We recently went to the beach in the Gulf Shores area (in spite of the oil).  We never got in the water but we did take several walks on the beach. One of my favorite things to do is get family photos on the beach.  So I grabbed one of my cameras (one of the treats with being a LiHD family) one evening and snapped some shots. Here are just a few.  I have added more in our photo section. 

I know, I know, it has been a while. It isn't that I don't think about posting on here...I have written entries in my mind.  This time of year has just been extra busy with kids (and all of their different activities), school/work, church, etc.  We have also started hiking on the weekends when the weather allows.  So we have been on the go.

Here we are, the day after Thanksgiving, still contemplating what we are thankful for.  I am thankful for many things and people, like my husband who loves me in spite of who I am.  And I am grateful for the four children we have been blessed with.  They come from different places but all have ONE place in my heart. I am thankful for a job I love and look forward to going each day...to watch my kindergarten students grow and learn is a true joy.  I am blessed by my friends who again seem to love me in spite of who I am, as well as a family (parents, in-laws, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers) who have all had a part in who I am. Finally I am thankful to a God who loves me (again, in spite of who I am) and who forgives me daily for the things I think and do, while at the same time, patiently guiding me showing me a better way.

I just wanted to post on here that we are thankful for Panasonic too.  We have been a LIHD family for almost six months now.  And yet we are still discovering what that means and what fun it is!  We have grown quite accustomed to our large screen t.v. and its incredible picture.  HD really is a totally different experience.  (We rarely venture outside of "HD" channels these days.)  Surround sound is another bonus...I don't know that we could go "back" to regular sound again.  I love to watch my kids standing by the speakers; their faces light up when they hear sound from the t.v. in the back of the room.  Our Christmas lists were full of Blu Ray movies to build up our library.  The cameras...well, I take a LOT of pictures.  So you know we are using those.  The toughbook is in my lap right now. The whole family uses that regularly.  It is so lightweight and easy for all of us to use.  I also appreciate the battery life on it...much longer than other laptops I have seen.  The kids had fun filming their own movie not long ago with the camcorder (that is the one thing I hope to learn more about in the next few weeks so we can use it for Christmas).  We have just really enjoyed our suite of entertainment.  We are thankful Panasonic chose us.  We share with our friends and family what fun we are having and encourage them to participate!

Thanks to Living in HD for the fun! 

Last night we had our computer training with Mike Riddle.  We had been scheduled to do this in August/September, but there were some scheduling conflicts.  So last night was the night.

I will admit...I thought I knew a lot about the Internet. I keep a blog (almost daily), I Facebook often, I store my pics on line.  But I did learn some things I will definitely be using in the future!

Delicious.  Yes, describes food. But I love that it is a place on-line to centralize my bookmarks (which means I can access them anywhere).

Picasa. I have been using Picasa for some time...it is a wonderful tool for photo storage and editing.  However, I had NO idea that I could export pictures from Picasa to Facebook with an easy click!

RSS feeds...I didn't realize that I could link our family blog to livinginhd.com. I have always seen "RSS feed" on other blogs but had NO idea what it was for.

Firefox. I have seen Firefox but wasn't sure about it.  Mike downloaded it with a click.  He also got me "tabs" on our computer/Internet...I am used to tabs and had wanted them on the computer...just didn't know how to do it.

And of course, he encouraged us to stay active on here.  With the helpful tips, that should be much easier now!