Grateful

I’ve been tagged again! This time by the lovely and talented Heather Smith-Jones. I am supposed to list (I love lists!) 6-8 things I am grateful for. Easy!

1. My personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Creator of the Universe and Saviour of my soul.

2. My husband, Rob. The person I trust more than anyone in this world. The man of my dreams, my soul mate, my best friend.

3. My sweet, adorable boys. They make my life so wonderful.

4. The beautiful country I love in. I am SO proud to be a New Zealander!

5. My personal trials and tribulations. Now that seems like a funny thing to be grateful for, but my struggles have made me a stronger person.
Not many people know this, but I suffered quite badly with postnatal depression after the birth of both my boys. A little while ago, I did a layout on how battling PND changed my life.
(I actually did this layout as part of an application for the Up2Scrap Design Team, but that’s as far as I got with my application … I just didn’t have time to do the OTP project).

The journalling reads: It’s been a few years since I battled PND for the second time. I suffered from it when Ethan was born, and again when I had Tyler 2 years later. Both times I felt that my feelings of sadness and depression would not last. I thought they were probably linked to sleep deprivation, and the fact that both my babies had health problems as newborns. Ethan had severe gastro-esophageal reflux disease, and Tyler had consecutive urinary tract infections that eventually required surgery when he was 4 months old. But it was more than that. I was sick. I had a mental illness. It took a lot of courage to admit that I wasn’t well. I felt ashamed and inadequate. I was so angry with myself for not being able to cope. I felt like I was living in hell. I hated myself, I hated my life. I had a wonderful husband, supportive family, beautiful children. But I was so unhappy. I felt suicidal at times. I remember wanting to get in my car and just drive forever, never coming back. I kept thinking that my family would be better off without me, that they didn’t need me. Eventually, with the help and support of my husband, parents, sister and my GP, I got better. I’m not ashamed to say that I took antidepressants. Each time, I was on medication for about a year. PND changed me, it made me a stronger person.

6. Being able to work from home, doing a job I LOVE! It doesn’t get much better than that!

7. Family & friends.

8. Finding this morning that the gorgeous Kayla had written a post on her blog about ME! I feel extremely honoured to be chosen as the first scrapbooker to be “in the spotlight” on her blog.
BTW, if you’ve never read Kayla’s blog, you should definitely check it out. She’s an amazing mom, digital scrapbooker, photographer and photoshop expert!

So there is my list! Did I mention how much I love lists? It was hard to stop at 8, I could have gone on forever! I’m grateful for so many things, every single day. I have learned that no matter how bad life seems, or what crises you are going through, there is always something you can be thankful for. You may have to dig deep to find it, but it will be there. Concentrate on that, instead of the crappy stuff, and things will seem so much easier! I speak from experience here.

Okay, I’m tagging the following people:

Kayla
Kelly
Julie
Vicky
Kami

Another Jack

The deadline is looming over at Jack Me Up. This time I was excited to have the opportunity to “hijack” a gorgeous layout done by my scrapping buddy Ann. I especially loved the circle concept on her page, as well as the title placement.

Here’s my take on it:

This photo was taken about 3 months ago, the same day I wrote this post, which formed the basis for my hidden journalling (behind the photo).

Ethan’s cute “gappy smile” didn’t last long, so I’m glad I took this photo! He now has an adult tooth where the gap was.  
However, the tooth next door is extremely wiggly … so wiggly that when he moves it forward I can actually see the hole underneath! It must only be hanging on by a thread, but he refuses to let us pull it out. It’s not making him miserable (this time), but he’s not eating many apples at the moment.

My desktop

Teeni has tagged me for another meme. This one involves sharing a view of your desktop.

Here’s mine:

It’s pretty much a given that I would have a photo of my kids as my wallpaper. It used to be a photo of Wentworth Miller, but Rob got jealous. LOL.
I don’t have a whole lot of desktop icons, as I don’t like clutter! So I only have the ones that I use regularly. Like …

* Anything to do with photos – viewing them (Photoshop), editing them (Picasa) and printing them (EasyFoto).
* iTunes – for updating my iPod and listening to music while I work.
* Work stuff - boring things like the control sheet for this week, and my ongoing Performance Review document.
* RAK list - this is a list of names & addresses for the girls at Scrapbook Essentials who like to send each other RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) for their birthdays or for no reason at all!

It surprised me that I only had 3 web pages open. Usually I have about 10 (which is why I prefer to stack them, rather than have them side-by-side on the toolbar). I wasn’t doing any work yesterday when I took the screen shot (I was on annual leave). So that would explain 3 or 4 missing screens. But I usually have Facebook and Google open most of the time as well.

E-mail is there, of course. Not just one, but two. I have my home e-mail (Inbox) and my work e-mail (Microsoft Outlook Web Access) open all day.

Did you notice the green colour scheme on the toolbar? I don’t like to stick with the stock-standard desktop configuration, so I change mine regularly. It’s green right now. That will change soon enough.

Okay, I’ll tag anyone who wants to play! I’m tired of choosing people to tag, and wondering if they want to play or not! This way I won’t make anybody feel obligated.

Here are the rules:

My Desktop Free View Instruction:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun.
You can do a screen capture by: [1] Going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key. [2] Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste. [3] If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.
For MAC users: Press [ Apple] [ Ctrl ] [ Shift ] and [ 3 ]
B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want.
C. Tag 5 of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.
D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.

iRonnie
Rebecca
Jon
Vegan Momma
The Vaguetarian Tea Room
Blairs Boys

Beer and hail

My kids crack me up!

On Saturday afternoon, Rob asked Tyler to put one of his beers in the fridge. Rob keeps his beer in a cupboard and puts 1 or 2 in the fridge at a time, so we don’t run out of fridge space. I do the same with my cans of Coke Zero.

A few minutes later, Tyler came out and said he’d done it. But as Rob hadn’t heard the cupboard door opening or any glass “clinking”, he went to investigate. 

This is what he saw:

The teddy bear IS actually Rob’s, he got it for Father’s Day one year. He keeps it in his bedside cabinet drawer. So Tyler had gone upstairs to our room, grabbed the bear, come back downstairs and put it in the fridge!! He was SO proud of himself, too!
How freakin’ cute is THAT?

Oh, but the laughs don’t stop there.

Yesterday afternoon, we had a freak storm with thunder, lightning and hail. All the hail had collected in the corner of the deck by the front door, so Rob opened the door to sweep it away. Tyler saw it and immediately grabbed some to put in his mouth. Then Ethan wanted to try it.
So Rob sat them both down at the dinner table with a plate of hail each.

It’s a good thing I have a sense of humour, eh?

My baby is 3!

Tyler is 3 years old today!

We had his party yesterday, so we actually pretended it was his birthday yesterday. I think we did that for Ethan’s 4th birthday as well. So much easier than trying to explain why the party is on a different day!

Part of our present to Tyler was a little IgglePiggle doll. I know, I know … if we hate the show that much why are we encouraging him? I can’t really answer that! I saw the toy and just HAD to get it for him, I knew he would love it! And he did, as you can see from this photo.

We had Tyler’s party yesterday afternoon at Mum & Dad’s place. Fortunately the weather held out long enough for Rob to do a Treasure Hunt with the kids. Here’s the treasure they found at the end.

Tyler wanted a Zebra cake this year. But as the chief cake baker, I wasn’t too keen on that idea. So I convinced him to have a Zoo cake instead, which he loved. Here it is:

He was SO excited when everybody was singing “Happy Birthday” – he was licking his lips the whole time, waiting for his “moment”. And when it arrived, he blew out his 3 candles in one go. Can you believe he didn’t eat ANY cake? I love this photo though, it’s so classic!

I can’t quite believe that my “bubby” is 3 years old. It’s strange, because in so many ways he seems older than that. He prefers to play with older children, he’s really tall for his age, and he talks as well as a 4-year-old. But his lack of progress in the toilet training department is a pretty constant reminder that he actually IS his age! LOL

Happy Birthday, Ty. You’re a constant source of joy and delight in my life, and I love you to bits!! xox

Update …

Thanks for all the get well wishes, I’m feeling much better now. My voice is finally starting to come back, but I still have a bad cough (especially at night).

Guess what? The tummy bug wasn’t food poisoning!! Shelley’s husband Blair also got sick a day later, and he wasn’t even at the restaurant! So it was definitely a gastro bug of some kind.

The really great news is that they found mum’s car! Praise God! We still don’t know much, but the Police have said there doesn’t appear to be any damage except for tampering with the ignition. We’ll know more in a few days.
I have to go and get my fingerprints taken tomorrow. They have fingerprinted the car so they are obviously doing their best to find out who stole it. I’m impressed, actually. You hear so many stories about the Police not caring or taking action, so it’s nice to know they are making an effort this time.

In other news, my little sister is now on the other side of the world! Disneyland, to be exact. She and a friend flew out on Monday night, and will be in LA until Saturday. Then they’re off to London, Paris, Cairo and Luxor! A whirlwind 3-week holiday, but such an awesome experience for her. I hope she’s having fun — but I miss her heaps!

Not giving up!

When thousands of women meet in one place to praise God, study his Word and apply it to their lives, Satan is not too happy. He gets out his flaming arrows, and has a bit of target practice. And this weekend, he hit a few of those targets.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my Mum, sister and I went to Sistas over the weekend. Another friend from church (Sandra) also came with us. We travelled together in mum’s car, and stayed in a motel in Manurewa. The conference was awesome – great music, great speakers, great fellowship. We learned so much, and had a fantastic time.

But Satan tried to steal our joy. He tried to rob us of the blessings we received. How did he do that?

1) I had a horrible head cold from the first day of the conference. A sore throat and throbbing headaches which lasted all day and all night. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me from having a good time.

2) Our motel was awful. Dirty and awful. Other ladies from the conference were also staying there, and they had FLEAS in their beds!

3) On Saturday night, mum’s car was stolen from outside Valentines restaurant in Manukau. We had a 2h dinner break, so decided to meet up with another friend (Glenys) and her two daughters (Shelley and Lisa). We were in the restaurant from 6-7pm, but when we got outside, mum’s car was gone.
Thankfully we all had our wallets and phones with us in the restaurant, but my second bag was in the car. It contained my journal, all my conference notes, 2 new CDs, sunglasses and some other bits and pieces. Sandra’s bag was also in there, and it held her cheque book, make-up, glasses, conference notes, a CD and a conference T-shirt worth $45! Leah had left a plastic bag with a new CD in it.
Of course Mum was really upset and we were all in shock. But we decided right then and there that we were NOT going to let Satan get to us, so we went straight back to the conference and carried on!

4) When we arrived home, I got a horrible tummy bug. I spent all day yesterday in bed (apart from frequent trips to the bathroom). Later I discovered that Glenys and Shelley had the same thing! We are not sure if it was from something we ate at Valentines, or just a bug.

But despite all that, I’m determined to fight. I’m not going to let any of the things that happened over the weekend rob me of what I got out of the conference. Because I know that’s what Satan is trying to do. He’s trying to fill my mind with thoughts like “poor me” and “why is this happening to me?” so that I will forget the things I have learned. No way, jose! I’m not forgetting a single thing. I may have lost all the notes I took, but God has already helped bring those things back to my mind.

For me, one of the most challenging messages at Sistas was how to get rid of a critical and negative mindset. It’s something I struggle with, but I’m determined to change my thinking. I’m not going to focus on the negative things. Did you know that 77% of what we think and hear is negative? That’s not what I want for my life, and it’s not what God wants for my life. His power can’t work in me if I am critical and negative. I’ve made a conscious decision to change my attitude, to spend more time thinking about positive things, and less time being critical and judgemental.

I will NOT be allowing the “bad” things that have happened over the past few days to overshadow the good things!! I am NOT giving up!

What’s in a name?

A few days ago, Teeni tagged me with a meme. I’ve only just found a few spare minutes to do this. It’s been a crazily busy week, with more crazy busyness to come (more about that later).

Anyway, here’s how it works:

1. Players must list one fact, word, or tidbit that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of their first or middle name.
2. When you are tagged you need to write your own post containing your first or middle name game facts, word, or tidbit.
3. At the end of your post choose one person for each letter of your name to tag.
4. Don’t forget to leave a comment telling them that they have been tagged, and to read your blog.
5. If I’ve tagged YOU (see below), please join in on the fun!

H is for Happy.
I’m generally a happy person. I have a great life. I have a wonderful husband, beautiful kids, an awesome family and special friends. I have so many things to be thankful for. There aren’t too many reasons for me to be unhappy. Except perhaps when I’ve run out of Coke Zero.

A is for Art.
I love art, in various different forms. Scrapbooking is my main form of artistic expression, but I also love painting and sketching. Art galleries are a fantastic place, I love to admire other people’s skill and talent.
I also consider music to be a form of art. I love music and have a very eclectic taste. I LOVE to sing, and I play the piano (badly).

N is for Neat.
I’m a complete and utter neat freak. Everything has it’s place, and I can’t bear to leave things “out of place”. Each evening, I go around the house and tidy things up or just put things where I want them to go. My couch cushions have to be in a certain place, and I don’t think anybody else even knows the configuration except me!
Unfortunately, this extreme obsession for neatness does not extend to cleanliness. My house is clean, but not spotlessly, sparkling clean. I don’t clean my windows, I hardly ever dust, and I can’t even remember the last time I cleaned the oven!

N is for Name.
I think my name is pretty cool. I like the fact that it’s a pallindrome. Not many people can say that.

A is for Age.
I’m 29. Precariously close to the dreaded 3-0. Please don’t laugh if you are over 30 (or 40, or even 50). I’m allowed to feel anxious about this milestone. I’m allowed to feel uneasy about reaching the end of my carefree 20’s. I know, I know, life begins at 30 (or whatever number-ending-in-zero you are nearing). But for me, turning 30 is a pretty big deal.
Perhaps once my birthday has been and gone, I will look back and think “what was I worried about?” and that’s fine. But in the meantime, I think I’ll just sulk about it. Thanks.

H is for Home.
Home is where I feel happiest. We live in a really great place! Our house is literally a few hundred metres from the beach, playground and a huge grassy park. It’s 5 min walk from Ethan’s school. Our neighbourhood is a totally flat area, great for walking and riding bikes.
I love our house. We have worked so hard on it to make it what it is today. No, it’s not finished yet, but we’re getting there. Compared to how it looked when we bought it 7 years ago, it’s a complete transformation. We’ve installed a wood burner fireplace, ripped up the carpet to reveal wooden floorboards, painted the whole interior, and completely renovated the kitchen, laundry & bathrooms. Then we added on a whole second storey. The outside needs more work, but we’ll get there eventually.

Now I’m tagging the following people. If you don’t want to play, that’s okay. But it’s actually quite fun!

Christi
Janine
Merri
Shell
Kami
Yvette

I won’t be around much over the next few days. I’m off to a Women’s Conference called Sistas with my mum and sister. We leave tonight and get back late on Saturday night — in time to watch the All Blacks pulverise Portugal!

A uniform look

We got Ethan’s school uniform on Friday.

Ethan’s school is the only primary school on the Hibiscus Coast that hasn’t had a uniform. But now they’re phasing one in. It’s going to be compulsory for Years 0-4 from Term 4, and for Years 0-6 from 2008 onwards. 
But since it first went on sale 2 weeks ago, many of the kids are already wearing it. And Ethan has been begging me to get him one!

Last Friday was the day the uniform was on sale again, so we headed off to get him sorted.
I decided to only get 2 pairs of shorts (one normal length and one 3/4 length), 2 polo shirts and one sweatshirt. Many of the other parents were getting 3 pairs of shorts and 3 polo shirts. It means I will have to do the laundry more frequently, but considering each polo shirt was $30, and the shorts were $40 each … we just can’t afford to get more!
Originally I thought I could probably find some cheaper plain navy blue shorts from somewhere else, but it turns out the school logo is embroidered onto every item, so I couldn’t do that. Sigh.

When we got home, he wanted to put it on and show Daddy and Tyler. He asked if he could wear it for the rest of the evening, and I said yes. Then he asked if he could wear it to bed! That was a no. Finally, he asked if he could wear it to church on Sunday. Another no.
I’m just glad that he loves his uniform so much and is happy to wear it. My friend’s son refused to wear his and has been having tantrums each morning! Yikes!

Here he is all ready for school this morning. 

The sweatshirt is big because I got a size 8. I tried the size 6 on him but I could see it wouldn’t fit him for another 2 years (which is how long I want it to last before it gets handed down to Tyler). Everything else is a size 6. The shorts are big on him (he is sooo skinny), but they have a drawstring so they’re not going to fall down. LOL

I think he looks so cute!!

No time to scrap …

I’m so very busy at the moment, and I have no time to scrap. I’ve managed to find just enough time to keep up with the Ultimate Scrapbooking Champion contest at Scrapbook Essentials, but apart from that, I haven’t scrapped for at least 2 weeks.

Here is my layout for challenge #4, which was to use at least 2 black & white photos, with a black OR white background and only one other accent colour.
I printed my photos onto white bazzill, to make it look like canvas.

TYLER

And here is my layout for challenge #5, which was to create a double layout about a “challenge” in your life.
I did mine about my Weight Watchers journey in 2001 — I lost 15kg, reached my goal weight, and became a lifetime member. I’m currently about 6kg over that goal weight, but I’m working on getting closer.

GOAL WEIGHT

As I was cleaning up my scrap desk yesterday, I found a pile of layouts that I started at an all-day crop last month (and finished off at home that night). I realised I hadn’t shared any of them on my blog, so here they are:

LOVE MY BOY

MONKEYS

It was Rob’s idea to put a picture of a wedge of cheese on this layout. I wasn’t sure about it (and I’m still not!) but he reckoned it would work, and I trusted him!

STITCHED WITH LOVE

SCRAP PINK

And speaking of scrapbooking, Paper Pesto are hosting a Scrap Pink day on Sunday 30th September as part of a worldwide scrapbooking weekend in support of Breast Cancer research.
It will be held at Atomic Coffee Roasters Cafe in Kingsland from 10am to 4pm. There will be classes in both layouts and cards, as well as make & takes (one done by yours truly!) and spot prizes galore!
Cost will be $20 for a full day and $10 for a half/pop in with all money raised going to the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation. Wear something PINK!
To register, check out the Paper Pesto blog or email contactus@paperpesto.co.nz … look forward to seeing you there!