There are several FireFox extentions that I use regularly that I just love.

AutoCopy – allows you to copy text in a browser window simply by highlighting it. If you copy and paste a lot, this saves an extra step. I use this one alllll the time.

AdBlock – allows you to block ads and images you dont’ want to see. It has an option that says something to the effect of, “Block all images from yahoo.com” or whatever. I’ve noticed that the ads on yahoo can get so sleazy! I use it for my secret shopping email, so when I found that I could simply prevent the ads from displaying, I was thrilled. Definitely a handy extention.

View Formatted Source – a handy developer extention. I don’t use this all that much.

ColorZilla – one of my favorites. It has a built-in eyedropper tool that you can click on anything in your browser to find out the RGB and hexadecimal values of any color. VERY handy when trying to design webpages – you can match colors exactly instead of just guessing. This is a huge timesaver for me. It also allows me to indulge my perfectionist tendencies. :O)

IE View – allows you to view any page in Internet Explorer with one right click. Nice to use as a developer to cross-check how pages are displayed in IE. It’s also nice to use if a webpage doesn’t display correctly in FireFox – like my Avon site that I use to order products. It just doesn’t work well in FireFox, so I usually load it in IE instead.

Web Developer – a toolkit that adds a web developer toolbar to FireFox. It has a ton of tools in it that have made my programming MUCH simpler. I use this one a TON.

If you’re a FireFox user, what are your favorite extensions?

Lora asked:

What browser are you using?

We’re a Mozilla Firefox household. Stephen really doesn’t care which browser he uses, but I’m a Mozilla fan through and through. He’s learning to like Firefox, though. Unfortunately, I cannot stand to use other browsers. You can learn more about it here at the Mozilla.com website.

I do have Internet Explorer on my machine, so I can check how things look in another browser, but I don’t choose to use it. There’s too many features in FireFox that I’ve gotten used to. :O)

High speed internet amazes me. This is so cool! I think I’m going to like this.

Last night, I figured I’d set everything up and see if the account was activated yet. In the process, I discovered that my ethernet card wasn’t working. Stephen had mentioned the other day that he thought it might have gone bad, so it gave me a place to start looking when things didn’t work with setup last night. Before I assumed it was my computer, I set things up on Stephen’s computer to see if things were really connected right. They were.

When Stephen got home this morning, I mentioned the ethernet card to him. Much to my suprise, he told me that we actually had an extra laying around. I was thrilled. We have a ton of spare computer parts laying around the house – a product of helping fix other computers and being given things. . .a bit of extra clutter at times. . .but it pays off to have the parts.

Stephen was so tired that he told me I could install the new card myself. So. . .I gingerly opened up my computer and went to work. I did it all by myself. What an exciting feeling. . . now I know why Stephen likes to tinker with computers so much. I think he has a new helper, lol!

So now I have my always-on-never-miss-another-phone-call connection. I am very thankful for it!

Next task: figure out how to install the internet through our computer network. Now that I have a working network card, maybe we can get our network set back up. That would be cool!

To all our military that serve to protect our freedom: thank you. We as a country do not thank you enough.

Stephen always teases me about my fear of tornadoes. I don’t know what it is – I’m just afraid of them. That’s one thing that if you ask me what I’m afraid of – I’d tell you tornadoes.

Back in the Carolinas, we really didn’t see a whole lot of tornadoes or tornado watches. I used to say that I was concerned because we lived in a mobile home with no basement to go to.

Then God called us to move to East Central Indiana. Home of lots of tornadoes. I’m sitting here laughing at the irony. Do you suppose God would have this be a test of my faith? Or perhaps just use it as a way to overcome that fear?

My Weatherbug just informed me that there’s a tornado watch out for our area. Yay. I’m just thrilled. (ha ha) The last time we had a tornado watch, Stephen simply didn’t tell me. I was a little aggravated at the moment. . .but I can see his reasoning.

So I suppose we’ll see how the rest of the day turns out, right? One thing I am very thankful for in this house? A basement!

There’s a whole lot of new notebook forms that I just added on my Notebook Forms page.

The new forms include several menu planning forms, and copies of my master schedule and cleaning lists. I also included my master grocery list in Microsoft Word (I think the version is 2000 but I’m not sure; it could be XP).

Hope that helps a bit!

Matthew 6:8b
for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

When we arrived at church last night, our pastor’s wife pulled me aside. “I don’t know what size shirt you wear, but there’s a huge bag of them in the back room that look like they might be your size.”

That pile was huge! Some of the clothes were obviously not my size or style, but several were. I grabbed a huge armful and headed home with them.

Thirteen of the shirts fit me! It was so nice! Some of these tops look like they’ve never even been worn. They’re in wonderful condition. One thing that made me very happy was that a few of them were more “trendy” than I’m used to wearing. That can sometimes be a bad thing, but it wasn’t this time. It’s nice to have a few shirts that are more in style than my typical plain t-shirt and denim skirt.

The timing of things is kind of funny to me. Last week I went through my drawers and packed away all the t-shirts that were a size too small, and threw out ones that were just plain worn out. Most days I wear a dressier t-shirt or knit top, but I found that I only had four everyday shirts to wear. I didn’t think much about it, other than reminding myself that I would need to make sure that I keep laundry done so I would have shirts to wear. It was a huge blessing to get some new (to me, anyways) shirts!

On my way out the door last night, I saw some more clothes that had been hung up that weren’t with the other clothes. One of the items was a black wool coat. I grabbed it. When I got home and tried it on, I was amazed to find that it fit perfectly! Not only is it a beautiful coat, but I didn’t have a coat suitable for Indiana winters. I am so blessed.

Just a thought. How do you react to stress?

I noticed tonight that I don’t handle certain types of stress very well. I’m currently on a medication that messes with my moods – making me easily irritable at the drop of a hat. Thankfully, I take the last few doses of it this week. But I’m not handling it well at all. I snap at my dear, loving husband so easily. . .just tonight he was late for work because we were trying to settle a disagreement (It wasn’t an argument – Stephen never got mad, lol!).

I sat down after he left and just cried. I don’t even like myself on this medicine, yet it is imperative that I take it. It just makes me wonder what I need to do to change. Pastor Brian’s message tonight was on our response to stimuli and how we choose to react in certain situations. It makes me think about how I need to start noticing the little signs that I’m getting aggravated, and then take steps to ensure things end there and not in an argument.

That seems to be a part of growth, though. I suppose if I denied there was a problem there would be no growth, and no change.

So I guess I’m off to do some serious thinking. This moodiness has got to stop! Now, if I could just see that I’m getting moody before I snap at Stephen!

We’ve finally decided to switch from dial-up internet access to dsl. Stephen and I are both excited. We’ve wanted to switch for years, but at our house in the Carolinas, high speed internet wasn’t available. Here in town though, it is. YAY!

Before we signed up with them, we wanted to check one thing first. The price we’re now paying is $12.95 a month – only $3 more than the $9.95 we were paying. While the price was nice, the service was really slow. We had been getting fed up with the service, so we were excited to hear about the plan that our phone company was offering. We could handle the $3 difference. Our concern was that the $12.95 a month was with a year-long contract. We don’t know that we’ll still be in this house in a year’s time (honestly, I highly doubt it), so we wanted to know what would happen if we moved to an area where the dsl wasn’t available. Thankfully, if the high-speed internet isn’t available at our new home, they let us out of our contract.

I am really looking forward to the faster speed. Trying to do the web programming end of my jewelry store using dial-up has been a challenge, to say the least. I’m definitely used to it, but when we moved here and found our dial-up was even slower, it got really frustrating. Now I’m chomping at the bit to get it activated!

Another neat thing about it all is that our pastor and his wife get $25 for giving us their referral code! They just signed up for high-speed internet as well, so we figured we’d put in their referral code so they could get the money. We thought that was pretty neat.

After recently paying $200 to buy out of our cell phone contract a year early, we were very happy to hear that news! We wanted to keep our cell phones, but the small, local company we had service with didn’t offer service up here in IN – so we decided to cancel. It turns out that it was cheaper to pay them the early termination fee than to keep paying the monthly fees for another year.

So anyways, we’re switching, and I cannot wait! I ordered the new modem last night around 6 pm, and it arrived here at noon today. I was amazed! We still have another week (I think) before the activation date, though. Heh. . .that reminds me. . .I need to go see if I can have that date changed now that we have the equipment. Probably not, but it won’t hurt to check!

It amazes me how I can stay sooo busy, yet stil be a stay-at-home mama. I love it! This week has been crazy. We decided to go put little man in underwear all day long…….it seems like we are in the bathroom all day. That’s ok though. He’s making good progress.

We also get a long weekend with Stephen home from work. Yay! I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but he ended up being put on third shift some time back. It wasn’t what we would have picked, but we’ve worked out a pretty decent schedule. It helps immensely that our bedroom is upstairs and on the other end of the house from the kitchen. Bug loves having Daddy home, even though he has to be a little quieter and can’t play in his room that much. So all the toys come downstairs into the living room. That’s ok. The living room has hardwood floors – unlike the shag carpeting in his room – making a GREAT surface to drive toy trucks on. We have fun.

Wow. . . I’m really rambling tonight. Sorry! Stephen does work on third, so he goes in to work after church on Sunday nights, and then works until Thursday night. When he comes home Friday morning, he’s off for the weekend, mostly. He’s been averaging working overtime most weekends too. While I miss him being home with me at night, the extra income is welcome. That’s one thing we are thankful for – the job does pay well. We’re also thankful for the extra little bit he earns simply by working third shift.

We’re going on a picnic tomorrow with one of his co-workers and his wife. The plant is doing inventory tomorrow, so Stephen and J are both off (they’re under probation until they’ve worked there for 3 months. Probationary employees don’t work on inventory shifts – a liability issue, I think). Since both guys have to go into work to pick up their paychecks, they just decided to meet for lunch while they’re in town. I’m excited to meet J and his wife. J is a Christian and is in Bible school, so I’m pretty excited about the fellowship.

On a sadder note, my grandmother’s health is really failing. Mom’s been at the nursing home nearly constantly. Grandma told my cousin the other day that “Jesus is calling me Home, but I don’t know what to do.” She’s been so disoriented lately – she seems to be constantly asking what to do. She questions everything saying, “I just don’t know what to do.” It’s been difficult to watch. I am starting to think that in a way, you can never be really prepared for a loved one’s death. Yes, you can try, but in so many ways, to me, this just doesn’t seem real. Yet, I know it is.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 come to mind:

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I will see her again, just not here on earth. What a comfort!