Stat Tracking now on blogger!

You guys might notice a new "Stats" tab when you log in to blogger.  It shows you information on the people who look at your blog: where they are located, what search terms they used to find your blog, what pages they are viewing, and a few other things.  It's awesome.  This was available before, but not through Blogger, so it's nice that they've added it.  But not nice that they did it the same day that I teach the stat tracker class at the library.  I didn't even have time to update my handouts before class started.  Bad Blogger!

A Boy and His Dog

I've been afraid that our hour long walks with Maggie in the morning are not enough. So I have been running her with me as I bike for an hour. That seems to do the trick!... and it knocks her out for a good part of the morning too! I thought this was the cutest picture of her and Kai.

She is completely passed out and Kai is just chillin' with his Nintendo DS. Cute kids!

7 Years Ago Today

Kathy and Grandpa Ross spent their 7th anniversary in Idyllwild, CA. We arrived on Saturday, did a little sightseeing, and had a delicious dinner. Then we took a hike in the cool evening hours. Sunday was more of the same with emphasis on gallery exploring. This morning we had a yummy breakfast and asked the waitress to take a picture of the happy couple. Now we're home and it's HOT!

Caramel Popcorn Recipe!

You're wondering why a picture of our speedometer is under the title "Caramel Popcorn Recipe", well because I felt like being random today! How often to you get so many 6's in a row? This was in Brent's car... I took this picture on the way to our vacation in Island Park a couple weeks ago. I was navigating the exit at Idaho Falls to turn towards Rexburg... it was a very tricky photo opp! You can still see I managed to go 60mph through it all! (My husband AND dad are going to kill me!)

Moving on... Here's my FAMOUS CARAMEL POPCORN RECIPE!

(Write it down people! And quit calling me for it! Hee hee hee!)

1/4 to 1/2 C Popcorn Seeds (you need to pop those btw... in a hot air popper!) 1/4 C at a time!

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1/4 C Karo light corn syrup

Mix those ingredients all together in a sauce pan till boiling, then turn down heat and keep it bubbling for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add 1 tsp baking soda. Caramel should turn a lighter color and poof up. Don't keep it in the pan or it will start to burn, poor immediately onto POPPED popcorn. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Mom!

New Blogger editor

I'm updating the handouts for my blogging class, and I discovered that the current editor for Blogger will be gone soon.  The editor I'm referring to is what you see when you are creating/typing up a post - all of the options in the toolbar at the top.  You can actually start using the new editor right now, and it has some really great improvements, especially when trying to add images to your blog.

There are three things that are much improved with the new editor:

1. It adds images wherever your cursor was, instead of at the top of the post.
2. You can click and drag on the photo to move it around the post.
3. You can re-size it without having to upload it again, you just click on the picture and you can choose what size you want.

One other nice thing is that if you delete or remove an image from your post, you can add it back again without having to upload it, you just click on the "add image" button again and you'll see the thumbnail for it right there.  But the thumbnails don't stay if you publish or close the window.

Anyway, there's more information on the new editor here: http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?answer=156829

You can turn on the new editor by going to Settings and scrolling to the bottom where it says "Select Post Editor" and choose "Updated Editor."

New Car for Me!

Doug's been talking about going back to work in a couple of weeks, and my Fall classes start in a couple of weeks, too, and we didn't think we would be able to be a 1 truck family for much longer. So today we bought a car for me. It's a 2003 Toyota Camry, and it only has 86K miles on it. It's nice and clean and spacious inside, and Matti can sit in the back seat without breaking her knees. But the outside has four dents--one on each corner of the car. Apparently, the old guy who had it before me had problems with the columned underground parking lot of the grocery store he shopped at. Anyhow, I think that makes it perfect for me (I have problems with columns, myself.) We're real excited, and I feel a bit of relief about not having to drive that huge truck anymore! =)

We're Home! Hooray!

Well, we're very happy to be home. We had a fantastic time in The Black Hills of South Dakota - and that on the heels of a fantastic time, with you all, in Island Park, Idaho. This photo was taken in Deadwood, SD. In the background you can see a small sign that says, "this is the site where Wild Bill Hickok" was gunned down (shot from behind). We'll tell more later. Best regards to all.

Why do I keep thinking a mouse is going to jump out of my cabinets or run across the floor at any second???

Moments Like These and Others

It's moments like these and others which I cherish at the Gilroy Family Reunion. They come unexpectedly and sometimes fleetingly with and between everyone. The camera was doing some strange things for awhile...but these weird pictures captured a feeling and some times that were very fine.

 Who knows what caused it?

 Maybe it was the atmosphere...

At first everything seemed perfectly normal...

But then what happened...?

I think some of these images are really cool so please click on them and hopefully they will be bigger and more will be revealed.

And gradually things became even more odd and wry.

There were also of course more normal times...

A 'Proposal'...'K.I.S.S.'

I don't mean 'kiss' the word, I mean "keep it simple silly"! ...In the spirit of 'keeping it simple'... after careful observation, I am suggesting we keep next year's family vacation even closer to home. I know many of you may not care in the slightest to have this conversation, but after noticing our family dynamics this year as opposed to the last, I think it might be better for us if we keep next years vacation even simpler. By this I am suggestion we go to Park City, or Heber, or Midway. So here are all the things we can do in the Heber/Midway area... Balloon flights, Biking, Boating, Fishing, Golfing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, ATV-ing, Scenic-Driving, Movies, and plenty of Sight-seeing.

So whats prompted this post you ask? Well... I enjoyed our whole vacation this year but really missed out on the 'family-altogether-time'. I don't know if its because people arrived late in the week, or we were too tired every night, or we were not as organized. But I loved our karaoke/game night, but was bummed Lynne and Don couldn't be there. I thought our family nights were the highlight of our vacation last year and was disappointed we didn't have more this year. Brent even mentioned we should have all come to the campfire together (that he worked so hard on!) and sang songs at least for 20 minutes instead of all lingering out at different times.

So the reason I thought to keep things more simple next year is so that the babies can all have naps, the parents can be rested more, and hopefully the cousins will all have a place where they can continue to run around together. I think it would be nice if we found a place where we can lounge around comfortably, read a book all day if we want, or chit chat with each other, and not feel so pressured to pack every day with big activities and then come home exhausted every night. I think the times that we all spend together in the evening are the most memorable of the whole vacation, irregardless of what sight-seeing we do, and I would love if we had more energy and opportunity for that the next time around.

But this was still a great trip, don't get me wrong! .... I would also even love to spend a vacation on the "Jackson Hole" side of Yellowstone and adventure around the Teton area more. Maybe that would be a good idea for one year. I love these vacations... I don't want them to ever end... 'Party on Wayne, Party on Garth!"