Monday, May 26, 2008

And even more LO's...

My friend Tricia asked me if I would scrap this photo I took of her daughter for her. I am so pleased with the layout, it's my new favourite in fact. And here's one I did today.
Off to watch the idiot box.
Cheers

Sunday, May 25, 2008

More scrapping and our little nature find

Grandma came over for her regular visit today but instead of our normal walk we went and had a look through our friends, Pete & Erica's brand new house!! I'm so excited for them to finally be in their new home. It seems like its taken a very long time to build and if it feels like that for me I'm sure it feels extra extra long for them. It's a beautiful house with some really cool gizmos. I just LOVE the tiles they have, they are gorgeous.
So anyway back to Grandma. Grandma quite often buys Jack sticker books and today as well as the sticker book she also bought a butterfly foam craft project which she and Jack did.
Then Grandma read some Dr Suess. I really like his stories but man they are hard to read out load.
Then just to get out of the house for a bit we went to the footy field the next block over to kick a ball around for awhile, even Daddy came.
On our way home we found this seed pod shell that we thought would make a great boat, and look it did too. After awhile we took it out of the bath while Jack played with other things and it actually closed right up. Jack was quite interested in it. It was pretty cool.I did a bit more scrapping this weekend too. This first LO is for EB's Friday challenge. The challenge was to use the colour combo of chocolate, lime green and cream, use some ribbon, some bling, some flowers and the LO had to use just one standard sized photo. It's nice to scrap some of the older photos of Jack. He is just getting so big it's unbelievable. He is as long as the bath now and can reach to the top of the servery in the kitchen, just amazing.
And using another old photo.
Jack and I are meeting Kim, David, Jared and Charlotte tomorrow for a morning of fun galore at the Crazy Joker, Jack can't wait!! He's so funny, he came into me before and asked if it's time to go to the playground. I told him we can't go to the playground because it's night time so immediately he started sooky crying so I told him we were going to go to the Crazy Joker tomorrow and he immediately started giggling and then he said "your kidding me now arn't you?". The things that come out of is mouth lately are just hilarious. He is just oh so clever.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

This is why my house is such a mess...

Now that I've started I just can't stop scrapping. I'm not complaining mind you. I don't really enjoy housework but I do like a clean house.
The first one is a scraplift on the very talented SM Master Amanda Hall's LO, her LO is here. She's one hell of a talented chick!! I just absolutely LOVED the combo of the ribbon, flower, pin, tag, brad.
This one is for the Friday Challenge at EB. The LO had to b minimalist and I am sure that mine is!! :P Very minimal...not like my normal stuff at all but I think I really like it. (it looks better irl)
Well I should at least go and stack the dishwasher or someting even thought I don't want to!! I would just keep scrapping but I've run our of double sided tape. :P

Monday, May 19, 2008

Our day!

Jack & I have had a nice day today. This morning we met up with our friends, David, Jared & Charlotte and Tricia & Ollie for a play at the park. Jack's getting pretty good at climbing and things now and even practically climbed the whole big spiderweb by himself, he only needed a little help. I got some cute photos of Jack.
After yesterdays cupcake LO I couldn't help but make some cupcakes to take for morning tea.Jack ate all around the outside top and then gave me the rest. Such a sharer. :PAfter our play we headed to K-Mart to buy Jack some shoes. Jack used to have a pair of hand-me-down flashing light shoes but he grew out of them ages ago. Obviously he didn't really realise that and keeps telling everyone he see that he has flashing light shoes whilst stamping his feet. It's cute to watch and it amuses Owen and I but it is a wee bit cruel letting the poor kid think he's got cool light up shoes when he dosn't. So anyhoo, K-Mart have a sale on sports shoes so I went and picked him up 2 new pairs of shoes that do acutally flash in this size and the next size up. He now won't take them off and is asleep in his joggers as we speak.

My friend Charlene phoned while we were out to ask if we wanted to go to the Brother's Club for lunch. They do a $3 roast lunch on Monday's. How cheap is that!! So we met up with her there for lunch and then saw that they were setting up for bingo which was starting soon so we thought we may as well have a play. I won $60!!! On of the old ladies in the back row made a nasty comment about Jack (who btw was soooooooo well behaved and so quiet) but I think she was just pissed that I won. I nearly had a car accident on the way out of the carpark and I mean VERY nearly. Heart thumpingly close call.

When we got hom this afternoon Jack wanted to blow some bubbles so we headed out the front and I got a few more gorgeous shots. He dosn't want his photo taken anymore though apparently. Poor kid.This is his cheeky boy smile. When he's playing a joke or being a smarty pants this is the smile I get.

Righteo, off to watch Desperate Housewives.

Cheers :)

Sunday, May 18, 2008

More scrappin' and some photos of my gorgeous boy!

Owen was off yesterday and since the house was reasonable and Jack was happy I scrapped and scrapped and scrapped!! I did 4 LO's yesterday (one of which I'm not showing 'cause it's crap!). It's been forever since I scrapped...it feels good.And then I did another one today!!So hopefully my drought is broken and there'll regularly be scrap pages on my blog from now on. I have about a thousand photos in my "to scrap" box so I've got plenty to do.

It's starting to get a bit cool here today, apparently it's going to be 4 degrees in the morning so I was trying to get Jack to warm up a bit today since he keeps refusing to wear pants. I gave him a beenie and some warm sockies to wear and he did for about an hour before tossing them aside to trot around the cold tiles barefoot in a pair of jocks. Crazy kid. But anyhoo the point it that he looked sooooooo gorgeous in his chocolate brown beanie I just had to take photos. Then this afternoon we went for our regular Sunday walk and play. Jack put his own joggers on all by himself. I was very impressed. I took my normal 100 or so shots this afternoon and only go about 10 in focus. I really should read a book or something. LOL. Anyway this is the best shot from the playground. It took forever to get past the creek today. Jack has this full on "throw rock in creek" fetish at the moment.
Well that's about it. Off to try and get Jack to go to sleep. Wish me luck!!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Monday, May 12, 2008

The weekends activites!!

Well Friday of course I worked but Friday night we headed out to a BBQ to farwell our friends Greg and Michelle and their girls Nicola and Heidi. They are off to America for a few weeks, well a lot of weeks actually. So Bon Voyage H family. I'm sure you'll have a fabulous time.
We had the last of the toddler birthday parties for this season on Saturday. Jared is turning 3 on Thursday and the lucky duck got to have a jumping castle for his birthday party. Jack's little face lit up as soon as he saw it but it took him a good 20 minutes and some pushing before he'd go down the little slide the woosie. It was a great party and here's a couple of photos.You can just see the fear on his little face. He did have fun though.Here's the birthday boy Jared (shockingly overexposed photo-sorry Jared)Lauren and HayleyTricia and Sofie.
After the party I dropped Jack home to Owen and I headed out for my monthly dinner date with the girls from work. It was only a little group of us this month but we had a ball. We went to Sizzler for dinner and then we headed off to play 10 pin bowling!! It was great although I suck at bowling.

Owen however didn't have quite as fun night with Jack. Jack was a bit peeved about having to leave Jared's place (the party was finished). He went to his room and slammed the door closed. Owen made him dinner, knocked on his door, left his food outside the door and hid. Jack opened the door, looked out and then slammed the door again. Owen knocked again and hid. Jack opened the door, grabbed his plate and slammed the door again. An hour and a half his sook lasted and the little rat even said that he never wanted to see Mum and Dad again and wanted to live at Jared's house. He's 3!!! For crying out loud, imagine what our teen years are going to be like!!

Sunday, Mother's Day, Jack and I slept in like normal and then headed out to the Heritage Village for the markets. Jack had a ride on a shetland pony which he loved. There was just the usual stuff there but I did get a bargain $5 necklace and my favourite poffertjes (little dutch pancakes).

Mum came over in the afternoon and we went for out regular walk through the gardens. Jack was very naughty and ran away from me and hid in a garden. I had to literally sprint to catch up to him which just gave me shivers. It also nearly made me hyperventilate!! I'm so outta shape it's not funny. The walk was really nice and Jack had a nice play on the swings and slide.
For Mother's Day dinner we headed over to my Grandparents and shared pizza to celebrate. It's pretty cool to have dinner with four generations!! I love my Grandparents so much.
Well that's about it. I did scrap though. I sat and shuffled paper around for a good couple of hours over the weekend but I only ended up with this one complete page. I've got another page nearly finished as well. It feels so good to scrap. Hopefully there'll be more to show soon now that our social calendar has slowed down.
Ok, ciao!!

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Happy 60th Anniversary Grandma & Grandad... plus the button story!!


My Grandparents celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday. They are such a beautiful couple. We went out to dinner on Thursday night to celebrate and then held a roast lunch yesterday for about 50 at a local hall. It was a great day and everthing went really smoothly and everyone enjoyed themselves. I was in charge of the decorations(my favourite part of partying), nibbles and made a giant bowl of tiramisu. I made some balloon arrangements for the tables, placecards, fact sheets about 1948, a photo arrangement for the wall, wine bottle labels and a photo compilation DVD set to Louis Armstrong. My Aunt Marie did a fantastic job of decorating the cake. It was great to see my cousins Karen and Lisa and their gorgeous kids who came up from down south. My Aunt Diane and Uncle Paul and my Aunt Glenda and Aunt Fay travelled to make it as well. We got some great photos of all the generations that were there. Oh and if anyone has Grandparents that are celebrating their 60th anniversary did you know that you can get a letter from the Queen?


We decided to set up on Friday night but they hold bingo in the hall on Friday nights so we decided to go to bingo as well. None of us had played bingo before and my Mum won the first prize of the night and then Paul won another prize later in the night as well as the lucky door prize. When he won the lucky door prize and they bought it over to him he said, "and to think I only came to try and pick up chicks". All the elderly ladies in the hall got a laugh out of that although we did get a few looks and groans as winning newbies.


So here's a few photos of my Grandparents and the celebrations.


The cake that my Aunt Marie beautifully decorated. Dosn't it look great?Grandma and Grandad cutting the cake.Grandma and Grandad with their kids:

Back left to right, Jenny, Jaamy, Rob & Diane

Front left to right, Joy(my Mum), Grandad, Grandma and FayGrandma and Grandad with some of their grandchildren.

Back left to right, Brad, Jody(Me), Aaron, Kevin(my brother) and Karen

Front left to right, Jack(the ring in, he's a great grandchild), Grandad, Grandma, Jasmine and LisaGrandma and Grandad with some of their great grandchildren (& their Mum's)

Back left to right, Joe, Anzac, Lisa, Zoe, Karen & Cody

Front left to right, Grandad, Patrick, Rasharna holding Bronwyn, Grandma, Jessica and Jack.



And here's one of my favourite photos of my Grandparents in their younger days.So as I said, the day went really well and everyone seemed to have a good time. I feel very lucky to be part of such a loving and supportive family.



Now to break up the two stories in this post I thought I'd post a photo of the beautiful orchid that my Mum bought me. Isn't it just stunning!!

And now for the button story!!
So Saturday afternoon we came home from Grandma & Grandad's Anniversary party and unpacked the car and started putting everything away. I went into our bedroom to discover that Jack had climbed up onto the laundry hamper and gotten a button in a little ziplock bag out of one the trinket boxes I have up on the TV unit in our room. He was so proud of himself for getting it down and was jumping around excitedly showing Owen and I this button. Owen and I went back our of the room and while Owen continued to get ready to go out I continued to put things away. We both went back into the bedroom a couple of minutes later and Jack happily announced that his button was now in his nose!!
OMFG!! You should have seen me. I paniced and tried shaking Jack as if that would magically dislodge it while Owen ran to get some tweezers. I fumbled around getting the torch and wound it up (it's one of those wind up torches) so I could have a look for the button. I could see it but it was fairly high up his nostril. So we all jumped into the car and up to the hospital we go.
Did you know that a button up the nose means immediate attention in an ER? We went straight through and one of the ER doctors had a look. He bought in a collegue to check out the situation and discuss options. They decided to try tweezers firstly so I had to hold my poor baby down while they tried unsuccessfully to remove the button with tweezers a couple of times. Jack was pretty upset by the end of this as you can imagine and had a bloody nose. So off the doctors went to discuss other options.
The next thing they decided to try was the "blow" technique. I had to block off Jack's good nostril with my finger, completely cover his mouth with mine and then blow like crazy!! Unfortunately it didn't work either but apparently is generally a pretty reliable nose/object removal method (a tip for you Mum's out there).
The next technique they tried was inserting a catherter in Jack's nose and then inserting saline into the catherter to make a balloon behind the button to try and pull it out. It didn't work and was again quite traumatic for poor Jack. After this attempt they could no longer visualise the button in his nasal passage so off we went to get x-rays.
The x-rays were pretty cool to look at. They were a front and a side view of Jack's head and sholder area. Unfortunately the doctor wasn't sure that he could see the button then either so the ear, nose and throut specialist was called.
The ENT guy came down and was able to see the button but it was now right at the back of Jack's nasal cavity so he explained that in these circumstance and especially with this age group that he would only have one attempt and if unsuccessful we would have to discuss anaesthesia and removal in surgery!! So Jack was wrapped in a sheet and held as still as possible while the ENT doctor had a try at removal. Unfortunately it didn't work either. The ENT doctor explained that Jack would have to be anaethised and that they would take him up to surgery to remove the offending button. We were asked when he'd last eaten etc. and the ENT doctor said he would speak to the anaethitist and ask whether Jack would be able to go to surgery straight away or whether he would have to fast for awile beforehand.
So we were left in the ER consultation room while the doctors went to contact the anaethitist. Obviously Owen and I were pretty stressed by this stage although apart from the removal attempts Jack had been happy, bright and charming all night. In fact, we read the notes on his chart and he had acually been descibed as "an adorable 3 year old boy presenting with a 1cm button inserted in his nose". So there we were, making plans for me to go home and get changed (since I had blood and stuff on my shirt) and then for a trip to surgery and an overnight stay in hospital when Jack gave two little coughs and then held out his hand and said, "Look Mummy, here's my button". He had coughed it out of his mouth!!
Well you should have seen me. It was like we'd won the lottery. I raced out of the room to try to find our doctors to show them the button.
So there you go. We were discharged with no complications. The relief was immense!!
The hospital staff were all so wonderful especially our ER doctor. We were very grateful for the treatment we received. And I was so proud of our precious boy. He was so polite throughout the entire ordeal and answered all the questions that were asked of him. He truly is a precious, special, intelligent beautiful boy.
So here you go...a photo of the offending button!!

Anyhoo, thanks for reading. I'd better go and get dinner started.

Cheers

Memory Journal

 So I decided to start a memory journal this year inspired by the amazing Heidi Swapp.  She is so talented, I just love her style.  I'm ...