$100 Best Buy Gift Card Giveaway

Thanks to "Island Life" and Underwriter's Laboratories, you can win a $100 Best Buy gift card. Check it out!

New decoration

I hit the Lowes Saturday after Christmas and picked up this cool swing with Mr & Mrs. Claus for 75% off. I look forward to putting it on our porch next year.

Head Stones

Some might consider it to be slightly macabre to take pictures of this, but to me it's family history. I visited the family grave site in Stone Mountain and snapped these photos of my family on my mom's side.

My nephews & parents

I visited with my sister and her family Friday (Christmas Day). I snapped these pics while I was there (again, with my phone).

Lanier Lights

We went out to see Lake Lanier's lights Tuesday night with my parents. Here are a few shots I got with my phone.

Merry Christmas!

We're off to visit family today and hope you and yours have a GREAT Christmas.

Norad Santa Tracker

Oh Christmas Tree..

I have 6 trees set up in my house, though I only have pictures of 3. I had a hard time getting these to come out. My kids have their own small trees in their bedrooms. My daughter's is pink with princesses on it. My son's is red with pokeballs. I have a small one in the sun room with a lit star on time and the only ornaments are bows. The others are these...

This one is our 'big' one that the kids decorate. It has both of my son's train sets going around it and lives in our den.

This is a small silver one in the down stairs bathroom.. no decorations, just a tree skirt.

This one is my angel tree. It has my fragile angel ornaments on it and lives in our dining room. I have one of my villages at the base.

Next year I think I'll add two to the front porch, the urn type trees with plain white lights. I like having a garland on the front porch with white lights and I think they'd go well together. This year, I apparently forgot my garland in storage, so I just put up colored LED light strands outside.

reBlog from DARLA KIDDER: Harlem Globetrotter Giveaway

I found this fascinating quote today:

Giveaway: The giveaway will include a Harlem Globetrotter mini-basketball, authentic Globetrotter wristbands, an autographed Harlem Globetrotter team photo and a 2010 game program.DARLA KIDDER, Harlem Globetrotter Giveaway, Dec 2009

You should read the whole article.

Pictures of the Game

It's hard to make her out, but it's my daughter on the breakaway after stealing the ball. My camera isn't really the right one to be doing these photos. Unfortunately, hubby wasn't there to use his camera.

She plays.. she scores!

My daughter's team played very well today. They were pretty evenly matched, so it was great to see the game. They won 15-8. Go Sharks!

FW:Super achiever

My son and his friend were awarded Super Achiever in Cub Scouts this past Sunday. It means they have earned all 20 activity badges. Way to go boys!

New phone ramblings

I got the Samsung Flight on Friday night. It's a cool phone. Little did I know, though, when I got it that it wouldn't sync to my computer like my blackjack did. I did do some research online for phones, but cost for the ones I really liked was just out of reach for now. So I'd decided that I would go for whatever was 'free'. This one wasn't really free, I've got to mail in the rebate, but it'll do.

I loved that my blackjack would let me sync my calendar with outlook. I found out that this one won't. I did find, though, that I can access google calendar from it, which works well enough. I'm missing, though, the proper version of outlook for google sync to work. I have 2002, it wants 2003 or 2007. So, I have to export my calendar to excel and then upload it to google. I'll survive. I may eventually even update my desktop computer.

I took my phone to Yule Log and took pictures and uploaded them to facebook. I got better reception than I previously have while I was at Scout Land. I like the QWERTY keyboard, especially since it slides out too. I've even 'broken in' my new phone. I managed to drop it on Monday while at school. Made the back come off and the battery come out. So, it's been christened.

I'll probably download some of the cool games onto it at some point. Likely after the holidays. My kids'll have fun stealing my phone just to play them.

At any rate, my phone works and I'm back in touch with everyone. You never realize just how much you miss it (even if you don't use it much) until it's gone.

Yule Log

Three of 'my' boys at Yule Log

Helping raise and stake the flags & poles

Participating in the First Aid Relay (Fireman carry 'victim')

Yule Log - Scout Master Stew

I took some of my scouts out to Scoutland yesterday to participate in Yule Log. Their first experience in seeing a large organized scout event. Their first time encountering "Scout Master Stew". A very interesting thing, that. You start with a random selection of soup (contributed by the boys).

You put all of this in a large pot on a large gas cook top, stirring to make sure you have it mixed well.

And voila! Scout Master stew. Optional add-ons might be ramen noodles to add more substance to your soup.

Believe it or not, it was quite tasty.