I can drive... sorta

I got my Learner's Permit this morning! 

But I have alot of learning to do before I can drive though  :-)

I got 100% on my test, and I start drivers ed in April...

...pray for my family!!!

Digital Scrapbooking

I'm not great at digital scrapbooking, but every once in a while I'll make something just for fun. 

I make most of my blog backgrounds and headers on Stampin' Up's "My Digital Studio".

I also make my screen savers on there. 

Earlier today, I made a page that I put on my laptop screen. 

I already had a page of pictures with Dr. Carson on there, but I wanted a new one. 

So... I got online, found a new picture of him and used that for the color scheme and focus of my page. 

I didn't put anything on the left side because my icons would cover it up. 

I like the first picture at the bottom (and the new one I just found at the top) because that's what he looked like when I saw him. The center one one the bottom is Dr. Carson and Cuba Gooding (who played Dr. Carson in "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story"). And the third picture on the bottom is President Bush presenting Dr. Carson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

The Library of Congress

I took a trip to the Library of Congress Thursday. 

The National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Physically Handicapped was celebrating 80 years of talking books. Our neighbor, Trudy Pickrel, is the president of the Maryland Federation of the Blind and has adopted 3 blind children. She was taking the oldest of those children, Brandon who is 9, to the Library of Congress - where the celebration was being held - to talk to reporters about how he, as a child, liked the digitally recorded books and which ones were his favorite, etc. I was just along as a helper. Trudy also took her blind daughter (she is 5 and has numerous handicaps beyond her partial blindness), and she asked me to go along to help with Maria.

It was a very neat experience. We didn't actually go into the library portion of the Thomas Jefferson building (where all the books are kept). But we did get a personal tour of the Young Readers Center downstairs. 

The architecture in the building was amazing. The marble floors and columns, the sculptures, and paintings. It made me think of a building/era in which Thomas Jefferson would have felt perfectly at home! 

That was the first time I remember being in Washington D.C. Aunt Lois took us to the D.C. Zoo a couple times, but that was so long ago, I remember very very little about it. The Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress is directly across the street from the Capitol, so I got to see the Capitol Building for the first time too. 

Actually, it was my first time for a lot of neat things: Being on Capitol Hill and in the Library of Congress, hearing the 13th Librarian of Congress (Dr. James H. Billington) speak, riding a metro, having to open my purse for a security guard (not that there was anything wrong, just something we had to do to get out of the building!). 

When we were headed back to the metro, it was around lunch time, and we walked right past the Capitol Hill Club. There were tons of big black Escalades and fancy cars. Trudy was like, all the congressmen are coming out to lunch. There was no one person that had a huge entourage or anything, so I don't think I saw anybody singularly important...but who knows :) It was cool anyway!!!

We had to get up at 4 a.m. to get there, and it was freezing cold during our trips between the van, metro stations and Library, but it was one of those experiences that makes it totally worth it! 

Paizley

This is the little girl Karissa has been babysitting the past few weeks. She's very sweet and well-behaved... not-to-mention cute :)

...she doesn't like cameras though!

Her expressions are adorable, but most of them are serious.

Paizley can say "Happy". This is her "happy face".

She doesn't say a whole lot besides "up, down, hot, cold, no, bad, and happy". She says "more" and "please" in sign language. 

Karissa said she really really enjoys watching her. Between her sewing, cleaning, and babysitting jobs, babysitting Paizley is definitely her favorite she said! 

 Paizley Sage 

~~~~~

Karissa is 20!!!

Karissa is no longer a teenager :) On February 18th she turned 20!

Kaleb, Kaitlyn, and I gave her a necklace/earring set.

A bracelet from Mom and Dad.

Mom had so much fun making her card!! Turned out pretty didn't it?! 

Mom and Dad gave her a lamp for her room... a touch lamp. We were all playing with it that night :)

Karissa wanted a lemon meringue and peach pie for her birthday. Kaitlyn made the crusts, but none of the rest of us can make as good a pie as Karissa. So Karissa made the meringue and peach filling.  

~The Lemon Meringue~

They both turned out so beautiful...

~Peach Pie~

... and they were very yummy too!!!

Happy (belated) 20th Birthday, Karissa!!!!!