I give up.  I don’t know why it’s worked in the past, but for some reason my photos won’t show on Xanga.  So I’ve decided to utilize my Blogspot page as a photojournal.  When I have photos I want to share with all of you, I’ll post the link here and if you’d like to see them you can click over.

You can leave comments there or here, whatever you prefer.

Thanks!

PLEASE TELL ME YOU CAN SEE THIS PICTURE!    I can’t figure out why it hasn’t been working. . .

So what do you think of the new name and quote?  I called my first blog, over at LiveJournal, “Chisel & Stone,” because I’m an old-fashioned girl and truth be told, much prefer the old way of doing things.  Granted, chipping out my musings on a piece of granite with a flint might be a little extreme to avoid using a computer . . . but at least with a nice fountain pen and some Cranes stationery you know the loudest crash you’ll hear is a piece of paper fluttering to the floor.

When I moved to Xanga, I wasn’t sure that I’d stay and so I called my blog “TXMom2Jami,” which is my blogger name.  But I really missed “Chisel & Stone” because it felt so . . . right for me.  Well, it’s my blog and I’ll change if I want to, change if I want to, change if I want to . . .

The quote is also from one of my first blog entries over at LiveJournal.  I was going to the store one evening and happened to look up at the sky . . . and that’s what I saw and what I was inspired to write.  I love the nightime sky so much.  For some reason, things seem so much clearer at night without the blinding sun in my face.  I can think better, dream better, wish better . . .

I changed my background color to white — I think photos look so much more crisp and clear without the competition of cute color schemes — although I do enjoy the creativity of my fellow bloggers!  I think this is more me, though.  Some might say boring — I say clean and classic.  No frou frou stuff here!

Well, I’m off to watch a movie with my honey.  Jami has two little friends spending the night tonight, so while they’re playing all evening, we’ll be watching a movie!  Life is good.

Let’s try this again — some photos from our San Antonio trip:

Mission San Jose

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The church bells of Mission Espada —

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Eyes as blue as Texas Skies . . .

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There’s something very beautiful about the adobe architecture, especially when it’s stood the test of time — not just a modern copy of the real thing, which is over 250 years old.

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Let me know what you think of my photos!

We arrived home from San Antonio safe and sound last night.  I took tons of pictures with both my HP digital camera and my Canon Rebel 2000.  I’ll be putting some of my digital pics up in the next couple of days — but unfortunately, being a business owner and all, I’ve got some things to do after having been gone so many days.  Then I can do some fun stuff again!

A quick overview of the trip:   Our Jami is the best little traveler, and I am so, so, so blessed that she finds a broad spectrum of things interesting!  Most spring-breakers I spoke with last week were headed to Fiesta Texas and Sea World.  Your basic amusement park destinations.  They were okay when I was younger, but the lines are so long now and the parks are so expensive . . . well, I’m holding out as long as I can to avoid the parks.  Jami hasn’t asked to go and I’m grateful.  Paying roughly $35/head to get in and spend the day standing in line is just not my idea of fun.  My idea of fun is more along the lines of this . . .

We visited FIVE Spanish missions yesterday and Jami loved it.  Yes, she really loved it!  She ran all over the place checking the different buildings out and looking for the answers to questions in the “Junior Park Ranger” book she received at the Mission Espada.  A brilliant little book, I must say!  At each mission, she looked for the answers to questions specific to that mission and then received a “passport” type stamp at the visitor’s center for each mission.  At the major visitor’s center at Mission San Jose, she was “sworn” in as a Junior Park Ranger because she’d been to and completed at least two missions in the book.

The person who came up with that creative little teaching tool needs a big, gold star on the tip of their nose!

Well, I don’t want to tell you all about it right now, because I want to put up my photos, etc.  But I did want to post and let you all know we’re back and we had a great time!  More later!

I think Claritin (or the generic version, since that’s what I bought) is a MIRACLE DRUG.  Yep, I’m still feeling a little icky, but heavens . . . WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!!!

Finishing up some quotes to mail out to possible clients before we go out of town.  Then I have to figure out what all I need to do for the trip.  I used to be so organized, but I’m not quite sure what happened to the legal secretary who could keep three attorneys and a legal assistant happy while eating lunch, answering the phone, assembling a patent application packet, answering a question from accounting, sending three files back to records management, and not screaming at the computer tech who said, “well . . . have you tried rebooting?” when my computer froze up in the middle of an important document revision all at the same time . . .

Boy.  Has my life changed!

Now it’s four people who want quotes for window treatments NOW, even though their houses are in the early stages of construction and the window sills aren’t even in.  Now it’s the school PTO wanting volunteers for school activities and what’s really the pits is I’m the PTO secretary and I’m the one wanting volunteers, but no one else ever does, except the PTO.  Now it’s the piles of laundry lying on the floor screaming “Wash me!”  Now it’s the dishes in the sink screaming “Wash me!”  Now it’s the sweet Borderdor (Border Collie/Lab mix) that decided to impersonate a beaver by chewing a HUGE hunk out of the arm of the futon.  (Thank goodness AJ is quite the carpenter . . . he can fix it.)

My life hasn’t changed at all!  But now I get to spend a lot more of it with my family, and so it’s all good.

This. Is. Not. Fair.

All three of us are sick.  We are leaving Monday morning to go to San Antonio.  And we are all sick.  Stuffy, runny noses (and how is it possible for a nose to be both things at the same time?), sneezing, 1-ton brick sitting on the old sinuses sick.

I’m hoping we shake it before departure time . . . but as busy as I’ll be the next couple of days, I just don’t see how.

Here’s a fun little “Top 100” list I tripped across.  If you’re a sucker for gadgets, I think you’ll enjoy this.

Well . . .  I went over to measure the windows so I could do my quote.  And the windows aren’t finished.  In my business, precision is everything — you measure to the 1/8 of an inch to get the best possible fit.  And the windows aren’t finished.  No sheetrock, no wood trim, nothing.  I can still see studs around the windows.    So it was a wasted trip. 

I did run by the bank, fill up the truck with gasoline ($30!), and make a quick stop at the library.  So I suppose I redeemed the trip a bit.  (I live 10 miles outside town, so I hate wasted trips.)

I emailed the designer to let her know that I need a leetle more window to work with if they want a quote they can depend on.  Hopefully the construction guys will get it turned around fairly quickly and I can get over there and get the job done.  And hopefully get the job!  This house is 4800 square feet and will be a model home for a couple of years.  Lots of people wandering in and out looking at my shutters and picking up my card (if I get the job).  It’s a high-end home (probably over $500K when it’s all said and done), so the people seeing it will have nice deep pockets when it comes to decorating their own homes. 

Well, I’ve got more chores on my list . . . catch you later!

Just posting long enough to say “hi . . .”  I didn’t want you all to think I’d fallen off the face of the planet.  I’ve got to run go measure some windows for one of the builders in town.  It’s for a model home he’s building and he’s interested in putting custom plantation shutters on the windows.  I was supposed to measure them yesterday, but it was Sunday and I was tired after a busy weekend and church, etc., so I took a nap instead. 

Anyway, I’ll be back as soon as I’ve “done my chores . . .”