Watching a Lunar Eclipse

Jessica and Josef were allowed to stay up and watch the moon enter the earths shadow. The weather down here was perfect for watching the eclipse, but right at the end high cloud blew in and we didn't see as much of the red moon as we would have liked. The children were absolutely thrilled with this experience and full of amazing questions about what was happening.

Moon Names Many cultures had names for the various full moons throughout the year. Some of the most common are:
January - cold moon, wolf moon
February - trappers moon, snow moon, hunger moon
March - windy moon, storm moon
April - growing moon, rain moon
May - planting moon, flower moon
June - green corn moon, strawberry moon
July - ripe corn moon, hay moon, thunder moon
August - lightening moon, sturgeon moon
September - harvest moon, big feast moon
October - hunters moon, falling leaf moon
November - dark moon, beaver moon
December - snow moon, winter moon, long night moon

I am sooo angry

According to ABC News 'Almost 600 New Zealanders are leaving home every week to live and work overseas and most of them are heading to Australia, migration figures show.' I can so understand this!!!
Our education, health and welfare systems have completely gone to the dogs!
1. Jessica needs new hearing aids - urgently - we followed all the requirements and the aids are covered by our personal home insurance. The audiology department told us today it will be late September, early October before she gets an appointment. Ummm - hello did we mention urgent - as in she needs them for school? We have to go private! The hospital has a contract to provide this service free to school children and we have to go private!! (but going private means she will be seen Wednesday)
2. Again health related - my dad is in dire need of a triple bypass open heart surgery. He has been told he is a "walking time bomb". He has type 2 diabetes and most days is a really awful shade of grey. He is on a waiting list.. and he will have to travel to Dunedin for the surgery which may or may not happen before Christmas.
3. Ashleigh rang IRD today to find out why she hasn't gotten family assistance to be told they had on file Brooke was in CYFS care!!! What the??? I'm sitting on the floor playing with Brooke while Ash was relating the conversation she was having on the phone! We were gobsmacked. Then because its a government department - it will take a couple of weeks to sort this out and the payments should start 2-3 weeks. No sorry, no explanations, nothing!
4. Education - oh good heavens I could write a book about what I think is wrong with our education system - I'll start with the way they grade kids - give me A B C D E etc - over all this politically correct achieved, merits what have you - you either pass or you fail! You nearly need a degree in something to understand a high school students report lol!

I'm in such a grumbly, angry mood with everything!!! And I have a headache. Grrrrrr.... some days I haven't a clue why we stay in New Zealand, it does not seem to be a country that works for middle income, hard working people. I worry constantly about what the future will offer Josef. Josef wants to be an archaeologist and has such big dreams. Its funny but I dont worry about the girls as much - they seem to land on their feet better than Josef. (Jess has announced she is moving to France so she can be a professional artist)

I'm sure by tomorrow I will be over my grumble - and back to loving my country to pieces. And I do, I love how we can hop in the car and in half an hour we will be in the mountains, at the beach or a river. But tonight I am sooooo angry!!

Photo shoot...

We had family photos taken 2 weeks ago and last night we went to view them - I was just blown away - I love them so much! The complete package was affordable and when you paid for them you get a CD with all the pictures they took including the duds!
Even though I think I take a fair photo, there is just something about studio portraits that is sometimes a little better. I am waiting for Ash to let me have her disk so I can share the gorgeous shots the photographer took of Brooke.
And we also got a four generation photo taken - my Mother, Ashleigh, Brooke and myself.
A lot of "professional" shots going to be framed and put up on my walls!!

Josef had his soccer team photo today - the photographer had everyone in fits of laughter because he didn't have a clue where to stand Josef! No matter where he stood he was so little he disappeared. It will be interesting to see that photo when it comes out! They had a little play after the shoot and some of the boys asked Leo to be goalie and let them practice kicking - this gave Leo such a head swell he is now unbearable to live with - LOL!! I think most of the other parents thought Leo was an assistant coach because he would spend games running up and down the sides telling the kids where to go and where to kick etc. A very loud, supportive Dad.

Jessica and Leo had a minor disaster tonight, Jess is refusing to talk to her Dad!! We had takeaways for tea - the kids had Burger King and Jess being Jess took her hearing aids out and put them in the BK paper bag for safe keeping. While Jess was up getting her pj's on Leo decided to have a tidy up and threw the BK bag in the fire! Leo is cross with Jess because he doesn't understand why she put the aids in the bag and Jess is cross with Leo because he threw her bag out when as far as she was concerned it wasn't rubbish. Jess was so upset when she discovered what Leo had done she started to hyperventilate and nearly fainted!! The poor kid was so worried. It took me quite some time to calm her.
Its going to be a couple of weeks before she will get new ones, I have to contact our insurance tomorrow and start a claim. Then audiology so they can order new aids and book an appointment for Jess to get new molds made up. I'm hoping her teacher will be a little understanding and make sure Jess is aware.

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever. (Aaron Sussman)

Jack-Time

My layout is completed for this months Jack. I just loved Christi's layout. I had a lot of fun 'lifting' this idea.
The title is the bum of Brooke's pants she was wearing - very appropriate. LOL. The wee fairy and the papers were a freebie from ages ago - one of the magazines was kind enough.

When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into thousands of pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. (from Peter Pan)

Beep Beep

Thats my wake up call. I have been in a procrastinating mood for the last while and have put off quite a bit - updating my blog is one of them!I came online at lunchtime and had a wee wander over to Michelle's blog - what a delightful surprise to discover she has awarded me with a webbie "NICE" award. Now that just made a grey day brighter - and to prove it all the clouds in the sky went away and the sun came out, warming me right through. Which is exactly how I feel when I read the lovely comments Michelle had written about me.
This last week has been so good to me! Gaye and I have been planning our SENZ weekend and we have so much to look forward to - I honestly can not wait. We have booked A Rocking Roxie class with Scrapbook Outlet, Sequined Secret class with Hastings Rubber Stamps and Take One Stamp class with Stamp Zone Ltd. And we plan to spend plenty of time 'surfing' the booths!! AND a big highlight for me is going to be the Saturday night - Tanya has arranged a crop night at her work. So far 14 ladies have signed up - and they are all from Scrapbook Essentials. That is going to be amazing.

Josef's soccer team made it into the finals, he has at least one game left. I have loved watching him play this season, he has come out of his shell and taken to the game. On Saturday he played a forward for the first time and he totally blew us away with his ball skills and he nearly got a goal. he was disappointed he didn't but it skimmed the post and went the wrong way! His team mates showed such spirit when they high-fived him! That one of the things I love the most about Josef's team, they love to win but they don't let it get to them if they don't. I love this photo, I took it on Saturday, it shows the height difference to the extreme - LOL - Josef is in the middle - the other 2 boys are only a year older than him!And this is our little fan - even on a muddy soccer field she can look like a diva!Look what I got!! I love Heidi Swapp! Her stuff is just so scrappable!! I actually got up at 4.30am in the morning to get this - LOL! Leo had to go to work at 5am and he woke me up and I decide to getup and order the kits in the US of A. They took a week to get here - and they quoted 25 days - how cool is that?! I'm going to have a lot of fun playing with this kit.And thats not all - sweet Meg from Scrapbook Essentials found me this book and ordered it in for me... to quote the website "150 cool new ways to turn your everyday scrapbooking products and tools into fabulous projects" This book ROCKS!!! Its just packed with fabulous ideas using stickers, rubons, brads, ribbons and so on. Such an inspiring book.And Brooke - latest pictures - hasn't she grown into such a darling? She has her first tooth and can push herself up onto her hands and knees. Ash and Brooke came with me to Meg's when I picked up my book and Brooke and Max sat on the floor chatting away in their own little language. It was so cute to listen to. Max got into Ashleigh's nappy bag and got an Avon magazine for Meg - he swapped on of his shoes for it. Ash found it later when she got home LOL!! Next he will be slipping Brooke his phone number - hehehe.

Latest layouts, I haven't been terribly creative lately. I have completed 3 layouts for the big competiton over at SE. Its has been such a fun experience being challenged like this.
This one was just for fun - he is such a dude my son!

Don't wait for great opportunities. Seize common, everyday ones and make them great. (Farmers Almanac)

I've decided that I want to pay forward my NICE award - all that read my blog - you all deserve one, your heartwarming comments make my day. that includes all of you that read my blog and email me - you know who you are - I love you all to bits! Thank you.

The Circle Journal is over...

While I wait for my journal to make its way back to me I thought I would share the pages I completed in 13 other journals.
It has been a bumper run and I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this whole sharing process!