TGIF

I'm really really glad that it is Friday.... first week of the last term of school is done with. A routine is getting established again.... and complicated even more!! Besides the swimming lessons we now also have extra-murals to take into account... cricket and drama. So some reshuffling is going to have to happen next week.


Well the other reason I'm happy it's Friday is that this week work has been real up and down... busy one moment and quiet the next. Plus we've had no water since Wednesday... some pipe burst down the road and now there is not enough pressure to reach the third floor. Bummer!!


Oh and to crown it all... our geyser at home is on the blink again.... no hot water! But thank goodness we have a separate geyser for the upstairs bathroom so we've just been using that since Tuesday. It seems to be an electrical fault, so some elec friend of Keith's is supposed to be coming tomorrow to sort it out.


So now on to other news.... here are pics of Aaron swimming....

On Monday


On Wednesday


And then he came home yesterday with an "S" on his hand to remind him to take his swimming costume to school on Friday for swimming. So today he was very happy to climb in the pool at school and swim. Evidently they were using pool noodles too. He said he had fun. So looks like the lessons will pay off and he will be swimming properly soon soon.


I've had a fairly quiet week on the scrapping front. Spent Monday and Tuesday evenings going through all my scanned layouts and getting them ready for upload (will do in separate post) and went to Bible Study on Wednesday evening. Thursday I watched a bit of tv in the evening and not too much else. I have pulled/strained/hurt a muscle in my left shoulder and so have been a bit achy the last day or so. Spoke to a friend who is a physio and she suggested an anti-inflamatory.... well I found an old box in the medicine box and took two last night and two again this morning.... worked wonders! But I can definately feel the ouch as soon as the tabs wear off. The bum thing about this is that it's the arm I use mostly when cuddling Aaron... like when reading bedtime stories.... and it's just too sore to lift. Plus it makes driving agony.... ouch ouch. Guess it's time to take more "drugs"! hehehe. Okay chocolate will surfice too!


You may have noticed I've a new sidebar item... yip a little link to Donna Downey's web... it's all about being inspired and living inspired. I definately think I do this... I seem to eat, sleep, dream, do, think about or surf look for stuff on scrapbooking most of my day... if it's not TAKING the photos, then it's uploading or editing them, or planning layouts, or looking for new ideas, creating pages, etc, etc, etc.... I'm sure you get the picture. So I whole heartedly subscribe to this idea.


I hope to put my "week in my life" page together sometime next week... By the time I get there it will be OLD news... hehehe. But please be patient I will get there. Plus I want to do the challenge that Stacy Julian had on her blog... I even have the bazzill book to put it in!! Just need to sort out my pics.


Also got an email update today from Jessica Sprague about a FREE class she is offering... see below... so I'm going to sign up for that too... boy but life is hectic at the moment!!!


Other news.... please check out my friend Helen's new venture... LoveHennaHair ... it's for those people who colour their hair and want to use natural products.... as for me I think I'll stick to my "natural highlights" aka the grey that's peaking through... hehehe.


Okay does that bring me up to date? Sure hope so because I can't remember when last I posted such a l-o-n-g entry...


Till next time... Cheers

What's happening...

Well I can just see some of my regular readers wanting to know what I've been up to since my last "a week in the life" post.... hehehe... I had such a busy blogging and photo taking week last week that I just had to have a break... or maybe it was to give you a break from reading my nonsence?

Anyways.... Sunday was a NO PHOTO day... not a single one was taken. I spent the morning at church and the afternoon trying to find my journalling (song words) for one of my layouts. Eventually spent about half an hour watching Aaron's concert dvd and transcribing the lyrics. It was sooooooooo cute to see it all again.

And then also Keith managed to hire "Horton Hears a Who" for Aaron so I watched that with him.... soooooooooooooo funny and definately worth the revisit. This was one of those movies I took Aaron to watch at the "big scream". His favourite part is when Horton goes uphill through the snow like a train...


Yesterday was the Back to School routine day.. bummer no more sleeping late. Aaron woke me at 5:30 just after my alarm went off and said "Mommy you must get up and go bath. I have to go to school."... urgh why did he remind me???? Well he had a good day back anyway... seems like everyone enjoyed their two week holiday.

After school I took Aaron for his first official swimming lesson.... got a few coming up as he must learn to swim now. He enjoyed it even though the water temp was only 22... in the water for roughly 20 minutes until he started shivering and his lips became a light shade of purple. But he learnt to jump in, started putting his face in the water (must practise this in the bath!), even did kicking and learnt to push off from the side. He was such a trooper. Oh and I was right along there taking pics for properity... hehehe.

Finished my concert page once we got home (after homework was done) and then filed all my outstanding 2006 layouts... even had to open a new album as I had too many to fit into the one that I had allocated.... so now my 2006 layouts fill FOUR albums. But they are done!!! hehehe.

And now it's Tuesday.... I got stuck in horrid traffic, was made to wait extra long for a lift and am just feeling miz... but hey Judi gives great advice... (see post below) and so now I have had a good giggle I feel much much better.

Chat soon... will upload layouts soon soon.... just busy downsizing them for the web.

Wow today was a good day.

Why you ask... hmmmm well I'll tell you...hehehhehe :)

1. I got to sleep in till 8am

2. Poppa & Granny brought Aaron home


3. It's my old school friend and new scrapping buddy Theresa's 40th birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND

4. I've scrapped tonight and I've now only got TWO pages left to do of my 2006 year... one of which I can't find the six pics I had done so will have to reprint!

5. My eye hasn't been itchy AT ALL today... hallelujah!

Oh and as a side note: Aaron washed the dishes today... yip after lunch he OFFERED! And so after I ran the water for him he stood there and washed ALL the lunch dishes. Poppa dried and I packed away... such team effort. But the big thing is that this was truely a FIRST. Yes I have pics of him "washing" dishes in the past (mainly just the plastic stuff) or drying dishes at Poppa & Granny, but today he decided and did! Makes me very proud to see him growing up.

Right enough waffle... just been so used to blogging this week that I guess I couldn't stop. hehehee. Off to do one of those two outstanding pages.... catch you soon.

Friday... last day of my week

Friday (Day 7) started off VERY noise.... Keith got up just after the alarm went off and of course on flushing the loo the water hammering started... remember when I went to bed last night there was no water.... well it came on during the night and now all the pipes are making noises... every tap has to bubble and splatter and squeak to get the air out... very noisy when you're trying to sleep! And then when he tried to have his shower.... NO HOT WATER... so who knows what time the water came on.... we have a timer on our geyser so it obviously didn't have enough hours to heat the water up. Even when I had my bath it wasn't hot (and we had over-ridden the timer!).

Anyway I digress..... I got up at 6:30. Made Keith's lunch and then we had breakfast... decided to do the muesli/yoghurt thing again today. Keith watered the garden... I think as much to get the pipes clear as to give the plants something to drink and him something to do! (We had had a smattering of rain drops around 6:30... only enough to dirty the car!)

Well as soon as breakfast was finished I started chopping the veg for my duck recipe... said goodbye to keith and then finished putting the duck in the slow cooker. Had my bath (very luke warm!), got dressed and decided to cut my fringe... it's between the dust and my fringe hanging in my eye that's causing my eye to itch! Packed the dishwasher and turned it on. Stripped Aaron's bed and put the washing machine on. Took my vitamins. Boiled some eggs for my lunch. And Phew!, looked at the time... it was only 8am!! So after pulling my car out the garage all ready to go to work, I sat and read my book for 10 minutes! Feel much better!

In order to upload yesterday's pics I decided to take my camera to work and then being inspired by Ali's photos I tried taking some of me driving in the car in the traffic (please don't try this at home... hehehehe)... I think the other drivers around me must have been very puzzled by the strange site of a camera in the car! But I did it!

Another restful day at work (yip I don't do much here but still get paid for it... NOTE TO SELF: must really start buckling down and working harder!) Scanned my scrapping layouts from the last few days, updated my blog and in general just had a good day.

Left at 1 and went past Town Square to get some double sided tape that I had run out of half way through a layout last night... ended up getting album refills as well as I didn't think the till lady would be impressed if I gave her my credit card for R12 only!! Was home by 2 and then the busyness started. But the first thing when I got home that I noticed was the SMELL of my yummy duck cooking... mmmmmmm. Kicked off my shoes and put my slippers on... much more comfortable. Hung up Aaron's bedding then started the whole process of making Apple Strudel.... fiddly but yum yum once finished. Had left over pastry too so just made some pastry cases... must still decide what to do with them.

By now it was 3pm and JUdi was due in half and hour... went upstairs to "tidy up" and make space for her to be able to scrap.... you know what it's like ... the more space you have the more you spread out! DOne that then decided to read my book a bit while waiting. By quarter to four she still hadn't arrived so I took in the washing, boiled the kettle (again!) and read a bit more. Judi arrived just on 4pm.... having left work at 3 but got stuck in Friday afternoon traffic with TWO broken down trucks.

So we had lemon meringue pie (saved from Tuesday night) and coffee and a good 'ole natter to catch up on all that we've missed. Then it was on to upstairs and my "show and tell" of all my scrap stuff I got from convention (yip hadn't seen Judi since BEFORE convention!!) We got on with scrapping then with a short break for supper and later for pud... apple studel and cream... well recommended.

THe funny thing about our scrapping was that though I did 3 and a half double pages, Judi did one double and one single... both inspired by the CONVENTION layouts... she did Kah-Mei's and one of Rachels.... beautiful. Judi left just after 11 and I scrapped until 12... not after, just till 12 then went to bed!

Had also spoken to Mom & Aaron just before 7... not much news there... he had played trains for most of the day by the sounds of it and Mom was busy on the pc. Aaron is excited to be coming home tomorrow.

Well that has been my week... thanks for sharing in it with me.... now I guess the work starts... printing the pics and making something with them! Let's see what happens in the week ahead.

My layouts from this week

The "Baby" bit of this layout is done with mauve stickers that I got at my very first scrapbooking conference I went to... "Scrapbook Den University" and I think the paper is also from around that same era... I've always loved it and had it FOREVER.
This is the layout whose journaling took me two days to do and put on!

Did this layout at 10:30 on Thursday... just about threw it together... okay not quite but it was pretty quick. Nice to have things planned.

A layout about Christmas Carols. The little frames are all Making Memories... and we learnt how to use these at last years ISE... I even bought myself the tool especially so that I could do the page from last year... which I STILL haven't... but at least now I can say I've used my frames! The buttons, ribbons and the tag are all stickers from Bo Bunny while the rubons are from Scrapbook-King

This layout was lots of fun but a pain to think of a title... It is really a little girls birthday party but I wanted to record the photo of "us moms" as this was the last time we were all together... two have subsequently immigrated.

Okay so that's my work from the last three days.... Going to be doing a whole bunch more today (Judi is coming to scrap) and hopefully also over the weekend... my boy gets home tomorrow too... yippee!

Thursday...

Day 6 of my week... boy has it gone fast. When you actually sit down and document the what/where/when life does tend to fly past.

This morning Keith actually had to wake me up... I was fast asleep in dreamland and didn't even register the time... nearly quarter to 7! Well got up and started making our lunches... just ham and cheese sarmies today. Judi sms'd while I was busy to warn me about the traffic backup on the highway. Keith had also heard about it on the tv... evidently there had been an attempted hijacking just past Malibongwe offramp around 4 this morning and a 32 year old man was killed (with his own gun I heard later in the day... and his wife was sitting in the car... I really feel for her.)

So anyway after Keith left for work I had my bath and then breakfast... muesli & yoghurt today. I've also spent most of the morning putting drops into my right eye... all puffy and itchy again... between the eye drops and tissues (when my eyes itch my nose runs!) I am also never without my book to read!

Quickly stripped our bed and the one upstairs too and put all the sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers into the machine to be washed while at work. Then left for work and tried to take the back roads... well once I got to Malibongwe along President Fouche I looked towards the highway and people were turning on to it so I took the chance and went that way too.... all sign of the earlier drama was gone and the traffic moved pretty well so I was at work BEFORE 9!

Another quiet non-event of a day at work... just compiled a list of the drawings I had used to create another drawing... for some report. So not much activity on that front. Did email back and forth with Judi who had had a week of leave and today on getting in to work had no water.... real bummer.

Got home just after 1:30. Hung up the washing and even unpacked and repacked the dishwasher, all before Isabel (our domestic) arrived to do the proper cleaning.... now you ladies will understand why I have time to do baking/scraping/reading in my afternoons... I have someone who comes and cleans.... very nice!!!

Spent the afternoon alternating between the pc and scrapping.... finished my journalling from Tuesday's layout and scrapped another double page. Also had the radio tuned to Jacaranda FMfor background music.

The weather forecast for today side "30% chance of rain" so I kept an eye on the clouds... ended up seeing the most stunning site of the sun peaking through...so snapped a few shots. Then at 5:30 I had to take Isabel home as Keith hadn't arrived. We again saw a beautiful sunset... grey clouds all round and the most brilliant bright red ball showing through... now where was the camera!!!

Got home at 6. Made supper and while it was cooking Aaron phoned... had a nice chat with him... he was feeling tired so I reckon it would be bedtime pretty soon. He had coloured in, watched movies and played trains all day... typical day at Poppa & Granny.

I then ate supper. Keith arrived home as I dished up but he didn't want to eat them. Watched some tv till around 8pm then decided it was time to remake out bed. Around 8:30 I went upstairs and scrapped... started working on a double page with lots of pockets but ended up running out of doublesided tape... bummer will have to go get some more. Did two singles instead and went to bed just before 11. Read for a while then off to dreamland.

Oh and a side note.... on Tuesday night when I got home from bookclub we had no water. And guess what... when I went to bed tonight... no water either!!! Luckily there was some in the fridge that I could use to rinse my mouth after brushing my teeth!

Day 5.... Wednesday

Wednesday morning dawned (a new month) and I got up at 6:30... made loads of toast with sardines on for both Keith and my lunches. Then we had breakfast and he left for work just after 7. I then made coffee... took and uploaded some photos and wrote up my notes of yesterday.

Aaron phoned and I had a long catch up chat with him. He told me about the bird park visit (There were 11 babies... um Veronica what were those baby birds?... oh yes baby ducks mommy. And I saw a bunny and bunny holes. Shaun spot a tortoise... I didn't, but he told us, so that's alright.)

Also spoke to Shaun, Denise and Veronica just to say Bye as they fly to Cape Town at 11am.

Once done I brushed teeth, put on my shoes and left for work. At work I read emails and then did a quick search for duck recipes... to be cooked in my slow cooker... not a huge selection.... reason I'm looking is my friend Judi is coming over on Friday and seeing as we have a duck in the freezer I thought I'd make that for supper. Did find one recipe that I thought I could manage... if it works I'll post it on my blog.

Managed to do an odd bit of work but also sorted out my coupons on to a proper "grocery list" so that I could be a bit more organised on my planned shopping trip. Due to the fact that I've been late a few days for work I decided to "work" the time in... so only left at 1:30. Went straight to Pick 'n Pay at Northgate.... arrived just on 2pm and after wandering around, checking my coupons, checking the prices and finding (or not) the stuff I wanted I eventually made it to the check out at 4pm! It then too the lady around 20 minutes to process my coupons.... she had to enter each one at a time... from 50c to R1 or R2.... the most was a R10 discount.... but it was TOTALLY worth it I got a total discount of R126 (or there abouts).... okay the bill was the MOST I've EVER paid for groceries and I really really don't want to pay that much again.

Got home at 4:45 and then had to unpack everything... ended up even having to repack my freezer to get everything in. Put the dishwasher on and washed the dishes that didn't fit in. Decided that it was now time to phone Aaron and catch up too. Spoke to my Mom for a while and then my Dad and finally Aaron. The first thing he says is "I want to come home NOW"... sorry my boy it's another 3 sleeps. Besides that he is full of beans and happy.

Made myself some supper and read my book while it cooked. After eating I watched the news and then while updating my "journalling"... ie typing this blog entry.... I watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Then also paid some bills and read my blogs in google reader.

And that my fellow bloggers, is my day.

ps... didn't get to scrap but tomorrow is another day!

Stacy's challenge

While reading Stacy Julian's blog today (as well as Stephanie's) I came across this post...

http://stacysbigpicture.typepad.com/altogether_too_happy/2008/10/october-1st.html

Now this is just an extra challenge to do but I think I'll combined my "week in my life" and this one and do both together.

Any one want to join me???

Another day in my life... (Tuesday)

Slept till 6:30 then bathed as Keith wasn't leaving till 7:45 so I didn't have to rush. We had breakfast then I made his lunch. He left just after 7:30 and then I finished my journaling and stamped my title on the page I did last night. Left for work at 8:30 after putting the Ronnie Bag out.

My laptop wouldn't shut down so I just packed it up and went to work. Got Clement to come check it out and he just held the power button down until it shut down... boy do I feel BLOND!!! hehehe

Quiet day at work... checked emails, read blogs in Google Reader... added a few comments. Then scanned and uploaded my layout.

Went past the post box on the way home and fetched the mail then to the atm to draw R50 for bookclub tonight. Once home I baked a lemon meringue pie and then spent the rest of the afternoon scrapping.... did a double page, then made supper and afterwards scrapped a single page (just the journalling still to do). Ate supper and read till 7:10.

I had tried to phone Aaron at 5:30 but there was no answer and so tried them again at 7:15.... Aaron was in the bath. Poppa said they had been to the bird park in the afternoon and then to the Spur for supper. Aaron wanted to bath quickly so that he could sit up and watch Survivor (his one treat of the week!).

Keith only got home from work/gym at 7:10 and I left at 7:20 to go to bookclub. Had a lovely evening discussing what we had read (or not!) and general chatting and catching up. Also got to eat my yummy chocolate brownies and lemon meringue pie.... I had bought books so it was my turn to bring eats. I also ended up bringing more than half of both home... so all the more for me!

Got home at 10:30 and after brushing teeth I went to bed and READ till after 11 before going to sleep.

Another layout

Yip I managed to scrap last night... such a good feeling doing this again. But I didn't get to do my journalling or title until this morning... But it is now finished and so I thought I'd show it to you...

The dark bits around the edges are actually part of the paper (a border all the way round) but it didn't scan very well.

Day 3...

Monday started with me sleeping in.... yip with Aaron not being here I don't have to get up until 6:30... sooooo nice! Got up, made Keith's lunch then we had breakfast (the usual cereal). He left just after 7 for work and then after my bath I decided to feed the birds. Also made some coffee and washed the dishes... yip actually washed dishes not only put them into the dishwasher and turn it on!

Left for work at 8:30 and had a fairly quiet day... catching up on emails. Also had a lovely surprise visit from Bev... with time for a quick chat and cuppa coffee with her.

After work I went shopping.... am looking for some circle punches so went to the crafters market first as I had got punches from them not so long ago but they didn't have, so then went to my LSSS... Local Scrapbook Supply Shop.... PNA at Flora Centre..... they also didn't have the punches :( but I did get myself two sets of alphabet stamps, some alphabet stickers as well as two new books to read.

Phew and all this before 3pm!!! Once home I turned a pile of ingredients into... chocolate brownies.... yummy. Then also did the ironing.


Who know what this evening will bring... hopefully (?) some scrapping otherwise I might just read my new book.

Day Two

Well my Sunday morning started off very well.... I GOT TO SLEEP LATE.... yip only woke up at 7:45 (hence the pic of the clock!). I had planned to go the the early chuch service but that didn't happen for obvious reasons so ended up going to te 9:30 one instead.... lovely service with an uplifting message... "Knowing that God is in control".


The rest of the day as you will note from my pic collage was spent with the family. We all met up at a very fancy B&B run by Denise's cousin. I got a big full-speed running hug of welcome from Aaron on arrival with a nice "I missed you Mommy" from him... just melts my heart.

We had a lovely braai and spent the day sitting around chatting. Gemma was full of smiles... mainly when she wasn't crying, feeding or sleeping! But I guess that's what 5 month olds do. It was nice to share some time with Veronica too... growing into such a lovely girl.

Okay so that is my Sunday in a nutshell.

I've started...

to capture "a week in my life".... yip I've taken up the challenge that Ali Edwards is running on her blog. So here is my first day:


Today is Saturday and my day started out with me doing the washing (normal routine) and while hanging up the washing I discovered some beautiful flowers in my garden... such beauty in the everyday. This after I did what I love to do best.... SCRAP!!! Popped over to Scraptifity and had a great relaxing time scrapping... first time in nearly two months (ouch!). Will upload my layouts on Monday hopefully.


And now that I've finished posting this it's back to scrapping... yip the bug has bitten again!