Tunes: BarlowGirl's Hallelujah Light Has Come

My sister sings in an ensemble at her church. This past Christmas during their Living Christmas Tree presentation, her ensemble did the verses for this song, Hallelujah Light Has Come. I have had this song running through my head lately. It's very beautiful. It has a haunting melody. These are the lyrics:

Hallelujah (Light Has Come!)



Hmmm my Baby
Heaven sent you to me
All the world’s been praying
Who will Save?

But who am I
That here tonight
I hold the one
Who'll Bring us life


Hallelujah,
We've been found
A child is born
To save us now, Jesus


Hallelujah light has come
A Savior who will set us free
A Promise for those who believe


Do you hear the Angels
Sing for you my baby
Men and kings have come to
Bow to you

But here in my arms
So close to me
The son of God
Now all can see


Hallelujah We've been found
A child is born to save us now
Jesus Halleluiah light has come
A savior set us free


So praise to God on high
He has heard our cry

TV: Pride & Prejudice

I love the 1995 BBC miniseries version of Pride and Prejudice. It stars Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Julia Swahala, Alison Steadman, Crispin Bonham-Carter, Anna Chancellor, and many others. It is based on the book as closely as possible. You could almost use the book for the script of the mini-series. If you have never watched it, you should watch it. It's very funny and delightful. It's classic!

TV: Shrek 2

Shrek 2 is very funny. Shrek & Fiona are invited to her parents' castle for a wedding reception. When they see Fiona in her new form, they are surprised. Her father had special plans that went bad and he has to try to fix it. Starring Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Saunders.

TV: Shrek

Shrek is a ogre whose space is overtaken by some fairytale creatures. He goes with Donkey to save Princess Fiona from the fire-breathing dragon's castle for Lord Farquaad so he can get his privacy back at the swamp. Very funny movie. Stars Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, and John Lithgow. Animated.

TV: Shark Tale

If you want a good movie, pick up Shark Tale. This is such a cute movie. It's animated. It has lots of gorgeous colors in it! It stars the voices of Will Smith, Jack Black, Renee Zellweger, Robert DeNiro, and many other big name stars. The gist of the movie is that Oscar thinks he needs to live in a penthouse and make a lot of money to be "somebody". He learns through some sharks that it's important to accept people as they are and to be happy with who you are.

Projects & Tomes: Black Water & Three Weddings and a Bar Mitzvah

I'm sorry I haven't blogged lately. I've been very busy this week. I did finish reading two books last week. One was Linda Hall's Dark Water. It's a mystery, and it was good, but I've had other things going on that made it take a back seat on my priority list and so it took me a long time to read it. But it is a good mystery because it has a big twist at the end.

The other book that I finished reading last weekend was the final installment in the 86 Bloomberg series by Melody Carlson. It is called Three Weddings and a Bar Mitzvah.  I loved this series. It's about three girls who rent rooms in this house. The owner's granddaughter also lives in the house and she is using their rent to keep from having to work. But, that's how they get together in the first book. Read the whole series. It's worth it.

I watched a few animated movies this week, but I will try to post those tomorrow or first of next week.

I really wanted to tell you about my four new projects. First of all, I've been working on a cookbook for my mother and her siblings. So far, the main thing that I've done is type my mom's share of the recipes and formatted them. But, I finally convinced her to let me get Creative Memories' Memory Manager and Storybook Creator!

www.creativememories.com

These two programs are awesome! The Memory Manager pulls your photos into folders (without creating extra copies of the actual photo) and allows you to label them and journal them. You can tag them with as many categories as you like. You can also modify your pictures with MM. You can crop, rotate, change to black-and-white or sepia, or you can do a color wash. You can actually "clone" over something that you don't want in the picture. For example, if there is a guy standing in front of wallpaper and someone's hand is in the picture, you can clone/copy the wallpaper over the hand. It's so cool. You can also do the color-tinting. This is one of my favorite features. This is where a photo is black-and-white or sepia, but one thing in the picture is colored. It makes a very artistic photo!

Anyway, my first project is pulling in all of the pictures on our computer and tagging them in the right categories. We have digital pictures that go back to 2005. This doesn't include the few that I've scanned in, nor the rest that need to be scanned in for backup.

My second project, of course, is using Storybook Creator to do my cookbook. I already did about 7 pages, but until I get the recipes and stories from my aunts and uncle, I won't know how many pages to put in each section or what order I'm going to put them in and since I want the facing pages to either match or coordinate, that's kind of a crucial thing.

My third project is a family tree. I found this free software online - MyHeritage Family Tree Builder. (Of course the premium version isn't free.) I have been working on a family tree. It's so neat to see how everyone is connected and the really cool thing is that I can click on any person in the tree and run a report on that person and it will show all the people they are related to and how. So, if I want to, when a cousin gets married, if I know the spouse's family, I can include them.

My fourth project is a new afghan that I'm crocheting. I haven't spent a lot of time on it this week, but I did get a small start on it. I think I'm on the fourth or fifth row. It's going to be perfect for me. It's my two favorite colors: green and purple. It's Red Heart's Sage Mary. I'm doing a Mamie Shell pattern. It's easy and the pattern I've done the most. The main part of the afghan is repeating 10 double-crochets and then doing a shell (2 dc-2 chains-2 dc) and then repeating 'til the end of the row.

Well, tomorrow, I'm going to scrapbook with my friend Lou and some other ladies, so I better call it a night.

TV: The First Wives Club

The First Wives Club is a funny movie. It's about three women whose husbands all left them for a younger woman. These women were friends in college and their fourth friend committed suicide because her husband left her for a younger woman. So, they re-bond and decide they are going to work together to stick it to their ex-husbands. But then they realize they were thinking too small. They decide to build a crisis/help center for women and they name it after their friend Cynthia Swann Griffen. It has a lot of top stars: Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Maggie Smith, Phillip Bosco, Dan Hedaya, Stephen Collins, Victor Garber, Dina Waters, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Rob Reiner.