You found me HOW???

So I have this stat counter on my blog so I can see how many hits I get and where people are located, stuff like that. One of the features is that I can see keywords that people have typed into Google that have landed them on my site. It cracks me up sometimes to see a) what people are actually SEARCHING for, and b) what Google thinks my website is a good match for. Here are the most recent searches that have brought people to this lovely spot on the web:

• paige blanca
• 1977 fashions
• tinkerbell doll cake
• preschool = let it snow
• paige middle name
• paige boy haircut
• comedians hot pocket site
• paige quirk
• names of top ten pornstar (they must have been REALLY disappointed when they found my site!!)
• paige from party people (again, probably very disappointed in boring ol' me!)
• redcast band
• paige around the world

I know there have been more random ones in the past, but I forgot to write them down. Oh, well. Any of you have interesting google hits?

My New Best Friend

Google Reader

I have tried RSS feeds before -- where you type in a list of the blogs you read and supposedly the thing magically checks for updates and lets you know when a blog has been updated. Supposed to save time. Great in theory. Except I was getting notifications two or three days AFTER someone had posted and I had missed big news (like a baby birth --UGH) or a chance to serve. So I abandoned it.

Enter Google Reader. It works the same way, but this one WORKS. It updates it instantly. Saves me surfing through my list of 20+ blogs when I am bored. I have no excuse to sit at my computer and stalk my friends. Google Reader tell me (in not so many words) to get off my butt and be productive because that's what all my friends are doing -- hence the lack of updates. This is going to help me. Alot. I can tell.

So I'm off to do laundry since there are no new blogs to read.

Joelle

Doesn't the sight of this...

Make you COLD?? It is 30-some degrees outside. Rainy. My house is still 65 because I haven't turned the heat up from last night. And this is how my child chooses to dress. I am in a long sleeved t-shirt layered over a short sleeved t-shirt, jeans, and my cozy mukluk slippers my sister got me for Christmas. And I am cold. My child is in a tutu. No socks.

She is having a blue day. She grabbed all the blue toys she can find and she is taking them with her wherever she goes. Cute. Brrrrrr...

New Schedule

Can I just say that I LOVE 9:00 am church?? We had the 1-4 schedule last year and the kids in primary were SO squirrelly and our mornings always seemed so rushed and unproductive. Then we would get home and it was dark and time to make dinner (after choir practice got out at 5:00) and go to bed.

Now it is 1:25, we are done with church, the kitchen is clean, the potatoes are in the oven for dinner tonight... which is the OTHER reason I love 9:00 am church. Growing up we always had a big Sunday night meal -- usually a roasted whole chicken with potatoes and gravy and corn. Mmmm... But when you get home at 5:00 your only options are crockpot meals (which I get tired of) or spaghetti, or pancakes and eggs. Yum. My favorite.

But TODAY I have all day to cook. We are having the missionaries over and I am taking advantage of their company to make something I don't normally make anymore -- full fat, yummy, bad for you food. We are having Marlboro Man Sandwiches, Twice Baked Potato Casserole (Cube six baked potatoes - place 1/2 in a 9x13 pan - cover with sourcream, cheese, crumbled bacon, and green onions, then make another layer. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes), Salad (eh, I needed something healthy on the plate), and Blackberry Cobbler (the blackberries were on sale and I couldn't resist making it because it is so easy and so TOTALLY delish. I am already looking forward to summer when the bushes in our backyard overflow with fresh wild berries.

Can you tell that Sunday is my cheat day this week? If I am going to cheat, I am going to enjoy it. And enjoy it, I will.

The Next Generation

Most of you know that I taught junior high for a few years before I had Jillise. I was also a nanny for a few summers while I was in college. I have had the ability to keep in contact with some of the students I taught and recently made contact with one of the girls I nannied for.

Getting older has it's share of problems, but can I just say that I am loving seeing this next generation grow into adulthood?? When I knew the two girls I am thinking of, one was in junior high and the other was about 10. They had their entire lives ahead of them and it was kinda fun to be on the "mentoring" side of that. At that age you have no idea what you want to do with your life and you are just beginning to figure out who you really are.

Now one is engaged (probably -- she said in her Christmas letter that she had chosen her ring) and one is finishing up college and looking forward to dental school. Both are beautiful girls with their heads on straight. I have no doubt that both will be successful. But what warms my heart the most is to see how both of these "girls" have pulled through the stressful teenage years with a testimony of their Savior. They turn to Him for help, they trust the promptings of the Spirit, and they are living their lives in a way that will bring them closer to Him.

The pull of the world can be so strong and Satan has caused so many youth to waiver and fall away from the truth. But these girls are proof positive that there are many of their generation who are striving to make correct choices and do what is right. And I love being on this side of it and watching it happen. These girls give me hope for my three children -- the generation that my young friends will watch grow up. I guess the grey hairs I got while I was working with them was worth it. ;)

Things I Don't Recommend

1. Eating tons and tons of Frosted Sugar Cookies, Chex Mix, Nuts, Muddie Buddies, Peppermint Bark, Chocolates, and Butterfinger Ice Cream Pie over a one week period.

2. Getting a chest cold over that same period that renders you incapable of exercising without hacking up a lung.

3. Attending the 30 minute abs class, followed by the 60 minute body sculpting class after this aforementioned week of overindulgence and inactivity.

WARNING: Failure to follow these recommendations may leave you hauling around a few extra pounds and so sore that you can't roll over in bed, walk up and down the stairs, lift more than a loaf of bread, or sit down in a chair without help stabilizing your weak and shaky muscles.
I can't wait to go back. :D

Christmas Pictures

Slide.com was being difficult and refusing to upload some of my pics, but they were just more pictures of tired looking people opening gifts. :)