australia Day 2007

WE celebrated Australia Day this year with a traditional aussie bbq!

Had a great day. We had Jane & Simon; Tracy & Jacob; Gail, John & Haylee; Simone, Greg, Jhorjie & Dominic; and us!

The wine flowed, the food was plentiful and there was laughs and chats. All in all a wonderful time.

It was great to catch up with Tracy and spend some time with Jane that didnt involve tears and sadness (we seem to be meeting at funerals lately!). Hope to do it more often

I dont believe it!

I spent last weekend participating in the scrapyourselfsilly cybercrop and had such a great time.

The girls there are so friendly and welcoming and helpful and I had lots of laughs and really enjoyed pushing myself with the challenges. I actually finished all 4 challenges for this cybercrop including a bleaching class taught by the lovely Crissy. I had so much fun experimenting with this technique and trying it out on just about every colour card I had in my scraps box so I had heaps of flowers which I used in my layout.

I found out this week that I won the bleaching challenge. How exciting. I have now entered two cybercrops in my life and have won a prize at both of them. Wow

I will try and upload my LO's here



Challenge 1 - paisley



Challenge 2 - find a LO you like in the gallery, get the owners permission and scraplift a LO using techniques from that page




challenge 3 - christmas, ribbon, flourishes/doodling



challenge 4 - Lo using bleaching (my winning LO)

A morning of memories

Had a great time on the weekend. I met up with a group of friends from school (yes that long ago!) that I hadn't seen in a couple of years.

We met at Tina's Place and there was Tina, Louise (who was my bridesmaid and I hadn't seen for 4 years after a falling out (long story)), Tracey Dean, Tracy Hawkes, Josephine Bugg and myself.

We had a great time catching up with each others news and learning about jobs and families and discussing old times at school. I had such a fun time and hopefully we will get together more frequently. They are just the nicest people and spending time with them reminded me of why we got on so well at school.

The downpoint of the day was that we were talking so much I forgot to take pics. What sort of scrapper am I!

Here he is!

Introducing Dominic Pignataro

Dominic Jaymz is here

Simone, Greg and Jhorjie's new family member arrived safely this morning after a caeserean delivery.

Mone rang me from recovery to say things were going well and to tell me that it was okay - Greg didn't faint!

Apparently Jhorjie is smitten with her baby brother which is great.

He is tiny (6lb 8oz)ad has gorgeous black hair. A real cutie.

Went up and saw them this afternoon and mum and bub are both doing well

Exhausted

Boy am I tired!

Had a mad day at work today - first consulting day after three weeks of holidays.

Headed off to work at quarter to 8 this morning and walked back in the door at quarter to 7 tonight and it was just go, go, go all day. Total mad house!

I am sooo thankful for my great husband who had the kids fed and bathed when I got home so I could just collapse in a heap and veg for 1/2 an hour or so.

Mone and Greg's baby will be here by the weekend so can't wait to meet him.

Will update more later - too tired now

my holidays are nearly over

WEll time flies doesn't it!

Less than a week before I go back to work. These hols have been good - haven't acheived as much as I wanted but hey had some fun! I have cleaned out the craft room, cleaned up Tasha's room (much to her disgust!), done the kitchen cupboards and tidied up the bookshelves in the study but HAVEN'T gotten around to the gardens or the changes I wanted to do in our bedroom yet. And as for catching with my reading or my movies I want to watch. No chance!!!!

Yesterday the kids, Tony and I went and played putt putt golf. Took us so long because we laughed nearly the whole way round but we had a great time. It was lovely to do something all together!

This morning I met up with Gail to see if we could work out a way to cover these new tins we got with four (yes four - are we mad!) windows in the lid. I love how mine turned out. Had to leave before Gail finished hers so not sure how hers went.

Had to leave to go TO THE DENTIST YYYUUUKKK. After having my wisdom teeth out and the nerve damage sustained then my gums and tongue are soo sensitive so I wasn't loooking forward to it and I came home with my very first filling. Not something I will go back for again if I can avoid it!

Got lots to look forward to over the next few weeks. Got my wonderful Jane coming over Friday for some craft and dinner, in a couple of weeks I am meeting up with friends from school, some I havent seen for three or four years, and having friends over for a bbq on Australia day so will be nice and busy. Add to that a cyber crop in there somewhere, going back to work and getting the kids ready for school. AARRGH

For some reason Blogger wont let me upload pics so will try again tomorrow

Suicide is not the answer

After attending the funeral of one of my friends husband about 6 weeks ago on Tuesday we were back at the same place to say goodbye to her son who would have turned 14 years old the day before he was buried.

He committed suicide on the 23rd of December in the backyard of the family home.

I know sometimes life gets hard and I know where these thoughts come from and I can relate to the not knowing what to do but it affects so many people around you.

The funeral was heartbreaking - one of his sisters spoke at the service and finished off with "and now the two special men in my life are gone". there were so many school kids there and hopefully the message that suicide isn't the answer got through to them.

My big beef was that there was all these 13 and 14 year old kids totally distraught and not a parent in sight. I know they are old enough but at times like this (it was probably the first funeral for a lot of them) some support would have been nice.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Well we made it home safely. We had a great christmas in Brisbane with Mark, Mel and Declan.

We flew up on the 23rd and Mark met us at the airport and then when we got to our apartment there were Mel and Declan waiting to see us! The place we stayed was lovely.

Chrsitasm Eve we stayed at Mark's so the kids could wake up together christmas monring and then we went to Mel's family for christmas lunch. One thing I learnt about Gatton - it is very hot!!!!




We did lots of fun stuff. Went to underwater world, did lots of shopping!!!!, went to southbank and did went up the river, and shopped some more! didn't get to dreamworld as it rained most of the time we were there but had some great times with Mark, Mel and Declan.

Mum and John joined us on the 28th for a family christmas celebration and then we flew home together new years eve.



All in all it was a great time

Silly season

Well the silly season is upon us and as noted earlier this month is just totally mad for me. Don't know if its the time of year but have been feeling really flat lately. I have almost finished all my chrissy shopping and in a mad panic trying to organise things for our time away.

Tony has been working extra long hours and is useless at the moment. Feel like hibernating until it is all over.

One good thing tomorrow is my last day of work for three weeks. YYYAAAYYYY

Weekend away

Had a great weekend. It actually started Friday when we had our work christmas party and played croquet on the lawn at Ian and Harriet's. I had no idea croquet was such a mean, bloodthirsty and challenging game. I thought it was just hitting balls through hoops but I soon learnt about the tactics and things involved. We had a ball lots of laughs and a good day. To top things off we got our christmas present from work which was a three day pass to Cedarvale Health Retreat, which is something I have always wanted to do so I can't wait.

Then Tony and I went to Canberra for the weekend. The kids stayed with Gail friday night and Mum saturday night. We had such a good time. We went to the National Gallery and saw the egyptian exhibit over from the louvre ( I figured my chances of getting to the louvre were non existent so better see it when I can!) which I really enjoyed. We went to cafe Injoy for lunch (yum yum) and had a nice afternoon doing some christmas shopping and ended up at hogs breath for dinner.

Had a great weekend. Trying to sort out now what we can and can't take to Queensland - we fly out in less than a week. Yikes. With weight limits etc don't know how we will get chrissy presents up there but we'll sort it out.

14th December - My Birthday

I had a great birthday this year. I was spoilt rotten by tony and the kids. I got some CD's I wanted (snow patrol, U2, robbie williams and Young Diva's) and a jewellery set with a necklace, bracelet and earrings that I had mentioned ages ago I liked - (and Tony remembered and got the right ones!)

At work today we had our annual lunch to thank the staff at the hospital for the great work they do looking after our patients and when the room was full to capacity Ian (my boss) made his annual speech which ended with "and today is Cath's 34th birthday so could we all sing Happy Birthday". Out comes this cake and everyone (about 100 people) sing. I think I went a slight shade of red. Learnt a good lesson - never trust your boss in a public place!

what came first?

The old expression what came first the chicken or the egg springs to mind today because I have been writing a book about my life and more particularly everything I went through in my teenage years. It's not a book that I ever think anyone would ever read but it was more for me - someone said it was a good coping exercise so I thought I'd give it a go. I don't know if the writing is helping or if I can write about it because I have come to terms with it more but I seem to be able to cope a lot better lately. So the chicken or the egg? Is it because I'm writing about it or can I write because I am dealing better?

Anyway apart from that life has been pretty busy. Had a scrap day on saturday and I got a big project done that I wanted to finish but I had a shocker of a headache all day and could easily have just come home instead but I was determined to finish it off and I am so happy with it. will post some pics later. Camera has flat batteries atm.

what a month

I sat down the other and worked out what I have on this month and WOW this is my schedule.

9th Dec Going to scrap sale in morning
then 10 hour scrapping day
11th Dec Going chrissy shopping with friends
12th Dec Scrapping night
13th Dec have to work an extra night work
14th Dec My b'day (Might be having dinner trying to organise )
Special lunch party for staff at hospital
15th Dec XMAS Breakfast 8 - 10 for Hospital
then My work christmas party for lunch
then driving to Canberra (DH taking me away for weekend - kid free!)
16th-17th Dec in Canberra
19th Dec scrapping night
21st Dec last day work main job before hols -
22nd Dec XMas party for my second job
23rd Dec Fly to Queensland
24th Dec To my brothers place for xmas eve dinner and drinks
25th Dec Xmas breakfast with brother and his family then christmas day luch with my sister in laws family
26th Dec to Australia Zoo
27th Dec to dreamworld with brother and family
28th Dec Pick mum and John up from airport
29th Dec do the whole family christmas thing
31st Dec Fly back home hope to stay in Syd for fireworks
1st Jan 0 Collapse in heap!


WOw I feel sooooo tired now

YYYAAAYYYY

I won, I won, I won.

I won my first ever scrapping competition. My mirror image page for the cybercrop was selected as the winner for my category. I was sooo excited. It is the first time I have ever submitted anything like this and I was so nervous when I saw the work of the other girls I almost didnt submit mine.

I was so excited when I found out. Even Tony congratulated me and said he was proud.

(insert happy dance here!)

my "Quiet" weekend

Well this weekend was supposed to be my quiet weekend but it ended being a busy one but also a great time.

I entered my first cybercrop! It was through scrapyourselfsilly and it was great fun. There were 4 challenges but I only submitted two - wasn't happy with my other ones. the girls there are sooo friendly and encouraging

My first one was for cards, they had to be blue/silver, with rounded corners and stars


The second one was a mirror image you either had to journal about what you saw when you looked in the mirror or do a mirror image layout so I incorporated the two.



Then in the middle of all this I have been trying to get organised for the 10 hour scrapping day next weekend and Tony finally relented and let us get a christmas tree. we didn't get a real one this year (broken a 10 year tradition!) but we got a fibre optic one. It looks cool!



And also during the cyber crop I won one of the games so I can't wait to see what my prize will be!

What a wonderful weekend

Well this last weekend would have to be one of my best weekends in ages. I had the best time

Gail and I drove to Canberra, checked into our motel in Queanbeyan and then drove to meet up with Sandra, Matt, Keira, Jamie and Miranda Allan (Flutters and her family) to catch up IRL one last time before they move to Melbourne (boo hoo). We had the best time. Did lots of chatting and laughing, had a lovely BBQ dinner with them and then the scrapping stuff came out! I had absolutely no scrapping mojo at all but I came home with so much inspiration from Sandra's stuff - she is soooo talented.

It was just a lovely relaxed happy time. She is such a sweetie and her family is great. they made us feel so welcome.

Gail and I left about midnight - ish and went back to the motel but then we found out Gail left something behind (I think it was on purpose!!!!) so we had to go back Sunday morning.

Then we went to the stamping sale at EPIC and meet up with Hannah (Bubblefrog) and had heaps of fun picking out stamps - we all ended up buying a heap but they were only 1 or 2 dollars each. Had heaps of fun, especially when we found a pocket watch stamp (long story - another time maybe) and then we went into Federation Square to Cafe Injoy for lunch. All I can say is YUM YUM.

We said goodbye to Hannah and headed home past a big roadside sign warning us to drive carefully - bushfire across Federal Highway!! Didn't know whether to turn back but we kept going and eventually got home without seeing any fire (turns out the fire was Friday and they hadn't taken the sgins away - Doh)

All in all it was just a great weekend with wonderful people

Sad day

Today I went to Wayne's funeral (the husband of a lovely lady I worked with). He was only 45 and they found out about 2 months ago he was dying and he asked Suellen to have the following verse read out at his funeral.

IF I HAD MY LIFE OVER AGAIN

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax, I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.




Maybe we all need to listen to this and think about enjoying life. Not getting caught up in the everyday but enjoying every single day we have.

another fun scrapping day

Had a great day yesterday. We were supposed to go to Mone's for a scrapping day but she hasn't been well and wasn't feeling up to it so instead of cancelling it completely as we had all been looking forward to it and packed for it (well I had anyway!) we moved it to Gail's at the last minute (Thankyou John for letting us invade your house for so long at such short notice and for being so tolerant of all the laughter and singing).

Had a great time. There was only four of us (Gail, Haylee, Amanda and myself) but we still talked, laughed, scrapped, ate and played singing games until about 10pm. Had a great time. Got lots done too. Will take some piccies and upload them during the week.

Proud mum pt 2

After the news the other week that Kyle had made the chess team for school (BTW he won 4 games, drew 2 and lost 1 at the district comp but his other team mates didnt do as well so they arent going on to the next round) we got notification yesterday that Kyle has been accepted into the Opportunity class for year 5 and 6. This is an accelerated learning class for gifted students (I hate that term gifted students it sounds so pretentious and feels like you are putting to high an expectation)

It is a great chance for Kyle who loves learning. They do a lot more in depth stuff and work slightly differently to the other classes in that the curriculum is not so strict and they can investigate things further and study topics that interest them as well as learning all the basics.