Dee Days

2008-12-19T09:31:00.002+11:00

Dee Passed Peacefully 2:54am Wednesday 18th December
Sleep Sweet Sweetheart
Our lives are far Richer for having shared some of yours.

A TESTIMONIAL

2008-12-16T21:24:00.002+11:00

Dee sincerely wishes that the love and community spirit that has shone so brightly over recent months, burns into an eternal flame that will become the smile on a billion faces....a smile that says "Thankyou for caring".
If you are motivated by this concept then talk to people, pool some resources, find someone in need and simply do something for them. Every single one of us can potentially make a difference.
Dee has been overwhelmed by the absolutely selfless generosity displayed by those mentioned below and many others. She would like to publically extend a heartfelt THANKYOU for the unconditional love and support displayed throughout her illness.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
All staff, parents and the extended community at Tyabb Primary School for their undying dedication and hard work injecting so much positive energy. Also for the countless offers and donations of their time and resource to Dee, Andrew and Family. Specific recognition and thanks go to:
Diane Dummett (Farewell and good luck) and Chris Mirabella for promoting the initial 'call for help' and for co-ordinating the enormous influx of offers.
Jenine Lindridge and helpers for sourcing of plants and materials for the garden makeover.
Bronny for her incredible catering efforts (baking off-site and cooking on-site) throughout the entire renovation weekend.
Kelly, Alex and Mel for their absolute willingness to help with anything during the reno.
Judy Bennett for arranging replacement of curtains at the house.
The Howell family for the kind donation of a Car Service.

Steve Hosking (our Angel) and his beautiful Family for their continuing and unwavering commitment to the philosophy of 'Pay It Forward' and for the everlasting friendship that has come about as a result.

Troy Poynton (Mulga Creations) for enabling Dee to realise a long-time dream, in transforming their kitchen from an eyesore into a light and functional space wher washing dishes and cooking will become a joy.(Flat-pack supplies donated by All Board Distribution). Also to Jack Boer, Craig Lilley and Glenn Young for organising and installing a brand new Chef gas cooker. (Thanks to Glenn and Mel for the evaporative cooler also).

Ross Dummett (with every wish for a happy recovery) for initiating the replacement of Dee and Andrew's carpet in it's entirety.
Carpet Layers Russell Wilkes, Noel Brian and Michael Round for donating their time so selflessly and producing such a spectacular result. (Underlay donated by Hastings Carpet Court).

Emily Read (Sparky), Jack Unmack, Max Webster, Mark Farell, Tom Frith, Jai Cahill, Matt Fuller, Bruce Barr and Tom Buck, all from Bluescope in Hastings for their amazing efforts and giving of their valuable time during the renovation of Dee and Andrew's home.

It is important to Dee and her Family that the following local Business's are recognised for their awesome contributions to this amazing group-effort:

Westernport Hotel, Kings Creek Hotel, Bakers Delight - Hastings, Canadian Bay Hotel, Westernport Marina, Jims Mowing, Vins Bins, Coolart Nsy - Somerville, Black-Dog Plants - Moorooduc, Bundameer Nsy - Moorooduc, Underwoods Nsy - Tyabb, Black Stump Nsy - Hastings, Westernport Sand and Soil and Pelican Park Recreation Centre and Pantry.

Thankyou also to Mum for her love and undying commitment as Dee's Carer and for preserving Dee's dignity under unbelievably difficult circumstances.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May the spirit shown here strengthen to outlive each of us.

Thankyou to Dee, from all of us, for all that you are and for all that you stand for......
Simply for being YOU.

Palliative Care

2008-12-11T15:13:00.002+11:00

The past week has actually seen me at Frankston Palliative Care. I have lost all strength in my body and can not even stand by myself, let alone walk, shift backwards in a seat or shower myself. This is seriously frustrating, because I actually feel quite alert but my body is incapable of doing the things that my head believes I can do. The plan has been for me to go home tomorrow night, and for Santa to deliver presents then. All the family are coming down to Hastings for a big Christmas celebration; Edwards', Wilsons and Lewthwaites - but because I can not lift myself into a standing position I really am not sure how this is going to work. Here I use a machine called a standing lifter to do everything from going to the toilet to getting in and out of bed, but at home that is not an option. I guess it's something we'll have to brainstorm and see if anyone comes up with any genius solutions to. I would really love to be there when the kids open their gifts, to be a part of one more more Christmas morning, right day or not. I am predominately pain free at the moment, but the lack of strength over-rides that.
The doctors have said I have anywhere up to 3 months to live, but if that is going to be spent as a complete paraplegic I am not sure I want 3 months. I have no desire to say goodbye to my beautiful children or to all the wonderful friends who are showering me with love, but this is so tough, and I really don't think I could handle three months of this. Praying that God either decides to restore my strength or allow me a peaceful departure after this weekend.
Omce again, thankyou to EVERYONE for their love and support; it has really lifted my spirits.

The Latest

2008-12-01T21:22:00.009+11:00

Hi All,
It's Dees Dad-Mark again. Dee has asked me to bring you all up-to-date with where she is at right now.
As was indicated by her last entry, Dee lost her hair.
Mum did the deed, and Dad went out in sympathy.

After coming home again from Peter Mac on Wednesday, breaking a couple of ribs [simply by standing up - Go Figure] on Thursday, and spending Thursday night on oxygen in Frankston Hospital, we managed to get an outing in to the Circus on Friday evening.

We went straight to Olinda from the circus as this is where Dee, Dane and Lydia would spend the weekend with Mum/Grandma, while the house was being transformed.........
I would now like to share with you a very special weekend.
A large group of people from Lysarts in Hastings, as well as some friends and family members turned up to the house from Friday night [about 6pm] to Sunday afternoon [about 5.30pm].
Each of those that attended were so obviously there for one reason....to contribute selflessly and unconditionally, their time and skills to help Dee, Andrew and Family in some tangible way.
Well that they did!
Starting completely from scratch, they recarpeted the entire house, totally replaced the kitchen with brand new everything and spring-cleaned and tidied the entire house.
The result was simply amazing. I hope the photos do it some justice.

We will be thanking everyone individually and publically in the immediate future, but cannot pass up the opportunity to once again thank Steve [Team Leader] and Lysarts crew, Troy [All Things Kitchen], Ross and crew [All Things Carpet], Kelly [Community Contributions] and Bronny [enough GOOD food-baked at home and cooked on site-for a small Army].
After a challenging weekend with a fading pain-management regime, Dee was to be re-admitted into Peter Mac on Sunday.
Nothing, however was going to prevent her from stopping by Home on the way to inspect and acknowledge the amazing stuff that went on there in her absence.
Dee, Dane and Lydia even layed their own tiles in the kitchen to mark the completion of the work - very emotional!!
As hard as it is to follow up such a wonderful story with such shitty news...Dee has made it my duty to do so, as she is conscious of sharing everything with those who care about and support her so unconditionally.
Today Dee had another CT scan to monitor the growth of the Cancers.
Based on these results, a new plan has been formulated. From here on the efforts shift from fighting the Disease to controlling the Pain, and Dees comfort, for anywhere up to 3 months becomes Paramount.
This is a very difficult thing to accept and to realise as Family and I am sure it will sadden many,
but the important thing now, is to surround Dee with the Love and support that we all feel for her and to just be here for her for those times she might need us over the coming weeks.
I really hope that she will be home soon and be able to write the next installment herself.

My hair is fallin' out

2008-11-24T09:17:00.003+11:00

Well, they said I wouldn't lose it... they lied. My hair is falling out in big chunks at the moment and it is really annoying. I'm not particularly worried about being bald; realistically it's no big deal, but as my hair thins it's just everywhere!

So with that in mind, I thought I'd post some pics from last weekend, among the last you'll see of me with my own hair for a while. Haven't decided yet if I'll be getting a wig or a bandana or anything; I guess we'll wait and see.

My energy levels are still insanely low - I had to have three units of blood transfused on Friday because of a low haemoglobin count, and my platelts are not behaving either, so I'm really hoping that this is all okay for Friday which is when my next round of chemo is scheduled for. I'll make sure someone let's you know if all that goes ahead. The next lot of tests, to see if this is working, are scheduled for three weeks after this round of chemo; basically, before we go again. Fingers crossed and prayers being sent that this round makes some big changes; this stuff has made me feel so crappy that it's GOT to have done something!

Love n hugs

Dee

First 'Dees Dad' Installment

2008-11-20T17:32:00.003+11:00

Hi all, Mark here - Dee's Dad.

As mentioned in the last update, Dee has shown me how to do all this so here goes.

Dee's going through a 'can't be fagged' phase at the moment (quite understandably) and I thought it would be good to share a couple of highlights over the past few days.

As she mentioned, I tag-teamed with Mum (Lynne) on Sunday.

An opportunity arose for an outing so Dee, Dane, Lydia and I set off to the Fish and Chippery in Mornington, then on to the foreshore reserve to eat, play and just soak up the big outdoors.

After an Ice Cream from Mr.Whippy (can't believe he's still going-must be getting on a bit) we made the journey [crutches and all] down the ramp to 'Mothers Beach'.

After reaching the bottom Dee spotted some rocks 50 metres along the beach so away we went.

After finding a comfy seat on the rocks the kids stripped down for a wade/swim. It turned out to be a wonderful photo opportunity until the camera batteries gave up.

Good fortune, however came along in the form of a phone call from my parents (Dee's Ga and Grandpa).....'Where are you guys - we'de love to join you'. And so they did, less than 30 minutes later witha camera that worked and all.

Needless to say, by the time we got home Dee was out for the count, but was heard to mumble that it was all worth it, before falling asleep.

Other significant events worth noteing are a trip to the hills on Wednesday, and a wade in the local pool this morning.

Although Dee's energy levels have been particularly low of late, we have been blessed to have been able to share these special moments and look forward to all such opportunities ahead.

A quick update

2008-11-16T11:29:00.002+11:00

I know a few people have been worried, so am just popping on to let you all know I am alive and well. I came home late last week and finished a course of radiotherapy to the brain which has really put me through the ringer, so am not up for much at all to be honest. I haven't been even answering the phone, simply for lack of energy, so apologies, but that's how it is at the moment.

Mum has been staying at my place 5 days a week to look after me, and Dad's here today, so I'm showing him how to update this so he can keep you all posted when I'm not able (or simply can not be fagged :) ) That's it from me for today - will be back online sometime soon no doubt.

Love n hugs
Dee

First day of Chemotherapy

2008-11-05T14:42:00.003+11:00

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY - TODAY IS MY DAD'S 45TH BIRTHDAY!!! Happy Birthday to the most Amazing man I know; I love you so much Dad and really hope today is special for you... actually I want for every day to be special for you.
_________________________________________________

Apparently I am scheduled to start chemotherapy today. This will be done on the ward, so I don't have to go anywhere, but I have been hooked up to a drip all day waiting for them to start putting something through the line which isn't saline. I am either going to be a very patient person by the time this is all finished, or slowly rocking in a corner somewhere having gone completely insane! I'm a little cross at myself for not having a camera here today - I must make sure I get a pic of myself with all these lines in at some point; it seems to be the kind of pic everyone has to have, right? lol... will ask someone to bring a camera in soon. I have also discovered a littl espot on this computer that allows me to insert an SD card direct into the computer so I can start uploading pics.
I won't type much today - the action is quite uncomfortable when you have a needle into the top of your hand, but I wanted to report that all my blood counts are up, which is a VERY GOOD THING, so I have been approved to start chemo.
Basic stats on the chemo for those who are interested; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacarbazine I do apologise for using wikipedia as a source of information for you, but I did say basic stats, and it saves me typing out what little I know.
Will report back tomorrow with a progress report, but for now I am really quite drowsy, so I might have a little nap while I wait.

Loving you all, and really looking forward to getting home and sharing some time with all of the people who are supporting me. Definitely missing all you beautiful SS girls, but you will be proud to know that I have been spending time today getting all finances in order for dh so that he can continue living the SS way while I am in hospital or even at home unwell. The next plan is to get started on making some Christmas presents, so I have had some stuff brought in from home so that I can get to work on a bit of that. Hard becuase of limited energy levels, but little by little I'll get there - and now I know how to share pics, I'll show you all what I am creating.

Still in hospital

2008-11-04T09:12:00.003+11:00

I must figure out some way of uploading pictures to this computer - have got to get someone to find the relevant cables and software so that I can do that. For now I am still at Peter Mac. I had another blood transfusion yesterday, two more units to try to bring up my blood levels, particularly the haemoglobins (Hbs) which had dropped below 80 again. For those who don't know the Hbs are the red blood cells, and they carry the oxygen around your body. They should be around 150 (I think) but my levels are not unsafe, just not ideal for someone who wants to start chemo. They can certainly drop a whole lot lower before it starts to be a problem, so yesterday's transfusion, as I understand it, was more of a preventative than a 'oh gosh we have to fix this' thing.
Had my radiotherapy planning session yesterday. I'll be having one dose directly to the left hip to help strengthen the bones and erradicate the cancer that is weakening them around that break. I'll also be having a dose to my L2, while we're down there ;) to help annihilate that growth, and certainly to prevent that from growing any bigger and becoming symptomatic. Then I have five intensive sessions of radiotherapy to my brain; a total of 20 grade radio. This is all set to start on Thursday, with sessions booked for Friday and Saturday, so that could POSSIBLY be finished by Tuesday. I have no idea if I'll be doing chemo before or after that, but because today is a public holiday in Victoria (Melbourne Cup Day) I would think chemo will start late next week. I was not happy about delaying chemo yet again, but if we're starting then I'm okay with that. I'll certainly be trying to find out what I can today.
Off to go check out the pretty horses for Cup Day, sending this with my love and thanks for all your support.
(Oh, and on a side note - THIS time I have a tote in here and have actually been scrappping. It's the first time I have brought supplies into the hospital because I haven't really had stuff packed in the past, but at least I get to play a little. I don't have to the photos I really want, but I an scrap with whatever if I must ;)

Cancer update, includes the story so far.

2008-11-02T13:36:00.007+11:00

I really wanted to post on here with photos of all the amazing things that have been happening in my life over recent weeks. And I will do that the first opportunity that I get. Unfortunately, this is not that opportunity. I am once again stuck in hospital, feeling incredibly thankful for my laptop which is at least enabling me to update those of you who want to know with what is going on. I have decided that keeping my blog up to date is going to be the most effective way of letting people know where I am at, saving me from repeating the same information over and over again, and when I am not feeling up to updating, then I can ask my family to update here and know that the news will spread.
Okay - so why am I back in hospital? A not so quick catch up for those who don't really know the story so far. Throughout August/September I suffered with what was presumed to be sciatica. Pain radiated from my lower back right down my left leg and was quite debilitating. After weeks of seeing a physiotherapist to no avail and a trip to Frankston hospital which left me completely hepped up on morpheine and still in pain, my GP decided that closer investigation was neccessary. She sent me for a CT which revelead that the melanoma had metasticised to my lower back, although nothing she saw explained the pain, so into Peter Mac I went.
The end of September greeted me with the news that unfortunately the cancer has spread very aggressively through my body. I have metastacese in my spine at T11 (that's about mid back, and as it turns out was the onemost likely to be causing me all that pain), C4 and L2. There are also multiple spots throughout the bone in my pelvis and right up across my skull. Further to this there are tiny spots (under 5mm each) in my liver, spleen and lungs (actually I believe there to be about 20 spots in each lung).
So all in all, pretty crappy news. For metastic melanoma there are not many tricks in the bag. Straight away we got started on radiotherapy to the largest tumour - at T11. This was to get rid of the pain, so that I could get on with life. The next plan of attack was to begin chemotherapy, so that we could hopefully slow, stop or even reverse the spread of cancer throughout my body. Five days of radiotherapy, some healing time and then chemotherapy began on Monday 6th of October. By this stage I had been in hospital for around two weeks, so I was pleased to be allowed to go home on Tuesday. The plan was for me to come in once a week for chemo for three weeks, then to have a break for a month, then have chemo once a month for as long as it's working - or even better, until it kills all these tumours!
Friday the 10th I came back in for a follow up appointment with the radiotherapy team. Still in pain from the tumour (the effects of radiotherapy really kick in at about the 4 week mark as I understand it) I decided to lie down while I spoke to the specialist, rather than sit in pain. As I climbed up onto the examination bed, my left hip simply broke. The weakness in the bone caused by the cancer resulted in a pathological fracture, which I got sent over to St. Vincent's to have surgery for. After a week of stuffing around they finally decided to put a rod from my left hip right down to my knee. This is to strengthen that whole region, which has a couple of weak spots, so that I don't end up back there with a broken femur sometime down the track.
While I was healing from all this however, chemotherapy had to be put on hold. Even though the particular type of chemo that I am having is well received, it does stop the body from healing properly while you are on it - so I had to get to a certain point of health and strength before starting again. Very frustrating; I'm not a patient girl so this waiting game has been TOUGH! Weekly appointment back at Peter Mac for various things though have meant that I knew they were keeping an eye on me and as soon as I was able I'd be back on chemo. I was starting to feel a little better each day and even managed to sit my Maths exam on Tuesday, at the same time as gradually reducing the amount of pain relief and other medications that I am on. Wednesday afternoon however, I hit a wall. I had a sudden onset migraine, so took myself off to bed, with a top up of morph cos I was feeling so crappy, then came into Peter Mac on Thursday for a blood transfusion. The migraine was still there, but we hoped that with the extra blood things would start to improve and I could have chemotherapy on Friday as had been planned.
Friday morning and I could barely lift my head, but my ever patient mother dragged my miserable butt into the hospital to see the medical oncologist and get me started on chemo... and perhaps see if we could figure out why this migraine was so blasted persistent!
CT of my brain revealed - you guessed it - that the cancer is on the move again. Now here's where the details are still being worked out. You remember earlier I mentioned that there were spots on my skull? Now there are spots in the meningese (so sure I'm spelling all this wrong!) one of which is in the lower left and side of my skull - apparently that's quite close to one of the spots on my spine. An MRI will be done probably tomorrow, and I hope to get the chance to compare those images with the images from the last one. This will mean we can actually track what's going on, because at the moment, I'm really not sure. Being admitted to hospital on a Friday is tough too, because the people who are working on my case specifically are not here, so while I can ask general questions, the specific questions I have about my case have to wait until they return on Monday. Tuesday here is a public holiday, so that will invariably slow things up a bit too, but at least tomorrow I should have some answers.
By now if you've manageto get through ALL of that you're probably feeling completely confused and un-informed, but there it is. I will post information about radiotherapy and the exact type of chemo I am on as these things start, and I have so many blessings that have been bestowed on me that I want to share, so I will post these things as I get the energy. Hopefully by posting all my updates to one spot, everyone will be kept up to date. If you know someone who is wanting to know what's going on, please share this information, because I am really struggling to make sure the progress reports get to all those who want them.
I have been overwhelmed by the love and support that has come to not only myself, but to my family, and continue to be grateful for this. For those who I haven't already told, I AM FIGHTING! I have never been a quitter and I pray daily for the miracle that will set me free from this disease. With God, all things are possible and I ask you to join me in praying that the cancer is not in control of my body and that I live for many years to come; a testimony to God's amazing power. We have been told that the percentages are not in my favour, but percentages are just that - an AVERAGE of how people respond in this situation. I chose to be among the numbers of those who survive. I chose life - because it is GLORIOUS! I chose to be there as my children grow through the teen years and into adulthood. I chose to achieve my dreams and create new ones. I chose to grow old with my husband, a man I love as much now as the day I married him. I chose to stand before the world and bear witness to a God so great that he can heal anthing, and restore me to a health better than ever before, because I am now eating foods which are better for my body and being more aware of the things that bring health to me and my family. I chose to look at these delays, not as setbacks, but as time for my body to gather strength for the battle ahead. I chose to trust in God's plan; before I was born he knew the exact moment and circumstance of my joining Him in Heaven, and I pray that this is a long time into the future so that I have time to reach the potential I feel He has given to me.

I also chose to stop writing here and climb into bed; this has taken me a couple of sessions to write, so it's probably taken YOU a couple of sessions to read!
As always, sending this into cyberspace with my love to all those of you who care enough to stop by.

2008-06-19T10:15:00.002+10:00

Well I'm sure you're all used to me not posting when I say I will... but I did WANT to post and show you what awesomeness I created for Education week.. but my camera was broke.. so tough luck.

This is a super quick post - I wanted to share with you all this wonderful amazing thing that my beautiful Cister (you'll always be my cister Kaz) posted for me on her blog.
http://karen-day.blogspot.com/2008/06/to-my-beautiful-friend-dee.html

Kaz is a total super star scrapper these days - has her own range of delectable embies, and graces the cover of this months Scrapbook Creations. But more than that - she is a totally genuine, sensitive and lovable woman who makes me laugh with her wicked sense of humour and makes me so glad that God has blessed me with her friendship. So I wanted to share with you all, just the kind of wonderfulness she is. Please pop over and check it out.. oh, and take the tissues!

2008-05-18T15:28:00.002+10:00

Okay, I have a whole lotta cool stuff to post over the coming week; so I'm going to post this sucky stuff now.

I am starting radiation therapy in about three weeks. Basically, because I have a history of the cancer coming back after surgery the oncologists are going to try radiation as a form of killing off any cells in the region that they didn't get. I am praying this works, and really focusing hard on giving this worry to God, because it's really too big for me to deal with alone, and quite frankly I have never seen the point in worrying myself literally ill over something I can not change.
Post surgically I got a really nasty infection that saw me in and out of Peter Mac more times than I chose to count. I was still losing over 100mls of blood every day 3 weeks after surgery! I was tired and shaky and generally felt pretty crappy. My darling husband was awesomely supportive, and I really couldn't have managed without him; but I have to say, sitting around doing nothing for three weeks is not a good thing for me. I am SOOO appreciative of my renewed health right now; let me tell you.

I finally returned to Uni this week; and heavens have I got some catching up to do!!!! I started my first placement days at Red Hill Consolidated School; I still have a couple to go, but I AM LOVING IT!!! I really wish I could just get straight into the classroom, becuase as much as I enjoy Uni; I really feel like it's a big ol' waste of time. I have learned more this week working with the grade two's than I have since I started at Uni! And I am confident that I will learn more in my first week as a teacher than the rest of my education combined... oh well; I guess I'd do better to learn some stuff before they unleashed me on the poor unsuspecting children :)
Only twomore weeks until this semster is over - where did that go?

This week - starting tomorrow - is Education week. I have been totally inspired by this creative woman and have decided to make gifts for each of the 25 teachers at Dane's school. Stay tuned and I'll start posting pics tomorrow. Make sure you check out that blog link, and scroll on down, she has some AMAZING ideas.

Thanks everyone for you well wishes; I'm sorry I'm not updating more regularly, but I really have been feeling crappy. Love n hugs
Dee

Off for surgery tomorrow

2008-04-17T21:37:00.002+10:00

One more night of not sleeping until I will have my very own bed in at Peter Maccallum cancer institute. I have no idea what is going to happen, but should be out early next week - apparently even as soon as Sunday night or Monday morning. My Daddy is coming down to babysit my darling children while I'm away, so they're going to have an AWESOME time, and I'll be back before you know it.
Love n hugs everyone - will log back on when I get home.

An Update

2008-04-13T16:02:00.002+10:00

OKay, so I know I'm supposed to update this thing regularly and really I promise I will... one day. I suppose if you actually have enough interesting stuff going on in your life that someone would want to read about, your probably don't have too much time to say it, hey? That's certainly been my life of late.
For those of you who don't know; I was diagnosed with melanoma when Lydia was only a few weeks old. This has been a bit of an on-going saga since then, with treatment and surgery and all manner of stress attached to it. It continues to provide the greatest stress in my life, and I have just recently been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. If you don't know what this is, basically, the original cancer (melanoma - which is a type of skin cancer) has mestasticized into my lymph nodes. The way I understand it, mestasticized is a big long word which means moved into. So this means I now have cancer in my lymph nodes, and we have spent a great deal of time over recent weeks trying to find out how much I have and how far it has spread. Unfortunately there is no cure at this point for metastatic melanoma, other than cutting it out, so if it had spread through the lymph system this would be BAD BAD BAD news. Luckily for me, it doesn't appear to have spread. I have 7 tumours all localised underneath my right armpit, and will be heading on in for surgery as soon as my oncologist organises it. All up, it's not really such a big deal as we have made it, I have stuff in my body that needs to be removed, so the surgeons will cut it out. Fairly simple really. But heavens, the last few weeks have been anything but. It has been frightening and emotional and just plain awful. I haven't been able to think straight, sleep well, or go a whole day without bursting into tears. I am seriously partying now that I know what I am dealing with. That word - cancer - really does strike fear into your heart.

On another equally emotional note, it was with an incredibly heavy heart that I bid farewell to my beautiful friend Marian last month. Maz was an amazing woman, with strength, compassion, dignity and the most wicked sense of humour. She was a wonderful friend, and my life is so much poorer for having lost her. I guess you never really know how much you will miss someone until they are gone, but I will forever miss Marian, a great scrapping buddy, a strong shoulder to cry on, and the kind of person who would never judge you by how you looked, how well kept your home was or how much money you had. I think that so many people could learn so much about love from Maz, as she was so eager and willing to share her love with everyone around her.

So how's that for a completely miserable post? I bet you're all wishing I'd stayed away now, lol. Uni is keeping me incredibly busy - it's hard work!!! But I am loving it, and making some awesome friends. We actually start placement in a few weeks, so hopefully I'll be up to it, and well and truly post-surgery by then. I've also been getting a little more involved at church; I started the Alpha course, which is a great way to meet people of the same faith. Thanks goodness I don't sleep, I really don't have time :)

Anyone still reading?? I'm impressed. I have started my BOM - and will share at some point, but for now I think that's enough from me.

A new challenge.

2008-02-15T18:08:00.002+11:00

As part of my stint as a Guest Design Team member over at CIS I have been given the opportunity to set a new ongoing challenge. Please check this out and give this one a shot. Basically I have uploaded a LO which you are to take inspiration from, then you upload the LO you created and someone else uses your LO as inspiration.. Clear as mud? lol Just check it out hehehehe

http://www.craftinginstyle.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3906

More VC layouts

2008-02-03T18:09:00.001+11:00

I've been madly scapping the last couple of days in an attempt to get as many of the Nook virtual challenges done as I can. I am having so much fun with these!

Okay - the first LO is my grandparents; aren't they gorgeous? They've been married 50years now (actually 51 this year) and I pray that my marriage will be that strong in 50 years.

The challenge for LO#2 was simply to scrap silly photos. As the mother of two clowns I have plenty of these - so this one was easy!

LO #3 was for a #5 challenge - the idea being that if you used something you used 5 of it - 5 patterened papers, 5 buttons.

The last LO is my fave! This is Dane's school portrait; scrapped with the awesome BG Reces range - love this stuff.

Okay - that's my report for today :) If you're reading this you've probably got a fair bit to catch up on anyhow - I guess that's what I get for not posting regularly. ;)

Virtual Crop

2008-02-02T16:19:00.001+11:00

MyScrapbookNook are hosting a VC this weekend and it is AMAZING!!!! They have the COOLEST prizes; international competitors are welcome, and there are over 30 challenges on the board, with prizes for at least 6 of them. They award point for each challenge completed and the person with the most point at the end of the crop wins Queen of the Crop; and a MONSTER prize pack. So, in my best Molly Meldrum voice; do yourself a favour and get yer butt OVER there... now!!! Oh and if you do; make sure you introduce yourself and post a least ten little comments somewhere, so I can score an extra 10 points for bringing a friend. hehehe
Now in the light of the VC - here are a few of the LO's I've done for it so far:
The first is possibly my fave at this point; the challenge was simple enough - use a transparency somewhere on your LO. I used the hambly 12 x 12 and cut it down. These pics were from our pre Christmas photo shoot. No matter what I did I could not get Lydia to look at the camera; but I love the pics I ended up with. Especially the one of Dane and Lydia together.

The second was for a hidden journalling challenge; pics from our QLD trip of Lydia having her hair cut by Andrew's cousin.

And finally - these quick little wall hangings were scrap-lifted from the very talented Sarah. I'll be hanging these off the shelf next to my computer - I think they're really sweet. Those pics are only 2 x 3 inches - guess that gives you an idea of how little these are

As always, thanks for stopping by - I'll have more to show in the next day or two.

My first EVER Design Team spot!!!!

2008-02-01T21:23:00.000+11:00

OH I AM SOO SUPER EXCITED!! I have been offered a guest design team spot with the amazing team at Crafting In Style this month! This site is awesome - but then if you read this blog you already know how much I love the CISters, so it is a huge honour to be offered this spot. Ally has sent me a gorgeous pack to play with, the results of which I can't share yet, but will do as soon as she publishes - so watch this space. MAKE SURE you pop over this month to see all the awesomeness that the DT have planned - there are loads of challenges, a wonderful sketch (check that out at the stylish sketch blog here) and a great cybercrop planned for next weekend. Tell em I sent ya!

But wait there's more!

2008-01-27T10:36:00.000+11:00

Good morning lovely people. Another few LO's to share. At the moment CIS is having a bit of an impromptu party while the Boss Girl is away for the long weekend. The DT girls have set a few challenges and it's all a bit of fun - so head on over. Lizzy has challenged us all to chose a sketch from the CIS Stylish Sketch Blog (check it out here) This particular challenge is a pretty good one for me - cos I've been using the sketch blog a WHOLE lot lately. There are loads of sketches on there, a bunch of CISters have contributed to the sketches and there are samples of every single one. Perfect inspiration spot for when the Mojo has left the building. (Gosh, I sound like an AD!)

PS2 is my entry to that challenge. It's based on one of the older sketches - called Creative Bliss - by Jolene. The Balinese show pics were really hard to scrap - scrapping night time photos is tough, cos you wanna use dark colours, but that invariably makes the whole page too dark. So I'm not real happy with this LO - but at least the pics are scrapped. If you've got ANY tips for scrapping night time pics, please share them :)

The techno babe LO is probably my current fave - simply cos I finally got around to scraplifting the very talented Karen Brierley. Karen regularly uses the negatives from her chipboard alphas, and they look ace. This is such a great way to get more outta your scrapping dollar - so that's got to be a good thing. The Last LO here is for the monthly dare also over at CIS. The challenge is to use a style of handstitching on yur LO that you've haven't put to paper before. I have been summarily un-daring in stitching on LO's, so for me I had the pick of pretty much ANY stitch.. and true to style I stayed boring and went with cross stitch ;)

Once again, thanks for stopping by!

2008-01-26T21:02:00.001+11:00

So I know I said I'd post a couple of layouts each day; but my camera batteries died and I couldn't find my charger... so even though I wanted to share; I couldn't. However - the camera is now equipped with fresh batteries; so here they are.

These first three were my entries in CIS's January cybercrop. If you are at ALL scrap inclined, then get yourself over to crafting in style on February the 8th for their next CC! The challenges are fab, and the chatter is always a load of fun, and you have from Friday night until Monday lunch time to get the challenges done.

I'll post more over the coming days; didn't want to overload you all at once. Thanks for stopping by.

2008-01-21T18:00:00.000+11:00

After some gentle prompting from Kate I realised that it's been over 3 weeks since my last post... WOW I SUCK! hehehe so I'm gonna be posting every day for the next few in an attempt to catch you all up on all that's been happening here.
School holidays are nearly over and I gotta say I am not COMPLETELY shattered. These holidays have been a little dull for Dane; we haven't been anywhere or done much that's real exciting because we've been trying to reign in the spending a little. Lydia's still not talking, and getting increasingly frustrated at her inability to communicate. This in turn is driving me bananas, so all in all not the most peaceful household. I've been making a real effort to provide some good ol' fashioned entertainment so we've been doing all sorts of things to fill in our days - painting with a cup of water on the fence, making dough people and painting them, lots of Lego... lol. This past weekend we all went (Andrew included) down to Cape Schanck for the day. we packed a picnic lunch and walked down the boardwalk and explored the rockpools and caves around the point. It was a GORGEOUS day and an awesome way to spend some family time together. Far better than sitting on our butts around the house; the kids had a ball and we all got a decent workout climbing up and down over 225 steps! Lydia even managed the climb up them on her own, which I thought was pretty impressive.
I've also been scrapping a bit over the last week or so; did the three challenges for the CIS CC, and am trying to keep up with the 14 layout in 14 days challenge set by Kaz at CIS too. So I will post some layouts here over the next few days.
On the Lydia front - we have an appointment to see a speech therapist on the 30th of Jan, so hopefully will soon have some answers, and maybe even a few strategies for helping her out. She starting at a new daycare centre this Thursday; and they seem pretty switched on and keen to do whatever it takes to help her a bit; hopefully it's only a few little things to give her a bit of a push-start.
Well that will do for today - will be sure and report back with some more tomorrow; and a few layouts to share.
Love n hugs
Dee

Happy 2nd Birthday Lydia!

2007-12-30T07:37:00.000+11:00

Today our gorgeous Pickle turns 2! Can you believe it? We're off to the foreshore reserve for hopefully a not too ridiculously hot party with three of her friends, and some family.
I promise to post some pics when we get back... ooh now where have you heard that before? But right now I'm enjoying the last few moments of peace before the rest of the house wakes up (yep, nearly 8am and miraculously they're all still sleeping).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay; here they are, as promised. Lydia actually work moments after I finished typing, so we got everyone else up for some serious present opening. And I mean serious. She took her task VERY seriously, and though she was clearly excited about the gifts she was getting, ooohing and aahing and wowing over each thing very nicely, she hardly smiled the whole time. She was very cute though, tearing each piece off and handing it to Andrew or myself before starting on the next piece.

Our lunch on the foreshore was ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! What a great spot! We set up our little marquee thing under the shade of a lovely tree, and with the breeze coming off the bay it was soo lovely and cool. Certainly no comparison to the 39+ degree days we've been having. The kids played nicely, there were no fights, they all enjoyed the fruit and healthy alternatives to party food that I put out. We've reduced Lydia's sugar intake to try to help her calm down a little (and it's really working nicely) so we wanted to keep the sugar to a minimum. The kids enjoyed choclate cake (shaped like Dorothy the Dinosaurs hat) but they were quite happy with the sandwiches and fruit and veg platter that we put out. It's important I think to remember that the party needn't be about the food, but just about the kids having fun together. And the grownups enjoying a chat in the shade is always great too! Okay; so pic share!

The first is of my Mum and Lydia. Lydia spent ages telling Mum some big old story; pointing out all these things and grunting. Mum spent ages being 'interested' lol. The second is Lydia and I. Thanks Rach for taking this great pic - I actually like this one. :) The third is the too cute Cake. I love easy cakes; and this was too easy; but looked super cute. And finally; I didn't give out gift bags this year. Instead I went down to Kmart and bought pencils for 99c a packet, then I created new liners for the packets to make them into little thank yous. Very happy with the final result.

Class Christmas Party and Dane's report

2007-12-19T16:27:00.000+11:00

Dane's class at school had their Christmas Party today; and it was totally cute as. Yep that is my genius son sitting inside a washing basket in his classroom... it's a boy thing, right? They had an absolute ball handing out Secret Santa gifts and feasting on the most incredible array of food. I love how much pleasure kids take in the little things... (like washing baskets) Lydia also had a total blast, and the kids were so great about including her, and the other younger siblings who attended.

Actually today has been completely mental. I woke up at 5 to 9 this morning; swore at the clock... (always a pleasant start to the day) then just decided that if Dane was going to be late for school then a few minutes extra wouldn't make much difference, so I jumped in the shower for a quick wash before getting him and Lydia out the door and into the car for school (even managed to give Dane some toast on the way) Was completely impressed to be at school by 10 past 9 - only 10 minutes late - NOT BAD!

Okay; so I dropped him at school, filled in a late pass, then threw Lydia back in the car and off to Kmart to grab a few things for Mum to give as Christmas gifts, had a quick coffee with my hubby (have I mentioned that I LOVE having him work at our local store now?), stopped at the grocery store, then back home to finish up Dane's teacher's gift, cook up some pizza and pies for the party and back at the school by 12.

We (Lydia and I) stayed for the hour long party then back home to finish a few things here, back to school by 2:30 for a Parent Helper's Afternoon Tea, then picked up Dane and bought the kids home. Where I am now taking five minutes out to upload some of my fave pics from today. I have an AWFUL head cold, which apparently Wendy sent me via the net from the UK (probable, right?) and I want to crawl into bed and sleep til next week, but it is hot and muggy and Andrew is working late again tonight, so that's not happening.

On another note Dane brought home his report card tonight and I'm pretty proud of him. He has improved in all areas that were mentioned last semester (namely, listening and focussing on the task) and though he still has a ways to go with those things he has made an effort and I am totally pleased by that. He also got a B in reading; which means he is about 6 months ahead of state expected level and I am SO PROUD of the effort he's making.

Photo Update

2007-12-18T12:44:00.000+11:00

Oh my! I have been so darned busy preparing for Christmas; but we are totally loving it. Okay, things to share; firstly - Dane got his school books for Grade 1 last week; a huge event that required Lydia assisting. He was so excited to look through a bunch of boring notebooks lol. I can not belive that he's almost done with Prep. My baby is getting big so darned fast, and I am not thrilled with it.

Secondly, Dane and Andrew went fishing on the weekend - staying out until 2 am I might add - and Dane caught this awsome gummy shark. hahaha - kinda cute actually, Dane fell asleep on Andrew's chair sometime around 11 p.m. and when he woke up was told by his daddy that he'd caught this shark. (It was caught using Dane's rod, so by his standards, that means he caught it.) Yep, poor Daddy caught NO FISH; but Dane landed this baby in his sleep. :D

Our Christmas tree is laden with cute red presents now; and miraculously Lydia hasn't touched any of them. I guess she doesn't yet realise that cool stuff is wrapped up in those brightly coloured boxes. This time next week that will all change I have no doubt. We've even put our gifts for Lydia and Dane under there, so all it's waiting for is Santa to arrive and drop off his goodies. Dane is SUPER excited; this week is just dragging by for him.

Meanwhile I have been busy making cards - I packed up all the Christmas cards and posted them before I took a pic (yep; I'm an idiot) but I have also been making statioary sets as gifts; so I have a bunch of cards to share. I've even made matching envelopes for each card. These are just a few of the fifty or so cards I've made in the last week... Nothing elaborate; just simple, but I think they're cute. I've been trying to use a lot of my scraps too, so they've been super economical.

Dane's class Christmas party is tomorrow and today they've been to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium at the cinemas. It sounds like such a lovely movie; I hope he's enjoying it.

Oh and one more thing before I go. Lydia has just discovered the joys of peek-a-boo. lol - insane, right? I mean, she's nearly 2! But it's still totally cute! Love those chubby little fingers and the cute-as giggle that goes with this game.

Well that'll do from me for today - am aiming to get some just for me scrapping done tonight, so i might even share some layouts before Christmas.

14 sleeps til Christmas

2007-12-11T10:53:00.000+11:00

Anyone else getting excited? I just LOVE Christmas; doubly so now that I have my wonderful children to share it with. There is no sight cooler than the look on a child's face when they see the Christmas tree laden with gifts on Christmas morning. Dane and I have been shopping for a gift for Andrew and one for Lydia and we've had such a great time; dawdling around the shops looking at all the cool Christmassy types of things. We've been playing carols pretty much non stop and just really getting in to the whole spirit of the season. Joy, love and laughter. Yep; Christmas is on it's way!

We're doing our annual Christmas photo shoot this week; I can't belive I still haven't taken pics of the kids in Christmas hats hehehehe will post them once I have them. We spent the weekend making cards for all his friends, which he gave out with candy canes yesterday. I think that's one of the great things about the festive season; how many things can be made and shared.

Hope you're all enjoying this Christmas as much as we are.

2007-12-08T13:07:00.000+11:00

I saw this on Erica's blog and had to share it with you. Thanks for sharing Erica; I pray that this touches someone else as it did me.

A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day
Decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray.
Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle,
The minister frowned as he saw the man hadn't shaved in a while.
His shirt was kind a shabby and his coat was worn and frayed,
The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away.
In the days that followed, each noon time came this chap,
Each time he knelt just for a moment, A lunch pail in his lap.
Well, the minister's suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear,
He decided to stop the man and ask him, "What are you doing here?"
The old man said, he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour.
Lunchtime was his prayer time, For finding strength and power.
"I stay only moments, see, because the factory is so far away;
as I kneel here talking to the Lord,This is kind a what I say:

"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM CHECKING IN TODAY."

The minister feeling foolish, told Jim, that was fine.
He told the man he was welcome to come and pray just anytime
Time to go, Jim smiled, said "Thanks." He hurried to the door.
The minister knelt at the altar, he'd never done it before.
His cold heart melted, warmed with love, and met with Jesus there.
As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim's prayer:
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKING IN TODAY."
Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn't come.
As more days passed without Jim, he began to worry some.
At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill.
The hospital staff was worried, But he'd given them a thrill.
The week that Jim was with them, Brought changes in the ward.
His smiles, a joy contagious. Changed people, were his reward.
The head nurse couldn't understand why Jim was so glad,
when no flowers, calls or cards came, Not a visitor he had.
The minister stayed by his bed, He voiced the nurse's concern:
No friends came to show they cared. He had nowhere to turn.
Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile;
"the nurse is wrong, she couldn't know, that he's in here all the while
Everyday at noon He's here, a dear friend of mine, you see,
He sits right down, takes my hand, Leans over and says to me:
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.
ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY,
AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKING IN TODAY."

My baby is sick.

2007-12-04T19:19:00.000+11:00

I know she doesn't look at all ill, but today I took my baby girl to the paediatrician. She's been presenting with a whole lot of issues that were just accumulating to too many things to ignore. Getting the appointment was tough going, but my wonderful friend Marion was able to secure me an appointment when she had to postpone hers. Thank you once again to Maz; cos we certainly couldn't continue without answers. And it seems we are going to get some now. They may not be the answers we'd like, but this paed is being really thorough.

Lydia's having trouble with her speech, in fact she's actually almost 10 months behind where she should be, she has a poor attention span and short fuse, she's had some pretty persistent bowel troubles and her head circumfrence is pretty small. The doctor is testing for so many things; poor baby is going to have as much blood taken tomorrow as it is possible to take from a 2 year old, and I am not looking forward to that at all ; is there anything worse than seeing your child suffer, expecially when they don't understand why you're allowing it to happen? The most frightening of the tests is a chromosome test. I know it's only a test, but even the idea of something being wrong that we can't fix scares me. I pray so fervently that nothing will stop our baby girl from reaching her full potential. That anything we find we can fix, and that anything we can do for her is done. She's so bright and happy and full of life; I can't imagine her life being anything but completely fullfilling and enriching.

The results for this one don't come back for 6 - 8 weeks; chuck Christmas in there and you have to add an extra 2 - 3 weeks for holidays, so we wont know what's going on until late Feb. Please pray that whatever is wrong with Lydia is found and healed.

Family Portraits

2007-11-29T17:11:00.000+11:00

We had some family pics taken a couple of weeks ago - they took loads (don't they always?) but these are my faves. I didn't buy the while collection, but how cold I not get this black and white?? Sorry the colour and lighting aren't the best; but my scanner is appalling!

I've also been working on a 'One little Word' challenge through My Scrapbook Nook (thanks Erica for the awesome inspiration) as a faithbook to re-focus me in times of need. Once it's finished, I'll share it... I'm finding it hugely therapeutic right now. Thanks as always for stopping by; hopefully one day I'll actually post something worth checking out! :D

Layout Share - from me this time :)

2007-11-13T18:11:00.000+11:00

I managed to get two of the CIS cybercrop layouts done this past weekend, so though I'd share them. Monochromatic scares me; don't know why, but it never seems to look quite right when I do it. However, I'm really happy with how this turned out. Both of these LO's were inspired by the awesome Rachel Hall's 'MUAH' LO (check it out here) 'Tahlia' was inspired by the design, and Jordy & me was inspired by the colours. Thanks for sharing your amazing talent Rachel.
I've also made a bit of a start on our holiday pics, so I have a few LO's to share. The first LO was for Wendy's sketch on the CIS Sketch Blog Check it out if you get a chance.

Thanks for stopping by - hopefully I'll have some more to show you soon.

Layout Share - from Dane

2007-11-11T20:24:00.000+11:00

Dane sat and scrapped with me - a monochromatic layout for the CIS cybercrop. He was so meticulous, Jolene stipulated that only one colour could be used, except in the stickers, so he wouldn't even write in any colour but blue. He was a little concerned about the other colours in the photos, but I managed to convince him that was okay. I've included a close-up of his journalling cos it's just so sweet.

This was quite a challenge for me; to let him do a page in one of my albums, not his album, but a page for our holiday album... without interferring. I guess this is going to be one more of the beautiful things about scrapping, that I can share with my kids and they can contribute something worthwhile to our family albums. I'm sure they'll be all the more special to him for it.

Please leave loads of comments, he gets such a thrill out of people saying nice things about his pages.

2007-11-09T10:16:00.000+11:00

My gorgeous hornbag friend Shelly (do you think that is a good intro or what Shel?) has finally started blogging. So please jump over to her blog and have a look if you get the chance - remember how great you felt every time someone left a comment when you first started blogging and share the love girlies.

In my life - today is pirate day at school for Dane, and family portrait day at Lydia's creche, so we're off this afternoon to get our photo taken. Dane's been bribed with a sleepover if he smiles nicely for a few pics hehehe... the things we do, hey? Lydia's still crook and has now added NOT SLEEPING to her symptoms... I am exhausted and cranky and all things horrid at the moment. Just desperately need more than two hours sleep a night. Hope the doc has some answers soon.

For now, I'm leaving it at that - will post pirate pics tonight or tomorrow when I have a little more energy.

More pics... and.....

2007-11-03T16:01:00.000+11:00

Well firstly here are a few more pics from our Holiday. This first is one of my absolute faves EVER of Lydia. Love that grin. Not quite sure when my baby became a little girl; apparently she's bypassed the whole toddler stage... well, judging from this pic, anyway! It was taken on the upstairs balcony at the house in Brunswick Heads.

These next pics are of Dane enjoying the pool at the resort - how cool is that waterslide??

And finally, some BIG news. We have a new vehicle parked in our driveway! This morning we brought home a 2003 Daewoo Nubira sedan! woohoo!!!!!! It has under 50,000 kms on it and we are so excited! Finally both of our cars are in good condition and wont be requiring huge $$ being spent on them every month just to keep them running. Not the best pic, but here it is.

Photos from our holiday

2007-11-01T19:45:00.000+11:00

I've been promising to upload a few pics from our holidays; so here are the first couple. I'm having some trouble uploading, so I might load up some more tomorrow. The files are all huge, so they need a fair bit of editing to compress them down enough

These pics were taken at Byron Bay - Lydia at the beach (not getting wet hehehehe) and Dane and Andrew looking out across the ocean from Australia's (almost) eastern most point.

One of about a million from Brunswick Heads - Dane had such a wonderful time kite flying on the beach.

These two were taken at Movie World - the kids had the most AMAZING time here. Dane was so so so excited about going on the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster (a ride which, as it turns out, scared the living DAYLIGHTS out of him) and Lydia just wanted to do everything. She was shattered every time we had to tell her she was too little.

I'll have upload pics from the resort tomorrow - my camera is flat and all the pics are on that :(

I've been tagged.

2007-10-29T20:03:00.000+11:00

So Karen has tagged me to come up with 7 random things about myself... so here goes...

1. I don't consider myself a good mum. I'm not particularly patient, and quite frankly a lot of kids activities bore me brainless. I wish this wasn't the case, but there it is.
2. I love school. (omg NERD!) I do. I love to learn, I love to share in knowledge, I love to debate... love it all... cept exams YUCK!
3. I eat WAY too much. I just can't seem to stop myself snacking. Like, all day. BAD BAD BAD.
4. I am incredibly opinionated. Sometimes a little arrogant I suppose, but I really feel that people need to consider how what they do affects others a bit more. This includes smokers, parents who couldn't care less about their kids, dangerous drivers... you get the idea.
5. I love the wind in my face - that complete feeling of freedom that comes from riding a horse or standing on the top of a hill with your eyes closed and your arms spread wide, embracing life.
6. I have a shocking inability to say NO. I don't even want to. I want to help EVERYONE. I burn out pretty often.
7. I love pretty things. Hilarious, cos I'm about as rough as they get. I want to live in a pretty home, with pretty things and be a girly girl. I'm not, but I want to be.

Don't know if that actually tells you any more about me; but there you go.

I'm now tagging Fleurie and Manon.... sorry girls hehehehe

A quick hello

2007-10-26T06:22:00.000+10:00

Good morning all. It's currently 20 past 6 in the morningn here in Sunny QLD and you'd be amazed by how many people are awake here! I don't have time to post pics right now (omg there are gonna be SOOOO many when we get home) but I did wanna pop in and let everyone know we're having a WONDERFUL time. We spent yesterday at Warner Brothers Movie World and we all had such a great tme there. Ihas this kids section with rides just for little ones which was a blessing with Pickle, cos she aas starting to feel left out until we found that. I think Dane went all any ride he was tall enough for - which the exception of the roller coasters... lol, a boy after my own heart there!
We met up with Liz and her beautiful kids and Jolene and Katie on Friday - Liz and Jolene are exactly as I imagined them and their kids are just too cute! I really didn't realise just how TINY Sabrina is. Dane and Zane hit it off INSTANTLY and were best buddies in a heart beat. Katie played happily at her own thing - that girl is so cute!
The resort is fab; Dane has been so excited about having a Playstation in his room and he even beat Daddy last night (hehehehehe) We've spent a couple of hours in the pools already; with more planned for today. Just relaxed days planned from here on in and we'll be home Monday.
Looking forward to catching up with everything then.
Love n hugs
Dee

All Things Are Possible

2007-10-10T14:22:00.000+10:00

As many of you will know we have been facing some pretty heavy finacial burdens of late. My poor DH works hard to provide for his family, but being on salary has meant that no matter how many hours he works there is still no extra money coming in. Every October he comes up for pay review, which generally means an extra $1000 or so each year (basically not much mroe than CPI increase) Next week we are due to leave on holiday to QLD a trip we've been planning for 18 months and saving for that long for. Last month that all came crashing down around us when I had to go back in to hospital for surgery. So we were desperately hoping that this year he might get a bonus, some extra money in his actual October pay packet.
Yesterday God reminded me of His infinite Love for my family. Andrew came home not only with a bonus meaning that we have MORE than enough money to enjoy our holiday; but also enough of a payrise to ensure that I can continue with my studies next year and that the financial burdens which have exhausted us can be lifted from our shoulders. Now I know many of you will be sitting here asking why God would be giving us MONEY? This money; which may seem a small amount in the eyes of some, will pay off all my medical bills and put me in a position to support the children of my sister; who need love right now. The timing of this is absolutely life saving; we can now spend our holiday recovering from a VERY tough couple of years and rediscovering our family. That is the Power of His Love. Not the money; but the peace it gives us. In His Love; All Things are made Possible.

Sketch by ME!

2007-10-06T16:14:00.000+10:00

I've finally ventured into the world of sketching lol. I love working from sketches; I find it really focussed me; so when Ally asked me to come up with a challenge for this month at Crafty Collages I knew EXACTLY what to do! So here it is; my first ever publicly released sketch! Ally fixed it up for me in Photoshop; I don't have any software that can do anything like that.

Please give it a go; can't wait to see what everyone comes up with; it's a nice simple one with plenty of room for creativity. If you make sure and include some fabric somewhere on your LO (that's fabric, NOT ribbon) and upload it to the crafties gallery over here you'll be in the running to win this month's prize!

School Holiday Antics

2007-10-04T21:59:00.000+10:00

Well the two weeks of school holidays are almost over and most of the holidays I haven't really been up to doing much with Dane. Today, in an effort to make up for a complete lack of attention I took him and his best mate Sami to the Melbourne Museum.

They had an abolutely wonderful time; it's such a great place for kids, and cos I promised Kate I would; here are a few of the pics I took. The dinosaurs were naturally the main feature for the kids, but Dane was really impressed by Phar Lap too. They also have an awesome kids room with hand puppets and a sand table set up with these 'fossils' in them for the kids to 'discover'. It's so cool!

After the museum we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe for a very late lunch. Love this place; such good value and the kids were just so impressed by all the memorabilia. The kids menus there are designed to be coloured in, so they happily sat with some crayons (yay! still not too big for crayons!) They also got to keep the cups that their drinks came in, which they were pretty stoked with. Then back on the train to head home. I got the coolest pic of Dane on the train, so I really wanted to share it with you. Full credit to these boys; I have no voice at the moment and they were so good.

Nice Matters

2007-09-11T13:20:00.000+10:00

Well Liz has once again absolutely made my day. Honestly folks, if you don't know this woman yet, then you are missing a huge part of the greatest things in life. Liz is supportive, encouraging, patient and welcoming to EVERYONE! I have never met anyone so openly accepting of other people in my life, and I thank God every day for bringing her into my life. (Of course, if He could just find it in Himself to convince her to move to Melbourne, I'd be even more thrilled!!!!)

So now you're wondering what this wonderful gal has done? Last week was a shocker for me; so much bad news and I was absolutely miserable. Liz, without knowing any of this, did several things to lift my spirits;

1. She tagged me as a Nice person, just because.

2. She made this gorgeous min album and posted it to me; how divine is this???

3. She posted me a RAK, along with the gorgeous LO she created of my two darling children.

4. She messaged me just because I hadn't spoken to her for a couple of days; just to make sure I was okay.

How could one ask for a better friend than that?

Now to pay forward the lovely compliment that Liz has given me; I'd like to tage the following people as Nice people;

Kate - no blog although her gorgeous little girl has her own site; umm Kate - when's yours coming???

Simone

Shelly

Ally

Kate, Mone and Shel don't have blogs to share yet - get bloggin' girls! But they are gorgeous lovely people who brighten the lives of those around them.

Sorry that this is such a long post; but I do have to add a mummy brag moment! My beautiful baby boy performed in his first school concert on Friday night. he was absolutely petrified and I am so proud of him for conquering his fear and doing it anyway! Well done Dane, you did such a great job! Some pics of my little star!

Twin Update

2007-08-31T20:06:00.001+10:00

Well I visited the twins and took some new pics, so thought I'd update them for you to have a look at. No one else has ever put the two girls together and taken a pic, so of course I had to do that, and the pics are just so cute... I am gonna have fun scrapping these!

Okay - time to scrap; will try to remember to upload whatever I get finished this weekend on Monday.

2007-08-25T16:55:00.000+10:00

Well the kids are healthy again (hooray) and I'm getting some studying and scrapping done this weekend (double hooray). I've an exam on Monday which I'm not excited about, but Simone and Shel are coming over tonight to crop with me; so I'll stress about the exam tomorrow... oh bad, bad student!

Ally's first cybercrop (CC) is on this weekend at Crafty Collages, and so far I've actually managed to complete a LO for it, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Actually I have three LO's to share today. The first is a LO I created for my lounge room. I've been playing with my new Stampin Up! stamps, and colouring in with chalks, so I've included a close up of the stamping as well.

The second is my LO for the Crafty Collages CC second challenge.

The last LO is my current fave; I'm really happy with how this turned out. I did this for one of Liz's awesome monthly challenges over at CIS. Make sureyou check these out; they're such great challenges and a great way to get your mojo flowing. This particular challenge involved altering your pic, so I painted the edges.

I'm sure I have loads more to post - it's been a while, but my brain is mush at the moment, so I'll leave it at that for now. ;) Thanks for visiting!

What a week!

2007-08-18T10:32:00.000+10:00

OMG I am just exhausted!!! Lydia is FINALLY recovering from this nasty flu - after 3 trips to the ER and almost $300 spent on medical bills... she's still incredibly clingy and cranky, but she has energy, and she's eating again, so I s'pose I have to count my blessings, right?

I'm all set to do some cropping tonight - have spent the better half of this morning cleaning, and still have loads of housework to do, but once it's done I am so ready to scrap! Kaz has set a challenge over at CIS to do a LO titled 'Any Given Sunday' so I'm going to give that a go. It'll be interesting to see how many different LOs can be done to the same theme... if you get a chance, give it a shot.

I absolutely have to share a brand new online store and forum with you. Digicister Ally has set up her own site and it's all looking pretty fab! Make sure you pop over to her forum at http://craftycollages.com/forum/ and register before her cybercrop next weekend. She's already set up a monthly challenge and it's a beauty. The forum is a little quiet at the moment, but it's not going to get any more energetic until we all start registering, so jump on in! Cant wait to see y'all there!

Hope everyone is happy and healthy and that this gorgeous weather sticks around for a bit (It is a stunning day, light breeze, warm sun, just yum!)
love n hugs
Dee

A Good kid and a sick kid.

2007-08-13T11:12:00.000+10:00

A HUGE congratulations to my little man who was awarded student of the week today at school. I am just so proud of him, he's really been making an effort. This is a pretty blurry pic, but check out how keen my little man is!

Lydia today isn't faring so well, poor bubba. her temperature was up around 41degrees last night and this morning, and a doctors visit has confirmed that she has the 'flu. When did that become such a scary word???? With children dying of the 'flu all over Australia this year I'm a tiny bit nervous, and will certainly be watching her diligently. Hope she recovers quickly, she's pretty miserable.

Okay that's it from me today.. c y'all soon.

Rockin' Girl Blogger

2007-08-12T17:55:00.000+10:00

Well thanks Lizzy girl, I'm much chuffed to be named as a Rockin' Girl Blogger. hehehehe Very flattering.

I don't know how many people I'm supposed to pass this forward to, but if Karen Brierley (ooh did I spell that right???) or Rach Merrich happen past - then I'm nominating you guys as Rockin Girl Bloggers. Love both your blogs.

The CIS CC is on this weekend and once again Jolene has set some awesome challenges. I've still got to get to Challenge one - which is to use a 6 x 8 or larger pic on a page with 4 or more pps and some chipboard. But I have finished the other two; so here they are for anyone who wants to check em out. Challenge 2 is the first one - needed four or more pics no bigger than 2 x 3, paint (used for something OTHER than colouring embies) scrapped in a minimalistic LO. Challenge 3, the second LO, was a sketch challenge, but we needed to create out own oversized embie and use it too.. LOVE this sketch. These gorgeous papers are courtesy of Bizzy Becs - just adore the colours.

The final layout I want to show is my submission to the second round of Embellished IDOL. OMG OMG OMG I GOT THROUGH ROUND ONE!!!!!!! So excited about that. For round two we had to use one or two paint strips (which couldn't be cut into single colours), and scrap using only colours from those strips, (small amounts of black and white allowed) We also had to include a title and journalling. I tried to layer the flowers so that as they moved up the strips they got smaller and lighter. Hope it worked okay - I'll keep you posted, although I'd be pretty surprised if I got through this round, there are some AMAZING layouts once again in the gallery, and as the rounds continue it's only gonna get tougher!

New Babies

2007-08-08T10:34:00.000+10:00

Not for me, but for my sister. Rebecca delivered by c-section yesterday two healthy little girls - Tahlia Ruby (6lbs 14ozs and Ebony-Rose 6lbs 9 ozs) Big babies for twins, especially as Bec has been on methadone for the duration of her pregnancy, which can apparently reduce infant size. This pic is Bec and her boyfriend Scott with the girls.

I've also finally uploaded my Embellished Idol LO (just in time) so thought I'd share that here. I had fun with this and am really praying that I get through to the next round, but with the standard of work uploaded in that gallery I do have strong doubts! You can check out the rest of the gallery here

Well off to visit babies! I'll post more pics when I've got them

I remembered to post more pics!!! How incredible is that? lol

okay - so Tahlia was going through some pretty shocking withdrawal today and wasn't really in a posing kind of mood, but Ebony was perfectly happy to sleep under the window and let her Aunty Dee snap away. (Isn't she a good girl?) I did get a couple of lovely pics of Tahlia sleeping on her Mummy - right where little babies should be I reckon. So the bub in white is Ebony-Rose, and Tahlia is the one with a bit of a rash on her face.

2007-07-30T18:25:00.000+10:00

I have come to the disturbing realisation that I am NOT the world's greatest blogger. I never keep my promises, it's ages before I load up new pics, and I'm not the most regular writer either. But I do love the visitors, and just adore all the gorgeous comments you guys leave me.

Today I DO have some pics to share. As part of the ongoing photography challenge over at CIS I set up an DIY photography studio to take some pics of the kids. I was totally thrilled with how many fab pics I got and will certainly make a point of doing this again. Here are a few of the forty or so pics I did take.

I've also managed to get a couple of LO's done recently. Really love this one; so totally different to my 'normal' style; no journalling, all that blank space. But all the neccessary journallling is already in the album, so there really was no more to say. Hope y'all like it.

2007-07-16T19:12:00.000+10:00

Okay so I know I promised I would upload pics of the stuff I did with Fleur. And I didn't upload. Sorry.

I do however have a couple of photos from the school holidays to share with you. These pics were taken on Thursday when Dane and I had a mummy/son day. We just jumped in the car and drove until we ended up somewhere good - then jumped out and spent the day exploring. We ended up down at Point Nepean National park, after a stop for Hot chocolate and fruit bun in Balnarring. Point Nepean is the place from which the first Australian shots were fired in both World Wars. So full of history and such stories, but also just a really beautiful spot.

How good does that Hot Chockie look????

I had a ridiculously hectic weekend, visited Simone on Friday night to chack out the CIS cybercrop challenges, then out to the bonscraps Scrap N Chat on Saturday - out to dinner with the family Saturday night and on to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with my Dad afterwards. Sunday was spent sorting out all the kids stuff and getting them into their own rooms- wow what a mammoth task!

I am hoping to get some LO's finished tonight, so I'll try to remember to upload when I'm done ;)

TFL:)

2007-07-09T13:26:00.000+10:00

So the school holidays are hlaf way over and the kids are driving me half way mad! Lydia's harrassing Dane at every available opportunity - something he's getting thoroughly sick of. It's tough at the moment - he's wanting to do activities that she simply destroys, and she's just too young for. It seems he spends half of each day waiting for her to have a nap so he can pull out whatever thing he wants to play with next.
But tomorrow the lovely Fleur is coming over (check out her fab blog here) - and Andrew will be home to look after the kids so I will have a few hours just to enjoy some gorgeous Stampin' Up! toys and some wonderful company. I can not wait!!! I'll be sure to post a few pics tomorrow night.
Oh and another big joy for me today - Liz sent me the most awesome pack of goodies and the most stunning LO of Dane - I'll upload just as soon as the kids get their booties off to bed tonight.

End of term.

2007-06-28T18:07:00.002+10:00

Tomorrow is Dane's last day of term - he's already half way through his first year of primary school - where has that gone???

He brought home school photos today(obviously) and they are soo cute! Just love that cheesy grin. We had parent teacher interviews last night, and he's really doing well - he's loving reading and writing at the moment, and I am so proud of his efforts.

I have an evening of housework and scrapping done - let's see how much I actually get done! I'll post tomorrow with any finished LO's.

2007-06-27T11:58:00.000+10:00

I've actually had a bit of time to get some scrapping done of late, and amanged a couple of new LO's. (Amazingly enough.) I'm so happy with the LO I did for Manon in the CIS photo swap - hope she loves it as much as I do!

I was challenged at CIS to complete a LO with 3 or more pics, cirlces and using primary colours - the second pic is my LO for this challenge - not quite what I was planning, but I actually quite like it! I'm pleased that finally I've gotten these pics scrapped. They were taken last year while Dane was at Kinder when his teacher painted his face like a clown - Dane refused to let the fact that he didn't have a ball stop him from juggling.

Crop for the Cause Progress Report

2007-06-23T15:03:00.000+10:00

Those of you who know me will also know that I have been working towards organising a major Fundraiser in support of the Starlight Children's Foundation. The Starlight Children's Foundation work tirelessly to brighten the lives of seriously ill children and require our on going support to do so. In March next year I will be hosting a crop day will all proceeds going to Starlight. And I gotta say - I'm pretty excited about it. We've found a venue, we've laid out a plan for how we want to day to run, and we're just looking to start collection of donations... It's gonna be awesome! Biggest highlight so far is having an offer to pay the entire cost of venue hire; stay tuned, I'll give you all the details as they are confirmed.

Our venue is large enough for about 120 people, so we're hoping to put at least 100 bodies in there for an awesome day of cropping, raffles, classes and mayhem. Watch this space - this is where I'll be bringing you all the updates, keeping you all informed about who's sponsoring this fab cause, and letting you know where you can buy tickets when they go on sale. If you'd like to help out in any way - and this would be hugely appreciated - please send me an email at cropforthecause@hotmail.com

2007-06-21T11:47:00.000+10:00

Ever had one of those mornings where you just wish you could climb back into bed and start all over again? I gotta say - this morning was one of them. To start with, my bed was toasty and warm and soft and all things wonderful. Out of bed it was blasted freezing - not at all tempting. But when you're lying in bed hearing the kids screaming at each other, you gotta get up and intervene before someone gets killed! Out of bed and into the kids room, where Dane is hanging off his top bunk into Lydia's cot, wacking her with his stuffed Spiderman. My what a great start to the morning! Then into the kitchen to make the kids breakfast and lunch - no milk, no fresh bread... hmm that bed is seeming mighty inviting right about now. Drop a screaming Lydia off to creche and Dane off to school with a promise that his lunch will be there by the time he gets back from the farm visit. Run into Hastings to argue with a shop attendant, back home with fresh bread for a sandwich, back to the school to drop it off and pick up some very muddy gumboots, then racing into Uni to get some study done, only to realise I'm missing a book. Then I log onto CIS between classes to catch up with the girls, where I find that I can't get on!

So I'm starting today again. Right this minute. The rest of today is going to run smoothly and efficiently. I'll keep you posted...

Happy 6th Birthday Dane!

2007-06-19T07:18:00.000+10:00

What a crazy weekend!

Dane had the most fabulous birthday party yesterday - a Harry Potter theme that was such fun; for adults as much as for the kids! Dad came down on Saturday night and was up until 1 am riggin up a magic trick for the kids. When they waved their wands they were able to make a pot levitate - thanks to a bit of fishing wire and my amazing Dad! Mum had also been hard at work creating the most incredible wizards robes for each of the kids, and they all spent the morning making and decorationg their wizards hats. (Note to self - glitter paint does not dry quickly in the middle of winter!) The kids had an amazing time - love those grins!

So my baby boy is yet another year older, another year away from being my baby boy. It seems trite but I really wish he'd stop growing and that I could enjoy these years a bit more.

2007-06-12T18:10:00.000+10:00

Well I figure it's time to jump on that little old wagon and get blogging, so here I am. I'm planning to post my latest layouts here, updates on the progress we're making with Crop for the Cause, and generally anything newsworthy in the life of Dee... so this will be a pretty empty blog!