Merry Christmas

Well it's Christmas Eve and Santa comes tonight.

Christmas is a time to spend with those that you love. To enjoy the gift of giving to others rather than the gifts that you will receive yourself.

Enjoy every minute of the day as it's special and only comes once a year. If you live until your 90 years old. That's ninety christmas's that you get to enjoy. Not really that many when you think of it that way is it?

The world is becoming a very angry place and people no longer treat other people with respect and kindness. Now people treat people that they do not know and some people they do know with contempt and anger and impatience. This is part of the world today that I do not like. I believe that over the past twenty years this has slowly gotten worse. Whether this stems from parents teaching there children that strangers are bad! I don't know. Yes there is evil in the world and some people are dishonest, evil, have no morals and break the law without any guilt. But not everyone is bad. And yes I am one of those parents who taught my children not to talk to strangers. But I have also taught them compassion and am trying to teach them the difference between an acquaintance, a friend, a family member and a stranger that they might meet in the street. All of whom should be treated with respect and dignity even if they speak meanly to you or push in front of you in a aline at the deli counter.

There are still alot of people who care about other people even if they don't know them and would not hesitate to help if assistance was needed. Look at people like fire fighters, nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors, and yes even the police. They help people that they do not know everyday. Yes it is true that some policeman treat you like a criminal when you speed 5 K's over the limit or go into the police station to report something you may have seen. But they are only doing there job and they do come across alot of "bad" people on a daily basis so there perspective of the average honest person down the street may be a little tarnised. Anyway got off the track there a bit.

The point of this is to wish everyone a merry christmas. And if we all try to be a little more tolerant of others differences, and not be so angry, stressed and abusive over the tiniest little problem. Appreciate that you are alive to enjoy life and wake up every day with that in mind and then maybe you won't fly off the handle at the next stupid driver who neally causes you to have an accident or you won't yell at the sales person or clerk who is just doing there job the best they can.

Chill Out Enjoy each day and most important be happy that you are alive to enjoy it another day. 

Billy

This is our new puppy. Billy is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel x Maltese and he is 7-8 weeks old.

What a Cutie! 

A Sleepy Billy

 

Best of Friends

When I saw my two precious girls sleeping on the table together cuddling I just had to grab the camera and capture the moment. Crystal and Phoebe are now best of friends and love each other. Considering a month ago when Phoebe (the black and white shorthair) came to live with Crystal(Chinchilla Persian) there was alot of fear, growling and hissing going on they certainly have gotten use to each other. The reason I brought Phoebe in the first place was for a friend for Crystal as my other two cats Sam and Benji are best mates and as they are adult cats they found the kitten annoying and even though they tolerate her I couldn't say they were mates. So my original intention when I got Phoebe was for a friend for Crystal, so when I brought her home and they hated each other and were hissing and growling for the first week. I was a bit worried but now this picture proves I made the right decision. 

Kimberley and Crystal

I just thought I share this photo with you. I thought it was sweet. 

Dance Recital

This is a photo of my daughter Kimberleys dance recital at her School Presentation day assembly. They danced to Michael Jacksons song Thriller. Kimberley is at the back near the curtain three from the left with her arm up near her head. She was very proud of herself. She also sang in the choir. 

Greys Anatomy

Don't you just love Greys Anatomy. I think it is the best show on TV. Can't wait for the next season to start. The last show of season two was just fab. It was sad that Denny had to die. And naughty Meredith fooling around with Dr McDreamy when you've got the vet falling all over you. Silly girl should have stayed with the Vet McDreamy will just cause her more heartache. Oh and that Song! Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol! Fab--u---lous! best song. Of course I had to go on itunes and download the song and the video, but I download their album version of the video not the one that has the Greys Anatomy scenes in it. Oh and heres a bit of a gripe I have with ITunes Australia. I went and brought myself a 80G IPOD as a Xmas present as I had read that you can download movies and tv shows including Greys anatomy episodes to your ipod. Should have done a bit more research as you can only download movies and TV shows
on the Itunes US website. It's not yet available
on the Australian site. Spewing!!! I was looking
forward to download Greys episodes for $1.95.
I know it will eventually be available here as you can now download and purchase episodes of Mcleods Daughters on the Mcleods website. It shows we are still a bit behind the US with certain things. 

Sailing

For Amys birthday on Dec. 4 I brought her a remote control sail boat to sail on our pool. 

Phoebe is Amys baby

Phoebe just loves Amy and visa versa. She will sleep on Amy's lap for hours. Being a tabby she is a lot more active then my other three cats that are all Persians who have a quieter nature. But she is still very affectionate. 

Our two baby girls

This is a photo of our two kittens Phoebe and Crystal helping me scrap in my office. They hated each other in the beginning but have settled down and now play together and can sit next to each other without hissing and growling 

Excellent for kids

I've always loved a pool but they are very expensive. When I was researching buying a pool I could not find any one who could tell me how much it was going to cost to put the pool in and do all the landscaping as well. I asked people I knew with pools but they felt I was prying into there financial affairs when all I was trying to work out was how much I was up for in total. If your thinking of putting one in you can basically double the price of the quote from the pool shop to install the pool. Most pool places would only install it up to the capping(the one row of pavers around the edge of the pool) they don't include all the landscaping and concreting, paving, electricians, shade sails and the garden. These extras basically doubles the cost. The concreting and the pavers being the most expensive part then the shade sails. But the end result is worth not cutting corners. The benefits of a pool when you have kids is worth the expense. Firstly you spend more time in the pool and having quality family time and less time in front of the television. Secondly the exercise that a pool provides is terrific. My oldest daughter has lost weight just from playing around in the pool and whenever I get in I do laps. Mind you I am no Grant Hackett by the time I have swum three laps I'm stuffed. But three laps is better then no laps. And my lacking of ability is purely because I am not the best swimmer in the world. Both my daughters can swim better then me. The other advice I have for prospective pool buyers is get a salt water self maintaining pool. Our pool is so easy to maintain our pool equipment makes it's own chlorine and we have a baracoda for vacuuming the pool. We are not a slave to the cleaning of the pool so it's terrific. Another thing. Make sure your kids can swim before you put the pool in. Amy my 7 year old was a non swimmer and scared to put her face under the water when we decided we were going to put a pool in. So I started her on swimming lessons. She's been going for a year now and can freestyle (proper strokes) the length of an olympic size pool, can dolphin swim, and backstroke and can dive down under the water and pick up weights off the bottom. Once she got over the inital fear of water on her face, she learnt very quickly. At her swimming lessons even babies under 12 months are learning to swim to the edge and not be afraid of the water. So when you decide to put a pool in if your child can't swim very well or not at all get those swimming lessons started. You won't regret it. It's worth every cent to know that your children can play in or around the pool safely. I still supervise my children either from the lounge room window or sitting in the pool area reading a book and watching them with the other eye. But I can take my eyes off them without having a fear that they will drown. I am also very careful when there friends come over that they can swim well and if they can't they are never left without full supervision. 

Water fall

We now have our own water fall and I love it. Just sitting there watching it so peaceful and relaxing. You get that same feeling like when your on holidays. We are installing a light in the cave part so that at night you can see it too. I'll blog that photo when it's done. 

Our pool by day

This is a photo of our finished pool by day. It seemed to be a long 12 weeks to get it all finished but I think the end result is really good. Since this was taken we have planted some plants in the garden along the fence behind the water feature and when the palms and agapanthus get bigger I think it will look fab. The shade sails were expensive but they certainly help to stop you getting burnt while swimming or watching the kids in the pool. 

Our Pool by Night

This is a photo of our pool at night 

More photos of Crystal

Here's another couple of photos of Crystal. 

New Addition - Crystal

This is our new addition to the family. She is Crystal and she is a Chinchilla Persian Kitten. She is 9 weeks old and simply adorable. She is a new sister to Benji and Sam our other two male persians. They were a bit frightened of her for the first few days but now they have settled in and she chases them all over the house. Or they play fight with her. Will definately have to get her desexed. Even though the other two are desexed males I don't want any jealousy when she gets older and goes looking for a man cat. So I'll get her desexed to keep the peace. 

Layouts

Two recent layouts I did. One thing I love about having daughters is the fact that they love fancy hair styles.They both have long hair so trying new styles is fun. I just wish I had more talent. I am hopeless at following the instructions in a braiding book that I brought.

Mind you being an 11 year old my oldest has very strict rules about what I do with her hair and if it's not to her liking I certainly know about it. Alot of the time she just leaves her hair out plain, if she only could see how straggly it looks sometimes. A couple of years ago I took her to the hair dressers and she had a hair cut. I really suited her and the style was easy to manage. But because it was a shorter style, DD hated it, and has never let a hair dresser cut her hair since. Only trimming off the ends that that's it. Earlier this year I let her put a couple of blond streaks in her hair and it looked great but because she doesn't always take care of her hair I felt like she is just not old enough to spend the extra $$ on her hair. Maybe once she's in high school her attitude will change a bit.



Painted Faces

These photos of the girls with painted faces where taken at a dance that they went to at the local club. Every Sunday night they have a dj that caters for families and all the kids dance as the dj teaches them the steps. The parents sit up the back and watch. It's been going for years but we only just found out about it through the mother of my youngest daughters best friend. So we took the girls and they got there face painted and danced and had a wonderful time.

Some more layouts

Above and below photos were taken on the same day as another layout when they were riding there scooters - a different post. The day was so beautiful considering it was winter and both girls ended up swimming in the ocean - fully clothes - and had a wonderful time, even though they said the water was freezing.


This is a layout taken back in April of my daughter learning to swim. She goes to lessons every Saturday and considering when she started going last year she was afraid of putting her head under the water and was a total none swimmer she has improved dramatically and can now swim in the deep end doing freestyle, treading water and swimming breast stroke under the water really well. She can also push off and float on her back across the pool and float on her stomach as well and can dive down to the bottom and pick something up. Not bad. She just has to get use to doing it without her goggles on.

Recent Layouts

This layout is of my two daughter riding their scooters at the park on a sunny winters day.
Above is a layout I did of my youngest daughter and our cat Benji in bed together. I loved the photo so much I printed it in A4 Landscape size. The layout size is 12x12".

This is a layout that I did in an 8x8 About me Album. This is a double page about Friendship.

long time since last post

Well it's been a while since my last post. I'd actually forgotton all about my blog until a good friend reminded me the other day. I've been scrapping as much as time permits over the past few months and this layout is one that I really like. I was hanging the clothes on the clothes line one morning and there were four young kookaburra's in the back yard , these two landed on top of the old brick barbeque. So I quietly went inside and grabbed my camera, they let me get quite close to them.

The Sydney Opera House

This is a photo I took in March 2006 during a visit to Sydney. I manipulated the photo in photo shop to add the reflection and the glassy look to the water.