This morning, since Zoe was at the house, I told James he could join me for the morning run as Zoe would be there to tend to Alli should she wake before we got back. He chose not to go along because his legs were sore from running to work the day before and because he was not excited about the published course the run was to follow. I had a pretty good run and have been feeling pretty strong lately…..foot pain has not been too bad either…….it seems to come and go.

Alli had a good day at work. She was tired early on, so she had her nap from 10-12. She took another small nap late in the afternoon. Today I took a few photos of her in this green dress. I have always really liked it on her (it was only $7 at Wal-Mart). This evening when I got home, I realized she had gotten black pen ink on the front of it. I sure hope my stain treatment will get it out in the wash.

I have been working on a project that I am excited about. When Alli was born, I wanted to set up a way to share photos with friends and family as well as a system to back up our electronic photo files just in case, God forbid, the house should burn to the ground and our hard drive become a pile of molten plastic we would not lose all pictorial record of Alli’s child hood. I am not a particularly tech savvy person and I don’t know much about photography so I have no idea what else is available but I started using the Wal-Mart digital photo center and I have been very satisfied with how it has all worked out.

Once a month, I upload my photos to a folder I create on the web site. I then pick some of the best shots and order prints for James’ parents. Wal-Mart prints these selections at their local Lee Summit store so they are super handy for them to go pick up.

My mother logs on to our photo web site herself and plucks the electronic photos she wants and puts them on her computer. She then prints what she wants in letters and stuff.

For Father’s day I ordered James a mug with Alli’s picture on it. It turned out really good for the price (cheap).

So, the current project is to make “Memory Books” of my best photos so I have a hard copy at the house. I am making them on the Wal-Mart web site and it is a really slick process. You pick the photos, the page designs and layouts and then when you get it just how you want it, you submit (buy) it. They print the book and send it to your local store where you can pick it up. It takes a few weeks to get them which is no big deal for me. (If you want one by a certain date, order well ahead.) I get the soft bound books (around $7), but you can get all kinds of styles. I am doing one per month for the first year and then maybe one per quarter after that. They are really fun to make and will be a nice keepsake.