Camping? I think not............

Too much fun to be camping!

used to come by so often

And now I spend too much time at work, on facebook and with my family. i don't even seem to scrapbook anymore, well not like I used too. I guess I just love my job now, it is fulfilling and computer time is for chilling not necessarily blogging. Sad me. And I know many left facebook in droves but I am still there.......playing, being silly, finding friends. Oh well, live moves on.

Jason is a pain the bum, too stressed over his own job to care how it effects others. Wish he would find a new one that makes him happy.
Thomas has been sick, of course but when he good he is brilliant.
Sharleigh has become a nice little girl when not with her friends.
Kira has become moody.......she is only eight for goodness sake.
Kira is doing tutoring for her schooling which has helped with her confidence.
All the children are now doing Taekwondo with good results. Happy kids makes for a happy home.
I love my job, love it, yep, really do! About time hey.

Last weekend we went to Mel's thirtieth, it was an eighties party and I got to be a punk rocker. An old dream but a good one.

Oh yeah, I had a birthday too........43, way to go me. Spent the day in a park with the kids climbing over trees, nice. I like my family.

That's my news, off to play before the family come home from their camping trip.

WYLDE WOMEN award

The beautiful Jules awarded my a WYLDE WOMEN award!

a WYLDE WOMEN awards purpose is "to send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy". Isn't that lovely?

The rules are:

You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you.
Make sure you link to their site in your post.

So here are my picks: Gail, for her consistency, generosity, kindness and just always knowing what to say when the chips feel like they are down, she lifts me up; Sandy, who doesn't have a blog but is my 'angel' with words of wisdom and encouragement and love which is irreplaceable, well timed and always there when I have needed her; Tracey, who doesn't write on her blog but she is one of the smartest most insightful ladies I know; the girls I work with (none have blogs) but show such courage and insight in the face of difficult work colleagues and never give up on good practice or their integrity in the work place; Shar, who keeps me smiling and her monkey board up and running just so I can spend my spare time (well maybe not just for me) with the most amazing women all of whom are WYLDE WOMEN themselves; and Darla, who leaves me inspired and happy with her wonderful challenges, her inspirational care of herself and her wonderful sense of humour.
So many I could name and many apparently already have this award like Jules who without her words of wisdom and encouragement I would not be able to do what I do...perhaps I only know Wylde Women too, way to go friends, monkeys and mates of all shapes and sizes.

Here are some of the links:

http://groups.msn.com/LifeintheKingdom/_whatsnew.msnw

http://weneedmoremonkeys.blogspot.com/

http://forcedoptimism.blogspot.com/

Ahhhhhh, I think I lead a too busy life

Well once again I have let the blog slide. Life is busy in a good way here.

My new job is wonderful, the stressors are quite different from previous jobs mainly being that there is more work than I can ever finish and sometimes I get behind and sometimes, like now, I am inheriting something that is behind a long long way. But that is ok, a planned approach and it will eventually come back to where it should be. The truth is, even though I have a lot to do, am pressured by deadlines and expiry dates I am happy. I am ok at my job and I like it. I am ok with the stress that goes with it even if I am now up at 4am from not being able to sleep because I am trying to work out how to organise the job to get it back under control. But I just dont mind. I guess when you know how important what you do is, it makes it all worthwhile.

And in the meantime there is my wonderful family. Well ok, maybe not overly wonderful, afterall Jason has taken two weeks off to supposedly clean out the garage and the yard but so far, one week in and no change. He hasn't even started. And he hates me for asking how it is going, well why wouldn't he, he hasn't started. I get so frustrated with him. He always has an excuse. At the moment it is because Thomas is sick and today he has planned to go shopping so I shouldn't have great expectations.

Poor Thomas hey! He has the worst cold and cough. I asked Jason to take him to the doctors yesterday but he didn't so now the kid is still struggling to get better. Lucky he has me home today. I will have to take care of him myself. And then my Sharleigh baby bit into a chocolate, of all things, her tooth was wobbly (it is supposed to be at her age), started to bleed and Jason took her to the dentist. $100 later and she is minus a tooth. I wish he showed as much vigilance with my son. I wonder if it is because he is a man?

I did altered a toy phone last weekend. Unfortunately it is at work now so I didn't get a photo to share. Did you know I couldn't find an old fashioned toy phone to buy, I had to get a toy mobile phone. Our kids will probably never see a push button or a dial phone. So why alter it? Well we had a competition at work with the theme "winter solstice", the theme kept changing though and I thought was more "goodbye winter, hello summer" but oh well. So I used "Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall all you have to do is call" as my inspiration. Each side of the phone was a different season with winter at the back and summer at the front. A tag attached said "all you have to do is call....you've got a friend in PSU". I thought it was cute. It didn't win but it did get an honourable mention.

I also started my "Camp Gonnawannafly" album. It is different and I couldn't stop doing it last weekend. It was fun. I will hopefully post some pics when it is done, assuming I get back here before another month is over.

I believe Sharleigh turned seven since last I wrote and she had a "mask party", the kids made masks and they were awesome. Kids are a lot more creative than they look.

I have worked at and taken the children to the EKKA (the Brisbane show, similar to a fair) which was very tiring. The kids loved it though.

And this week I start a Cert IV in training. Going back to school is not so fun but it will be worth it. I would say cant wait but I am looking forward to my weekend.

Thats my news to now, more later.

We have been busy here

We are over half way through our camp! Ever visited Flylady.net? I get her emails regularly, my house isn't that great but I try to follow her advice anyway for a couple of years now I have watched with interest when the Camp Gonnawannafly posts start hitting my email inbox. I was on leave this year for two during the school holidays and I though, why not! So the kids and I started camp on 29 June and we are going all the way through to 12 July, that is fourteen days of camping fun. So far we have made hats and signs (for our cabins), had a goodwill fashion show, baked biscuits, bowled, crafts, movies, zoo trip, picnic in a park, experiments, made beads, visted the library and generally had a ball. At the end of each day the kids are awarded beads in eight categories including listening, common-sense, orderly cabin, team work and courtesy. The beads are different colours for different things. They have collected quite a few so far and are trying really hard. Everyday we do a cleaning game which they get into with enthusiasm. Their rooms are tidy, they are learning new habits and enjoying my company. I have never done anything like this before but it has made the holidays so special. Tomorrow we are going to the library for the girls to do the free activity there and in the afternoon we will make butterflies. We still have a nature hike to complete, Christmas in July and we are finishing it off with a bonfire-sing-a-long to which the children have invited their friends. They are so excited.

AND i still managed to do two layouts and a card. Not much but enjoying the kids company has been pretty good value.

OMG it has been too long and it has all changed

I haven't stopped by for so long to update anything here, life has been hectic, people have needed me, my time has been taken up and time for me is the last thing I seem to get anymore. My scrapping has all but stopped for lack of inspiration and time. I spend quite a bit of time on my facebook account owning people, playing games and enjoying what people post on my wall as well as dropping by friends walls to catch up with the latest they are using facebook for. Truly a unique method of communication ~ not quite friendship and yet we call it that.

Anyway, the job is great, great, great. Today I took a training course with a colleague i.e. we ran the course. I cannt believe I set myself up to be an expert on anything but none the less it went well with valuable thoughts and ideas shared. There is so much work at work I have started to bring it home and I am getting tired. IN a couple of weeks I have two weeks off, lucky me.

AND worst of worst news, my camera has disappeared. Gone for over a month! Bummer.

Sharleigh got glassess and is so cute but alas no photos to share as no camera. Thomas got an award at school but alas no photos to share. So many times I just wanted to snap a candid pic to share but no way of being able. No camera makes for a sad blog, a sad me and a sad memory catcher.

BUT I am alive, the family is well and life goes on.

Has my mojo come back?

Unlikely but here we go:
My first one is a teeny tiny tag album (about 5cm {@2in} x 2.5cm {@1in}). This one is for Darla's 1st challenge for this season and also uses all recycled stuff (left over paper, card, ribbon and photos I was never ever going to use) So there you have it, recyled is in! And it says "he started it and I am glad he did" mainly because I got those three adorable children from him.

Right, next up is "Dream" which uses an advert as it's inspirtion and is for Darla's bonus challenge of 'something you are dreaming of'. It is very simple but what I liked about the ad was it's simple elegance.

Last but not least Darla challenged us to do our favourite foods so using the second ad as inspiration I created "delightful".

And two are for my BOM and one is a mini album. Finally I got back to the scrap table.

I feel sick

I have been fighting it off for two weeks but now my head is stuffed and aches, my nose is running and I feel awful. It hurts behind my eyes. I dont want to be sick.