This and That

As you can see, I've been working on a new layout for my blog. Unfortunately, because I REALLY don't know what I'm doing, I had to do everything the old fashioned way-- by cut and paste. I tried and tried, to no avail to put the new codes into my old blog so that I could have sidebars, both on the right and left, but no matter what I did, I kept getting an error message. That's when I decided to create a new one; same name (Seasons of the Heart), just add the number 2 at the end. So for those of you who have been gracious enough to add me to your blogroll, would you please make that small little change so that folks will be led here? Thanks a million!

Well, I was just saying to my husband yesterday, how I couldn't wait till the weather was cool enough that I would be able to open the windows for an entire day and not have to turn around in the afternoon, close them up again, just so we could turn on the air conditioning. It looks like I'm getting my wish. This morning I woke up to a cloudy, breezy, day with temperatures in the upper 50's. According to our weather man we're going to get not one, not two, but three cold fronts pass through our area. He said that by tomorrow we'll be waking up to goose bump temperatures. Looks like I better take out the sweaters and the jackets and have everyone try them on. It just might be that some of us have grown out of last year's and we'll have to make a trip to town. I'm sure the kids won't mind. :)

I've got a lot to do the next couple of days as we are expecting a friend to arrive on Thursday and stay with us until sometime on Friday. I planned on getting started with everything yesterday, but got sidetracked with something my sister put me on to. It all started when she found a site called Find A Grave. It's a site where you can go to look up family (or friends) who have died. If you don't see who you're looking for, you can create a free account and add your loved one, including pictures if you want to.

Our grandparents weren't listed and since I didn't know all of the data, I picked up the phone and started making calls. First to my parents, who then directed me to two of my Aunts. While talking to one of them she began reading to me some interesting facts that fascinated me. Things I didn't know about my relatives before. Well, one thing has led to another and now I've decided that it would be a great thing to create a family tree. I want to document as much as I can learn for our children so that they will know about their heritage. For some reason, I hadn't been very interested in that before, but having learned such interesting facts about my early relatives, now has me excited to learn more. My sister told me about ancestry.com and I spent a good deal of my afternoon yesterday adding all the information that I had. Unfortunately, that site only offers a temporary free trial. After the trial period is over, if you want to continue to use their service, you have to pay for a membership. I don't want to do that. By accident, while searching for some information about family heritages, I stumbled upon 'My Heritage' which has a free download that I've decided to use instead. I stayed up way too late last night re-entering (almost) everything into the new program. So far, I like it as it has some of the same nice features that ancestry.com has.

Last week the Lord surprised us with a tremendous blessing. I took my kids to the dentist (which they hadn't seen in well over two years) and I knew that the dentist was going to tell me that two of my kids, in particular, were going to need braces. The kids however, understand that due to our financial circumstances that we just can't afford to pay for braces and the likelihood of us being able to do so anytime soon, is slim to none.

When the kids got through with their exams and cleanings I was called back to speak with the Dentist. He said that their teeth looked real good except for the fact that he wanted to put braces on my oldest and youngest. Before I could even say a word to him, in his next breath he said, "and I'm going to take care of that for you, you don't need to pay a thing." I was so shocked and just couldn't believe my ears. All I could say is, "Are you serious?" He assured me that I heard him right and that he was putting braces on them at absolutely no cost to us. PRAISE THE LORD!! He did state though that there were some things he would expect of the kids. He said that #1 They are to keep their teeth clean. #2 They are be thankful. And #3, They are to do whatever he tells them to do. I think we can handle those terms without any trouble at all! [big smile]