My first born

April 8 I've been having contractions. We went to the doctor but after the examination I was sent home. Nope! That kid is not "all the way down yet". The doctor said my due date is April 14. I had pain all night and all day, off and on.

April 9, 10:00 am we went back to the doctor. Again, I was sent home. More off and on pain all day and all night.

April 10...yes...back to the doctor. By this time I was in so much pain I kept rubbing my head on my pillow. I rubbed it raw! and I kept asking people to massage my back/hips. Somehow it soothed the pain. The doctor wanted to send me home again. Said I wasn't ready. I said, Yes I am!!!

So he made me wait in the patient room. They should have called it impatient room! By 5pm I found myself in an ambulance and they rushed me from the doctor's clinic all the way to the hospital.

By 6pm I was prepped for a c-section. The last thing I remembered was the anesthesiologist asking if I wanted a boy or a girl. I said "boy".

I heard all these weird noises coming from afar, like drifting in and out of space. When I was half-awake I realized all the relatives were in the room waiting for me to wake up. I thought to myself why are they all here? I want to rest.

The first thing I asked was, "where are my legs?" I couldn't feel my legs. It felt like half of my body (the upper half) is on the bed and the lower half is dangling on the side of the bed.

Everybody laughed. I asked about my legs first, not about my baby.
A baby?! I thought. Oh, yeah. I had a baby. It is so weird. It didn't feel like having a baby. For the longest time after that, staring at the baby, feeding him, cuddling him, I still couldn't believe I have a baby! I guess it's because it was not a "natural" birth.

Happy birthday, Lennart! I love you.

The labor pains were well worth it!

The Song That Made Me Cry

I held back tears while in church yesterday. But it didn't work. This song is so touching.

Thank you for the cross, Lord
Thank you for the price You paid
Bearing all my sin and shame
In love You came
And gave amazing grace.

Thank you for this love, Lord
Thank you for the nail pierced hands
Washed me in Your cleansing flow
Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace

Worthy is the Lamb
Seated on the throne
Crown You now with many crowns
You reign victorious
High and lifted up
Jesus Son of God
The Darling of Heaven crucified
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb

by Australia Hillsong

It just says it all.

Organizing - Part 2

Alright! So here's my final orgnization system. It took a while because of the many files I have. I brought my laptop to work and worked on organizing my files an hour a day (during my lunch break) for 2 weeks. It was a perfect time. I didn't want to go anywhere because of the snow or cold weather so I spent my lunch hour in the waiting area of the building where I work.




I organized the names of each folder to read: name of designer/initials of website/title of kit for example: SuzanneWalker-DSP ChiliNights. Then I went to each file in the folder and pasted the folder name onto each file, leaving the name of the file intact (folder name in red, file name in yellow): SuzanneWalker-DSP ChiliNights flower01.jpg







After I renamed everything, I created a folder called "Digital Supplies" and created sub-folders for

• photo holders (includes frames, prongs, pins)




• flowers (includes paper, silk, gels, doodles, leaves)




• word art




• stitches and staples,




• digital papers




• alpha




• tags, journals




• ribbons, bows, fibers




• buttons, beads, jewels




• brads, eyelets, bookplates




• charms, stickers

Brushes, textures, fonts, etc. have their own folders. I don't want to drown my program with these as someone told me that too much will make your program not work.

Then I moved everything in the proper folders. So now I have all papers in one folder, all flowers in another folder...

It works great for me for the following reasons:

1) with the thumbnails view I can browse through files and be able to see everything I have in the folder. It's so easy to pick the paper or embellishment I want to use.



2) with the designer, website, and kit name available, giving credit is as easy as A-B-C.



As I said, it took a while. But it works for me! If you have an easier way to organize your digital supplies, let me know.

Organizing - Part 1

How do you organize your digital downloads?
Me? I've tried everything [I think] but it seems that the more I organize, the more I become disorganized. Have you ever felt that way? The first time, I organized my dowloads by the site where I found them. When I get too many I then burn them onto CDs/DVDs. So I ended up having a full disc or 2 for every site I visited like http://www.shabbyprincess.com/, http://www.digitalfreebies.com/, http://www.oscraps.com/store/, http://scrapbookbytes.com/, http://www.scrapartist.com/, http://store.scrapgirls.com/. I have other places I've visited and might have to link them some other time. These are just a few examples.

But once burned onto discs and they're gone from my computer, I seem to forget what I have and still have a difficult time remembering where to find a particular designer or kit even though I've labeled each disc. So I went into the extent of making an Excel worksheet for each website. My worksheet is composed of the name of the designer, title of the kit, a brief description of what the kit is all about (Christmas, birthdays, teen, Spring, Summer, etc.), and the disc #. I even have a worksheet for the designers, i.e. under the ScrapGirls column I listed all the names of the designers. That way when I have new downloads and don't remember which site I found them, I can look up the name in the "Designer" worksheet. The worksheets worked because then, before purchasing or downloading another freebie I find, I can check my worksheets to see if I already have a copy of the download. See how that works?

But I still get frustrated not knowing what I have. I know I have tons of downloads and it takes a long time looking for the perfect paper or embellishment that goes with a particular picture. Can you imagine going through each worksheet reading the "brief description" trying to remember what the supplies look like?

Arrrrggghhhhh!!!! There has to be a better and quicker way!

A Gold Mine!

I've been busy surfing the net these past few days that I didn't get any LOs done. But it was worth it. Through a few tutorials I found I learned new things.

One search led to another...and another...and another. Gosh! my computer gave up downloading those freebies! Those designers are just so wonderfully talented and soooooo generous. I have to return the favor and introduce them to you...or you to them...how about that?

So here's one http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/index.html
Download to your heart's content. Thank you, Marie Stones!!!!! Whooo-hoooo!!!!

Share those pictures!

I read somewhere that lightning can delete your electronic files from your computer and also from the discs you already burned! Wouldn't that be another disaster if your one and only copy has been erased? So where can you store those discs out of reach from the electro-magnetic field burst that a thunderstorm might bring? Apparently, putting them in plastic cases and in boxes or drawers is not good enough. If they are stored away not to be used for a while, it is suggested to wrap them in blankets or anything that has enough padding to break the path of the destructive electro-magnetic field from reaching them!

If you buy your CDs/DVDs in a spindle, you'll notice that the first (top) disc is clear. That is the same material the CDs/DVDs are made of. Contrary to what most believe, the side of the CD/DVD you must protect from scratches is the top part, not the bottom part. That silver (some come in different colors) label that covers the top of the CD is where the data is written. It that label peels off, all is lost! Why not try slicing off the label of an old CD you no longer use and see what happens.

Therefore, protect the label from getting wet, from handling with oily fingers, from food (sure, admit it...we are so glued in front of our computers that we eat right there), post-it-notes... Oh, yes, post-it-notes. I learned my lesson the hard way before. I temporarily labeled a CD with a post-it-note! Duh!!! When I peeled off the note, along came a piece of that silver label. I couldn't find our Sedona, Arizona pictures anymore. That must be the Sedona CD [sigh].

The best way to not lose any of your digital pictures is to burn them on CDs/DVDs and make copies to give away to family members (who don't live with you) and to friends. That way, if anything happens to your originals or to the copies you have, all is not completely lost. You can always borrow the copies you gave away.

A Page A Day

I thought I could do a daily post...to just write down my thoughts during that day. But other things kept me away from blogging. I've been busy organizing and re-organizing my electronic files. At last! I am done! All organized and burned onto CDs! Now I can fully concentrate on scrapbooking again!

In-between the organizing, I've been able to make one LO a day for my brother's kids. He keeps bugging me for pictures to post on his Friendster site. I think it's time to teach that guy how to use photoshop so he can do his own layouts instead of playing harimanok or whatever game that is that keeps him busy during his free time!

It's OK though! I love scrapbooking and little tots are my favorite subjects. They are sooooo cute!!!Supplies used in this LO: Steph730- paper tear#26&27 12";LisaHowell- Botanicals-Floral;LisaAWhitney- BeautifulMess Pr6;LeslieFraley-Bright&Beautiful YellowStripes; GenevieveSass-Ephemera single staple; AmandaMiller- Sweet&SassyFlowers