Computers, Husbands, and other such stuff

Okay, for those of you who love Norton AntiVirus, you may want to stop now and read no further. For those of you who don't like it or don't care, you may continue.

I am so horribly disgusted with Norton that I could scream and, actually, did! I finally got so upset with it tonight after days of problems, no email and other such nonsense, I uninstalled it and went back to my beloved McAfee, which I'm downloading as I type this. I was really happy with McAfee, but the price was more than Norton, so I went the cheap route and have paid for it ever since. However, when I went to the McAfee website tonight, they are having a fantastic deal and so I was able to get the program for our three computers for less than I paid for that horrible Norton at Costco. Never, never again will I not get McAfee!!

It's not worth the frustration and aggravation that my hubby and I go through!! It's especially upsetting to my hubby as his computer is his business and when he can't do things on there, it's not only frustrating, it affects business and we can't have that!

Speaking of business, I am now officially working in my husbands home office. I moved my computer in here and have a "new" desk where I will do all his paperwork. I'm very happy with how we arranged things and while there is still more organizing to do, it's very nice and we are both really happy to be working together again. I know it's going to help him, plus it's helping me to fill some of my time that used to be spent with my homeschooling. Now that my last son is in 11th grade, he doesn't need his Mom's help hardly at all. It's a blessing and a curse, if you know what I mean.

I've been so excited at how the new ministry I'm doing at my church is going. I've had great feedback on it and I'm so glad to be able to serve the Lord in this way.

Oh, my! I know I've talked about this before, but I must tell you again about my bible study I'm doing with the ladies of my church. It's the Beth Moore, "Believing God" study.

Tuesday's teaching was SO powerful, I'm telling you, ladies, I just sat there and wept the whole time! This study is bringing me closer than ever to my Lord and is making me see how awesome it really is to BELIEVE GOD!! If you ever get a chance to do this study, DO IT! You'll be so blessed and enriched by it!!

Saturday is my youngest son's birthday! I can't believe he will be 17 years old! Now my children will be 17 and 19. Not exactly "children" anymore but young men. They are great, though, and this birthday is going to be a great one for him!!

I'll be posting pictures of the birthday boys soon!

God bless you ~ Julie

50 plus handmade cards - phew!!

Well - here they are! The cards I made for my hubby for his clients.

I finished them up last night and I am so glad to be done with it! They came out pretty cute, though, I think. Here's a closeup of the card and the envelope.

Did you notice the "anchors" in the corners? Guess what those are? They are colored staples! Oh my goodness, they make it SO easy to add a little something to the card. I had started out punching holes in the four corners and adding brads. I knew that was going to take forever and I didn't have enough blue brads anyway. Finally, the light bulb went off and I remembered my colored staples. I think they look very cute!

Now I just need to do a newsletter to go with them and I'll be done. I did the roller stamping on the envelope and will do the same on the top of the newsletter. My hubby was very appreciative and I am glad I'm able to do these things for him. I actually have enough fronts left to make some cards for friends. I make up gift packs with an assortment of cards in them to give out as gifts to my friends and my children's music teachers. This gave me a good start on those projects. I'm going to try and start on the cards today for my gift packs. They will be more fun because instead of making 50 plus of one card, I'll only make about a dozen of each one. Variety is the spice of card making, in my opinion.

Later . . .I got the newsletter done and printed. I'm so glad that's done! With the help of my youngest son, we got all the newsletter folded and put inside the cards and then into the envelopes. All cards are addressed and ready for mailing in the morning! I'm really glad it's all done and it made my hubby very happy! He had me put a little blurb in the newsletter about my cards and that I would take orders. I know I probably won't get any, but it was nice of him to have me do that.

Look at this -

Isn't this the most gorgeous thing? Here's another picture to give you an idea of how truly large it is!

Hubby bought me this at Costco last week and I'm just so thrilled. I've always wanted a huge Poinsettia and these were such a good price and so beautiful, even he couldn't resist! They were only $14.95 and I'm telling you, they are worth every cent! I intend to keep it forever and even if I can never get it to bloom again, it will make a beautiful house plant!

I have found a treasure on the web for those of us who crochet! You can go to this link Annie's Attic and get a FREE pattern every day! I have found some really great patterns there! You can also go here and get a free pattern every week! Right now there is a beautiful Noel Centerpiece doily you can crochet. I'm telling you - we'll never be at a want for projects.

If you see projects on the sites designed by Nanette Seale, that's my son's friend's Mom! I've known her for years and years and she does really beautiful projects. The amazing thing is she can design really crafty type crochet projects as well as gorgeous doilies and other thread projects.

I have my jammies on and am ready for bed. Tomorrow is my busy day with my son and his music lessons and so forth, so off I go to beddie bye!

Open House

Hubby is having an Open House for one of his listings tomorrow and I'm helping out by getting things ready. I bought flowering plants yesterday at the grocery store. I couldn't believe the blessing of getting two of them for 79 cents and 3 others for $4.99 that had been $14.99! I also got some really cute pots that were on sale for 79 cents and I will get the plants all planted in the pots today. We will also set out candles (in jars for safety) and generally try and make the house look more homey. It's empty, so we can add a lot of touches here and there to make an impact.

I'm also making cookies.

Now, lest you get real impressed, let me add that I used these


Normally, I would have made homemade. In fact, I've never used this kind of cookie dough, but it's so terribly hot and I'm so busy with other things, that I decided it would be best for everyone's sanity (mostly mine!) if I used premade cookie dough. I bought two other types, too. Sugar cookies and Oatmeal Cranberry. Two of the packages I bought made "mini cookies". I thought that was the best way to go but figured out that I can break the other squares of the large cookies in half and have mini cookies really easily! That was my special tip for the day - look out Martha Stewart!!

My hubby tasted them and pronounced them "good". Hey, what else do I need?