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.