I have a new love!

I have told you peeps before of my love for Macs and their people. I mean, I wrote a whole post about One to One! Well, I have found a new love. My HP printer died after just one year. I am not finished with the folks at HP. They didn't even apologize when I called. Instead, they told me I can send them my old printer and BUY ONE JUST LIKE IT for $90. Does that sound like a deal to you? I don't think so, but that's a separate post.
My DH is the best and he feels my pain. He knew I needed a printer for work and home. So, we bought a new printer. Sadly, our desktop is old enough that it simply could not support the software installation for the new printer. The printer folks could not send me a CD that would work with our older operating system. I was stuck.
I had passed the iHospital many times. I had seen the signs for Mac and iPhone repair. I googled them and called them after finding out that I had to have a newer operating system and some more Ram. The iHospital said they could help me, so I drove to their store. It was clean and BUSY. I never knew how many people drop their iPhone in a day! I wish I had thought of this brilliant idea! The men were all dressed in doctor's scrubs. They were friendly and knowledgeable. I filled out my info on the iPad and went on my merry way. The computer was back in my hands in about 5 hours. They were fast, efficient, and guess what? They threw in the RAM for FREE and I just paid for my new operating system and the labor. They're nice like that! When I left my old faithful G5, they did not give me a claim ticket. I admit, it made me nervous. In fact, I told them so. I teased them that I am a blogger. They assured me that they would treat me right. And they did. If you live in Tampa or have an IHospital in your area, consider yourself blessed.

Confession

I have a confession to make. Today I started seeing someone and his name is Billy. We're having a little One to One. In fact, we're planning to meet again next week and maybe even the week after that. Never mind that I had to pay $99 to have a little One to One. You might think I took that whole BACK BURNER thing my mama taught me a little bit too seriously. But you'd be wrong. You see, I told my husband. We're in a real open relationship like that. He doesn't mind if I call Billy my Mac Man. Cause you wouldn't believe what Billy is teaching me!! You better watch out, world, because my Mac Man is going to teach me how to use this Mac like never before!!

**For those of you who are confused by this post, One to One is a fabulous service that the Apple Store provides. You buy a membership for $99 for one year, and it allows you to come in as often as possible for one hour help sessions with your desktop or laptop. You can learn anything from how the operating system works, to how to store photos, make movies, or create music. Today I just worked on deleting things from my very full hard drive! Once you go Mac, you'll never go back!

Book of your Children's Art gallery

My friend, A, is so smart. I think she should start her own blog!! I have shared ideas in the past of how to store your children's artwork. Some of the ideas are to take a picture of your child with the picture and then make a DVD of all of the pictures or to buy an art portfolio to store your favorites. A took the picture idea a bit further! She took pictures of all of her artwork from her 3 children. Then, she made it into a book using her MAC. You can buy the book straight from Apple without having to upload the photos a second time. Brilliant. She held onto the actual artwork until the book arrived, and then she was able to dispose of the pieces she didn't want to keep. Now she has a beautiful book filled with the wonderful things her children created! It also makes the children feel extra special to see their very own works in a book!

Christmas gift ideas

I like to buy our Christmas gifts way in advance!  With 5 children, it's too difficult to try to do last- minute, by the skin-of-your-teeth shopping. For my sanity, I have to plan ahead.

DH (Dear Husband)'s aunt just turned 80.  She wants to be able to print pictures from the weekend. So... I have put all of the pictures on a CD & I have burned CDs for all of the aunts, cousins, and uncles that were able to attend.  Now they can take the CD to the local photo store & print the photos they desire!  I love my Mac, as I have mentioned before. So, I also put all of the photos into a slideshow using I Photo & then I added music.  Voila'!  Christmas gifts for that entire side of the family!  They are not expensive soaps or stationary, but these movies are priceless!  I plan to do something similar for my family as well.

Each year I make calendars on I Photo for my brothers & their wives & both sets of grandparents.  I type in everyone's birthdays & special occasions and fill it with pictures I have taken throughout the year.  I even asked everyone to send me special dates of friends & family, so each calendar is personalized with those events.  I should receive a cut from Apple Computers because I really love their products! It is easy to order these calendars online & they arrive at your doorstep! No mall traffic at all.

Snapfish sometimes offers cute photo ornaments... another great idea.  My friend, K, gave us one 2 Christmases ago that is a picture of our whole family! I love it.

I also use I Photo to create books for my family. I scanned in my brother's wedding & honeymoon pictures & made a neat book for them last year!  So, I will once again use my computer for lots of gifts this year!! :)

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We've had the day, now here's the labor!

Many of you were out of town for the long weekend!  I love long weekends away from home.  This year we stayed in town for a wedding, and it was wonderful!! We have not been home on a holiday weekend in a long time. It was so nice to not fight traffic yesterday, to not come home feeling behind, to not have extra laundry to clean because we had no washer & dryer for 3 days!  For those of you who went out of town, don't make one of my common mistakes... unpack IMMEDIATELY!!! Unpack even if it means staying up late.  Waiting in hopes that you will have more time never pays off :).  My friend, B, is always unpacked within minutes (it seems that way) of being home AND her pictures are uploaded & being shared with friends. Mimic B! She is a smart one!!!  Unpack, wash all of your clothes, put them away, & upload those photos!  If you're really energetic, go ahead & order pictures or make them into a book like you can so easily on a Mac with I Photo!

And if you don't have a Mac, ask for one for Christmas!! It is a HUGE time-saver!