a christmas round up.........

i love christmas, it's my favourite time of year. the one day out of 365 days where everyone is nice and no one fights, lol, well that's my christmas wish every year and it comes true.

christmas morning was a rather early one this year with shanice being so excited that she was up at 4am and ran in to us, "He's been mummy, he's been daddy. Can we open our presents now?". my reaction - ummmm NO!!!! so she went back off to bed and put on a dvd and every 15 minutes kept coming back in asking if she could get up now. at 5.30am we caved in and let her go wake up connor.

the present opening was over in about 20 minutes, which was pretty good going, then came the opening of toy boxes and i swear you need a university degree to open some of them.

anthony's mum and dad and his siter shell and husband mark came over at 7.45am on their way up to emu heights to ant's other sister's place for breakfast. if i thought my lounge room was trashed before i was wrong, big time.

it's now 6 days after christmas and my lounge room still looks messy and i've cleaned, lol.

at about 11am we headed up to my parents for christmas lunch, which i just love. the kids got totally spoilt rotten again! and so did i saying i had my christmas present in october (early i know, my parents paid for me to go to the hunter for the weekend with my old school friends).

we had seafood for starters - prawns, oysters and balmain bugs my favourite! and then a huge hot chrissy lunch.

they kids played out the back with new roller blades and in the paddling pool just to get wet. then they ended up next door at dawns in the pool with the boys.

it was a wonderful day and everyone had so much fun. connor wanted to stay at mum and dads the night cause the end day we were going on our first canyon.

so early boxing day morning anthony, shanice and myself drove to the zig zag railway to meet up with my parents and connor.we all went in dads ute as the road in was really rough, and he wasn't kidding either, i think i wobbled off about 5 kilos of fat, lol.

the walk in to the glow worm tunnel was lovely, really easy walk which was great cause i'm still not feeling 100% and after doing a few things i'm buggered. at the end of the tunnel which is pitch black is the canyon which leads back to the main walking track.

shanice was so brave in the tunnel, so is petrified of the dark. we turned off out flash light to see the glow worms which were amazing.

the walk only took about 1.5 hours which was a good time for the kids. the walk thru the canyon was a bit tricky for connor but he loved it. he was so tired i ended up having to carry him out. which i expected, but i was exhausted from it.

we had some lunch before driving back to the car. i came home and flacked for 2 hours, lol.

we saw some wildlife which was great, and amazing for the kids to see animals not behind a cage. we saw grey kangaroo which were huge i thought they were logs at first (well we were in a pine platation), glow worms, a brown snake and a goanna. no piccies though, they move to too quick.

we headed down the farm for a few days on the 28th. it's good to have a relax. i packed some scrapping stuff just in case but it never came out of the bag, lol.

so now we're home. shanice has a fluctuating temperature and is not too well, so it looks like I'll be staying home tonight and anthony will be taking connor to friends house for new years. suits me though, i'm not a huge fan of new years at all.

so....... thanks to everyone for popping by this year. haope you all have a safe and happy new years.

cheers

kylie

almost forgot - TAGGED!!!

almost forgot...... Sheree tagged me last week while i was sick

Tag Your It

A - Available or single: neither
B - Best Friend: tricky! my sister Mandy
C - Cake or Pie: pie
D - Drink of choice: Coke
E - Essential Item you use everyday: chap stick
F - Favorite color: pink
G - Gummy Bears or worms: gummy bears
H - Hometown: Cowan
I - Indulgence: quiet time alone
J - January or February: January
K - Kids & Names: 2 - a pigeon pair, Shanice & Connor
L - Life is Incomplete Without? my family
M - Marriage Date: 22 January 2000
N - Number of Siblings: 1 younger sister Mandy
O - Oranges or Apples: apples
P - Phobias or Fears: falling and/or heights
Q - Fave Quote: "We're not lost. We're locationally challenged!" - John M. Ford
R - Reason to Smile: 2 happy and healthy and busy kids
S - Season: winter
T- Tag 3 or 4 people: you're joking - how about anyone who reads this PLEASE! lol
U - Unknown Fact about Me: i arrange my dvd's in alphabetical order (we have over 500 and i work in a video shop so - habit!)
V- Vegetable You Don't Like: eggplant
W - Worst Habit: nail biting
X - Xrays: zero
Y - Your Fave Food: anything i haven't had to cook
Z - Zodiac Sign: virgo

catching up

were do i start. i said in my last post i was going to catch up on the kids last week of school stuff and that was 2 weeks ago! well, i do have a very good reason for not getting to it i must say.
On the first week of my kids school holidays, i woke up on the tuesday and felt like utter crap, so i managed to crawl to the lounge room and stayed there for the entire day and watched Spongebob with the kids. I called work cause i just didn't think i'd be up to going the next day and Anthony organized for his mum to have the kids cause appartently i sounded awful.
good thing he did cause on wednesday i hit the wall, i couldn't get out of bed, couldn't keep anything down. Anthony came home early without the kids to get me to the doctors cause i couldn't walk let alone drive. The doc took one look at me and down my throat and i have a servre case of tonsilitis.
didn't it knock me for six. i've never in my life been so sick, so sick i couldn't eat for 4 days or get out of bed. tv didnt even encourage me, i just wasn't interested.
by the sunday i thought i was feeling a little better, well sick of doing nothing with the house went all pear shaped around me and i couldn't do anything about it. i thought i was up for some grocery shopping - NUP i was wrong that wiped me for the rest of the day.
so each day i started getting a little better. fevers, cold sweats and body aching even with the water from the shower hitting my skin was killing me. so i dragged myself to the docs again on monday. i was convinced that i couldn't have tonsilitis, it can't last this long and make me so sick. but yes it can if you have it bad enough - lucky me!
today is now friday and i'm still not 100%. still got my glands up and feeling like i have a flu that just wont break. but at least the worst is behind me. at least i managed not to share with anyone, i so wouldn't have forgiven myself if i did and they were sick over christmas.
so that's been me over the past 12 days.

before all this we had a really full on last week of term (4-7 dec). all of out activities finished in the same week which was great timing just made for a busy, busy week.
the highlight was definatley the kids presentation night. i'm so proud of both of my gorgeous kids. we have had a very trying year with both of them - connor and his anger issues and poor shanice being diagnosed with dyslexia. but we have made light at the end of both the tunnels for our kids, these issues will still be with us and we will always be getting thru them but they are more managable you could say now.
connor got a speacial award for dilegence - yep that got both me and anthony and we had to come home and look it up in the dictionary, lol. for those like us it means caring and persevering in carrying out duties.
connor was also asked to be part of the K-6 special dance group. i was rolling on the floor when the note came home for this one, my son with no rhythm, lol. well the teacher in charge said it was for the "cuteness factor". but he did me proud. connor does have rhythm more then most of the other kids and he had this personality on stage that just stood out and that's not just me saying that as his very biased mum. i had parents stopping me as i walked back to my seat saying how great he was and even his teacher was woo hooing him, lol.
he has just come so far this year and made such a HUGE turn around that it so hard to belive what a totally different kid he is today from 9 months ago. YEP - I'm a proud, proud mum!

beginning to look like CHRISTMAS

The chrissy tree finally made it's appearance at our house on friday - YAY!!!!!

So the house is now decked out in all our little christmas trinkets. The kids had a wonderful time on friday decorating the tree with mum while i taught a class. They did a fantastic job too, it is so well balanced that i haven't moved a single ornament. And even if it was i still wouldn't move it cause it's special.

i did take a few piccies today cause i thought i'd better pull my finger out and start to do a few christmas pressies. So i decided that i do 3 of the projects from Kim Archer's christmas extravaganza.

here are a few of the piccies

we had a massive week last week, so tomorrow is the day for catch up so i will post more then.

off to start the chrissy pressies..........

that pool!!!!

YES!!!!!!! the infamous pool is up.

It finally went up on Monday night. It was quite cool outside but kids being kids instisted to go in while it was filling.

Thank goodness it was in time before Tuesday cause it was a stinker, so much so that I contemplated sitting in it, lol.

well it's now friday, hot again and that's it i'm going to try and find those bloody swimmers and i'm going to go and sit in the water.

new lo's

Sue has just uploaded my latest layouts for Scraploot, so i thought i'd share.

There was a 4th, but i forgot to scan it beofre giving it to Sue, so instead here is the lo i did for the class i taught on friday night for my beginners, which is a knock off of my "best of friends" lo above.

HAPPY DANCE!!!!!!

happy dance, happy dance.

I was up late last night watching csi and an ad came on the tele saying that season 3 of my favourite, favourite show is coming back on - YAY!!!!!

I wasn't shown over last christmas break so we just presumed it wasn;t going to come back, so for my birthday this year Anthony bought it from America of DVD for me. I watched all of the episodes within 4 days and I loved every minute of it and can't wait for next August when season 4 is released.

So what am i waffling on about..........

i know corny it is, but i just love it. and funniest thing is Anthony hates that sort of show and i persisited in watching them over and over on dvd he finally got hooked too and loves it, lol.

cranky pants

This would be the best way my children have described me this week. It seems that every minute both Shanice and Connor have been awake all week from 6am Monday morning they have argued, fought and been nasty to each other. I even caught them in the playground on Tuesday afternoon hitting each other.

So consequently all I've seemed to have done is yell. It has given me such a bad headache all week and I'm just exhausted from it all.

Why do the little terrors do this?

So last night after our second huge argument I sent them straight to bed about 1 hour early cause I'd had enough. There was no reading and definitely no tv's on in their rooms. After about 30minutes I'd calmed down and went in there to talk to each of them.

I hated being this horrible yelling/screaming nasty woman. i hate it!!!!!!

I was hoping this morning we'd rise to a better day. it lasted maybe 20 minutes, so that's a plus. I had to ask them 7 times to put on their shoes and socks for school. grrrr!!!! Let's hope this afternoon is easier.

I got the email from my parents with Connor's proper birthday cake.

Every year my sister, Mandy, has the job of making the kids their birthday cakes. Mandy is so patient to do them even though she works really long hours, I don't know how she finds the time. They are always really elaborate cakes too that the kids pick. This year was no different!

Connor found in one of the books a Volcano cake! Complete with spewing lava, sparklers and all sorts. When I emailed Mandy the list on ingredients I think she had heart failure:

4 litres Neapolitan ice cream
340gr packet of chocolate cake mix
¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
¼ cup water
1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut
Green colouring
40cm round prepared board
600ml thickened cream
¼ cup (25g) cocoa powder
2 tablespoons icing sugar mixture
4 X 375g packets of rocky road
4 X 50g violet crumble bars
½ cup thick strawberry topping
5 sparklers

OMG!!! would be the best way to describe it! She sent Ben out to buy it all and then she phoned me "Kylie we had to buy $30 of Rocky Road!" OMG AGAIN!!!!

Anyway the cake was a success and we all loved it. I reckon it was the best cake yet!

weather?

someone please tell me what the deal is with CRAZY weather???
It is so hazy outside today due to the fires in the Blue Mountains. But the washing had to be done! So me thinks what a great day to sit inside with the air conn cranked and do a little scrappin. Stuff the housework it will still be there tomorrow.

OOOO... forgot to mention how my class went on Friday night. There was only 2 ladies there plus my mum. they really enjoyed it and asked me to come back this friday and they will organize more ladies to come along. YAY!!!

CONNOR'S 6

OMG!!!!!! how did that sneak up on us?

What makes it more unbelievable is that he was born on a Sunday too.

My special little bloke is growing up far too fast. So I told him tonight after his shower that now he's six he'll have to dress himself after drying himself. NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Connor didn't want a big birthday party this year, he asked if we could take him to Taronga Zoo. Of course we invited all the family, godparents and close family friends. We took a picninc lunch with us and for birthday cake (which reminds me, MUM send me pics of the cake from yesterday-whole other story) made of donuts - yum and don;t forget the lolly bags.

It was a glorious day, as per normal I caked the kids in sun cream and forgot myself only to come home burnt on my neck - again!

The kids all had an absolute ball watching all the different animals. The repitle enclosure is my favourite followed by the gorillas and i love taking photos of he giraffes.

Speaking of which, I threw the camera in Shanice's bratz backpack to carry around this morning and somehow the camera switched on and by the time we got to the batteries were flat - grrrrr!!!! so off we go to grit our teeth and pay zoo prices for batteries. trust me i wont do that again.

here's some pics from today.

On our trip home, stuck on hideous traffic coming thru Mossman, I asked both the kids what there favourite part of the day was, which is our normal comig home from school question, and:

SHANICE - "the seal show"

CONNOR - " riding in the elevator with Grandad"

I laughed so hard. How priceless was that answer.

The new elephant enclosure has a glass elevator that you can see into the bottom section of the elephants enclosure. I struggled to get him in it the first time, you can either take the stair or the escelators, but i thought the elevator would be fun. He loved it and everytime I went to turn my back he was conning my dad into taking him back for a ride, lol. Money well spent I say!

We were exhausted, all of us, the kids finally went to sleep at about 8.30pm after an hour of us constantly putting them back in there rooms. I think they were a little over tired.

Then I had to make a start on the cupcakes ready for school tomorrow. All 27 of them plus extras for the 2 kindy staff and 2 kindy teachers aids, plus an extra one again for the piggy kindy teacher (sorry Tan, lol). That certainly kept me busy while watching and laughing at that new dancing show.

another retreat all over......

I can't believe it's all over again. I've only just finished unpacking from the retreat on the weekend. Yes I know it's taken 5 days but I've had the lurgy since last friday.
Thanks to everyone that came along and made it such a great weekend. I had a blast and I hope you did too. Don't know about you but I certainly haven't eaten that much this week, I'm still full from all the food at camp.
Sheree, i know you'll read this, but i need to get this out there, you are one of my dearest and closest of friends and I could not have done this with out you, thank you so so so much.
Alison, you are awesome. Thank you for coming and being our FAMOUS teacher, lol. Those 2 classes you did were fantastic. Hope you will join us again for another retreat.
I have no piccies to share yet as, typical me, didn't take any with her camera, so when I have got copies off everyone's I'll share.

well, just a quick catch up for today, I've heaps more to share, but I've got my first class on tonight and I need to go and get all organized for that. wish me luck!

i met elsie!!!!!

I must admit i LURVED Elsie's class. I was a little bit apprehensive about going cause as much as I lover her ideas I'm not really hugely keen on her style. I think doing this class changed my mind a little bit.

It was so much fun and really relaxing. I could believe that I sat in a scrap class for 4 hours! And didn't get bored and frustrated.

Sheree took a few photos and I'll post some here when she sends me thru some copies.

We did the stroll thru paper arts before class. There was heaps of cool stuff. I was so tempted to buy heaps, but I resisted up until the very end when I bought this super dooper Heidi Swapp 597 piece Embellishment Collection, how could you walk past it for only $50? The best part was some of the pieces I use all the time and some I've just run out of, so bonus there.

It's less than a week till Scrap Girls Cropfest which is very exciting and very stressful at the same time. I have a crazy week ahead of me with only today and tomorrow that I can finish preparing for. I'm at work both Wednesday and Thursday and Friday we got Shanice in for her 3 hour assessment at the learning centre.

So I'd better stop chatting and start getting my butt into gear.

woo hoooo..... some news

i have been keeping a little secret!

Sue from Scraploot asked me yonks ago if I'd be interested in doing some design team layouts for her. Of course I'm not going to knock that back, lol. So sue gave me my first pack filled to the brim with all sorts of new and unreal goodies a few weeks again.

On Saturday the last 4 member of the Scraploot DT were announced.

Sue and Craig have such great goodies in store, and always have heaps in stock so none of that backorder crap. And the best part is, they only live 5 minutes from my house - YAY!!!!

So here are the first few layouts I've done for scraploot.......

well..... in other news, Scrap Girls is less than 2 weeks away and it's all panic here, as per usual.

I just went and got all the Scrap Girls Book of Quotes bound today which we are selling at the retreat to raise funds to buy a Cricut for future retreats.

I think all the kits are packed, just can't see them for all the mess here in the playroom. Sheree is coming over on Thursday to pack everything, cause next week is a crazy week here. I'm working Wednesday and Thursday and then on Friday we finally got Shanice in to the learning center to get assessed, so there goes all day friday.

Sheree and I are off to Elsie at the Paper Arts Festival on Saturday. I'm not a huge Elsie fan, but I do love her ideas. It's going to be so great. Sheree is just jumping for joy with excitement, I reckon she'll even wear her Elsie headband and spotty top just to look like her - she's such a STALKER!!! LOL (in-house joke, sorry guys, lol)

well i better go, the doorbell is ringing, i bet it's more trick or treaters that aren't dressed up.

banning all hoola hoops

The Sheppard-Morris family hereby declare the banning of all hoola hoops.

At 2pm yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from the office ladies at Shanice and Connor's school just letting me know that SHANICE had been hit by a hoola hoop and that around her eye is bruised and grazed. I must have sounded like the worlds worse mum as I just started killing myself laughing. What are the chance of both of you kids having the same accident happen to them in the space of a few weeks??? And the same eye too.

So needless to say I took photos this morning as the grazing had started to appear more.

wine country

well......... i had a fabulous 2 days in the hunter with my girlfriends.

I tasted loads of wine, some of them were just too scrummy for words. I tasted cheese till my tummy got all bloated. And I just enjoyed myself and being with my oldest friends.

Right now, i just can't find the right words to describe my weekend, lol.

I took a few piccies, cause I was far too busy tasting wine. I thought I should take photos of all the wineries we went too.

We stayed in the very tacky Cessnock Pub, which was just too funny and I'm sure we will be talking about that one for years to come.

proud as punch

yep! that's me.
My little block came running up to me in the school yard this afternoon, proclaiming to world that he was picked to host the school assembly next week when its KM turn.
He is just so thrilled. So tonight we rang around all the grandparents and aunties telling them all to take the time off work so they can come and watch him. we don;t have a video camera but i reckon i can borrow one for this day as this certainly is a huge milestone. When we rang my parents Connor got on the phone and read to Grandad all of his speaches that he has to make during the assemby. Dad couldn't believe how clear he was and that I was not helping him.
i'm just SO proud I'm doing little happy dances inside!
at bed time tonigt he read all the speaches again just for practice.

but poor shanice was a little sad because she's never been picked to host her classes assembly. but i told her that i am just as proud of her for all the wonderful things that she can do that Connor isn't good at. It's so hard cause is really trying with her reading and she is improving which I am so proud of.

well, i'm off to the Hunter Valley tomorrow afternoon for 2 whole days away with the girls. The last time we all went away together was for schoolies (we went on the Fairstar-YAY!!!) back ing 1993, so this just going to be so much fun. We are staying in a pub at Cessnock in a room that sleeps 6 singles, so it's going to be like school camp. I cna't wait.
besides the fact that i really need the break, i can't wait for all the girls to be together.

whats with the crazy weather?

Friday & Saturday were absolute stinkers? And today we were back in our winter clothes and I even considered putting the heater on.
I spent about an hour on Thursday cleaning out the air conditioner preparing for the hot, hot, hot weather on Friday and Saturday. I decided that it would be best to stay in doors. Although the heat outside was hot, the sting from the sun was what got you, it was nasty.
Well I managed to scrap up a storm. It's not i often i get the opportunity to do this. I think i fully finished 4 pages, which is huge for me, I'm lucky to get a page a week done.
Can't share these as I have a little secret, lol!!!!

It was Shanice's turn to spend the weekend up at mum and dad's. Mum rang me tonight just to tell me what an absolute pleasure she was. I wish she was like that for me. So i had Connor, and as soon as Shanice left he went in to hypo mode, and he did not stop until 11pm. It was like he'd drunk red cordial straight. I think it was the excitement of not having anyone to fight with for a short while.

Sunday was Kaitlyn's birthday party. The kids had a lovely time, and thank goodness the weather was cooler. I got the job official photographer, thanks Sheree! I did get a bit slack for a while, but Sheree took over. I did score the money shot though. Sheree had organized a surprise of Pinky and Kosi, who Kaitlyn just loves, and i got the photo of Kaitlyn attacking them as they walked in the door - just priceless. I tell you what they were worth every single cent.

We had a pupil free day today. So i took the kids to Nurragingy for an hour. Shanice wanted to take her roller skates and Connor just walked with me. Shanice loves her skates, i might even consider some time at the rink if she gets better. We then went to the playground, i told the kids it was raining the night before so things may be wet, but they never listen, lol. Shanice went flying down the spiral slippery dip straight into a huge puddle and got drenched. Well that was the end of that little adventure.
Ant was home when we got back as his asthma went for six with the crazy weather, so it's been a fun day.

We're back to normal tomorrow, all back at school and I'm back at work on Wednesday - oh yay! (note the sarcasm, lol). So I'd better start packing lunches i guess.

loosing posts

god i hate it when you sit here and type a mamoth post only to loose it! yeah, and don't ask me how i even managed that one, lol.

It was all about the lovely day we had on saturday for dad's suprize birthday party. I've never seen my dad in utter shock and speachless. Needless to say he thoroughly enjoyed hmself.

sooooo..... onto this week. Well another caotic week with school hols. The kids are totally driving me nuts, lol.

Yesterday we went to toowoon bay up the central coast with Sheree and Kaitlyn. We met Kelly up there with her 3 kidlets. It was a glorious day, really sunny with a cool breeze. Of course I packed the sun creme on the kids like I do and then totally forget about myself. Yep, I got lovely red boobs and arms, with a huge white gap on my shoulders from my shirt, lol.

and then that leaves us at today........

At the start of the holiday I bought a book of 5 kids movie tickets at hoyts for $35. great i thought to myself that saves me $20 for kids tickets. after we saw the first movie, barnyard at the start of the hols, i read the fine print..... they all have the expiry date of then on Oct 2006. only 1 month to use them. well, it's a good thing that there is heaps of kids movies on at the moment.

so off we went with sheree and kaitlyn, who must be sick of us now (no comments for the side line sheree, lol) to see The Wild. what a cute little movie.

Sheree and i dragged the kids down to target to find a new Scrap Girls shirt for the weekend away and YAY we did and they are very cute and very pink of course. the kids were very helpful going around getting every shirt that was pink and a skinny size and a fat size, lol.

so tomorrow we are off the visit Dal and Makaylah which we do every school hols. It's nice and warm and tomorrow they say is going to be a stinker so it's a good thing the cosies are packed.

then we're staying at mum and dads and up to umina beach friday morning.

so that's me in a nut shell at the moment. I also managed to get heaps of Scrap Girls stuff done too. The challenge kits are all packed and I've just organized the fabric and ribbon packs to go with them. I've finally worked out how my accounting software prints the receipts not just the invoices. and slowly the stuff is taking over the playroom.

i'm ready........

I'm all geared up for another awesome weekend of BATHURST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes I know, but i just lurve my V8 motorsport. I've actually sent Anthony away to a mates house (about 5 minutes away) to watch it cause he'll just drive me nuts being here, but I'll watch it while doing the ironing, scrapping, playing with kids ect.... where as he won't move.
I'm sooo excited that Scaifie got fastest lap, butwe'll have to see how he goes. Scaife, Muph, Lowes and those bloody Kelly brothers are my Fav's. And I suppose Ingall, but my sister in law, michelle, did not here me say that at all or I wont here the end of it, lol.

holy crap! did you see that doosy of a crash today, my god it was nasty. I had it on while the kids were outside on the tramp and saw it all unfold. I do hope that both the boys are ok.

Ok, off my bathurst box for now.

I met Tricia at Stanhope Gardens yesterday for a swim, well the kids and Trish swam I watched. The pool was crazy, so many kids in it, I'm glad I wasn't a lifeguard......
I took the kids straight up to mum and dads for the night for a sleepover, which is always fun.

Dad was at work today and mum went in to take dad for his appointment with the neaurologist. Nothing has changed, there's no growth or anything which is fantastic news, but still no licence, which dad is completely bummed over.
I think me and kids being there took his mind off things, or at least I hope it did.
While mum and dad were out doing some quotes, i dragged the kids to the shops to get dad a birthday pressie. Mum told me not to get anything as just spending time with us as a family means more to him at the moment, i totally agree, but the kids wanted to pick out a special pressie just for grandad. They chose a West Coast choppers t-shirt for him. Just priceless, pity grandad can't wear it while riding his motorbike at the moment.
While I was spending money, the kids got a brand new outfit each to wear to grandads bithday tomorrow as well as new shoes. ME... i got the usual nothing, lol.
Mum and dad got home around 4ish and we went down to Brooklyn for fish and chios for dinner, yummo. The kids played in the park then walked around the pool and dragged grandad (not much dragging needed) on an adventure up the big bush stairs. Mum and i drove up the top to meet them and then it was time to come home.
sooooo, that's where i am right now thinking i really should put shanice to bed as she's fast asleep on the lounge and i need some sleep myself......

the hoola hoop incident........

ahhhh yes the hoola hoop incedent. It was a week ago that this happened and Connor still has some small graze marks on his face.
I think he must have been going thru yet another growth spurt as the 2 kindy teachers told me that he kept tripping over all day and Connor does this when is feet grow. At lunch time he fell over and other kiddie landed on him and he ended up with this massive googy egg in his hair, then later on at lunch is when the hoola hoop attacked.
Now, I still don't know exactly how it attacked him, but from what I gather another little kindy girl (she's not that little i kid you not she's as big as a 5th grader) was playing with the hoola hoop and it somehow mangaed to collide with Connors face.
It made a perfect ring around his left eye. On the Thursday that it happened if I hadn't have been told what had happen i swear it is the perfect marking of a punch. On Thursday night the swelling was huge. And of course Connor had a headache, well i would too after that day.
So on friday he was still complaining of the headaches so I gave him some panadol and let him stay home with me. It was the last day of term so it wasn't that bad.
I spoke to the other kindy teacher in the afternoon, Tanya, who is my friend for many years, since we we're in primary school (how funny is that), said she was down 10 kids that day, so I didn't feel that bad for keeping him home.

Saturday we took the kids to see Barnyard because i forgot to reply to a brithday party for Shanice. I don;t really like the little girl and her family are very pushy and arogant people and i don't want my kids influenced like that. I felt terrible so the movies was a good subsitute.
I also thought it odd to invite 30 screaming 7 year olds to a birthday party but they have to sit thru the girls baptism first. Maybe that's just me, but my kids wont sit thru that unless i'm there to make sure they behave.

Sunday me and kids headed down to Trac's. Sheree and Kaitlyn were going too. The kids all had so much fun. I managed to do more scrapping than I did last time, lol, I chose my photos and I cut my background cardstock down to 8.5X11, lol, yay for me!!!!!
Trac have a great time in QLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What did we do monday...... oh that's right, lucky me had a touch of bloody gasto. LOVELY!!!!! We were going to the pub for lunch with some friends, but every time I eat............ leave that to your imagination -yuk! so i stayed home and layed on the lounge and slept. by 8pm I'd had enough and got my second wind.

Yesterday I worked, and it being school hols, the day after a public holiday it was absolutly fat chat. All the stock for 2 days came in and we were very busy serving all the customers while trying to new movies on the shelf.
Shanice and I went and had a girly night with Jo and Taleesha and went to the movies and saw Material Girls. I love Hillary Duff! Yes I know very corny, but I do, lol.
The girls loved it.

So that's me up to speed. No, today, ah yes today. Today was spent catching up on the 2 page list i wrote while stuck in traffic yesterday. Most of it is Scrap Girls stuff, and I think I probably only did 1/4 of the stuff on that list. So I'd best get some more done tomorrow, though Id' rather be scrapping!

ups & downs

This week, particularly Tuesday, has been full of them......
I was sooooo excited that I;d received my very first wholesale order, I felt like a kid on christmas morning. I ranger Sheree and asked her to come over and help me unpack it all. Well that took about 2 minutes, lol.
While we were looking at all the goodies, I noticed an email come thru saying URGENT... great another spam email. Boy was I wrong. It was from Kerry at Grace Lodge where we are holding our November Cropfest. In the servere winds that we had on Sunday it completly ripped the roof off the main building and cause serious damage. Unfortulately the repairs will take till mid-december. CRAP!!!!!! So I made Sheree get on the blower, while I replied to Kerry's email, to ring first of all Blue Gum Lodge in Springwood to see if they have any vancancies, the odds weren';t in my favour but you never know. Well, someone must have been smiling on me because they had room - YAY!!!
So the new place is bigger, which is great and so far all our Scrap Girls are willing to travel the extra 15minutes up the mountains which is great.

So, this week has been a little crazy to say the least.

I've been trying to pack all the challenge kits and have now realised that I think I was another "boy" type kit. So I'm off to put in another order next week. I think 3 challenge kits will be enough to pick from. That will also allow for extra kits which the ladies can then purchase if they want.

On a totally different note ......... I CAN'T WAIT FOR SURVIVOR COOK ISLANDS TO START. How juicy does that look? I'm a huge Survivor fan and have even managed to get Ant addicted to it. So the kids will either be shipped off for the night or put in bed extra early even if it is school holidays.

Well, I;m off to pick up Shancie from school. Connor had a sick day as he was attacked yesterday by a hoola hoop - don;t ask, pictures and story will follow in the next day or so. Then on to a million emails that I haven't had a chance to reply to this week. c ya'.

sheree can't pick on me now.....

YAY!!!! Snaps for me, lol. I finally got around and started my Everyday Moments pages for this month tonight. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute. Still got 2 more to go though.
So, Sheree, please don't pick on me now...............
It must have been the inspiration I needed to get all those photos printed.
I even woke up at 1am this morning with a lo in my head for one of the photos I chose and ran out to the playroom to sketch it before I forgot it. Now I look at it and my photos are the wrong orientation, lol. Never mind.



I just showed Anthony and he seems real impressed that I did a photo with him covered in pink and flowers, lol. Well maybe it's showing his feminine side, lol - NOT!!!!!!

2 for today......

well, actually last night.
I finished of one that I started on Wednesday at class, it just needed a photo. Thank god for getting the 200 odd photos printed. And the other one I did for a bit of a scraplift challenge.



I so need to get me some nicer looking alpha rubon'e, those MM are getting a tad bit OLD.......

What a gorgeous day today! It was so nice outside. It would have been nicer if I wasn't cooped up inside cleaning the house.
Ant took the kids to a friends birthday party and I thought YAY! ME TIME, not a chance. I did spend about 15 minutes putting away a stack of papers and cardstock from finished projects. I'm one of those lazy scrappers that sticks her left over's into a pile hoping the "Magic Fairy" will put them away for her.
Then I spent the next hour or MORE ironing - YUCK!!!! I really hate ironing. I was watching a preiview from work though, so that was ok. I watched "The Break Up", and it had me in tears becuase it was looking into a mirror - scary!

So now I'm off the listen to the thud thud of one of our "lovely" neighbours having a party.

odds and sods

I've been doing all sorts of bits n' pieces yesterday and today.
I went up to mums yesterday to give her a hand doing the washing, making the beds and doing the grocery shopping. She's a lot better, but after half an hours of us being out she was sore again. I felt like I helped a bit, but I wish I lived closer so I could help out a lot more.

Today saw me running erands - FUN, FUN!!!!
I did manage to go to Big W to get my photos printed - 217 photos later. That will teach me for putting it off for 4 months. That also included all the happy snaps from when Darrell and Lynsey were her from the UK. So that 1 whole album in it's self, lol.
My grand plan for tonight is to sort thru all the photos and write little notes so I don;t forget anything.

More work to be done in the backyard this weekend. Our neighbours had a huge tree pulled down today so now there is full sun in our backyard which will be sooooo hot, thank god we're putting up a shade sail.

Shanice had a great day today. She brought home her broad bean plant her class has been growing, it broke a little in transit, but grandad should be able to fix it. We have decided to take it up to nan and grandad's on Sunday for Grandad to plant in his vegie patch and look after it for Shanice. It's a good thing me and dad both like broad beans - yes I know - strange!!!!
Shanice can top that, she came home with not 1 but 2 awards today. She got one for receiving 10 tokens in class, and she got a big merit certificate at assembly too for great improvements in maths. I am so proud of her I could just cry.
For those that don't know, she may be dyslexic, and really struggles at school. I have her booked in for an assessment in a few weeks to give me more of an insight.

I shall leave you with this lo I did on Wednesday night at Scrapabout with Alison. They are using yummy AMM papers that are just too cute.
These piccies were taken last week, Shanice and Kaitlyn both got classes within a week of each other and just look too darn cute in them.

the never ending backyard saga....

well that's what it seems like anyway. Last November we bought one of those pools from KMart for $100, well it's still in it's box with the original plastic shrink on it. Becuase of the dog we were too afaid to leave it up in the back yard thinking we'd come home to a back yard underwater cause the dog would have clawed it and broken it. So we decided to put up a fence were the old cubby was, well this became the never ending saga, it seemed get put off at every opportunity, but finally got finished a few months ago.
Winter was here so what was the point! So last weekend Anthony started to unpack all the pavers we'd collected and bring them round the back to start the mamoth job. But it looked like a little jungle on the other side of the fence, lol. So the past weekend Ant spent diggin out the weeds, grass and whatever else was in there.
I am starting to believe that Shanice and Connor may get their pool this summer. It's not huge (2.4 metres) but enough for them to cool off and thats all they really need. Hey if get that hot I may sit in it, lol, I doubt it will ever get THAT hot!

We had a lot of rain last week which was fantastic, and Ant had left the wheel barrow out, I think to catch some of down pour, well it was chokers. So when it fined up, I let the kids out to play and what was the first thing they go to - the water. My initial reaction was "get the camera!", not often this happens, normally I'd start yelling for them to get out of it, but they must have done it on a "good day", I just figured, hey if they get wet they can get changed.
2 days in a row they did this before the water in the wheel barrow got too muddy to play in.