A WHOLE WEEK

Wow, I haven’t blogged for a whole week, oops. But here we are a week later and it is Woo Hoot Wednesday again. The time where I join Janine and a whole lot of other bloggers and celebrate fantastic things on Wednesday.

To start off my list, Woo Hoo I had a birthday yesterday. I turned a BIG number and I am struggling with the new decade, but I will become comfortable with it soon I am sure. My birthday week is going great guns. Starting last Saturday with a visit from our friends Mum from Auckland. It was great to see her and catch up with all the families news. New babies coming, new jobs, new adventures. Then in the afternoon the in laws came up and I got a lovely dancing figurine. Now I just need to find the right place for it. It is a beautiful statue of a couple doing a tango. It needs to be under a spotlight because the dress is so sparkly and beautiful under the lights. I don’t know if I have ever said anything about my dancing on my blog? I dance for quite a few years. I danced competitively with my brother for 2 years. My bro then went on to do very well with another dance partner when I married Steve. Steve and I have danced together as well and I would LOVE to get back into it when Isaac is a little older and would be able to sit on the side reading a book or something. Steve cooked us a lovely dinner of nachos and then Tobyn convinced Grandad to play chess and then for all of us to play singstar, which both grandma and grandad did!!!

On Sunday the lovely Janine and her equally lovely husband Mike were in Palmy picking up an awesome retro table. We invited them for lunch which they accepted and we had a lovely couple of hours enjoying their company. I was thrilled to see Tobyn so comfortable with them, he even played a few tunes on the keyboard for them. Isaac and Mike became friends pretty quickly and I think Mike was very tempted to sneak a couple of Isaac’s pirates in his pocket…but we counted and they are all still there ,) Janine was a bit naughty but oh so lovely and gave a me a wee gift for my b’day, some wonderful boy rub-ons and an awesome mini album, which I am thinking would make a great circle journal? Thank you so much Janine!

The actual day was an early one because we had a parent/teacher interview. This went well! His teacher is so pleased with his progress this term and most of the things she had issues with last term are no longer issues. He just needs to really get the routines cemented and get more detail in his writing. He has amazing ideas but sometimes lacks detail when he puts them on paper.

Back to the birthday. My boys gave me a tripod, which I have been wanting for quite a while now, so that was awesome. And Steve gave me a new video camera, YAY. We have been without a video camera since last year when our one decided to cark it and it was only a couple of years old! So all in all I got some awesome presents. In the evening we all went out to Aqaba for a lovely meal, thank goodness I didn’t have to cook on my birthday, LOL.The birthday week continues and ends with a dessert and coffee/wine evening on Saturday. So far it will be a small affair with about 8 of us but I just wanted to have some sort of celebration. I didn’t want it to pass me by with nothing. Later in the year we will have a BIG celebration combining both Steve and my birthday, we will have an 8o’s party sometime.

WOO HOO, I signed up for the comp at Scrapbooking by Design. I was hesitant because of the big names I have seen entering…Sarah Groen, Michelle TW, Hannah, Janine W, Dallas, Debbie B, Neen,  and many  many more. But I bit the bullet and I know that at the end of the day I will have 6 more layouts for my boys. I also sent in 2 layouts for a go at the DT at Paper Pesto. We will see what happens with that one. Got to be in for a chance eh?

Woo hoo for cleaning out. I have been having a bit of a clean out, my boot is full with stuff I am going to take down to the red cross tomorrow. In the process of cleaning some things out I came across a photo and some papers I had already cut for a layout. This is from AGES ago, I don’t even remember doing it. So this afternoon I did a QUICK layout with what I had cut out. I know that I am going to print this photo out bigger and do another layout with more of my current style because I LOVE the photo.

Woo hoo for lovely fires, now I am going to go and enjoy the fire and my hubbies company. Night all.

Read Full Post »

It’s that time of the week again, WOO HOOT.

It’s that fantastic time of the week thanks to Janine. Where I get to shout out my woo hoots for the week.

My biggest woo hoot has to be that my hubby is back and we are a family of 4 again. I must say that Steve being away for 3 weeks has really made me realise how much easier life is with him around. I get so much more done because he takes a load off with the boys. The beginning of the day is easier and Isaac is dressed earlier, LOL. And I love having company in the evenings again, even if it is just sitting doing our own thing on the couch, TV, computer, reading….

Isaac has gone into the BIG bed. We put his cot down to a little bed when he turned 2. For the past few nights he has been behaving like he is scared of the little bed and has really wanted to go into a big bed. So a last night I decided to take the plunge and put him in the ‘big’ bed. This morning he was yelling because he ‘couldn’t’ get out of bed. He actually can I am not sure why he wouldn’t. But the good thing was I had my first full nights sleep in 3 and a half weeks!

And finally my last woo hoot….I have 2, yes you read that right TWO layouts coming out in the next up2scrap!!! I had coffee with Steph on Saturday and checked with her what she really wanted when she asked for Boys and their Toys because I don’t really have anything I thought would work. Well she said e-mail me what you have. And then yesterday I felt creative and did a 70’s style layout. This morning I e-mailed her 3 boy layouts and the 70’s one, and she wanted one of the boys and the 70’s one. I am so excited!!!

Here are the 2 layouts she didn’t want, I might as well show you all! Both of these and the one going into the mag are ones I did at scrap camp. I absolutely love the one of Tobyn! It is quite soft but  I think that suits his personality.

 

Oh and another woo hoot – my Mum is really enjoying her scrapbook classes. She had her 2nd class last night and said it was better than last week. I am so pleased because she is doing something for herself and we can hear her stories. GO MUM.

TTFN

Read Full Post »

Are you sick of my bragging yet?

I have another thing to brag about with my boys…well Tobyn to be exact! He got a certificate in assembly today for great improvement in his overall class attitude! So he wasn’t having as good a week this week. It was OK, but not as good as last week, until he got this certificate. He was so pleased with himself and apparantly he got a huge applaud! Unfortunately I don’t get to the assemblies because Isaac is usually sleeping at this time, so I missed his presentation.

Tobyn had his 2nd hockey game this morning and he had a great game. He was open and a couple of the boys passed to him. The team won this week 4-3. Go team.

Steve is HOME, yay! We are all very pleased. We spent the day just blobbing around together. All feeling a little tired and not up top much else. But it has been so nice to be the 4 of us again. I know he has a ‘little’ something for my birthday but I am not goo dat surprises! And I want it NOW. Argh, have to wait a couple more weeks.

I have a couple of layouts to share. The first one is one of my UFO’s from camp (UFO means unfinished objects, deffinaition for my Mum and anyone else who didn’t know) I like this layout but won’t be entering it into any challenges or submissions

 

And my 2nd layout to share. This one I created by chance of finding the photos. I came across some old albums and found a dozen or so crappy photos from my marching days. I was about to toss them all and then I thought I should cut them down and do another BOM page, which then ended up as a double. Now this is amazing, not only have I used more than 1 or 2 photos but it is a double as well!!! I am branching out LOL.

 

I was a marching girl for about 8 years. It was a HUGE part of my life. Every summer just about every weekend was spent marching somewhere in the lower North Island. I loved it at the time but I did miss out on a lot socially in my teens. I wonder if that was a big reason why I was awkward around boys in my teens, most of my weekends were spent with very few boys around!

Right, off to spend some time with my man, ciao for now.

Read Full Post »

Woo Hoot Wednesday

Yep it’s here again, Wednesday. The middle of the working week, half way from the last weekend and half way to the next weekend. Not that I live for weekends because I don’t, but that is what Wednesday is. AND it is Woo Hoot Wednesday thanks to the Angel that created it.

So for my woo hoo’s this week…

Firstly, 2 days, 3 sleeps until my man comes home! Yes that is a big woo hoot!

I finished 2 of the 3 UFO’s I had from scrap camp. I am not sure if I am going to share them or not. I am contemplating using them for other things 😉

My friend Adele and her 2 adorable girls came over this morning. Here are the girls and Isaac doing the gardening. Steve suggested I might need to do some gardening while he was away…I hate gardening! So the kids have helped, LOL.

It’s pay day tomorrow, LOL.

My friends took there prem baby home on Mother’s day.

My Mum went to her 1st scrap booking class last night, GO MUM!!!

That’s all for now. Until next Woo Hoot Wednesday.

But I will leave you with this cute image of Isaac.

Read Full Post »

5 more sleeps!

Yay only 5 sleeps until Steve gets home! We have done well the first 2 weeks but now we are deffinately ready to see Daddy again! Today I feel exhausted. Isaac has only had 2 nights over the past 2 weeks where he has slept the whole night through and last night was the worst! He came through to me just as I went to bed and stayed there. I shut the door which he didn’t like because it made it too dark. He then took about an hour to go to sleep and was then awake again 3 more times. So you can see why I am exhausted. I have dosed myself up with nurofen and at least curbed the headache.

In other news…I went and bought 2 copies of the latest Up2Scrap! I know I will get a submitters copy, but I wanted to get one for Mum and an extra. Can you tell I am rather excited to have my first layout published? And I think this issue of Up2 is one of their best! The colours are fantastic and the articles have alot of great ideas in. And I REALLY want that pirate stampin’ up wheel! But I want it right now for a layout I am doing! Might have to just doodle instead, LOL.

I need to work on some layouts for submission this week. I am going to have coffee with Stpeh on Saturday and I would like to have some layouts to show her. I also see that they are havinga kids gallery Feb ’09. So those of you with children aged 4-14 get your kids creating. i will be encouraging Tobyn and Sophie to have a go!

Tobyn had his first hockey game on the weekend. Unfortunately Steve is the coach which meant I had to fill his boots. And I don’t know much about the game! They had a good game, considering over half the team have never played before. They lost, but that is a good thing because the first couple of games are grading games and they really don’t want to up to 1st division this year! Tobyn played a good game. He is enthusiastic and wanted to play the whole game. This shows that his running is paying off because last year he couldn’t play a whole game, he would get too tired.The thing that was disappointing for me was that the other good players wouldn’t pass the ball to him. I told him he needs to show them all that he is doing well and supporting the ball and then they will pass to him more. He did well because he was open a lot but the kids don’t credit him because of past years. He is going to have a great year this year, I am so proud of him.

More on Tobyn! He had such a good week last week and he ended it well too. He got 4 10’s and 1 9, so I shouted him afternoon tea. He wanted a friend to come and play but I wanted to show him how proud I was of him. In the end he said he was glad he didn’t have a friend to play and we got to have some special time out in town! He really is a good kid, even if I do get frustrated with his attitude at times! What Mum doesn’t I guess.

I hope all the ‘Mum’s’ had a great day yesterday. I see fantastic cards and presents around the blogs and it looks like there has been a lot of love going on. So wonderful. Without Steve here my boys treated yesterday as just another day, LOL. I know my Mum appreciated the prezzies i sent. LOVE you Mum! And on that note I will take off and do my vacuuming while the little man is asleep. TTFN

 

Read Full Post »

Such a sweet but cool little guy.

IMG_9871_edited-1

Originally uploaded by spgettie

I am celebrating Isaac today. That face melts my heart every time I look at it! I have said it before and I say it again, it amazes me at how happy go lucky this kid is. Yes he is stubborn and has tantrums, but even in those I can get him to smile pretty quickly!
We went to Little Groovers, a music program a little like Mainly Music and he had fun. Just before we were leaving Christina said she had a spare ticket to a circus. It was a no animal circus which I was very happy about. So far Tobyn has not been to a circus because I don’t want to go to one with animals. So Isaac got to go to a circus before Tobyn. Christina and her girls and Isaac and I went out for lunch first. Her girls are 4 and just 3 and they get on so well with Isaac, especially the 3 year old, Ivy. The 2 I’s together are just adorable. They chat away with each other and *aww* it is just so cute. At the circus Isaac and Ivy sat on a chair together. Isaac was such a gentleman and put his arm around her and they sat snuggled up together. I have a picture of him at the movies when he is a teenager in my mind now. Then after when we were heading to the car they were walking holding hands. Christina took a photo so hopefully she will send me a copy..The circus was great. the kids were mesmerized most of the way through. I had a couple of heart stopping feelings as I thought people were going to fall! But it was fun I am so glad Christina asked us to join them!
Today I am celebrating his growing…he did his first #2 in the potty! OK so I *caught* it, but still we high fived and I told him how proud of him I was. I knew he was going to have a stinky sometime before bed, we had had the smells and the threats. After I had undressed him for the bath I knew it was a good chance to try the potty out. He didn’t want to but I gave him a toy and he sat for a while then we got the strains and YAY. I am sure people are going to think it is weird to celebrate, but I really HATE changing stinky nappies, so I will be happy if I can *catch* it more often! I am not pushing him into toilet training, he is no where near ready. He has NO idea when he does wee’s, so we are still waiting.

Some cute things Isaac has said,

I – “where’s my blankie?”
Me – “Why, are you sleepy?”
I – “No, not sleepy”
Me – “So why do you want your blankie?”
I – “BECAUSE!”

I – “Isaac loves jelly beans”

And he has an AMAZING memory! He was lying in my bed this morning talking about Scooby Doo. I wasn’t sure why he was talking about Scooby Doo because there wasn’t anything aorund that was related to that. The he talks about the teddy bear and I remembered…Tobyn made Steve a bear at Bulid-A-Bear in America and he named it Scooby Doo and Isaac was introduced to him a few months ago. He sits on the dresser in our room and never comes down.
He sees friends cars and knows exactly who’s car it is.
He knows simple songs, word for word!

He remembers moments in time. For example, we were going to the movies and we parked in a car parking building. As we were getting out of the car he said, we going to see Poppa! When we were in Christchurch and Dad was in the hospital we parked in the parking building…that is is memory of car parking buildings!

I am just SO proud of my special little guy! He is precious in so many ways.

But not to forget his big brother! Another great day for him today. So far his week has been 10/10, 10/10, 10/10, 9/10! SO he has already earned the playstation this weekend! His teacher told him to show me his sketch book…this kid can draw!!! His sketching is amazing, I think I have a little artist! He wanted to start judo. He went tonight and really enjoyed it. I am pleased about this because doing a martial art is great discipline and really good for self esteem.

OK that is all the bragging I am doing tonight, I am just so proud of my boys.

And my lovely darling husnad sent me a sweet e-mail this morning, thank you, I LOVE YOU Steve!

Read Full Post »

Woo hoot Wednesday

My creation

Originally uploaded by spgettie

 

Yep it is Wednesday again and thanks to the lovely Janine we get to buzz about our life.

First up, woo hoot I love PhotoShop! See this set of photos? The ones on the left are the original, all looking a bit blue. I then did a simple change in photo shop where I corrected the colour to the skin tone and it gives it a gorgeous rich feel.

Woo hoot I got to talk to Steve yesterday. It was really nice to touch base again. And woo hoot we are half way through his time away.

Woo hoot, I came runner up in the SE National Scrapbooking Day comp. So excited and surprised, there was some fantastic stuff there.

Woo hoot, Tobyn has been for a run every day this week. And he is having a great start to the term.

Woo hoot I talked to my Mum tonight. And she told me she had visited my blog, so she knows about the canvas she is getting LOL. She doesn’t visit very often, now I better not put other things on here, LOL.

Woo hoot I got another layout done for the challenges at SBO. This one uses paints. I started off with the photo and the grey bazzill adn then used the white paint. I soon after decided it needed another colour so I used the purple. It looked great until I then used the purple around the edge of the photo and the bazzill. It then started looking very feminine. I decided on the title, a little tongue in cheek. But I did manage to bring it back to being more boyish and I am really happy with it. Though I am not sure how much Isaac will like it in the future, LOL.

So there you go lots of things to woo hoot about today.

Read Full Post »

not a lot of exciting stuff

My creation

Originally uploaded by spgettie

Life has been pretty ho hum here the past few days. After the drama last week we have been very quiet.
The 2nd week of the holidays were filled with visits from friends, movies and bowling. Bowling was interesting. My sister and I took Tobyn, Sheridan and Isaac. Though Isaac didn’t play. Well the 9 & 10 year olds beat the adults. They did have the sides up, but still. Didn’t they do well!
We are all doing fine after our sad loss. I think Steve might be finding it hard over the other side of the world. I hate it when he goes to America because of the time difference it means we don’t get to talk much 😦 So we haven’t talked much about Apollo. The lovely neighbour came over last night to see how we were doing. She had found his collar so Ihave his tag which I will use on a layout about him. Tobyn wanted his bell, but every time I hear it tinkle it freaks me out.
The boys are doing well without Dad. I think Isaac has adjusted the best, which is surprising because he is such a routine boy.
Saturday was National Scrap Booking Day in America, so it was celebrated here in NZ with a whole lot of games and challenges on the forums. The layouts in my collage are for some of the challenges. The first 3 were for Scrapbook Essentials and the last one”Can’t Catch Me” for SBO. I am really happy with all the layouts I made! A few more stories down on paper. The Canvas was my first attempt at a canvas and i know my Mum is going to love it! Now I have to get it in the post!
I got a surprise at SE this morning…I won the April Book og Me challenges with my haor layout. YAY me.
School back today, so the routine has returned. Up early, jobs done, swimming, keyboard and preschool activities all back. PArt of me is glad for the return of school and part of me misses having Tobyn at home.
I can’t believe how quickly the weather changed! We enjoyed such a lovely long summer and now winter is certainly here. We have the fire blazing and I do love it. I am deffinately one that enjoys autumn more than any other season. And cozying up by the fire is wonderful.
OK off to organise dinner and cozy up by the fire with the boys and watch Winnie the Pooh.
TTFN

Read Full Post »

The News

Sorry to worry everyone. I didn’t know how to get hold of Steve and so the blog along with an e-mail was all I could do. I have now spoken to him so I can fill you all in.

At around 10pm last night I had a knock on the door. When you are alone you don’t want 10pm knock on the doors. I asked who it was before opening the door and it was the neighbour from across the road. She had bad news, our cat Apollo had been hit by a car and did not survive. She was lovely and offered to keep him at her place or come in if I needed company. I was worried about telling Steve and the boys. Steve had always wanted pure burmese cats and we were able to afford 2 when Isaac turned 1. Luna didn’t get to his 1st birthday and Apollo his 2nd. Very bad luck! Tobyn has put on a pretty brave face, had a couple of cries but is really being very strong. Isaac doesn’t understand at all. They say not to have burmese cats if you live on a main road, well we don’t  so we thought it would be OK. Anyway, we are OK, yes it is like losing a family member and I will have to be very strong for the boys. Thank you to all for your concerns!

Read Full Post »