dancingintherain

Not the slackest blogger in the world, but....

Probably pretty close LOL!!  Life is the usual - a hectic, non-stop merry-go-round - but it's not really much of an excuse.  Lots has happened since my last post, mainly because it's been almost four months (REALLY??  Oops!).  I am now working full-timeat a new job, which has been a hard adjustment - it's been almost 10 years since I've worked a five-day week.  And it hasn't only been an adjustment for me, but also for David and the boys - because I start work at 7am David has to get the boys up and ready and off to school, while I'm doing the after-school run.  I must admit the last 5 weeks have been great, being school holidays I've been spoilt and haven't had to do anything of that - *sigh*, one more week....

Liam won a school award the last week of school - his name is now on the Mallet Family Shield forever, as he got the highest score of all the Grade3s, 5s and 7s in the school for the Grade level tests!  He looked so little up there on stage with all the big Grade 7s.  The boys also got their classes for next year and for the first time neither is in a composite class, and Harry has a male teacher, which I think will be good for him.  But it is also hard to believe that I have a Grade 3 and a Grade 4 in the house, suppose I'd better go pick up their school books this week (yet another thing to add to my ever expanding list!)

Christmas was very laid-back and quiet - just what we all needed.  Kashmir came up from Brisbane and we all went camping at Cania Gorge, along with the Phillipses, the Russells, and after Christmas, the Hutchinsons.  The boys got spoilt - they got DS Lites, which was the ultimate Christmas presents.  And they came in handy - Wade and Jonee had one each as well so sometimes it was so quiet you forgot the kids were there!  It was great not having anything we had to do, and being out of mobile range too.  We did some scrapping, some bushwalking, some bird-feeding,some GuitarHero world-touring and a lot of swimming and eating - lots of fun.  There were a couple of 40+ degree days which were NOT so much fun, but overall it was a good time.  Unfortunately we weren't as impressed with the cleanliness of the Caravan Park as the pools got progressively dirtier (especially with the temperatures and the numbers staying) and the amenities blocks weren't as well kept as they should have been and a number of the group came home with a gastric bug!  We have all let Big4 know we are not happy.

            

Back home David and the boys (including Kashmir) had another 2 weeks of holidays, not that they were able to do much as all three kids had the gastric bug, and Kashmir was sick almost up to when he went back to Brisbane on Friday!  Not a great holiday for him by any means.  They did go and see a movie "Bedtime Stories", and we did manage a couple of swims at Helen and Craigs place as well as more "crazier than crazy" Tennis  which was fun. 

This weekend has been quiet and "lazy" ahead of David going back to work - the boys are going back to the ISA this week while we parents are at work.  They do (reluctantly) enjoy themselves - playing indoor cricket and netball, as well as swimming, beach volleyball and watching movies.  Of course though, they'd rather be at home doing their own thing. 

As for scrapping - well, after the rush and brainstrain of entering Scrapbooking Memories masters competition (by the way, I didn't make the cut LOL!!) I had NO desire/ability to scrap!!  That plus the new job meant I was not even looking at my scrapping table, but our trip down to see Heidi Swapp put paid to that.  The woman is amazing, and lovely and a true inspiration.  How she does what she does, and has the outlook on life that she does with everything in her life astounds me  She showed us some new stuff, and some new ways of using old stuff - and I came back inspired.  Yep, just in time for the Christmas rush, and camping LOL!  Well, I finally got into my scrapping, and with the help of some gorgeous photos from Ali that she took when we were away I've managed to do 8 layouts in the last 3 days, and I'm even happy with all of them!  Can't show many of them, because 6 of them are for DT stuff for Embellished, but I'll leave you with the two I can show you  "Way too Early", featuring Kashmir and his hatred of being out of bed before midday, and "Smile, boys" which documents the difficulty in getting Harry and Wade in particular to look at the camera and smile at the same time.

   

In the meantime, I hope the 3 or so people that read this had a wonderful Christmas, and a great start to 2009.  I still can't believe we're over halfway through January already - is this year going to race along like the last?  For those who are scrapping, Embellished have a great new competition starting soon called the "Week to Week Extravaganza", with a great prize pack at the end of every month, so why not have a lookie?  There is also a great new blog here with inspiration, free classes and ideas.

So, go and have a good one, and I'll be back on here again soon (I promise LOL - New Years resolution!)

Seem to be Busy?!

But can't remember what I've been doing?  Sound familiar?  Somedays I feel like one of those little hamsters on a wheel running, running always running - but I never seem to get anywhere.  All I know is that my days are pretty full, my nights aren't much better, I'm not getting into bed on time, and that the treadmill is NOT really a place to hang ironing on!!

We're winding down to the end of term, the boys are getting a bit ratty with less than two weeks to go.  Our weekends have been a bit full-on lately - last week was the school Fete, of course Fathers' Day (but isn't that every day?? LOL) and the soccer breakup..  Here are a couple of pics.  First is David and Liam during their final soccer game of the year, next is Liam playing violin with the Cresso Strings group at the Fete, lastly is Harry on the little Merry-go-Round again at the Fete....

 

Harry went on that dang thing at least FIVE times.  Oh well, a year or so again he wouldn't go on anything, so I guess I should be happy!  So after a very busy Saturday I went to the Embellished crop that night and YAY!!  I got scrapping, and inspired, and very happy - cause motivation has been missing lately.

Sunday was Fathers Day, and slacko that I am I didn't get any photos (sorry Davey) - then the soccer breakup - YAY, no more Saturdays.  That's until today, when the boys came out of school telling me they wanted to play cricket now!!  WHat???  Even Harry - the boy who would happily stay home all his days wants to play cricket!!  Why me?  So guess what I'll be checking out?

Hmmm, anything else exciting happening to the Sinnamons?  Well - I should be getting my NEW bed this weekend - so excited, it's like David and I are becoming real grown-ups, now we have a proper bed, a welcome mat at the door - what on earth will be next??  Oh, and in an effort to get ALL of us spending more time downstairs we've put in a vege patch and a little herb garden.  With all the salads we've been eating we've decided to try and grow some of the "staples" ourselves, so we've dug out a couple of spots, bought some good soil, and planted our seedlings.  Liam is so excited that he grabbed some carrot seeds and we're trying to sprout them as well.  First a pic of some of our lettuce, next Bok Choi, then lastly a pic of the boys latest game "Double..." well something (David can't remember) where one bounces on the trampoline trying to catch the ball the other throws at them. 

         

Looks like we'll have to buy a new, bigger trampoline soon - this one was secondhand when we bought it more than 8 years ago, and 2 replacement mats and 3 moves later it is getting a little small - especially with an 8 and a half year old trying to do forward and backward somersaults on it (and giving his mummy a heart attack while watching!!)

Well, that's about all that's happening in our little neck of the woods.  Weight loss for both Davey and I is going pretty well, we're still not down to goal weight, but we've lost a combined 33 kilos - so WOOHOO for us.  The Kboy is coming up for just over a week in the school hols and the little boys are making paper swords in preparation (guess that's a had-to-be-there and all HIS own fault LOL!).

OH - and FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE is BACK at Embellished, starting Friday (of course) the 19th of September - bigger and better than ever.  For all the details check the blog - www.embellished.typepad.com/fnl.

Checks yas all later ;)

It's baaaccckkkk.....

      

YEP!!  It's that time of year again - Idol is back bigger and better than ever...

It begins Sunday the 6th of July at 8:30pm AEST.....

It will be fun, and you will be tested.....

See HERE  for ALL the details ;) ......

Ok - So I'm back again...

Hmmm, now where was I?

Ah - that's right - Brisbane.  I'd had the flight booked for about 10 months or so, a few days without any of the boys to rest and recharge and visit mainly family, but a few friends too.  Flew down on the Wednesday, and I didn't take many pictures (surprise surprise) but had a lovey time - stayed with Mum & Dad at the seashore, with plenty of time with the little sis and her girls.  Went into "the city" on the Friday and met up with the other JoJo (great to see you girlie, and one of your beautiful daughters) and had lunch with my fabbo in-laws at The Irish Club.  Dad to me to the airport EARLY Saturday morning - in some ways the visit was too short, but I missed the boyos quite a bit.

Off the plane and straight out to see Liam play soccer.  They lost, but seemed to have a lot of fun 

               

Then off to get some groceries (apparently three lone boys can't grocery shop) and that night a few of us girls got together to scrap at the shoppe, while the boys+kids hung out at the Russell Household and played PS3.  Phew!! and still Sunday to get through.

Sunday saw us up nice and EARLY to go have Mothers Day breakfast at Sizzler - I didn't take my camera, but you can see some pics on ALi's blog LOL!!  It was lovely, but we're never doing that again - took us over an hour to get seated cause there were so many of us, the kids were very well behaved considering the circumstances.  Then the Russells, the Phillipses and I went to the markets at the Heritage Village - it was fun to walk along and get to look at everything and not hear "Mum I'm bored, can we go HOME now!?" every 5 minutes.  I was very good, and came back with only a new hat and a peg basket!  Very restrained.  The outing was rounded off with dropping off at the Tender Centre to see if there was anything decent there to bid on - there wasn't but that was ok.  Then ALi, Glenn and Luke dropped me off home and I had a quiet remainder of the day.

Monday 12th of May signalled the start of my first FULL week at Embellished - well I'm into my third week now and am absolutely loving working there.  I'm never bored, it's fun helping/meeting all the customers, and ALi is a doll to work for.  There's never a dull moment - and that's in a good way.  This week I've been spending a bit of time restocking the online shoppe with all the new stock we've gotten, as well as working on some class stuff!  Yep, you read right - I'm actually going to be teaching card classes at the shoppe from the middle of June.  Already there's a number of ladies interested, so it's going to be a lot of fun!  There's lots of things happening in the next couple of months - it's going to be a ball.

Apart from work and after-school activities life has been pretty busy.  We had a great time Saturday night when we went to Hayley and Nathan's house for a barbeque - with the Russells, Amanda and her hubby, and the Churchills.  Lots of laughs, gorgeous food (thanks Hayley) the boys behaved and went to bed at bedtime - good fun with good friends, can't wait for the next one. 

Before I go I have to mention Marnie Sanford's "Cycle for Oxfam" which is up on her blog at  http://followtheyellowbrickroad-maz.blogspot.com/ - please go and check it out because it's for an awesome cause.

And a couple of LO's to round it all out - I can't post any of the stuff I've been doing for the past two weeks cause it's either cards for classes or LO's for challenges at Embellished coming up LOL!

Well, that's it for me - I'm finally up to date.  And it didn't take me almost 8 weeks to do it this time either LOL!!  Have a great weekend everybody - I've got a busy one, Saturday I'm working at the shoppe, and Sunday I'll be at Victoria Park all day - both Liam and Harry are competing in the Annual "Rose" Trampoline Competition.......

Ooops! I Did It Again!!

Ok, I'm probably officially the WORST blogger ever LOL!!  Life is really flying at a breakneck pace - I can't believe it's over a month since I last blogged.  Lots of stuff has been happening this'll probably be massive, knowing where to start is the hardest thing........

Mid-April was a turning point for me in a lot of ways.  Work at Coles was getting more and more stressful, I was missing my boys a lot with the nights and weekends away from them; to cut a long story short things were also happening at EMBELLISHED, and the outcome was that I quit my job at Coles (my last day was April 30) and today I started working part-time 5 days a week for Ali.  Well, to say I'm stoked is an understatement - what a dream come true.  Who hasn't dreamed of working in a scrapbooking shop?  I'm still pinching myself, and it was strange telling customers today that I'd see them later in the week.  I also have to remember that I won't be going off to Coles tomorrow night!!  YAY!!

Hmmm, what else?  The Embellished Retreat was held mid-April, and what a blast it was.  I have to admit I wasn't particularly productive this year, but there was lots of laughs, fun and jumping on the Jumping Pillow.  It was great to meet all the out-of-towners IRL like Marnie and Marni, and also wonderful to renew ties, especially with Kel and her family from NZ.  Now I'm shamed to admit I didn't take my camera out all weekend, but I've begged and pleaded with Ali and Helen for photos so I can do some pages LOL!

David and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on Anzac Day, and Ali took some beautiful photos of us so I could record this feat, and to show off the fact that we've both been losing weight the last couple of months, and are both feeling pretty good about it.  I've included a couple of my favourites - it's hard to narrow it down to only a couple LOL!! 

          

The boys are doing really well, two weekends ago we hired a car and drove up to Armstrong Beach to stay with my Aunt & Uncle and take Liam to a gymnastics competition in Mackay on the Sunday.  Liam did very well, with a 2^nd for his floor routine, and a 4^th, 5^th, 2 x 6^th and a 7^th.  Not too shabby out of 14 in his age/level. He is also now a Level 3 gymnast.

                   

It was so good to chill and relax, there were no real time pressures, and with no TV we played cards, did quizzes and played boggle to our hearts content.  We even made it down to the beach on Sunday afternoon at almost dusk - the tide was out but all 3 boys had a ball digging in the sand. 

Well, that’s it for now – work tomorrow and I’ve gotta be bright-eyed and bushy tailed LOL!!.  Stay tuned – I’ll try and get back and update last week – I went to Brisbane for a few days on my own – and I’ll put up a few of the layouts I’ve done in the last month or so………..

So til then the 2 or so peoples who read this - have a wonderful Tuesday!

   Well it must do, cause it doesn't seem like THAT long since I posted LOL!!  Life has been hectic as usual, with the run of work, school, after school - I can't believe that it's almost the end of March already.

We had a fantastic Easter, relaxing as well as doing some stuff around the house.  Friday saw us barbeque-lunching down at the Riverside Park with the Russells, Phillipses, Churchills and Hutchinsons - the kids got to play while the grown-ups sat and chilled.  Lunch was delicious, and some of the "so-called" adults eventually caved and tried out the flying fox (Hayley - I still have those photos LOL!!)  Our only downside was Liam had a stack on his scooter and took skin off his foot, soon fixed and lucky he'd brought a book or two to read. I won't bore with lots of pics, just a couple to show the day.

After the barbeque we girls sent the boys to their respective homes to babysit and we went to the Shoppe for an informal crop.  Lots of laughs, and surprisingly quite a lot of creating came out of it, and we all left at around 10:30pm.

Saturday was a busy day - mainly cleaning up around the house, playing a bit of "Buzz the big Music Quiz", and generally just relaxing together, we don't get much of a chance to do that normally.  The BIG boys all went out that night to see "Vantage Point" in a turnaround from the previous night, so us girls stayed home - David gave the movie the thumbs up!

Sunday morning we woke to find that the Easter Bunny had visited!!  The boys got a car filled with eggs, and a huge chocolate bunny, so were well satisfied that they'd behaved well enough LOL!  Lunchtime saw us all climbing in the car and journeying to Helen & Craigs for lunch and a swim in their new pool - yeeha, the pool is awesome Helen!  We had a great time, the kids all played well together, and the bigger boys got to help Craig dig some post holes too.

To finish off the afternoon the kiddies had an easter egg hunt in the garden - LOTS of eggs were found, I reckon the boys will be eating chocolate for months!  Another swim while Glenn and David played pool under the house wrapped off yet another relaxing day.

Monday saw us going to Bunnings for a compost bin, and to get some sort of fencing for the lefthand fence that's been "absent" for months - we really wanted Geordie to be able to roam around front and back yard, and it didn't look like the new owners next door were going to replace the fence the former owners had pulled down and forgotten.  After we came home with all our "stuff" the little boys and I got in and started weeding the front yard while David put up fencing, it was funny watching Liam and Harry getting in and dirty.  Eventually we moved to the back yard, I'm trying to get into all the garden beds now that it's FINALLY not raining anymore, and the aim is to make a vegie patch in the back yard as well.  An early night, and by Tuesday all was back to normal.....

Oh, before I forget - the Embellished order is in BRISBANE!!  YAY!!  This means come Monday there'll be yummy new stock!  I can't wait ;)

Worst Blogger ever!!

Ok, I reckon it's pretty well official - I must be the worst blogger ever.  Ali - I promise to try and be better from now on.  Why has it taken so long for me to update you may ask?  Well it's a combination of things - most importantly that my internet has been on the fritz and I've finally found out (after 3 days of talking to people from the sub-continent and FINALLY an Aussie) that it looks like my modem is in need of a bullet and until I get a new router David and I have to plug in/unplug our computers into our old modem one at a time.  Hmmm, David doesn't need to be on the net now, does he?  Only kidding honey....

 So what else has been happening here in sunny Rocky?  School is wayyyy back into the swing of things, the boys seem to have settled in well.  With school being back in so is the after school sport - Liam is now doing the competitive stream for trampoline, and continuing with gymnastics as well.  Harry is doing trampoline one day a week, and a few weeks ago started tennis lessons and is LOVING it.  To top it off soccer started up again a couple of Thursdays ago, so the afterschool bedlam is well and truly happening. 

Five weeks in and Liam's already had his first trampoline competition.  Last weekend the CQ Interclub was held at Vici Park.  Liam did well, coming third in the Level 2A men's trampoline event, scoring not only a bronze medal but also getting a voucher for a muffin and a milkshake at "The Muffin Break", so he's pretty happy.

Scrapping wise, there hasn't been a whole lot going on - I've been mainly keeping up with challenges at Embellished - currently Kelly has been running the new "In Your Skin" competition and there's some fantastic LOs being posted for this.  Oooh, before I forget - Ali and Ang are looking for a couple of new designers to join the team - LOL I don't know how to link yet so just follow the sidebar links to the forum if you're interested.

I'll leave you with a couple of LOs I've done lately, been completely forgetting about my older photos and got inspired to scrap Liams Trampoline comp and Harrys tennis lessons instead LOL!!  Ah well, the other photos will still be there for another day.  Got a big week planned, going to have a tooth pulled on Wednesday (my birthday :(), then working at The Shoppe Thursday and Friday while the girls are in Brisbane - can't wait, looks like I'll be there when the big ORDER from the US comes in - woohoooo.

Happy (belated) Whale-of-a-day!

Okay, this blog was supposed to be updated on Australia Day - hence the title.  Liam came in to wake David and I up on Saturday, said to his father "Happy Australia Day" - of course David wasn't quite awake and thought Liam was wishing us a happy "whale of a day"  LOL!!  Hope everyone had a great long weekend and charged the batteries ready for the start of school :)

I managed to get together with Ali, Ang, Kirsty, Germa, Hayley and Amanda to crop at the Shoppe on Sunday arvo/night - we had a blast.  I was on a HUGE roll, managed to get SEVEN layouts done!!  Lucky I managed to do those, cause I haven't even unpacked my stuff since then.  Here are a couple of my favourites, taken by Ali, to share......

And then yesterday was the FIRST day of school - yay for me and yay for the boys.  They're both in the same class - a split 2/3/4 class and were very excited to have a new teacher and a new room.  They are full of all the news, and what is happening in the classroom - Liam is doing particularly well with TWO "superstar" stickers apparently.  Here's a couple of shots of them on day#1......

A lot of people would have heard about "The FLOOD" happening here in Rocky - well it's been pretty funny for all us locals, I don't know what the media has been reporting in other parts of Oz, but we are in NO danger what-so-ever, in fact the river height has been lowered to a peak of 7.8 metres.  But it has been good taking the boys down to the river over the last week, and getting a good understanding of how the river rises and how far.  Apart from that, life is much the same - work is work and full-on, the boys started back at Trampoline and gymnastics this week, and Harry is thinking of taking up tennis.  I'll leave you with my little montage of the flood so far.....

Finally got it!

Well here's the first post..... finally.......

Was supposed to do this yesterday after the gorgeous Ali finished my banner, but have been having a LOT of trouble with internet ever since we changed to "faster" ADSL2.  Yep, it IS faster WHEN it is working - I've figured that if you have a little bit of noise on the line you have no end of trouble - aaarrrrrggghhhh.  So I spent most of yesterday "cleaning" up the phoneline - lots of trial and error and not a lot of fun, let me tell you.

Anyway, on to funner stuff LOL!  Camping with the Russells and the Churchills was fantastic, but oh it seems like so long ago.  The household is sorta back to normal - Ness flew home on Sunday, Kashmir got picked up on Monday, and David went back to work on Monday so it's just me and the little two at home for the next 3 weeks til school starts again.  Hmmm, it's only Wednesday - think it's gonna be a long 3 weeks.  The highlight of my weekend WASN'T work (bet you're surprised) but on Sunday when Ali came over with her boys and took some shots of all of us.  The photoshoot was planned to be on this beautiful wooden seat down near the river, but of course it started raining about half an hour before we were meeting.  This didn't stump Ali, she is a master at "backup" plans and we ended up using the beautiful big tree over the road from my house.  I even got to use the camera and take a few pics of the Russells - easy to take some good ones when it's all set up for you LOL!  Anyway, here are a couple of my fave pics from the 500 or so taken.....

And I've actually been scrapping!  Almost finished a mini Kaiser album (just waiting on a couple of the above shots) and I've also done some of the NEW dares, sketches and challenges over at  EMBELLISHED - if you haven't checked out the NEW-LOOK site - go and do it, you'll be amazed at what Ali, Ang and their "IT" department have done...

So here are two of the LOs

The first "Explore" is my take on the January Sketch Challenge, I used some of the yummy new Kaiser pp that's in store at The Shoppe and Sares fab "Hand drawn Circle" technique.  The second is a monochromatic layout I did for the "We Dare You" challenge this week - to be out of your comfort zone. Ooops, it's been a long one, well done for those of you who've lasted through it!  Chat again soon (probably LOL!)