd through 12th grades competed in events designed to grow them spiritually and encourage the development of their leadership skills. Each year there's a theme, and this year it was Life, Light & Word, the gospel of John. This was Mason's first year to participate, and the events he competed in were Christian art, speech, drama, bible reading, bible quiz & puppets. The whole weekend was amazing (it was at Crown Center also, so there was great food and shops when we weren't running to and from events), but the best part was anything Mason participated in--we had been before as church organizers, but there's something about having your own kid in the events, that makes it all feel so rewarding. He worked so hard--besides memorizing his lines for drama, he nearly memorized his speech and the first four chapters of John! Here's his speech (given at 8 a.m. on Saturday, in a suit, after having less than optimal sleep, thank you very much!)

We were really really tired when we got home, (and a few of us got the stomach flu and threw up so they were even more tired than the rest of us), but we would do it all again just to see Mason so grown up. (Well, grown up with the exception of a few escalator and elevator moments, but then again, Monte IS his dad!)

Sorry PETA, I just don't get it

GeoTagged, [N38.93424, E92.38938]

So, Peyton and I are in the Westlake Hardware store picking up some mulch, when we are transported through the looking glass into an upside-down world. Normally, any store experience is like a baby show without all the rouge and dysfunctional stage moms. "Oh isn't he precious!" "My grandson is about the same age--isn't this a fun time?" "What a charmer! What a doll!" And so on. (You get used to it.) So imagine my surprise when the cashier at Westlakes simply takes my money and hands me back my change while avoiding eye contact like I was there all by myself . . . I'm all "Really? No one sees the adorable baby with the cute hat? Sitting right here? Being . . . adorable and such?"

It was true. No one was looking at Peyton. That's bizarre enough to end the story right there. But then, as if this wasn't Twilight Zone-y enough, a guy comes in, and at the end of his leash was something best described as the result of breeding a large black dog with a small, even blacker, horse. Do the employees scream and run for cover? Do they ask the animal what it wants and beg it not to hurt anybody? NO! The cashiers go ga-ga! Nuts! Completely bonkers over this canine giant. "Oh my goodness, what a sweet baby! She is beautiful, what is her name! Raven? Oh how precious!!!" Blah blah blah. I mean, this hellhound looking beast didn't really evoke 'sweet' so much as bone-chilling fright, like the kind of dog you'd find guarding the gates of Hades (although, to be fair, the scary dog-horse was very well behaved). And these grandmotherly cashiers are overtly fawning, and Peyton can't get a "Hello there" to save his life. What sort of freak show mixed up world are we living in anyway? :) I'm going to stay in my house until things right themselves again.