My Big boy is 9 years old

Well our big boy is 9 years old today. Can't believe it. still remember the day he was born, like yesterday. LOL Scary.

Well we decided yesterday to get him a kitten, as the cat we had dissapeared about 6 months ago, and he was Jakes mate. We rang the Vets and the SPCA yesterday at lunch time. The SPCA had 11 kittens in and they were all fixed up and the vets had 2 tabbys. We decided to go to the SPCA for choice and for ease really. Well we got there at 1.00 today and told Jake what he was getting. But we got inside and all their kittens were gone. They said they had a rush on. So we had Jake all hyped up and couldn't go home with out a kitten. We went to the pet shop down the road and they had one kitten. A white one. All throughout my life I've had white cats so I was thrilled to see her. As a child I had 4 white ones and when Lionel and myself married we got a white cat as well. Usually with white cats they are either deaf or blind and luckily we have only ever had one that was deaf. I'm unsure of this one though, definately not blind so I guess time will tell.

So anyway once Jake spotted the kitten that was it. We weren't leaving without her. They put her in a cat box and we came home (1 hours traveling). Jake took her out of the box and she curled up on his knee and slept all the way home. Was gorgeous.

But before we got the kitten we went to Moana Pool and what a ball we all had. Abby is doing so much more now that it is hard to believe, shes turning into a little fish, and the boys have grown in confidence too. Mum met us down there and we went to lunch at KFT, a real treat for the kids, as we dont' do takeaways. Then the kitten. Here she is, isn't she gorgeous? Jakes decided to call her Furby, (short for fur Ball). That might change though. Here is a photo of all the kids, Jakes giggling as Furby is licking his hand and of course his toungue is so rough. :)
Till next time :)

Wow, two updates in two days. Shock horror :). Well thought I'd update on a few quick layouts I managed to complete today. Must admit, it was nice to sit down with some "me time" and have a wee play. Because I photographed them tonight, they don't look as good here as in real life.

The first layout I did based on "triple the sketch" sketch. "connect four". A very quick one but it got me back into the swing of things.

The second "farm favourites". I've used a transparency and painted behind it to give it a bit of oomph. It is a older photo but one I've had printed off for a while and needed to get it done.The third one "growing up" again looks alot better in real life. There is glitter on there that you can't really see from the photo.

Treasure-everyday moments is about Abby helping me grocery shop before she started school. I just love the fancy pants papers I used on it. :)

Happy New Year to you all.

Wow 2009 already, its hard to believe really isn't it. Christmas was fantastic this year. Kids have said it but I truely believe this year has been the best. I've felt like we got the right presents, sometimes I've felt, ohhh we shouldn't of got that or thats not quite right, but this year its been perfect. Food was great (as usual) even though I never got around to making one of the puddings. Not all my jobs were done before hand that I wanted but it doesn't really matter (I never got the windows washed or Christmas cards sent this year). I think my biggest mistake was with Abby starting school I kept saying, "I've got plenty of time." then all of a sudden it was like "Christmas is tomorrow".

Boxing day the kids went to Central with my parents as they had swimming lessons with Graeme Laing between Christmas and New Year. They were well and truely worth it. After their initial assesment Graeme worked out times for each child as they all had two lessons a day. All the kids were in the afternoon, starting at one and last one was out at 5.00. All of them improved so much, Abby will now put her head under water and breath properly doing the freestyle with the aid of a flutter board out of her depth, where as before hand she had to have a ring and touch the bottom. Olly can now swim a width- instead of floating like a stone and Jake is easily swimming the width breathing properly and has style. We will definately be going again next year. Abby waiting for her turnJake Clowning around

All the crew before lessons started :)

New year was very quiet for us, we didn't even see it in, for like the first time in how many years, even when I was 9 months pregnant I saw it in LOL. But with the kids just getting back from Central, they were wanting to play with their goodies, so it was great watching them. In a few weeks we will head away to the river and camp a few nights. With our farm boundaring it, it certainly makes it easier and if we forget something can just pop home to get it, and feed animals etc.
Well I'm off to sort out my scrap area.

Till next time

Aggggghhhh Snow

Well today our baby girl turned 5 and look what we woke up to. Can you believe it that it is summer and we get 5 or 6 inches of snow.

This photo is taken from the lounge stacking doors.

And this one is of our outdoor furniture that is on the decking, aghhh look at all that snow.Poor Abby wasn't happy as she got a new bike and couldn't ride it LOL. Luckily as I write this (nearly 2 oclock) it has nearly all gone but it is snowing again.Well I've done a bit of scrapping lately. The first is a layout for New Zealand dares we had to inclue a bird on the page. I do love the owl :) Well its been a long day today with my baby girl gone. She has taken to it like a duck to water and bossing the boys around at school LOL. Lionel took them to school today and she told him not to come in because she is a big girl now and Dads and Mums don't go to school and ran in stopping half way down the drive, turned back with a big smile on her face and waving flat out. Now what am I going to do? The house is so empty.... And no, there is no more children coming LOL. Might get to have a clean house and full scrapping albums LOL. Now that isn't a promise I hope you realise :) Till next time

Wow, the school holidays are over and done with already. What happened to them? The last week wasn't a good one for us. Mum was over the weekend before and took the kids back to her place on the Monday. Mums best friend and a wonderful friend of the family had cancer and been in for treatment about a fortnight before and things weren't looking good. Unfortunately she lost her long battle to the dreaded curse on Wednesday. The funeral was on Friday and what a wonderful tribute it was for her. I'd hate to say how many there was there, over 800 and could of even been 1000, it was too hard to say.

The Monday of this week, after Mum had taken the kids away I was taking Lunch over to DH and had a mishap on the motorbike, but to make a long story short, I was trapped under it and had to push the bike off the top of me. It was a 4 wheeler 500cc and DH says its about 300kg. Lets just say I was extremely lucky and I put getting out of under it down too the self defence/street wise course that I've been doing. The last two weeks we'd been working on being in your own bed and if someone comes in and climbs on top of the sheets, how you get out. I'm 100% positive that this is the reason I could get such a large machine off the top of me. I was grateful mum had the kids and for next 3 1/2 days I did nothing, well I couldn't if I wanted too. Friday was better until at the funeral, everyone insisted on cuddles, and I was like wincing in pain. So apart from extremely sore ribs, two huge bruises on my leg, a couple of smaller ones on my stomach and a graze on my back there was nothing wrong. Talk about lucky. (gee, aren't you glad I made the story short LOL).

Lionels trip to Aussie was great. He had an absolute ball and caught up with his brother. He said the shearing was fantastic too and he had a fantastic shear on the crossbreds. They had to shear 12 merinos and 12 crossbreds in the transtasman. He was second off and the NZ team came second, but they didn't disgrace themselves. The organisers asked if they would go back next year, as it was the best competition theyd seen for years. The other shearer was in freemantle the next day and he had people coming up to him, and shaking his hand, saying theyd watched it and what a fantastic specticle it was. So that is great, if it is showing the sport off in such a fantastic light, and getting people interested in it.
Well that will do for now, till next time.

Bronny :)

Wow, I'm back and still alive

I know that is hard to believe LOL. So much has been happening, Lionel is in Australia (Perth) at the moment, he is in the New Zealand shearing team and they have a transtasman competion going on for the Royal show over there and got asked to go. So he flew out on Wednesday and comes back into the country on Monday. It is the longest time he has been away from us and the kids, but I think he is finding it harder than the kids. So I'm farm manager at the moment and touch wood, lambing is going well. This lovely weather certainly helps.

Just a photo because I can :) This is Jake

and this is Abby :)On the scrapbooking front, I've done a few projects. The first was for a friends 30th birthday party that we went to a while back. I made a album for her to get the guests to write in, and there is also room for her to put photos in. I was also photographer for the night so got lots of cool photos to go in it. It was a fantastic night, and specially since mum was here looking after the kids, so Li and I managed to go out for tea before hand. A pleasure that we not often get.
I also got picked for a guest DT spot for scrapbox New Zealand . I completed three projects from the scrapkit that I got sent. (Now I'm uploading them I can only find two) so when Li gets home with my camera, I will get a photo of the other project.

I've also had a layout published in the New Zealand scrapping magazine, entitled, "Boys will be boys" This made Jakes day, although the photo was fairly old, I must try and scrap more photos with in the calender month that the photo was taken, instead of like two years later :)

The boys had cross country a couple of weeks ago and Olly managed a 2nd and Jake was placed 10th out of about 30 plus kids, so he was wrapped about that. Must say mum and dad were thrilled for them both too. This photo is Olly coming in :)

and this one is of Jake :)

Well that will do for today. Till next time. :)

Rugby weekend

Talk about a busy weekend with Rugby. The boys had a 7 aside tournament in Millers Flat. Unfortunately their teams didn't do very well but both boys played out of their skin. Ollys team won three games and drew two but it wasn't enough to get them into the finals :) I have to say the amount of work that the coaches do is amazing, what they do for the kids, the time they put into organising something of this callibre is just mind boggling. They are there everyweek for the kids and have everything organised :) Then of course after that we had the alblacks game. Wasn't that exciting. Talk about a turn around from the week before. To be honnest it didn't bother me who won. I would of liked Robbie to win again but we can't have it both ways aye.

For scrapbook outlet we were given a piece of ribbon and had to use it at least three ways on a layout. Here is my resulting layout entitled Tom. I've used ribbon as a flower, as a flower stem, frame for the photo, hanging device for the photo and as a arrow down the bottom left hand corner.and closer of the flowers and their stems and photo frame :)

And on a realy realy exciting note, I am guest designer this month for scrapbox New Zealand Which I am soooooo looking forward too. When the box of goodies arrives I will start to create and share it with you all :).

And on another realy exciting note, Lionel has just been selected to shear for New Zealand in Australia at the end of September. On a bad note, I can't go :( Because his passport is 11 years over due, I've been ringing around flat out, trying to sort out about getting a new passport. Aparently it doesn't take the 8 weeks like I was told so fingers crossed it gets here in time :)

Well that is it for now. Take care :)

Wet wet wet

Thats about all I can say about the weather. Or though I have to admit that we are lucky. I've seen the news and everywhere north of here is getting a real hammering. I'm hoping you are all safe and well, tucked up and keeping warm and safe.

Rugby last weekend was canceled for the under 7's as it was cold and wet. Olly was in tears for ages, saying it wasn't too cold and wet for him, he could handle it. Then Jake had his game so he had to suffer through watching that and not being able to play grrr. Well Jake played extremely well, scored a try and made quite a number of breaks. Such an improvement that it wasn't funny. This weekend we have a 7 aside tournament in Millars flat with both the under 7's and under 9's playing so we get both kids at the same venue. Yayyyyyy. Family and friends from Central are also playing there so that it will be a great catch up. Mum and Dad are catching a ride down with some so they can get to see the boys play, especially since it is their last game for the season :).

After thier tournament we have the final of the country wide rugby here in Lawrence and all the Lawrence players in the under 7's tournament are to be the guard of honnor as the teams run on. Sam - the lawrence captain and our neighbour called in tonight and Olly was telling him. So the boys have to give him high five as he walks on. Because Sam has played for Taranaki and Otago and knows alot of "famous" rugby players, Olly just thinks he is God, so everything that Sam says and does is just to worship. It is quite funny, if Sam has a friend staying Olly will be all quiet and when we are away from him he'll ask "was he a famous rugby player Mum." So for Olly this is a really big thing.

Now here is some photos of Abbys room- sorry they aren't very good but it gives you an idea. The shelves with the cane baskets in are Abbys favourite as she can fit everything on and see it all. Above it you can see the butterfly wall hanging that was pictured in a previous post. This is her bed and new curtains. I couldn't get kids ones big enough so I have brought some insulated ones (on special at the red shed) and have the pink fringy one over top. Must admit it is kind of cool. None of it is what I picured but it does all look good :)

Here is a layout I did for Magistical memories. It was based on a sketch that they had up. The photo was taken about 18 months ago after she'd been playing in the mud. Don't ya love it :) (Hope you read this Tanya :) )This is a closer up of the flowers and the ferns.And the chipboard that I have altered :)
Well that is all for now. Hope you all have dry feet and full tummies. Till next time.

Back into routine.

It is hard to believe that the holidays have been and gone and we are getting back into routine again. What have we done? Well my Aunty was down from Waihi just before the holidays started and flew home the first Thursday of the holidays. On the Tuesday Mum and Aundy L came down and Wedesday went back, with all three kids. The price of the fuel we decided to try and make less trips so all the kids went back. So all Wednesday afternoon I stripped wall paper from Abbys room (above, I was sure she was sick of the big trucks on the walls), thinking when we went to Dunedin the next day I'd get some cheap paint. Well the idea was right, but reality was slightly different. The walls were about as straight as a dogs hind leg and paint just wouldn't cut the mustard. So the cheap paint job turned out to be a wall paper job. And to make things worse I couldn't get pink paper, well I could if I could wait a few days for it to arrive, but I wanted it done by the time the kids came home. So I had to get some neautral paper that they had in stock. There had to be a sealer underneath so I got that done on Friday, then Saturday we had visitors turn up in the afternoon. It was fantastic to catch up with them, but my papering job didn't get finneshed until after the kids got home. Then I got some baskets for Abby to store her toys in and she just loves them. So much so that they get carted onto her bed before she gets to sleep. :) Jake had rugby last weekend and had an absolute blinder (not that I saw it, I was waiting at home for some visitors). He came home with the player of the day trophy, and scored a try. He is really coming into his own now, and wanting the ball instead of running around behind everyone.Now some layouts that I have done- the ones that I know that I haven't shared with you :). The first is for stampinscrap Christchurch A layout about how much I love Jake (warts and all)

This one is for scrapbookoutlet A challenge that I had to matt a photo, do more than 6 stitches and distress some part of the layout. All about how Jake made this "tractor" out of stuff lying around the sheds :) This one is also for scrapbookoutlet It is a challenge from Jenny doing your favourite place. Well this photo represents my favourite place, wide open spaces, no phones, just the sound of nature :)
This one was for New Zealand dares where you could do a layout about winter based on a add that they showed on the website. (The photo isn't very good, it was raining and dull outside so I couldn't get a very good photo)
Well that is it for now. Till next time.

Scrapcamp

What a fantastic weekend. I arrived on the Thursday afternoon and set up. On Friday night there was the opening night of the Winter festival so we went down to enjoy the fireworks on the water front. It was fantastic. Here is some photos of the fireworks :) Here is some of the wonderful ladies that were at the camp, these ladies made the whole weekend worth while, so to you ladies thankyou very much, awesome.
The new look Julie and Nik.Kim and Lara and E I managed to get 13 layouts done two mini books and a off the page. Not as much as I had hoped too, I think there was too much talking going on LOL.

Over the weekend we had a few challenges. The first was a 30 minute challenge. You had to try and complete a layout in 30 minutes. aghhhh. Well here is my resulting page.

Another was to start a layout and then pass it around to the next person after 10 minutes, and it continued like this until it was finneshed. :) And my resulting page was Honey. So thankyou to all the wonderful ladies who contributed to this layout.

We also had Nik doing Stampin up. What an awesome product. I loved it. Nik did a couple of projects, the first was a card with the new colours- gorgeous. The second was a scrapbook page.

Now I just have to wait for my little order to arrive :)

Now for a just because layout ;) This one has hidden journaling under it explaining how we were at the collie club and a older boy had his bike and Abby asked if she could ride it. He said she was too little but she got it and kept riding past saying. Look at me Shit I'm good aren't I LOL

There was more layouts than this and there was boy layouts too, I will share them with you another time. Can't overwhelm you too much :)

Snowing and Two more sleeps

Just to let everyone know that it is snowing. We currently have two inches of snow outside and it is still falling. If I get photos tomorrow I will post some. But more importantly to say TWO MORE SLEEPS TILL SCRAPCAMP AT QUEENSTOWN RAFLMAO. Till later

Warming up - preparing for snow

Yep, its warm here today and last night it was still 9 or 10 outside. Usually when it is warm like that you know it is going to snow, and when they predict it down to sea level, you can almost guarantee it.
Again this week we have had the dreaded cough, we just can't seem to shake it and the boys had Friday off school. Poor Olly was coughing that much that he has vomited, poor wee mite. So there was no rugby for them yesterday. There was one very unhappy boy, it nearly started world war 3. In the end we all went out for lunch to a new restaurant (to celebrate Lionel and my birthday {yes we are on the same day}), and it was fantastic. To be honnest it is the only time all of us have been to a restaurant together, so it was great. And the food was fantastic too. The kids had a ball and Jake has decided that is what he wants to do for his birthday :)
Now my box of goodies...............I haven't photographed it, but I can confirm that there was a bigbitecropodile in the packaging. And it is absolutely fantastic. There was also some Little yellow bike papers and they are just divine. And that was it really - I think.

Well only four more sleeps till scrapcamp, Fantastic. Then on the downside, there is only one more sleep till the dentist :( . I have a filling which I'm not looking forward to, it is only my 4th ever so I shouldn't complain, but I hate going to the dentist LOL

My computer is back

And it is fantastic. Lionels was Ok but mine is like a comfort blanket IYKWIM. Now I have it set up in the lounge as it is warmer here and I can keep an eye on everyone. Just for winter though.

We had rugby on Saturday and for the first time both kids were at the same place, so was fantastic. Mum and dad came down just for the day to watch them, then they went home that afternoon. Abby actually had her first game as well, they were short and needed more players, so she stuck it out for about 3/4 of the game then wanted to go and play with a friend on the playground LOL. She scored one try so was wrapped with that . Olly well, he scored 5 tries in the first game and the second game he got at least 5. Last week he got the player of the day trophy and thought it was wonderful. Here are some photos of him with it and of Abby ready for her first game.Jake said he enjoyed his game, and he is getting into it more than what he was at the beginning so that is good.

I've just discovered a fantastic blog that you might enjoy. It is Jozzas. Jump on over and have a squizz. Some wonderful cards and a gorgeous BTP.

Till next time, take care

Sick kids.

Well its been a long couple of weeks. Ive had Jake at home all this week and a few days last week. He is on antibiotics for a bronchial infection and has a terrible cough on him. Hopefully he will be back at school next week.

My parcel from Andrea is in the post so I will be able to share with you all the goodies. Hopefully my computer will be back with my programe so that I am able to downsize photos other wise they will be just too big IYKWIM.

My street wise programe is going very well, and boy, I've learnt allot, and am absolutely loving it. Its just getting it all down patt so that in a situation it will come naturally. Lets just hope I don't get into a situation. One of the first things we were taught is, if you are mugged or attacked, don't yell out "help" "stop it", specially if people are near by. Apparently people won't come to that, The lady that was nearly killed in Dunedin at the beginning of the year, they say at least 50 people would of heard here but chose to ignore her. But if she had yelled "FIRE" people would of come running. So don't forget that, yell "FIRE" at the top of your lungs, you will be surprised apparently.

Lionel and the boys have their white belts in Karate and Lionel also has his white belt in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). He loves the MMA and says it is very physical, and now comes home and practices on me, luckily I do street wise, so am able to fight him off LOL.

Queensbirthday weekend was a fantastic weekend. Abby and I went to a 4th birthday party Saturday morning then in the afternoon we had friends come and stay a night from Winton. I hadn't seen Her for 7 years, so meeting the kids was fantastic. We've seen her DH a bit with trips he does but just not the kids or his wife. Then on Monday we had more visitors which was fantastic, very unexpected, kind of off the cuff, so we all had a great catch up and laughs.
So not much got done over the weekend.

Well that is it for now, just a quick hello and good bye. till next time.

Darn computers

Last week, we brought a laptop for DH. Lionel has decided that he has to start getting up with the 21st century and broadening his horizons a bit. We didn't want two desktops so a laptop was the only way to go, then in the winter when its cold I can sit out in the lounge and use his (he he he). Well we got it last Wednesday. Fantastic I thought, then Saturday the mouse stopped working on mine, so it was Lionel's computer. I brought a mouse today from the local computer man and after being to Clutha turned my puter on. What happens...... It goes bang.....bang.. Nothing. It won't work at all, so now I have a brand new mouse and no puter to plug it into and back to DH's. I'm taking it to Jons tomorrow morning when I drop the boys off so hopefully it isn't serious. Even though it sounded serious. Fingers crossed.
DH went to the dentist today. He broke half a tooth away and I made him go LOL. He isn't a fan of the dentist and gets really uptight and jittery LOL (Don't tell him I said that :) ). So we had to go through the rigmerole of picking a dentist in Balclutha. We got the three names out of the yellow pages and then went about picking one. Decision's decision's. In the end we got one and we picked him because he looked more professional LOL (He had a fax number in his add). Well Lionel said he was great (not a comment Lionel puts in the same sentence as dentist LOL) and what was better was he put in two pins and built the tooth up, did x-rays, injections and took half an hour, and charged $60. Couldn't believe it, thought it would of been over $100 anyway. Well that is it for now. Hopefully I'll be back to my computer soon so will keep this updated more easily :)

Been a tragic week

It has truely been a tragic week down here. People from around the road were in a horrific road accident. The husband and eldest sons best friend lost their lives, and the youngest son was left fighting for his life because of the lap belt in the back seat. The community have been absolutely amazing. I went around to a friends place yesterday (the sister in law of the gentleman killed) and the cards/ flowers/ food was absoulety amazing. The fridge was over flowing and the feezer, tins were filled. It was a heart warming site in such a horrific situation. There was one funeral on Thursday and the other on Friday and Lionel said there was at least 800 people at the funeral. It has really brought home to roost the time I spend with my family is precious and not to take any situation or time with them for granted.

On a much lighter note. For those that know Olly, know that he loves boxes, containers, anything with pockets, and he is always trying to fill these with anything he can find, usually stones, cut up bits of paper or anything he can get his hands on. Well anyway, he came up to me on Monday/Tuesday and said "Mum, my shoes are getting too small for me." So I went and had a look at them and what do I find???? In them there are three pairs of socks.... I took them out and told him to try them on " Ah that is much better mum. Thanks." And runs away LOL. Every day he comes home from school with hundreads of acorns (last time he told me he had 271) and they become sheep on his toy farm.

Abby also came up to me this past week, with her make up kit. She is holding the blusher brush and says to me "Is this thin Lizzy? Like the people on TV put on their legs?" Like I thought thin Lizzy's hadn't been on TV for about 5 years LOL. Took a bit of explaining that one LOL.

Well that is it for this week. I've got a heap of washing to do, we've had 2 inches of rain and Jake had rugby this morning in rather wet conditions LOL . So till next time

Did you see 20/20 On Thursday?

Well there was a friend/neighbour from around the road on it. His name is Ralph and has Cerebal Paulsy (sp). It was a fantastic show (alright, I might be a bit biast LOL). Lionel went down to the firestation for a couple of hours to watch it with a few of Ralphs mates. Well he went down at 8.30 and didn't arrive home until the early hours of Friday morning LOL. Lets just say he was a bit slow on it Friday :), and there was no sympathy from here. But it was a great skit, even though it was only 10 or 15 minutes long, and they'd done so much filming for it. I think it would make a great country calender.

Friday night we had a ladies night out and went to Waihola for a meal. Usually it is the playgroup ladies that go and any one else that wants too. It is a great way to get to know newer people with out kids around, and it is a great social outing. There was 9 of us and we had a lovely meal (I did feel guilty about giving the kids and DH heated up mince, home made wedges and peas for tea). It wasn't a late night but certainly an enjoyable one.

Yesterday the boys had rugby, in different directions again, and I went with Olly and Lionel with Jake. Jake came home with the fairplay award so he was wrapped with that. They get a certificate and a moro bar. (I got to see the certificate).

Well here is a layout that I did yesterday, entitled Our river Queen. Sorry the photo isn't very good.

And this is a closer up of itand here is a cloer view of the clock face that I made, on the bottom right hand side of the photo.