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Monday 28 April 2008

introducing.........

DUCHESS DIAMOND SHEPPARD-MORRIS
aka "Duch"
she arrived to our happy little home yesterday and we just love her.
Indi has taken really well to dutch too and are playing really happily together which is a blessing.

Saturday 26 April 2008

note to self

for future reference.....
when spraying Shanice's hair with coloured hair spray for dress up costume parties and such like DO NOT spray her hair in layers which entails spraying the entire contents of her hair. ONLY spray the top layer where people see!

This is also good advice for others reading this blog that may not have come across episodes using coloured hair spray.

Friday 25 April 2008

ANZAC day

we didn't do too much today to celebrate Anzac day, but we did stop and remember.
I love explaining the meaning of anzac day to the kids each year it give me such a good feeling of pride.

Mum and Mandy came over for lunch today. They came with pressies too. Connor got 3 new bionicles and shanice got a new doll (a series of dolls she has been collecting). So we spent some time building anf playing. We ate cupcakes and blueberry muffins with our coffee (coke in my case and lime, lime and bitters in mandys).
The kids had an MCR (My Chemical Romance) party to go to at 3pm, so we decided to get dressed an hour before hand so we had time to do spray their hair black and do their faces. Since it was a but of a goth party i went and got all black make up yesterday and pale foundation. The kids looked unreal, then they looked in the mirror and started crying cause they were scared! God bless 'em! so we wiped the heaviness off and re-did their foundation and a little bit on their eyes.
Mum and Mandy left when i took the kids to the party. They were invited to sleep over so i packed them some clothes and a sleeping bag. So far so good, i've had no phone calls to come and pick them up yet.
Anthony and i have watched 2 movies together this afternoon. This never, ever happens. we watched "Death at a Funeral" which was hilarious, then we watched "1408" and it was great. Really spooky but not scary until right at the end when i screamed, lol. Both are a definite watch. I said thanks to anthony, and i've now ventured into the backroom to sew a few more bags while the place it quiet.

Here are a few pics of our day today.
on the scrapping front.... nothing since tuesdays creations BUT i have had sooooo many ideas racing around that i've written them down and even started pre-planning them with photos, papers, embellies and such like. I'm loving having all this creativeness come back, cause it's been gone so long!
I'm off on a scrap night down to Alison J's house tomorrow night which i'm looking forward too. we're discussing some very exciting things that i will be able to announce very soon.

Thursday 24 April 2008

holidays

i think this is for my own little record so i dont forget..... so feel free just to skim, i wont be offended, lol.

Saturday 12th April - i went up to mums for the weekend. The four of us - Me, mum, mandy and connor went down to Mooney Mooney workers club for lunch and it was divine! After lunch mandy and i took connor to hornsby to get a few things while we let mum have 5 minutes. I got another charm for my pandora necklace - the silver ball with a gold crown, cause i'm a princess! That night i was going out to dinner with my girlfriends from school, dallas rang so we could meet up at the club for a drink before dinner at Thai Tables. I love these girls, they all know me so well, sometimes better than i know myself which is dead set scary.

Sunday 13th April - Mandy had invited her friend Tash over for lunch. Tash was bringing hubby Richard but as he'd be the only male he'd probably feel left out, so Natasha's mum came instead. They are such a lovely family and we all have so much in common. I know why Mandy has such a good friend in Tash!

Monday 14th April - home day. Gotta love that!

Tuesday 15th April - Scrappy day at Nic's. Me and the kids spent the whole day at nicole's. I brought over a massive quiche for lunch which was very noice! I think i spent more time chatting, but i semi finished one layout.

Wednesday 15th April - because shanice was home sick the week before, i went to work so i wasn't too far behind money wise. mum had the kids for me cause we were going to spend the next couple of days up there. Sharon invited us over for dinner, cause she moved in next door to mum's which is handy for the kids just to run next door to play.

Thursday 16th April - we were invited over to Dal's for our school holiday catch up and lunch, mum included which was so nice. It's normally just me and the kids, tanya and amber. unfortunately amber couldn't come along this time but melissa and her 2 girls Jessica and Mia came which was great. I haven't seen jessica since she was about 6 months old and i've never met mia. the 6 kids all played really we together doing lots of craft, playdoh and creative playing. I lurve lunch at Dal's! she always puts on the most amazing spead.


makayla and shancie

Friday 17th April - rain, down pours and all we headed off to the reptile park at gosford again. we love having the yearly pass. because of the bad weather the kids really couldn't run off and do their own thing and they had to stay with us. it poured all the way up but for the 3 hours we were there, there was not one drop! i suprized by the amount of people there even with the bad weather.
for lunch we headed up to tugerah cause mum wanted to look for a new plasma tv. i think we spent another 3 hours in the home centre! spotlight was the first stop where i bought the first lost of fabric to make the little knitting bags, then we headed to bing lee to check out the tv's. being girls we dont know much about them and it was rather funny. the only question we knew to ask was if it needed to have a separate set top box to receive HD - inpressive, considering. we chose one that wasn't huge as it's only going in the sitting room, and it was a good reputable brand. next stop bunnings - DANGER!!!!! we love bunnings, lol. the kids ended up with these trolley things and of course mum had to have one in adult size. i got 3 flexiable baskets in lime green, then we realise - CRAP! we still have to get the tv in the back of the Forester!. So the kids had their trolleys between their legs and mums on the seat between them - the funniest sight.
Saturday 18th April - I needed a tracy fix and because trac came back from her holiday early i was able to go for a visit earlier than planned - YAY!!!! Anthony was down the farm and was coming home that night so i told him to stop in on his way past so i could pull mu finger out and make sure i was home early. well, anthony shows up and say's "let's stay for dinner", lol. i live spending time down and tracy's. i wish she lived across the road or i lived in the house behind her that keeps coming up for sale, but it would take a shit load of convincing to get anthony to come around to that one! As i mentioned in yesterdays post Trac helped me with constructing a pattern for my little knitting bags - so we did do something and not just chat.
Sunday 19th April - Flissy came home with us last night to stay for a few days. i was hoping that sunday was going to be a home day, well the morning started out that way. i managed to do some online shopping which i never do. i was watching some old duran duran video clips on the tv and remided me of a movie that mandy and used to love as kids so i jumped on the net to see if i could find it - well amazon does! so i added it to my cart and then looked at a few kore oldies i loved, then anthony comes in and order season 1,2 & 3 of "What's new Scooby Doo", i think it's for him not the kids, lol. Well that is how to spend $180 without trying, lol.
i did need to go grocery shopping and i wanted to go back to spotlight and buy more fabric and anthony needed to go to super cheap auto to get some bits for the mini. we started at spotlight where i spent way too much money, then while we were in the centre there was a Rivers outlet centre, so anthony got a jacket, all 3 kids got gorgeous ugg boots, connor got a beautiful pair of dress sneakers. everything was real cheap, so scored some great bargains. well, that was the most excitement for the day.
Monday 20th April - connor started his swimming lessons this morning. so while he did his lesson the 2 girls got to have a play in the pools. we stayed after connors lesson too as we had no plans for the day. bout time, another home day.
Tuesday 21st April - another swimming lesson, and the 2 girls played while the lesson was going on. after that was tuesday scrappin at nic's. trac met me there for a little scrap time. 6 screaming kids cooped up inside cause it was raining is not ideal scrapping atmospear, but it was still fun. Trac came back over after to have dinner with us and pick up all of miss fliss's belongings. trac sewed a few bags for me while i talked, lol.
Wednesday 22nd April - swimming again. as we had no plans for the day i let the kids have a long swim after the lesson - i was really enjoying my book and didn't want to put it down, lol. I came home and wanted to accomplish so many things but i was feeling a bit fluy and every time i sat in my chair i fell asleep. i must have done it twice before anthony came home. when anthony did come home i did dinner sat in my chair and fell into the deepest sleep. i went to bed till about 9.30pm and got up for a little while, cause it would drive me nuts to wake in the middle of night instead.
And TOADY - Thursday 23rd April - our last day of swimming. while i was sitting there at swimming reading my book trac rang. Fliss had left her favourite bear at our house, and i know what that is like. so trac was going to mac square at campbletown which is about half way, so we met her there. i had to get a birthday present for the kids for tomorrow and some make up for the dress up party. let me just say it was a tiring day. 11 days of rain has taken it's toll on the 4 kids and they are getting a bit hypo.
i got home and anthony wanted to go down and get a few things from plumpton which was fine, but i went to pay for some rhinestones and brads when i realized i'd lost $50 - i was spewing!
so that's me up to date....... congratulations if you got this far!

Wednesday 23 April 2008

feeling blah!

i think it is the beinging of the flu or it could be that we have had 11 days of rain in a row and the kids are starting to climb the walls. considering they have been great.
today i told them after swimming that we were to come home and clean bedrooms. connor, bless his little cotton socks, pulled out everything from his waredrobe because he has 3 pairs of thongs and we could only find 1 from each pair. so he went thru everything and yes he did find the missing 3 things! at least now the wardrobe door shuts.

i had a massive order arrive that took 2 hours to sort. i think that was mainly cause my head was feeling pretty nasty and i had to count everything twice. the kits for the July retreat are almost finished and looking rather chunky! i had to go and buy bigger storage containers and rearrange the shelving until for them.

speaking of July, i counted my customer listing today (i'm behind on the paper work, i know) and we have only 13 spots left - WOOO HOOOO!!!!! i'm so pleased with that result. Plus my first ad is coming out in scrapbooking memories the month before too, so hopefully, fingers crossed it will sell out.
what else is new - plenty, lol.
over the school holidays we've had scrapping days at Nic's. Thanks nic for putting up with my noisy kids, lol. Did you eat all that bacon???? Both tuesdays were considered school holiday scrap days, i did consider wearing my pj's but the jeans were looking just as comfy.
here are my efforts....... not bad considering the talking and procrastination i was doing.

The Brown Eyed Girl lo i hand stitched the bottom and top edges - and i am sooooo not a sewer!
The "two of a kind" lo, i took a page out of Nic's book and decided to only use up scraps. The only full piece was the background cardstock. I felt so good after completely that lo, just because it was all made from small scraps that i could justify throwing away.
I've been making bags! No photos yet as the camera's batteries died yesterday and i forgot to put them on charge. Last week when i was up at mums i saw in a magazine this cute little fabric bag that goes over your arm while you're knitting to hold your wool so it doesn't get tangled. I thought to myself i could make some of these for the kids school fair coming up in september, and some for the mother's day stall. My problem was i'm not a sewer and couldn't really come up with a good pattern and try and think of the best way possible to sew it all together so it didn't look crap. Insert gorgeous friend HERE______! I was headed down to tracy's house for our school holiday get together and thought she's a fantastic/genius sewer, she can help, lol. Well, she did and helped me create the pattern and together we came up with the best way to sew it - she sewed i talked! So sunday was another trip to spotlight to get more fabric (cause apparently i didn't buy enough on friday) and i then sat and cut out 13 bags ready to sew.
Trac came up on tuesday to collect Felicity as she stayed with us for a few days, and sewed some more for me, lol. told you i'm not a sewer!
i suppose i should be getting my butt off to bed and getting some rest so this yuckiness doesn't turn into a full blow cold. i have more to share about the school holidays, so i will be back again tomorrow - stay tuned

Friday 11 April 2008

see

i can scrap!
It's taken a week of procrastination to do it but i did, lol


and i am super proud of myself i even got another layout ready including papers, cardstock and photo chosen ready to go. now i'm just waiting for inspiration to strike - yep don't like my chances but you never know!

anthony is having an early mark from work today and we are going to see Nim's Island. i dont know about the kids but i'm looking forward to seeing it.
Anthony is now going to be working in sydney for the next 5 weeks which is good cause he will be home every night and on weekends but he'll be pulling BIG hours so we actually wont see much of him, so this is going to be our little treat as a family before it all starts.
School hols start tomorrow. i honestly dont know how i feel bout that. i'm looking forward to the sleep ins but so far i think half is already booked up with things to do.
I'm teaching my CUPCAKE class at scraploot tomorrow which is exciting. i think there are still places if you want to come along. it's going to be a day of "no diet day" projects.

Thursday 10 April 2008

new toys

the sheppard-morris's are sooooooo doing their part to boost the economy, which probably isn't helping the inflation rate - sorry bout that!
yesterday Anthony met me at the shops so we could have a bit of lunch and he could give me money for shanice's lesson.well, while we were there i mentioned that connor has been reading these Zac Power novels and has finished 2 over the weekend and that Kmart has the other 8 we are missing. so off we go to kmart to get the books, we also bought anthony a book, shanice a book, and 4 dvd's (yes i know i work in a video shop, lol).
we got some lunch and remembered that we needed a new, cheap and really small dvd player for our bedroom as ours broke the night before, so we had to go past jb hi-fi on the way out so we picked up a $90 player for only $50 - bargain!

i saw 2 printers i wanted and mentioned them to Anthony. so after work we went back and bought me them - YAY!!!!!
The all in one was reduced from $280 down to $120 - bonus and the laser jet (which is what i need for Scrap Girls as it's so much cheaper to print off bulk) was a brand new one in stock as the display one's had all gone and the guy gave it to us for the same sale price as the old one $100 - DOUBLE BONUS. the new ink jet has 6 ink cartridges which is great.

I am so happy with my new toys.




i have another new toy on it way too. this one is rather on the large side.
probably wont be ready till june/july. and i am soooooo looking forward to playing with it.
it has all the options i wanted, except a dvd player for the kids but we can put that in later.


this is the 4x4 model, mine will be only the 2x4 and mine will have a hard, lockable tonneau.
i decided against the Tritton which is what i desperately wanted cause it looks pretty and comes in this pretty blue colour - it's a girl thing! i'd have to get no extra's on the tritton but with the ranger i can get all the extras i want cause we will be buying 3 (one for me, one for anthony and one for micheal f-i-l)
i soooooo excited. after years and years of waiting and hard work things are starting to finally go right for us.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

sick kids and scrapping mojo

here i am, suppose to be at work today, but shanice is sick again!
she work early this morning barking her head off, complaining of a really sore throat and running a high temp. so i quickly rang mum as i was to open the shop this morning and good ol mum came to my rescue again and is working for me so shanice can stay at home rather me take her out in the cold to let mum have her for the day.
both shanice and connor had monday off as they were both sniffing, sneezing and looking awful. i think i was having a guilty mummy moment being away from them for 4 days. so we had a home day, which was really nice.

on a different note i think my scrapping mojo has returned! all that inspiration from the weekend has brought back my own creativity which i thought i'd lost.
now i'm a bit of a procrastinator so for me to create just one layout will take days of preparation, lol. so yesterday i went and got almost 500 photos printed at Clive Peter's (15c a print!!! YAY), i spent last night putting them in order of events and when they were taken, all i have to do today is bag them up and put them in a photo box. i think seeing all those new photos with the possibility of scrapping has also helped bring back the mojo. i've been dieing to scrap the photos from our week away at Smiths Lake back in December - yes i'm that far behind in printing my pics.

thank you to all of you that left me a message. i was starting to think i was the only one reading my own blog - commit me now! LOL.

now for all those pics i've been promising.
i've done them in collages to save some room. there is pics from Shanice's 9th birthday, Easter and the Scrap Girls Cropfest from last weekend.

thanks for dropping by.




Monday 7 April 2008

tired

well........ i'm back from our Scrap Girls Retreat.
what a great weekend. i had such an excellent time with such a great bunch of ladies. i'm hoping they had an awesome time like me and got more scrapping done than me, lol. that wouldn't be hard as all i did was finish off my trading cards! all 9 of them, lol.
Mandy did a fabo job of cooking again. i think she may even have it down pat by now. but unfortunately she wont be able to come again for a while as I HAVE A HUGE SECRET SUPRIZE!!!!!!!
i've had both the kids home with me today as they were both snuffly with the flu and i thought it was a good day to have a home day with mum. i did have to pop into school this afternoon as i had a parent/teacher interview with Shanice's teacher. i had a proud mummy moment as her teacher told me she was an excellent student who finishes her work and gets a book to read from her under desk and reads that rather than distract the other students and fidget while waiting - yay, i've done something right! i explained to mrs gordan about shanice be severly dyslexic and that the said that explains why she is slightly under where she expects the year 4 kids to be at with their reading and writing (paragraphs and sentances lengths) skills. I am so proud of my baby. she is a confident little girl who has a huge hurdle to deal with for the rest of her life.

tomorrow i have a plan........
1. to put away the couple of boxes that are left from the retreat
2. go thru all my girl guide stuff so i can give it all back (and reuse the pink box for scrap girls goodies)
3. run some errands and go to clive peters and print the photos from the weekend
and 4. update my blog with a months worth of pictures

dont forget when stopping by to leave a message, i'd love to find out that i'm not the only person reading my blog, lol!!!!!

Tuesday 1 April 2008

just a mum

my mum sent me thru this and i just had to share.

A woman, renewing her driver's license at the County Clerk 's office, Was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.
"What I mean is, " explained the recorder, "do you have a job or are you just a .?"
"Of course I have a job," snapped the woman. "I'm a Mom."
"We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation, 'housewife' covers it," Said the recorder emphatically. I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall.
The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like, "Official Interrogator" or "Town Registrar."
"What is your occupation?" she probed.
What made me say it? I do not know. The words simply popped out.
"I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations."
The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and looked up as though she had not heard right.
I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
"Might I ask," said the clerk with new interest,"just what you do in your field?"
Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself reply,
"I have a continuing program of research, (what mother doesn't)
In the laboratory and in the field, (normally I would have said indoors and out).
I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family)
And already have four credits (all daughters).
Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humani ties, (any mother care to disagree?)
And I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it).
But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers
And the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money."

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she Completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door. As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3. Upstairs I could hear our new exper imental model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development program, testing out a new vocal pattern. I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! And I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than "just another Mom."

Motherhood! What a glorious career! Especially when there's a title on the door.