My Boy scout the Pancake Chef

Last weekend Zane went camping with his Boy scout group. When he came back he told us that on Saturday morning he and another 6th grader had made breakfast. Breakfast was pancakes and bacon. So when it was time to fix something for dinner Zane quickly volunteered to make pancakes. At which I quickly said OK!

He did a great job! The griddle I have is designed to make 4 at a time. (I use to have a bigger one that makes 8 but a I accidentally left a spatula on it and the plastic melted, Now Bed Bath and Beyond doesn't carry the big one anymore....but this is about Zane...)

So, when he started making his pancakes he was only pouring 2 at a time. I said Zane go ahead and make all 4, or we might be here all night. Remember there are 7 people to feed?
At which he replies, "MOM, I'm not multi-talented"

First Fruits

We've had this Satsuma tree for two years now. We planted it one January and then had to move it the next January to the new house. So, it's had a lot of re-adjusting to do.
But this season we got two good Satsumas off it. The boys picked one and the girls picked one.

It's hard to figure out how to divide things into 5 equal pieces. Especially since there are only 2 things to divide. I had decided we would peel them and then separate the pieces. But when we started asking who wanted some, only Kaylee and Zane did. Maybe next year we'll have more.

I LOVE my new photo program

Last month at my annual scrapbooking crop, I was complaining about how to keep my digital photos organized. Mechiel, who shall now be known by me as the Explainer of all things photo, shared with me about Picasa. Picasa is a free program that allows you to edit, share, organize and do worlds of other things to your digital photos.

Mechiel walked me step by step through her pictures and showed me all types of tricks. The ease of this program is just phenomenal. I will say it again, because it needs repeating, Phenomenal.

So for the last month I have been playing with my new found Picasa. Basking in it's organization when today I discovered something even more magical about Picasa.

This:


One click did this. All I have to do is have it printed out.
Six 2x3 pictures ready to be cut apart and placed on a page.

And this..... No more photoshop, no more lining it up, no more stretch, skew and crop.


Now to many non-scrapbookers out there you probably don't get it. And that's OK. But to the scrapbookers I can feel your jaws hitting the ground. One click people, one click.

I will be available later for tutorials, and Picasa is free to pay me all royalties. (except that it's free to download and they don't make anything off the program) Oh well, as long as they gave it to me.......... it's worth thousands in my eyes.

It's a small world after all...

It's a small world after all.... It's a small world...everybody sing!
OK, Seriously, A few weeks ago I ran into Mia's Pre-K3 Teacher, from last year, Mrs. Paula. Paula stopped me in the hall to tell me that she had recently been up north visiting friends. While she was visiting on Sunday morning she went to the church she had attended like 10 years ago.

While at the church she ran into some old friends who once worked in the nursery that she formerly coordinated. They began to catch up with what had been going on in their lives and they introduced Paula to their new daughter, from China. Paula talked to her and commented that she had a little girl in her class last year from China, Mia. And that Mia's parents have 4 children and had just returned from China adopting a little brother. And the mom said, "Is Mia's brother named Ty?"

So from there it was just unbelief as Paula told me the family she knows so well is Mark & Molly Cotter from Oregon.
The same Cotters that we drug around Guangzhou with us. The same Cotters that looked at me(more than once) with half trusting eyes as I put them in a cab and sent them on their way ahead of us to where ever our destination was for the day. The same Cotters that we spent 6 days in China with. The Same Cotters that we borrowed the game boy charger from more than once. And the same Cotters who adopted precious little Leah that shares the same special need as Ty does.

The world just seems to get smaller and smaller, even when you meet in China.

Happy Halloween