What do you do when it is raining?

Scrap!!! I have been having withdrawl symptoms from scrapbooking so today I HAD to do some. I finished one layout and completed another. That makes 3 layouts from the April kit and I still have plenty of paper left. This is the first layout I have done of Steve on his own and when i was looking for a recent photo of him the only one I could come up with is from 2 years ago, going to have to rectify that!



Last night Steve decided that Isaac needed a hair cut. We took him about 2 months ago and he was too interested in looking at what Gemma was doing. Our friends mentioned that April cuts Samuels hair so Steve thought we could do the same. Well Steve is cack handed he can't even cut a loaf of bread straight. So after watching him for a while I suggested I have a go. I was doing ok and then Steve wanted another go, by this time Isaac had had enough and was moving quite a bit. Well poor Steve snipped his ear :( He felt awful! So no more cutting hair ourselves, which I am pleased about, I didn't really want to do it anyway. Fortunately Isaac has forgotten, I was able to straighten it up while he sat on my knee watching TV this morning.

Good manners matter

We have put so much time and energy into getting our eldest boy to use good manners. Now most of the time he has pretty good manners but we often have to remind him. It is so frustrating that an almost 9 year old doesn't use good manners all the time and especially when you put so much effort into teaching the importance of good manners. Now fast forward to our little 19month old.....he already has lovely manners and the only thing we have been doing is using good manners ourselves. This little guy has obviously observed what we say and when we say it. About a week ago he had a bottom burp and he said 'parn me' I thought this was a fluke and maybe he didn't actually say what I thought he had and then the next morning he burped and he said it again. Since that first one he has used it regularly in context since, even pardoning his Dad this morning, soo cute. He is also very good with 'peese' and 'hank oo' So he has beautiful manners, he also has a terrible temper!!! Lately he has been having lots of temper tantrums, he hits things and says 'ow, ow, ow' or will flop down on the ground and squeal. And he likes to scream when he doesn't get his way. This child deffinately has a mind of his own! And even though it is hard to hear the screaming and see the tantrums I love it. I love that he is doing so well considering where he started. He is an adorable little guy that loves to give hugs and kisses and I can forgive the tantrums knowing that this is his way of expressing his independance. This little guy that started life at 2lb is making the most of it.



Lately I have not been able to do any scrapping. I am trying to clear out a whole of stuff taking up storage space. I have been trying to get things on trade me firstly to clear it out and secondly to get a little bit of spending money for our trip to Oz. So far I have earnt $150 Yay me.

Steve had his last LONG run yesterday. The marathon is 2 weeks from yesterday and I can tell you I will be glad when it is over!!! These 3-4hr runs on the weekend take too much time out of our time with the family. But he did also spend alot of time on Sat cleaning out the garage, still a lot more to do but at least it is already looking alot better. Sunday afternoon we also played chinese checkers with Tobyn. For ages I have been wanting to have a games evening or afternoon with Steve and Tobyn and we never seem to get around to it. Now the frustrating thing was that Tobyn got bored I think. Tobyn is a very bright little boy whose mind is often somewhere else. So firstly we had to keep reminding him to watch the game and secondly we had to keep asking him to not make silly noises when moving his pieces. Now that I have written that it seems silly that it concerned us so much. I do think that if we played games more often it would be better so hopefully I can make this a regular weekend event.

'til next time, ciao

All about My Dad

Bad, bad blogger. I have been procrastinating about writing on my blog and now I don't really know where to start....

The biggest thing that has happened this past week would be my Dad phoning and saying he was in town could he come and stay the night. This was a HUGE shock and not the most welcome one!

My Dad has been somewhat distant for the past 7 years and my brother, sister and I have a very strained relationship with him. He hurt our Mum terribly and did some pretty thoughtless things. Early 2006 he had a heart attack and was very ill and told he only had a short time left to live. I think he got very depressed and upset at the things he was missing out on. He has 5 grandsons and really doesn't 'know' any of them. I think that my children deserve to know their Poppa so when we went to Christchurch last year and had a thanlsgiving service for Isaac we invited him to celebrate with us. It was so nice to see Tobyn get on so well with him.

So fast forward to last Thursday afternoon. A phone call at 4pm and shock, horror the person says 'hi it's Dad' oh my goodness! He said he was in town and could he come and stay the night. As it turned out he was hitchhiking up to Auckland to go to a Benny Hinn evening. According to him Benny Hinn is a faith healer, so obviuously Dad hopes to be healed! CRAZY man!!! He has a bad back, heart condition and diabetes. So we gave him dinner and a bed and he was then planning on continuing hitching up to Auckland. My conscience couldn't let him hitch up to Auckland and then all the way back down to Chch. So I offered to drive him to Taihape, figured he could get a ride from there better than from Palmy. I also looked into getting him back to Chch and could get a very good plane fare. He seemed very appreciative and I hope he got what he wanted from the trip! It is now Sunday evening and I hope he is back in Chch, haven't had any news.

On the good side of all this my sister and I talked a whole lot about our feelings. It was good to be able to say some positive things about him. For all his faults and the bad memories we have we do know that he has a big heart and this is why he has got into so much financial trouble. Everyone that knows him that aren't family say he is a wonderful man. I told Tobyn that I find my Dad hard to be around and I don't know what to say to him. My darling boy didn't want to tell me that he liked his Poppa. I had to explain to him that it is wonderful that he loves Poppa. He asked me if I loved him and I said yes I will always love him I don't really like some of the things he has done but he is my Dad and I will always love him!!!

I am now pleased that I have a photo of Dad with Isaac, I missed getting one last year.



A question for my readers, what does my Dad remind you of? It is sad but I think my dad looks like a homeless person. He doesn't look after himself and I find that very sad.

Ok, that's all for now, 'til next time XXX

Finally a New Layout!

So finally I have done a little scrapbooking since Mum left. I asked Tobyn to pick me out some photos to scrap and he pulled out these photos of him and his God family. He is feeling particularly close to them since he had a slep over at their place earlier in the year. He keeps asking when he can go and stay again.

Anyway this layout is using some of the product from the April monthly kit from The Scrapbook Outlet. The May kit is shipping over the next couple of days so I figured I had better get going with using some of Aprils kit. I also used my new sewing machine that I got for my birthday. Hope you enjoy looking.



TTFN

He WON!!!

A very proud Mummy moment today! Tobyn came 1st in his year for the speech competition. He was so nervous on Sunday night and we had a big talk with him about how we understood and I think it helped because last night he was OK about practising. He as still a little nervous this morning but he harnessed those butterflies and nailed it. I was so proud and almost bawled my eyes out, I did have tears but not that he knew. Everyone including his teachers are so proud of him!!! Thats all for now, I will come back later with some photos from the weekend. Just had to skite I can hardly keep it in......

SO PROUD OF MY BIG BOY!!!

Tobyn has got into the final for the speech competition at school! Finally he is shining and loving it. He came home last week with the instructions and the work was to be done at home. The prompt was 'The time is now' and he did The time is now to save the Kiwi. This was such an appropriate topic for him being such an animal lover. I got him to do a plan and then he did a little research online with Steve. Then on the weekend we went to the library and he got out some books. He spent most of Sunday working on the speech. On Monday he read it to the class and his teacher gave him some great feedback and critiquing. He needed to make it a bit longer and improve the beginning and end, which ironically is what we told him but of course it is better coming from the teacher. On Wednesday he came home with a critique sheet after presenting it again. So Wednesday evening he practised and practised and we gave him pointers and feedback and told him we thought he could win it. Thursday morning was the actual judging and he was quite excited about doing it. At the end of the day he proudly tells us he is in the top 3 and competes with 10 year 5's and 6's next Tuesday morning, we couldn't be prouder of him he has done so well. The year 5 and 6's compete to represent the school at a cluster schools competition whcih Tobyn and the other 2 year 4's are not eligible for but next year.......?

Wednesday Blog challenge

Shandy wanted to hear our first date stories with our DH.

Unfortunately our story is not all that romantic, it is interesting though. So here goes.

Setting the scene: Late 80's, era of teen boys with long hair, girls with spiral perms and heavily teased and sprayed bangs, Madonna, Aerobics, fluoro clothing, got the picture yet?

Steve was at University doing a 4 year Technology degree, and out flatting (not sure what you Americans would call it, living in a house with other singles, usually students) I was training to be a nurse and still living at home. I had been attending St Davids Young Adults Group for a couple of years. We had many students join our group and we all became firm friends. I remember very distinctly the first time I noticed Steve, it was at a family night and we had been split off into groups and given a challenge to act out. I remember seeing him acting like a complete fool and thinking who is that weirdo, oops! At the end of that year I had got to know him a little better and he went over to England for the summer. While he was away I do remember looking forward to him returning home, not because I liked him romantically but because I thought he was becoming a close friend. After his return from his trip I got to know him even better and the romantic feelings started to come, BUT.....I was very shy and didn't want to make a move because, what if he didn't like me like that? My best friend told him I liked him which I think was the first he knew. It took a few months of heartache before he actually invited me out to his final year Uni ball. So that was our first date. I wore a satin teal green frilly dress, remember it was the 80's! I was picked up in a taxi along with him his best friend and BF's girlfriend. It was a tough night, it was my first really big event like that, I was extremely shy and naive and felt out of my depth with all the academics. Needless to say a few weeks later he turned up at my house to give me the, I just want to be friends speech! I was devastated! Over the next couple of years I 'dated' a couple of other guys, nothing serious at all, and I thought I was 'over' Steve. Fast forward to 1991. Steve had been working for a couple of years and was ready to buy a house. I was more than ready to move out and go flatting so he said would I like to be a flatmate if he bought a house. I jumped at the chance. At the time I was interested in another guy. I was dancing practically every day and wasn't home all that often. So we moved into the house. Shortly after we moved in the guy I was interested in told me he didn't want it to go any further, alas broken heart again, SIGH. But Steve was there for me, he was so sweet and I really appreciated him playing soppy songs for me. A few weeks later he started showing more than flattie interest in me, I FREAKED!!! I went to aerobics and said to my friends, "OMG I think Steve wants more than just friends, he touched my leg and I DON'T want to go any further, I know him too well." Well now to cut a long story short, as it is pretty long already, that was Summer 1991 we were engaged winter 1992, and married January 1993, thats makes it 14 years and 2 kids later. And I couldn't be happier with him he is my best friend and my rock and I love him immensely.

Blog challenge #31 Movie Monday

Lisa's challenge at today. We all know how movies can really shape our lives, especially for me at a very tender age and today we're going to talk about a specific movie experience

I want you all to talk about a movie that scared the BEJEEZIZ out of you when you were little. What was it that freaked you out. Can you watch it as an adult today? Is it still a "banned" movie in your home.



THE OMEN!!! I guess I wasn't all that young but I don't remember anyhing really scary from when I was all that young. But to this day I can't stand the names Damion, Damon or anything like that! And yes it is 'banned' in this house. Wasn't there a re make recently? Nope won't be seeing that either!!!

running in many ways

Its been a week of achievements in our little family this week. Tobyn ran his cross country on Friday. He had a goal to not be last this year and HE DID IT!!! He bet 2 other boys and lapped one of the girls. He was so proud of himself and now has a goal to beat another 2 boys next year. Maybe by his final year at primary school he will get in the top 4?



Steve is training to run a marathon this year. He would like to run a marathon before he turns 40, so he only has a few months to go. His training has been going really well and for the last 4 weeks and has done a 20km+ run. But on Sunday he did his 1st official 'organised' half marathon. He felt a little nervous before doing it but was thrilled when he bet his 2hour goal, he ran it in 1hr56.



Last week I did an online photography class. There was alot of info and I have learnt so much. I have had a huge desire to learn more and I have been tossing around the idea if doing something more advanced when Isaac is a little older. I don't have alot of faith in my ability most of the time, but every now and then I take a photo that I think is pretty awesome. The following photos are all taken after the tutoring last Wednesday. I still have a few tweaks I need to get right but I feel I am on the right track, and don't they say yoou get worse before you get better when you are trying to improve a skill?







I have spent the last 2 weeks helping Mum scrap so I don't have ANY layouts to show you all :( But in a couple of days I should have completed my layout for the May challenge at SBO. It is in the final stages, I have just got a little stuck for inpiration. Maybe I will get to it tomorrow when Isaac is sleeping?

APOLLO CAME HOME!!! After 2 and a half days away he is now safe and sound, whew!

TTFN

Blog challenge #28 Movie Monday

Even though it is now Tuesday night here, LOL.

Lisa has asked us to blog about our favourite or most memorable home movie. Well mine has to be the 2 movies of Steve dressed up as a GIRL. Yes you read that right. A few years ago, in fact before we were an item, our Church had annual talent nights. The first time Steve, our minister and 4 other male friends dressed up as ballerinas and danced the sugar plum fairy....hilarious! Picture this, 6 men in tutu's, singlets and sneakers and long socks. White bodies and knobbly knees, prancing around the stage with a huge lack of grace! In the end there is a pile of bodies with men rising from the rubble with pain in there faces. Another year Steve and myself plus some other good friends did a dance thing to Grease, the catch was that the girls were the boys and the boys were the girls. So Steve got to be Sandy and another tall friend was Danny. Steve even wore a bra with socks stuffed in it. There is Steve in a pretty apricot skirt, white tee, and a pretty ribbon in his shoulder length locks, yes it was the era of boys with long hair back then, it was the 80's!!! Tim with a tight skirt and aloof attitude and Norm as sweet as ever in his floofy skirt. The girls got the easy end of the stick, jeans, tees and baseball caps and leather jackets. It was sooooo much fun and I always have a good laugh when we watch it....which reminds me we haven't watched it for a while!.......off to find the video......

P.S new friends always have to be shown these, even if Steve doesn't want them to!

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooo

We have had an uneventful week really but I still don't seem to have blogged. Mum is in town at the moment looking after my sisters 3 boys while sis and her DH are on a well needed break. It is really nice having Mum here and getting to spend quality time with her during the day while the boys are at school. Mum and Isaac are developing a very strong bond which is so nice to see. Mum and I have been scrapbooking. Mum brought a whole lot of photos with her, some of me for me to use at a later date and some for herself that she wanted to scrap. Mum is terrible because she doesn't believe that she has any skills or ideas, but she does!!! So far she has done 3 pages, 2 of which are doubles and they all look great. I will have to take a photo and put them up later. I have managed to finish one and start another in the same amount of time, go figure.

This is the one I have finished. The idea came from a challenge to use 10 different patterned papers at www.scrapgal.com . It has alot of handstitching which I did on and off over a few days. It also has kindy glitz on the chipboard. I like it but I don't LOVE it. But then I never totally love anything I do I can always see some way it could be improved.



I got to watch Tobyn at hockey on the weekend. There team has been promoted to division 1 and like everyone else I thought they would struggle a little. But they were troupers and did REALLY well. They were 2-0 in the first 12 minutes and came throuh to win 5-3. Steve was an extremely proud coach!





Tobyn has his 1st sleepover that wasn't a cousin or Arna since we have been back from America. Ethan and Tobyn had a great weekend and I would have Ethan any time he was a very well behaved little boy!

And last but not least Steve and Tobyn in Steve's new toy. Steve has wanted a kayak for quite a while now and now that his parents have bought a house in Kinloch it was a good excuse to get one. We took it down to the lagoon and the boys had a fun short first go.


And anyone that reads this please send some positive thoughts our way right now. Our second cat Apollo is missing. We last saw him last night before we went to bed and he didn't come in for his b'fast this morning and he has still not shown up. Tobyn is feeling very sad and it would be such an awful loss to have lost 2 cats in such short succession!!!

Back to it. Blog challenge #25

Scrapgal challenge today by Shandy. Shandy asked us to blog about National Scrapbooking Day. Considering this seems to be an American happening there wasn;t any events around here. Maybe next year I should organise something myself and start the trend here too.

Shandy also posed the question how and why you got into scrapbooking.

I first found out about scrapbooking when I was invited to a creative memories evening. I loved the idea of creating memory album for my children, grandchildren etc. BUT, I didn't like the style or price of CM. I didn't think any more of it until 3 years later when we moved to America and a good friend was also interested in SB'ing and it's all uphill from there. I love the creative side of it as much as the story telling. I wish I had more time to scrap, but I know that I will get more when Isaac is older and that time will come all too soon!

Unfortunately I also spent the weekend feeling rotten. Bad headcold. My darling husband pretty much took on looking after the boys for most of the weekend and I got to sleep in both days. I am feeling alot better now, but Steve has come down with it now. Hopefully the boys don't get too sick!

TTFN

Websters Wednesday, things I know for sure

OK so Lisa at scrapgal sure likes is to use our brains! Today we are to blog three things we know for sure. This was pretty challenging for the old brain in the morning!

1. Having children is a precious gift and I am SO fortunate to have 2 happy healthy boys!

2. Chocolate cures any ills and worries and is also great when celebrating. And that is in any form, chocolate cake, hot chocolate, chocolate dessert, a chocolate bar, and the list goes on.

3. Weeds never stop growing!!! And I need to go weed my vege patch, which at the moment has no veges in it!

I scrapped today, YAY

So I had this challenge to do all month, due by midnight 30th April. What is today? 1st of May, yep I got it done today, LOL!!! So here it is anyway. I love a challenge that makes me do a double layout with lots of photos because I find them very hard to do! And I am sorry about the photo, I don't have a scanner.

Blog challenge #22 Movie Monday

So this Monday is all about me:

My Movie would be called: It's Time for a Change

Who would play me? Well I would like it to be Meg Ryan, but it would be more likely to be Kathy Najimy (sp?) or Roseanne Barr (though I am not as loud as Roseanne)

Memorable line everyone would be saying: Hello gorgeous.