Miss Molly - - Da Niece!

Click on the photo to view the entire web album!

Molly Carol Anderson

Welcome to the world, Baby Girl!

Woo hoo!! It's official! I have a niece! My sister, Leah, went into labor while my mother was on her way up to Sheridan. Mom arrived at the hospital at 8:45 that night. Molly Carol made her appearance at 9:06pm, much to the relief of her mother, father, and grandmother! This cute bundle looks nothing like her mother or her aunt when we were born as she has hair--visible hair--on her head. My mother said that Molly has as much hair as Leah and I did when we were a year old! I've been told she has her daddy's chin and her mama's eyes--I can't tell too much in the photos. What do you think?? Here's two of Molly--more to come later. Maybe I'll get that slideshow thingy working . . . .

Not normally a Technophobe . . .

I think it's kinda interesting that I'm usually the one people go to when they have a computer issue. True, I've worked with computers since the early 1990s (remember that old 286 with amber monitor???!) and do know a lot. But since I started this blog thing I feel that I've learned so much about web use; not just the PC (oh yeah, I'm not a MAC person at all). I've learned how to post photos on the web (for free!) and how to upload movies to the web (again, for free!), how to post photos on a blog, how to post movies on a blog (and edit the HTML so you can see the whole thing!), and now I'm going to explore podcasting. I've explored it a bit before, but I'm feeling very brave and will plunge into it again. Now if only I could get paid for all of this . . .

I saw this cute cartoon earlier tonight. So true!

Typical Winter Day . . .

Well, the snow that I thought was coming yesterday came early this morning. At my house, there was none and the roads were perfect. About half-way to work, the roads became icy and snow covered. All the streets were horrible and many people slid off the road or into other cars. Many of my co-workers were late but all were safe. The sun came out in the early afternoon and the roads cleared up admirably, but I'm a bit worried about tomorrow morning as it will be below freezing tonight and most of tomorrow. I'm grateful that Sam will be driving tomorrow so I don't have to deal with that level of stress as well. Speaking of winter, my boss sent out a little TV ad (I think) about dealing with winter. It was hilarious! I'll try to post it here, but I'm not sure how it will work!



Did it work??

Snow??

Today at work I looked out my window and saw some snow flakes falling down. I was so excited! We usually don't see much snow and I was hoping that this would be a "real" snowfall. And yet, at the same time, I was hoping that it wouldn't be. See, today I had our truck and was driving home. If we had a big snow, the drive home would be horrendus! But snow is so pretty when it's all white and pristine and glistening in the sunlight. Well, we only saw a few flakes and then that was that--all gone! I guess that was good though; at least I made it home safely.

Tonight we watched Narnia again. My husband and mother hadn't seen it since it came out and I'd only seen it once more. It was good to see it again, though I think I have a love/hate relationship with anything Narnia. I love it so much that it is totally unfair to think that it's not real. I want Narnia to be a real place that I could go to. Seeing the movies, listening to the Focus on the Family Radio Dramas, or reading the books really makes me yearn for Narnia. Maybe I'll start looking in wardrobes . . .

Craziness . . .

Have you ever had one of those days? Where everything seemed to just be a lot more insane than normal? Where the little things piled up until they became big things? That's how my whole week has been! I arrived home late on the 2nd from my vacation to find a message from one of my co-workers on my cell. Turns out we had some restructuring done and instead of coming in late the next day like I'd planned, I had to be there early. I met with this co-worker the next morning and found out that our company had to lay off several people and that he was now my direct supervisor. Also, I'd been promoted to supervise my department. How's that for a surprise? "Happy New Year! Welcome Back! Solve these problems!" Okay. Anyway, with several people gone now all our jobs are reorganized. Every day I learn of a new responsibility that I now have. Whew! Let's hope that things settle down a bit and the quality of the services that we provide is not diminished. What a year so far!!

More Christmas Photos!!

Would you like to see more photos of Stephen and the Jones family?? Of course you do!! Here's a link to my Web Album (that I finally figured out how to do--next is that cool slide show that I see on other blogs . . . )

http://picasaweb.google.com/bekahj77/ChristmasIllinois

Enjoy!

Ain't it the truth . . .

My mother sent this to me a while back. Enjoy!

Photo Hosting . . .

As you can see, I figured out how to get my photo attached to my profile. It wasn't easy; the help link in blogger's profile edit page told me to download Hello! and utilize bloggerbot. Well, I tried that and lo and behold I got error message after error message. I looked up various help screens, trying to find out why bloggerbot said that I did not have access to my own blog! I discovered some information that said that bloggerbot was no longer working and we were to use BlogThis on Picasa. So, I downloaded Picasa, it found the 85 billion photos on my computer (and didn't find the one I wanted!!), tried to use BlogThis, found that it only posts photos in a blog posting, it doesn't do internet hosting. Played around with it a bit more this afternoon and found that I can upload the photos to my Web Album, and copy and paste the image source link into the proper place on my blogger profile and Eureka! there I am. Don't you just love computers??

Stephen Champlain Jones

I have to brag about my new nephew! Josh and Bekah are in the process of adopting this adorable little 15-mo old boy. Currently, they are his foster family, and the adoption should go through later this year. Little Stephen loves to give "kisses" but he can't really pucker up yet! He just gets close to your cheek with his open mouth and then grins. Once while he was sitting on my lap and I was trying to entertain him, I remembered a rhyme from my days of doing Storytime programs at the library. We did this nonsense rhyme together and he really picked up on it. Although he couldn't repeat the words, he knew the actions and could remember what came next. He is so smart! After Sam and I left Illinois, Mom showed him a picture of us and he immediately did the motions for the rhyme! His Mama will be sick and tired of "Ram Sam Sam" after a bit, I'm sure! In case you are interested, here are the words and actions. If you have or know of a 1 yr - 3 yr old child, they will love this--
Ram Sam Sam
(On Ram Sam Sam hit one fist on top of the other.)
A Ram Sam Sam
A Ram Sam Sam
Goolie Goolie Goolie
(Roll hands)
And a Ram Sam Sam
(hit fists again)
A Raffy A Raffy
(Lift arms)
Goolie Goolie Goolie
(Roll hands again)
And A Ram Sam Sam
(Hit fists again)

Here are some snapshots of Stephen for your enjoyment!

Stephen with his Christmas present from Uncle Sam and Aunt Rebekah--a special lion from Jungle Stuffers (like Build-a-Bear)

Grandma helps Stephen discover the baby in the mirror. Of course, he had to "kiss" the baby!

The poor dear was so patient with his crazy family as they dressed him up in the Christmas tree skirt, a black hat and a couple bears. He looked like a cross between a magician and a matador!

Here is the latest portrait of the Jones' clan! In order:

Back Row (L to R) Rebekah Jones, Joshua Jones, Rebekah Jones, Samuel Jones

Middle Row: Pastor Milton Jones, Pam Jones

Bottom Row: Stephen Champlain Jones

It was wonderful to be with my in-laws for Christmas! My brother-in-law Josh and his wife Bekah are in the process of adopting little Stephen. What a difference to see the holidays through the eyes of a 15-month-old boy!

And here we are! My husband of six-and-a-half years, Sam, and I. It seems that photographers around the country think that this is the only pose that Sam and I can do as no matter where we are we are asked to stand just this way for studio photographs. We're going to have to find a unique photographer and see what will happen!