I’m baaaack (a little goat humor for you)!  I’m back from Orlando, I’m back from San Diego, I’m back from Dripping Springs and Port Mansfield and Orlando again.  I’m back, and I’m here to stay.  At least, until next summer! This has been the best summer EVER!  We went to Disney World in May, then Lego Land and the San Diego Zoo in June.  We went to Port Mansfield in July and then I went with Brad back to Orlando again at the end of July.

Now it is August and I am actually glad to be home!  With temps over 100, go figure!  But I’m getting back into the swing of things and with school starting in a week and a half, I’m finally working my way through the PILES of schoolwork the kids dragged home at the end of the school year.  Back in June.  When I was way too busy planning vacations to think about paperwork.  But I just can’t face another school year without at least trying to tame the paper monster from last year, first. I say this like it’s such drudgery – but secretly, I’m have a total blast!!!  The reason is because I am trying something new.  This year, I am scanning in everything I want to keep from the piles and piles of paperwork, then THROWING THE ACTUAL PAPERS AWAY!!!  This is just.so.thrilling.  Can’t even tell you how happy I am.  Of course, creating a digital file for each piece of paper I deem worthy to scan would not be possible were it not for my new static hard drive.  Oh my word, I am so happy about my new hard drive!!!  It’s TINY – hardly bigger than my iPhone – and it holds an entire terabyte of data!  I don’t even know if I spelled that right – I just know I put all my data from my old 500 gig hard drive on it and it’s only half full (yes, I can do math!)!  Did I mention it’s tiny???  So now I can sit in front of the TV with my sweet little external drive sitting beside me and scrapbook to my heart’s content.  Oh yes, that’s right – I SAID SCRAPBOOK! Okay, I realize I have covered this ground before but can I get a shout out for the Creative Memories Storybook Creator Software???  Hallelujah, it has changed my life!  In fact, I am considering (very strongly, as in, I’ve almost made up my mind) selling all my old scrapbooking stuff on Craig’s List in one lot.  I will keep some of the cutters and stuff for my kids’ art projects.  And the pens – they are useful.  But the bags and extra pages and papers and stickers – oh my the money I have spent on stickers!!!  In the end, I just want to create scrapbooks on my computer from now on.  I’m in heaven.  Oh, and as if it wasn’t enough fun, I found a new way of doing it!  There is something called “drag and drop” that has all the elements arranged on the page – you just have to drag and drop the pictures and the papers!  It’s so much faster, and the pages are super cute!  How cute?  Well, I’m so glad you asked!  Because I made all these pages you arelooking at in this post using the new drag and drop method!  (And just in case you aren’t clear on how the drag and drop thing works, I have included a page I have just started working on – one that has pictures but none of the other elements added yet.)  Happy summer – it’s almost Fall!