Our little maestro

Friday night last week was Aaron's first ever piano concert... he was sooooooooooooo excited. And looking at him play you would think he was a pro at this... he made me VERY proud.

Aaron was only one of six performers and the only boy! He was also the newest player, having only played for eight weeks... well done my boy!

The songs that Aaron played were: My Clever Pup, Sailing & Skating and a duet of Old MacDonald with Angie his teacher.

And then as an added extra note: Aaron loves tinkling the ivories at home on the keyboard that we borrowed from a friend.... BUT he is not content with just playing in "paino".... no he has to try out ALL the different instruments (about 100) and also the different tempos... wow it can get rather noisy.... and it sure is funny to hear Old MacDonald played in synthesizer, harp or some other wierd space noise... hehehe.... never a dull (or quiet!) moment.

School Concert

Last night was Aaron's turn in his school concert... Stories Out of a Box.... the school divided the grades into two groups... one on Monday/Wednesday and the other Tuesday/Thursday. I unfortunately couldn't see my way to going to the other half and so only have photos (on the school blog) to look at. BUT here are pics of Aaron's play:

Aaron was one of the narrators... he was very cute and did well... until he found Mom in the audience and then he nearly lost it but recovered well... only waved at me as they were leaving... too sweet.

Well their play was a new take on the original Hansel and Gretel story... all about Aunt Greedy who LOVES sweets... she sent the children off to the woods where they found Candy Sugar and Spice who lives in the candy house. Aunt Greedy followed their sweet trail and ends up having to stay in the house while Candy, the children and their father live happily ever after... moral of the story... Don't be Greedy!

Was lots of fun.... to see more pics see first night and second night over on the school blog.

An interesting read

It's not often that a book will make me think and think and think some more... but this one sure did.... I finished reading it last night:

Escape by Carolyn Jessop is her autobiograph and describes her life as part of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS)... and in a polygamist marriage.

What really made me identify with her is that she is virtually the same age as me... born on 1 Jan 1968. So each time something happened to her I would say to myself... where was I at that age... etc.... scary!

By the time I had done matric and started college... she was married!

By 22 she had had a few kids already.... I had just finished college and started work

Her one son is the same age as Aaron.

She left the cult in 2003 and has had an uphill battle to survive since then too... single mom to EIGHT kids!!!

This book has really made me VERY thankful for the life I have... that I was brought up with Christian values in a Christian and loving home.

For more info... you can go here or here

Get this book and read it... it's eye opening!

Last night's scrapping

I scrapped again last night... yippee... and did the last two pages that I had planned for Saturday's scrap day.

So now I need to start some more planning... just mainly picking out papers... the photos and sketch are already done... for the next batch of pages to do... 88 left in 2007 and 118 for 2008 plus all of 2009 still to be decided (oh and not to forget the odd one or two for 2004, 2005 & 2006!).

Oh and in case you didn't see it on my sidebar ------> I've leaped in with both feet and decided to join Twitter... so now you can follow my chirps there too... www.twitter.com/cathysanders_za (just yet another website to keep visiting and writing nonsence on!)

I scrapped some more

If you remember a while back I said I was entering the PageMaps anniversary competition... well I didn't win so here now is the layout that I couldn't show you:

This past weekend was our monthly girls scrap day... and I managed to do three pages on Saturday...

And then yesterday was a holiday and I put the time to good use... yip did some more scrapping... and made four pages...

All these pages are from my 2007 album... I am now down to 90 layouts still to do! Yip it's a lot but slowly but surely I will whittle it down. There is a school holiday round the corner and then i plan to do lots of scrapping.

Just a few updates too....

a. I'm all better and over my sniffles from last week... thanks for all the well wishes. Dosed myself with Sinumax, vitamin C, Viral Guard and a few panados... oh and about half a box of tissues!

b. We have managed to borrow a keyboard and now Aaron (and I) are happily practicing the piano... he has his first concert next Friday

c. Aaron's school is putting on a concert next week and they are all very excited and busy practicing like crazier... not sure how much school work is actually getting done... hopefully we won't have too much homework this week.

d. I've been sneaking around my blog reader and reading all the lovely blog posts, but sorry I haven't been leaving that many comments.... yes I love to get comments so I try very hard to leave them for others... will catch up soon I hope.

e. Been doing lots of baking too... have actually run out of flour now! We had a cake sale at church two weeks ago which was a huge success... and then because the cookies I made were so yum, I just had to make some more... snickerdoodles... found the original recipe over on Ro's blog, but then found a slightly easier one (or should that be less confusing?) that used only marg... mmmm now where are my cookies?

f. And just for a change... I've been sewing too... made some polar fleece pjs for Aaron and a mohair jacket for me... the mohair we had bought years and years ago down in George/Knysna at the factory shop... a whole bunch of offcuts. Have also cut out a pair of pants and have four other bits of material waiting to be cut.

So now you know... I'm happy as I've scrapped, sewed, read lots (yip done that too!) and now my blog is updated I really feel good.

Googled again...

And to find out the Who/What/Why... read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky

I'm searching....

for a CHEAP piano or keyboard..... mmmm, not so easy. Anyone out there have one hanging around that they don't want anymore?????

Aaron's piano lessons are progressing very well.... and now he is getting to learn to play on more than just the 36 or so keys of his small keyboard that I am seriously looking for something bigger. BUT the decision as to WHICH one to get is a big decision.

I've scoured the internet and found some online stores that will deliver for free... a huge plus. And I've started looking in the junkmail... some possibilities. And now comes the time to start seriously deciding which ones we are going to go see to decide on buying or not.... HELP I can't decide.

This one is really really nice and I think would be perfect... just toooooooooooooooo costly for me at the moment:
It's a CASIO CDP200 Advanced features 88 Key Portable Digital Piano

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated... or even a loan one if you have it!!!

JUST AN UPDATE: we managed to borrow a keyboard from a friend from church... thanks Clancy & Megan. Aaron is loving the new keyboard and trying out ALL the different sounds.

Atishooo....

bless me and you and all those others who are sneezing!!!

Yip the winter arrived and along with it the dreaded lurgie..... I decided that instead of spreading my germs around the office (where they came from!) I would stay at home.... so here I am in front of the pc "working" but at least I'm warm and comfortable.

This cold weather is definately NOT NICE... but for me I much prefer it to the hot hot summer... at least I can put another layer (or six!) on and keep warm.

Off to find another tissue.... atshioo... bless you.... and get some hot coffee.

Design Team Submission

A few weeks back I got an email from Jacki about a search for a design team by Scrap Shack Designs ... a South African wholesaler. Soooooooooooo I just HAD to enter and have spent the last three weeks finding product, editing photos, coming up with ideas and scrapping them all... and talk about crunch time.... I have JUST got it all done and emailed off... to meet today's 12 noon deadline....

I have loved every minute of putting together a single page about me, a double page showing at least three techniques (I used more!) and a mini album. There were a few nights of going to bed after 11 and even then thinking/planing in my sleep. This morning I even scrapped while sitting in my car at school and then also at work to finish finish finish... eish!!! Why oh why do I do this to myself... pressure... yuck yuck!

Now the waiting starts.... as soon as I know more I'll let you know. I can't show you what I've done unfortunately (part of the submission rules)... but once I hear anything you will be amongst the first to know.....

off to wait.....

Did you unplug in May?

The challenge was to unplug for a day (see my post here for more) .... well my confession follows: I only SEMI-UNPLUGGED! Sorry :(

Sunday the 24th of May was set aside to be unplugged...ie the whole day is supposed to be without computer, telephone, cellphone and tv... BUT ... it didn't quite happen.

Aaron spent hours on the computer, Keith phoned me twice from his cellphone, my folks phoned me on the landline... eish!!! But there was a sort of success....

1. I did load after load of washing (okay so this was still plugged in I guess... washing machine going for four hours!)

2. I finished reading one book and started another

3. My parents came round for afternoon tea

4. The tv did not get switched on until after supper and then only to catch the end of the news.

5. I cut out a jacket and a pair of pants to sew later.

So maybe the idea was right, and my intentions were in the right place, but it is VERY awkward to get everyone to comply, so it was a "Semi-unplugged day" for me.

Better luck next time around.