TRIVIA NIGHT, HOLIDAYS, A "ZINA" CLASS & THE SILLY SEASON

i didn't get a chance to scrap much this week as i was organising the trivia night for kait's school.
each year we have a parents' night out where only the parents attend a function associated with the school.
we have had progressive dinners, a murder mystery night (that wasn't a great success) and last night's trivia night, which according to everyone by the end of the night was a HUGE success.
drew, our gorgeous principal, MC'd the night and did a great job; mark and i marked the answers and handed out the prizes; and about 55 parents and their friends turned up to show just how much trivial information they actually did know.
the theme of the night was op shop formal and some the creations that everyone found were just amazing. the winner of the fancy dress night was one of our kindy dads, dressed in a.......................
wait for it....................
KAFTAN !!!
being so busy on the night naturally i forgot to get pics so i am hoping that someone else did.
i wore a lovely lavendar number, complete with hand painted flowers with gold sparkly highlights, beads, support knee-highs with sandals and completed my ensemble with a straw hat with sunflowers attached and my granny glasses.
JUST STUNNING...!!!
(just hope someone got a pic)

the kids are on holidays - YAY !!!!
i love the holidays....no rushing to get out the door, no harping at them to get homework done or bags unpacked.
kait still has physie training in the leadup to her last zone comp and nationals comp but that's ok.
today we have pretty much done nothing but hung out at home and pottered around.
mark and i even managed a granny nap after lunch which was nice
(and much needed after our late night)

and my most exciting news.....the oh-so-fabulous zina wright is offering classes in her home towards the end of october and i have booked a place. i didn't manage to get into town to pay for it yet but so i hope she has still held my spot.
i have loved and admired zina's gorgeous style since meeting her at a retreat a few years agao and she is one of the nicest people you could meet....and so funny too.
i can remember looking through her albums and just being gobsmacked at her amazing talent and i can remember peering over at her as she scrapped hoping that some of her amazing talent would waft over my way and i could absorb it.
i'll admit...her style isn't to everyone's liking but hey....that's the beauty of this amazing craft.

have been thinking seriously about the rapidly approaching silly season. mark and i both agree that we want to tone down the hectic-ness that seems to flood us every december so we have sat down and put everything in the diary next to the phone that we know we have on and if something else pops up we have to put it in the diary straight away.
at least we won't be double booking like last year.
i have bought some calendars to alter as gifts for the grandparents
(now to get a decent pic of the kids)
as well as some extras to alter for friends.
i think, like us, most people are struggling with making ends meet this year with interest rates rising and the fuel debarcle so handmade gifts are the go this year.
and to be honest, i get so much more satisfaction in making gifts for people and receiving a gift that someone has taken the time to make for me.

and on that note, i will end my waffle.
kait and i are having a girls'-night-in tonight as mark and the boys have headed off to the soccer grand finals for the division the boys both play for
(their team didn't make it)
left over chinese, a video and some scrapping i think.....HMMMM
sounds divine.

enjoy your tomorrow and
GO THE STORM !!!!!!!!

~*~ shazz ~*~

TERRI IRWIN

*copied from a post i made on EMM last night after watching this brave woman share her grief with the world*

"the wind blew softly against her face as she spoke and i felt as though it was steve letting her know that he was still around and watching over her and the kids.

never have i wanted so much to reach out and give someone a hug...just to let her know that the love and support of every australian is with her as she steps forward into a future without her beloved steve.

i pray that i am never in her situation but if i am i hope that i will conduct myself with as much courage and grace as she showed tonight.

god bless you terri and your babies too"


i am humbled by her strength and her love for this amazing man and the life they had together.
makes my problems of the last few days seem very small indeed.

~*~ shazz ~*~

WHY...???

do certain people seem to take such peverse pleasure in doing and saying things knowing full well that the things they do and say will make other people sad...???
how can you get such pleasure out of being so downright mean and nasty...???

and why do i let these kind of people have such an adverse effect on me...???

~*~ shazz ~*~
xo

TIRED

after what has been a full on week of looking after kait and then mark getting ill and lastly me ending up in bed by 8.30 both friday and saturday night, all i can say is i am one tired mummy.

kait continues to get better by the day.
she returned to school today and all her little friends were waiting at the gate for her when we got there this morning. they squealed with delight when she got out of the car and hugged her and asked to see where the drip had gone into her arm - which is still slightly bruised.
all the teachers at the school were shocked at how skinny she was.
she had a good day though...was a little tired by lunchtime but she got through the day so that is a good thing, in my books.

her appointment with the paediatric neurologist is on october 30. her paediatrician, dr ian, would have liked the neurologist to have seen her before he (dr ian) did in october but that's not gonna happen. just hope we can get some answers....we need them and kait needs them too.

no scrapping today but my new CK arrived in the mail so i will probably have good old squizz through it tonight after dinner.

and lastly, i want to send all my love, hugs and positive thoughts to my gorgeous friend ruthy who is going through some "stuff" at the moment.
love ya heaps ruthy and you know where i am if you need me.

hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.
until then.
be happy and smile - makes people wonder what you have been up to...!!!

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

{SHARING}

thought i would share some of the pages from the album i have been scrapping for my dad and step-mum to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

the cover of the album.

matt's page - what a smile...!!!

wish i had used a pic taken AFTER jakey had his haircut...!!!


love this pic of my baby girl....she looks so happy and healthy.

have completed several more pages of their other grandchildren but thought i better not share them without the permission from my sisters and brothers - you will just have to take my word for it...they are great....ROTFL!!!
don't know what is up with our silly scanner but the pages are such different colours IRL. i got sick of playing around with them for ages this afternoon so this is as good as it gets.

kait is well today - she has been eating well and getting lots of rest.
i am going to take her down to physie this afternoon to see the girls in her group - she really wants to do some practise but i will see how she goes when we get there.

enjoy the rest of the day.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

SO MUCH BETTER

kait is so much better.
and each day she gets a little stronger.

she is watching lots of DVDs (helps having a brother who works for Video Ezy...LOL) and this afternoon has wandered up into her room and has been colouring in and playing with her toys.
we played a couple of games of backgammon yesterday - she has her daddy's flair and cut-throat attitude to playing and beat me 3 out of the four times we played...LOL
she is also eating good size meals and drinking lots.
i just hope and pray
(are you listening up there Big Guy...???)
that she will continue to get better as each day passes and that when we finally get to see this paediatric neurologist we will get some answers.

yesterday would have been my darling nana's brithday.
she would have been 85.
it's times like this, with kait being ill, that i miss nana the most. she always called and cooked us a batch of biccies when we had illness in the house. she said it was important to take time to sit and have a cuppa when you were stressed, so she always baked anzac biccies and brought them to our house.
i miss being able to pick up the phone and just call her for a chat and even now, 10 years after her death, i still think "i will just give Nana a quick call to say hello"
if only i could.
her cuddles and advice and her love and support are the things i miss about her.
she was honest and hardworking and supportive and just so cuddly.
oh how i miss her.

i managed to do about 30 minutes of scrapping this morning while kait was watching a DVD. i am still trying to get the "grandkids album" for dad and nanny finished.
only 5 more grandchildren to go.....LOL

i hope that everyone is having a great day.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

HOME

kait is home...not 100% but home.
a HUGE thank you to everyone who has emailed, left posts at the EMM forum and sms'd.

we got her home last night about 7 p.m.
her paed has given us a referral to a paediatric neurologist in brisbane because FINALLY we got him to agree that her life changed the moment she fell off that bench 4 years ago.
he finally listened to us when we said all this shit with her weight and the migraines and the episodes started that night.

she has dropped in weight from 25.9 kgs when she was weighed a few weeks ago to just over 24kgs when she was weighed yesterday.

now we need to to try and build her up...put some weight back on her tiny little body so next time she gets sick she, at least, has something to fight with.

i think there will be lots of cuddles and kisses and just loving our little girl this week.

so probably not a lot of scrapping being done
(i did get to read lots of scrapping mags in the hospital though and answered lots of questions from nurses and other mums in the ward about scrapping)

thank you again everyone.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

UPDATE 2

kait was admitted to hospital with suspected rotar virus.
she is severely dehydrated, has lost almost 3 kgs and is one very ill little girl.
just before i left the hospital they were ringing the paediatrician to get him to order more blood tests...she has broken out in a rash and they are testing for the nasties (menningicoccal for one)

mark is up with her now so i can come home and get some sleep as i have been up since 3 a.m. this morning.
i suspect if they find anything too nasty in her system i will be back up there before morning.

so please....keep my sweet baby girl in your thoughts and prayers.

thanks
~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

UPDATE

kait is still quite ill. her excursion on sunday isn't looking promising.
FINALLY got her in to see a doctor yesterday and got the standard "it's just a virus and will have to run it's course" line.
her paediatrician is away at a conference until monday so if she doesn't go on the excursion (and i pray that she will be well enough to go because she will be heartbroken if she can't) i will call him and get him to see her.
i think he will because the weight has just dropped off her again.
when i had her in the bath the other night she looked up at me and said "i look like a bag of bones mummy".
my poor baby...i just want her to be well again.

actually...i just want her to be well FULLSTOP.
no more illness; no more "failure to thrive"; no more being so weak that she can barely move.

my heartfelt thanks to each and everyone of you that left messages or emailed me
(specially my gorgeous girls marie and ruthy)

i hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
and all the best to the gorgeous chris millar who is having her big crop day tomorrow in brissy....wish i could be there matey....i am sure it will be a blast.
give all the girls a big hug from me, ok...???

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

MY BABY IS ILL

poor kait is ill again.
i swear it was only the space of 30 minutes last night from when she said, "mummy i feel sick" to when she was throwing up violently, shivering, high temps.
it's these times i would give anything to swap places with her.

we put her into bed with us last night and while mark and i were both lying there this morning, watching her breathe, mark said how thin she was....and she is.
her paediatric appointment is a month away but i can't see that her weight will have increased at all since her last appointment almost 3 months ago.

most people say that she is just thin/fine/tiny and be thankful we aren't battling a weight problem with her at the other end of the scale like many families are these days.
but these people don't know her history (see here)
and as her paediatrician says, had she not had the head injury and the ongoing problems with migraines and these violent bouts of vomitting, he would probably say that yes...she is just thin/fine/tiny.
his theory is that maybe the head injury caused "something" in her head to be altered but all the neurological tests that she has had have all been clear.
the next step will be a visit to a neurologist in either brisbane or sydney where they will do more extensive testing (and unfortunately quite invasive) tests on her brain.
that's a step neither mark nor i want to contemplate at the moment.

thankfully she is sleeping again at the moment. she looks so tiny and frail lying in our big queen size bed.
i just hope whatever is wrong with her will soon pass because she is supposed to be going on her big school excursion next week.
she was so upset last night thinking that maybe she will miss out.

fingers crossed, prayers sent skyward and all the positive vibes i can muster for my baby girl that she will be well again soon.

have a great day everyone

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

NOTHING MORE TO SAY

what can i say that hasn't already been said about the untimely death of steve irwin.
love or hate the man, no one can ever underestimate the impact he had on australian culture or the way we looked at the more "unseemly" animals that we share this earth with.

death is supposed to happen to the old and the ill.
not to young vibrant dads, who love life and live it to the fullest.
my initial shock and disbelief has been replaced by a numbness that comes from knowing that someone so young and semmingly indestructable is now gone from our midst.

i watched the repeat of his interview with andrew denton last night.
i was glad the kids were in bed and mark was still at work.
it gave me a chance to do a bit of grieving for a man i didn't know personally but whose death affected me as much as if i had lost a friend.
i laughed till i cried and i cried till i laughed.

my thoughts go to his wife terri, his children bindi sue and little bob; his dad; his close friends; his employees and the millions of people who felt like he was their mate.

as one of the talkback hosts said this morning "we are all a little poorer today at his passing but so much the richer by having had him in our lives"
i really do feel like i have lost a friend.

rest in peace steve.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

SOMETIMES...

...it is the simple things in life that are the best.

the song playing from my sidebar is one of these things.

a simple song, with simple lyrics, sung simply by a woman with a simply stunning voice.

love it....hope you enjoy it too.

here's to the simple things in life.

have a wonderful day

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

OUCHIES!!! + LAYOUTS + NEWS

this is our driveway.

it's steep.
it causes many of our family and friends great problems when they try and back down it (not sure why)
in the wet it can be very slippery - as i painfully found out yesterday.
on my way down to get the bins yesterday and check the mail, i slipped and fell.
landed on my butt (thankfully IT is well padded), my left hip, elbow, shoulder and hit my head on the rocks that line the driveway. i think i was momentarily knocked out and i had to sit in the driveway on my bum, for about 15 minutes before i even attempted to get up.
saw lots of pretty stars buzzing around in front of my eyes so i sat there until the stars went away.
good thing we live in a quiet cul-de-sac and none of the neighbours drove by.
i must have looked a sight sitting on my bum, covered in mud, in the wet and bawling my eyes out.
the scrapper in me thought it might have made an interesting pic for a layout.
HMMMMMMMMMMMM !!!!!
the rest of me was just hurt and bruised and embarrassed.
needless to say i am a little sore and tender in parts today.

here are a few layouts i did while i was on the Scrap Heap SWIG last month with the gorgeous ruthy and diana.

i love this pic of kait and i have scrapped it a few times. the heart is hand-stitched and the flower trim has been in my stash for a while now just waiting for the "right" LO to use it on.
i think this is it.


this is a pic that matt and jake took on our camera as a reminder of them before mark and i went away for a few days to a wedding over easter.
i love this pic of them cause i think it shows their personalities - crazy, goofy and oh-so-lovable.


this photo of my nana and old bean was given to me by my step-mum after she had it copied off the original. for some reason dad's sisters and all my cousins were given pics of the wedding after nana passed away but sadly i didn't receive any so dad has made copies of all the pics he has and given them to me.
thank you daddy.
i love this pic - nana and old bean look so beautiful on their special day.


the amount of laughing we did i am surprised that any of us got anything done.
thanks to ruthy and diana for their advice on these LOs.
i also purchased 2 more D ring albums last week for my LOs so they aren't all crowded into one. it is a pleasure to look through them now.

and my news.....i have resigned my DT position at the craft attic.
lots of reasons why - none that i am prepared to go into - but i will enjoy doing some scrapping "just for me" for a while.

i hope you are all having a great tuesday and are getting some of this lovely rain we are getting here on the far north coast.
take care.
time for me to limp out to the ironing board and get some more ironing done.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

TAKING THE GOOD WITH THE BAD.

my baby sister louise arrived on friday afternoon with her husband chris and their sweet baby girl. bianca.
i can't tell you how excited i was that louise was coming to stay. raised in seperate homes (she is the only daughter from dad's marriage to erica, my step-mum) we are so similar in the things we like and the things we don't; what makes us smile and what makes us cry; we both scrap; we both married men who are similar in appearance; she knows when i need a shoulder to cry on and often rings me when i am feeling low; we both have a very weird sense of humour and will often laugh at things that no-one else does.
it was just so good to have her near and to be able to sit and chat over a coffee; to be able to watch her with my kids and for me to be able to spoil bianca and teach her a few naughty things (hey that's what weird older aunts are for isn't it...???)
i missed her as soon as they drove away this morning and i admit....i shed more than a few tears after they backed down the drive.
a good thing though....her and chris have been looking at houses and job prospects up this way. how totally cool will it be if they move closer.
hells bells....i would settle for her being only a few hours drive away instead of a whole day.

it is the annual heli rescue collection day in our area today. as a family we have been collectors for years and it is our way of supporting a service that we believe is vital to our area.
thankfully we have never needed to use it, but we have come close a few times when the kids have been very ill and possibly needed transporting to brisbane.
our company also is the main computer support for the service and they are probably one of our biggest clients so we have ties to the service in that respect as well.
i worked the admin side today - booking in collectors and counting money on their return.
mark and the kids went out collecting and between the four of them collected over $600.00.
I am so proud of them.
knowing that service is there is very comforting to me and i just pray that we never need it's services.

on the bad side, it was my mum's birthday yesterday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM !!!
i tried several times to call her and all i got was an earful of abuse from the idiot that she lives with that she claims to love and who, she claims, loves her.
he told me yesterday, in no uncertain terms, what he thought of me and that he wasn't surprised seeing my mum was the same type of person.
i just can't comes to terms that this woman who raised me to be a proud and strong woman is involved with a man who is abusive to her in every respect.
i just hope he is worth it because i will no longer allow my children to see mum and she chooses not to come to my house to visit.
mark and i have both reached out to help her and each and every time she has returned to be with him.
the hardest part is that she chooses to stay with this man despite the fact that she has lost the respect of me, and mark but most of all my children. mum was once so close to my kids and we spent most weekends at her house or she was here with us. i can't tell you the last time she even visited our home or spoke to the kids.
i have never felt such a heavy burden weighing on my heart and i fear each time the phone rings that it will be someone telling me that he has finally killed her.
it is a bad situation and will only end badly i fear.
if it wasn't for the fact that it was my mum caught up in the whole unsavoury mess, i would just turn my back and walk away.
unfortunately i just don't know where to to from here or how i can help her.
like i said, the hardest part is knowing that she stays with him by choice because lord knows we have done everything we can to help her get out of the situation.
sorry if that all sounded a bit "rambly" - it was train-of-thought kinda thinking.

so that is the good with the bad for the past few days of my life.
i can only hope that the good keeps getting better and that the bad doesn't get any worse.

thank you to all of you who have emailed me or messaged me or left comments.
the support i get from my cyber friends is so important to me keeping my sanity some days.

i hope to get back to some scrapping in the next week.

i hope you all have a wonderful week.
i am going to REALLY try to look for the good in each day.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

p.s. good luck to rozzie who is goig in for a little op next tuesday.
i am pretty sure that she doesn't read my blog but i do hope that things go well for her and that she receives some good news with the results.

SORRY...!!!

i am sorry if i worried anyone.

thank you to everyone who left a comment or emailed me, especially my gorgeous, but faraway friend, marie.

have a lot going on at the moment - things i cannot change, things i just have to accept, dealing with people who i allow to bring me down with just one word.

but the line is drawn in the sand now - and i will not allow these things to cross that line and impact on my life anymore or the life of my family who deserve better.

again my thanks.....
onward and upward from here on in......
to a better day, a better life and a better me.

have a wonderful day

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

p.s. and a HUGE thank you to my friend, who shall remain nameless, who has left such beautiful words of support on my mobile.
you know who you are, you know how i feel about you and you know what a powerful influence you are in my life.

THANK YOU
xo

BLAH !!!

i hate feeling like this.....lost and frightened and uninspired and angry at things i can't change.

i want to scrap....i need to scrap....but all i did today for a whole hour was sit at my desk, touching nothing and crying.

is it menopause starting like a friend suggested to me last week...???

or is it depression...???

whatever it is, i need it to go away and quickly.

living this close to the edge of insanity is NOT my idea of fun.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

FAMILY WEEKEND

mark, kait and i had a wonderful weekend in taree with my dad and step-mum helping them celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and erica's 60th birthday.
we had a lovely river cruise up the manning river on saturday afternoon with dad and erica and some of their friends. it was a leisurely afternoon and my speech caused a few tears but it was lovely to verbalise to my dad and step-mum just how important they are to our family.
we had a family dinner back at dad's on saturday night - lots of laughs, stories of when we were young and just enjoying the company of our family.

it was also nice to get away from things that have been causing me so much grief in the past few weeks and to spend time with my darling husband and our sweet baby girl.
mark and i stayed in a motel (we had some VERY much needed "us" time) and kait stayed with nanny and grandad along with my baby sister, lousie, her hubby and their darling baby girl, bianca.
kait thoroughly enjoyed her time at nanny and grandad's and playing with bianca.
it will be lovely to have them visit us at the end of this week for a few days.

matt and jake stayed at home for their soccer committments. just so glad they are both such sensible boys and can be trusted at home. i left them oodles of cooking and they even got in and did a big clean up of the house before we arrived home yesterday
(although it was very clean when we left here on friday afternoon)

here are a few pics of the weekend

grandad & nanny

my beautiful baby girl

just look at those blue eyes - my niece, bianca

group shot - dad, louise, bianca, nanny, me & kait in the front
(where are those boys...???)

until next time
~*~ shazz ~*~
xox

I AM...

....happy because i can log on and see the smiling faces of my dear friends (well marie on the right, is actually the friend i am referring too...LOL) smiling back at me.

...happy that my elise book arrived yesterday and hopefully i will be inspired to scrap and produce something i can be proud of.

...honoured that my gorgeous friend marie, liked a LO i did so much that she scrap-lifted it. and what a stunning job she has done too. have a look.

...angry at myself because i left it too late to get the cartridges for the printer last week and i had to wait until today for them to come in and i have an album to finish to take away this weekend and so much other scrapping to do.

...happy that i have completed and album for my friend as a tribute to her faithful dog who died a few years ago. it was mailed off yesterday and i am sooooo nervous waiting for her reaction to it.

...excited that mark, kait and i are heading to taree this weekend to celebrate dad and erica's 30th wedding anniversary and erica's 60th. it will be a weekend of surprises and tears and happiness.

...excited that i will get to see my baby sister this weekend and my adorable niece. kait is super-excited that she will be seeing bianca again.

...inspired to get my self and my scrapping space and my life organised. just like this amazing, uber-talented, all round nice gal.
Z, you are one of my all-time favourite scrappers.

...proud of myself because i am still walking every morning - with the excpetion of a few mornings. it is definitely my "me time" each day - i scrap LOs as i walk, have conversations with people...yes i know...i am a little odd but getting fitter each day.

...blessed because i have my gorgeous husband who loves me unconditionally despite the crap our extended families put us through.

...blessed because despite the misgivings i have about my skills as a mum, i have three gorgeous, well-adjusted, "normal" kids.

...sad because i have a very close friend going through some "stuff" with their spouse and there is nothing i can do to help but "be there" for them.

...getting off this computer now to clean up my kitchen and head down to my scrapping room.

have a wonderful day everyone - wherever your day takes you, whatever the universe gives to you and whoever you choose to spend it with.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xo

and a huge thanks to all of you who offered such kind words after my last post.

IT'S CERTAINLY BEEN AN "INTERESTING" WEEK !!!

ever had one of those weeks....???
sometimes i think i seem to have more problems in my life than others and then again maybe it is because i always put all of myself "out there"....dunno.

in the ever-growing popular "point form" my week included
* my mother being assaulted by the man she claims loves her and a frantic phonecall from my brother, while we were on our way home from brisbane, saying she had run off and he couldn't find her. i told him to call the police and to have this "idiot" dealt with once and for all.
he did, they found her and then she refused to press charges *SIGH*
in my heart i just know it will be a matter of time before the phonecall from my brother will be telling me this man has murdered my mother and yet she STILL goes back to him.

* our friends broke the news to us this week that she has cervical cancer. it's aggressive and she is having a full hysterectomy in a few weeks. she is only 41, they have 4 small children.
the good news is that the doctor thinks that he will be able to get it all and that they have caught it early enough for her to make a full recovery. we are all staying positive but man...that was NOT the news i thought i would hear when they told us they wanted to talk to us.

* a close friend is having a particularly tough time at the moment after a marriage break up. you know who you are and you know that even though i can't "be there" for you in person that i am always here for you. stay strong, stand your ground.....you are a good person and deserve to be happy.
love ya babe xxoo

* GOOD NEWS - the ATO owes US money. after several years of monumental stuff-ups on our part, our accountants part and bad financial advice, they owe US money.
and without giving too much away - it ain't small change either.
*WINK*

* jake got the best school report.
glowing comments about his standard of work, his attitude in class, his caring attitude to others.

so proud of my boy - well done jakey.
love you baby.

* not much happening on the scrapping front. i am still waiting for my "elise" book to arrive - i hope it comes soon though. i hear it is great and maybe it will get me scrapping again on a regular basis.
i have to scrap an album of the grandkids this weekend for dad and erica's party next weekend.
and.....my darling baby sis - *hi louise* - has asked me to do "the speech" for the party. she tells me i am pretty good at it after i made a speech on dad's behalf at her wedding (dad was very ill and didn't feel he could speak) and made everybody cry.
talk about pressure.

so that is my "interesting" week.
a mixture of good and bad and that's life i guess.

hope to be able to share some scrapping with you over the weekend.
have a fantastic weekend everyone - whatever you do, wherever you go and whoever you choose to spend your time with.

~*~ shazz ~*~
xo

"WARNING...PROUD MUMMY ALERT"

yesterday mark and i took kait to a physical culture inter-club comp in brisbane.
for those of you who don't know, kait has been doing physical culture ("physie") for the past 2 years. she has competed at several inter-club comps as well as zone for a place at the nationals in sydney but never placed or even finalled.
and that's ok....it's all about her enjoyment of the "sport" and the fact that she loves competing and just getting in and "having a go".
so after a year of her just toddling off to classes and being more interested in the socialising before and after classes, this year she decided to really knuckle down and put in the extra effort of practising at home (we put a couple of full length mirrors on her cupboard doors which has helped with her getting her body positioning right, etc); paying attention in class and really really trying.
about a month ago i said to mark that it looked to me like the penny had finally dropped for her and she knew what she had to do to improve herself.

so she went off to sunnybank yesterday with a determination that she would do her best and a quiet hope that it would be good enough to get her a place.

it is a real eye-opener for the uninitiated to go to a physie comp.
the competition can be fierce between certain clubs and certain competitors.
thankfully we approach it a little more light-heartedly than that. if kait performs and has fun doing it and is happy she has done her best then we are happy.
sure we like her to look good - i spent hours choosing her leotard colour and practising on her hair (and in the end all she wanted was a straight forward plait with some ribbon tied around to match her leotard) but in the end, just to see our baby girl out there competing and just having a good time was all we could have hoped for and what we saw.
even the judges commented on her smile and said that she looked like she was having fun.

because she has never placed or finalled at a comp before, kait was eligible to compete as a novice. these girls are jusdged seperately to the other competitors although they all perform at the same time.

and she performed so well in the first round. she remembered all her moves, her straight back, her body positioning and she just got out there and had a ball. both mark and i sat there with tears in our eyes watching her (ok, ok....i had tears streaming down my cheeks much to the amusement of my friend's husband)
in the second round she got a little bit lost but still performed well.
it was a LONG afternoon to wait and see if she placed.

so you can imagine the cheers and tears (from mummy) when they called out her name as the FIRST PLACE WINNER in the novice section for her age.
she bounded up onto the stage to receive her ribbon and trophy and then bounded back down the stairs into her daddy's arms.
all her friends from her club crowded around her and kissed her and congratulated her....it was soooo exciting.
i am sooooo proud of my baby girl.

she took her trophy to bed with her last night when we finally got home.
i imagine it will be her news story for school this week.
here a few photos from her big day.

on stage after receiving her trophy - sorry it is fuzzy.

with her friend courtney who came 5th overall - well done court!!!

we are so proud of you baby girl - love you heaps xxoo

have a great day.

~*~ shazz ~*~