Tutorial-- how to post a music playlist to your Blogger site

Ok-- since I've been bombarded with requests for this tutorial.. .(well, not exactly--but hey--maybe some lurker will benefit)

Here are my rough steps. I think anyone should be able to follow these directions. I love having my little tunes on my blog. . . now you can too!
1. Go to www.playlist.com (there are other sites out there--but this is what I used)
2. sign up or just “start building a playlist” (it's the big blue box on the center L of the screen) by entering song or an artist
3. The song or songs by the artist will come up – listen to song or hit the “+” to save to your playlist (continue until you have a list that you like—pretty self explanatory)
4. After finishing your list -- look for and select a button stating “post playlist” or “generate code”
At this point you have to do 3 steps:
1. You are given choices from A-E. Select E (at least for blogger)
2. Select which playlist you want to add to your blog (you probably only have 1 at this time)
3. Select auto start (yes), shuffle (I prefer yes), and color (what ever you want) –hit “get code” button

• Copy the code (control C).
• Open new window with your blog in it.
• Sign in to blogger account and go to “edit layout”
• Select “add a gadget” from the side or bottom bar
  **Here's the only tricky step -- from the "gadget" list select “HTML/JavaScript” – make sure it is this one only--Look under BASICS (at least this is the only one that worked for me—I tried a couple of others only to be frustrated)

Once you find "HTML/JavaScript" --select it

1. Put a title (or not)
2. “paste” (Control V) the “code” that you copied from the playlist into the big box
3. Hit save and voila! Do a little dance, make a little. . ..oh, well—hey—it is Wednesday night!! (some of you will get this)
   

"Sticky Note" on Relationships

We have this little "sticky" on our refrigerator--just thought I'd share.

Six Times to Say "I'm Sorry"

• When you are wrong
• When you are rude
• When you are defensive
• When you are impatient
• When you are negative
• When you are hurtful

FIREPROOF

So--this past Sunday we went to see the movie Fireproof.

Brett heard from a few of his clients how impacting the movie was, so we invited another couple to meet us at the theatre.

Overall, the concept of the movie was excellent. The movie is centered around a young married couple who is on the verge of divorce. --Don't worry I won't give you enough details to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it (although it's not that complex). After hearing of his marital problems, the husband (played by Kirk Cameron) is given a book by his father-- The Love Dare. The movie revolves around his reading of the book and following its instructions.

I think any marriage can benefit from watching this movie-- because the little lessons in the book are simple yet challenging and impacting. Although this movie seems to be about "marriage," if you look a little deeper you see that it is really about unconditional love.

Overall it's worth going to see (just try to avoid being too critical about the somewhat cheesy acting.)

**Oh--and there is actually a Love Dare book on the market. Just do a search online to find it--and then you can take your own 40 day challenge. I think it would be worth it.

Exhausted. . .

. . . from a busy week-end!

Friday night I worked until 11:30 pm then I got up earrrrrly (6:20 am) on Saturday morning to head to Donaldsonville for the medical clinic.

I've written about Healing Hands before, but in case you missed it--you can read more about it on the HH Blog http://drcheri.blogspot.com/

After seeing about 18 patients and giving them there monthly medications, all of the volunteers had lunch together, and I headed home around 1 pm.

My mother arrived around 2:40-- (during which I was taking a little nap). She thankfully brought her pressure washer over and we headed to the front of the house to clean the front of the house, the porch, and the side walk. Gustav's gotta go!

After 3.5 hours of cleaning (and accidentally removing a little paint from the porch and shutters)--I headed to Albertson's to grab a few things for some homemade fried shrimp (provided by mom) and some of the traditional Talley onion rings. All of this followed by a movie and popcorn (I bailed on this one).

Up early for Church at 9 am--then home to cook shrimp fettucine. After cleaning up--off to more pressure washing! If that wasn't enough--we made 3 batches of homemade soap and Brett cut Mom's hair.

After a quick shower--we met some friends for a movie at 7 pm after which I was up until 11:30 pm finishing an assignment due at midnight.

. . . .then up again Monday at 7:00 am for a 12 hour shift.

Maybe that explains why I woke up at 6:45 am this morning -- just the time I should have been arriving at work! Oh, well--I get to go in at 10:45 tomorrow. Ahhh, a little time to sleep in.

Beach? Mountains? Beach? Mountains!!

This summer for our anniversary we went to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Tennessee/Georgia. We go to the beach every year, but this year we decided to make a change and take our mountain bikes for a little adventure. We both love the mountains (we actually want to move there one day), but Brett has this "thing" about long car rides--he doesn't like them. I, on the other hand -- LOVE them! But he agreed that a long car ride was worth the end result, so we packed up our mountain bikes on the back of the car--and went to the mountains for 5 days. It was awesome! Brett and I spent 2 of the days mountain biking--for REAL this time. We had great difficulties at first until we met Wayne. Wayne was a "real" mountain biker who taught us how to use our bikes on the steep inclines. He was truly our personal God-sent tour guide.

If you want to know what it feels like to ride down a mountain on a 3 foot wide curvy path, in the dark, at about 15-20 mph in the pouring rain--ask me. . . .

It was exhilarating! (And I confess--very scary!!) We've made some new mountain biking rules for our next trip including letting someone else know where you are, and NO starting a trail after 7 pm!

We invited some friends, Jack and Beverly, to come with us. I've known them for years, and they were actually our "mentors" when we were married. We love and appreciate them and all of their wisdom!

Picking wild blackberries--they were awesome!

I love this picture. It looks like it is from a fairy tale scene. No--it's not a backdrop! We also went horse back riding--my idea. After about one hour--I was done! I still have a scar 2 months later on my ankle where the stirrups rubbed the skin off my leg-- Ouch!! But the horses were just breathtaking. . .

We also went white water rafting. It was the best trip we had all been on. We had a wonderful (and a little crazy) guide. Pics to come!

Well--Just a little overdue update. Now. . . . I think I'm going to ride my bike!

I did it!

I finally figured out how to get a music playlist on my blog!! Yippee! It took a while, but after reading on the web--I did it (during which time my bath water got very cold!)

These are the moments that I really miss teaching high schoolers. I feel so computer illiterate sometimes, so if any of you computer "illiterate" need a tutorial--I'll post one.
In the meantime. . . enjoy the music.

A New Season

I just came in and am taking a break from cutting the grass and raking up the last remants of the debris post hurricane Gustav. Phew! Glad that's over!

I know it's been a while and I've never posted anything about the hurricane, but after not having electricity for 13.5 days and then attempting to "catch" up, I'm just now getting to it. The above picture is the day before the storm as we (well, actually--Brett) were "boarding" up. Notice how you can barely see our neighbor's house to the right. My, how things have changed!

After being at the hospital for 40 hours, this was what I came home to. Just slightly overwhelming! This picture below shows the most amazing testimony!

Our neighbors 60 year old pine fell between our (new) garage and our house.

The window on that wall of the house was the only window we did not board up (thinking it was the safest!)

This is a picture from inside our bedroom, and not ONE pane was even cracked!

We had a lot of family, friends, and neighbors help us clean up. I became tearful many times during that day. I was so exhausted from being at work (where it was 95 degrees in the ER without air circulating!), and looking at all we had to do was just overwhelming. I so appreciated the help of everyone who aided to lift some of this burden off of our backs.

We do have damage to the garage, the master bedroom roof, and to the roof in the front of the house, but it could have been so much worse!! We thank the Lord everyday that we have a home that we can come home to.

I'm so glad to be back at home after living out of my car for 2 weeks and staying on different people's floors. Brett learned one thing about women during all of this --that women just "want to be at home." I wanted to go home. He wanted air conditioning, but I wanted my house even if it was hot! It made me have great compassion on those in TX and in New Orleans after all of the devastation they endured. I can't begin to imagine.