Pictures and Ali Edwards

First off I received a reply  to a comment I made from Ali Edwards, that was kinda exciting.       January 18, 2011

• Terry said…
  Hi Ali
  I love your projects. I however do not have Photoshop/Elements, but would love to purchase some of you overlays and brushes. Can either one be used in another photo editing program, I have Microsoft Digital Image Suite.
  Thanks
  Reply»
  
  
  
  • ….
    January 18, 2011
    Ali said…
    Hi Terry – I’m not familiar with that program (someone who reads this might have more information). You could download a couple of my free brushes and see if they work. Here’s a couple links: http://aliedwards.com/2010/01/scrapbooking-with-your-computer-downloading-unzipping-organizing-digital-elements.html
    and
    http://aliedwards.com/2010/09/love-you-digital-scrapbook-freebie.html
    I’m pretty certain that you do I’m pretty certain that you do need Photoshop or Elements to use the layered templates.
    
    
    Now for some pictures.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    My nephew stayed here during March break. And his friend Gage came from Windsor and stayed at his grandparents. The three of them had a great time.
    
    
    Mike and Penny came over to play Settlers, Logan won. Rain was my partner, he was a big help.
    
    
    
    This collage is of some of the things we did during March break when Rain was here for the week. Of course we went to McDonalds. We also went to the Library and had a couple of games of Settlers. On the last night we went to Pizza Hut for supper.
    
    
    On Wed. night Ethan and Gavin came over for supper and a movie. The movie was  Open Season 2. It was a very cute movie. The boys had a lot of fun playing together.
    

2009 - warning long post

This is my first post of 2009. I am glad to be bringing in a new year. I always think that when a new year starts, I can also start all over again. I don't usually make resolutions, because I am never able to keep them. But this year I feel like making a couple.
The first one and the most important is to get healthy and if I loose weight in the process that would be a bonus. So I plan on meal planning, limit my snacking and as you may or may not know I stopped drinking Pepsi at home and at work (I will order it at a restaurant). I bought a book "The Dinner Fix" by Sandi Richard of the "Fixing Dinner" Food Network program. She firmly believes in planning your meals, and cooking or chopping extra to use in another meal later in the week. I have enjoyed her program for awhile, now I plan on putting it into action. Also the book provides a complete grocery list for each meal for each week. The shopping lists are also on her website so you can print it out and take it to the store with you, just cross off the stuff you already have in your pantry.

The second one is to make my bank accounts healthy. I have always been an impulsive buyer, never saving for the items I wanted. So I am going to save before I buy. I also want to keep all my bills up to date. So this is my plan, I hope I can stick to both of them.
These are huge resolutions to keep, but can you imagine what my life will be like in Jan. 2010 if I stay on this path. I will be the little engine that could. I just have to stay positive in every situation.

I am thinking of joining For more information about it go here.
I don't take pictures everyday and I am not on my blog everyday, so this is going to be a challenge for me. It would be nice to have an entry everyday, to look over it in a years time and see what my life was like on a daily basis. I know the premise is to take a picture of your own everyday, but like I said I just don't take my camera out everyday so some days will have no picture.

Now for the January birthday's:

My momPerry - my son-in-lawRain - my grandsonSpeaking of grandson's Ethan's birthday was Dec. 28 and I didn't mention him in last month's birthday list. I know what a bad grandma. Sorry Ethan.I had a wonderful Christmas, it ended up being at Amberley's because of my cat's. My grandson Gavin has breathing difficulties after a few hours at my house. (I know I should get rid of them, but they need me) and also my brother is very allergic to them. So Amberley and Perry provided the house and I just brought all the food from my house to theirs. Everyone was there except for my niece Amy who is working in Spain right now. Missed you Amy. We played lots of games, a couple of new ones, one of the new ones was Seinfeld Scene It, it was fun but if you don't watch the show it's just a waste of time.I worked until 3:30 on New Years Eve, then I went to Chatham to A & P's place. Later my mom, and nephew Logan (my mom had him for a week) and later my sister came. We played a couple games of...you guessed it, Settlers. We were so into the game we almost forgot to watch for 12:00 and 2009. Needless to say I did not win.

Then on New Years Day which was my mom's birthday, we called the family that lives in Chatham and went to Kelsey's for lunch. It ended up being 10 of us and we had a nice meal and a great visit.























These 2 pictures are from Mike & Penny







Now back to everyday life and all that it can bring, just being positive.

Since I am trying to live a healthy life now, I put some words into tivo and one of the shows it recorded for me is called "You Are What You Eat" just watch this show a couple of times and you will forever eat healthy. It is a British show and doesn't pussyfoot around things, she tells you exactly what's on her mind. Don't watch it if you like to eat, it will turn you off of your favourites.
I watched Rachel Rays "30 Minute Meals" the other day, she made a Chicken Parm Pizza, it looked delicious. So I printed the recipe and bought all the ingredients and made it. Owen kept saying "that's a pizza". Anyway it turned out well except I didn't like the texture of the pizza crust with the topping. So I took all the topping off of the crust and put it in a pan added some tomato sauce and mixed it in with whole wheat pasta and it was much better.
Well I hope you have a wonderful New Year.

Christmas Song & Christmas Memory

Owen and I went to Chatham to celebrate my sister's (Cathy) 50th birthday. We had a really nice time being together with the family. It was really nice to see 2 of my nieces. On Sat. night we went to Amberley & Perry's and played Settlers, I lost again. My brother and sister-in-law came to play the game also. Then Sunday after the party we went back to A & P for another game of Settlers, we were joined by one of their friends. I was like 2 points away from winning. Also sometime that weekend we played Boggle which I also lost. I know I loose a lot of these games, but I still love to play them. The only one that I ever seem to win is Trivia Pursuit.

I made a quick and tasty meal last night. I used one of those Glad steam bags. I cooked some rice, heated up some frozen vegetables put them in one of those bags and microwaved the bag. Topped it with soy sauce and ate. It was pretty good and very quick.

December's birthdays:

Dec. 6 Amy - my niece This picture is of Amy in Spain (she is there now until April)
Dec. 6 Megan - my niece

Dec. 8 Cathy - my sister Christmas Movie:
Tonight I watched "The Bells of St. Mary's" I really like this movie, the message is also a good one. It is about having faith, hope, dreams, never giving up and it shows how people can change other people's live's for the better

Christmas Memory
When my sister and I were growing up we would spend Christmas with my grandma & grandpa Weston. We had wonderful times and Santa was very generous to us, he gave us lot's of presents. Then later on my cousins and Aunt & Uncle would also come. And my great Aunt Iris would come from London (Ontario). Grandma would cook a beautiful dinner. Such good memories.


Christmas Song #7 - I just discovered this song "Christmas Canon" and this ochestra, what a wonderful song. I hope you like it.

Thanksgiving and Birthdays

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Owen and I are going to Chatham today to spend the day with family. Instead of the traditional turkey we are having potluck. As long as we are together that's all that matters. Of course with all mom's grandchildren getting older most of them won't be there. They are either at school or working. We have a day of togetherness, food and games planned, I can't wait.

I am thankful for:

God's love and mercy

my mom

my children and my grandchildren

that my sister's surgery went well

I have a good job with an understanding boss

that I live in Canada

that I have good friends

my car (without it I wouldn't be able to go to Chatham)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't forget to remember what you are thankful for.

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Birthday's this month are:

3rd - my brother, Chris

4th - my son, Owen

12th - my niece, Tiffany

14th - my sister-in-law, Penny

Happy Birthday to all of you.

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Perry and Amberley came here last night, so we played Settlers and Trivia Pursuit. Amberley won Settlers, I had 7 points but it wasn't enough to win. We played on teams for Trivia Pursuit, Perry & I were on one team, Amberley & Owen were on the other team. Both teams had all six pies, so it was a matter of who got to the centre first and answered the question right. Amberley & Owen won the game. Between the 4 of us we actually answered a lot of questions. It was a lot of fun.
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I have been trying to learn the ins and outs of my DSLR camera. So I have gone out to the country to take pictures, here are some of them.
This heron was in a farmer's field, no water in sight.

Good Friday and pictures

I hope everyone had a pleasant Good Friday. Since everything was closed therefore no work to go to I slept in until 10, and it was nice. Of course I have been sick for the last 2 days. My cough wasn't as bad as it had been but because of the deep cough my rib cage area was really hurting. Amberley and Perry came in the afternoon to play a couple of games of Settlers. Ethan and Gavin were with their other grandparents for the day. But as the day progressed both of them started to get sick again. And my cough was still hanging on. Also later in the day Brittany, Ryan and Rain came for dinner, Brittany & Ryan went to visit Paul for awhile. Because A & P were sick they just saw him for a couple of minutes before they left for home

Owen starts work at McDonalds today, he has orientation. I hope all goes well. He already knows a few people who work there.

Here are a few random pictures that I took last March along the St. Clair River on my was home from Chatham.