Some scrapping

These are most of the l/os I did on holiday and on Saturday. Most of them don't have the journalling or the title - I'll get there! Some of those I did, I haven't photographed yet. I know that they're plain and simple, but that's my style!

Photos taken a few years back at Marineland in Napier - before the dolphins died

Snapshots of C at National Park

Easter 2007 - using up the left over rings from the Napier l/o

Chess (2005)



When we went to Surfer's (Queensland, Aus) in 2000, there was a chap doing caricatures. The boys chose their own "base". These are photos I took of the A3 drawings

Back to school

Here they are all ready for school today. Both of them are in a streamed class (advanced class) at their different year levels. Both really looking forward to going back to school

My classes seem to be fine too - the odd bad one but hopefully we'll cope during the year

Back to school

We are all back to school tomorrow after seven lovely weeks of summer. Today I bought school shoes; told a SAfrican lady whose son starts at our school tomorrow that he is elcome to come and find me if he needs help; ironed on name labels and sewed on buttons. Now hopefully I have clothes to wear!

Oh and then lunches start - at least I only have to worry about lunch for me because the boys get their own. I do pack Adrian lunch .... last night's left overs so that is easy and cheap.

An award

This time from Helen in South Africa I "met" Helen through my SIL and I read her blog regularly

We're back!

After two glorious weeks in Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds or more specifically Momorangi Bay. We spent three days in Nelson and spent it all at our favourite place - Rabbit Island.

"Our" picinic spot three years ago

As it was now - the sea eroded under the trees and they

were all taken down and dune grasses planted

Then we went to Momorangi Bay for eleven days of rest and relaxation. We ate lots, drank wine, looked at the view, read, sat in the sun, bbqed, swam and I even did a bit of scrapbooking.

This is the sunset one evening this week

In our garden:

Kereru and there were two of them

This weka came walking right past us one morning

This male and female californian quail and three young

birds hopped on the fence one morning

The view from our front window

Adrian swam out to this boat on Wednesday morning just before we left

The fisherman at the end of the jetty

And sometimes they just jumped into the water from the end of the jetty

- and yes, the water really was that sparkling that morning

We had a lovely time, but all good things must come to an end, so it's back to work and school for all of us. However, there is a mountain of laundry to get through first! Oh, and groceries to buy and that reminds me, at least one boy needs new school shoes!

Hubby may no longer cook!

I like spicy food; I like curry; I like the food a tMonsoon Poon ..... but I like it spicy rather than burn-your-mouth-so-you-can't-taste-anything type of food.

A year or so back, Hubby made soup and to spice it up he put a heaped teaspoon of dried chilli flakes in ..... then he thought that wouldn't be enough so he put another heaped teaspoon in! I couldn't eat it.

Tonight he cooked dinner using green curry paste. I suggested that he put one teaspoon in - one heaped dessert spoon was used. Again, I could barely eat it.

Why does he do it? The boys don't really like it either so it's such a waste of food

22 January Edited to add: he confessed that he put TWO heaped dessertspoons of the green curry in and that it was also a bit too strong for him!

New bag

I need a new bag: it has to take my purse, my camera and other assorted bits and pieces. I'd like one that is a backpack style and has pockets - both inside and out.

What do you suggest?

Photos

So, both DigitalMax and SnapFish are having a special - 12 cents per print. I usually resize my photos using PSE but am thinking of using just the digital print size. Has anyone else done this? What are the photos Like?

Doj ... pronounced Dodge

So where did the name come from? About nine years ago we lived in Whitby and this beautiful black and white cat would insist on coming to our house. I kept trying to chase it as I knew that it probably belonged to someone. I gave up and called the cat Daisy because "she" was so beautiful and we were very into Thomas the Train at that stage. Then some people up the road who we know told us their cat had been missing for a few months. I showed them Daisy: "Oh that's Oscar", they said!

They took Oscar home and locked him inside for two weeks to re-home him. As they opened the door, he shot down the road to come back to us. Then we moved to Tawa and asked if we could keep the cat but we didn't like Oscar so we changed it to James (see the Thomas influence again?).

We had just moved into our house and were having a bbq and my mom said, "Just call him Doj: Daisy, Oscar, James" and so the name has stuck!

Home from the hospital and ........

I am pleased to report that Doj is home from hospital in being cared for by "Nurse Granny" - my mom. She is going to be able to offer him better care than we will be able to over the next few weeks. He has three tablets and liquid in the morning, and two tablets in the afternoon - he greedily ate this morning's ones because they were given to him in little balls of mince! He also has to have five minutes of exercise three times a day and some foot massage! Here he is in his home for the next six weeks as he is not allowed to jump. It is fine now, but I can imagine that in four or five weeks time he is going to be itching to get out. The three boys made the "house" and I gave it a quick slap of paint as it did look a bit like bare wood.

And then the lovely Sonya gave me this lovely blog award! Thanks Sonya! As Sonya says, we read each other's blog regularly and feel we know each other but have never met - such is the power of the Internet.

Now it is my turn to pass it on to at least seven other people. I choose: Jenny, Katrina, Irene, Angela, Sharlene, Ruth, Shell, and Sherri Now friends, this is what you have to do: 1. Add the logo to your blog.2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they have “One Lovely Blog”!

Enjoy

Hummingbird cake

Recipe from our lovely friend Dianne at The Station Cafe in National Park - make time to stop there for coffee and cake or a meal - you won't be sorry. The other good cafe is Out of the Fog in Owhango which is about 15 - 20 minutes north of NP on SH4.

Drain 450grams of pineapple and reserve 1/4 cup of the liquid
Sift together
1 cup of pain flour,
1/2 cup of self raising flour (I use 1 & 1/2 cups of plain flour + 1 teasp of Baking powder),
1/2 teasp of baking soda,
1/2 teasp of cinnamon,
1/2 teasp of ginger (I'm quite heavy handed with the spices)
200gm brown sugar (I think it's fine with 150gm)

Mix in
Pineapple and juice
1/2 cup of coconut
1 cup mashed bananas (about two medium size bananas)
2 lightly beaten eggs
3/4 cup of oil

Bake at 180degrees C for 40 - 50 minutes. The mixture is quite liquid

Ice with cream cheese icing
60 gm cream cheese
30 gms butter
1 teasp vanilla essence
1 & 1/2 cups icing sugar

We all worked hard today - the three boys built an immomility cage for Doj as the one from the vet costs $3 per night and for six weeks will be a lot of money! I painted the computer cupboard and sewed two pairs of 3/4 pants for me. Tomorrow I want to paint Doj's new home.

We will also visit Doj and then go looking for some brass doorknobs for the painted cupboard

Saturday

Doj had his operation yesterday morning and the surgery lasted two hours - a long time for even a human! Fortunately it was only neccessary to put a pin into his leg but it is rather a long cut. We saw him yesterday and again this morning and he was so pleased to see us! He was purring and meowing at us. He is unable to walk but was trying to drag himself a bit today. The bandage around his tail is a painkiller patch that dispenses a set amount of pain killer at a set time - really amazing. He is lying on a sheepskin which is on a heated pad - talk about comfort.

The vet told me that mentally he is a very strong cat which is also aiding in his recovery. He will be able to come home on Monday but has to be kept immobile for six weeks ....... how on earth do we tell this jumping, climbing outside cat that he has to stay in a cage 100cm by 60cm by 50cm (40" x 24" x 20") for six weeks!

Now we just hope that he recovers well and doesn't do any damage to it in the recovery time. Thanks to so many of you who have left comments here and/or emailed me - we really appreciate it.

Update

The cat is under sedation and is on a drip at the vet. Before anything further can happen, he has to wee. If he can't it means that there is probably nerve damage and we have to put him to sleep. Otherwise he will have an operation tomorrow morning to put a pin in his leg. Even then, depending on what they see when they open him up, will depend on what happens.

We will be speaking to the dog owners later on.

To say that we are all stressed and worried is an understatement - the boys and did virtually nothing today; fortunately for hubby he was at work and that took his mind off it. I have had quite a few little weeps today. We're hoping for a positive telephone call tomorrow morning

Our cat

Last night our cat was attacked by a dog last night on our property. He has quite a lot of injuries: Broken back left femur, broken upper tailbone, possible fracture of the pelvis/spleen, possible break in the ball-and-socket of the left back leg. eare now waiting for the next lot of x-rays so that we can make more decisions about.

We are all very upset and the anger at the dog owners has not yet surfaced. Actually I am so full of tears this morning: just anything is setting me off.

Please send good and healing thoughts/prayers in the direction of our cat

I tried to upload a photo but blogger is not playing nicely today

Cake .....

Hummingbird cake (pineapple, bananas and coconut) with cream cheese icing on the left and chocolate cake on the right. Friends for morning tea.

This DVD that I really wanted

Take away curry for dinner .........

....... what more could I ask for?

Some Un-Du maybe? Yes Scrapbook Central have it and I always forget about them

Happy New Year

We have started the year off well. Late 2005, we had a colour consultant come in and advise us on colours for our house. We started over the New Year weekend in 2006 by painting the fence, deck and other outside wood. Months later we did the downstairs passageway and one of the bedrooms. Sometime early in 2008 we did the stairwell and upstairs passageway.



Remaining prior to Christmas 2008 was the family room, dining room, our room and the bathroom. The family room was a very daunting prospect as we had loads of stuff in there, especially my scrapping stuff.



As I posted earlier, we bought a new TV so had to do something with the feature wall:

this is before

and after

That left the other three walls to do and I had sorted out all my scrapping stuff (loads on TM, lots in the recycling, and a box to go to Trina). My corner just prior to painting

And my corner after painting ( the colour is really not that yellow)

The corner where the two walls meet showing the effect of the two colours: the colours are Merlot (red) Dejavu (rich cream) both by Resene

We will buy the paint for the dining room tomorrow and hopefully finish that before the weekend is over.

Today we planned to bring in all the outside Christmas lights but that meant that the shed needed a clean out ...... yet more recycling, boxes and more for the Sallies, and a few things for TM. By this time it had started raining and we didn't want to put wet lights away. So the lights are still outside but switched off. That will be the boys task tomorrow while we unload at the Sallies and buy the dining room paint.

It feels great to start the new year with a big clean out ...... still lots to go, but a big effort already done

No Internet!!

Argh! I had no internet all day until hubby came home and waved his magic wand over it. I did feel a little cut off from the world.

However, I continued with the cleanup (29 items on TradeMe); I started sewing a pair of 3/4 pants for myself but I was half way through when I remembered I hadn't washed the fabric before I cut it - into the machine it went with the rest of the fabric I bought. I will hopefully finish them tomorrow and then see whether the fabric shrank.

Started sorting out s/b magazines and I decided that it as easier to kepp a single page rather than the whole magazine - started copying the pages I needed and I jammed the printer!

What else can go wrong today?

And it's nearly 2009 - I can't believe how quickly the years are going by (and that I'm getting old). Two babies at College this year, full time job for me. It's going to be a hard year, I'm sure, so just as well I'll have my scrapping to keep me sane.

After Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas lunch ... lots of yummy food and even better lots of leftovers so I haven't had to cook yet! Things may change tomorrow, however! This is the boys sitting at their places waiting for lunch.


Boxing Day we did go to the sales and bought a couple of Christmas lights. I couldn't believe how busy the shops were! Even busier than before Christmas. We then came home and decided that it was time to start clearing in order to paint. We had a colour consultant in a few years back and really liked the colours she gave us. We have painted the outside fences and other wood; the bedroom downstairs, the hallway downstairs and the stairwell. The big task, however, is our family room. One of the walls is to be a feature wall, but that meant moving a large wall unit that had to be pulled up over the balcony as it couldn't come up the stairs. Last week we bought a new TV so the decision was to cut the cupboard in half so the TV could sit on the shelf and then put the top half onto the wall. Here you can see the top half on its side on the right of the photo.

The room looks so nice now that we decided not to put the top half back on which meant that the kitchen cupboards had to be reorganised to take the glasses and other stuff. The Sallies have already got two boxes and the third is filling fast! I also have to clean up my "scrap heap" in order to paint. I have so much stuff that I need to throw out stuff, sell some of it on TradeMe including lots of books; and the rest I have no idea how to get rid of it! Any suggestions gratefully received. The TM stuff I will load on Sunday night. I need to hold a garage sale for my excess scrapbook stuff! I have decided that I'm not going to buy anything extra until I use up some of what I have. That includes the lovely kits I've been getting monthly, but I just can't justify spending money on it anymore. In that regard, the only things I am going to buy are some vertical storage folders so that I can SEE my cardstock - maybe that way I'll use it.

Any suggestions for neat, compact, tidy storage will also be gratefully received ..... or even better come and tidy up for me! In fact, maybe I can make this a competition and find some things to send people who can give untidy-me some really good ideas!

Christmas Eve

So are you ready for tomorrow? I think I am but if I'm not too bad! I'm not stressing about it - the day should be one for enjoying with friends and family and remembering the real reason we celebrate.

I've done the Festive loaf that we have for breakfast and bought cherries, strawberries and raspberries (at $6 for a tiny punnet I didn't buy more than one!). I need to make the entree savoury "cake": layers of tuna, avocado and egg on a cracker base. Then the turkey stuffing and look to see what vegetables I have and those are the ones we'll eat! Oh yes, I must make some meringues too. Then I'm done preparing the food.

The presents need wrapping and I must finish Adrian's sleeping shorts. I would have done it yesterday but spent at least an hour fighting with my sewing machine. I bought some new needles so hopefully that will help.

I also made these lovely little totes and filled them with Guylian chocolate squares. I got the idea from Kelly, who got the idea here. They look really nice hanging on the tree and I've been thinking of other sizes to make too.

This is what our cul-de-sac looks like from the top - it doesn't look as good in the dusk as it does when it's dark.

And our house:

We have been standing outside at night handing out lollies and most kids are great except one last night was complaining that he could only have one! I held my tongue, but wanted to say to him that e did not have a money tree out the back! It's so lovely seeing the kids faces when they see the lights AND get a lolly! Even the old people's homes have come looking: buses from Rita Angus, Shona McFarlane and Malvina Major have been round looking.

For those of you wondering, I decided not to get a Slice, but bought myself a new camera instead

Well, I'm off to get showered and get on with my day. Happy Christmas to all and I hope that you all have a wonderful, safe day

Catch up

Colin is a bit better but the weather is dreadful here so he has taken to his bed with his new book! He's a bit like me - gets his nose stuck in a book and is quite happy to just read and read and read.


I have finished my work!!! Yay! Woo Hoo! and other suitable exclamations. But at the sae time I am tired and have no inspiration to do anything. I should make some mince pies or something .......


I also have to find some inspiration to decorate my little Doodlebug house. If you haven't seen them, look here on Vicki's blog. I have some tiny little Christmas lights but that is all I can think of right now


I have also planned our Christmas lunch but it is so miserable that I can't be bothered going out. We do have to go to fetch hubby's car as he had a work function last night and decided it was better for me to fetch him than for him to drive home. There was a road block but it was on the way to fetch him: the policeman who asked me my name and address told me I was going in the wrong direction and was very impressed when I told him I was fetching hubby. "What a lucky husband", he said.

Tomorrow I must go shopping for Christmas presents but I have no idea what to buy the boys - any suggestions for teenage boys??

Today .....

I am the mother of teenagers!

Unfortunately the planned birthday party didn't work out very well. The plan was for the guests to arrive yesterday at 1.30pm when we would go to H2O (swimming pool). Back home for a bbq and a sleepover.

All was going well until I got home from the hairdresser at midday to find Colin wheezing and coughing and asking me to take him to the doctor. I phoned the GP and the earliest they could see us was 2.30pm so off to A&M we went where we waited... and waited .... and waited. I realised that we would not be home by 1.30pm and managed to get hold of one of the guests to ask him to come later. We finally saw the doctor around 2pm, got some Prednizone and were home by 2.30pm. Colin said that he really didn't feel like going to the pool so the boys just stayed at home and played PS2 and watched a movie. They wanted a real fire so that they could roast marshmallows; but the wind was so strong that I had to sit outside in the smoke watching for any sparks. Adrian got home and took over and we ate about 7pm.

Granny bought an ice cream cake from Wendy's which was nice but not worth the money spent. Had to put and "9" and four other candles on it. They finally went to sleep about 10.30pm and slept until just after 9am. I made them crepes for breakfast and by the time they were ready to go it was after 11.30am.

Colin was a bit disappointed as his birthday had not gone to plan but what he did have enjoyed.

I took two guests home and here comes my gripe: one barely said thanks and the other didn't even grunt at me as he got out the car! Not a "thanks for the party", "thanks for bringing me home" nothing! I was seething and I have decided that in future I will make them say thank you. Why should I be the one to get angry at these kids for fear of hurting their poor sensitive souls?

Anyway, Colin has taken to his bed - not such a nice place for his 13th birthday but he also has a brand new book to read so he's not too unhappy.

(PS Why won't bl***y blogger keep the paragraph spacing??)

The end is in sight!

On the work front, that is! I have even had time to visit a few blogs AND leave some comments. I'll catch up next week.

We bought some more lights on Saturday and put them up on Sunday. Interesting talking to people outside who notice each and every new one that goes up - they must visit our street fairly regularly. We're trying to get a charity brass band (eg Sallies) to come and play next Wednesday but so far no go. Anyone who can send someone our way, please let me know so we can organise it.

I was so pleased to see that Raewyn has asked for an extension at the SBO Christmas competition as maybe I'll get my little house done too.

My Dad's birthday last night was lovely. We went to Mungavin Blues and had a really yummy meal. He enjoyed himself too and it was nice to see him enjoying himself. I forgot to take my camera! I really like my big camera but sometimes think a little pocket one would be better so I am eyeing the Olympus FE20 but I'm also eyeing the Making Memories Slice so I'll have to count my dollars to see what I can afford.

Anyway, off to get things prepared for the next birthday party!

Today

I am soooo tired! I haven't got much work left to do though and I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel. We were late getting up today so I had to give Colin a note for school! I should be working, but I'm reading blogs and writing this lol!

We are off out to dinner tonight for my Dad's 85th birthday tonight and then on Friday I will be the mother of two teenage boys! Eek - where did that time go? The party is on Thursday (and I haven't made any invitations yet!); I think we will be making phone calls later.

I was just reading Meek's blog and feeling as though I needed a day on a deserted island! Everyone's Christmas planning is sounding so good - I have a present for Adrian, a present for Jacob (a young man of 17 months who is joining ua along with his parents on Christmas Day), a present for my Dad and that is it! There isn't even any Christmas food in the house ... and I don't have too much for the birthday party on Thursday either. I will have to go to the shops today and then start the serios shopping on Sunday.

Anyway, must get in the shower and then back to my desk.

Junior Prizegiving

Yesterday was the final Dean's Assembly where the first prizes in subjects were given out and today was prizegiving where the first in class prizes were given out.

I was very proud of Ross' achievements: first place in ICT and a Distinction certificate from the Australiasian ICT exam

And I am still very busy - I'll have time to buy things for Christmas, sort out Christmas Day and catch up on other people's lives after 20th December!

School Trips

I have just spent two full days on trips with Year 9s and came home exhausted both days. First day we took 52 to rock climbing, lunch next to the river, and then to H2O a big swimming complex. At rock climbing, I caught sticking their fingers up the charity lollie dispensers. Some had no interest in climbing whatsoever and just wanted the radio turned up loudly. On to the river and they weren't too bad. Then to the pool where six decided that they weren't swimming .. but three then went wandering off outside the pool complex. Coming back, the bus driver took the scenic route: for those of you who are local - across Haywards Hill, then immediately into Whitby and through the suburbs, through Ascot Park and into Porirua next to Pak 'n' Save then back to school. For those of you not local - a car trip of 30 minutes became a bus trip of nearly and hour as we wended our way through the suburbs rather than directly on the motorway!


But we weren't done yet - we had to herd them all into the hall as the previous day a lot of damage had been done to Paintball! ARGH! The perpetrator was discovered and banned from the rest of the trips (and more).


Second day we took slightly less than 52 to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary and then on to movies. Some of them had no interest whatsoever regarding the birds and other wildlife. One made the most inane comments that eventually I told him that we were best friends and he had to walk/stand next to me all the time ... and if he wanted to make a comment, he could tell me first and I'd tell him if it was okay.


Now it sounds like they're all ratbags whereas in reality most of them are great; it's the 1% or 2% that spoil the outings for everyone.


As a result I am very far behind in my work and ill have to try to catch up this weekend and do some house work - the boys will be helping out.


Here are a couple of photos of some Tuis

And can you see the Tuatara?

Christmas is coming!

And some of our lights are up outside. The boys will put more up in the evenings and I think by the weekend all of ours will up. Hopefully the neighbours will put theirs up this weekend too.

I had people asking me today when all our lights will be up!

Home made gifts

Just reading Penny's blog on what she did last year and then an email from her sayig she doesn't have time this as she did last year. I understand as I am in the same situation.

Last year I made these Chocolate Christmas Trees (scroll most of the way down the page) which were a bit fiddly to do, but looked wonderful and tasted even better. I will probably make some more this year because they are the kind of thing that can be made in bulk.

The boys are saving for a PS3 so that's easy but I still like to get them little bits and pieces. The rest of the people who may or may not be coming? I'll make it up when I get confirmation that they will be here!

SBO Big Sale

There's a big sale over at SBO - go to Christmas Sale

It will be really nice to meet up with many of you at Senz next year and as soon as the Christmas season is over, I will think about making a Senz counter thingy!

ETA - Good idea, Trace!

Senz 2009

From the Senz website ...... SENZ 09 is to be held at the Auckland ASB Showgrounds Greenlane from the 17-19th July (that's the last weekend of the winter school holidays)

I am so excited about this as my SIL Jenny and niece Kylie are planning on coming from South Africa on a girl's scrapping holiday!

Instead of an Advent Calendar I think I need a Senz calendar!

Making Memories albums

I have recently changed all my albums from post-bound to 3-Ring as I don't scrap in order and I love the freedom of the 3-Ring albums. Anyway, SBO has 20% off ALL MM product until Sunday night so I bought another three albums! I need to put 2007 into two albums; 2000 - 2002 needs an album and of course I need a spare one, don't I?

PS. I have marking to do so can you see how I'm procrastinating here? Also been "talking" to my lovely SIL about Senz next year as she and my niece are coming for a girl's scrapping holiday. Just wish we knew some dates and a venue!

Entrance exam tomorrow

Colin has his College entrance exam tomorrow for placement (or not) in a streamed class. He and I have been doing Maths over the last few days and I firmly believe that he has been taught nothing at school these last eight years! He understood it once I explained it to him and then just ploughed through the work but it's been very hard doing all that work in a few days.

He also has to do an English exam and usually his writing is good - he just has to watch his spelling and punctuation.

Anyway, I will be a bit nervous all morning and then will be anxious to find out the results. I just hope we've done enough work! Think of us all tomorrow, please?

Thanks

Thank you to all of you who have cared and offered me words of support - I really appreciate each and every one of you.

I went scrapping today and I had a wonderful today - it was relaxing and I got lots of photos scrapped. They may not be works of art, and Up2Scrap won't want them; but I like what I did and they're photos and memories saved. Now I would love to finsih the journalling and the titles tomorrrow but I really need to get stuck into the exam marking. I'll see how much I can get done tonight.

It is great scrapping at KiwiScraps - it is such a convenient place (some would say too convenient lol). David was very kind to us today as well and gave us some great things so it really felt like Christmas.

I had one meltdown when I thought about what my Christmas wish is for the competition over at SBO - it's about my Dad and I'll share sometime.

I'll upload my l/os tomorrow or when they're done

Thank you again for your thoughts, wishes and advice

So down

I got home yesterday around 5pm after a long day at school and then taking my dad to the doctor again and just felt my seams unravelling. The boys were still in their uniforms; there were dirty dishes lying all over the place; the chicken I had asked them to get at 4pm from the freezer was still in the freezer and they had a bicker as to who was going to get it .....

I went to bed in tears and closed the door. Then I sent a text to hubby telling him I was on strike. I could not stop crying and then I felt guilty because there are so many other people who are worse off than me ... so I cried some more!

The phone rang and because I was on strike I didn't answer it - it was hubby instructing his sons to cook dinner! Which they did and it was delicious.

I stayed in bed and I had little taps on the door: "Mom are you okay?" "Go away." Again, another tap and another voice: "Mom do you want some wine?" "No go away"

I got up for dinner, checked emails and then went to bed and I did feel better this morning. But I did have a serious sense of humour failure at someone at work whose biggest problem is what colour nail polish to buy!

I need my all day scrap tomorrow!

I know Christmas is now less than six weeks away, but I really don't have the energy to even think about it at the moment ... maybe next week!

Catch up

My Dad: can't drive for the forseeable future and probably not ever again. Thise leaves me to be the taxi-driver to the doctor, the vet, the dentist, the supermarket etc. I was really depressed on Monday night and Tueday about this. Thanks goodness my parents live close by and it's easy to get to them.

The seniors left today - YAY!!! I was at the point where I was more worried about their exams than they are.

Juinors start writing exams tomorrow. That means lots of marking for me but it means that Ross write exams too. Right now Ross is learning the countries of Europe and Asia-Pacific. When I asked him if he had anything to learn, he said, "No" but then I found all this stuff in his school bag! ARGH! He's as bad as my seniors

Colin has his College entrance test next week and I'm stressing over that too

Scrapping on Saturday and I can't wait! I have a very cool little project up my sleeve for everyone but everyone else will be more creative than me so theirs will look better! I have started my first prototype and got as far as the paint and now I'm stuck!

Hubby is off to Seattle on Friday to a Sequel Server convention (don't know if I've even spelled that correctly but it's a Database) - boys and I can eat pizza for dinner!

8th November 2008

In New Zealand, women have been able to vote since 1893 - that's 105 years! New Zealand women were the first women in the world to get this right. Many people in many parts of the world do not have this right. In the 80s I voted for all people to have the right to vote in South Africa.

So go and vote today - it is a right that many people are denied

Home

My Dad is home tonight but without a very conclusive diagnosis. He is on antibiotics for suspected pneumonia and we are expecting some more results to come in the post. Hopefully we'll know more next week when they go for their three monthly check-up. We are all very pleased he is home because it is a 30minute (at best) drive to the hospital.

Thank you again for all your concern - it is very much appreciated

Update

... well, there isn't much to report: my Dad has had an Echo test and other tests too. So far - nothing. He's still in hospital but is looking much better. We should get the Echo test results tomorrow and hopefully he'll be discharged to.

Thank you to everyone who has phoned, sent emails and made comments here - I really appreciate it

My Dad

This morning before 8am my Mom phoned to say my Dad was not very well so I called the ambulance. I rushed down to their house and stayed with my Mom whilst the paramedics checked him out. Then I went to school to sort out some lessons for first two periods thinking I'd be back by 11am. When I got back, the paramedics were taking my Dad to Wellington hospital. I took my Mom in and we waited, and waited and waited. By 10am I realised I would not be back at school any time soon so phoned them to let them know where they could find the next lot of work.

The medical staff considered two possibilities - a heart attack or a clot on the lungs. After endless tests, I finally left my Mom at the hospital at 4.45pm as I had to get home to sort Colin out and make things as normal as possible for him. The plan was to meet Ross at the football to watch the NZ girls take on Colombia (NZ won 3-1 - go NZ!).

Adrian went to the hospital and found my father stuck out in the passage way .... for the night! He complained a little and eventually a bed was found for Dad in the short stay ward. He brought my Mom home and they got home at 9pm.

Tomorrow they will test for the clot on the lungs or pneumonia

I stayed with the boys in the rain and wind but they were very happy that the NZ girls won so that was good for them. Neither Colin or Adrian could concentrate very well today; I just spent the day sitting doing nothing which is very tiring.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll know what the (I can't think of the word) is, and we can either take my Dad home or to Kenepuru which is much closer.

Fifa U17 Women's World Cup

Most people in NZ will know that this is currently on. Ross is a flag bearer for the Wellington games which take place over four days. Each day he is there for seven hours: practising and then getting ready. Adidas have sponsored some cool clothes; they have a PS3 to play with, yummy lunches from Subway, and drinks from Coke. He is having fun even though it is a very long day for him.

Today started off really cold and miserable and I thought he would be cold but it soon fined up and turned into a wonderful day. We watched the England - Nigeria game and Nigeria deserved to win, but the English girls scored a goal against the run of play and that was it for the rest of the game!

Here are the flags and the English and Nigerian teams

Ross in uniform

New look

What do you think of it? I got it all free here ........ maybe there's something for you too. However, I do miss my photo of Ruapehu but I'm not sure how I can crowbar it in!

New blog and more

My SIL's that is: http://jennyindurban.blogspot.com/ please visit her and leave her a comment?

A peeve
Most of us scrapbook to leave the memories for our children/grandchildren and so we try to be fairly archival about what we use. My irritation at the moment is manufacturer's products that don't make the mark. In particular Heidi Swapp' "adhesive" chipboard - I only put it on the l/o last year and already it's falling off. I wrote to Advantus last year to complain and they were going to send me some replacement stuff .... until they discovered I lived in NZ. I tell you, that company and designer will get no more of my money. Have you come across any badly manufacturered product?

Labour Weekend

We headed north (along with most of Wellington) to Rotorua to catch up with my SIL's niece, hubby and children. They arrived a short while ago from South Africa and due to job constraints are having to live split up in Rotorua and Auckland. Their little boys are 5 and 2.5 and really took to Ross and Colin. Anyway, Adrian decided we had to go in his car as it's much cheaper on fuel than my car. The kids wanted to go in my car as it's way more comfortable and has more space so they got as much as they could legitimately say they needed to pack into the car. Well, Adrian had a fit at all the luggage and the boys and I just burst out laughing. Eventually we were all rolling around laughing but we did go in Adrian's car :-( However, he did admit while we were there that we should have taken my car

All photos blurred

Please note the matching clothes and poses! All chosen by the five year old in the photo!
Ash and I scrapped most of the weekend (I did six l/os and was pleased with most of them) and the six boys watched TV and played.

We went out to Rotorua Airport where Andy does tandem ski jumps to watch him do a couple of jumps.

And then we couldn't not go to our favourite Waikite Pools.

On our way home we saw a steam train outing and got a loud "toot-toot" from the driver when he saw me taking photos

Fiskateers

A few months ago, Rebecca from Fiskateers asked for some sewing projects. I sent photos of my quilt and this morning I got an email from Rebecca saying my quilt would be featured on the blog today. Here it is: http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/2008/10/19/fiskateer-sewing-week-because-i-say-so/

Scrapping yesterday

Despite not having the photos I wanted, I still managed to scrap and have a wonderful day. KiwiScraps really is a very good venue as it has everything we need (and more!).

I scrapped Colin's school photo in my normal fashion - photo on one side of a double l/o and a pocket on the other side for reports etc. If he does some nice artwork I usually take a photo of it, print it at 5x7 and put that in the pocket too. (photo and names blurred)


Then I scrapped some photos from February this year. We went to Whiteriea Park for an evening bbq and the boys found an old boogie board which they used as a slide down the grass on the hill. I loved how this one turned out and once I've done the journalling and title I'll photograph it and upload it here. Updated - I decide that it didn't need a title

Then I did a few more which I'm happy about, but I really love the boogie board slide.

It's always amazing to me that I can scrap photos and one l/o really just does it for me - the rest are fine, but there's one that I really love (until the next one). I suppose that's the joy of the memories

Update for Trace: Angel was in disgrace yesterday as she had been chewing up too many things! Boy, she let us know that she was grumpy too - the shrieks and squawks that were coming from her!

Update to the Snapfish saga

I got two replies - one of them included an apology. They have also given me a credit for the prints and the postage. This is good but still doesn't give me my photos for Saturday. Not sure what I'll scrap on Saturday now

Can you see the steam coming out of my ears?

I am soooooo angry with Snapfish. Those of you in New Zealand will recall their 1 cent a print promotion at the beginning of October - unfortunately their website died for three days and people were not able to take advantage of that promotion. I sent two emails to them and one reply, one of the questions was "What were you doing at the time the website went down?" Well, I told them, "I was drinking a cup of coffee whilst watching the photos upload." What kind of a damn fool question is that?

Anyway, I finally was able to order my prints on 11th October and added to and subtracetd from my order a few times. Now each time you do this, you have to keep clicking MATTE or it automatically defaults to Glossy. You can imagine that doing this a few times one forgets to check the MATTE button. This is what happened to me.

On 12th October I received an email telling me that my prints would be sent. On this email, I happened to notice those dreaded words "glossy". I emailed back immediately telling them not to send those, but to reprint in Matte explaining why. Well, today, my envelope of ugly glossy prints arrived and not via courier but in an ordinary $1.50 envelope for which I paid $4.95.

I am furious to say the very least. And Snapfish do not have any kind of contact telephone number either. I really wanted those photos for Saturday so that I could scrap them. I have told Snapfish just to refund my money and I will go to Harvey Norman

Parcel in the post

Last week I got a package of BasicGrey Two Scoops chip stickers in the post. I thought it was a mistake from a TradeMe seller, but no. So who sent it? If it was you, thank you very much - you are very kind

Senz

I'm exhausted (I fell asleep in the satff meeting this afternoon)! I helped unpack a few boxes on Thurday and was then back bright and early on Friday morning to help in Donna's awesome distressing class. That for me was the best one of the weekend. Back downstairs to help at the stand again and it was VERY busy. We all went to dinner at Curry Workz in Upper Hutt and I can thoroughly recommend them.

I spent the night at the NZIC student accommodation was although simple was very comfortable. In our wing, there were 11 bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchnette area and a lounge with a TV. It was very warm in the room and I got up during the night to open the window, but better too warm at night than too cold. Only problem was some "Expo groupies" who appear to have been to every expo possible. They were wide awake at 6.30 am and shouting to each other. As another lady said, they're like kids on a tour

Back to Senz and straight into helping Trina's beading class. There was a bit of an oopsie with the materials list which had me running downstairs to get some dimensional magic. It was a cool class and Trace, Mandy and Kelly have photos. A quick early lunch and then I helped in Donna's Christmas acrylic class. I left early as we had a wedding to attend.

Sunday morning when the alarm went at 7.30am, I wished I wasn't a person who cared about commitments as it was soooo tempting to stay in bed! Off I went to help in Trina's Little boxes class, then back to the stand. At 1.50pm Andrea told me to go and do Vicky's class! There I went with nothing except a pair of scissors and a pen because I had no photos I couldn't really do much but I will finish it as I liked the technique. Lee said I could share her things, but I didn't need to

I don't think any of us were sad when 4.30pm came and we could start packing. I had to laugh at Andrea: she put a box under the Making Memories product and just swished it in with her arm! Packing up all the paper was my job and that took me one-and-a-half hours to do! There was just a little bit of beautiful paper there!

It was great to meet people I had only "met" on line: Trace, Shell, Yvonne, Nic, Lee and others. It was wonderful seeing Nik and others again. Thanks to SBO for the opportunity to spend time with them again

Whitcoull's Top 100

I've read the ones in bold; the ones with an asterisk I can't remember

1. Lord of the rings / JRR Tolkien
2. My sister's keeper / Jodi Picoult
3. Pride and prejudice / Jane Austen (a favourite)
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 (Quite a bit)
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 (think Scarlett is a whinging female dog)
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
65. 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
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

The Bossy Scrapper

This is the second one I did. I think that the title is a bit small, but that's too bad now. And look at those ancient vellum stars I dragged out!

A delivery

On Friday Andrea asked me if she could redirect 20 boxes of stuff for SENZ to my address. Actually she had no option - it was an address in Wellington or returned to Aus. Of course I said yes but I did wonder how to break the news to Adrian.

Well, this morning just before we got up, I casually mentioned "a few boxes - maybe ten". I got up showered and dressed so I was ready.

Just before 8.30am a huge Road Star truck pulled up and a very grumpy driver got out and asked where I wanted the pallet.

"Pallet? I said "It was supposed to be broken down into boxes". And the voice from inside "PALLET???!!! was not good either. He wanted to know exactly how many boxes were coming.

Grumpy told me he would put the pallet on the driveway or on the pavement. No, I said, neither was convenient especially as Adrian still had to go to work. After a bit of discussion (including how Pak 'n' Save get their deliveries ..... but I'm not Pak 'n' Save) Grumpy left. He wouldn't even wait for me to phone DHL

I phoned Andrea in a state and she was extremely concerned that Grumpy would drive back to Auckland without leaving the boxes behind. I was not happy at that point

After a nail-biting few hours Grumpy returned; actually I think it was his way more pleasant twin brother. He unloaded all the boxes, discussed with me the damaged boxes and even helped me write the correct wording on the delivery note.

The boxes are now safely stored inside. In hindsight it was very funny, but not at the time

Roll on Thursday

My scrapping yesterday

Here are the new ones I did; the UFOs are further down in another post

House of Cards: I am so pleased with the mini playing cards I found!

Wellington: the photos are all post cards

I have wanted to do one about Wellington for a long time.

The next one will be the Ruapehu one

The Bossy Scrapper

Scrapbook by Design have a Sunday night challenge called "The Bossy Scrapper". "The Boss" is appointed each week and it's her responsibility to issue instructions to everyone on the night in order to create a layout unseen. Well, I'm The Boss on Sunday night! So turn up to the chat room, and be prepared to scrap with me.

Updated with a sneak peak of mine

And here is the full version

SENZ

YAY!! All sorted out - I'm a helper now which is exactly what I wanted to be. If you post a comment here, I'll email you and tell where you can find me :-)

Fiskars Circle punch

I bought one of these on Saturday morning for my friend at National Park. When I got there, we started to play with it. First we needed something with which to draw a circle and finally we found a 400g tin of fruit that was almost 4". Then we started to punch - it's not as easy as it seems. After about 20 messes each we finally managed a decent circle and it was time to pack up for dinner. Then we found .......... a template to cut circles! We laughed at ourselves

Sketches

For those of you who like sketches, this is one of my favourites. I like the idea but to be honest, I have yet to use any of them. My excuse is that I have had no time!

How are you doing getting photos ready to upload to Snapfish? I have 42 ready and I know I will go over the 50 limit but it makes no difference as I had planned on getting them printed these holidays so their special offer is a bonus

SENZ

Post deleted and edited further up