Tagged - What am I grateful for?

Hannah has tagged me and its such a cool tag - I have to list 6 - 8 things I am grateful for...

1. I am grateful I am sitting here and a friend has been thinking of me and added me to her list of tags, this means I have friends, I have people who think of me and care what I have to say - yes I am grateful for that.

2. I am grateful for my family, my husband Leo who has been my rock and my pillow for 12 years now. My children - Ashleigh who taught me how to grow a backbone and be a stronger Mum ;o) and Jess and Jos who bring me so much joy. To Brooke who has been such a wonder since day 1.

3. I am grateful I can believe, know and trust in my Heavenly Father and that he is watching over me. My personal faith has been very important to me as I struggled with life's curve balls.
4. I am grateful for the advances in technology that has opened doors for me and allowed me as a hearing impaired mum to be more independent, like my fax machine, my emails, my cellphone and my relay phone - all let me stand on my own 2 feet.

5. I am grateful that I have a creative bent that lets me scrapbook, I love the fact I am preserving our lives now for the future generations.

6. I am grateful I live in Southland - we are on the doorstep of some of the worlds most spectacular National Parks and I am grateful we have the means to be able to spend as much time in these parks as we wish.

7. I am grateful, today, that my sister and her family have driven down from ChCh for a visit. family is so very important and its always so wonderful to be able to see each other on a reasonable regular basis.

How wonderful it is to be grateful for all the little things that make up the 'big picture'.
Thanks Hannah for the cool tag!

I think for the fun of it I will tag
Ann
Michelle
and
Janine
have fun...


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!! MWAH...

My desktop

Having a laptop in ones scrap room does not encourage scrapping!! LOL. I'm sitting in here looking for a quote for a card and go blog hopping instead - then I spot Hannah's blog and this cool post about sharing your desktop. Now I have just gotten this laptop and its running Vista. Ive heard a lot of bad things about Vista and Ive heard some pretty good things. I love how visually appealing it is and the folders are soooo much easier to navigate!!
Anyway this is my desktop right now.I love how there are no game icons scattered all over my picture - Josef and Jess have laid claim to the old desktop and it actually runs better without all my scrap stuff on it!!!
The icons on my laptop are all scrap related - LOL - photo editing, printing, hybrid scrapbooking word processing...
I love the vista gadgets - the sticky notes are a godsend to someone like me who writes mysefl notes about everything!!!
The big clock is there to theoretically keep me aware of the time, hasn't worked yet - but it looks good!
And the slideshow viewer is a nifty wee way of always seeing my photos.

At the time I had Hannahs blog open I had 6 tabs open in Firefox - I have 2 eyes and read 6 pages at once - go figure.
My Mail was open and I was also looking for a layout in 'my scanned layouts' folder.

And last but not least media player is pinned to the bottom bar and has several playlists loaded.

So that is my desktop!

Now Hannah issued an open tag and I will do the same. I 'normally' blog once or twice a week so I don't always notice tags etc so I will make that assumtion of others lol.

If you feel like doing this then here are the rules (as cut and pasted from Hannahs blog - thanx Hannah ;o)

My Desktop Free View Instruction:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun.
You can do a screen capture by: [1] Going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key. [2] Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste. [3] If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.
For MAC users: Press [ Apple] [ Ctrl ] [ Shift ] and [ 3 ]
B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want.
C. Tag 5 of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.
D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.

iRonnie
Rebecca
Jon
Vegan Momma
The Vaguetarian Tea Room
Blairs Boys

Here with Me

My 1st NZ Dare

Ive often looked but never tried...
Here is my very first NZ Dare.
The challenge was to scrapbook something in your life to do with television. Well I couldn't resist the attempt to scrapbook my very favorite television programme of all time.
The strip journalling is some of my favourite quotes from the show:

"You know, this is pretty good - someone should be writing this down!"
- Potter

Henry: “Pierce, are you scared?”
Hawkeye: “Don't be silly. I'm too frightened to be scared.”

“I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got into this war I had a very clear understanding with the Pentagon. No guns. I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to old Virginie, I'll even hari-kari if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!”
- Hawkeye

Frank: “I insist on quiet in here!”
Trapper: “Will someone please turn the war down for Frank?”

B.J.'s early impressions of the Korean War: “I think I hate this.”

“Aw, pony pucks!”
- Potter

“These are the forms to get the forms to order more forms, sir.”
- Radar

Hawkeye: “You won again. You always win. Who do you know? “
(Father Mulcahy looks up.)
Hawkeye: “Name dropper.”

Frank, whatever it is, just write it down and put it on my desk where I can't find it.
- Henry

The journalling is tucked behind one of the bigger photos at the top and reads:

"I grew up watching M*A*S*H. My sisters and I would watch it on my parent’s bedroom TV while Mum and Dad watched the news.

As an adult I have a healthier appreciation for the humor and I still really enjoy watching this show. I have the entire collection on DVD and watch it whenever I am in the mood for Alan Alda, who will always be one of my favourite people."

And that was fun! It took me a lot longer than anticipated because I kept getting distracted and reading websites dedicated to MASH. LOL.

3 challenges and spring flowers

make for a happy Julie.

I decided to march all the kids over to the back of the old hospital where the gardens have been let to grow wild, the spring flowers are in full bloom and are simply stunning.

I have taken quite a few photos and will be scrapping them in the very near future. I have been suffering 'scrappers doubt' lately - wondering if my stuff is a good as I think it is. I woke up and smelt the daffodils - and quietly reminded myself that I scrap for me and my family. I share because I love the hobby and I like any other person love to be told I do well, but mostly I want to say "Hey look what I've done today."

And on that note here is what I have been up to...

This is my take on the layout by Ann up to be 'Jacked' over at Jack Me Up. I used to cross stitch all the time - small children put an end to the long hous spent stitching in a corner. So it was a lot of fun to stitch this wee soccer dude just for a page of my own little soccer star. And I just loved playing with all the circles.

This is my layout for Neens challenge over at The Music in Me. For future reference I have written on the back of the layout that the song is sung by Gwen Stefani. I just got the Scenic Route papers last Wednesday and have been itching to do this page with this photo.

And this little gem was put together as a result of a Friday Night Challenge offered up by Megan Renfree over at Scrapbook Essentials. We had to use decorative scissors, chipboard and a stamp. Hmmm... LOL I have decided I really, really like 'ingredient' challenges. Anyway Megan placed all the entrant sin a hat and my name popped out, so for my efforts I am to get a package of rubons from Imaginisce - yummy!!!

This is Brooke and her 2 great grandfathers! Opa and Grandpop. Both of them just love having a little one around again.

Grandpa and Me
(Nancy Wolthoff )
Come Grandpa, walk with me... Help me to be the best kid I can be. Take me here and take me there... Show me now how much you care. The many hours we share together... Will be the times I'll remember forever.

Sunny days ...

chasing the clouds away.

Oh how blissful the last few days have been, glorious warm sunny days. Days that spell the coming of summer.

I've not done any scrapbooking this week. I've lost my mojo and I'm in a dark place scrapping wise.

But I have new photos and a couple of new monthly kits arriving so maybe...

First things first

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA-JOHANNA

I can not believe how fast the last 8 years have flown and I have this gorgeous little diva to call my own. We have had a family afternoon tea today but next weekend she is having a sleepover with a few friends. She picked that weekend because that is the weekend of the release of High School Musical 2! So we are going to get rid of the boys and do our hair and nails and pop some corn and settle in for this cool movie (cool being Jessica's description - LOL)

2nd up - Leo totally blew me a way with this groovy (my word) surprise! My very own laptop!!Yay for darling man who doesnt give flowers or is as romantic as Captain Jack Sparrow! Yay for the fabulous man who announces a new laptop may be what I need to get my mojo back - yes he notices when I have a dry spell, and he is such a supportive scrapping spouse. I adore this man, he knows the right moves - no doubt about that. I'm still in the learning process with htis new toy, but what fun!

And 3rd up - HERE"S BROOKE.....

she is such a darling wee sweetheart at the moment - she loves to show off her 2 teeth and I love to show off my grand daughter.

Finally I leave you not with a poem but a quote from Ali Edwards site - its a meaningful quote and one that I plan to take to heart. I have noticed my scrapbooking has become very 'arty' and while I love this I feel I have lost the true meaning for scrapping - for me anyway.

...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Anna Quindlen

I blinked and my week was over

Ever felt that way!!?? Between working and the children I think I ended each day in a daze!
Anyway I just wanted to quickly upload some layouts that I've completed recently - thank goodness I can leave my work in progress laying around, some of this sits for days before I can get back to it!This layout is for the challenge posted by Neen here on her new blog. I wasn't sure I would do this one because I never liked the song - LOL - but then I came across this photo and couldnt resist - it was so appropriate.

Fabulous news is Josef has been accepted to Boys High School - he is so excited. They have an orientation day next month - he cant wait now! Please Lord let him keep this enthusiasm for school and this love of learning - please!