Digital Scrapbooking Group, ScrapBlog Page, Lydia's Story

In February, we went to Myrtle Beach with Roger and Julie Church and a few other friends. The guys completed the full marathon, while Julie and I ran the half marathon in honor of her 40th birthday. :) Above, you'll see youthful photos of J.T. and me. I'm wearing red in my 6th grade photo with Marion and Tina. J.T. is wearing a tank top in his high school running photo. The other two photos are from our Myrtle Beach trip.






Lydia is helping to keep me humble. We recently had this interaction:
Lydia: Why do you have that white soap on your face before your shower?
Jen: I'm letting it sit on my face for a few minutes before my shower because it has an ingredient in it to make my skin smooth.
Lydia: Mommy.... I think you should put it on your legs.
..... Mommy why are you laughing?



Is Spring always this busy??? Coming up:
3/7 Jen's Reunion with 3 dear High School Friends (Kathryn, Anne and Beury) in Southern WV
3/21 Trip to Blacksburg/Roanoke for marriage conference made possible by Gamma and Pa, babysitters!
3/26 Lydia's 7th Birthday
3/28 Elisabeth's Birthday, Greensboro's Young Life Family Camp near Asheville
4/4 Jen To www.ewomen.net conference in High Point
4/15 All to Charleston, WV for Easter
Jen and Kids in WV for Spring Break. Hoping to meet Honor's baby (to be delivered around 3/26)
4/22 J.T. is itching to run the Charlottesville Marathon with friends
5/3 Russell's 3rd Birthday


I'm enjoying my scrapbooking group (Above, you'll see left to right: Jen C., me, and my sister on our last scrapbooking retreat). We meet every 4 - 6 weeks from 6 PM- midnight on Fridays. Elisabeth comes and the rest of us are named Lydia. Three years ago, all three of us 'Jennifers' were also pregnant at the same time. Those were some estrogen-filled cropping sessions! Last Friday, Jen Noble said this as she was departing after several hours of chatting and scrapbooking: "Isn't is lovely having a place to get away where you're known?!"

Lydia's 7th Birthday

The page with a bow in Lydia's baby book was artfully made by her Aunt Liz (Bishop).

Calm, well-organized group for approximately...

Two seconds.

P.F. Changs and Russell

February 2009

Scouts, Valentine's Day, and Snow Day Note

Sledding in the neighbors' back yard (Ross and Lydia are in front).

Trying Out Scrapbook Blogging.

I went away on my 3rd scrapbook weekend retreat- fun with Elisabeth and Jen Chauncey in Browns Summit (30 miles from home). This fun event is hosted by Lorna Miller of Creative Memories.
My goal is to switch over from paper scrapbooking to real-time blogging scrapbooking that I can print in books.
I've tried:
Creative Memories software- but it costs $ and no blog option.
Scrapblog- Cute but they charge and you for many templates (temporary?) and requires a new blog (?)
Smilebox- Laid out our new house photos from 10 different files only to learn that their templates are inflexible and are limited to about 20 pictures.
Cropmom- but it wants me to upload only 1 photo at a time. Fixed templates, too? Their logo is on each page.
Picasa- Our current photo editor but it doesn't allow text or fun backgrounds
Back to Scrapblog: Strength- Allows flexibility in editing pages and saving files as jpegs. The computer keeps getting overloaded so I'm reading my book when it bogs down and checking the weather online- they're calling for 4 inches of snow tonight!

Above, you'll find my first Scrapblog post. Ta da!

Lydia's Hand-Made Laptop and Our Annual McCain Family Portrait Outing

Lydia and DadDad used a box to make this laptop for Lydia. Love that keyboard and monitor!

Every year when we are all assembled in WV for Christmas (usually Dec. 22nd or 23rd), we trek to the mall to have a family portrait made. Above: Russell, Barrett and Lydia climbed through the chairs while waiting at the Portrait Studio.

JT holds onto Ross and Russell while my Dad stands by (probably feeling pretty good about his back in comparison to poor JT!)

We cap off the portrait outing with a trip to the mall's food court. I love that Graziano's pizza! Here, Lydia shows off the soft black bear she bought on clearance that day.