Changes...

I am having an internal debate. To lock up the blog or not to lock up the blog....

It would seem that half of my blogging buddies are doing it. Maybe for good reason, maybe they are paranoid, I don't know. Also, I know some readers, Steve, my mom, steves mom, and other unknowns are not regular bloggers but they like to keep up with our blog and locking it up would be kind of annoying for them...
So I am asking for everyone's two cents about this issue...in helping me decide what to do.

My biggest concerns are as follows:

If I could control what was said about my blog everywhere else, then maybe I would leave my blog public. But unfortunately I can't. Since I can't control pertinent information like last names, living locations, web links, due dates, birthdays, etc., I decided I better make my blog private. Some may think this is paranoid (maybe I am), but it makes me feel better about what kind of info I am posting out the great wide void. Mostly things about my kids. I feel bad that this adds another step....

my solution...get a gmail account and do all your blog browsing on the reader function. It is fabulous (thanks Nikkala for alerting me to it). No more clicking the links and then the back button. It just alerts you to anything new on any website you are interested in! Saves a lot of time, but that is a soapbox post for another day...

Anyway, ....
please leave a comment answering the "to lock or not to lock?" question!..." I am quite curious...

President Hinckley

The prophet of my church, the one who has been prophet for all of my adult life and most of my formative years died today. Although I am sad, I can't help but rejoice that he and his sweet wife, who it was obvious that he loved, are reunited and that the burdens he must have carried, being 97 and president of a 13 million member church, have been exchanged for the peace of a job well done.

I am grateful for the knowledge of our church has of where we go after life and the joys that can be ours. For more info, you can see www.mormon.org or www.lds.org

I have a testimony of prophets on the earth today and of the fullness of truths that were restored through Joseph Smith.

Love to all at this time.

Whistler

My little guy can whistle. It is so cute and the first thing he tried to whistle was the theme from Star Wars.

Yes, he has seen it, but we only stuck with the very first one. He really wants to watch the other ones, but I am a little nervous about the content and his comprehension.

Mostly he loves Darth Vader, because of Lego Star Wars.

I really want to ...

...put up a new banner, but for some reason we didn't take ANY pictures in CA and so I am waiting for a CD from Steve's dad. Actually, I know the reason. Steve's dad has a fancy Nikon and all the fancy lenses to boot, and it comes virtually everywhere...so nobody takes pics with their own cameras...we just all take pics with the fun to shoot camera. Except Conner, who got a new Spiderman camera for Christmas. He took a plethora of pics. His camera only held 24 pics though so we ended up deleting a lot and unfortunately, the shutter speed is a bit on the slow side so I am not sure if he ever held still long enough to get one that isn't blurry...In the mean time, I am afraid if I put the old stuff back up, it might never get a new banner, because at least the Christmas one feels out of date.

Please excuse the Christmas Banner

I have much to blog and more important, I need to remove the Christmas banner and get something else up there.

But first, I have a to-do list...you know, the ones that you make thinking you will get twice as much done as you actually do. But nevertheless, I am going to try before I get to sit down and catch up on blogging. There was no high-speed internet where we spent most of our Christmas vacation so I am really behind!

Here is my list:
1. Unpack suitcases and sort laundry
2. Start laundry, maybe even get it all done today :)
3. Clean up random stuff that was brought in from the car and left to sit in various places around the house.
4. Check to make sure I didn't leave any bills unpaid before we left and pay any new ones.
5. Finish Kristin and baby Evie's quilt. Seeing as baby Evie made her appearance on Jan 1, the same day I was finishing up the binding...only the hand stitched edges (the longest part besides the quilting) to go. In a strange way, it makes me slightly grateful for the colds we have so we couldn't go immediately down, because my fingers would have to fly faster than they know how. Poor Conner, he was begging to go down and see her as soon as he heard.
6. Make dinner/grocery list because otherwise we won't have too much in the way of vittles here at our house. We did make it to the grocery store on New Years eve to get milk and eggs and Steve picked up some produce yesterday, so I guess we have the essentials.
7. Go write down the mileages in all the cars, for tax purposes.
8. Sort my filing cabinet actually stack as piles on top so I can get a head start on taxes. I am afraid Steve's records are a little less user friendly than the ones I kept last year.
9. Take Christmas table cloth off, wash and put with Christmas decor so it can all go back in the closet.
10. Ready, set go!