Lost in Translation

I really want to thank you for praying for me this weekend. You know, it truly made me feel better. I'm the most thankful blogger in the www. I've got this great sense of peace that God's got my health covered!
--------------------------------
Since I was resting and recovering this weekend from my little surgery, Kahuna took full charge of the kiddos. It was heavenly. I do have to admit, however, that sometimes it's hard for me to give up control.

It was Saturday night around 8:00pm and definitely the baby's bedtime. Kahuna decides he needs to go to the grocery store because we're out of food (actual translation: He really wants a cold beer). As he's walking out the door, I yell down to him, "Try to grab something cute to put in her hair before you leave."
"Got it!" he yells back.

A half hour later he emails me the above picture from his camera phone. He says they're having fun.

I had to laugh. Do you notice the "cute thing for her hair"? What I meant for him to grab was a bow, not the Halloween basket liner from the kitchen drawer.

Sometimes best intentions get lost in translation!

Petite Poem and Prayer Request

I tried my hand at a little alliteration tonight. It's a hodge-podge collage with pictures from the last few weeks. Bunny is growing and changing so fast. She is such a joy!

---------------------------
I've got a little prayer request for you. I had a little outpatient surgery this afternoon. My doctor told me that I have a very dangerous form of skin cancer (it was a cute, little freckle really) just below my collar bone. The surgeon removed it and will do some further testing. Will you pray with me that all is well, and that I don't need any further follow up? The good part is that I get to rest in my bed tomorrow and Kahuna gets to take care of the kids all day. Yahoo!

Dark cloud, meet silver lining (cliche, meet I don't care).

Have a great weekend, party people!

I ♥ Faces- Fix-It Friday

It's Fix-It Friday over at I ♥ Faces. This is my chance to practice photo editing tricks and tips and learn from other contributors as they explain how they “fixed-up” the special photo of the week.

Here is the original photo:



Here is my fix:
To see more fun "fixes", clickety here.

Varmint Outlaw Update

UPDATE: Cue the Hallelujah Chorus!! My wedding ring has been found!
Guess where it was?


Hubby found it at the bottom of the TRASH CAN.

I've surmised that Beach Bunny was just trying to let daddy know that I could use a ring upgrade. She's thoughtful like that.

Just sayin'.

P.S. Thank you so much for your stories about lost treasures. It made me feel so much better. Really... except for the part about swallowing jewelry-- that one.. not so much (Thanks, Erin!).
Looks like I'm not the only one whose little tot has a hankerin' for the shiny stuff!

------------------------------------------

Yep, she's busted!

She must have reached her chubby little starfish hand up to my bathroom counter top and grabbed my ring while I was in the shower. She seems so innocent when I tell her to find mommy's ring. I know she knows what's up. Where do you think she stashed it?

Better lock your doors tonight. She likes the sparkly stuff.

I ♥ Faces- Irish Eyes

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day this week, the theme over at I ♥ Faces is "green". I chose Goofy Foot as my subject. He was wearing an army green shirt, and I noticed that the color of his eyes matched his shirt exactly. He wasn't too interested in a photo shoot with mom, so I told him if he let me take 5 or 6 pictures then I'd happily play Pokemon cards with him. He agreed. I think I was able to capture a little bit of his truly Irish eyes. Happy St. Patty's Day this week. Bless your little Irish heart and every other Irish part!

"As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction." Irish quote (author unknown)

Little of This, Little of That...

I loved your comments from the last post! If you haven't done so already, go and check it out. It's neat to see God's fingerprints all over the place.

-------------------------------

I think I got a little carried away here pushing Beach Bunny in the swing at the park today. I took this picture of her right before we collided. I can see she's yelling Whoa! I love her wild piggie tales flying in the wind.


----------------------------------

I added two new widgets to my sidebars. The one on the left is the Love Shack Community by the Blog Frog. I'd be tickled pink, well just really happy, if you'd click on Become a Friend to add your blog. It's a fun little way to spread the love. If you add the widget to your blog, I'll be sure to link back to you, too.

The second widget that I added is on the right sidebar at the bottom. It's a manual scroll blog roll. I love collecting blog buttons, and this is a neat and tidy way to collect them, in my opinion. Some friends have asked for the code, and it's very easy to install- plus it's totally customizable. If you'd like the info. for the manual scroll blog roll or the auto scroll blog roll (in my left sidebar), just leave a comment with your email address and I'll send it your way. Who loves ya, baby?

-------------------------------------

I got my five seconds of fame (undoubtedly, in my own mind) tonight. It must be a slow news night over at the website Divine Caroline because my tutorial on creating picture collages for blogs from this post is the featured article in the Entertainment section. Clickety HERE. It's right next to someone's s-e-x article. Ooh! Scandalous!

It's amazing to me

... how God works.
Years before we ever adopted our daughter, we called her by name. Each night my husband and I would pray together out loud for our daughter "Grace". We did this for four years. Many times through those four years I wanted to give up, throw in the towel because I thought that God would never send us His Grace. Was He really even there?

Baby clothes drying at the orphanage

Thankfully, God did answer our prayers. A week after we received the news that we had a daughter, my husband and I jumped on a plane to Guatemala, raced to a tiny orphanage in the middle of a crowded, polluted city; and laid our eyes on the teeniest, tiniest five pound six-week-old. I remember my index finger tracing the outline of her miniature features. She was our daughter, but she was not Grace.

Holding our daughter for the first time

While we waited back home in the U.S. (without her) for her adoption to become finalized in Guatemala, she remained nameless for months. I whispered cute names out loud in private to test how they would sound. Sophia?... Emma?... Eva?... all beautiful, but not right.

Daddy and daughter~ Antigua, Guatemala

One evening I ran across a new blog with an adorable toddler who was also adopted. Her mama posted a picture of her in a new shirt. The little shirt had "Isabella" monogrammed across the front. I don't know what it was about the shirt- I swear it spoke to me- Name your daughter "Isabella", and we did. I never told anyone about that night, nor about that little shirt.

Fast forward two years.

Now here's the part that I'm still trying to wrap my mind around...

Guess what just arrived in the mail Monday out of the blue? That same shirt- sent by the mother who posted that picture two years ago. There are lots and lots of Isabellas she could have sent it to, but for some reason she felt she needed to send it to me. I told this mom the story of her daughter's shirt. She was stunned!

This is the shirt that sealed the deal. Thank you! Thank you, L.L.!

To me it's God's fingerprint in the tiniest of details.

Have you, by chance, seen His fingerprint lately in your life? I would love to hear about it!

Longing For It

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want - oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” ~Mark Twain


Oh, I so love that quote. I've got spring fever, and I've got it bad. Not exactly sure which part I'm longing for, but longing nonetheless! I feel a touch of spring in this March desktop... happy, bright colors with a few pretty flowers. If you'd like to add a little bit of spring to your desktop, clickety HERE.

I ♥ Faces- Beginner's Mess

This week at I ♥ Faces, they started a beginner's category, which is right up my alley. This week's theme is "Messy". Here is a picture of Beach Bunny at her first birthday party last June. She loved every bite of her birthday cake, but clearly towards the end had overindulged!



To see more delightful messes, clickety HERE.

How to Create a Collage in Blogger

A couple of my favorite blogging friends recently asked me how I make my collages. You asked, and I'll deliver! Tonight I created a collage of pictures from our family bike ride to our favorite candy store (I know... bike ride to a candy store is kind of an oxymoron, but humor me here). Below the collage is a step-by-step tutorial using Photoshop Elements 7. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them if you need to. Are you ready?



Import all of your pictures into Photoshop that you plan to use. Select an image by double clicking it. Then at the top select Layer--> New-->Background Layer. Select the corner of your picture to reduce the size. It will reveal the blank background. Actually, the background will look gray and white checked, but it will be invisible when you publish.

Click the green check mark if you want that image included in your collage. Then, drag and drop each picture onto the checked background that you want included. Don't forget to click the green check mark for each picture.


Now your collage looks like this. You can change the size of any picture simply by clicking on the image to select it and grab the corner to size it up or down. If you want to overlap or skew the pictures, put your cursor near the corner of the picture and a curved arrow will appear. You can turn the picture right and left to make it just right. If you want to add a drop shadow and make it look kind of dimensional, then look on the right side of the screen for the little white hand. That's my cursor. Select "drop shadow" and then choose which kind you would like. You must select one picture at a time, then click on the drop shadow that you'd like to use, then click "apply". Do this for each picture.

The next step is to select the "crop" tool on the left of the menu. Crop the collage to your liking, remembering not to crop it too short and cut off any drop shadows.

Now we have to save the collage. At the top, select File-->Save to Web.

On the far right side type in how many pixels wide you'd like it. I chose 550 because the center of my blog is just a bit bigger than that. Also (top right) select PNG and click the "transparency" box because we want the checkered background to disappear when we publish.

When you click "OK" select the location that you would like to save your collage. Remember where you save it. I'm saving mine to a folder I titled "Blog".

Now I minimise Photoshop and open up a new window and go to Photobucket.com. You have to upload your collage to a site like this. They will automatically generate a HTML code for your blog. After you upload it (It really only takes like 20 seconds or less), find the place that says "HTML code for Blogs" (Look at the bottom right hand corner. It's highlighted in blue). Right click your mouse and copy that code.

Open up a new post on your blog. Click the "Edit HTML" tab. Paste the code.

Now if you're like me, you want immediate gratification to see if this thing worked. Click the "Preview" button. Ta-Dah! You did it! Your collage is ready to publish.

What are you doing still reading? Go ahead... Give it a try! Go on now!

Me?? I'm off to brush my teeth from all that candy.