Computer woes

Ugh! So my computer has slowly been slowing down cuz I have so much stuff on it and it's like 5 years old. But last Thursday it all of a sudden got slooooow! And slower Friday so I rebooted before bed. Saturday it was taking 20 minutes to run a simple action on 1 photo. My dh has been hearing me complain for months so he kinda tuned me out. He tells me to back all my stuff up (cuz I'm lame like that) and we'll wipe the computer but run the anti-virus and spybot. So I spent all day Saturday weeding through my crud so I could defrag overnight. No faster. Then an internet window pops up over and over and McAfee keeps finding Trojans. Crap. DH finally comes to look at it and starts swearing. The computer crashed, I thought I was going to throw up. I have worms. I have no idea where I got them from. Luckily it's back up but now I have no choice but to wipe the computer clean. And I have way too much going on to have this happen.

Moral of the story:
Back-up everything
Be careful of the sites you visit
Don't download anything that isn't from a trusted source (I don't but you never know)
Don't open attachments if you don't know the sender (I don't do that either)
And make sure your anti-virus, spyware/malware, and OS are up to date.

I am very careful but it happened anyway. So I may be scarce for a few days. If you are waiting on something from me, I will do my best to get it done as fast as possible!

Cyber Monday

Today is Cyber Monday! That means all of you that plan to do online shopping today is the day to get great deals! I know I'll be doing as much as I can today and found a great way to help a favorite charity at the same time. GoodShop is a site that allows you to enter your charity and then shop through a list of up to 700 participating stores. They will then donate part of your purchase to that charity and lots of them even have extra discounts and deals for you! It's a great way to get a great deal and help someone at the same time (and not just today)!

BTW if you don't have a charity in mind, please consider the ALS Association of Arizona - Phoenix Chapter. It is very near and dear to my heart after losing my grandmother to this deadly disease, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Catching up a little, Halloween

Here's a couple of my kiddos in their Halloween costumes. My MIL was wonderful enough to teach me to sew so tat I could make these little astronaut suits for them. Without her help they never would have gotten done. My oldest wasn't very photogenic so I had to try again but my
youngest hammed it up!




And here is a composite with them together since it didn't happen!



I'll try to post a few of some detailed shots of the costumes to. Next year needs to be a little simpler!

Behind again!

Sorry for the lack of posting! I've been so consumed with finishing my new website I've neglected the blog! I will announce the new site in a couple days when I finish tweaking it and announce a sale at that time! And a new blog is in the works too!

If you have emailed me and haven't heard back, please email me again! My email is really having issues with the switch and I've been informed that people haven't been getting my emails or I'm not getting theirs. Not ignoring you! If I haven't heard back, I'll resend today. I've been very sick the last few days and I'm a little behind so I'm trying to catch up by Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year again!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Saturday afternoon in downtown Austin

Still going backwards here! We met up at the state capital and started there, walked around finding interesting places to photograph, and ended at a bridge with a large bat colony to watch them. Sadly we were about two weeks late to see much, most had already migrated to Mexico.

She has the greatest wardrobe!


She wasn't feeling like being photographed so I just talked to her and snapped a few.

This was in front of a tattoo parlor


Austin skyline, I couldn't get a picture with the bats though.

Revamping again!

I found a way to make the pictures bigger so I am switching things up. I'll work on it this week between proofing pictures, blowing my nose, sewing my kids Halloween costumes, coughing, yeah I'm sick and I'm really hoping my kids don't get it. They're going trick-or-treating no matter what! If you haven't heard from me it's because I'm drugged up on cold medicine and I'm afraid of saying something silly (at least I can edit it here LOL!). I'll be back to you within a couple days!