Quick Update

Wow, it's been a long time since I have last updated this blog. I seem to have been very busy trying to get my Stampin' Up business up & running. I still remain my own best customer at the moment.

We have also had a lot of school events this term. There has been the athletic sports, the carol service, James' swimming sports & the boys finish on the 11th.

This year at the carol service Brent played the role of Joseph. He was very pleased to get a main part. James was a sheep.It was a wonderful service & the last junior school carol service for Brent.

If I thought things were busy this year there will be double the school activities with Brent entering the middle school next year.

If I don't get back on here before Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful christmas & a happy new year.

New look

Wow, what do you think of my new look blog? I have found an awesome site that allows you to place some pre made layouts as a background to your blog. There are also headers for some of them too.

http://alliebrownslayouts.blogspot.com has got a whole heap of FREE layouts & instructions on how to do the customisation.

I am not sure how long it will take people who are on dial up to download but I thought I would just customise this blog, rather than my Stampin' Up one.

Innocent

I have been under a fair bit of emotional stress this week so as a relief I decided to do some scrapbooking. I just love this photo of James. This was the professional photo we had taken in 2004 for my mum's 60th birthday. I really do think that maybe it is time for another round of professional photos because this little man has grown up so much in these last 4 years.

Hair

Blog Prompt: The musical "Hair" premiered on Broadway on October 17, 1967. What was your favorite hair do as a teenager?

I have always had short hair, I tried to grow it long at one stage through my twenties & it just annoyed me so it got cut back to short. I have had a few colours in my hair, when I was a teenager I liked to have blonde streaks put through it, especially in the summer. Sometime in my twenties I found that I really liked having a copper, red colour in my hair & I have stuck with that ever since. I think the reason I stuck with that particular colouring is that I am a fiery person, I'm emotional, so the red hair kind of suits my personality.

Dictionary Day

Blog Prompt: Today is Dictionary Day (Noah Webster's Birthday, Father of the Dictionary). Teach us a new word by giving us a definition and using it in a sentence.

I just opened my dictionary randomly & scanned the page & found this word metonymy. Metonymy is the substitution of name of attribute or adjunct for that of thing meant. eg. Crown for King or Queen.

The lawyer for the Crown was putting forward the case that John Doe murdered Jane Doe.

Blog Prompt

I thought I would try getting back into writing a blog post on one of my blogs more often than I have been. So today I thought I would get back to doing the blog prompts at http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/

Now I wonder if today was a good day to be doing that as the blog prompt looks a bit too difficult to answer.

Here it is....Blog prompt: Today is Love Your Body Day. What do you like about your body?

Well I find that very difficult to answer I have always had a love/hate relationship with my body. It truely depends on the day as to what I love about my body.

Right now I am fresh off the treadmill & I feel great, the endorphins are pumping through me still. I love that today I was able to complete the whole of my interval training & my knee didn't give me any gyp. Of course I might hate that tonight because I am bound to have a sore knee.

I love that my body could conceive & carry & give birth to 2 most beautiful & special boys in the world. I loved that I was able to push James out & he was the same size as Brent so that when I was labelled "failure to progress" with Brent it was just Brent being stubborn & nothing to do with being a failure.

I used to love my breasts & thought they were one of my best physical assets however that same giving birth, breastfeeding thing has left them & me feeling rather down.

I love that I am healthy & really other than my knee I don't have any other ailments. I love that I am still able to walk in this world, & that counts for a lot.

Top 100 Books

These are the Whitcoulls top 100 books & I have read a few of them, but there are some I haven't read that have always been on my "to read at some stage" list, for instance the whole Harry Potter series.



The ones in blue are the ones I have read.



1. Lord of the rings / JRR Tolkien

2. My sister's keeper / Jodi Picoult

3. Pride and prejudice / Jane Austen

4. Cross stitch / Diana Gabaldon

5. Harry Potter & the dealthy hallows / JK Rowling

6. The bronze horseman / Paullina Simons

7. The Da Vinci code / Dan Brown

8. The power of one / Bryce Courtenay

9. The pillars of the earth / Ken Follet

10. The other Boleyn girl / Phillipa Gregory

11. The lovely bones: a novel / Alice Sebold

12. To kill a mocking bird / Harper Lee

13. The kite runner / Khaled Hosseini

14. The time traveler's wife / Audrey Niffenegger

15. Holy Bible - not all of it word for word

16. The hobbit / J R R Tolkien

17. Magician / Raymond Feist

18. The clan of the cave bear / Jean M Auel

19. Nineteen minutes / Jodi Piccoult

20. Gone with the wind / Margaret Mitchell

21. Angels and Demons / Dan Brown

22. Harry Potter and the half-blood prince / J K Rowling

23. The Poisonwood bible / Barbara Kingsolver

24. Into the wilderness / Sara Donati

25. A thousand splendid suns / Khaled Hosseini

26. Life of Pi / Yann Martel

27. Memoirs of a geisha / Arthur Golden

28. Jessica / Bryce Courtenay

29. Birdsong / Sebastian Faulks

30. Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone / J K Rowling

31. Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix / J K Rowling

32. A fine balance / Rohinton Mistry

33. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe / C S Lewis

34. Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte

35. Rachel's holiday / Marian Keyes

36. The memory keeper's daughter / Kim Edwards

37. Shantaram: a novel / Gregory Roberts

38. Pact: a love story / Jodi Picoult

39. Tea Rose / Jennifer Donnelly

40. Change of heart / Jodi Picoult

41. Angela's ashes / Frank McCourt

42. Mister Pip / Lloyd Jones

43. The girl in Times Square / Paullina Simons

44. Twilight / Stephanie Meyer

45. This charming man / Marian Keyes

46. Wuthering heights / Emily Bronte
47. River God / Wilbur Smith

48. The Persimmon Tree / Bryce Courtenay

49. World without end / Ken Follet

50. Dune / Frank Herbert

51. Wild Swans: three daughters of China / Jung Chang

52. April Fools Day / Bryce Courtenay

53. Atonement / Ian McEwan

54. The bone garden / Tess Gerritsen

55. The alchemist / Paulo Coelho

56. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / J K Rowling

57. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Askaban / J K Rowling

58. Sushi for beginners / Marian Keyes

59. The curious incident of the don in the night-time / Mark Haddon

60. Catcher in the rye / J D Salinger

61. I know this much is true / Wally Lamb

62. Eragon / Christopher Paolini

63. Tomorrow with the war began / John Marsden

64. Northern lights / Philip Pullman

65. Captain Corelli's mandolin / Louis De Bernieres

66. Kane and Abel / Jeffrey Archer

67. Tully / Paullina Simons

68. Catch -22 / Joseph Heller

69. No. 1 ladies detective agency / Alexander McCall Smith

70. Watermelon / Marian Keyes

71. We need to talk about Kevin / Lionel Shriver

72. Anybody out there / Marian Keyes

73. Chocolat / Joanne Harris

74. Winter Rose / Jennifer Donnelly

75. Denniston Rose / Jenny Pattrick

76. Killing Floor / Lee Child

77. A really short history of nearly everything / Bill Bryson

78. Anne of Green Gables / L M Montgomery

79. Nothing to lose / Lee Child

80. The secret / Rhonda Byrne

81. The book thief/ Markus Zusak

82. Galaxy / Douglas Adams

83. The stand / Stephen King

84. Edmonds Cookery Book / Edmonds - not every recipe has been read but it is well used in my kitchen

85. The potato factory / Bryce Courtenay

86. Lucy Sullivan is getting married / Marian Keyes

87. The vinter's luck / Elizabeth Knox

88. The red tent / Anita Diamant

89. Bridget Jone's diary: a novel / Helen Fielding

90. The Penguin history of New Zealand / Michael King (It's on my bookshelf!)

91. London / Edward Rutherford

92. The god of small things / Arundhati Roy

93. The shipping news / Annie E Proulx

94. Four fires / Bryce Courtenay

95. Mao's last dancer / Li Gunxin

96. Last chance saloon / Marian Keyes

97. Plain truth / Jodi Picoult

98. Perfume: the story of a murderer / Patrick Suskind

99. The Thorn birds / Colleen McCullough

100. The notebook / Nicholas Spark
Thanks to Penny for this list



I have read a quarter of those books, that's not bad. Now I just want to read the other three quarters should I start with Harry Potter?

New Blog

I've just created a new blog for my Stampin’ Up!® ideas & news. Please check it out at http://katscraps123.blogspot.com/

I really hope to update this blog sometime soon. I seem to have everything put on a backburner while I get to grips with Stampin’ Up!®.

A New Venture

I have decided to enter into a new venture. I am now a Stampin' Up demonstrator. I signed up on Friday & tonight I received my demonstrator number. I am quite excited about it, it will mean I will have to rearrange my craft room somewhat but hopefully any workshops can be held in the dining room or lounge.

That's the news from here, & now I had better go & pack the boys lunches.

Drizzly Sunday

It's terrible weather here & the boys are starting to get that cooped up feeling. There was no football yesterday because the grounds had been closed by the City Council on Thursday. It has just been raining nearly all week. I don't remember such a wet winter I want to get back to the bitterly cold frosts but blue sunny skies after. This gloomy stuff is just depressing.




Also depressing is the All Black loss last night. My goodness what a horrible game to watch & it just makes me think that the NZRFU really did choose the wrong man for the job. Of course I am talking as a One Eyed Cantabrian & I originally thought Robbie should have been the coach of the All Blacks. I felt very torn, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when the Wallibies won. I think Graham Henry has already given us his excuse for this loss. Earlier this week I was dumbfounded when I heard him say that Robbie had the better hand because he had worked with the new ELV laws under the Super 14 competition. He then went on to say that with injuries to some of our players we really had an inexperienced team. I can't believe that any coach trots out excuses before the game is even played, to me it sounds defeatist & I suppose if you are thinking negatively you will perform negatively. Yes we had an inexperienced team out there but why do we have to offer that as an excuse even before the game is played.





So while that game was on TV I decided to scrap a digi layout. I find it easier to scrap a digi layout in front of TV than a paper one.

This is the boys cross country. Journalling reads: A cold day at Fendalton Park. James was first to run & he came in 8th. brent ran next & came in 24th. Both boys looked like they could have run another lap.

Crocus

The boys & I tried to go geocaching last Thursday. It was pretty unproductive in terms of caches found but I think we know where at least 4 are. We were trying to find the caches that are around the Botannic Gardens but on that day there were lots of muggles around so we left having discovered no caches. What we did discover was these beautiful purple crocuses in flower under some of the trees by the river.Journalling: A walk in the Botannic Gardens to do some geocaching, ended up being a photography session instead, when I spied these lovely crocus flowers under one of the trees. A nice reminder that spring will come.

The layout is a digital one using the Body & Soul kit from Club Scrap Digital.

The View

I have finished another layout this afternoon. This one uses some old photos from when we lived in Newlands, Wellington. I loved having a view but in Wellington being on a hill exposes you to wind. If it was northerly the wind blew against our bedroom wall, keeping me awake, if it was southerly it was coming up at the living room windows, from where I took the photos. It was never very warm & I have decided that it is warmer than Christchurch in winter but it is warmer in summer here in Christchurch. Journalling:

Being on a hill in Wellington meant it was nearly always windy. The best thing about it though was the view! We had a view over Newlands that was constantly changing. We could see the fire station which was always exciting when the fire alarm went off. There were always cars going along Newlands Road that we could watch. The best sights though were always courtesy of Mother Nature. The sun rising over the hills, rainbows & even sun shining through low fog. I miss the view but I don't miss the wind!

Find Your Balance

Another day another layout.

This is James when he was in his cruising mode.

Journalling:

From 8 months you were pulling up & cruising furniture. Getting into mischief & finding your balance.

When the mice are away..

the Kat will play.

Yes the boys are enjoying a couple of days up at mum's. Scott & I dropped them off there on Sunday night & I am expecting them back in about an hour. I have done a fair amount of scrapbooking while they were away. I also went through & counted up how many layouts I had done on Sunday, so far this year I have done 80. My goodness I can't believe I have done that many. I think trying to do a paper & a digi layout a week has definitely helped push that total up. At the start of the year I was going to be happy to get a layout a week done but I have already passed that total.

So here is the digital layout that I created last night. It uses a quick page from Club Scrap digital & the font is Passions Conflict.

The journalling:

500kg of ice sitting on the hot deck waiting to become an ice sculpture. This Filipino ice carver is the only one on the ship & all the ice sculptures that were in the buffet area were carved by him. The end result is a sculpture of two angel fish.

More layouts

This is a paper layout for Brent's album about his day at Australia Zoo.

These photos are taken by the boys themselves. I just love emptying the chip in their camera because it is always surprising what is on there. This is a digi layout using items from Shauna Burke- Smith, Lisa Minor & Vicki Parker.

This is a Christmas layout for James' album.

This is a paper layout for the family album. Photos are from February this year.

This layout was created for an e-zine put out by Scrapbook Outlet. Here's a link to the ezine & my layout is on page 4 & 5. http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz/e-zine/Default.html

Yet more layouts

These layouts were completed yesterday.

Toasty pies is a digital layout about what they are & why they are special to me.

Journalling: Mince & cheese toasty pies have a special place in my heart. I had never heard of toasty pies before meeting Scott. We always called them toasted sandwiches at home,so when Scott first asked me if I wanted a toasty pie I said yes, but did not really know what I was getting. I was quite surprised to find out it was a toasted sandwich. When Scott & I were flatting in Dunedin one of the lunches Scott would make me was the mince & cheese toasty pie. He would fry of the mince until it was crispy but not burnt. The bread would be put in the toasty pie maker, a good dollop of mince & then a couple of slices of cheese on top. Put the top peice of bread on & then it would be left to cook. Oozing with cheese it really is my favourite lunch but only when it is made by Scott.

Blossom buddies was created using a Scrapbook Outlet kit. That lovely yellow paper just called for a photo of cherry blossom & luckily I have some of those photos. This photo is from spring last year.

Journalling: 18 September 2007. We went to Hagley Park & the Botannic Gardens to see the daffs & also the cherry blossom. Both boys enjoyed taking photos & were willing to have a few photos taken of them.

Flying fun is a double paged digital layout using a plopper by Club Scrap. This is about our flight to Tahiti.

Journalling: October 10 2007 we started our trip for Tahiti. First we had to take a Qantas flight to Auckland airport. When we got there we had to use steps to get down from the plane as all the airbridges were full. We then walked across to the International Terminal to catch our Air Tahiti Nui flight to Papeete. The plane was done up in fresh, tropical green & blues & we were given a frangipani flower before the flight took off. It was a wonderful 5 hour flight & we arrived in Papeete at around midnight on the 9th October.

Bye Selwyn House is a paper layout of my last day at Selwyn House. The paper is from Club Scrap.

Journalling: The last day of primary school was in December 1982. I won the Character Shield at prizegiving. My name was gilded on the shield & I got a small cup to keep. I still have that cup today. I remember feeling very excited at the prospect of my new challenge of secondary school. I was ready to leave.

More Layouts

Here's another couple of layouts that I've recently completed.

Layouts

I've been in a creating mode so I have completed lots of layouts. I am in a Club Scrap competition called Camp Hey n So. We are all put into groups & each group is competing against the others to create the most layouts. A lot of these layouts are for this competition.
There are still a few more to come.

Goings on

I think the most excitement we have had recently was the snowfall on Saturday. The day had started out really warm, nor west wind & very balmy. Near the end of Brent's football game the wind changed to a southerly & was very cold. We then had to go to James' game at midday & it was pouring down with rain & the wind was biting through the layers of clothing we had on. We came home & had a shower to warm up & then around 3 o'clock the first snow flurries started. It was still snowing at 5:30pm when I took this photo of James.

The snow stopped falling at about 7pm but it was still lying on the ground on Sunday.

Other than the snow things have been relatively quiet & unexcting. The boys have started house singing pratice in earnest & have to be at school at 8am on Mondays, Tuesdays & Fridays.

Brent is still doing his tennis coaching on Monday mornings so that really is a very early start but he seems to really be enjoying it. Scott has put a peice of plywood on the garage door so that Brent can practise on it. I had a sneaky go while the boys were at school yesterday & had a lot of fun. It made me feel quite young again to be able to just go outside & hit a ball against the garage door. I think it was the whole thought that I was being sneaky because really I should have been doing the responsible adult thing of housework!

I have just come home from picking mum up from her hospital appointment. She has only really felt good for 2 days in this 3 week rotation so she feels like quitting on the chemo. However her oncologist has decided to give her this week off & she will go back in next Thursday & start the next round of chemo. The good news is that the cancer has slowed its advance, so the chemo is working for the meantime.

Next Thursday is really shaping up to be a busy afternoon. Brent & Scott have football practice after school & then at 6pm James & I will be off folk dancing. Somewhere in that I will have to pick mum up from her chemo appointment.

Well I think that wraps up what we have been doing. Next time there might be a folk dance photo or two. have a wonderful week everyone.

Layouts

This layout was completed at ScrapCamp earlier this year. It shows a few of the more familiar faces we see on Brent.

This layout was also completed at ScrapCamp. It's about our family trip to Lake Taylor last year.

This layout was completed only a couple of days ago. Back in 2004 both boys got chicken pox.

Dig

I created this layout a couple of days ago & blogger didn't want to let me upload it, so I'm going to try for it this time.

It's for Vicky's challenge at http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz to create a layout using at least 3 sequential photos.

This is Brent driving his great uncle's digger.

Journalling:
16 January 2005
Bruce took you & James down to his current work site to let you drive his digger. He even let you move a scoopful of dirt! You loved it & came back talking non stop about it.

Layouts

Well as mentioned in my posting below, when things get a bit much I seem to bury my head in scrapbooking. I have completed quite a few layouts since the last posting, some of them were from ScarpCamp - Sandboy & Currumbin but the rest are all brand new.

I must have lied in an earlier post, this layout does have mum in it, but then again it is not really about her.

I picked up this free C template & paper from digitreats.typepad.com
As soon as I saw the template I knew what I wanted to do with it. This will be the front page of my 2007 Family album.

Here’s a paper layout I have been working on for a while. This is James & his “wheels”

The journalling reads:
You have always had a fascination for toys with wheels. Preferably in red of course!

Good News Now

So after that morbid post everyone must be wanting some good news. Well here it is. Despite the boys being so busy, effort wise they are doing really well & in my book that is all that matters. Besides talent won't get you success unless you use it & give it all you have.

Without further ado I present you 2 fantastic effort cards.

Brent was told that he had the best effort card in his class & when Mrs Ackeman told him that he cried. Apparently she cried when he saw that he was crying. He always seems to get on better with the softer touch teachers.

Life

What a busy couple of weeks it has been.

A lot of time has been spent at lawyers offices fixing up trusts & setting up our own family trust. There has been numerous trips to the other side of town to check the post office box & go to the gym or swimming, and then there is always the boys activities.

Brent especially, is very busy this term. I have kind of made it that way in hopes that maybe by doing more sporting activity he might burn off some of the energy he seems to have. he seems to have hit a phase of "silliness & show offness". It gets on my nerves after a while & then there is still the talking back. It just might be a phase but he seems to be enjoying the activity so that is nice. He's not going to be a great sportsman, he'll probably be a muddler like me, can turn his hand at any sport & have fun doing it. He still doesn't seem to have that competitive urge except if it is against James.

So what is Brent doing? On Monday's at 7:25am he has an hour long tennis lesson. He has really only just picked up a tennis racket this term & he really seems to be enjoying it. On Tuesday lunchtimes he has his football practice. On Wednesday mornings at 7:40 he has about 20-30 minutes of fitness at school. Thursday after school he has an hour long football practice. That's the one that Scott goes to & lends a hand at, because he is actually the team's manager. On Fridays at 5:00 both boys have swimming lessons, still out at QE2. Then on Saturday he plays his football game. The fitness that he is doing is starting to show in his football game now which is wonderful.

That's the activity & then on top of that there is the school work, the homework & a few extras that weren't on the list last term. One extra is that both boys have to learn the words to a particular hymn & a particular song (Somewhere over the Rainbow) for the music evening that is coming up on 1 July. Brent also has enrichment this term. Enrichment is when the boys pick a topic to research & do a presentation on. Brent has chosen Christchurch history. He has already found a couple of intersting links to his ancestors. One of them was finding out that the Manson side of the Criglington family arrived with William Deans before the first 4 ships. The other fact is that a Jackson relative (the Francis side of the family) built the first church in Christchurch.

James is also busy this term. I have kept his activity minimal but some of it is school enforced. He has Perceptual Motor Program (PMP) on Wednesday morning with the other year 1 & 2 boys. On Friday he has swimming lessons & on Saturdays he plays football within the Burnside Football Club. He is still struggling with his reading, spelling, writing & maths, so he is going to remedial reading. This means more homework than other boys & it has been a big workload, sometimes I don't think his teacher realises how much work he has. I have been limiting the amount he does to more than the minimum but nothing excessive & sometimes he still doesn't get the worksheets completed. He has had a success this term already in that in the last week he has been moved up a spelling group! I am really thrilled, because it has come about since I bought magnetic letters & got him to start off learning to spell his words by putting the letters on the fridge. I then also get him to write them down (he still has letter writing issues on B, D, P Q & his N & H can look a lot alike) & then he says it to me. This happens each night & it takes about 10 minutes but it really is starting to help him I think. Now on top of that he has to also learn those same two songs as Brent & he is also learning about 6 -8 dances for folk dancing night on 19 June.

So really it is not just me being busy ferrying boys to & from school & various times of day but they are full on too.

Mum had her third round of iv chemo go in last Thursday. It would seem that this time it has really knocked her about. She has not been feeling at all well & can't seem to be very far from the toilet. I have been ringing her up to check that she doesn't need any groceries or anything while I happened to be over that side of town clearing the post box. I also took up some fruit & veges on Friday so maybe she can just make herself some pumpkin soup when she has just a bit more energy. Jo seems to be worried about mum getting isolated up on the hill, & yes I think that could happen if we let it, but I will try not to let that happen. At the moment I think mum would just like to die peacefully in her own bed up on the hill. She is certainly not in the mental zone to buy a new house on the flat & then it really isn't a good time to be selling a house anyway. She should have sold last year when we suggested it but she didn't want to. Even now she says there is too much stuff that needs to be done around the house before it could be in a decent state to be sold. I really think a better option might be to see if we can't get a private nurse in, if needed, rather than put mum through so much upheaveal at this time in her life.

So after having the thought that she was dying compartmentalised away in my brain & not really thinking about it, trying to stay positive, all of a sudden I am faced with it again. I suppose this is going to happen more times & maybe each time it will get easier to face, but right now I want to bury my head back in the sand or in my case, in scrapbooking the living, the memories, however I can't seem to scrapbook anything to do with mum. It feels wrong to say that & rather stupid not to while she is still here, but it hurts already.

LO: Beach BBQ

Last year for our Christmas celebration with dad we went to Corsair Bay for a picnic dinner at the beach. We were very lucky with the weather & it was a lovely sultry afternoon & evening.

The layout uses a kit from Club Scrap digital. The sun like brads come from Lisa Minor.

The journalling reads:

To celebrate Christmas with Grandad we all went to a BBQ at Corsair Bay. It was a wonderful warm afternoon & evening spent at the beach playing in the water & the sand.

Winning Day layout

This layout was completed at ScrapCamp. It is about the day last year when Brent's team won the soccer game & Brent got awarded "Player of the Day".

The journalling reads:

14 July 2007

What a day!

You were playing Celtic & it was the only game you won all season. Not only did your team win but you won player of the day!

Macaroni

Blog Prompt: On May 7, 1660, Isaack B. Fubine of Savoy, in The Hague, patents macaroni. What is your favorite macaroni dish?

Mum used to make us macaroni cheese a lot when we were young, somehow it seemed to be so often that I started to hate it. I am really not sure if it was all that often but it just seemed like it to me at the time.

Now James just loves macaroni cheese, it has become quite a regular fixture during the winter months on a Sunday for lunch. I still don't like regular macaroni cheese but if tuna gets stirred into that mixture, wow that's a whole different story! I just love my macaroni cheese & tuna!

Independence!

Blog prompt: May 5 is Cinco de Mayo. How would you celebrate Independence Day if it was today?

Haha! New Zealand doesn't have Independence Day but why I am laughing is that today is the first day that the boys are back at school after a 3 week school holiday.

How am I going to celebrate my independence from the boys for the day?
Firstly I went for a jog. I really didn't do well & found out that I am so unfit that I couldn't even run for 10minutes non stop. Never mind I walked for at least 30minutes & that has to count as exercise.

Next I am going to enjoy the silence of my house. No, I am not going to turn on my music up loud & dance to it, because really I just love the silence at the moment. No moaing, no whining, no "when is it (insert correct food time) time?" questions & no fighting. Have to love that silence!

After this post I am off to enjoy a hot shower with NO interruptions or children talking through the door at me.

I will do minimal housework today, Scott was warned of this fact last night, & instead do some scrapping or sitting in the sun & reading a book.

That is how I am going to celebrate this day, my first day with the boys back at school. My first day of independence.

Layouts!

This layout was done at ScrapCamp using paper from Club Scrap. Swimming like a stingray refers to the swimming class he was in at the time (Stingray).

This layout, also made at ScrapCamp uses a kit from http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz/ This is Brent with his great granny, who we all knew as Granny.

This last layout was created using a Club Scrap digital kit & using a sketch provided for the Pro Scrapbooking League competition.

The journalling reads:

Your 8th birthday
It was a hot Tuesday.
We had had the school prizegiving in the morning & then we all went to lunch at Sevanti.
We invited granddad, aunty Jo, Amy & Andrew to have afternoon tea with us.
We had presents, mum & dad gave you a camera.
The small photos of Phyllis, nana & granddad are some of the photos you took.
Then it was cake time.
Looking at the photos now I can see you only had 6 candles but you didn't seem to notice on the day.

Back again

Wow I haven't blogged for a whole month! April seemed to rush past in a blink of an eye.

Here's a quick update about what happened in April.

April 1-11 the boys were at school. They are still on holiday as I type this & I am really looking forward to them going back to school on Tuesday. I managed to catch a UTI which quickly moved into my kidneys to become a kidney infection. I had to spend an afternoon at the hospital getting iv'd antibiotics & saline into me. I think it was a bit of a shock to all 3 of the males in my house!

April 10 mum started chemo.

April 12 -19 we were on the Gold Coast staying with Dad & Janet. We got a ride on the boat & went to Dreamworld for a day. The boys did some fishing off the jetty but only Scott caught a fish which we threw back. James did get something on his line though, but we don't know what because he didn't wind his line in.

April 24 -27 I was at http://scrapcampwlg.blogspot.com for my yearly scrap camp. I loved every moment of it & it is the one scrapbooking event that I look forward to each year & try to give Scott as much notice of it as possible so he can take a day off work. I completed a few layouts (I've scanned a couple so I will put them in another post) & also a birthday calendar book.

On the Monday mum took the boys & had them for Monday through to Wednesday, which was nice as it gave me a chance to really recover from all the triping about on top of the infection that I had.

Thursday mum had iv chemo again & this time she had a bit more of a reaction. She suddenly felt dizzy & was really feeling the cold so after we picked her up we stayed with her until her sister arrived. We went up again on Friday with a crockpot full of chicken to have dinner with her. I think the episode rather scared her so I really hope that she is starting to feel better today.

Soccer (sorry football for those in any country other than the USA) was cancelled on Saturday. We were very thankful because it was bitterly cold & there was snow on the Cashmere hills. Luckily there was none at our place.

Well I think that catches everyone up on what we did in April. Hopefully I'll become a more regular blogger again once the boys get back to school.

New Layout

So I have done a little bit of scrapping this week, not much. I should really sit down & work out some page kits to take to scrap camp. I'ver got a lot of layouts made up just needing photos, journalling etc, so I really need to take my photo albums & see what matches up.

This layout is going to possibly annoy Brent in future years but he just looked so cute all dressed up as a bride.

Journalling reads:

7 October 2004

Another fun day at kindy. This time you dressed up as a bride. Aren't you just beautiful!

Update

Really it has been a very long time since I haver truely updated the blog. I have loaded layouts because that is how I was keeping my mind of the stuff that's happening in my life. Phyllis then brought me the Cross Stitch series of books by Diana Gabaldon & that is an even better way to plunge out of reality & into fantasy for a while. So here is what has been happening in my world.

In December Scott complained of a sore stomach & feeling bloated. The doctor didn't think anything much of it but Scott pushed & went in for a colonoscopy in January. The colonoscopy found nothing wrong & Scott still has the same problem.

Also in December my mum developed a lump on her neck. After Christmas she had it looked at & then biopsied. By the beginning of February it was discovered it was cancer. Later in February it was found to be colon cancer that had already moved to her lymph nodes. Mum will be starting chemo on April 10.

I have been to the doctor several times myself this month. My mole from my arm was removed & luckily it was a compound nevis, a mole that hasn't changed to melanoma yet. That cost me $150. I can't berlieve it can cost that much just to get a mole removed & checked out. I still have bruising around the area but it seems to be healing well.

Also this term we have had Brent's swimming sports. He loves his swimming & once he has worked out the breathing part of freestlye I think he will be quite good. He just seems to skim across the water & although his arm action looks slow he must have power in it because he came first in his race. He is also very good at backstroke. He started with his arm going out the side a bit but soon fixed it & came 3rd in that race.

James didn't have swimming sports because his class have not had much swimming practice with the school, due to Jellie Park being closed for redevelopment. So now his swimming sports are going to be fitted into the very busy 4th term of this year.

On Sunday it was the junior school service at church & Brent said a prayer.

This week we have had parent/teacher interviews. As you can probably guess with boys that are chalk & cheese the interviews were that too.

It started off with James'. What a bad interview that was. He was put under the bell that day because he spat at someone, not a very good start to the interview & the news got no better. James is a distraction in the class, he talks to everyone around him, distracting them & if he isn't being distracting, he's being distracted. His reading still hasn't caught up to where he was at the end of last year, he can't count to 20 let alone write all the numbers out correctly. He gets his d,b,p,q all muddled up & then his teacher told me he can't spell his name. He can actually but I really think he is lazy & doesn't give a toss. I am at my wits end with him because, as his teacher said, nothing fazes him. He gets punished but is smiling the whole time as if he doesn't care. I went for a run this morning & I think I have come up with a plan. I am going to pick him up from school, give him a chance to tell me how his day went & then go back, while waitinmg for Brent to finish, & ask his teacher how he went. Each day he is good he will get a star & after accumulating x number of stars he can get something he really wants (my guess is it will be sweets). I am going to have to hope bribery will work for him now although I have to say it never worked before. The problem is I don't know what makes him tick, I don't know what he really desires, I'm not sure he knows either.

Brent's interview on the other hand was pleasant. His teacher has been doing all sorts of testing & Brent is doing all right. The wonderful news is that after starting school not knowing what hand to write with & then needing to learn to write with it, he is now up there with the rest of his class for handwriting. Yay last year's effort of bringing writing cards home has finally paid off. He is reading at an 11 year old level. He is middling for maths & needs to learn his basic facts (surprise, surprise). Socially he falls into the controversial character. He seems to be a person that people either like or don't, but they respect him. He is liked for the same characteristics that other people don't like him for, namely his organisational skills. He has to learn that not everybody likes to be bossed around!

So that in a nutshell is what has been happening in my house for the last 3 months. We are staying at home for easter, hopefully we will get some sleep ins & get the garden cleaned up for winter. Maybe we can also make a start on wallpapering our spare bedroom, it would be nice to get it finished before mum starts chemo.

I hope you all have a wonderful easter.

Kindy layout

I've just finished this paper layout for the Club scrap competition.

New Layouts

Another Layout

I went to a crop yesterday & managed to get a lot of layouts to the partially finished stage. This is not actaully a layout I worked on at the crop yesterday but I did manage to get it finished & posted in time to enter the weeks PSL 2 point challenge.

The journalling in the small square on the right hand page reads:

One of the fun things to do every autumn is to go to the Botannic Gardens and play in the leaves.