Some Layouts

The last few months have been swamped. I have made 2 trips to the West coast (one was unexpected), had two boys playing football, had a daughter win a volleyball tournament after her regular volleyball season, have made a few trips to St. Jude, taxied all the kids to various activities and appointments, was fortunate enough to have my brother and his family come for a visit, came down with a knocked-me-out virus that turned into two different bacterial problems, and still had to hold down a couple of jobs and keep up with copious amounts of laundry daily. With the holiday season here I am not sure if I will ever be able to get all the updates done, so I have been scrapping about some of the events recently and am just going to post the layouts I have finished instead. They are in no particular order, and really only represent a small portion of our autumn experiences.

I will be posting later today with turkey pictures. There might even be a pilgrim or two in there. But it is nearly 4 am right now, and I should get some sleep before I embark on my cooking crusade.

If you think about it today, would you say a prayer for Chet? He is okay right now, but he has been having headaches. I have to leave on Sunday to take him back to St. Jude to have an angiogram and MRI done to make sure he isn't developing blood clots in his brain. I haven't said much about it to anyone, because frankly, there are a lot of scary words in that sentence. However, even if he does have some developing they can be treated if we catch it early enough, and there is a very good chance he may just be getting headaches from growing nearly an inch a month for the last couple of months. He is obnoxious that way, but I love him anyway.

Enjoy your day!

He plays the euphonium.

Chet joined the beginning band last year. He chose the trumpet as his instrument, and I was pretty excited as I plunked down the money to buy him one. Trumpets are pretty cool instruments. I couldn't wait to hear him play the blues, and I had visions of being haunted by Chet's rendition of Taps.

Then at the beginning of this year his band teacher asked him to switch instruments.

To a euphonium.

I spent 4 years in band and I had never heard of such a thing.

So now Chet plays the euphonium. It is sort of a cross-breed between a trumpet and a tuba. And it has its own sound. Last night Chet was practicing for his upcoming performance when Jack heard it for the first time. "What the hell is that?" he asked me.

"Oh, that is Chet on his euphonium," I replied.

"His what?"

"The instrument his teacher asked him to switch to."

As the conversation went on, I explained to Jack that the band teacher thought this would be better for Chet because his mouth is too big for the trumpet. Jack said something about Chet getting a big mouth from me.

I don't know about you, but I had no idea that personality traits could genetically manifest themselves in physical form in my offspring.

The Nook, the Kindle, the Ebook.... How to Choose?

I love books. I love digital products. I love "gadgets."

I very rarely buy books anymore. My shelves are full, and there aren't many places to buy books around here. (I miss our weekly homeschool trips to the bookstore and Cold Stone.) Digital products take up such little space, and can be downloaded nearly anywhere.

I try to check out library books to get my reading fix, but I am horrible about returning them on time. I love that the e-readers can check out books, and then automatically turn the downloads "off" when they are due.

Gadgets bring me great joy. If it is kitchen, camera, or computer related, I probably adore it. I could easily fall in love with an e-reader. It is everything I adore in a gadget all in one spot.

I have been waiting for prices to go down on these ever since I first laid eyes on the Kindle and Sony readers. Now Barnes and Noble has the Nook. Do any of you have one of these? Can anybody recommend one over the other? Are they as awesome as I am envisioning them to be?