Whose Blog Am I Visiting?

‘Cause this sure doesn’t look like mine! I love the change, don’t you?!?!

I’ve been wanting a 3-column blog for, oh, all of my blogging life now. The ones that WordPress offers are great…they’re just not my style. You know, all colorful and individual. So I went with the best standard one they had: Rounded. Wow, take a look at that. Doesn’t that bring back memories? The only problem with Rounded is that it’s two-column. And I have a lot of junk in my trunk sidebar. I wanted three columns to be able to show off all that junk in its glory. I emailed the designer, begging him to please, pretty please create a 3-column Rounded. Crickets. Or les crickeets (he’s French I believe) What’s left to do but learn CSS and redesign a WP standard to my liking?

So I set off to learn CSS. I know just enough HTML to get me in trouble. I can design a basic website, but once it gets into cascading sheets? What the heck does that mean? And then there’s the problem of creativity. Uh, I have very little to none on a daily basis. What creativity I do have seems to be spent on Sew Petit. Even if I became a CSS legend it wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t come up with a sweet design for Not So SAHM.

So I set off to learn how to create one. I dabbled in digital scrapbooking. I did the best I could with Microsoft Paint (you know, the free addition that comes as an “accessory” like the calculator on your computer?). I came ohsoclose to buying Photoshop. That’s when I realized: I’m spending way to much freaking time on this when there are talented people out there who are just waiting for me to contact them! Plus I have to get on with this moving thing that we’re supposed to be doing.

So I set off to find a great blog designer. Googling brought me tons of designers…all designing for Blogger. Darn Blogger. What kind of hold does it have on the blogging public? I’m a WordPress chick and I like it! I ended up finding some WP themes. They were ugly. The ones that were cute were two-column. What to do? I resigned myself to the idea that there may just not be a designer out there who was lovin’ WP like me. I went into a deep funk. And I was determined not to switch to Blogger. I’m stubborn that way.

In comes Shauna (lights, glorious music, angels singing, birds chirping, world comes to a peaceful halt). I stumbled across her See My Designs By Shauna ad and clicked. I assumed the search position: hunched over my laptop, lip biting, rocking back and forth, heart palpitating. Would Shauna be the one that could design cute themes for WordPress? Da da da da! YES! Her work is just what I would create if I were creative! And her prices are, shall we say, AMAZING! I mean, I found one designer who wanted $1,000. Yes, you read all those zeros correctly. I threw my money at Shauna and told her what I liked. Within days I had an awesome new look. And she didn’t mind that I did end up messing with some of the CSS, I just can’t leave well enough alone.

So, now I’m setting off to go stare at my blog. Is that weird? Feel free to join me.

Sisters – Toes – 5 Years

 May 2003  (15 months) – Reagan’s first toenail polish.

 May 2008 (16 months) – Ashlyn’s first toenail polish.

Am I good or what! Look, even one hand of each girl is resting one step above.

You can tell that Reagan was a more compliant toddler. She sat on the stairs and posed, just like Mommy asked. Ashlyn on the other hand tried everything within her power to not let me get a pic of the toes. The comparisons stop on the blog though people, honestly. I would never compare the two directly to each of them. They’ve got enough to deal with with me being their Mommy.

Stability Through Transition

I’m busy being not such a SAHM right now.

  • Two kids
  • One business
  • One busy husband
  • Vacations
  • Social obligations
  • Oh yeah, we’re moving next week. So, everything that goes along with that.

We’ve tried for as long as we could to avoid the reality of the move. Granted a lot of it is done for us (the packing, the heavy lifting, the fitting onto trucks), but there’s still a lot that has to happen before a move. Maybe I’ll make that this week’s Friday 13.

 

Things get crazy during transition. Whether it be a move, a life change, even dropping your cable subscription. When things change in life we are going to react. It’s how we react that determines our character. It’s easy to let the situation get the best of us and not act/react like we know we should. How do we determine how we’re going to act/react? How can we even control that?

 

I’m convinced I can’t and won’t act/react the proper way without help. It’s easy to think we can just muster up the ability to behave like an adult through transition. But we all remember times when we’ve blown it. I’ve blown up at my husband and my kids, been rude with friends and family, blown off cashiers and other helpers of society. It’s because in the heat of the moment our heart speaks. When we don’t have time to formulate a response or go and count to ten. For me, being able to be kind, loving and stable during transition is going to take Christ.

 

Being a Christian means trying to act like Christ and show him to others. During the difficult times too. So during this move my main goal is to prove outwardly that He is my Rock. He is my Stability during this transition. I will not get mired down in the details and will not get overwhelmed by the apparent immediacy of things that, in the end, aren’t really all that important. Most importantly I will aim to show Christ to my husband and children at all times.

Stability (with a capital S) through transition.

 

 

Journey to the Center of The United States

Pop Quiz: Where is the geographical center of the continental United States?

 

Answer: Aren’t you glad we stopped there on our way back from Colorado! You’d be lost without us, probably literally.

LEBANON, KANSAS
Right smack dab in the middle of the United States (the middle of nowhere to be exact)

The conversation (while on vacation) went something like this:

Me: Du, on our way home let’s take a detour and visit the center of the United States! It’s a place called Lebanon and it’s about two hours north of I-70 right at the border of Nebraska. Wouldn’t that be cool!?!

Du: Yeah, sounds good.

Now, if you’re paying attention you realize that Du’s answer is a little too short for the information I just gave him. Where’s the inquisition on the words “detour”, “two hours” and “Nebraska”? Where’s the mind math that tells him 2 hours+2 hours =at least 5 more hours on the road?

The conversation (while in the truck on the way home) went something like this:

Me: Ok, Jeeves (our navigational system) says we need to go this way, but I want to go this way because it’s labeled as a scenic route (remind me to talk to you, gentle readers, about this later) on the map here.

Du: (glancing at map and at time difference he finally notices on Jeeves) WHAT! Vicki! That’s, like, all the way up by Nebraska! Do you realize how far off the route that is?!?!  

Me: We had a deal. When are we ever going to be thisclose to the center of America again? How many people can say they’ve done this? (Which is my criteria for just about anything I do.) If we head home and don’t go to the center of America we’re going to regret it later in life. Don’t you want to be in the center of it all?!?!

Du: Like the time we were in New England and didn’t drive the 10 miles East to say we’d been in Maine…

Me: Exactly. Now we’ve never been to Maine and we were 10 miles away.

Du: Wow honey, I totally see your point! How could I have ever doubted you? You are the smartest, most clever wife and I will never question your judgments again!

 

Back to reality. He obviously agreed though.

 

We entered the town of Lebanon at about 2:30 p.m. A little late for most people’s lunch, but we were determined to have lunch in the middle of America. This town is so small though that there aren’t any fast food restaurants. There aren’t even any slow food restaurants. Or so we thought. We saw that the post office was open so I ran in to ask directions to the exact center of the US and to ask where in the world center of the US could we eat? She told me the grocery store across the street usually serves lunch, at lunchtime. But she was certain if we went over there Ladow would make us sandwiches. Not wanting to impose, but our stomachs were speaking for us by this time, we head across the street.


This is Ladow’s. It’s a grocery store, and a lunchtime restaurant all in that tiny building.

We had the best ham salad sandwiches ever–because I’ve never had ham salad before…never knew that was an option. It was like chopped up balogna mixed with the stuff you make tuna salad with. Yummy fruit salad for dessert. It was nice to not have to eat fast food again, and it was so cheap. God bless small-town USA!

 

After lunch we head the “one mile north and one mile west” of Lebanon. There stood the monument, erected in 1940, marking the center. Of course, having been marked in 1940 the latest and greatest of geospacial land marking equipment hadn’t been invented, plus a farmer actually owns the spot of land that is the center…so it’s as close as possible (gotta love the ability to own land in America! Seriously).

There used to be a small chapel on site as well. Town gossip elaborates that a local, about two weeks ago, was driving too fast and didn’t stop in time. Therefore, no more chapel. Two weeks too late. Oh well.

    Before

  After

AND coolness of all coolness I found the geocache! We didn’t have the coordinates but I knew there had to be one around there. After a couple minutes of searching I found it. And no, there will be no picture of the find or the cache. You don’t think I’m going to give it away for you for your visit the center of the US do you? ‘Cause I know you’re going to make a trip there now that you know about it aren’t you. You want to be in the center of it all, don’t you?

Bonus Round: In 2006 (in Virginia), Vicki helped out with her church’s VBS and the theme was a travel across America theme. Guess which city she was assigned.

 OH, P.S., when the map says “scenic route” and the map is of the state of Kansas do not believe the map. It will look exactly the same as if you were to drive the faster way.

What happened to my sidebar?

My blog is indeed having a hotflash. I’ll pay someone $1,000 if they can tell me everything I had on my sidebar. I’m kidding, people, I will in no way give you even $1. But can you tell I’m desperate? Honestly though, did anyone ever look at all that stuff? Is it worth it to recreate it? You would think I would know everything over there, but I don’t look at it everyday. I look at my “dashboard” and my stats understanding that the look of the blog would remain the same…

 

Help me out! Let me know what you remember from over there.

We’ll be the most popular neighbors

When you move it’s always a struggle to meet your neighbors and make friends. With kids it can be doubly hard. I have the perfect solution:

Yes, bribe the new neighborhood kids to like us. And I can totally do this ONLY if I win the contest the SITS ladies are holding. That means that you should not go there and enter like I did. You don’t want to ruin my kids’ summer do you?