Soldiers' Angel - Holly Aho

The hardest part of designing a new website is making sure it looks correct in all internet browsers. Not only that, but making sure it looks right in all versions of all internet browsers. It's a pain in the butt, but doable, with the exception of Internet Explorer.

Without alot of workaround nonsense it's not possible to have more than one version of IE on your computer at a time. The problem is that there is a huge difference in the appearance of websites between IE6, IE7 and IE8. They might as well all be considered as different browsers, since they share little in common other than a name and sloppy coding.

I have two incredible time savers and helpers for making any website look as good in IE as it does in Firefox. First, use Firefox to develop the design of the website. Most designers pick a browser to start with, create a design, and then view the site in other browsers. They make changes or add special files specific to each browser in order to make the look cross browser compatible. For the first fix, start with any browser other than IE to create the design. I use Firefox.

Once the design looks right add this code between the and tags of your template or webpage.

Here's a link to more information about the above code - http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/.

This particular fix does miracles!! I no longer have to create separate CSS files for IE (or each version of IE), and the code above will even make transparent PNG images (with alpha transparency too!!) work correctly in IE! No more weird blue boxes in Internet Explorer where your cool transparent shadows and images used to be.

Now that you've created a great design and have added this handy code to make it look nice in IE too you need a way to make sure it looks nice in all versions of IE. How to do that? This website - IE Net Renderer - is FABULOUS for just that purpose.

It's free to use, and it's FAST. No waiting for a screenshot or an email file. It's as close to real time as I can think of. From their website:

IE NetRenderer allows you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 7, 6 or 5.5, as seen from a high speed datacenter located in Germany. Just type in a URL in the field above and try it out - it's free!

Unlike other screenshot services, we are able to process a large number of capturing jobs in parallel and in realtime, making it the fastest service that we know of.

Hope these help any other developers our there that have spent way too much time in the past just to play nice with IE!

Hate stickers but your kids love them? Me too. I hate scraping them off of car windows, mirrors, walls, whatever. And storybooks with stickers are stupid. Kids don't realize they can't remove and adjust stickers so pages get ripped, stickers get folded up funny. In short, they look alot more fun in the package as opposed to the actual playtime.

But there's one way to have fun with stickers that's easy and cheap. And appropriate for any age group that can use stickers. What you'll need is a photo album with magnetic pages to start. They are not really magnetic, I mean the cheap photo albums with the peal and stick photo display pages with the plastic cover that sticks over the whole lot. Besides stickers and the photo album you could add washable markers or dry erase markers.

Using this type of photo album for sticker display allows stickers to retain much of their stickiness so they can be repositioned and used again and again. Once a page has been decorated press the clear cover over the stickers like you would for photos.

If you want to get real crafty let the kids use the markers on the clear cover of each page to create full coloring scenes for their stickers that can be washed off or dry erased.

I still have my sticker book from 25 years ago, one that held my treasured stickers from elementary school age. Believe it or not, the scratch and sniff stickers all retained their smell from being stored this way. Fun!

So, some product reviews. First, the Western Digital WB MyBook external hard drive sucks. I purchased the 1TB Home edition, hoping to avert data loss disaster should something happen to my laptop.

Once home, I moved all of my documents to it. Less than a month later, it crashed. Talk about disappointing! 90 GB of data having already been transferred to it, I was devastated. We did purchase a program that recovers data, but it did not preserve the directory structure, or even file names. So, that's 90 GB of data I'll never look at unless some emergency required I find Word Document XYZ from my list of recovered word docs named 1 - 5000.

Nevertheless, my laptop had been slowing down, and so I decided to replace the whole thing with a new computer. I purchased an HP TouchSmart computer. These things don't disappoint, at least so far! (It's been a few weeks)

Not only are these fun computers to use, but for a few hundred dollars more than the computer I was already considering, it was a great value. This computer is a 64 bit model, which my other choice was not, and compared or excelled in all other areas to my other choice. So all in all, I didn't even feel I was paying for a touch screen, but rather a better computer for just a few extra dollars.

If you're considering buying one, I highly recommend it. While I don't allow game use on my machine, I have allowed my 2 year old a few precious minutes on it, and it was much more intuitive for her to use. In fact, she was delighted to find that for once a computer did what she intended it to do.

I've found it's also more intuitive for me to use. I find myself reaching for friend's computers before realizing theirs is not a touch screen. It's just a more natural way to interact with a computer.

However, they aren't easy to find. The model I purchased was (at the time) the last one available at any local Best Buy. Even if you have to buy online though, you won't be disappointed!

Wow, have I been neglectful of my blog. I swear it wasn't intentional! I've had oh so many blog post ideas that somehow never made it into type. Tonight I'm kicking that bad habit and am determined it won't happen again!

We're good, nothing earth shaking to report. Well, that's not entirely true. Timmy is in need of some prayer. He's once again expected to need a hospital stay to clean him out. It turns out he quite possibly has Hirschsprung's disease. If that is the case he'll most likely also need surgery to remove the defective section of bowel. Poor sweetie.

So, like any other night, I'm up late, but this time with a little extra reason to worry about tomorrow's upcoming doctor appointment for Timmy.

Anyways, I'll be back shortly, promise! And drop a note letting me know how you are doing!

My son's kindergarten class created a book called "How to Cook a Turkey". Each student filled out a page that outlines their idea of how you cook a turkey. Here are a few of the good ones:

"I will shoot him in the woods. He will weight 2 pounds. I will cook him at 1 degree for 1 minute. I will stick a toothpick in the oven and if it is red it's ready and it is black it's too hot. If it's plain it's too cold. I will eat the meat in the tummy. It will taste just like meat."

"I will buy it at the grocery store. He will weigh 100 pounds and cost 6 dollars. I will put the oven at 100 degrees and cook him for 98 minutes. I will eat the whole thing!"

"I will shoot my turkey and he will weigh 2,000 pounds. I will bake him at 1,000 degrees for 20 minutes. I will know when he's done when the timer beeps. I will eat the leg and it will taste like a burnt turkey!"

and my son's page:

"I will buy my turkey at Walmart. I think he will weigh 15 pounds and cost 60 dollars. I will cook him for 10 minutes at 88 degrees. I will look at the timer to see when he's done. I will eat his legs and they will taste like meat!"

ViviaBnne turned 2 today! WOW! Time sure does fly. Unfortunately, our son Timmy was sick and had tospend today (and tonight) in the hospital. Timmy adores Vivi - and vice versa- so we didn't do a party for her today. Timmy would have been sad to miss it. so we will have her party later.Anyways, I'm still at the hospital, trying out my new cell phone to write this post! Yay! It's been years since I've had a cell phone. They sure have improved! And hurray for unlimited plans! Wish they'd have had them years ago.

A few days ago we took my oldest son and three of his friends to a nice restaurant for dinner. One of his friends ordered a steak (I think for the first time). The waiter asked him, "And how would you like it cooked?"

My son's friend looked shocked a moment and then sputtered out, "Done?"

..Don't bring me no half cooked food! LOL
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Also recently, my oldest son was telling me about his adventures in his online game he likes to play. Apparently, in the game you can set up a shop as a merchant and sell game items to other players, like coins, weapons and armor. He was gleefully recalling his latest store experiences of working up to be a millionaire. He told me how he'd purchased a bunch of items that were nearly worthless, and then set up shop and sold each item for thousands of points (or whatever). He laughed as he said that lots of players were buying these items and he was raking in the profits.

I instantly felt sympathy for the players buying his stuff and said "Awww, these are probably new players who aren't aware of the Items' real value. Poor people!"

He replied, "Well, I named my store 'Gigantic Rip-offs, Buy Here!'"
Sympathy went right out the window as I howled with laughter.
LOL!
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And another...

Last month my kids and I were eating lunch together when Tommy (my 7 year old) said he needed more water to drink and stood up with his cup. Noel (my 13 year old) looked in his cup and chimed in that he also needed a refill and told Tommy to fill his cup too. Tommy looked at him askance and said "Get your own drink."

Well, Noel, being so much older than the rest, often acts like a not so benevolent king with his minions when ordering his younger brothers around. He replied, "Don't be a twerp! What, is it too hard to fill my cup too? Not strong enough to carry it?" Handing his cup to Tommy he ordered "Get my water!"

Tommy's defiant face wiped clean into an obedient and friendly face as he politely took the cup and headed to the faucet. Not realizing something had just gone horribly wrong for him, Noel continued eating and feeling like royalty. Tommy took quite a long time at the sink, and mildly suspicious at this Noel often turned around to check on what he was doing. But Tommy was always at the sink, holding a cup, water running. After more than 30 seconds however, Noel began to throw new insults over his shoulder at Tommy. "What, is it too hard for you to get water?"....."What is taking you so long slave?"...."Can't find your way back to the table?" After each insult he smiled at his ingenuity and wit.

Finally, Tommy returned to the kitchen table with 2 cups of water. Noel checked his cup and then took a big drink as Tommy sat. Noel spit it right back out and shrieked, "HOT water? Are you retarded? Why would you pick hot water?"

Tommy smiled politely and replied, "I don't know what you mean. My water is nice and cold." He smiled and took a sip.

Noel hasn't bossed Tommy around in a while.

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Well, it's been a busy spring, that's for sure! In case you haven't totally given up on my blogging, I've got a boring personal update post for you. Cute and funny stories ahead, I promise, so keep reading! First of all, for the exciting news, we've managed to move into a beautiful house!!! We are in heaven, loving our new place. After losing our home to foreclosure several years ago, we began renting an apartment, that while spacious (as far as apartments go), was old and not in the best shape. We'd resigned ourselves to possibly living there a good long time until our credit had recovered.

Now, while I'm not complaining about the apartment, it did lack any sort of a yard. Our building shared a parking lot with the bar below our apartment and the police department next door. Imagine telling your kids to go play in the parking lot! So, while our apartment was decent sized, it was still difficult to entertain 5 kids there during the winter, or long rainy days.

Well, 2 weeks ago on a lark I looked at http://craigslist.com for home rentals. There happened to be one just down the street, a 3 bedroom new house for $1800. Out of curiousity I made an appointment to see it. After viewing the home I told the guy showing it to us, "I'd like to say first, that $1800 is more than we'd like to pay. Can you do better? And before you answer, I must tell you that I have 5 kids, 2 cats and credit that is lucky to rate an F grade." He called me back that night with an offer of $1500 a month. I was stunned!

I figured, who else is that desperate to rent their house? So I began making some serious calls, and we began visiting homes. No one, absolutely no one, turned us down. We finally settled on a beautiful house on the lake with a giant backyard, 5 bedrooms, and a very large deck on both the front and back of the home. It's been heavenly!!

I love being able to send the kids outside to play! I bought a 12' trampoline with enclosure for the backyard, and the neighbors have great kids our own kids' ages. So, what a dream come true - a blessing!

I've also adopted a new pet - Henry the rooster. He lives on my parent's farm as a free range chicken, and I never knew how awesome silly chickens can be. He's actually much smarter than I'd have guessed. Now, when I come over to their house he sees my car and comes running to me. He then follows me all over the farm like a baby ducky. If I haven't visited in awhile he comes up to the house and looks on the deck to see if I'm there. He was 2 years old when I began to tame him last fall. Now he is a wonderful friend and such a pleasure! He'll sit on my lap while I read a book, and once began snoring when he fell asleep. Did you know chickens can snore?!?

On a sadder note, but still a reason for thankfulness all things considered, my parent's cat was hit in their driveway by their own car. I bought them the cat 8 years ago, and we all think of him as a wonderful loving pet. I took him directly to the vet and it turns out that for such a tragic accident he was very fortunate in his injuries. No broken bones, no internal damage, just a 10 inch gash that required lots of stitching and medicine. So thank God he was so easy to fix up and save.

Well, that's the whole heads up for now, with more to follow later, and some interesting Soldiers' Angels news coming up as well!

This summer my church is going on a mission trip to Lima, Peru. Most people signed up for the trip last January. I felt led then to find out more information, but didn't. Guess I was being stubborn or something. I'm not a missionary, what on earth could I do? I couldn't imagine myself being useful in this way. But God kept bringing it up, and finally last Sunday I decided to listen. I joined the rest of the group to sit in on the monthly trip meeting (planning and what have you for the trip).

The official deadline for joining the trip was last Feb, so I felt pretty safe that I'd made sure it was too late to go, and I could at least say I'd done my best when I finally decided to go learn more about the trip. But, as it turns out, I was wrong. I'm not sure why God would want me on this mission trip, I've never ever been on one before. But, if He really means it and wants me to go, I will.

Next step is, fundraising for the airfare and whatnot. My husband and oldest son can go with me on the trip, provided the funding is enough, and since I have no idea what to expect at this point I'm just doing my best to plan for success with the 3 of us going and learning together. The cost is $2400 for each adult and $2300 for my son. A whopping total of $7,100.00! Not including lost wages for the 10 day period we are gone. That seems an astounding amount of money to me. I'll tell you this, the only way we would possibly be going is if God really wants us to and provides the means to do so. There would be no other way.

So, I guess at this point I'm willing, and will wait to see if He is serious.

If you would like to help with funding for the missions trip, I would appreciate it! Half of the money is due in 10 days - by the 15th of May! (Because I waited so long - definitely will be God's work if this happens) You can make your check out to Grace Church and mail it to me:
Holly Aho
214 1st ST E
Jordan MN 55352

You can also donate directly online here: https://public.serviceu.com/payment/default.asp?OrgID=1585&PaymentID=2858&&&
Make sure to let me know if you make a payment this way so that your missions giving is added to my fundraising totals for the trip. Email me at holly@sablogs.com.

Any amount is welcome, and if I don't raise enough money for us to go on the trip I will still be turning over all funds to make sure the trip is a success for everyone else.

Also - even if you can't donate financially, I would LOVE your prayers in this! The mission trip is July 25th - August 4th. The church has made this trip in the past, and this trip will follow very much like the last one, which you can read all about here!

Today my hubby and I were in the kitchen when he did something particularly clumsy. My hubby is more the affectionately ornery sort, so I kept my mouth shut as I looked at him askance, but the expression on my face must have spoke volumes. He looked at me and said, "I can read your mind, and that's not nice! Didn't your mother teach you that if you can't think anything nice, don't think anything at all?"

I replied, "No, but that explains an awful lot about you."