OK. I never really got over the flu bug that I had at Erin’s graduation. I went to the doctor and took the antibiotics, and waited a week before I could head south to Florida. After a week, I felt better but I knew I was in big trouble in Kentucky when my allergies started kicking in. It was pouring down rain, and my head and cheekbones started to kill me. The front of my teeth even started hurting so I knew it was a sinus infection. I stopped and got lots of pain killers. I made it to Florida alright, and Sarah and I went out to Downtown Disney. We went there to eat and to see the movie “Up!” (adorable by the way). After 6 days my ears started swelling and actually closed shut. Sarah told me about a clinic so I went, and they put a wick in my ear. Not fun. They gave me more antibiotic. The pain did not begin to go away until 5 days later. I felt so bad for Sarah. She was stuck with me on her couch, and we couldn’t go anywhere.

The day before I left I decided I wanted to go back to Downtown Disney. We went to see another movie there–they have 24 theatres! We saw “The Proposal.” It was so cute. I loved it. I also finally talked Sarah into going to the T. Rex Cafe with me. She thought it would be too kiddie, but it wasn’t; it was very much like it’s sister restaurant (and my favorite restaurant), the Rainforest Cafe. We didn’t have to wait but about 10 minutes to get in, even though they told us 40 minutes, and they brought our food before we were even finished with our salad. The food was really good too. That was the highlight of my trip there, and one of the few places I got to take pictures.

I sure hope Sarah doesn’t pick up that bug, but I really do think it had more to do with a sinus and inner ear infection from my allergies. Here are some of the pictures from my visit south.



I’m going to visit Carrie in Virginia sometime this summer. I hope it will be under better circumstances than my visit with Sarah! Carrie, if you are reading this, here is a picture of your quilt that your Grandma Mary finished for you. She is entering it in the fair, and it already won 1st place for handwork at the Catfish Festival. It is a beautiful quilt! It can stay at my house until you get a place of your own!

Last Wednesday was Erin’s Awards Day, and Saturday was her Graduation. She was the 2009 SHS Valedictorian and won many awards! Unfortunately, I started feeling sick on Awards Day and only today am starting to feel better (after finally going to the doctor). I should have taken A LOT more pictures at her graduation party. Erin, I’m sorry I didn’t get more! I wish I would have gotten Nick’s sisters as they did a great job with all the food and helping Sylvia with the setup. What a nice party it was, but Erin deserves it after all her hard work in school. We are so proud of her! Here are some of the photos I did get though!

Here are some pictures of the party. There were graduation parties going on all that weekend.

Sarah & Carrie couldn’t go to Erin’s graduation but wanted to see the pictures so here they are!

I bought a new program this week at a good deal ($24.98). I now wish I would have gotten the Pro version, but was unwilling to part with the cash. It was a great deal though, and it has given me a lot of fun. It’s called Crazy Talk, and it makes regular portraits come alive. To make a picture become 3D (and then output it to video), you just have to drag some little dots to show where the facial features are–eyes, nose, mouth, and the outline of the face. You can also mask the background and replace it with another background or choose which part of the photo you want to be animated. There is a text to voice editor, but I don’t have but 3 options for voices. I’m sure I can find some voice profiles somewhere on the internet. I used Tammy DeYoung’s Ballerina’s to make this very short video, and darn that YouTube for washing out the cat’s face. My videos always lose quality when I upload them there! The background video and audio came from Digital Juice. Sign up for Digital Juice’s emails for some great sales. I got 2 DVDs of video last week for $1 each, and they are normally 50 bucks or more each.

Here is my little video.

I am beat. I got back from Florida yesterday, and I’ve been sleeping a lot ever since. I need to get caught up because North Daviess has a music program on Tuesday. The kids have been working really hard; I hope it goes well. I’ll have to go set up the P.A. equipment sometime tomorrow. And I still don’t have my taxes done yet. Ever since 2001, I’ve had my taxes done before March 1st due to the dreadful FAFSA. I do have an appointment to get them done this week though. Once all that stuff is done, I will add some pictures from Florida. I can’t believe I didn’t get one picture of Mom and Dad! I did get some of the beach, Sarah, and Disney. I wanted to get some more pictures of Sarah’s apartment, and I didn’t even do that. We didn’t have much time together; at least it seems that way as it went by really fast. Sarah, if you’re reading this, I had a great time. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Carrie was there too.

Here is one picture that I really like from Disney. We were at our second park of the day, and I am not in nearly good enough shape for all the walking we did. We did get a little rest while watching the parade, and then watched the fireworks over the castle. I took gobs of pictures, but this was my favorite.

I have been working on a new website for my genealogy data. There are a few pictures on it, but this time family trees, histories, and documents will be featured. The ged file was pretty easy to upload, and the .php pages weren’t too difficult to modify; it’s just taken a long time to manually add longitude and latitude for the locations of births, deaths, and marriages. Now that that is finished, I will have more time to update the documents I want to add such as census images, military registrations, etc. I figured out that I’ve put my notes in my Legacy program in the wrong place so they won’t transfer to any ged. No wonder I could never import them into Ancestry. I have almost 10,000 names. Luckily, I don’t have near that many notes, but I’m going to have to go in one by one and move the notes, then transfer them here. Check out the right side of the blog for new links to some great genealogy blogs.

A teacher sent me this picture this week. Be sure to click on the photo to see it full size. It is great! The photo was taken in 1918 in Iowa at Camp Dodge.

FACTS:

Base to Shoulder–150 feet

Right Arm–340 feet

Widest Part of Arm Holding Torch–12 1/2 feet

Right Thumb–35 feet

Thickest Part of Body–29 feet

Left Hand Length–30 feet

Face–60 feet

Nose–21 feet

Longest Spike of Head Piece–70 feet

Torch and Flame Combines–980 feet

Number of Men in Flame of Torch–12,000

Number of Men in Torch–2,800

Number of Men in Right Art–1,200

Number of Men in Body, Head and Balance of Figure Only–2,000

Total Men–18,000

I just love this photo! It must have taken forever to figure out the logistics of this photo session.

The girls and I went to Sea World in Orlando over Christmas break. It was a great day. I hadn’t edited these photos yet, so I got busy tonight and loaded them on the web. Speaking of the girls–they may be coming home next month! That would be wonderful because they haven’t been home in months–over a year for Sarah and nine months for Carrie! That’s just crazy! I’ve seen them but it’s just not the same without them here. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will be able to make it.

Click on the photos below to open a viewer of the cute animals from Sea World.

I have a music program at my school this week–at least I hope I do. It’s been changed now a few times. First there was a scheduling conflict with the Star Lab. Then we had all kinds of snow, and things had to be changed around because of that. I half expected several inches of ice this week, but instead, we got germs–lots of germs making the little kids sick. Teachers have been getting it too. It’s a bad bug with fever and body aches. Today we were missing over 20% of the kids of one of the grades in the concert. It will be a shame if we can’t get it in this week because the program is about things that happen in FEBRUARY. Not too many days of February left now. Oh well, it will be cute even if it is in March–that is if the kids are healthy.

I’ve been working on my first ArtsCow book. I’ve wanted to order them for ages, but I never got around to do it yet. I have many heritage layouts finished, but I know of several more that I want to include. I decided to make the book about my daughters. I finally got both of them through college, so I decided to celebrate by making this book. It isn’t exactly about college, but the things they did during the years that one or both of them was in college–Sarah at Indiana University and Carrie at the Virginia Military Institute. I had some free book discounts so all I had to pay was for the extra pages I added (8) and the shipping. I ordered extra for Mom & Dad, Ann, and the girls’ dad (so if you’re reading this–surprise!). I can’t wait to see them though! Click on the image to see the whole book.

Sometimes the weather forecasters don’t get it right. This time wasn’t one. My teacher friends were buzzing about the possibility of the large amount of snow predicted for Monday night. A student’s father, a State Trooper, said it was guaranteed. That night I went to dinner at the home of a lady from church. By the time I left it had already started coming down in buckets. I wasn’t too surprised that school was canceled. There was more coming on Tuesday though, so school was also canceled on Wednesday, and we knew before 1 PM on Tuesday. I woke up to the sounds of people trying to get out of our parking lot. We have a slight incline, and a couple of cars tried but failed. Around 10 AM the plows came, dumping a bunch of snow behind all the cars. The nice man next door actually shoveled my snow on my porch and around my car. What a nice neighbor! My back porch has almost 10″ on it, but in some places the news said my town had 13″ or more. My school got at least 8″ so we may not be going back to work tomorrow. Good thing I made some soup yesterday. The news just said that it was the biggest storm in 13 years, but only half the size of the whopper snowfall of 1978.

We had the most BEAUTIFUL weather in Orlando over Christmas. I’ve been there before on Christmas, and it has been more than a little cold. We just missed the bad weather because it’s been really cold there recently. We saw Mom & Dad in Largo, and they came over to Sarah’s place for a few days too. Sarah’s place is really cute. It’s even better now because she received a washer and dryer for Christmas. I know that seems like an awful present, but she was thrilled as now she doesn’t have to lug laundry down a couple flights of stairs. Carrie got a good camera and a watch–they fit a lot better in her suitcase for the plane trip home. I got a Bible, a nice purse, some Marine items, and more. Mark even came down (with the dog Snuf), and we ate at the Bonefish Grill.

The girls went out a few times, but Sarah had to work on New Years Day so she stayed home with me on New Years Eve. Carrie went to Tampa to see her friends from when the girls lived in Largo a couple of summers ago. One of my favorite times over Christmas was the day Sarah, Carrie, and I went to Sea World. I love going to Disney, and I went one day to see Sarah dance, but I was surprised how much I liked Sea World. It was a fun day. There were a lot of people there, but we didn’t have to wait very long for any show. I think we waited the longest to get food. They may need more restaurants as the lines were huge. I loved the Shamu show but those seals were so cute! I’ll post pictures of our day at Sea World soon.

It’s going to be a rough week again weather-wise. I don’t know how much Carrie is out in it in Virginia–maybe not as much now that she is hurt. She fell and hurt her head but she’s fine and just changed companies. At least Sarah, Mom, and Dad won’t have to deal with the snow we’re supposed to get. Only two more months, and I hope to be back in the beautiful sunshine too!