It worked!

I've been really busy again, but wanted to do a quick post to update my situation with my journals.  I redid them all in pdf using a Word pdf converter, and they worked so much better.  They only took a few minutes each, and were much smaller files.  I did find out that Word will only print pictures at a certain resolution, but did find a way to stop compressing my pictures as much as they had been, and they printed out nicely on my pirnter.  With a little bit of trepidatiuon, I took my files back into the printing and bookbinding place, and they worked perfectly!  He was able to put all my files together in about 10 minutes, and show me a layout of each of my books.  I was so grateful to see them finally on the computer and know it would all work out. 

Then he sat down with me and went through different options for printing and binding to make it look as nice as possible.  Since I was printing so many pages, and had decided to print it all in color (which would be a little pricey--but I'd gone to so much work, I want this to look nice!) he gave me all kinds of discounts--half off the setup fee, upgrading to leather covers for free, a huge discount on the color printing, etc.  The thing that impressed me the most was that after I had given him the check, he said, "I just feel bad this is so expensive.  Are you sure you don't want to print some of it in black and white?"  We talked about it, but I could tell it wouldn't look as nice, and I told him I had planned on it being a little bit expensive--but I have put so much work into it, that it makes it worth it to me.  But  I am just so impressed by this place--I should give a plug for it.  It is called Family Heritage Publishers, and their website is here:  http://familyheritagepublishers.com/.  If you need anything printed and bound, this is the place to go.  He gave me such personalized service, and seemed to really care about my project.  He aso said my books should be done by the end of next week, or at the latest early the week after.  So I will post pictures when I I get them back. 

I guess all my work and perserverance paid off!

The Sound of Silence. . . .

I thought the above title is appropropriate since I have gone a month and a half without updating my blog.  I really am still here and all is well.  I've just been so busy that I haven't had time to hardly even read blogs, let alone post. 

The thing that has been keeping me so busy is that I've been working on is preparing my daily journal for publishing.  Every night before I go to bed, I write a journal entry. I've been doing it since 2001, and so I can't stand to go to bed without writing (and that is why I don't blog as often as others might, because I am already doing so much journaling).  My journals have become very precious to me.  Sometimes it is so easy for me to get caught up in the moment, and to wonder why things are sometimes so hard.  But as I read back on things that have happened in the past, I can clearly see the way Heavenly Father has worked in my life, and it helps so much to strengthen my faith that things will work out for me now.  I also have had a digital camera for years, and so haven't developed pictures for a long time.  So I put my favorite pictures in my journal, and then at least have them printed somewhere.  Up until a few years ago, I would print my entry each night after I wrote and put it in a binder.

At some point I got out of the habit of printing my journal every day--mostly because the binders were so big and cumbersome, and I wanted to find a better option.  I haven't printed my journals since 2008, so I decided this year that I would look for a way to have my 2008 amd 2009 journals printed and bound.  Since I spend so much time doing my journals, I wanted to have them really preserved.  I found a great place in Salt Lake that makes beautifully bound books at a really good price.  So, for the last month and a half, I have been editing my journals, putting in more pictures, and making it to the specifications needed for printing.  It has been a huge project, and I have been spending most of my extra time on it (including brining my laptop on the bus, and doing it on the bus).  I also decided to take all of the pictures and blog posts that I've put in my journal in 2009 and make a compilation for Mom for her birthday.  Here are some screen shots of what I've done:

So, after all of this work, I finally got it all done this last weekend.  I had to convert all of my files to pdf so that they could be printed.  For some reason, this process took forever--some of my files took 2-3 hours to convert,  But I figured it was just because I had such large files.  After some really late nights (2:00 in the morning, etc), I finally finished them yesterday.  I don't know why I've felt so driven to get this done, but I have.  Well, yesterday afternoon when I took my files in to be printed, it turned out that there is something wrong with all of the pdf's that I made.  Even though I converted them the correct way, they are much bigger than they should be, and yet the picture quality is really low.  Because they are so big, they won't work for him to print.  I worked with the guy for an hour to see what the problem might be, but we could not figure it out. 

So, needless to say, I am pretty disappointed.  But I decided yesterday evening that I could either choose to be really upset about all of the wasted time I spent getting it ready to print, or I could choose to have a good attitude about it.  I am still very anxious to get these printed, but I am taking a step back and searching for options to see why it is not converting correctly from Word.  I know I'll find some way to work this out.  I loved the samples the guy had at the printing place, and so I know these books will be really nice once I finally have them done.  I'll make sure to post pictures of the finished books once I finally figure out what the problem is and am able to get them bound. 

To summarize, this morning I happened to read a scripture that seemed to really fit my situation (and other situations where I might be discouraged because things aren't working out the way I had planned):  I'll end my post with it:

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."  (Galatians 6:9)