I got it!!! Merry Christmas to me!!!

Eric finally came to a decision that I was going to get a Nikon D40 for Christmas, it was a lot of money to drop but I am worth it...right? Of course! This was a very tough decision for us, the economy isn't that great and Eric is not getting a bonus at work this year. Around Thanksgiving he told me I would not be getting the camera and I moped around for a whole day and was grumpy. I was fine the next morning, just needed to get it out. Then he started looking at prices online and my hopes got back up again. Just this past week we talked again and again I thought I wasn't getting it. So when I was asked to go to the store tonight I jumped at the chance and didn't look back.

We put the battery in and I was able to get some shots before I almost killed the battery. The battery is charging and I will have some awesome Christmas shots! I am so excited!!!

Here are some random first shots that I took. I can already tell that my pictures are clearer and crisper then with my old camera. I think I am in love!

Now for comparision reasons take a look at these two shots.

This one was taken with my NEW Nikon D40.

This one is taken with my Kodak Easy Share at about the same distance.

12 of 12

This is a little different then what some of you may be thinking from SS. This is not my December 12 of 12. I have such a hard time remembering to take my pictures for the 12 of 12 challenge. So I found a little inspiration from another blog and decided that I was going to take a trip down memory lane today and see what I came up with. The other blog that I got this idea from was to go to your 4th picture file and post the 4th picture in that folder.

Since today is 12/12. I went to my 12th folder and will post my 12th picture in that folder.

Here it is...
Tyler admiring all his eggs.

This is my oldest when we went to an Easter egg hunt, 4.6.07. It was spring break week and my friend had asked me to join her at a mom's group meet-up. I took my boys, my eggs and off we went. The boys had a great time finding all the eggs and putting them in their baskets.

The basket Tyler used was my basket when I was a little girl.

Choosing Joy - Challenge

Today I found my JOY when I opened up my blog and my playlist started playing "Brown Eyed Girl." Such memories come flashing back. One of my good friends in high school loved this song and I remember dancing to this song with my group of girlfriends. It is just one of those feel good songs that everyone sings along with!

So as I sat there and listened to it I remembered fond memories!

Choose Joy - Challenge

Today I found joy when I found the two loves of my life asleep. It had been a long evening tonight with my oldest son as we butted heads. So my joy was when I finally got them to sleep and could turn the TV off, sit, breath, and relax.

How exciting?!?!

I have a few scrapbooking blogs that I read. But one of my favorite ones is http://www.knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/scraphappy/ . I first discovered Lain's blog through her podcast that I read about somewhere when I got my iPod last Christmas. Lain has podcasts that review scrapbooking products and she also does interviews with some "famous" scrapbookers. I subscribe to her podcasts through my iTunes and after 3 months without a podcast from her I discovered that she had a new one Saturday when I was updating my iTunes. So yesterday while at the go-cart track while waiting for Tyler to race I was able to listen to her podcast. She had a great reason to come back to the podcasting world because of a new book that she has just released called "Snippets". This is a book that I look forward to getting my hands onto. She has such a witty sense of humor.

So last night I decided to comment on her blog regarding the release of her latest podcast and how excited I was to find that she had returned to podcasting. I just checked my email and Lain sent me a message back! How cool is that! I am very excited!!! Here is the link to her podcast if you are interested... http://www.scraphappy.mypodcast.com/

Here is her message back to me...
Aww, thanks! I am going to do another one this week. :)Stay tuned!xoxo
L
Lain Ehmann
Contributing Editor, Simple Scrapbooks Magazine

Today I am thankful for...

...a nap. After enjoying 5 days off of work because of the Thanksgiving holiday I am really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. This morning I got up puttered around the house, went to the grocery store, made lunch and laid down on my son's bed while the boys were playing in his bedroom and took a nap. I slept for about an hour and a half and when I woke up I really had no desire to get up. It was a rainy Sunday and a great nap day. I decided not to cook dinner tonight too.

Today ends my final day of my thankful posts although I think I may try to recap once a month the things that have made me thankful. Some blessings are small and some are huge but they are always there we just need to take the time to reflect and be thankful!

Thanks Sherry!!!

Today I am thankful for...

...the fact that Tyler gave it his all. He has been racing go-carts for about a year now and today was the 2nd to last race of the season. My husband borrowed a michron (sp?), a technical thing attached to the go-cart so we know how fast he goes each lap he races.

A few days ago we were talking to Tyler about a race that was coming up this Saturday and he made the comment that he would finish 3rd. 3rd is not a bad place to finish but if your expectation is to always finish 3rd and not aim for anything higher then why race. So dh and I had a nice chat with him about that. We borrowed the took for today's races. Every time he went out he got a few tenths of a second faster. So instead of him racing against the other racers today he raced against himself.

He gave it his all and although he did finish 3rd we are proud that he tried to beat his time every time he went out on the track.

Picture will be coming later once I upload them...