movies to itunes

so, for the longest little while i've been trying to figure out how to get the movies that i own from the DVD onto my ipod so i can watch them whenever and not have to purchace them a second time... and i've finally found something that works so i want to share it with you all. There is a program called "Magic DVD Ripper" and it really is nice, almost magical. You open the program, put the dvd in your computer, browse for where you want the movie located, push a few other buttons, and voila! a little while later your movie is on your computer. it is so great.... it came in really handy when i wanted to take some movies on our last little trip, but didn't want to pack the dvd's...

environmentally friendly.... and more.

during our holiday travels we stayed at a hotel that had this...
which i think is the greatest thing... for multiple reasons
#1- it's environmentally friendly... none of those plastic bottles that get thrown away
#2- easy use... i hate trying to get those bottles opened especially if my hands are soapy or lotiony
#3-they have conditioner (which is not common)

#4-whatever brand they have of hair product, i like it.... it helped my hair dry faster!!

ok... i take it back.

i am no longer upset.... i'm so excited. just after i posted the last post my ext hd booted up and i copied all my pictures and am currently copying music to my computer.... I'm going to go out and get a couple of more external hard drives, one to replace my current one that's on the fritz, and a new one for back-up purposes.

you say tomato, i say....

why is technology not perfect. I am SO upset. something has happened to my external hard drive.... the place where i store all my music, movies, and most importantly pictures. its dead. I've got all my movies, 90% of the music in other places so that won't be hard to re-do (just INCREDIBLY time consuming). The only pictures I've got are the ones i've blogged. which makes me so incredibly sad because that's a really small percentage of all the pictures i have. So upset...

Pictures

The Nutcracker

Last night we ventured out to Nooksack High School to see "The Nutcracker Story & a Celebration of the Season with Dance". My friend Angela's daughter Madelyn was a Snow Princess in the Nutcracker. She is the cutest girl, and she did so great up there. I was a little worried about Maria, and how she'd do, but she was GREAT!! She slept in the car on the drive over and woke up shortly after we got there, but before the play began. She watched the whole Nutcracker part of the presentation (1 1/2 hours) and made it thru the first 5 numbers of the second half before she started fussing a little. She watched over two hours of dance last night.... maybe our little girl will be a ballerina.

random stuff.... plus thanksgiving

ok. i've a few items to post about.... i did update Maria's blog earlier this week, she's now 3 whole months old!! so exciting! she's growing up so much, but you can read about all that over at her blog.

~so, i noticed, not too long ago, that on itunes the songs are not actually 99 cents a song.... we get charged sales tax too. how icky is that. it's times like these i would like to live in oregon. (we went shopping there over thanksgiving and it was amazing..... marco bought a soccer ball for 9.99 and he paid 9.99!!)

~we were having a conversation the other day about words and stuff. I know, I'm SO eloquent and descriptive... but that's kind of the point. So I'm going to pose the question to you all.... how do we become more eloquent? Hang out with smart people? Read intelligent books?.... any suggestions. I'm open to them. Not that I'll follow everyone's suggestions, but I will take them into consideration.

~Ok... on to the main event

~THANKSGIVING~

This year we (my parents, Marco, Maria, and I) hopped in the motor home Wednesday Night and headed for Oregon to spend the holiday with Chad, Rachel, and Lily! They opened their home up to us and all of our craziness, and we had a great time!! Marco, Maria, and I crashed in Lily's room, while Nanna and Grandpa Toyk slept out in the motor home.

Rachel posted some of our goings on on her blog, including one post of Thanksgiving Day

Rach also posted this cute picture of Lils that makes me want to sing a song... you know that one from the simpson movie "... spider pig, spider pig, does whatever a spider pig does..." yeah except change the "pig" to "lils" and you've got it!!

Rachel is so wonderful.... she did these cool "turkeys" with compliments to each person on each of the "feathers", She even did one for little baby Maria.

This was our first trip with Maria and I'm pleased with how it all turned out. We had enough diapers, wipes, and clothes for Maria.... the only things we forgot were Marco & my bathroom items, so Thursday morning we went out and bought ourselves shampoo and toothbrushes...

I got to get my camera out while we were there and take some pictures. I love taking pictures of Maria, but honestly she doesn't do a whole lot yet that can be captured on film... but Lily (who is 7 months older) is quite the mover and will sometimes even pause and smile for the camera.

I learned some new things while there....
~when eating a pomegrant you do eat the seed
~if anything is left on the floor a mobile baby is sure to put it in their mouth, this includes, but is not limited to: apples, tomatoes, power cords, extension cords, shoes, toys, and other babies pacifiers.
~babies, once mobile, will get into anything, so it's best to be prepared... keep the bathroom door shut (there is a toilet and toilet paper that you'd rather not clean up later), make sure the garbage can is under the sink (or wherever it belongs 'cause you don't want to clean up that later either)

Chad got out his longboard and freeboard while we were there and was teaching/showing Marco a few things... I went out there and managed to snap a few pictures before they came back inside (my battery was dead when they first when out, so it was a mad dash to get it charged in time!!)





Here's Nanna with Lily:Here's Grandpa Toyk with two of his grand-daughers:

Marco doesn't exactly like having his picture taken.... here he's hiding behind his hands:
and here he is hiding behind the longboard