Digital Scrapbooking

I am not one to scrapbook. I have always liked the way scrapbooks look. They are cute and fun to look at. I do not have the patience to go to the store, look at all the choices of paper, stamps, scissors, and other accessories to make a cute scrapbook. So my pictures right now consist of a large 3-ring binder, plastic sheets and plain white paper. I print the pictures that I want, glue them to the page and am lucky if I write the date of the picture on the paper. Until now!!

I have some friends in the ward that have put together a website and a way for you to scrapbook digitally. On this website is a tutorial to familiarize yourself on how to scrapbook using a particular photoshop. I thought I would try it out. So I downloaded the 30-day free trial of this program. I was also able to use this tutorial and work through it to learn how to have some cute and fun pages within my picture books. At first I didn't think that I would really get into it, but I'm one who will stick with something long enough to get my questions answered and really get a good feel for it. I ended up loving it. Below are a few pages that I have put together over the last few days. Some are really basic, others are more involved, but hey....I'm still learning.

The great thing about this is that I have no mess. If I make a mistake there is a nice delete button, or my preference ctrl+z. I can create something, decide if I like it, and either keep it or get rid of it without wasting any materials. I don't have to have a certain room just to hold all the materials and I don't have to constantly clean up when I'm done so that my kids don't get into it and mess things up. One other thing I enjoyed, was Megan helped design her birthday page. She picked colors and the pictures that she wanted on her page. Daniel got a little jealous that I wasn't doing a page for him. I told him after his birthday (July) he could help me design his page.








A BIG THANK YOU!!! to my friends who got me involved in this.

Mr. Independent

This morning I was lucky to be able to sleep in a bit. Usually I am awakened by my two children screaming. When I woke up, I could hear that someone was up but they were being very quiet. I thought, "How nice, they finally listened and are being quiet until everyone is up." But then my thoughts quickly turned to, "Oh no, it's too quiet. I wonder what mess my children have created." That was enough to get me out of bed.

As I left my room, Megan's door was closed which meant she was still in bed. I continued going towards the tiny bit of noise in the kitchen. I walked down enough stairs to see what was going on in my kitchen. What did I see? There was Daniel making himself breakfast.

Apparently all the Ego's that were in the inside freezer were all gone. He had gone outside, unlocked the freezer, got the Ego box off the top shelf, got out a package of Ego's, and locked the freezer. Then when he got inside, the package had to be opened. I'm not sure how long it took him to get the packag opened, but I don't think the poor package deserved that kind of treatment. He then put his Ego's in the toaster, got them toasted, got them on a plate, covered them in syrup, and was proceeding to cut his Ego's. That was when I entered the room.

He then told me, in the most proud way that I think a 4-year can, that he made breakfast all by himself. After which he told me he couldn't get the box back in the freezer.

I think it's great that he is doing all these things by himself. Maybe I've discouraged it a bit, not because I don't think he can do it, but because I know Megan can't do all that by herself without making one huge mess. And Megan's thinking is, "if Daniel can do it, why not me?" I'm glad that Megan was still in bed and doesn't know that he did this all by himself.

Daniel has always been a good helper. There have been times that they wanted breakfast before I got up and Daniel has been able to pour each of them a bowl of cereal with some milk.

It's fun to watch the kids grow up and learn how to do some of their own things.

Recital

The other day Megan had her first piano recital. She played the Meat song with Twinkle Variation A. She was very dramatic as she first went up there. I hope to be able to get the video up shortly so that you can see just what I mean. I was actually surprised she did this. Usually she'll be way excited to do something and then when it comes down to it, she turns ultra shy and begins to cry. Kudos to Megan for performing well....once she got to the piano.



By now Daniel is a pro at this sort of thing. He played Clair de Lune (not the one by Debussy) with both hands. It's amazing to see how each student progresses in such a short amount of time.



We also did a piano quintet at this recital. We used three pianos, 2 students on each piano and me on the third. We played all the twinkle variations with me accompanying them. During the practices, I was really worried that it would not work. But, it went very well and turned out to be a lot of fun.

I hope to get the videos up soon!

Rite of Passage

Daniel and I went through one of the rites that every American boy should experience. Daniel can now demonstrate each of the four basic positions to hold his mitt to catch a ball. He took a ball to his left eye, off the top of his head, and several off his knees and feet, but he was a good sport and kept with it. Now we just have to fix his throw...

The Zoo

We went to the zoo the other day. It was a bit chilly, but a very nice day to attend. I have been wanting to take the kids to the zoo since November. The day we planned to go in November happened to snow and we haven't been able to find the time until just recently. The kids enjoyed their trip at the zoo. The highlights of the zoo are:

The Carousel



The Playground



The Train



If the zoo didn't have those three things, I don't know how much the kids would enjoy going to the zoo. It's not like there are a lot of animals there that they can look at. However, Daniel enjoys looking at the penguins.

Good Eye!

Today, I helped Daniel practice his piano. One of the activities was flash cards with the notes in each staff. When I showed him the F in the lowest space of the treble clef, he enthusiastically said, "E!" I quietly said, "no." He almost immediately responded by telling me it would be an E if I turned the card upside down (thus placing the note in the top space in the treble clef, an E). I hope I don't do anything that makes him lose that ability.

Young and foolish with big price tag

I read a terrible news story online this morning. An 18 year-old woman killed herself over the ridicule she received from school mates. They were teasing her because her ex-boyfriend had distributed nude cell phone pictures of her which she had sent him when they were together.

I very much understand the mentality of youth. I'm not that far removed from it myself (although it astounds me how far in the rear view mirror those days are getting...but I digress).

The most dangerous part of today's technology is that once these images are created and distributed to even one person, there is no way to control it anymore and it cannot be recalled or deleted. We have all heard stories of crazy things our parents or grand parents did (or might have done). The difference is that most kids in those days did not carry video and audio recording devices in their pockets...so there's no real evidence to say whether your Uncle is telling the truth or not about the time he mooned half the town. No evidence means he gets to have a fun story, but nobody is justified in punishing him or thinking less of him - he's just telling a story. Gone are those days...now if you tell that story, you're a liar unless you can produce photo or video evidence. Faced with the choice between everyone thinking you're a liar and showing a pixelated photo of your rear to the world, some young people might choose the latter. But they have to understand that the photo will never die.

I shudder to think that because of the recording technology available, indiscretions committed by our nation's youth will haunt them well into their adult lives. We all had youthful indiscretions, but the kind of evidence has changed. Let's help the youth understand that difference and help them to take steps to protect themselves so that they can gain experience the same way we all did - by having a safe place to make a mistake without ruining their whole lives.