The internet has made so many things available to so many people, whereas before, only ‘experts’ could do them.

For instance, I used to go to weekend retreats with my church and at the end of the weekend, they would have this totally awesome video made up of pictures taken over the weekend, put to music, of course. Everyone loved it and they would almost always end it with the song ‘Lean on Me’ - and by that time, everyone had their arms around each other and the tears were beginning to flow!

And last year, for my son’s sixth grade graduation, they made one of all the sixth graders involved in all of their activities throughout the year - and it was so cool! All the kids loved it!

And I have always been so amazed at the technological prowess of the people who put these videos together. Well, guess what? Now I get to exhibit that same technological prowess myself!

Yep - at Fliptrack.com, I can go in there and put some photos together, pick the music, pick whatever effects that I want - and then send away! I can post it on my MySpace profile, I can embed it right here on my Blogger blog - all kinds of things! Get ready to watch Grandma cry!!! LOL!!

I’m so excited about this and I can’t wait to get started!

I can understand that I have a very nurturing side to my personality, my spirit, what-have-you, but, and that’s a BIG but!

I am the queasiest person ALIVE!!

Shawn got a splinter the other day, and I was really nervous about it, because through 13+ years of parenting, Mark has definitely become the Expert Splinter Handler - and he wasn’t home!

I took a deep breath, tried to act like the adult I am purported to be, and took the boy in my bathroom to ‘go digging’ with my trusty tweezers. And whaddya know? I GOT IT!! And without too much pain/trauma on his part, and with hardly a hair of queasy-weezy on my part.

Wow! Did I feel accomplished!

Only thing is - the very next day, Patrick got a splinter, too! Gah! And again - Mark wasn’t home…

So, once again, I sucked it up, and took the child to my bathroom, only to find that his splinter was not in the slightest - sticking out. There was nothing to grab - nothing.

And there was this hole, this crevice, this spot where the evil splinter had entered into the precious layers of my first-born’s skin. And that, my friends, is where I had to stick my splinter into, trying desperately to get a hold of that little bugger! Getting queasy yet?

I sure was! We worked on it and worked on it, throughout the course of the evening, with no success. I even sent him to shower in the middle of it all, hoping that would loosen it up - that’s what Mark always says, when he’s home.

So the next morning, I got him up for school, and it was really hurting him. See - it was on the underside of his finger, right across a knuckle - so it was stuck in a bend - and he couldn’t do anything without accidentally hurting it.

So he wanted me to go digging again…my tummy hurts just typing this to ya’ll…

I’m such a wimp. But I went and got my tweezers and we tried again - nope. No luck.

He was having trouble getting ready for school - and it was on his right hand, so he wouldn’t have been able to write at school, anyway.

So it was time to do the unthinkable - wake up Mark at an unGodly hour. I cringed - and headed into my bedroom….”Mark, we need your help….”

He sent me for his tweezers and his magnifying glass…and he got it out in less than one minute!! See - he really is the Splinter Master!!

But by this time, my stomach was a mess. It was peculiar, because, it reminded me of the time that I burned my hand in the 7th grade, and I was sitting on the exam table at the emergency clinic, and the doc was talking to my mom and I about the suggested course of treatment - and something he said set me off. Mom looked over and I was white as a ghost. (I know, I am white as a ghost - well, I went white as a whiter ghost!) And they made me lie down - oooog, I felt horrible. I don’t even remember what he was talking about - but, every time I get that ‘medical queasiness’ that is what I think of! Heehee

So I am not sure I would make such a great nurse - unless I could just take care of people - which I am very good at - you know, all that TLC and nurturing crap that people need when they are sick - I’m good at that! LOL!

But just keep those damn splinters to yourself! HA!

If you are in the UK, and you are looking for a really cool, do-it-all site, with classifieds, event announcements, blogs, and groups, then you need to check out itsmymarket.com.

It is really a neat site and they have competitions, too. So far, it looks like - there have been two competitions, Cambridgeshire’s Beautiful Pets and Norfolk’s Beautiful Pets. The pictures are so freaking cute!! And the winners won a bunch of money - money is always good!

I like this site, because lots of the things you might log onto the internet to do, are all in one place - it’s really cool!

If you’re in the UK, you should definitely check it out!

That is what Hugh Grant said the other day on The View when talking about his girlfriend! The ladies were all laughing and Hugh had this confused (and completely adorable, I might add) look on his face!

It was so funny! As they were explaining it to him, he was like, “Oh, that’s not a good thing?”

So cute! See, across the pond, he explained, that means she’s a great girl - gorgeous, sharp, smart, etc!

There was some other funny word difference they talked about during the show, but, I can’t remember what that one was.

I just find it so interesting that our two ‘languages’ are so different when they are the same language! And it’s fun learning about the funny differences!!

I have a couple of online British friends, and one of them the other day, just smooth as could be, used ‘fortnight’ in a sentence, like it was nothing. I thought it was so cute!

She might even be reading this! Hi Cat!!

I just finished up a bottle of diet pills, like I’ve shared here before, and they had a hoodia supplement in them.

I couldn’t take them all the time, because of my silly stomach issues, so I didn’t experience a consistent result.

So I am not a good case study, but you can find out all about hoodia side effects at the Hoodia Gordonii Guide. There are 69 people’s stories there.

They were actually on Oprah and 60 Minutes, that’s cool. I would love to try a product like that - the pills I was on had a ton of ingredients in them - kind of like a chemistry experiment going into my mouth! The pills recommended on this site seem so much more natural!

For those of you grammarians out there, you can make that - for what am I grateful? If it so pleases you, of course.

I was tagged for this meme by two of my favorite bloggers, Colleen and Skeet. Thank you, ladies!

I am supposed to share three things that I am grateful for in my life today. (Like how I avoided that silly preposition business that time? hehe)

1. Sobriety - Without my sobriety, I wouldn’t have anything. Well, I might have a few things - a hangover, jailtime, a lovely required stay at Terrell State Hospital. Those just aren’t the kinds of things I want in my life today! I have the family, hubby with a truck, housewife-life, small town living I’ve always wanted - and I have that only, ONLY, because of my sobriety. And for that, I am truly grateful.

2. God - Quite often, over coffee, I hear alcoholics debating over what should come first on your list - God or sobriety as your most important, what you’re most grateful for, etc - Well, for me, it’s simple - when I’m drinking, popping X, and what have you - I turn my back on God. So without sobriety, I can’t have the relationship - fully - that I have with God today. So yes, sobriety comes first, but, I am extremely grateful for the depth of the relationship that I have with God today.

3. Family - Dang now, why ya’ll got ta make me cry here? Gah! I have the sweetest, smartest, and cutest little family - I love them very, very much! And I am so grateful for each of them! And I am so grateful for our extended families, too!

Ok, so there are my top three - now, I need to tag some people!

I’ll pick Kim, Gina, and Cat. Come on, girls - tell us what you are grateful for!

It would be so great to take the kids down to Gulf Shores, Alabama, for Spring Break. Mark has been doing some work down there over the last year and the pictures he’s taken are just amazing!

And there is a great site online where you can check out vacation rentals - one of the houses looks a lot like the house he was down there working on.

It is right on the beach and has three master suites - wow! We could gather up some of the kin (I just had to use that word! heehee) and all go down there together!

The sand is white and it is just beautiful and Mark saw lots and lots of dolphins - the kids would absolutely love that!

It’s really weird - I keep wondering where all the noise has gone….

Oh yeah! It went to school! HAHAHA!

I had six kiddos here all day yesterday and it was a happy, bustling, busy house!

Sammie had a friend spend the night, and we were babysitting my two precious little nieces - they are four and five. And they are the cutest little things!

It was pleasant out weather-wise, so they spent a good portion of the day out back playing tag, hide and seek, and jumping rope - oh, and riding bikes and scooters.

I could keep the window open just a bit so I could keep an ear on them and it was really a pleasant day!

Sammie took such good care of her cousins yesterday, even cooking their Ramen noodles for them. I tried to get up and do it, but, I was promptly informed that they wanted Sammie to do it! So cute!

So today seems a bit anti-climactic, sort of like the day after Christmas….

I think I’ll make it…

If you are looking to listen to some new artists who are as of yet unsigned, there is a great site called Unsigned.com.

I was listening to some different Country Bands and I found one artist from Tennessee that I really like, Jayne Nelson. She has a sweet, pretty voice that kind of reminds me of some of the ballad-type singers from the late 80’s.

I was also checking out some Jazz Artists, and I found a really great one named Brian Evans. I love his music - he has such a wonderful and soothing and seductive voice - I just love it!

I think I could spend all day on that site, listening to all kinds of different artists. I’m definitely bookmarking it.

Ok, so my son brings home this piece of paper - and on it are his most compatible matches for friends.

Alrighty then…

Yeah - they had the kids answer these questionnaires and then they matched them up with the most compatible friends.

They also had least compatible matches on there - but, only three of those.

Sadly, most of the people that were listed he doesn’t even know. The one that he does know and kind of thinks of as a friend is a sweet girl named, Annie - who happens to be listed on his least compatible matches. LOL!

Ok, I’ve just gone and perused the website some more, and I am a bit disappointed.

When he first brought it home, I was kind of taken aback, but, then as he explained it to me - about it being just about connecting ‘friends’ - I thought it was kind of cute.

But now as I look over the website some more, I am seeing that their ‘regular program’, as they put it, is to make match-ups.

My son is in the seventh grade, and I know at that age, that would not be a good thing - could prove to be quite embarassing. But looking back at my own high school career, I am pretty sure that I wouldn’t have wanted that even then.

They say on their website, ‘we know some people won’t want to do the regular program because they already have a boyfriend or girlfriend’.

Quite a few possible scenarios for uncomfortable feelings there, don’t you think?

What if you are a not-so-popular kid and it matches you up with ‘Mr. Football’ and people laugh hysterically about it?

What if you are a not-so-popular kid who doesn’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend, and you opt to not do the ‘regular program’? And then some smarty pants kid asks you, in front of a crowd - “You don’t have a girlfriend, why didn’t you do it?”

I mean, there are many ways to look at this that could cause a kid to have hurt feelings or completely mortified feelings, even.

I have to say that I am so not thrilled with this program. I am not going to link to them and give them a link, but, if you want to check it out it’s called Computer-Fun.

Some things these days are so accepted for their cute factor, without ever taking into account how it could really affect kids in a negative way.

And this is for a fundraiser, too. Of course, a lot of the fundraisers are the ‘hurt feelings generators’ - the carnations on Fridays, the Valentine’s, etc…

If you haven’t guessed it already, I come from the not-so-popular crowd - I wonder if the hurt feelings are similar in the popular crowd sometimes - or even often?