I started potty training Dan on Monday.  WOO HOO!   The first three days went okay… a few accidents but a lot of making it to the potty.  The girls have been really fabulous with helping me.  They take him into the bathroom and read a potty book to him while he goes (thanks Jeanine!).

On Monday I took everyone into Borders so we could buy the potty book.  I got lucky – Dan really likes it and we had to read it a zillion times when we got home.  So now the girls read to him in the bathroom.  I’m still using a timer though that goes off ever 30-40 minutes… the times that Dan has to go and the timer doesn’t ring is when we have an accident.  So he’s not good yet at making it to the potty without being prompted….Did I mention that I HATE potty training?

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inally getting around to posting photos from CHA.  Jeanine has more on her camera.  I am not a good storyteller so I’ll just post the photos. 

On Saturday, we were able to get together and have lunch Melinda, Robin, Oriana and Connie.  It was so great meeting you all in person!!

Jeanine and I with Connie!  Connie is such a sweetheart!!  Thank you again for lunch!

And last… here is our little helper Dan.  He wanted to cut too while we were putting our display together.  Isn’t he cute?

And lastly, here I am next to our two new products released by CR Gibson.  Woo hoo!

Rick has always thought there was a skunk living in the immediate area because we always have several incidents a summer that smell like it is right outside our bedroom window.  When Jeanine was out visiting me last week, we saw a skunk two doors down walking around the garbage cans that were put out for pickup the next day. Keep in mind that this spotting was at 10:00pm at night when it was dark.

Last night I happened to glance out the front window and there he was.  Right in the center of my front yard – when it was still light outside!  So I grabbed the camera to show Jeanine our friend had returned.  I took about 10 photos but they were all from behind the glass (I was so not opening the door! lol!) These are the clearest I got.. but you can still see him.  UGH!

Anyone know of anything that can make our yard not so interesting to be in for this guy?  Is there even such a thing as a de-skunker or “skunk be gone”?… lol!

It must be a blog update kinda of day… spent some time fixing the feed issue on Jeanine’s blog and then upgraded word press on both mine and KV’s blog. Everything feels fresh and clean now. Until next week when the next version comes out. lolol!

Joanne Fink of Lakeside Design and Brenda Pinnick of Brenda Pinnick designs have been strong advocates in our fight against the Orphan Works bill.  This weekend at the summer CHA show, Megan Araujo from When Creativity Knocks had a chance to interview Joanne and Brenda.

Not many people know about this bill and unfortunately it is something that affects EVERYONE even down to all the “moms” out there who share photos and videos on the Internet with their family. Getting the word out about what this bill is and the ramifications it will cause is incredibly important.  Tell everyone you know about it.  You can get more info about this at http://www.owoh.org.

Several people Jeanine and I have come across knew nothing about this bill and were shocked to find out how broad the implications will be if this passes in its current version.  There are others (are you one of them?) who are having a hard time even believing this could possibly be happening.  Could the US really change the copyright laws like this?

When this bill passes (in the state that it is written), the current copyright law we enjoy – which is passive rights – will turn into active rights.  Right now when you design something or take a photo of your children you automatically own the copyright to that image – you don’t have to do anything to be entitled to that right.  If this bill passes, all images will need to be registered in order to be protected under the copyright law turning copyright into something you will have to actively secure.

And worse yet, if someone wants to use an image and does a “diligent” search and turns up nothing regarding the author, they would be entitled to use the image for their own commercial purposes without permission from the author.  That is truly scary.

From what I understand, the bill WILL pass.  We can’t stop it now.  What the opposition team is trying to do is slow the passing down long enough to be invited out to talk and educate congress regarding what will happen if the bill is passed in its current state.  We are hoping to get several key points of verbiage changed.

There are more issues surrounding the bill.  But in general terms that’s what is being proposed and how it will affect the average joe citizen.   Please take a moment to watch the video to get a better understanding of the importance of joining us in this fight to oppose this bill.

[flv]http://www.whencreativityknocks.com/seyretfiles/uploads/videos/user_63/user_63_vhdw3pa1709rgk.flv[/flv]

If you want to post this video on your blog, the WhenCreativityKnocks website has posted code you can use.   I was unable to get their code to work in my word press blog.  So instead I installed this Word Press video plugin and used a direct video URL.  The direct video URL is

http://www.whencreativityknocks.com/seyretfiles/uploads/videos/user_63/user_63_vhdw3pa1709rgk.flv

Please help us in this fight.  On the Orphan Works website there is a page of different things you can do to help us – from sending e-mails, calling to signing an online petition.   Check it out and join us!

At the reception on Saturday, they played a video montage of Mal and Roberto.  They had so many photos together.  They dated for 4 years before getting married and had a boat load of photos.   I have known Rick since we were sophomores in HS and dated him for about 6 years before we got married.  We don’t have many photos of us together… that is sad and depressing…  we tend not to like the camera much…  So when we went to our nephew’s birthday party on Sunday I snapped a few of us.  I don’t have one of those camera arm things that Jeanine has (can’t think of the name of it) but I think these came out alright. 

I finally got the bills paid this morning… only took DAYS… Now I should go work on Jess’s room a little since Jeanine will be camping out in Jess’s room while she’s here.  Her flight doesn’t get into until 9pm tonight so I have a little time… lol!  Hopefully…

My cousin Mallory got married today. It was a very nice ceremony… she makes a beautiful bride. I knew she would be beautiful – she is one of those people who is too damn attractive… lol!

The girls stood up in the wedding as jr. bridesmaids. I’m just taking a little break between the wedding and the reception to post some quick photos. We have 2 hours in between…

We didn’t take Dan to the church though…I could just hear him say right in the middle of the ceremony “Who’s that guy up there?” “What are those people doing up there?” lol! I didn’t think we needed his commentary during the wedding so he stayed with Rick’s mom.

Here are some photos I got…

They really are not identical twins. But sometimes they really look like each other – well most times but some times more than others. Since they were born they have been the same height and weight. Just the other day they stepped on the scale and both were exactly 66 lbs. Amazing…

My uncle knew he was going to be a basket case… and he was… he had Mallory crying too as they walked down the aisle.

And this was when he was giving her away – she was crying too. Took her a few kleenex swaps with her maid of honor to recover.

Mallory is just so pretty I can’t stand it.  lol!