HELP

I've mentioned before that I am fairly clueless when it comes to computers. I know the basics and that's about it. In the past, I have been able to upload videos to this site. For some reason, it will not work anymore and I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

I've checked the video sizes and they are smaller than the max MB allowance. I've tried uploading them to different programs such as Facebook, Flickr, You Tube, etc....nothing. They will not load.

The video is taken with my camera. I then download it to my computer into Windows Media Player. It works fine on the computer, but will not upload anywhere else. I've also tried to upload them from a different computer, with no luck.

Any ideas? I have a hilarious new video of Willis that I really want to post.

Oh, and some people have told me that it is difficult to figure out how to comment on my blogs. I agree. It really is. Here is how to do it:

--Go to the bottom of the blog and click on "comment" that is right beside the time
--If you don't have a google account and don't want to create one, just put a mark beside name/url
--Enter your name or anonymous or whatever you want to put--you can leave the URL line blank
--Hit publish post

If you want to be a "follower":

--Click the follow button in the top right of the screen
--If no account with google, AIM, or yahoo already, then go to the bottom and click "create new google account"
--Enter a few things they ask for and you're good to go!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

LETTER TO MEMA FROM THE 80'S

This is a letter I found in one of my photograph albums. It was written to my grandmother (Mema) on my Daddy's side. I sent her my report card in the mail and asked her to send it back to me after she reviewed it (hilarious). I can't remember how I got this letter. She may have given it to me at some point.

Because I mention that I had to go to school and Adam didn't, I am guessing I was about 9 or 10 when this letter was written. I had very sloppy handwriting for my age and I still, to this day, do not have neat penmanship. Even if I try very hard to write neatly, I can not. It is a weakness of mine.

Several things about this letter strike me as funny, but the main thing is that I mention the fact that I have to get up at 6:30 in the morning for school. I have NEVER liked getting up early in the morning. In fact, I despise it. It is not a matter of laziness. I am never late, even when I have to get up at 4:30am for clinicals, but I hate it so bad.

I love to just sleep until my body tells me to wake up. It makes me feel so much better during the day, although I rarely get to do this. It is pretty funny to me that I made a point of mentioning this to Mema.

I was letting her know that I had to get up at 6:30, which meant that I should be felt sorry for, even though Adam and Daddy had to get up much earlier than I did. Instead of saying that I didn't get to go becuase I had to go to school, I chose to say it was because I had to get up at 6:30. Even now, I still feel the need to tell people when I have to get up early (note 4:30 reference above) and how much I despise it and how pitiful I am as a result.

And how hilarious is it that I wrote that the Easter egg hunt was at Aunt Bobbie's house and then I scratched it out and put that it was at Magranny's? My guess is that I hunted eggs at both places but won the dollar at Magranny's.

The whole thing about Adam locking the bathroom door is just downright funny. I love old memorabilia type stuff such as this. It cracks me up. It's also interesting that traits from my childhood remain with me to this day.

COPYING BIG SISTER

While I was looking for the lake pictures for the post below, I came across a lot of old pictures, letters, etc. I am going to try and share some of them with you from time to time.

Ok, this picture made me laugh for at least a solid 10 minutes when I came across it. The back of the picture says 1990. Kelli, my sister, was 9 and my brother, Adam, was 10. I was 16.

Remember the picture I posted from my teen years with the "mile-high hair" as Adam used to call it? Well, this is a picture of Adam trying to help Kelli get her hair to look like mine.

The way she is holding her hair straight up and the way Adam is holding the curling iron with two hands just makes me laugh very hard. I love this picture!

HAPPY EASTER!

Hope all of you have a wonderful Easter! Check out this link for one of my very favorite songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Rw5UYbf8c

LAKE MAGNOLIA

I can still smell the bacon frying. I can hear the coffee percolating. I can see my grandmother (Magranny) standing in a tiny space that was the kitchen of the camper trailer.

I can hear our laughter as my cousins and I chose who had to sleep on the top bunk which meant that your nose was one inch from touching the ceiling.

I can still see the white sand on the bottom of the lake. The minnows at the water's edge were plentiful. (Be sure to click the link at the bottom of this blog to see pictures.)

I remember the air bubbles that would come out of my grandfather's (Grandaddy) mouth as he stood on the bottom of the lake at the end of the "big dock" for minutes at a time with a grin on his face, while us kids had to come up for air before we could go back down and check on him again. I remember it all.

When school was getting ready to end for the summer, my parents always let me know that my grandparents would soon be taking us to Lake Magnolia for the week. To me, it was better than Disney World.

Adam and Kelli were too young to come with us in the beginning so for the first few years it was just me and my two cousins—Bryan and Ashley. We would pile into the truck and play Uno and Connect-Four all the way there, while sucking on peppermint sticks that Magranny brought along, in case we got thirsty she would say.

As soon as we parked, the three of us would have a race to see who could touch the water's edge first. Do you think I ever beat those two long-legged boys? No, but the feel of the ground as I tried is a treasured memory of mine. And they always waited on me. They had to wait a long time. Ha, ha!

After we got a toe in the water, we would run back to the camper where our grandparents were diligently "setting up shop." Back then, I didn't understand the work that went into taking us on these trips. Now, I do.

In the mornings, the water was like pure glass. Perfect hydrosliding conditions. We couldn't wait for Grandaddy to get the boat out. And he couldn't either because he liked to swing us through the scary alligator infested weeds. (or so we thought)

He would somehow whip that boat in such a way that our slide would fly through the weeds at the lake's edge. You just had to hang on tight and pray you didn't fall off at that particular time into those weeds and be eaten alive by an alligator. I can see Grandaddy's face in the boat right now laughing.

Oh, but we loved it though. We wanted to go again and again. I remember when Bryan started skiing in just his shoes and then advanced to barefoot. Ashley and Adam (when he was old enough) were the 360 kings. They would turn their slide around and around. Kelli, who was a tiny thing, would slowly be pulled through the lake on the slide, while lying on her stomach.

If we weren't in the boat, we were in the water. We did have one dock game. The goal was to see who could get their feet the closest to the dock's edge without falling in. But, since falling in was the best part, it didn't really pay to win.

After a day of fun, Magranny would always cook us a full meal for supper in that tiny kitchen of hers…pork chops, hamburgers, spaghetti, you name it. I don't know how she did it, but she did.

After supper, right before nightfall, we would take a walk. It was a fairly long walk and Grandaddy brought his lantern with us every time. But, he NEVER used it. Even though it would turn dark while we were walking, the light would never be turned on. "Grandaddy, aren't you gonna turn that light on? It's dark." He never did.

And, so, a family joke developed over the years and is still used today. "Would you rather walk in the dark or get slung through the weeds? Would you rather walk in the dark or do yard work in the hot sun? Would you rather walk in the dark or lose electricity during an ice storm?" You get the picture.

We always made it back to the camper safe and sound. As we settled in bed, we wondered aloud what kind of sleep walking or sleep talking antics Ashley would pull in the night. Sleepwalking/talking runs in the family.

Two things stand out in my mind. One night he somehow fell off of that top bunk onto Grandaddy who was asleep on the bed under him. Grandaddy wasn't hurt but Ashley's nose swelled about 3 times bigger than normal and we made sure to get plenty of pictures. I also remember him trying to walk out the door in the middle of the night and Grandaddy grabbing him.

Over breakfast the next day, our excitement would build as we prepared for another fun-filled day. I remember that Magranny liked to swim from the "little dock" to the "big dock". She was a good swimmer. Back and forth she would go and I would wonder how many times she was going to go before she got tired. It was always a lot. Every now and then when she turned her head, she would flash us a smile as we watched her from the bank and then she would continue on.

The memories that we have from Lake Magnolia are truly priceless. There are so many, and I wish I could list them all. I can't end this without telling you about Grandaddy and his Oreo cookies. We used to always eat cookies after lunch and Grandaddy liked to pretend that he wasn't going to share his Oreo cookies with us. And, when the Double-Stuffed Oreos came out, he really gave us a hard time.

He would laugh and laugh as he pretended that we couldn't have any, and then he would give us one, and act like that was it. Of course, he let us have as many as we wanted in the end. To this day, he kids us about the Oreos and flashbacks of those days at the lake enter our minds.

I wish we could turn back time, and go once more. I wish we could re-live just one day of it all. Breakfast…getting slung through the weeds….lunch….listening to Grandaddy laugh about the Oreos….supper….walking in the dark…some of the best times of our lives.
****
Go to this link to see the one set of pictures I have from Lake Magnolia. I wish I had more.

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/gQ5tq7Xr

LIFE IS GRAND!

This was sent to me by Amy.

She is over at http://amythompson57.blogspot.com/

She told me I am supposed to list reasons I think my life is grand and then tag other bloggers. After a computer lesson from her, I was able to get the above graphic to post and I am very proud.

Let's see. My life is grand because...

1. My 9 year old Saturn still runs great and I will not trade it in because I don't like car payments or insurance increases.

2. I am pursuing my dream to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and am thankful God gave me the courage to do it.

3. I live in America. (enough said)

4. My parrot recently learned how to say Gamecocks and it drives Will insane. He, he...

5. I did not owe Uncle Sam money this year. He owed me! It's been a loooong time since that happened.

Now, I am supposed to tag other people to do this. I will tag--

Aunt Regina at http://skeetercreekfarm.blogspot.com/

Becky at http://magnoliablossom.wordpress.com/

Linda at http://holidaybarn.blogspot.com/