THANKS MARIE

the fab-u-lous-o miss marie has guided me in adding links to other blogs and sites in my side bar.
thanks gorgeous.

it is a long process but i will be adding a few blogs to the list each day.
so if your blog isn't in the list yet.....stay tuned.

have a great day peoples.

~*~ shazz ~*~

AS PROMISED

this is a pic of matt playing in his first gig on saturday. unfortunately i didn't get to hear him - except for the endless hours of practice at home. mark did though and said he played so well and was clearly the most popular member of the band with the crowd - who just happened to be mainly female.

and no bias here of course....not one little bit
*wink*
don't know if it will lead onto more gigs with this band or whether he will be spurred on to get the band that he has formed playing at some venues. i would prefer that he chanelleged his energies into getting a job but hey...he is our son and we love him and will support him however we can.
we have seen many of our friends' children "go off the rails" in the past once that support seems to dry up from home.
mark and i don't pretend to have all the answers but loving your kids and supporting them and helping guide them has got to be a good thing we think.

and this is a pic i took of my beautiful boy today, standing on the balcony as we watched the tree loppers lopping our tree. i happened to have the camera and he turned and smiled at me and i snapped this pic.
i just love it and of course i will be scrapping it as soon as i can get one printed up.
i look into his eyes and i can still see the tiny baby they put in my arms almost 18 years ago.
where have those years gone...???
where is my baby boy who loved sitting on my knee and cuddling me and listening to me read his "thomas the tank engine" stories.
boohoohoo - i want my baby back.
looking at this pic i guess i can see why the girls were screaming out his name on saturday night when he was on stage.



and here is one of our beautiful and VERY VERY large gums (it's about 50m tall) having the vine removed from it today. the pest control guy discovered termites in the tree after we found a nest of them in the garden - the house is protected by a barrier method called "term-guard" thankfully.
we are so lucky that this tree is on council land - removing the vine, and the overhanging limbs and "widow makers" + treating it for termites would have been about a $5000.
the tree straddles our proerty and the council reserve boundary but because we are in a koala corridor and it is illegal to lop the tress, it is the council's responsibility to take care of any dangerous limbs.
the tree looks very bear now but it will be so much easier for the koalas to climb it.
now the tree surgeon will do some core sampling to see how much damage the termites have done and the worst case scenario is that the whole tree will have to come down.
i'll let you know the outcome.

so thanks for letting me be very self indulgent about my eldest born in my post today.
no scrapping today.....yet.
hopefully tonight i will get some done.

have a great tomorrow everyone

~*~ shazz ~*~

THANK YOU...

...to all those wonderful ladies who emailed me and left posts on my blog.

i am rather embarrassed that my little vent/rant/rave, or whatever you want to call it, is out there now but i was just so angry and frustrated and hurt.
at least i can rant and rave in my blog and it doesn't get to answer me back - it HAS to listen....lol

so my sincerest thanks again.
it's nice to have support.

and thank you so very much for your concern about our kait. she is much better these past few days - even went for a play at a little friends down the road yesterday and was swimming in mark's brother's pool til late last nite.
i almost forget just how ill she was on wednesday nite/thursday until di, my sil, put her on the same scales that we weighed her on, on christmas night and she has lost another 100gms !!!
even my nephew zac who, like most typical teenage boys never notices anything around him, asked me is kait had something really wrong with her and we just weren't telling him.
"she is just so thin auntie shazzie" he said.
i don't know what to say to something like that.
i pray she hasn't got anything wrong with her.

matt played his first gig with a band last night - lead guitar and sang.
i didn't go as it was an under 18s concer and mark had to go through so much rig marole (sp??) to get into the venue as matt's dad - i guess i should be thankful the security was so good.
mark said matt had a ball - played really well, sang even better and smiled like a cheshire cat when all the girls screamed when he was introduced.
omg - my son has groupies....lol
i will post pics tomorrow when they have been resized.

i have so many scrapping projects and los in the wind and ready to be done. i plan on being very busy this week.
but for tonight i will be ironing and reading my new "bhg scrapbooks etc" and "memory makers" mags.

may your tomorrow be a mixture of fun, laughter, smiles and scrappable moments

~*~ shazz ~*~

LISTENING TO MY INNER VOICE.

i have had this nagging feeling for months now that something is not right in my life.

late at night when all is quiet, and i am lying in bed fighting yet another bout of insomnia, my inner voice screams at me to take notice of what is going on around me...
to look for, and take notice of, those things that just don't seem right in my life.

but for months now i have chosen to ignore those cries.
i have ignored the signs that have slapped me in the face that all is not right within the world i have created around myself.

and last nite it hit me.

all is not right and i have to make changes.

i can feel myself slipping - quite rapidly actually - back into the world i was in a few years ago.
a world where i was too trusting, too forgiving, to accomodating towards the people in my life who feigned friendship and care for me and my family.

so...this is your first and last warning.

my inner voice has screamed out and i have listened.
i will no longer lie at night, racked with guilt that i have done something to deserve your insensitive treatment of me and mine.
filled with self doubt about my worth as a friend and member of your social circle.
i will no longer desire to be "like you".
because i am me and, despite your oh-so subtle efforts to make me believe otherwise, i am a good and kind person.

i will not allow you to hurt me any longer.
so be warned - the game is over.

~*~ shazz ~*~

CONCERN

...for our baby girl.

she had a rather nasty fall off our kitchen bench on her birthday when she was 6 (2002). she was unconscious for only a few moments, we rushed her to hospital and we were virtually ignored/shunned throughout the night by the staff in A&E.
they sent us home the next morning but by that afternoon she was still lethargic and disoriented so we took her to a gp (not our regular doctor) who ordered a ct scan that showed no bleeding or fracture.
so again we were sent home with the doctors telling us that maybe we were "just over-reacting a bit" to the whole thing.

over the next week we had her back at A&E and the original gp we saw (our doc was still away) a total of 6 times.
we later found out that the staff at A&E had tagged mark and i as "over-anxious parents" with a recommendation that we be seen by a social worker if we continued to take her to A&E.

finally, a week later, after a whole day of her vomitting and being so disoriented that she didn't even know who we were i took her back to A&E and i just happened to be seen by a nurse who was the wife of one of the mechanics who worked for us.
she got a paediatrician down to see us straight away and the first thing out of his mouth was -
"get the paediatric neurologist here - this child has had a stroke"!!!!!!
in the short time i had left the car to when i laid her on the bed in A&E, kait had become paralysed down one side.
it was the most terrifying few minutes of my life as our friend took my mobile phone and contacted mark at work and the whole room became filled with doctors and monitors and wires attached to our precious baby girl.
it was a long night while they ordered test after test after test to try and find out what was wrong with her.

to cut a long story short kait spent the next 15 days in hospital.
she had every test known to medical science - all inconclusive.
both mark and i were even accused of having "munchausen's by proxy" - we were seperately questioned by the medical staff and a psychiatrist.
i can see why they had to do it because they didn't have the answers as to why our baby girl was so gravely ill.
one minute she was a happy normal bouncy 6 yr old little girl and it was like someone flicked a switch in her head. she became disoriented, her bp dropped so low, she had trouble focussing on things - it was terrifying to see it happen to her.
on more than one occasion they told us that we needed to have a minister present because she wouldn't make it through the night.
twice they arranged for a careflight plane to be brought up to fly her to brisbane and both times the specialists at the children's mater decided it wasn't worth the risk of moving her - she was just so sick.

after two weeks they discharged her. they THINK she had viral encephalitis (sp??) but they wouldn't and couldn't tell us what made her take these funny turns.
she was 18.5 kilos when she went into hospital and just under 15 kilos when she left.

since then she has been diagnosed with juvenille migraines - she is on a citrus/chocolate/cocoa free diet which is pretty tough on her.
she has episodes of vomitting when she can keep nothing down and the weight just drops off her.
she has weighed 25 kgs for the past 18 mths and the paediatrician is worried that if she gets really ill for any period of time she won't have the reserves in her body to fight it.
he has given her 3 months to put on just one kilo.
one measly kilo.
we weighed her the other day and she has lost 200gms...!!!

kait eats well.
she has a big breakfast, a good healthy lunch and we always have a decent evening meal.
she eats very little rubbish between meals - the occasional packet of chips but obviously she can't have chocolate or many soft drinks because of the cocoa derivative in them.

late wednesday night she started vomitting again.
she looked up at me about 3 a.m. and with tears in her little eyes, asked me why she had to be sick all the time.
i don't think that she gets ill all that often but it must seem that way to her.
it's just that when she does, she gets so very very ill.
it is so heartbreaking to hold her while she is being sick.
then forcing her to sip water when she knows that within the next 20 minutes she will be bringing it back up again.

she was well enough to go back to school today.
even her teacher commented on how drawn in the face she was compared to the lively little girl who bounded in the school gate on tuesday.

it scares me so much that she will get very ill one day and won't be strong enough to fight it.
we can't give her enough cuddles or tell her enough times how much we love her.

i am sorry if this post bored you (but you could have stopped reading at anytime)
and i don't want (or particularly need) any emails telling me to stop being so self-indulgent - it is MY blog after all. .
i am not looking for sympathy.
i just want to record my feelings for my sweet baby angel girl and the struggle she is going through at this point in her life.

i really do hope that you all have a wonderful weekend but even more so i hope that our kait has the best weekend - playing, laughing, getting lots of cuddles and kisses and no more illness.

~*~ shazz ~*~

TAGGED - AGAIN !!!

the gorgeous and fabulous miss marie has tagged me.
Now this is not an ordinary tag there are some rules. It goes like this:

Remove the blog name in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add yourself to the bottom slot.

Charleigh
Samantha
Kathie
Marie
shazz

Here are the questions:

What were you doing 10 years ago?

i was pregnant with kait and had just found out, after a scan, that after having our two precious boys we were gonna be mummy and daddy to a sweet baby girl.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

i was struggling with the fact that matt didn't want to go onto year 11 & 12 - he changed his mind a week after school went back but only stayed for another 9 mths.
also waiting for news about my sister who had just gone into labour with her first baby.

Five snacks that you enjoy:

chocolate
red rock deli sour cream & chilli chips
macadamia nuts
cheese and cracked black pepper crackers
my homemade refried bean/salsa/guacomale dip


Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyrics :

"don't wanna miss a thing" - aerosmith
"through the eyes of love" - the song we played at our wedding
"bye bye miss american pie" - the don henley version
every song off "the ranch" album featuring keith urban
nearly every elvis song ever recorded - tragic but true i am afraid


Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

pay off and renovate our home
buy a house each for the kids
donate money to the salvos
open a scrapping store/retreat and invite lots of talented scrappers to come and teach classes.
by a holiday home/escape that i would only tell a select few people about

Five bad habits

binge eating when i am depressed
invading people's personal space bubbles when i have had too much champagne
drinking too much champagne
NOT drinking enough champagne
over-planning for things and being so disappointed when things don't turn out like i planned them

Five things you like doing:
spending "us" time with mark
being at home with my family
scrapping - der
reading
being with friends - chatting, laughing, reminiscing


Five things you would never wear, buy, or get again:

stilletoes
sanitary pads - all praise the mighty tampon
vanilla coke/dr pepper
maternity clothes to hide my big belly - which does NOT have a baby in it thanks for asking
my armpits waxed - yeeeeeeeeeeeeee ouchies


Five favourite toys:

my husband (is that too rude to say)
a man in a uniform - if i could get my hands on one
the board game "cranium" - what a hoot
all my yummy scrapping supplies
my 42 yr old stuffed koala toy that my "old bean" (grandfather) bought me when i was born.

5 People I am tagging:

I will tag anyone who hasn't yet done this cause i have no flamin' idea who has......so consider yourself tagged if you haven't been.

Have fun

i will blog again later tonight.

~*~ shazz ~*~

THOUGHTS

my thoughts today are very much with linda and shari way up there on the sunshine coast.
today is the day they say goodbye to their beloved asc.
a day no doubt filled with a few tears for you both and many happy memories of the lives you have changed and the happiness you have brought to so many of us.

i don't doubt that the site will go on - maybe to bigger and better things, who knows...??? - but i can imagine that today will be a day of mixed emotions for them both.
many many many hours of hard work behind the scenes went into making asc probably one of the best online scrapping sites in australia.
it has provided a nurtring, inspirational springboard for so many of the top scrappers that you see in australia today.

the asc online community is always supportive of scrappers and it was always a privilege to see the confidence of scrappers grow as they post los in the gallery and get the feedback they need.
more "experienced" scrappers are always willing to give advice and answer questions on all aspects of scrapping.

so to linda and shari, my most sincere and heartfelt thanks for all that you have done for the scrappers of australia.
if i could i would give you both the biggest hug
(and i probably will next time i come up for a visit)

and to joy, the new owner i wish her all the very best...it will be exciting to see the changes you make to asc.

have a great day everyone
(i am off to the dentist and the gym.....eeeeeek...!!!)

~*~ shazz ~*~

also sending my thoughts out to all those other bloggers who are having troubles in their lives at the moment.
know that the love and thoughts of others around you will see you through these tough times.
the universe turns in mysterious ways sometimes, even if we don't understand what those ways are....believe, have faith and all will be well.

INTRODUCING.........

...the newest member of the pratten household.

and his name is..........
"CHESTER, JOOMBA FESTER, COVE, SUNNIE, MR MIAGI, BLUIE, FISH, SQUISHY PRATTEN"

in other words the poor thing doesn't have a name.
although every member of the family has called him "squishy" at some time today so maybe that is the name that will stick.

this is his second bowl because he was actually living in my crystal vase up until today - so he has been downgraded from 5 star accomodation to 3 star.....lol
i must say, he seems much happier in this bowl.
he has been happily swishing his tail about this afternoon and chomping on frozen blood worms (a treat that he will get every few days)

the kids have faithfully promised that they will help me keep his tank clean - i have cleaned it out every time to date and had kait not helping matters by squealing every time i almost caught him in the net. she is convinced i will "break him" - can you break a fish...???

i scrapped 2 los today - well completed one i have been struggling with for a few days and whipped the other one up in just over 2 hours.
i will share them when i get them scanned.

thanks to all of you who agreed with the rather biased mum who posted a pic of her rather gorgeous kids in her blog yesterday - your comments were gratefully appreciated.
i am grateful everytime i come to post in my blog and i notice that people have taken the time to read what i have written - although at times it must be a chore for you all.

my kait is off to school for her first day of grade 4 !!!
noooooooo....where did my baby go....???
this will be the first year that she has had a male teacher - it will be an interesting year for both her and mr witchard.

i hope you have a great day tomorrow.
may your day be filled with smiles and laughetr and happy moments that will make your heart sing

~*~ shazz ~*~

BIASED AND BLESSED

how blessed are mark and i...???
just look at these three gorgeous kids.
i look at them and i can't believe that i am the mother of three such beautiful kids.
not biased at all am i...???

don't get me wrong - like all kids they have their moments.
they fight and nit-pick each other.
they try my patience to no end some days.
they scream at each other and they slam their doors and leave their clothes on the floor and don't do their chores.

but these things are balanced out by their smiling faces and their cuddles and their "i love yous" and their honesty and their loving natures.

in the words of the josh groban song

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.


thank you for indulging me with this post.

and thank you to all those wonderful ladies who left a comment after
my last blog post.

your support and friendship is gratefully appreciated



have a great tomorrow

~*~ shazz ~*~

*SIGH*

it has been a difficult day.

let me just say that if someone had told me 10 years ago that i would close my garage door when i knew my mother was coming to visit and pretend i was not at home, i would have laughed in that person's face.
but that's what i did today after my mother called me to tell me she was coming to see me and asked would i be home.
that was after i copped an earful of abuse as to why her sad sorry excuse for a life was my fault (still trying to work THAT one out)
and then she asked if i could lend her some money (still looking for the atm slot i apparently have on my body that she thinks dispenses cold hard cash)
so i lied and said i had to buy kait her school uniform and closed the garage door and pretended i wasn't home.
i had to explain to my kids why i didn't want to see their grandma - the woman who we visited every weekend up until about 8 years ago - and that really hurt. the kids are great and they try to understand and they all gave me a cuddle and my darling matt just hugged me and told me that it was all gonna be ok.

the fact is, i miss my mum.
i miss that i can't call her up and talk to her about things.
i miss that i can't call her up for a recipe or some advice or just to say hello.
i am so sad that my kids don't understand why their grandma just stopped visiting.
i am so sorry that i promised my step-dad, as he took his last breath on this earth, that i would look after my mum and i feel like i have let him down so terribly.
i hate the fact that mark wakes up at night to find me sobbing and he can do nothing to stop the hurt and pain i feel.

i wish i could move on and leave all the crap behind me but how do you move on from your mum...???

but enough of the miseries.

i have three gorgeous children.
a kind, loving and supportive husband.
a roof over my head and food on the table and clothes on my back.
lots of wonderful, fabulous, gorgeous friends.
i am so blessed.

on a brighter note
GUESS WHAT???

i am having a lo scrapped by the absolutely fabulous karen ridgeway.
after leaving a rather embarrassing, begging, pleading post on her blog she has a whole list of people she has offered to scrap a lo for and
I AM ONE OF THEM !!!!!

i was so excited and i made all the kids come and read the post to make sure i wasn't reading it wrong.
I have admired and been inspired by karen's work for ever so long and now i will have an original karen ridgeway lo.
how cool is THAT...???
now i just have to chose a pic for her to scrap.

i hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
may it be filled with happiness, rainbows, butterflies and lots of beauty

~*~ shazz ~*~

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

......to one and all.

i hope you celebrated being a citizen of this wonderful land of ours with loved ones and friends.

in the pratten household we had bacon and eggs for breakky.
mark took the kids and alex, our adopted son - well he's really our next-door neighbour but we treat him like on of our own - to play tennis and i stayed at home reading a book i just can't put down at the moment "memoirs of a geisha"
what a great read.

we had a yummy lunch of vegemite sandies - can't get much more aussie than that.

tonite we are having lamb for dinner - not on the bbq but it's still lamb with lots of veges.

however you celebrated i hope you embraced what it means to be an australian.
we have peace in our homeland
we have the right to voice an opinion
most of us feel safe in our own homes
we are free from political, religious or social persecution.

yup....it's great to be an australian

until tomorrow

~*~ shazz ~*~

QUICK UPDATE

no time for scrapping today.
took jake and kait to town this morning after organising matt to take mark's phone out to him at work - i swear that man of mine would forget his head if it wasn't screwed on.
hmmmmm...???
wonder if it had anything to do with the fact i kept waking him up last nite thinking i could hear something - or someone - outside our bedroom window.

jake had an orthodontic appointment - his teeth are straightening but we still have 12 mths treatment to go AND another $1500 to pay !!!
bought jake's school shoes and back pack.
we have decided to get a "low maintainence" siamese fighting fish so we looked at those to get an idea of prices, care of the fish, etc and then went off to do the groceries.
the two kids fought up and down every flippin' aisle in woolies arguing over what to call the blasted fish - *sigh* - and there still hasn't been a name they can agree on.

i am off to the gold coast in a few hours to take jake to have one more training session with palm beach - he has come to the sad realisation that he won't make the team this year. there are far too many boys trialling for the team and the coach will only chose a team of 16.
it is an under 19's youth premier side and jakey, although possessing the skills and game knowledge to get a position would probably be overlooked for the mere fact he is only 15 in may.
but we have lots of good contacts up there and i am sure next year he will get a position if he wants.
he just has to find a club here in lismore this year that he is happy with.

i will take my sketch book with me while i wait for jakey to finish and plan out my friend's memory album i am scrapping for her in memory of her beloved dog she had to get put down last year.
i am just placing the photos and scrapping the pages while leaving places for her to journal.
so i guess that's as close as i will get to scrapping today.

i am off to cook dinner for mark and the kids.

hope you have a great tomorrow.
may your day be filled with happy moments, pride in being australia and love for your fellow man

A HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY TO YOU ALL

~*~ shazz ~*~

SCARED SCRAPPER

hello there again - it's been a while.

i have had a busy week - from work to gardening to coping with torrential rain AND a flood (though only minor) to scrapping......yes scrapping.
and LOVING IT !!!

it's so good to be home and back in familiar surroundings. i did so love my time in sydney with lousie and bianca and chris.
and also time away from home and the monotony of being a mum and a wife and the housework.
spending guilt-free quality time with my baby girl was just the very best and i love the way she is becoming such a little person with her own unique and beautiful personality. she definitely is an old soul and has been on this earth before.
but as i said, it is good to be home.

i have come to a realisation
- and this should be good for a laugh for some of you -
i think i am scared of my scrapping supplies and scared of the whole process of scrapping.

oh alright you lot.
settle down and stop stiffling your giggles and sniggering.

ever since i was a little girl i have craved for the things around me to be perfect
(hard to believe if you saw the mess this house gets in at times)
i can remember screwing up a whole written page of homework if i made a mistake on the last line - it just had to be perfect - or if i felt my writing wasn't neat enough.
i would sit up till all hours of the night doing projects and making sure they were perfect.
i never coloured in my colouring books the "wrong" colour - i can remember throwing away an almost brand new colouring book because my best friend coloured in the person on her page using the "wrong" colours.

and as an adult i think that has transferred to my scrapping.
i want every page to be perfect and even though i know my work could never be considered for publishing, i want them to look perfect and i want to have all the "right" colours together and use the "right" embellishments and have the perfect journalling and blah blah blah.
I want to try new products and techniques but i want what i produce to "look" right.

it wasn't until i was in sydney and talking to louise about scrapping and showing her some sites and looking through mags that i realised that i have been holding myself back from getting stuck in and scrapping till my heart's content.

so when i came home i stayed away from my scrapping room for a few days - didn't open the door. didn't even open the bag that had all my new supplies in - it got dumped at the door of my scrap room.

and on sunday i took a deep breath, opened the door and started to scrap.
i scrapped 2 cjs for the tca dt.
i finished some los that have been unfinished for so long.
i scrapped some gifts for friends that i can't share just yet (they may be peeking at my blog).
i used my "special" and pretty supplies to create pages i love and i have so many ideas whizzing around in my head i am finding it hard to sleep
(well that and the mating koalas in the trees on our reserve!!!)
i have even scrapped a page that i need to have done by this friday - unheard of !!!
i have stopped being scared of my scrapping stash and stopped being scared that my scrapping won't be "perfect".
the lo at the start of this blog (and buggar that i can't seem to get it to place in the body of the blog - can somene tell me how to do this?) was one i started ages ago as an example for tca's weekly inspiration.
i didn't have a "b" and there was no way i was going to use the "q" from my bg monograms.
i was so stressed out that i couldn't finish the lo but on sunday i thought "why bloody not" and this is the end result. geez...i even used my own handwriting on it and i don't think it looks half bad.
i showed the lo to mark and the kids tonight at dinner and we had a great old time reminiscing around the dinner table about each one of the kids' visits to mrs melino's farm when they were at preschool.
and isn't that what scrapping is all about...???
creating memories for our families and preserving our family history.

well i have raved on enough tonight but hey.....wasn't it good for a laugh...???
fancy that.....being scared of one's scrapping supplies.

thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and especially to those who have left comments.
i will try to get someone to help my put some links up to other's blogs in the next few days.

i am off to clean up the kitchen and then i am off to pry mark for info about his dragster bike he had as a kid.
i have the cutest pic of him riding it and want to scrap it.

thanks if you are still reading.
have a wonderful tomorrow and may your day be filled with happiness, cuddles from those you love, smiles from strangers and lots of scrappable moments

~*~ shazz ~*~

MY TURN.

thanks to the oh-so fabulous miss marie for tagging me.
i love reading what people have written and i just love filling these things in.
i will blog again later with an update of my "oh-so-thrilling" day - NOT!!!
i have to get dinner started for kait and i as the boys have all gone out.
for now though - here are my answers.....

4 jobs you've done

• baby sitter for my aunts, my school teacher and a few of the neighbours - always paid good money too
• bar maid - at one of the local pubs while i was at uni - i loved to chatting to all the old fellas that used to sit at the bar
• school teacher/teacher's aide - i love teaching but don't know that i would ever go back to it - had a few bad experiences with principals at private schools and was involved in testifying in some pretty nasty child abuse cases
• clerk in IT company - it's a job i am very good at but a job i really hate - only started it to help mark out of a staffing crisis and it looks like i have made the job my own

(think of the money, think of the money, think of the money shazzie)


4 movies you could watch over and over:

• Message in a Bottle - *sigh* - pass the tissues
• Gone With the Wind (and frankly my dears, i don't give a damn if you are sniggering)
• City of Angels - please let there be angels like this around me
• The Colour Purple

4 place you have lived:

• Lismore/Goonellabah
• Ballina/Wardell
  
• Canberra - and i would go back in a heartbeat
• Toowoomba

4 tv shows you LOVE to watch:

• Home and Away - sad and pathetic i know
• Charmed - oh to have the power of three
• The Bachelor - so pathetic it cracks me up
• Olympic Games (summer and winter) and the Commonwealth Games
  

4 places you have been on vacation:

• America 1994 - don't know i would ever go back though
• Malaysia 1998 - a real eye-opener for mark and i as to what real poverty is
• Brisbane - to stay with my cousins
• Sunshine Coast - hi shari *wave*

4 websites you visit daily:

• ASC
• the craft attic
• tarisota
• heaps and heaps and heaps of blogs

4 of your favorite foods:

• mexican
• seafood
• pasta
• CHOC-O-LATE

4 places you would rather be right now:

• curled up in bed with a good man or a good book (hmmm....could i manage both???)
• sitting on our balcony with mark having a coffee and a chat
• on a fully-staffed military base somewhere (it's the whole men in uniform thing girls - give me a break)
• floating on a lie-low in a pool somewhere with a glass of champagne

4 bloggers you are tagging:
anyone and everyone who cares to consider themselves tagged
go for it ladies !!!

STILL...

• ... in sydney at my sisters
• ... spoiling my gorgeous niece, bianca
• ... missing my boys so much
• ... missing my cuddles and snuggles from my darling man
• ... laughing and giggling and chatting with my sister
• ... enjoying spending time with just me and my darling kait
• ... loving sneaking in to watch bianca sleep
• ... loving having someone to talk scrapping with and to scrap with
• ... looking forward to getting on the plane tomorrow afternoon (i LOVE to fly)
• ... looking forward to seeing my boys again
• ... looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again
• ...loving the fact that lousie and i are such good friends and share so much in common
• ... meaning to get my blog updated so i have links to the blogs of friends (i'll be looking to the gorgeous shari for some help on that one - *wink* shari)

so just a quick update......more details and hopefully some pics tomorrow or monday when i get home.

have a great weekend everyone.

smiles, rainbows and hugs to you all

~*~ shazz ~*~

ONE FOR THE ROAD.

well what an "interesting" time it has been around the traps today.
between blogs and forums, i think a lot of people have ruffled a lot of feathers and a lot of people have had their feathers ruffled.
after losing friendships because of misconstrued posts in forums myself, i know how devastating it can be to have someone publicly belittle you - whether it be face-to-face in real life or via the electronic media - it hurts and i am sad to think that so many people will probably come out the other side of this a little worse for wear.
i don't really understand who said what to who or what exactly all the fuss is about.
i am just sad that petty jealousies have reared their heads and people will be hurt by what has been said or what has been interpretated to have been said.
maybe i shouldn't be commenting on something i don't understand.
why can't we just all get along and do what we love - scrap, scrap scrap !!!

i have had a busy day getting kait and i ready to head off to sydney tomorrow morning.
and we both so love to fly !!!!
i have washed, folded, ironed, shopped, cooked meals, changed all the sheets, vacuumed, mopped, packed clothes and scrapping supplies, generally tidied the house.
and i just KNOW it won't make an iota of difference to mark and matt and jake but at least i will know in my own mind that things are as they should be when i walk out the door in the morning.
i am so looking forward to spending time with louise and chris and my gorgeous "little B" (bianca).
it will be so nice to just kick back and chat and laugh and cry (we are such sooks louise and i) and best of all.......SCRAP!!!
i have introduced (and dare i say....inspired) louise to scrap so it will be so super dooper cool to have someone to scrap with.

louise and i are also going to visit annette from the scrapbook establishment. i have "known" annette for a few years now via emials and the odd phonecall and it will be lovely to finally meet her in real life.

on a personal note i have spent a good deal of the day thinking about my step-father, don - or "pa" as the kids called him.
and i will admit i had a good old cry under the shower tonight.
sobbed and sobbed and sobbed to be honest.
tears of sorrow and heartbreak for the loss of such a beautiful man and tears of regret that i couldn't fulfill the promise i made to him in the last moments of his life, to look after and care for mum.
i feel so much that i have let him down terribly.
i am sad every day that my children have had to grow up without having him in their lives - he so loved the boys when they were born and alas he never knew our baby girl.
had pa lived he would have celebrated his 75th birthday today. how can it be that he has been gone for almost 13 years...???
he so loved his birthdays.
"don't make a fuss" he would say and then make sure we had enough pocket money to buy him a gift.
the morning of his birthday he would be up before anyone else - coughing and banging cupboard doors in an attempt to get us to wake up.
yup....i miss you pa. each and every day my heart weeps for the life you should have and didn't and for the way things have turned out for mum.
i honestly don't know how she can honour your memory and live the life she has chosen.
but that's just it....it is her choice to live that lifestyle.

anyways....enough of the miseries.
sorry if you read that and didn't want to.

i hope to be able to blog while i am in sydney - well once or twice perhaps.
i hope you all have a fantastic "rest-of-the-week"
be happy
don't forget to smile
love lots

~*~ shazz ~*~

TAGGED !!!

thanks to the lovely ruthy for tagging me - i have a weird like of these things - not sure why.
here goes !!!

A is for age: 41 - 42 in 8 weeks - EEK !!!

B is for booze of choice: pink champagne - don't forget the strawberries *wink*

C is for career: SAHM, part time clerk in our IT business

D is for your dad's name: Bill (William)

E is for essential items to bring to a party: pink champagne, munchies, dancing shoes

F is for favorite song at the moment: Il Divo's rendition of "Unchained Melody"

G is for favorite game: at the moment "cranium" - all time favourite "backgammon"

H is for hometown: Lismore

I is for instruments you play: none

J is for jam or jelly you like: plum jam

K is for kids: gave birth to three - Matt (17); Jake (14) and Kaitlyn (9) + the big one i married.

L is for living arrangements: Mark - the man in my life; the three kidlets and 2 slightly crazy dogs.

M is for mum's name: Lyndarah

N is for name of your crush: Brad Pitt

O is for overnight hospital stays: too many to count

P is for phobias: a frog jumping on me

Q is for quotes you like: "People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within"

R is for relationship that lasted the longest: 25 1/2 years - with my darling mark - my husband, my soul mate, my best friend.

S is for sexual preference: with mark and only mark - although Brad has never knocked on my door......yet!!!

U is for underwear: comfortable without resorting to granny bloomers

V is for vegetable you love: all veges although i will pass on the brussell sprouts thanks BLAH!!!

W is for weekend plans: i will be in sydney with kait, visiting my sister, her hubby and my darling niece.

X is for x-rays you've had: wrists (too many times to count); head (yes there is a brain in there); back; ankles; neck
geez....i should be glowing in the dark by now.

Y is for yummy food you make: chicken and mushroom fetticini (served with a crisp white of course)

Z is for zodiac sign: pisces (yep that's me...a fish swimming in 2 directions getting nowhere fast)

so there you are.......thrilling huh...???

consider yourselves tagged the gorgeous miss marie and the brave miss kim.

another blog update later today

~*~ shazz ~*~

WHO INVENTED WORKING FOR A LIVING...???

yesterday i worked - so much paperwork and filing to catch up on after the business being shut down for a week - i had to go back today to finish what i couldn't get done yesterday and will have to go back on monday for an hour or so to finish what i couldn't get done today.

like i said....

WHO INVENTED WORKING FOR A LIVING...???

i have thought about scrapping, i have read a few pages of the latest fk before i went to sleep last night, i have "tried" to tidy my scrapping room and organise supplies to take to sydney with me next week...
the only thing i haven't flippin' well done is actually scrap
*SIGH*
hopefully this weekend i will get a chance to scrap as i have a few things i need to get done.

today kait and i shopped for a school backpack for her.
came home with a new school hat, a new lunch box, two new pairs of school joggers/shoes, some tops for mummy
($35.00 reduced to $13.95 - BARGIN...!!!)
but NO BACK PACK...lol
back tomorrow for her to decide on the one she wants.

i called Donna, my best friend, tonight.
it is so good to have that person in your life who you can tell anything to
- and i mean anything -
and know that they will never laugh at you, or ridicule you or think you are silly.
we tell each other bad jokes (and laugh uproariously at each other), help each other out with problems we have, bitch about our hubbies and kids and then tell each other how much we love them in the very next breath.
as friends we have been through so many happy times together, i was the first person after shane to hold niki when she was born, we have cried together when we lost our parents, our children have played together and become friends, we have shared our love of crafts
well...
you get the idea.
i love you dearly my dear friend
just a pity you live so far away.

anyways...the night is rolling on and i am waiting for mark and jakey to get home.
jake went up to palm beach to trial for their premier youth soccer team tonight.

again we are tossing around the idea of moving to the gold coast.
jake would love to attend palm beach high as part of their elite specialist sports program.
the idea of moving away from our dysfunctional extended families holds more and more appeal as each drama unfolds
i guess we will have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks

until tomorrow...

have fun
be brave
&
smile

~*~shazz~*~

UPDATE

hi-dee-ho one and all.

well i have been "m.i.a" for the past few days because of the hustle and bustle of school hols and having mark home on hols too - he gets so chatty when he is relaxed - and also the fact that mark and i had a few days on the gold coast.
it was sooooo relaxing and even though we missed the kids like crazy it was a well-needed pick-me-up for us as a couple.

we are desperately trying to reduce our tax at the moment and decided we would jump into the world of investment real estate - well actually mark jumped and i needed one almighty shove...!!!
the company we decided to go through shouted us a night at the raddison at carrara. we crunched some numbers with their accountant yesterday then spent the day driving around the coast looking at properties that we could afford.
had it not been so horrendously hot and humid, i am sure my brain would have taken in a lot more of the "facts and figures" stuff but by 4 p.m. yesterday i was so emotionally drained that mark could have bought a $16 million house and i don't think i would have batted an eyelid.
but we have decided not to buy just yet and explore a few more options available to us.

so after jumping in and out of air con all day, we said goodbye to the lovely chap from the real estate, booked into our room at the raddison (such a lovely resort and the rooms were so nice), then hit the robina town centre for a good look around (i haven't been there for ages)
mark bought himself some new shirts, we wandered in and out of stores looking at things we couldn't possibly afford but pretended we could anyways, had a VERY late lunch of crepes and iced chocolates (yummo) and i managed to find a scrapping store.
so i plonked mark on the seat outside with a magazine and went in for a browse. not that they had much "new" stock but i did manage to pick up some chipboard shapes, suede blossoms, and some kimberly hodges patches which are just adorable.
i was a bit taken aback when i enquired where all their heidi swapp stock was and the girl asked me if hs was a "new" scrap designer !!!!!

back to the resort for a nap before the whole resort suffered a series of power gliches and the entire air con system just stopped !!!
we decided to eat dinner at the resort's restaurant, only to be told they had no tables for us and power in the kitchen so only a cold buffet was available.

so we jumped in the car and headed over to broadbeach were we found a steakhouse and seafood restaurant - with air-con.
and the meal was just delicious.
mark had a rump steak with mushroom sauce and i had mortean bay bugs with chilli sauce - YUM YUM YUMMO
it was so nice sitting there together and even though we mainly talked about the kids we both agreed that our marriage was in desperate need of some "us time". we have decided to keep to our pact we made when we first got married of a monthly "date" to keep the spark there. not that i think the spark ever went away - just got snuffed out a bit over the years
(we have been married 19 years next week - jan 10 - but kait and i will be in sydney visiting my sister)

back to the raddison and still no air-con so we sat out on our little balcony watching the storm and just enjoying being in each other's company.

the rest of the night was very much "us time" so i won't go into any details
*WINK*

it was nice to have a sleep in this morning and then wander up for breakfast before we headed home.

and it's just so nice to be home feeling refreshed and renewed and having fresh eyes to look at things and make some decisions about where we are heading as a family and as a couple.

thanks for listening to the waffle.

until next time

~*~ shazz ~*~

HAPPY NEW YEAR

couldn't let the first day of a new year roll by without a post in my blog.
i hope whatever you did last night, you had a great time, lots of laughs and that waking up this morning wasn't too hard for anyone.

we had such a great night. our friends kerrie and graeme didn't arrive until 10.30 as they had a 40th to go to. pete, our other mate, his daughter hollie, and kerrie and graeme's kids, taylor and logan arrived about 9.30. mark and pete went off to the pub to have a few drinks with another friend who has just seperated from his wife so they were there until about 10.15.
i just pottered about the place, getting dips and nibblies organised, vaccuumed the floor
(yes....i really did)
and kept an eye on the kids.
matt and jake had a few friends here too so it was a pretty full house.

after kerrie and graeme arrived we sat out in the courtyard and played cranium which is a totally hilarious game at the best of times but after a few champagnes
(pink of course, with strawberries in the glass)
it was just so funny. it was hard to get the questions out between the giggling.
at midnight we all whooped and hollered and lit sparklers.
all the kids danced around on the reserve with their sparklers - a really great photo op - pity i forgot to take any pics.
i called some friends on the sunshine coast who romptly turned around at 1 a.m. and called back to with us a happy QLD new years....lol.

all the guests left in a taxi about 3 a.m. and by the time mark and i did a quick clean up to try and prevent the daily ant invasion
(they came anyway)
it was almost 3.45 a.m. before we crawled into bed.
the alarm went off at 5.45 because i forgot to turn it off (ewww) but we all were still in bed asleep at 10 this morning.

spent the day in our jimmy jams just hanging around the house.
the boys played a strategy game on the computer, kait drew pics in her room and continued building her doll house with mark, and i veged out all day just pottering about the house and reading the latest scrapbooks etc mag
just love that mag. i also have the latest fk which i have yet to open.

anyways...that's enough of a waffle for today.
whatever you did last night i hope you had a blast.
and waking up this morning wasn't too much of a task for you.

may 2006 be a wonderful, fulfilling, creative, happy, blessed year for us all.

~*~ shazz ~*~