To share a little of me....

I have in the past been on a scrap design team, competed to gain a place on another and while i did not get that place, i lived so far outside of the square while i was learning so much about myself... i saw my style change so much throughout that time and grew more than i could have ever imagined. (even if my friend Gillian says she could pick my work anywhere) Someone told me to refrain from sharing my work with others on the Scrapbooking Memories forum incase my work was scraplifted...personally, i think it is the greatest form of flattery to see that someone else loves your work as much as you do and wishes to recreate it for their own memories...

thinking back on it now, i wonder if it was simply so i was not sharing them with anyone else but her.. !?!? Who knows... anyway...here i am... finally taking the plunge... so.... here are a few that... well... i prepared a little eariler.. :)

My love, my life, my world... MY FAMILY!

Thanks for looking...

Quote of the day

"Scrapping is really the closest that you can get to being immortal. To ensuring that future generations will know about you, about what was important to you and that you meant something to others.
Do i want to live forever?? Absolutely!!"

~Ali Stafford

Howzat!?!

Well... I'm wishing after all the years that i was subjected to the cricket being the ONLY thing on Television over the christmas break, that i had actually taken some notice and perhaps took mum and dad up on their offer for teaching me the rules so i could understand what all these guys in whites were doing running around in the sun on a perfectly good beach weather kinda day.

We were given tickets to todays cricket match at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground ~for the Yankees reading this ;) ) for today... 5 of them so Matt and i took the kids along and between us all had our first real cricket experience.

While i enjoyed ever bit of the game, i really didnt understand the finer pointers of the game... but... really.. i dont think it mattered all that much, save for the few times i stood up with the English supporters to cheer when they got our guys out! To my defence, this was just after we got there and i didnt realise it was our guys in batting! Doh!!! How on earth could i have known... i had not been watching the highlights and didnt check the scoreboard... and in the sun dark blue hats look very similar to dark green! ~L~

Im sure if the Aussie cricketers knew this was my very first game they would have forgiven me..

regardless.... i soon figured most of it out... stood up with the right supporters and showed the aussie spirit of hollaring in cheers REALLY loudly.. and guess what... im looking forward to going back to watch another cricket match soon...i even have the tickets... courtesy of Jamie.. who was in the right place at the right time and won some for a local game in February... yay!

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afterthought: i even got to be part of a mexican wave... figuring that we are now south of the boarder and all... i thought it was very appropriate!

PS: Lyn... see that dead bit of grass looking thing where the guys are standing!?! Thats a cricket pitch!! :)

4 sleeps 'til my birthday!

(picture taken by Matt)

364 days til we do it again..

Why is it that the wait for christmas seems to take forever while the day it self is over in a blink of the eye!?!

I love christmas... always have and i think i always will... what is there not to love... seeing the childrens faces on christmas morning when they see the tree stacked, weather they are young and total believers or older and know the "secret" it doesnt matter... that look is what all that penny pinching and crazy waiting in cues at the big sales is all for... makes it all worth while... the smell of cooking pudding, the kitchen wafting of all manner of cullinary delights... the laughter and love that seems to be more prominant on this day than any other day of the year...
there is not one part that i dont love...

I cant believe though how fast the day goes.. from about 3am i laid awake hoping to hear foot steps to creep out to the tree and the squeels that normally race through our house.. (even though this year after the party i didnt find myself in bed til 2am anyway~L~)... it took a call from mum at 7.30 am to wake the kids, importantly Miranda who would make sure that noone else was sleeping...

.... present opening... breakfast.... present opening... lunch....

it all seems to pass in a blur.... before you know it... its 9pm and the day is all but over... and its time to start the count down all over again!

Anyway... i had a fantastic day and hope that all those i love and hold dear enjoyed theirs just as much...

To Richard, Tannie, Lee, Lyn, Dave, Rita, Paul and Laura... i hope that you all have had a fantastic day seeing as how in the states... you too shall now be starting that same count down again too...

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afterthought: well... believe it or not... i dont have one!
6 sleeps til my birthday!

Quote of the day

There is nothing sadder in this world than to wake on christmas morning and not be a child.
~Erma Bombeck~

Merry Christmas to All....

and to all a good night....

Well... last night was a wonderful night... our new home filled with new friends, our children...happiness and lots and lots of laughter... what a better way to spend christmas eve!!

Today... what is left to say but Merry Christmas.... and hope that you were good!

Santa came to our house.. and slipped back a little later in the morning with another shipment of presents... needless to say... they were ones that were "forgoten" to be wrap in the aftermarth of the move... a quick distraction... some hastey wrapping and the tree replenished!

Though... im not to sure if i will have a job with santa next year seeings how the presents that were given up as "wrapped" were barely that... what can i say... it was a rush order!~LMAO~

anyway... there is wine to be drunk, toys to play with and still many hours of day light in which to enjoy....

Merry Christmas!!


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afterthought: We are thinking of all those of you that we love where christmas will soon be starting! We love each and everyone of you and hope that one year soon we shall be able to do it together... XXX

Quote of the day

~The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough~

Tis the season ....

Tis the season for some to be jolly while others just figure christmas is too much to deal with, cancel it and think that because they dont want to be festive and make the most of what they have, like to spoil the season for others with their selfish ways..

I have a friend that is sick... can't get better... is no cure and all that...i understand this.. but there is not one thing i can do about it... you know... im not a doctor... i don't have some miraculous healing powers.... and while she has not been doing the best recently... i do what i can by sending her my thoughts... telling her i hope she is feeling better and that she is okay... isnt that what your meant to do!? Being supportive!?!.. i thought that was a friends role... well... obviously i had that arse about face and upside down even because, for sending her wishes hoping she was okay got my arse chewed out and spoken to like a stupid 10 year old, it was all spelled out to me "what life is like" it almost seemed i was expected to go on the same ride of pity that she seems to have boarded and because i had otped to go with "hope" that i was some how a traitor..
Well.. thats not me... if i cant fix something i try to be positive... and hope... that is the one thing we all have... right!?

I have another friend... her sister in law for most of the time i have known this friend has been struggling with cancer... yes, cancer has a cure... sometimes... but regardless... this lady has been really sick... but the difference with her is that she didnt give up on the world and will it to open up and swallow her whole... she held onto hope... looked to the parts of her life that she could fix... do something about... and fought on.... and you know what... she lived life to its fullest and didn't dwell and let her self be pulled into that ugly place where depression dwells...

I really don't know what to do in my situation... do you sit back and be someones sounding board every time they have a bad day... be treated like crap for doing what you do and "hope" or do you do what i did and tell them that it hurt... open them up to the fact that you see them as selfish for the way they are acting about something that you just damn well cant fix.
I love this woman like she were my own flesh and blood sister though do i deserve to be abused every time she has a bad day!?
I guess none of this really matters since she has decided instead of facing the truth of how she has made me feel she has decided to be REALLY adult about this and ignore me like Miranda does when she doesnt get her own way.

I know that no one but me can answer what my head is asking but i guess.. it helps just to get it out..

Thanks for listening...


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afterthought: Now... back to my previous program of CHRISTMAS CHEER!
Merry Christmas Y'all!!!

Quote of the Day

There is nothing sadder in this world than to wake on Christmas morning and not be a child ~Erma bombeck~

Im baaack!

Its beginning to look a lot like christmas for sure... and with only 4 days left, finally im ready!

Its been over a month since i last wrote here i think and so much has happened... firstly.... there are no more counts left.... we are here.... in windy smokey Melbourne...

A date that i thought would never get here came and snuck up on us very quickly and before we could blink the truck was there and the removalists were going through my cupboards packing everything up. It was a strange feeling to say the least.... excitement and anticipation was quickly flooded with panic and dread... it took until the house was half empty to realise the enormousness of what we were really doing...
We were moving hundreds upon hundreds of miles from everyone we loved... everyone that we could count on and everyone that we often visited of a weekend and heading off to a City that none of us were familiar with with people that we didnt know...

What sort of crazy is that!?!

Well.. it was the crazy that we faced just over a week ago and one that i have to admit came with tears from almost all us us and a plea to Matt from me to take me home...
I'm not sure exactly what i think of Melbourne yet... while there are tonnes of shops to explore and things to see and do, its not home.. ya know!?!
I made the biggest leap so far and went out and bought both side neighbours a box of chocolates and had the kids play knock and run, leaving the treats wrapped in festive paper for them to discover once the door was answered...
while i did this, just for something to do and to feel like i was getting into the spirit of christmas in a place i just dont feel i belong quiet yet, it turned out to be a wonderful thing to do... within about 30 minutes i had the neighbours at the door, intorducing themselves and thanking me for the wonderful thought... while it was not a thought i expected to be returned, the next afternoon we were again answering the door to the neighbours, this time with gift in hand...
One thing about the people here in our street, they like to make you feel welcome which i think is lovely... not only was the gift one in responce to our own christmas gesture, though more so a welcome, formally to the street!

We were again greeted with another gift, this time on our door step yesterday... truely, its beginning to look a lot like christmas... our tree is up and now we have gifts besides our own to place under it.. totally unexpected which makes them so much more wonderful.

Getting back to the tears though... the day we arrived, we were greeted just on the outskirts of Melbourne by Alison and Geoff, whom had thought it may be a little less daunting if we followed them to their house where we were staying instead of watching us fumble our way through the city, regardless of the whopping big UBD that had been glued to my lap. Although, having said that, im not totally convinced that it was for none other reason than that Al just could not contain the excitement any longer and needed to be that 30 mins closer to meeting time in an instant!

After talking to this woman that had become part of my life after months and months of million hour long calls we met... after i have to confess, SMS messages flying back and forth between us from about Wodonga...we met.... was truely a day that neither of us thought would come soon enough and our Men prayed would come to save on the huge phone bills!

On the sunday, the tears flowed... it was hot... we finally got to the hotel and were alone... we couldnt swim in the pool because some idiot being chased by the police thought it would be smart to toss his heroine stash into the motels swimming pool so he was not caught with it... so on the hotter than hell day we were having we could not swim and didnt know where we were well enough, so could not find the beach we could smell... we got inside the hotel to find one crummy OLD air conditioner whirring away... not barely cooling the living room much less the rooms that ajoined.. totally AC free... gah.
We had litterally stepped into hell... it was hot, smelled, was tiny and nothing worked..
I swear, two days could not pass soon enough until we were out of there and waiting for the truck out the front of ou new house... which.. i have to say.... is FABULOUS!

This house is bigger than anything that we have ever lived in before, has a cricket pitch as a hall way (swear its true) and keeps cool without the need of air conditioners... im sure it will be happily called home for a number of years to come.. and.. better than anything else, its BRAND SPANKIN' NEW!!!
It only took us 24 hours to have the entire house unpacked and set up after some minor damage done to the walls by the removalists(dont ask) and a few breakages...(we wont go there either... grrr)

so.... there is nothing left for us now to do but put up our feet, relax and wait for the fat man to arrive...

oh... and explore this huge place!

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afterthought: after having some photos taken with Santa at Sanctury Lakes shopping Centre by daddy, we have decided they were not good enough to his standards and will be going back tomorrow... hopefully i will have something up here to share with you all.


4 sleeps til Christmas!