Blog ReDo

I finally got rid of that awful yellow blog background. I apologize for that...I was not willing to sit through the process again, but I have also been looking forward to November just to get rid of it!

I hope this one is more pleasant to look at. I struggled with the text color and font. I hope it's readable. I increased the font size for you, in hopes that the white on orange will be easier to read.

I have been suffering through the germs my littlest ones shared with me. I finally got some Sudafed today and have been blowing my nose less, but walking around in a drug-induced buzz.

The weather has been beautiful lately. It makes me wonder what Mother Nature has up her sleeves for winter. She's probably lulling us into a sense of comfort before she buries us in a blizzard of snow and sleet!

I have been trying to find my sewing table yesterday and today. I finished up the matching pj's I made for the girls (Christmas presents) and cut out & sewed a dress for Rebekah from some corduroy I picked up almost a year ago. I bought some fabric at the store this morning to make some festive placemats (reversible for Nov and Dec). I have 5 yards of denim to use to make the girls some school pants and 10? yards of Christmas fabric that I bought after the new year, last year, to make this year's Christmas pj's for the kids.

Joseph is doing better, but I'm not completely sure he can hear me 100%. If he doesn't respond better after the antibiotics are done, I'll take him back to have his ears checked. Can you have permanent hearing loss from an ear infection?

Chad has been working on the house, under and in, trying to get things in good condition. He discovered a long-term leak at the water spigot that has blacked the wood in the crawl space and soaked the insulation along the walls. Plus, our bathroom has seen little improvement in the past weeks and the project need a jump start. Not to mention a little funding.

The general condition of the housekeeping has suffered since I've been sick. My sinuses are so affected, that it gives me a tooth ache to lean down and pick something up! That's crazy, but true. Who knew I was so fragile?

Our stake has declared this week temple week and we are supposed to do something temple related each day. I haven't been very good at even remembering to keep up. But last night we had FHE on the temple. It was Nathan's turn to do the lesson, so he pulled out a few pictures of temples/tabernacles to quiz us on. Is there anyone in the church that doesn't recognize the Salt Lake Temple? Nathan apparently thought that one was going to stump us. Our treat was a pan of brownies. We kept it in the oven twice as long as intended because Chad turned the oven off near the beginning of the bake. We like to do things the hard way around here.

Today was Election Day. Did you remember to vote? I was voter #33 this morning. I now look forward to seeing all those campaign signs taken down. Isn't there a way to make those things a little prettier? Maybe more informative in the very least?

Now that I've rambled on and on...I have to go take care of some R.S. stuff. I've put it off long enough. I wonder if I can find a channel that isn't covering the election while I work?

Fancy Schmancy

How do you like my new blog look? My friend Krissy helped me get it up and running. Now my creative itch is active again. The possibilities are endless!

Huh...

There are some things I don't get about Blogger (a lot, really, but I'm just going to mention one this time).

I had changed my archiving settings to give each post it's own website address. I was hoping this would make it easier to find one particular post instead of having to scroll through all of them on the page. But once I did that, all the comments disappeared.

So I changed it back and all the comments returned, except for the one that was left after I made the change. I just copied and pasted that one back in (so the links aren't active anymore).

Sorry if anyone noticed the difference and thought I'd deleted you. I would never do that...I live for the comments (though not so much the negative, finger-pointing ones).

Thank You!

I have recently been organizing all my 2009 blog posts to prepare them for printing. I am happy enough with the first two books that I'm looking forward to getting a 3rd one done.

My only complaint about the books is the binding. The pages are not attached to the spine of the cover. Actually, the only thing holding them on there is the paper glued to each cover. I'm thinking of dropping some hot glue down the spines to give them some strength before any of the paper rips from the covers.

As I go over my past posts and try to get them into a layout I like, I can't help but read some of them and reminisce. And here is where I must say a big thank you to all of you out there that make positive, helpful comments on the posts. Because I have such a great (and small - though growing) bunch of readers, I am encouraged and sometimes inspired to write with detail and humor that rarely makes it into my personal journal each night. If I had a private blog or didn't have any feedback for my writing, I would probably write a lot less, have less detail and possibly quit altogether.

As it is, I have a treasury of family stories that now spans over 4 years. Sometimes the funny things I post are posted within minutes of their occurrence and then I just go back to what I was doing.

So thank you for helping me keep up this blog and giving me a reason to return often. And thank you for putting up with the self-centered stories. After all, it's a blog about my family...and some of you don't even know some (or any) of us.

To all you Lurkers!

Apparently, it is National Delurking Day. This means it's time for all of you to shed your cloaks of invisibility for just a moment.

There might be one or two of you out there that don't know what a lurker is. It's someone who reads the blog, but never/rarely comments. I don't know how many of you read the blog regularly, but I know how many of you comment. First place goes to Kristy S (you are my most faithful commenter). Last place goes to most of the rest of you.

But I point no fingers. I often read and run, too; I am a great lurker.

In honor of Delurking Day, let's have a contest. I will offer a prize to one of the commenters for this post (and hopefully, you will feel it is worthy of that distinction). I'll pick randomly through random.org and let you know if I need your address. I'll create a list of choices to pick from and get back to you on that (look below).

You can sign off as Anonymous if you don't have a registered name, just type your name into the post so I know who you are.

I will pick the winner from all the comments received by next Sunday.

I look forward to knowing which friends are old and which are new! Which one are you?

Here are the prize choices (exciting, I know):

1 - a set of 8 note cards, with envelopes, 4 different colors
2 - a set of 24 recipe cards and matching stationery
3 - 2 crocheted dish cloths (yet to be created)
4 - a crocheted bookmark...not pictured (yet to be created)


I'm trying to stick to things that are easy and economical to mail. :)

New Blog Address

If you're reading this, you've got the new address! If you're reading this 3 months late because you finally learned the new address...sorry. But I did try to get everyone notified and not a lot of people sent in their e-mail addresses.


The address comes from a favorite poem of mine. I thought seeing the address often might inspire me to be better. (I am in need of some good, constant inspiration.)

The title: Sixlets - All underfoot, came from my current state of overwhelming mommy responsibilities. It was kind of a quick thought that I just typed. The address and title should probably be the same, to avoid confusion, but that would go against everything else "normal" in my life.


Glad you're still following along with me.

Increased Security

You may have noticed I changed the title of my blog. I'm trying to make us a little more anonymous online. Along with some other Settings changes that I've already made, I'm also changing the address of the blog.

Because I'm not trying to get rid of any current readers, I'll send you the new address, if you let me know you want it. Please send your request via email or give me your email in the comments - I'll delete it as soon as I get it. If for some reason you don't want me to know that you've been reading my blog (some people really enjoy their ability to be invisible), feel free to get the address from someone else - if you can. And I don't care if you share the address with others, I'm just trying to be less available to the predators of the world.

This may be a wasted effort, since I don't use nicknames for anyone in the family and post I their adorable faces all over the place, but I'm trying to avoid using last names and city names. I am the only one with my name in the entire country...can you believe it? Such individuality. (That sounds weird. Is it really a word? Must be...spell check didn't flag it.)

So, sorry for the inconvenience. I'm just trying to keep my family a little safer, despite all the info I share in nearly every post! :)

New Header

I thought I'd create a festive blog header since my sick baby is having trouble sleeping.

Not my first choice for something to do at 12:45 AM, but it was a little fun.

Did it surprise you when you first saw the page? I'll probably be surprised myself until at least the middle of the month.

Please stand and give a little wave.

I am a numbers girl. I like to see when the odometer on the car turns to a cool number (i.e. 14,141 - or - 20,000; I'll never forget the day my little Honda Accord hit 200,000...I can almost tell you which telephone pole on Canal Rd I was passing). I like to catch the clock when it says 5:55 or 12:34.

Some or most of you may know that I have a little meter on my blog. I like to see who and when visits. This is how I know that I have 3 faithful readers. :) I know there are a few more than that. It's just a general idea though because the locations I get are generally cities that have more than one family member or friend living in them. So sometimes I just guess who's been on recently. And then there are the random ones from foreign countries that only show up once. They have usually found my blog through an online search for something. (*kunk *ait is STILL a very active search.)

Sometimes there is a reference as to where the reader was linked from. And some of those have such weird locations that I think there must be something funky about the ISP's connections.

But there is one of you that has been fairly regular and I don't know who you are. I'm not worried about a stranger reading my blog. I like to meet new people occasionally. The person I'm talking about is bouncing in from Sweden. I would love to know who you are! I'm wondering if you really are in Sweden or if it's all just being routed that way. (For a long time, my ISP said I was in VA, but at least that's still in the country.)

I do have an interest in Sweden. I have a lot of genealogy work that brings me back to my Swedish roots. My maiden name is a Swedish name. So if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know more about this Swedish ISP! Leave a comment or email me at collett73 (at) gmail (dot) com.

And don't let this keep the rest of you from stalking me. I already know you are visiting and not leaving comments. :)

New Header...just in time!

I finally got the green off and the spring colors on. Just in time for Easter, too! I got the girls' Easter dresses completed yesterday and we colored eggs last night. It looks like we're ready. (I'll share some pictures soon.)