Toolin' Up Tuesday

Seems that recently, my Toolin' Up Tuesday posts have been online tools. This one is no different. Remember that TV show, PeeWee's playhouse? Remember the "picturephone"? If not, see a video clip here, don't worry, it's clean! Well, check this service out... it's just like the picturephone (except without the tin can!) Last winter, we were introduced to Skype. It is a FREE online phone service with web cam abilities. My sister in law gave us a web cam and told us about Skype. Because she travels the world and is only visiting a few times a year, she wanted us to be able to share Addyson with her where ever she found herself living at the time. It has been a great way for us to keep in touch, although we don't do it as often now as she is currently living halfway across the globe and the time difference is tricky. Many computers now come with a web cam, either as a seperate piece or built in. You can sign up for a Skype account and reconnect with friends and family. Perfect for those with little ones or for those who prefer face to face conversations. Try it, you'll be hooked!

Read about the tools other bloggers are talking about at Toolin' Up Tuesday over at LifeAsMOM.

works-for-me wednesday

I know I'm fairly new to this blogging world, but I also maintain my daughter's Caringbridge page, so you'd think I'd know about all these great tricks. Yesterday, while using twitter to share my newest blog post, a friend of mine, JessieLeigh, introduced me to my new favorite online tool. It's called TinyURL. Sometimes when you are posting a comment or writing online, you don't have the option to do a hyperlink. In this case, you would post the URL like this: http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/photoViewLarge.do?imageID=1218117. With TinyURL, you would simply paste that long URL into the website, hit the "Tiny It" button, and it automatically creates a smaller, more manageable URL for you. You can even customize it like so http://tiny.cc/cute_addy. So, I encourage you to check out the TinyURL website and try it for yourself. Of course with all of you experienced bloggers out there, I'm probably telling you something you already know, but this really works-for-me.

Want to read what works for other bloggers? Check out works-for-me wednesday over at RocksInMyDryer.

Toolin' Up Tuesday

The tool I'd like to share today is an online tool. When my daughter was born 15 weeks premature in April 2007, we found ourselves in a very emotional and chaotic situation. Her life was very unstable and we were concerned with each minute to minute. Much of our family lives out of town but wanted to keep informed of her progress. The hospital, luckily, was only 15 minutes from our home. After a long day at the hospital, trying to digest each piece of information from the doctors and nurses, the last thing we wanted to do was call each person on our list and review all the details. We needed to eat, sleep, and get back to the hospital.

Our welcome packet at the hospital contained a brochure on a webpage called CaringBridge. It is a free service you can use online to set up a webpage for your child, yourself, or any loved one. We were able to set up a webpage for her, share the link with family and friends, and, in turn, keep each person updated without the hassle. The website allows you to share up to 12 photos, links to other sites of importance (we linked to medical sites that explained each issue Addyson was confronted with so others could read up and get more info), a welcome page with background info, a journal page to write updates as often as you wanted, and a guestbook page for each person visiting to write some encouraging words or to ask questions that they had.

Although Addyson is doing fairly well now, we continue to use her webpage to keep family involved in her life as she grows and learns new things. We still update with her medical issues, but for the most part, we love to share her accomplishments now. The nurses from the hospital still visit Addy's page and stay informed of her progress.

A few exceptional features I noted: Each visitor has the option of receiving an email when a new journal entry is posted so they can more easily remember to check back in. As a new mom who wasn't quite ready to share her 1 lb, 7.9 oz bundle of joy with the entire world, I had the option of setting a password to the webpage and monitoring who was privey to that password. Once the doctors said that we were hour to hour or day to day instead of minute to minute, I took the password off and shared her with whomever would listen.

Now we can look back at the journal entries to see what we were experiencing at each step of the journey. We can also look back at the guestbook entries to see who was checking in on Addy and she'll be able to see how many people were pulling for her.

I invite you to visit our daughter's webpage to see what it's all about. It's very easy to use, so don't worry if you don't know how to write html or use any web design software. I promise anyone can do it! If you or someone you know could benefit from this service, don't be afraid to use it. I have noticed that adults going through medical issues have used it and also men and women in the military also use it to stay connected to friends and family back home. CaringBridge.org

To see what kinds of Tools others are using, visit Toolin' Up Tuesday hosted by LifeAsMom.

works-for-me wednesday

Although "T" did a great job adjusting some of the settings on my blog template, I decided to find a blog template that was easier to adjust myself. I am happy to report that I found a link through MoneySavingMom that led me to BlogCoach where I found Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates. She has lots of beautiful templates that are free! I found this bird one and couldn't be happier. This template is very easy to make color and position adjustments to. If you are looking to start a blog or update your current blog, Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates works for me!

Don't forget to see what works for everyone else at works-for-me wednesday hosted by RocksInMyDryer.

Thank you!

A huge thank you to "T", husband of "J" - author of www.parentingthetiniestofmiracles.blogspot.com for helping me with my blog settings. Now you can actually see the blog post titles. He wasn't able to get rid of the huge date stamp at the top of each post, but it is so much better than it was before. THANK YOU "T"!

This past weekend was productive. Nick and I had date night on Friday... went to Hirosaki's (a Japaneese Hibachi Restraunt). It was fun and yummy. Afterwards we did our weekly grocery shopping at Meijer. Spent about $35, so that is great. The menu for this week looks good too!
Saturday: Fiesta Lime Chicken and Mashed Potatoes
Sunday: Meatball Subs (crockpot) and Macaroni Salad (it's a late working night for Nick)
Monday: Stuffed Green Peppers
Tuesday: Homemade Shake n Bake Chicken and Sweet Potato Suprise
Wednesday: Eggs, Bacon, Toast (it's a late working night for Nick)
Thursday: Grilled Steaks, Potatoes, and Onions
Friday: Nick won't be home for dinner... he'll be out with the guys, so I'll just have cereal or a sandwich or something.

Lunches consist of leftovers and yogurt.
Breakfasts consist of homemade muffins (we make a couple batches a week) and fruit.

Saturday we got up around 9 (yeah for Grin & Granddaddy keeping Addy overnight!). We worked out in the yard. Nick mowed and weed whacked. I cleaned out flower beds and cut back all the dead stuff on the plants. We've been very neglectful of our yard since Addy came along, so it was nice to get it taken care of. We also removed a VERY LARGE evergreen type tree that was too close to the house and overgrown. We removed 2 VERY LARGE bushes and 2 overgrown plants. The front of the house looks empty now, but Nick plans on moving a bunch of Hostas into the empty space. Since our neighbor trimmed out her front tree, the shade we used to have the Hostas planted in has disappeared. We need to get another Japaneese Maple to balance out the front and then we'll be all set for fall.

We are looking forward to the NICU reunion coming up this weekend. Can't wait to see old friends and finally meet those new online friends.

Thanks again "T" for your excellent blog services!

TWITTER

Thought I'd jump on the band wagon and do the twitter thing that everyone seems to be doing these days. Now I need to figure out how to add it to my blog. Wish me luck with that.

Blog Design Help Needed

Ok readers, I need some blog design help. As you are looking at this, you see at the top of the post the date in large bold black font as if it is the title of the post. When you scroll over the right side of the pink bar seperating the posts you see the actual title show up in a slightly darker shade of pink. I'd like these two items switched. Post title where date is and date where title is, but constantly visable, not a rollover. Please, oh please HELP... I really want to write more and link to other's blogs more, but I'm needing this fixed first. I can copy the html into a word doc and email it to someone if they could help me. Thanks in advance for any help!