Living my dream

wow, long time between posts

Well I'm standing here in Melbourne about to board my plane. Just had to get a net fix. No, I'm not addicted, I swear!

Has been a fantastic trip. I got to catch up with sooooo many people.

Paula and Dawn, Wendy, Kass and Ange, and my nephew Callum and Jake. Just a great time. Then there was the work, which really wasn't work, but a whole heap of fun. And yep, I learnt my voice CAN hold out for 10 x 45 min classes in one day! LOL.

Anyway, looking forward to getting home and seeing my wonderful family.

Will update tomorrow with photos and stuff.

Have a great night.

T

Natalie McPherson - Storyline Photos

She's the one. She took our wedding photos, preggy belly photos, 6 month photos, and now 1 year photos for all the kids.

Amongst our latest - when Dan turned 1 - we got some lovely family shots and even some great ones of Andy and I.

I got the disc on Sunday and am now going through them to work out which ones I like best? And its just too darn hard. There are soooooo many good ones. Here are just a few. Have a great day!

Do you know how brussel sprouts grow?

We didn't. We kept seeing these huge big plants and wondering where the 'fruit' for them were? We figured somehow they weren't growing. Then we heard someone else was having the same problem and figured we had either done something wrong, or the weather was too mild or whatever. Until the other day. I was sitting by the garden and saw it at a different angle. I couldn't believe my eyes.......

They hide in the middle of all that foliage. Right between the stalk of the plant and the stem of the leaves. Incredible. The plant itself looks very similar to brocolli, cabbage and cauliflower so I guess we thought they would grow the same way and when nothing grew on the top we thought it wasn't growing at all. Still amazed by this.

And our strawberry plants have actual strawberries on them. Just teeny tiny green ones for now, but its happening! So exciting. Just hope they will be ok as its still a little cold for them?

We managed to plant some more stuff in the weekend. Little baby plants that come summer time will give us lots of yummy veges. We planted corn, cucumber, rhubarb and peppers. Now I'm dying to get some potatoes in and might have to get down to the garden centre in the next week to buy some.

Last night was not a good night. I was in bed by 8pm. Anyone who knows me, knows this is really unusual, weird even. I am hardly ever in bed before 10.30pm and more likely closer to 11.30 or 12! Its just what I do. So I figured when I went to bed I was in for a nasty surprise. And sure enough, I have come down with a horrible chesty cold type thing. Dan and Matt have been fighting it off and Dan succumbed properly yesterday. Very nasty chesty cough with temps of 39 degrees. He was also up for a few hours in the night, so I think today might have to be a quiet one.

Cross fingers for me that its a quick virus as I'm off to Melbourne in the weekend and need my talking voice for some Fiskars mini classes I'm doing on Monday at Spotlight.

Speaking of scrapping, here's a look at my DT work for SBO last week. Using the yummy yummy YUMMY Fancypants Botanical collection. And speaking of SBO, I just wanted to say a HUGE big thank you to Andrea for getting me some stuff I needed URGENTLY. I asked on Thurs night and she had it to me by Sat morning. What incredible service!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a good Monday all and think of me (who is sick) trying to battle with my three kids (2 of whom are also sick). Any good advice on how we can survive today will be gratefully accepted! LOL.

Differences

I'm constantly amazed by the differences in my children. Especially between M&S and Dan. M&S were (and still are) 'quite' clingy. They like their Mum's company and no matter how hard I try whenever we go somewhere to encourage them to take part, they cling to me like limpits (you know those little shellfish that you find in rock pools). Dan on the other hand is totally independent. He hates it when I try and hold his hand to walk along a footpath, or being held by me when there are things he can go and look at. When we go to lapsit (library singing and storytime), he will wander around the room, placing his hand on someone and standing there with them, going up to the teacher, playing with other kids. Even now, with M&S, they sit beside me or on my knee. The only time they get up is to go and get instruments. They don't do actions to songs which I know they know, cause they do them at home. However Dan is now starting to do actions. He's only one. I don't mind the differences, in fact think its great. I just wonder how they come about. I'm curious as to how it happens? I used think it was genetics. And having boy/girl twins have decided (no proper testing done! LOL), that alot of it must be genes. Matt and Sarah even when in my womb were different. Matt was so much cruisier. Sarah would be constantly kicking and moving. Matt just hung around. I ate the same, I exercised the same, I did everything the same for them. They were inside me it couldn't be any different. Then when they were born, we happened to pretty much do everything the same still. I can see how there might be a difference between M&S and Dan. I might have eaten things differently, exercised differently you get the picture. I guess I still get surprised by the differences even now.

Anyway, enough silly musing for a Sat morning. Off to pick up a Grace (one of M&S's good friends) her Mum is doing a 18 km run this morning so I said we'd look after her for a while. I'm looking forward to it. Grace is a great kid and M&S love her. But I wish I was running with Deb. I was meant to be. But when we started running, that's how I did my knee in, which led to my other knee going. So I guess where we're going with this is that I saw the orthopedic surgeon on Thurs. And yes, there is a problem, but not an operable one (that he can see at this point!). So that's a good thing. And I've noticed a marked improvement since I've been cycling. Yep every morning between 6-7am I get up, cycle for 20 mins, then do weights. And my knees feel better. Stronger. Yay. I've even been going for walks and the other day decided to do a short (20m) run the other day to see how the knees handled it. Hmmmmm, still not there yet, but not in agony! Whew.

Hey, if you've got the latest SM (vol 9 no 3) take a look at page 138. You'll see my first article. Oh my goodness, I still can't believe it. I often find myself pondering about my good fortune at being introduced to scrapbooking. I feel incredibly priviledged to have discovered this hobby and the friends within. I've always wanted to be 'creative'. I always wanted to paint. I thought that would be amazing (my sister got that gene - shes very talented), but no, I can't paint for the life of me. And so to think I found something like this where I can be creative, record my memories, and the wonderful things the kids do, and to use my brain too. Well its almost too good to be true. Here's the article:

Have a great weekend.

First Fiskars challenge on the new Fiskars blog

HI.

Just thought I'd let you know about a challenge going on at the new Fiskars blog. All you have to do is create a LO using freehand cutting. We really want to show you how exciting the new Ultra Xpress shape cutter is and how it can be used without a template! Just ask Andrea she is incredible with it. Can cut out anything including cool little alphabets! But don't worry if you don't have one, just use your craft knife to do your freehand cutting and you could win the shape cutter!

Challenge closes on the 14th so theres still a couple of days to go. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Talking about Fiskars, I've made some Xmas cards recently. Here's a wee look at them. I've used  a cool range called Sugar Plum Forest:

                                        

Other stuff: Dan had his last MenzB vacination this morning. He's such a trooper. The needle went in and nothing, but then when they started pushing the vacine in he started to cry. But then he stopped really quickly. I was so pleased it didn't seem to worry him too much.

Exciting stuff happening for us. We've had heaps of veges out of the garden recently and were a bit worried about wasting it all. Then we saw a programme about an Auckland woman whose goal is to only eat stuff from her garden and to swap excess for other food/meat. Really inspirational and she is now only spending (I think) $20 a week on other stuff which she can't grow. AMAZING! Anyway, she suggested to freeze the excess. Uhhhhh, DUH!!!! I can't believe we didn't think about that! So we now have bags and bags and bags of cauliflower and broccoli in our freezer. Best part is how we've 'tricked' our kids into eating it. They don't seem to think the fresh stuff is very nice. Huh? But when we take it out of a packet from the freezer, they eat it without a problem. Weird! LOL.

And last night I finished a LO using the new Fancypants range. Its so much fun and really easy to use. You can see a wee sneak peek here, but for the full thing you'll have to check SBO on Friday.

And some more kid stuff. Sarah came with me to the doctors today so it meant Matt was dropped off at daycare first and was without her for an hour or so. He surprised me. Got all clingy and didn't want to go in. He NEVER does that. So off we went. Coming back, the first person we see going in the door is Matt. Sarah stands at the gate and screams "Matt" and he runs up to her and just keeps stroking her arm saying "I love you". It was so cute. But also really touching. Their teacher tells us that he loves to play with other friends and is more social at daycare, but it turns out, its only ok cause he's got his safety blanket (Sarah) there.

In another month we've got an extra day at daycare each week so we're going to swap around. One week Sarah will go and the following Matt will. I think its going to be invaluable for their individuality, self esteem and general social skills. They won't have their safety blankets (each other) there, plus I'll have some one on one time with them. A win/win situation.... I hope.

Ok, gotta get some photos printed off. I'm in desperate need of some. I haven't had any printed in ages and am running out of good ones to use very quickly! Besides which I really desperately want to scrap some lovely summer Fiji pics. LOL.

Later.

An 'interesting' day

What is it about the end of holidays that puts everyone on edge? My kids have been hmmmm, shall we say 'challenging', today. I think we just get tired, we miss the excitement and buzz of somewhere new and we fight the standard routines, I know I've had end of holiday blues in the past, but it must be hard for children who don't understand whats going on. 

Add to that a wee boy whose been teething for the last 10 days (yep even in Fiji) and having nasty nappies every hour and a half and lets just say a phone call to my friend Jane in Aussie was a life saver today. Thanks buddy!

So thought I'd show you some cards I did for Andy before we went away.

Now I've gotta say these are not my own designs. I used some Becky Fleck sketches as I was running short of time, but they have my own little twists to them.

And as usual with my cards, they are made from scraps only!

I mentioned in my last post that it was our 6th wedding anniversary and also Fathers day, thus the cards. Funny how they both ended up on the same day this year. Just like when we got married. It was a magical day and we realised people had put aside their own celebrations for our day so we ensured we did something a little special for the dads and taped lollipops under each of the fathers chairs. It was a little bit of fun and went down really well. Have I shown you a pic of us on our wedding day????

Its the only one I could find that I've scanned and you may have already seen it? But hey here ya go.....

Who turned the heater off?

Well we got back from Fiji late last night and I can't believe the weather we've woken up to this morning. What happened to spring? What happened to lovelyish weather? Who turned the heater off? Ok, ok, so perhaps we were expecting too much? LOL. But we were in 30 degrees yesterday. What bliss that was. My goodness. I had forgotten how wonderful Fiji is. You step off the plane into instant relaxation. I hadn't quite got everything I needed to done before I went, but enough to not stress and we basically had the time of our lives. The kids were amazing. They grew, expanded, became different little people right before our eyes. They were amazing and I'm constantly surprised and excited at how proud I am of them.

So I finally worked out how to use Picasa and downloaded a very small amount of photos to a collage to show ya. I haven't done any manipulation to these so they're not perfect, but it gives you a great idea of what we got up to.

 

And for me, and my family so we never forget here are my bullet point magical memories:

• Fathers Day and our 6th year anniversary on Sun 2nd.... Andy you rock! I'm so proud to know you, to love you and to have you love me. We are such a great team and I feel so priviledged to be part of your life. Big smooches.
• The kids discovering water - for real. They don't know how to swim, we haven't done lessons properly yet. But by the time we left, they were like fish. Sarah took to it immediately and was swimming (all be it with floaties) properly with head under, kicking away by the end of the time. Matt needed more time to build confidence, but by Friday afternoon was also swimming without us holding him (floaties still).
• Dan loved the bula bus. He loved the wind in his hair.
• For the first time we saw Matt defending his little bro. We were at a playground and a bigger boy pushed into Dan, Matt calmly told him that he shouldn't push his brother. It was so big brotherly, and in a nice way, that I felt so proud.
• Sarah branched out by herself a lot in the family pool. Meeting other girls, chatting with them, hanging out with them. At daycare, its Matt that does this and Sarah can get a bit lonely. Not this time. She was incredible. She got chatting to a girl much older than her called Amelia, and they hung out at the water slide. Then it was Amelia who helped Matt start using the water slide. He was scared to, until about 4 days in, and only if Amelia would go down with him. Then he finally built up more and more confidence so we didn't have to 'catch' him at the bottom, and then even so he would swim to the stairs. Wow, these kids had guts! Sarah even took off one of her floaties half way down the slide. She didn't want them anymore. That was until I said ok, you can not wear them if you can swim. I let her try and she did the glug glug, before I rescued her. She was happy to put them back on.
• Kids club. What can I say? It kinda goes with above in that they both loved it and were very upset if they couldn't go. So we let them go each morning where they would do a treasure hunt. Some art. And finally some cooking. Then the afternoons they would spend with us in the pool and on the water slide.
• Special highlight for me was wandering around the resort with Andy taking photos at night. The lovely setting, beautiful lighting, talking about photos, what angles we liked etc. Was fun.
• Smoothies/milkshakes for the kids and swimming up to the bar to order them.
• Baby shark / lips for doggie. Special toys brought (or wanted to buy) for M&S for being so brave and wonderful all trip.
• The pilots who waved at us as we embarked on the journey home. Made a couple of kids days.
• The Radisson - AMAZING! The best resort at Denerau for kids! Hands down!
• Hot, warm, sunny days.
• Having meals together, without the stress of having to cook, wash up etc.
• The 6pm fire lighting ceremonies.
• And while its wasn't a magical memory, its one I'll never forget. Second day at the pool, telling Andy where the kids club was, turned around from Dan for (tops) 10 seconds and turned back to find him squirming around head down in the water. I have never moved so fast in my life. He was fine. But it reminded us how quick things can happen and the consequences.
• The routine of doing nothing. Breakfast, play on the beach. Kids off to kids club/babysitter, us to the pool, pick up kids, lunch, play in the pool rest of the day. Bliss.
• Sunglasses for M&S. Had to get some. They looked so cool. LOL.
• The chocolate fountain. Mmmmmmmmm!
• Caesar salad, without the parmesan/anchovies, but with chicken. Really a chicken salad with croutons! LOL.

So thats it in a nutshell. Long and not complete, but means I've got a record of it. My memory is shocking. LOL.

Can't wait to catch up with everyone.

Later.

Saturday.

Just thought I'd share another couple of things M&S have been saying lately:

Sarah in conversation with Matt: "neighbours don't sleep all day. Only at night with pajamas"

Sarah about Fiji: "Actually Mummy I don't want to go to Fiji. I'll just wait here for summer".

Matt running around the house like a crazy thing: "My brains sending the wrong messages to my feet".

Can you tell they've been learning about bodies at daycare?! LOL.

Lately Sarah has become much more social. Its lovely. She will often see our neighbour Ann and run to the window, asking for it to be opened so she can say 'hi' to Ann. She then proceeds to tell her whatever is going on right then. I feel so proud of her when this happens. She also likes to scream 'bye' out the window of the car as we drive by. Its soooo sweet.

Now I wasn't going to show this LO cause I really don't like it, but yesterday I had something picked up for publishing which I also wasn't fussed about, so now I figure that it takes all sorts right? I think I don't like the stamps. They are too wishy washy. Needed to be outlined in black, then coloured in. But at the end of the day, its another page done! Thats got to be good. Anyway, this one is using a couple of sheets of Bazill bling, then lots and lots of Junkitz. I've decided when I do my calender pages next year, I'm definitely using single pages, not doubles.

I know there's something I'm forgetting, so I'll come back if I remember, otherwise, have a great week.

T