All Ready for Washington DC!

All ready!

We're all ready for our trip! We leave tomorrow night, and arrive in Washington DC friday morning!! Do keep us in your prayers for a safe trip and for good health and great family time! Ryan had a minor asthma attack two days ago, and now I'm armed with inhalers and so on, to help the boys beat the cold!

Yesterday we had a great laugh! Gim had announced yesterday that he bought new memory cards (2GB) for his camera for the trip. When he came home after tennis last evening and was trying to load the new cards, he opened the plastic cover, took off the scotch tape, and stared in unbelief at the card - 256mb?! Jared had replaced the card with the one he had in his camera, and taken 65 photos while Gim was at tennis!!!

Here's the little terror, at one of our beach resort trips in March. Oh, the template link is below

Credits: paper by Autumnsmoon, sun and tags all by Dani Mogstad, curled edge by JG

Below is a layout of Ryan, photos taken in NZ year before last, but sentiments as of now.

Journaling reads:

You knew the alphabet at 18 months.Could spell 50 words at two. But you could not speak in sentences till nearly four. About the same time you started reading! Since then you’ve baffled us & doctors and therapists, and now have an opinion on everything and is doing so well in the gifted class. Only God knew what He has in store for you, and we thank Him for the miracle that is you..

We are exceedingly thankful for all that God has done for him, to us, it is nothing short of a miracle, and we constantly remind ourselves.

Oh, may I share one of my all time favorite songs:

GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART

GIVE THANKSTO THE HOLY ONE

GIVE THANKS FOR HE'S GIVEN JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON

AND NOW LET THE WEAK SAY I AM STRONG

LET THE POOR SAYI AM RICH BECAUSE OF WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE FOR US

GIVE THANKS...

Credits: paper from Michelle Colemans' thankful heart, QP by ksharonk, title by Jen Wilson

And here's my dh who loves keeping fish, at an make shift fish shop in HK. I love that it takes very little to make my dh very happy, love you, dear!

Credits: Paper by Jen Lin, frame by Jen Wilson, arrow by Fernlili, title by Jen Wilson

This is now available as a set in the store here

Being THankful

Being Thankful
Finally I have time to complete a layout and blog a bit. Been wanting to get these thoughts down. Thoughts of thankfulness.
The other day i was at my dear blog friend Tink's blog (http://tinkstribulations.blogspot.com/), and I do so love to read her very interesting entries and how wonderfully she expresses how she feels, and I quote her in her blog entry on 1 Nov on family members she is thankful for : "Finally, but surely not last... my husband... Pan. There is so much I could say about him. His love of life (and Halloween), his infectious smile, how incredibly brilliant he is. How he stood up and took charge of three teenagers when he wasn't much past the stage himself. He became a father the children could love and respect. But what it all boils down to is his belief in me. Thanks honey." Loved that, Tink! You're blessed!

And so am I, and I am prompted to express my thankfulness in specific ways for my husband. Here's one: When Jared was about three, Gim suggested, even insisted that we have date night just for ourselves. At first I resisted (what was I thinking!), but since then, friday night dates have been going on pretty much without fail... I'm so thankful my husband values us so much that he engineered and protected this time for us, it's been 5 years now (!) and I think it's one reason we are going strong. Thanks dear.
And how thankful we are for my parents in law who has babysat for us every friday night without fail either....!

Today I completed a layout I have wanted to do for a while. It's about Ryan and his play battles. He's nearly eleven, but war-play with his toy armies (any toy can be enlisted to his armies, Miffy included) go on everyday, the dialogue is deadly, the plot unpredictable, the fun, guaranteed. Rather too many photos to squeeze in one page, but I didn't want to miss out any!


Credits: Scroll from summerspice by ksharonk, comic star and words by JCrowley, alpha strings from ScrappyBlueStones , brown paper by MistyCato, and blue paper from DaniMogstad's party kit, Word art by ksharonk, and tear from Monika69.
This is now available as a set in the store here

Ebay Queen

Ebay Queen

Well, ok, that's how I feel right now after weeks on ebay. I've bidded and bought and sent forward to my brother, 5 sweaters, 1 wind pants, an air bed, bedding, bionicles, lego, board games, and a jacket!!! That meant staying up or waking up early just to catch the last moments of the auction, and all that. This morning Jared successfully helped me bid on his air bed (for him to sleep on) while I was on the phone - talk about apprenticeship!

Well, I still had time to complete a simple layout - this is Jared with his Knex creations taken a while ago. He is still at it everyday, either with lego or knex. We first found out his "talent" when his childcare teacher showed us the stuff he made with spacelinks - camera, bulldozer, and he was only three! Everything is from Jackie Eckles' Modern Kit. I really enjoyed trying something different and edgy for this layout.

School Year is Ending

School Year is ending

The children have only two more weeks of school before hols until school reopens in January!! I'm happy to report that the boys both did incredibly well in their results, and by that I mean Jared much improved on himself, and Ryan did very well considering this year he was pretty much on his own, since my working hours and his school hours mean I don't see him much on weekdays. We are so pleased and proud of both of them, and we all give glory to God!

As a treat, I gave them some money each to spend on ebay, from my takings when I used to sell digi-designs, and happily, Ryan bought his long-awaited Lord of the Rings Risk game, plus a vintage Stratego game, and Jared bought a couple of Bionicles and quite a few Lego Knights Kingdom mini figures.

Also want to thank everyone who left a word and gave advice for my trip, you are greatly appreciated! We've gotten most of the winter gear now, and now getting the itinery decided. It's really exciting and will be the boys first time in the USA, and our first time in more than 10 years, and our first to the east coast, so it is unbelievably great.

This evening we had great fun again playing hide and seek, we had the most fun screaming and scaring the wits out of each other when "found". When i was hiding, the thought came to me, how happy and blessed our family is! I'm just so grateful!

Here's my Christmas card fashioned out of Melanie Johnson's beautiful Day 2 template, thanks Melanie!!! Unfortunately we don't have a nice photo of all of us altogether, so I made do with these. Loved the colors though :)
Oh, I finished my Photobook ahead of time, and here's the last layout that I managed to get in it.

Credits: Background paper from Scrapartist's Fiesta kit, alpha by Christina Renee, frames by LHill, Glitter star by Carol Abram, and paint circle by CBombria. I think everything I used here was a freebie, thank you ladies for so much goodies!

And here's something I did a while ago when I was designing, I didn't think they looked good enough and did not release them, but I still liked these phrases a lot, so if you like them, feel free to snag them! Tell me if you too like these phrases!sorry this is no longer available