I'm Naked

I'm naked. Not in literal terms though. I heard you just say, 'Whew!."

My camera has been shooting high. When I think back, it's been doing this for about a year. When I asked the lady that taught my photography class about it she said, "Oh some cameras just do that." So I never thought twice about it....

Until I used two different cameras and theirs shot spot on. It was then I realized, this is not normal.

So after a few sleepless nights and many unanswered phone calls, I managed to get a hold of a Sony person. He told me the anti-dust mechanism is broken, he could tell by the grinding noise it made, and therefore is causing the camera to be out of whack.

Good times.

The warranty has expired because I've had my third child for over a year. Sony Man said the cost would be $198.00. I decided to bust out my 'sweet talking sales lady voice' and see if I could get a better deal.

I told him how I love my camera, which is true. But I had a hard time paying $200 to fix it when I had paid full price for the camera. He understood, so he said, "As long as there is nothing else wrong with it, I can charge you half price."

I cried, a little, enough to make him feel good about his decision.

So hopefully I do not receive a phone call saying, "Hi, Mrs, K---, we are sorry but there is indeed more damage and we will have to charge you another $100 to fix it."

All that said to let you know, I feel naked. I want my clothes/camera back.

Here is Coop, one year ago to the day. He was just starting solids.

Thankful

If you read my twitter thing, then you already heard this story. If you don't, do not fret I am going to re-tell it.

Kids were at school. I was alone. Drove to Jude's, my favorite place to get a chai latte and pumpkin bread, and got those items that are my favorite.

I was texting Matt while waiting. When the lady came to the window, I put my phone in my lap and the screen saver and wall paper has pictures of the kids. "Ohhh are those your honeys?" She asked. At first I'm not sure what she is talking about because the kids weren't in the car and for a moment I panicked because I thought I had lost my mind.

"Oh on my phone? Ya that's my kids, they're at school."
"Mine turns 20 today."
"Oh well, congratulations!"
"Ah thanks. She's 20 and my other daughter is 22."

She went back inside. When she came back to the window she said, "When they were 3 and 1 I would pray with them every time I left them."
"So like before you dropped them off at school?"
"Before we went any where. I'd pray in the house. I know it wasn't my doing that made them the wonderful women they are today, but I am just so thankful I got to be their Mom."

She went back inside again. What she said struck me. "I am so thankful to be THEIR mom." Usually I say, "I am so thankful they are my children." I never stopped to pause and look at it the other way.

"That is a nice way of putting it, usually we say how we are thankful they are our children."
"Ya, well, I mean it they are so great. You hang on to this time because..." she began to cry, "I would give anything to be able to hold them and rock them again."

Then I began to cry and a car came up behind me, so I had to move.

I have been thinking about what she said. "I am so thankful to be their mom."

My Past

In college, I used to eat my sandwiches with a fork.

That is all I have to say.

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this." -C.S. Lewis

A New 'Repeat'

I think I've written before about my obsession with music and my obsession with the repeat button when I find a 'new' song.

Let me refresh your memory.

When I find a song I love and can't live without and need to hear it over and over and over and over as loud as I possibly can, I download it from Amazon, upload it to my phone, plug in the headphones and listen to the song and possibly cry until something requires me to remove the headphones and snap out of it ie. kid screaming, kid awake, person at the door, the need for a shower....

Well, I found a new song that needs repeating. (New to me, possibly old to others.)

Another mile down the road

Another mile from my home

At times I feel quite alone

Cause you know,

cause you know all there is to know

So hold my heart as it's breaking apart and I'll,

I'll hold yours in mine

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away, from me

I close my eyes and try to see

See you right in front of me

As if you're only in my dreams

But you are, everywhere and in between

You're the, moonlight in the dark of my night

And you, shine bright so I can see

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away, from me, yeah

Catch my tears as they fall

It's like I never left at all

And all the world feels so small, cause right now

We are high above it all

So hold me close, don't ever let me go

Tell me, what I already know

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away, from me, yeah

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away

Oh oh, oh oh, you're never far away, from me, yeah

Another mile down the road!

FYI, Jim Brickman does have some wonderful instrumental music. He also has Christmas music and it's wonderful!

We Need Storms

I was told that a friend of mine was going through a difficult time. A time that no one ever wants to go through or think about; a husband losing sight of Life.

I have been festering, all afternoon, over an issue. When the phone rang, I was on my way to losing it. (It was a random festering issue.)

When the person on the other line told of the storm my friend was going through, my heart ached.

I know what going through a storm feels like. My mind began writing an email.

Hi friend, I would say "I'm praying" but I know how trivial that sounds coming from a person not in your shoes. Kind of sounds so petty to tell a person, "I'm praying" and then go about eating that last peace of candy in the fridge.

So here is what I will say. I am praying, but I'm praying specifically. I liked when people said they were being specific with their prayers. Made me feel like I was taken seriously. So I am praying that when you heart wants to scream, you will scream to the Lord. When you want to walk because it hurts to run that you will run to the Lord. When you don't know what to say, God will provide the words to your children. When you lay in bed, Christ will lay with you. And when you go to the door, he is there and you guys will be the wiser because of the tears.

Then I began thinking of my own storm that passed a while back. My mind bounced to the rain and how important it is. How life on Earth requires a drink. Then I paralleled the two.

If it never rains on Earth, nothing will ever grow except the weeds that drown out the earths beauty. If it never rains in our life, our fruit will never grow and we will have nothing to share with others.

We need the storms.....

Protect Your Pics UPDATE

(Someone pointed out the flaw to this... The ability to left click to enlarge the picture AND then right click to save is still there. So, because I don't want to give you false protection hope, I did some searching. I found a blog that gives instructions how to to eliminate the left clicking feature. Read her post and you will be able to decide for yourself if you want to do what she says. I probably will considering my viewership is not that of PW. If you have a question, just leave a comment and I'll respond.)

I heard a story recently... A woman found out her son's photo was on Craigslist in the classifieds section! And she didn't put him there!

Someone stole her picture from her blog and put it on the website saying he was for sale! Freaky!! Make you want to vomit in something freaky.

So I googled, "how to protect your photos on your blog"

Second option was a blog. She had a link and instructions on how to do just that; protect your pics.

Here is the website link. (to get the code)

Once you have the code. Click on 'customize' at the top right of your blog. Then click 'Add a Gadget.' Select 'HTML/JavaScript.' In the content box, paste your code. Now it's there. You need to DELETE the part that looks like below.

============================================================Script: Basic No-Right-Click ScriptFunctions: Blocks right-click on mouse and shows alert boxBrowsers: NS & IE 4.0 & later; degrades gracefullyAuthor: etLux============================================================
Put the following script in the head of your page:

Now you can make it say something funny when people try to copy your pictures. Try copying one of mine, you'll see what I wrote.

The part that looks like this:

// Set the message for the alert boxam = "This function is disabled!";

If you delete "This function is disabled!" You can type whatever you want within the quotes.

Happy protecting.