stuck in a rut

i'm in a serious scrapping rut at the moment.

i think about scrapping almost constintally when i'm at home but can't get around to do it and would much prefer to sit and watch tv and do my knitting (btw, i have knitting before it because oh so popular all of a sudden, lol). i'm just making squares to make blankets. i saw a thing on better homes and gardens a few years to sew squares a certain size and then they are all swen together by a group of ladies who give them to the homeless and i thought this was a really nice idea, so hence the reason i knit squares.

anyway, but to my scrapping rut.......... i've done about 8 or so layout lately and i have this grand idea in my head of how i want it to turn out and then...... it all turns to crap! i kid you not all my layouts recently have been utter crap. so bad so that i haven't scanned them at all (i always scran them after i finish them so then i have a record of how many i did each year - this is the anal virgo coming out in me).

i've really been wanting to finish my edm album. i don't want to enter the competition it's just that i've started it and i would really like to finish it. i don;t think i've ever actually finished an album i started. that's probably why i feel like there crap!

there's my bitch and whinge for the day. off to go and tackle another lo!

happy 8th birthday bebe

it's my big girls 8th birthday today - HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANICE

we have had a wonderful weekend of celebrating her birthday. it all started with the sleepover, remid me not to do this again! lol. 5 screaming 8 year olds plus connor, you can just picture it. all they did friday night was squeal the place down, thank god sheree was here to keep me from going insane, thanks sheree!

the girls did say it was the best sleepover ever so i'm guessing they all had a great time.

sunday we went to mandy's for a family birthday bbq. it was so good, dad came around for an hour and a half which was just fantastic. dad has also learnt a new trick which was just hysterical, the arm he can't move very well, he can now if he consentrates hard enough can stick his middle finger up at us all, at least he hasn't lost his sense of humor, lol, cheeky bugger!

shanice was spoilt rotten, which is just normal. she now has that many clothes, which is what she asked everyone for, that i wont have to buy any till next summer.

dallas came up with the two girls, makayla and abby. abby is now 7 weeks and is just so adorable, everyone got a nurse and mum just couldn't help herself when she cried she had to go and give her a cuddle, lol.

today is actually the birthday day, i sent along 26 iced mini muffins to school for al of shanice's class and about 16 spare uniced ones for the teachers at morning tea. tanya got a good giggle out of that one when i send i had to bring ones in for them too.

then for dinner tonight, shanice wanted just the four of us to go out to dinner as a family. shanice invited nay (aka mandy, my sister) which was just lovely. we headed up to spurs at penrith which the kids just love and we had a fantastic meal. i came home and sent a text to mandy saying i felt so sick cause i ate far too much, funny thing she felt the same, lol.

as per normal with every birthday in the sheppard-morris household shanice was spoilt rotten by me and anthony. we only said 1 present that turned into about 8, lol. so i don;t forget shanice got:

* Pixel Chix 2 storey house

* Pixel Chix car

* Littlest pet shop picnic bobby heads

* Daddy's Girl necklace, bracelt & ring

* Veronica's cd

* funky purse

* Princess bookmark

* Happiness Angel beanie bear

here's a pic of us, well ant, shanice and connor very, very, very this morning enjoying her presents.

swimming carnival fun

connor had a wonderful time at his swimming carnival on wednesday. it was just 3 hours of novelty races and then the kids with parents could go home, so that was a nice surprise.

connor, being connor, who can swim really well came last in each little race they did because he wanted to stay in the water the longest - fair enough!

they weren't really races i suppose more like water activities. then before home time (lunch time) they had free swimming time which they all loved. i do believe that my connor spent that entire free time under the water which made it really hard for me to keep finding him, lol.

you can't half tell that the photo on the end in the top row is connor saying "mum please don't take any more photos" lol - too cute and so not a connor face!

he has now decided after a 8 month break that he'd like to go back to swimming lessons, so i'm going to get him assessed next week and he'll start back in term 2. thank goodness for indoor pools! shanice i don't think wants to do lessons, but we'll see how she goes after connor goes back, she'll no doubt want to copy.

i spoke to shanice's teacher the other day and shanice apparently did really well in maths. they had another teacher come in for the subject and shanice was the only child that got it! i am so proud of her, i keep telling her every morning and night how proud i am that she has got it. she is a really smart kid, just has this dyslexia in her way and has to learn other ways to be taught this so she gets it.

i've spent this morning shopping and cleaning ready for 6 screaming 8 year olds coming over for a slumber party for shanice's birthday. looks like i'm in for a fun evening.

a good one

i had an email come thru yesterday from a friend that really made me smile and while i remember i thought i'd share.

Why, Why, Why

do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on " insufficient funds " when they know there is not enough money?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an " S " in the word " lisp " ?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, " It's all right? " Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, " That hurt, you idiot? "

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the h ouse as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

finally.......

late last night i finally finished sewing all of the party bags for Shanice's sleep over on friday night - YAY!!!!! it's only taken me a week, i got a tad bit side tracked in between, lol.

so now all i have to do is organise yummies to go in them, all the toys are bought, food for dinner, ice cream cake (yep, that's what she chose, the poodle cake will be coming on sunday at the family bbq), pass the parcel, and i sure there are a million other little things i've forgotten about.

busy, busy......

We've had a very busy, busy weekend here. I think my head is still spinning from it all. i really should be right now doing housework & washing but it will still be there tomorrow & the next day.

Thursday was Connor 1st school excursion for this year. Year 1 went to the Sydney Aquarium at Daring Harbour and then to the Imax cinema to watch a 3d movie "the Deep". Connor had a ball and hasn't stopped talking about it.

Friday was Shanice's class assembly. She did so well and i was such a proud mum. I sat in the front row and videoed it for Dad to watch later on when he's back at home. i can say that my girl certainly has rhythm, all these other girls in her class that all go to dance classes and Shanice doesn't and she has more rhythm than them all put together, she gets it from her mum, lol.

Connor went down the farm with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday night for the weekend. So we were in for a quiet one with just one little terror in the house. Shanice decided she wanted to watch my video of Cats (the musical), well she was all over the lounge room pretending to be one of them, it was too cute.

Satruday, well i slept in which i haven't done for a while. did a bit of housework, made a cooked lunch for us all and then drove up to mum's. Shancie and mum went into see dad while i went round to Mandys for dinner. they were having people over for my brother in law, Ben's birthday. It was a great night, i was hoping to be home by about 9pm, but we didn;t end up eating till then so it turned out to be a later one than expected but it was really nice.

Sunday was Clean Up Australia day. I had organised it for this year and i must say, i really quite enjoy doing it. It makes me feel like i've somehow contributed to our community. We did it thru our Guide district and of course Shancie came but we dragged Anthony along too and he enjoyed it as well. It was an awful day though, really muggy with a storm on the horizon that never came. But we got a lot cleaned up and everyone had a great day.

that's Shanice at the front, Bethany behins her and Paris at the back

Connor came home later in the afternoon and we thought that we'd surprize Grandad and go and visit him at the hospital. Well, we succeeded in our mission and Grandad was over the moon the see the kids. We only stayed for just under an hour and that was enough before the kids started going nuts, lol. Dad's doing really well and cant wait to come home and then start treatment again. So we are thinking positive thoughts all the time cause he will get thru all this CRAP!!!!lol.

Last night the storm finally decided to hit and it was awful. The lighting was just constant it was almost like the night had decided to put on it's fluresent lights so it could see, and the thunder - well, scared the crap out of the kids and yes, ME! so we had kids in our bed till about 11.30pm. Anthony read them a story, we stared with The BFG and then decided it was too scary with all that noice going on so he went and got Blinky Bill instead.

This morning I finally went and got some new photo developed, all 232 of them. I haven't had any done since Connor's birthday in November, even no Christmas ones, that's sad! So I can get scrapping now.

well the housework still isn't getting done and i really should do some scrapping!

this is for you ...... MISS SHEREE

just in case you decide to come over here and now give me hard time about updating my blog after me and Michelle kept picking on you last night, lol




ahhhhh.... here is last night's little creation. easy peasy, was finished in about 45minutes so then i could chat the rest of the class.

well, today was non-eventful. i went to 3 different reject shops (blacktown, my druitt and penrith) looking for this little "thing" for one of the classes at the May retreat. No luck, they didn't have them, neither did the Warehouse at St Mary's so there went my morning.
I picked up all the Clean Up Australia day stuff from Blacktown Council. And i think I'm quite looking forward to Sunday, doing my little bit for the environment.
Went to officeworks to get PINK paper, of course!

Now, I've come home and have no idea where to start. The house looks like a bomb, more like several bombs have gone off. So that's why i'm in here, procrastinating, lol. I suppose i should get to it, those housework fairies aren't going to do it for me!

camping, kits and more kits

What a lovely time we had camping! Even if it was only for the one night. Anthony ended up getting bout of sunstroke so we came home early on the saturday night instead.

The kids had a fabulous time playing in the river. Connor was braver than i ever thought he'd be. Shanice is my little adventurous one, a bit like her mum and Connor is a bit scared of trying new things. Well, they found a bank on the river to jump off into the water where is was a little bit deeper than normal. Shanice borked and Connor just went running and flying off. Of course, before they did, being the over cautious mum I am and i know what mischief i used top get up to as a kid, I made them walk around in the water first to make sure there was nothing under water they could hurt themselves on.

I made all these memories flood back. Even the tarzan swing on the other side of the river that we used to swim across to is still there. I can't wait to go back there again.

We did manage to set up out tent right between 2 wombat burrows, which made for an interesting night. God, they are noisy buggers! One was a bit on the sick side and was scratching and rubbing itself up against our trailer all night. The funny thing was I've never seen a wombat in the wild before, only ones in the zoo and of course by the side of the road marked with and X (down the snowy mountains).

The kids said that Kangaroo Valley should be renamed to Wombat Valley. And then on our drive out to come home on the side of the road stood this massive 2 meter grey kangaroo!

Mum and Mandy came down for a few hours on the Saturday. We went into town to the pub for lunch which was just scrummy. The exact same table and chairs are still in the beer garden that we used to sit on as kids when Dad and Uncle Rob used to come in to "get ice".

Town was really busy as it was Kangaroo Valley annual fare. I've never seen it so busy! That probably explains why there river was busier than i expected.

I've spent the past few days oooooing and arrring over all the yummy new CHA releases trying to decide what to use in the kits for retreats coming up. So if anyone has any suggestions that would be good, cause i can't decide, lol.

I've just been over to Sue's at Scraploot and picked up my next dt kit. Love the colours i got. Will get playing with those on friday probably when i go off to scrap again with Tracy. Which reminds me to con Anthony to leave work early to pick up the kids so I can stay out and play longer, lol.

Dad started treatment this week. So far so good I think. Mum did say he's a bit more tired than normal, but if that's all that's great news. They are coming over tomorrow to pick the kids up from school which will be nice. Dad has never been able to pick them up after school. I really want the kids to see him as little Shanice, my worry wort, gets a bit sad.

Anyways I'm thinking i might go and scrap - YAY!

nothing really

i feel compelled to come in here and just blog about nothing inparticular, lol.

to tell the truth, i think i'm just killing time before i have to got and get anthony (in 15 minutes) bring him home to load the trailer while i go and collect the kidlets early from school so we can beat the traffic. Oh yes, why? We're going camping!!!!

hate to say it, but i actually really enjoy it.

i've spent the morning getting everything in a huge pile in the backroom ready for anthony to load when we get home. all that's left is to pop all the clothes that are sitting on my bed in a bag and put the cold stuff in the esky.

i just hope it doesn't rain. better go grab a book just in case.

we took the kids at the end of January down to wombean caves and we had a great time. which reminds me i didn't upload any photos, in which i took about 170 - don't ask, lol. and because of the 40 degree heat i had the shakes and only about 100 came out.

it's raining..... it's pouring......

i love this weather!

i know as strange as it seems, even when were not in dought, i love the rain. it's just a good excuse to stay inside and do nothing.

Shanice thought yesterday was a great day for a pjamma day, but she did get dressed when we went grocery shopping and then back into her pj's as soon as we got home.

I even went out and stood in it this morning after i dropped the kids at school. Every single part of our gutters are overflowing, the pool is also overflowing, the back verandah is flooded and i'm still completetly soaked from bringing in the garbage bins and i don't care!

I just went outside to take a few pictures, but the batteries have just died on me :(

On to other news........ the past few weeks have been extremely tough on me and my family. Dad is now in the process of receiving radiotherapy and chemo to beat this thing.
But I'm not going to elaborate on that one as it's far too emotional for me and i'd rather keep things light.

Shanice and Connor are loving beening back at school. Miss Shanice is in year 3 and has a fantatic teacher who will push her and really get her up to speed. And Connor is in year 1, no longer the baby of the school, he was all excited about getting his teacher who is just lovely.

We've already started the homework thing with Shanice, and it's huge! I can't believe the sudden jump in spelling words and, yes, there is already a project due in 5 weeks!

We have a "meeting" tonight with Connor's teacher and then one on wednesday night for Shanice's teacher. We get to go in and the teacher explains to all the parents what's happening during the year etc. So that's where i'll be tonight, of course right when deperate housewives is on, lol.

i went scrapping with my gorgeous friend tracy on friday. something we've never actually done during school time, and we've decided that this is just going to have to be a permanent monthly thing we do because "I need my tracy fix", lol.

Thanks trac, for friday, you really cheered me up!

i managed to do this in between all the chattering we were doing.

then on friday night after i took the kidlets to cricket i did a cyber crop over at cath's Little Scrapbook Shop.

i did this

i only managed 1 layout, but one's better than none. and that's the most scrapping i've done in yonks.

speaking of cath, i'm about to run out the door and meet her and sheree for lunch and goss.

(sheree update your blog girlie, lol)