Overwhelmed

I do not normally complain about the goings on in my life.  I figure that there are other people out there that have it worse than I do, so why complain about my trivial things.  But, I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now and would really love to share it with all of you.  We have had an intense six months!

Raconteur Daddy lost his job on Thanksgiving....yep that's right, nice boss huh?  So, it has been a very stressful time for us.  We have been doing OK by utilizing all the resources we could from assistance to unemployment, help from family and using what little savings we had.  Plus my mad budgeting skills came into play.  During this time, we also found out that we were unexpectedly expecting our third child!  It seems no matter how hard we try to be careful, we never get to decide when our children will come.  I guess God likes to keep me on my toes!  We are so very excited to be able to have another baby though.  Through this time, RacDad and I have really relied on each other.  We have turned to our faith to help us through, especially when it seems like too much.  I just keep remembering that God will never give us more than we can handle.  This time has been precious too.  It's been a blessing to have RacDad home to watch Little Man grow and change as he becomes a toddler.  He's also been able to appreciate our Sweet Pea and the wonderful young lady she's becoming.  We've had the time to be more active in our community and our church.  Even though our pocket book has been tight, we've been able to help and contribute with our time and work to help others.  We've been able to sit back and view our path and really take a deep appreciation for each other and our wonderful kids.  I don't know if I've ever been more in love with him!

Now, we are leaving our house to head back home to South Dakota.  This is bittersweet for everyone because we finally feel like we belong here, but we are excited to be closer to family too.  We will miss our closest neighbor and her family, and our friends from church and school.  We will miss our house, church, school, doctors and dentist.  On the other hand, we are looking forward to reconnecting with our friends and family in South Dakota.  We are looking forward to the new job that RacDad has and the exciting opportunities there.  We are overwhelmed by the thought of finding a new house, but we know that it's just another hurdle to jump to get back to being settled in.  I look forward to day trips to the zoo, hanging out at the Falls, going hiking in the Palisades, and allowing my kids to experience a childhood like I did.  Being around family and close friends is what is priceless in this transition.

So, Sweet Pea is on her way to Nashville to visit my brother and his family.  This is her birthday present this year from her Grandparents.  I still can't believe that she's going to be a Tween!!  Nine years old is quite the milestone....her last year as a single digit.  RacDad is starting his job.  Little Man and I are putting finishing touches on the house and it will be listed on the market within the week.  Well, I'm trying to get finished and Little Man is getting into the boxes.

We are blessed to have a family that supports us through this transition.  They have been wonderful to remind us that everything is going to be OK.  The most important thing is the emotional support that they give, not what they can provide.  That hope and optimism is what gets us through the day.

Thank you so much for also helping me through this too.  Being able to write and have something to focus on has been a great outlet for me and I appreciate each and every one of you that follow my journey.  I have made some wonderful connections and learned a lot of new things.  I'm looking forward to the exciting things that are going to happen this summer and in the future on OTTW.

Say Cheese!!

It's the Season for Sharing!  Plus, it's that time of year where seeing spots will become a frequent occurrence.  Pictures of the kids with Santa.  Videos with family members.  So, what do you do with those pictures and videos after they are taken?  Some people opt to leave them on the card in their camera for a few months and let them collect into the hundreds.  Others will download them to their computer before bed every night.  But then what happens to them?  

I have been doing a little research to help solve these questions.  Personally, we download all our pictures and videos; then save them to a massive external hard drive that is conveniently placed on the floor under the coffee table, next to my couch.  I keep copies on my computer of things from the last few months so that way I have something to cycle through my screen saver.  I also love Facebook.  It is a great way to store and share...yet we have many family members who do not use Facebook, or at least not often.  I have many family members who use different internet sites for storage and sharing.  So I thought that I would research what they are and how they work.

The first that I want to talk about are free public sites.  Specifically, Snapfish and Shutterfly.  

Snapfish is not my favorite.  Although it is easy to upload pictures to store, I do not like their requirements for sharing.  To share, you have to have the actual email addresses of the people that you want to share with so that Snapfish will send them an 'invite'.  There are no links for you to use.  Also, I personally do not like getting Snapfish invites because in order to just view the pictures, you have to sign in to Snapfish's service.  They do, however, offer video share and storage for a $2.99 a month/ $24.99 a year subscription fee.  The picture share and store is free and because of this, there is a lot of emphasis on ordering products.

Out of the free sites, I'd have to say that I prefer Shutterfly.  It is also easy to upload pictures, but the best part is that they give you links to your albums.  That way, you can add your link to your email, blog, or even Facebook.  The other reason why I prefer Shutterfly is because to view photos, you are not obligated to sign into their service; you just simply click on the link!  Shutterfly does not store or share video though, so that is one thing that is missing compared to Snapfish.  Since it is also a free site, they also have a large emphasis on purchasing their products.  They do offer good deals on some of their products though, and sometimes they have freebie offers.

The last site that I am going to talk about is my absolute favorite.  It is SmugMug.  Now, the biggest difference between SmugMug and the previous two is that it is a pay for service site (they do have a free trial going on now).  But please don't let this deter you.  I think that there are definitely positive points in using it.  Basic service has no video storage, but you can customize your albums in many different ways to showcase your online scrapbooks.  The cost is $5 a month or $40 a year.  Power service includes unlimited video storage and sharing along with the Basic service too.  It costs $8 a month or $60 a year.  They also include easy to share links that you can put in emails, embed into your blog, or add to your Facebook wall.  You can link a single picture or an entire gallery.  There are no registrations for visitors, again you can just click on the link.  Also, viewers can easily share or download the pictures to their own computer!  There is also no resolution reduction when you download your pictures, which is a huge bonus in my opinion.  This is great for videos too because they will store HD compatible videos.  This means that your iPad or iPhone can play what is stored on your SmugMug account!  Because this is a pay for service site, there are no ads!  Yep, that's right...no pesky ads asking you to buy anything!  But they do offer a very easy to use service to print and send pictures or products, just like the free sites.  They also provide full customer support including email and phone support groups.  

Another big plus for SmugMug is that they also offer a Pro package.  This includes everything in the Basic and Power services, but it is made specifically for Professional Photographers.  I think that this is a great opportunity for those Amateur photographers who want to get more serious about their hobby.  With the Pro service, you can create a fully customizable webstore, where you have your own domain name and you can edit the HTML.  You are allowed assistant passwords so multiple people can use your account.  You can have image watermarks to help secure your photos.  You can set your galleries.  Plus, you can sell your products online....you set the price and have control of your profits!  This service costs $20 a month or $150 a year.  There is really so much more with each of the packages, I am just mentioning the things that I think are great about it.

So, even though they all seem fairly user friendly to use for storage; the biggest difference is in the sharing and the visual set up of each site.  I guess that if you are planning on just sharing a few photo albums or galleries here and there, then a free site might just be up your alley.  But if you have lots of pictures and videos to share with many people throughout the year, I would strongly suggest a pay for site.