New updates for users who create an account.  You now have the ability to:

1. Sign up for email updates when new posts are added.  You can even pick certain categories to subscribe to.
2. Add a profile picture, avatar, or whatever image you want to appear next to your comments.

To take advantage of these features and more, simply Register, then Login to your admin account (links are at bottom of page) to adjust your settings.

Well, I did it.  Despite a few minor setbacks and an astonishingly slow internet connection (27 Kb/S YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME), the site has officially moved and is now a WordPress blog, once again. I’m still working on pieces like the blogroll and gallery, but for the most part it’s up and functional.

PLEASE NOTE:  If you were subscribed to our RSS Feed, you will need to change the feed address to the one listed at the bottom of the page.

If you would like to receive email notifications each time a new blog entry is posted, I recommend a service such as Feed My Inbox, which allows you to quickly subscribe to blogs without worrying about setting up and maintaining yet another account with another website.

Speaking of accounts, to make commenting here easier, I highly recommend Registering as a Subscriber.  That way your info can be stored so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you comment.

In other commenting news, we have a NEW! FEATURE! – If you’re logged into Facebook when visiting this site, you can quickly and easily comment here using your Facebook profile.  No logging in, no re-typing your info, etc.  You’re welcome.

Speaking of Facebook, it appears that the New! Facebook! has issues – specifically, importing (or not) blog posts in the Notes feed.  Apparently that feature is nonfunctional so until I find a workaround, if you’re used to seeing my blog post notifications in your News Feed, that won’t happen anymore since the feed address has changed.  I’m simply too lazy to manually link every post to Facebook each time I write them.

So that’s about it.  Have a look around and let me know if you see anything that looks amiss.  Thanks!

I’ve been working on a few little projects lately, which have been eating up most of my spare time.

For one thing, I’m planning another overhaul of this website. Changing operating systems, servers, etc. The new site is just about ready to launch and I like it, but more importantly it will make things easier on me in the future. I’m leaving EE and going back to WordPress, which is not the easiest thing to do, but I think the benefits will outweigh the pain in the butt that the migration has been.

Also, I’m making bows. Lots and lots of hair bows. And handmade cards. I’ve entered my first craft fair, the Nutcracker Craft Faire here in Homer. I keep hearing people talk about it, so I thought I’d give it a shot and maybe make a little money for Christmas gifts. At least, I was hoping that would be the case, but I’m finding that crafting is so expensive that I’m going to have to sell a lot of bows and cards to make any profit at all.

On the bright side, the craft work is giving me something to do with my hands while Jens and I catch up on Lost in the evenings. I hate being idle while watching TV. We just finished Season 5 so I guess we should start looking for a new series to start when we get through Season 6. Any suggestions?

In other news, Kaelin has 2 loose teeth.  Bottom-center.  Most kids don’t start losing their teeth until age 6 or so, but my daughter has always insisted on doing everything early.  She took her first steps before she was 9 months old and was speaking perfectly understandable English long before the other kids her age.  So I guess this just follows suit.

This morning was monumental because it wasn’t raining when I woke up.  In fact, the sun was out and it was quite beautiful outside.  By the time we left for church, it was overcast again and by the time we got out of church it was raining.  It’s now 8pm and still raining.  I forget how pretty it is here when the sun is out.  We so rarely see it anymore.  I feel like Margot in All Summer in a Day.  There were a couple of hours on Thursday that it was sunny.  We high-tailed it to the beach to take advantage of it because it’s been nothing but rain rain rain for 2 months now, with the occasional “mostly cloudy” day thrown in. 

I haven’t been jogging in weeks.  I’m actually starting to look forward to winter when all the rain will at least turn into snow and not be so…wet all the time.  I feel sorry for the kids, they don’t get to be outside much.  It’s a good thing they have a great school program 3 days per week to keep them busy.

I really like the kids’ school.  They do baking, gardening (weather permitting), field trips, and all kinds of other activities to keep the kids busy.  It’s so much more than just the “mother’s day out” programs we’re used to.  They only attend mornings, so I think I might add another day for the winter session.  I wish they had an option for a 3/4 day, ending at 2 or 3pm, but as it is, I either pick them up at 12:30pm or 5pm.

My aunt and uncle are coming to visit this week, so we’re looking forward to seeing them.  Hopefully the weather will give them a break while they’re here.

This is what I get for being in a hurry to push out a new blog design.  I forgot to do the cross-browser check.  If you visited this site using Internet explorer earlier today:

1) I apologize that it looked like crap.  It’s mostly fixed now.

2) You should seriously consider using a better browser.  Failing that, at least write letters demanding that if the geniuses at Microsoft are going to insist on bundling their browser into every computer that’s sold, the least they could do is come up with a browser that can read code without being hacked to death.

/end soapbox

[Updated to add: I’m going to leave this entry at the top for a week.  For more recent posts, see below.]

Um.  Hi.  Can I ask a favor?  If you know me in real life and read this blog semi-regularly, can you please leave a comment on this post? 

See, I have this problem…

Among the drawbacks of publishing the details of my family’s life here is the fact that it’s a bit one-sided.  Meaning that if you read this blog, you know more about me than I know about you on a daily basis.

See, it happens all too often that I’m having a perfectly two-sided conversation with a friend and telling them about the latest stunt Kaelin pulled or the latest way Koren has found to keep me from sleeping, and the response is, “I know.  I read your blog.”

And then the conversation just falls over and dies at my feet while I stand there trying to remember what ELSE they already know from the blog because HEAVEN FORBID I REPEAT MYSELF.

I hate repeating myself.  My life is hardly interesting the FIRST time around.

So if I know ahead of time that you are already caught up on the latest details via this blog, then I can avoid that awkward what do I say now point of the conversation and it would make me feel like much less of a social failure. 

So humor me?  Just click the “Comments” button below this post and fill in your name (or enough of your name that I can tell who you are) etc. in the popup window.  Thanks!

PS… I will soon be adding a segment in the sidebar for businesses we support.  If you have your own business website and you would like to be added to that section, be sure to leave the address in the comments as well.

PPS… Is anyone around here using Similac Advance formula?  We bought a bunch just before we had to switch Koren to the soy version, and now we can’t take some of it back.  Any takers?

UPDATE:  As a point of clarification, I’m not asking you to comment on every post from here on out (although, if you want to…).  This is just a one-time request so I can make a mental note that, “Ok, this person reads the blog so I shouldn’t repeat all my blog stories when talking to them and expect them to act like it’s new information.” kthxbye.

“You are currently caller number. Two.  Waiting to speak to a representative.  The estimated wait time is now. Two.  Minutes.”

I heard that entirely too much today.  My website and email were down most of the day and I had to call twice to get it back up again.  The first time, I was told they were just rebooting the server and it was taking longer than expected.  After 8 hours, I figured that probably wasn’t the case.

I start to get really annoyed when the “estimated wait time” increases every time the automated voice speaks.

“You are currently caller number.  Two.  Waiting to speak to a representative.  The estimated wait time is now. Three.  Minutes.”
“…The estimated wait time is now. Four.  Minutes.”
“…The estimated wait time is now. Five.  Minutes.”
“…The estimated wait time is now. Eight.  Minutes.”
“…The estimated wait time is now. Ten.  Minutes.”

I’m no mathematician, but shouldn’t the wait time DECREASE the longer you’re on the phone?

As it turns out, my hosting company “accidentally suspended” my account.  Thanks guys.  And thanks for trying to communicate with me via email after I told you repeatedly that my email wasn’t working.  Because you shut it down.  Brilliant.

Welcome to our new site!  Have some tea, take a look around, and please let me know if anything looks funky.

Also, Hawaii pictures are up!  Check out the Photos section and click “Hawaii” under Albums.

It’s not finished, and I’ll probably be tweaking and adding things for a while (like pictures).  But I believe it’s at least to the point of being functional.  If you see anything that doesn’t work, or just looks odd, please let me know in the comments.  And be sure to tell me what browser you’re using (Internet Explorer 7.0, FireFox 2.0, etc)

A Note About Accounts:
This site is enabled with accounts – meaning you get your own special username and password.  If you look to the left, you’ll see a place to log in, view the members list, etc. 

Here’s the deal with accounts:  while most of this site is pretty much free-for-all, there may be material from time to time that I deem inappropriate or inadvisable to share with the whole wide internet world.  Those pieces, be them blog entries, photos, pages, etc, will only be available to people who a) are members, and b) are logged in.  It’s my way of providing a little extra security when necessary, without making this a restricted site.

If you have left a comment on our blog within the last 6 months, you probably already have an account automatically set up from when I pulled over the blog entries and comments.  Your username would be however you signed your comment: “Beth” or “Beth D” or “Beth Daniels” etc.  I don’t know what your password is, so to log in and/or change it, please visit the “Log In” link to the left and click “Forgot Password.”

For those picking up this feed in your feed reader, please add the feed: http://jensandamy.com/index.php/site/rss_2.0/

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it doesn’t apply to you.

Sometime in the next day or so (fingers crossed), this site will be switching over to the New! and Improved! Jens & Amy website.  See you on the other side!