Happy New Year!!

Just dropping by to wish everyone a happy new year.

We've got a few friends coming over for tea, swimming and secret games - Singstar, Buzz and EyeToy. Shayne has set up the projector and big screen out in the pergola. I've ordered chicken platters and salad and the champagne is on ice! Ryan and Bowen are also planning to see in the new year with us.

Thanks everyone who stops by to read and a great big mwah to everyone that leaves comments. They are much appreciated.

I plan on being a better blogger in '08, so stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now Christmas is Over!

Wow, the day went so fast! Mind you it was a long one! Ryan was up at 1.30am and couldn't get back to sleep. He ended up in our bed and we managed to keep him there until 6 o'clock - not that we got much sleep.

The boys were very spoilt by Santa - a sports net, Playstation and assorted games including Buzz and an Eyetoy. We bought them new cricket bats which have not left their sides, Bowen takes his to bed and covers it with a rug and Ryan would sleep with his if we let him.

I was very lucky as well! I got some lovely jewellery from my brother and his family and Shayne got me some clothes, chocolates, scrapping voucher and Singstar for the closet singer in me!

There were 12 of us at our house for lunch which was yummy. The weather was perfect! We had tea at Shayne's nephew's with the entire Hosking clan. Lots of noise and laughs.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a fantastic Christmas tomorrow. Cherish the time with your family and friends and I hope all your wishes come true.

Bowen really typifies the All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth carol this Christmas. When I sang it to him the other day, his response was "I'll want MORE than that!!" Gotta love him!

Merry Christmas everyone!

21 Years Ago

This time, 21 years ago, I was a nervous bride to be. 21 years later I am still married to the wonderful man who I met at the end of the aisle all those years ago.


I'm not at all religious, but I feel so blessed to have Shayne in my life. He is my best friend and my biggest supporter and I love him with all my heart.





Happy Anniversary darling.

Scrapping News

The last month or two have been busy on the scrapping front, but I've loved every minute of it. Scrapping keeps me sane when work is totally chaotic!

I was December's guest designer for Scrapbooking4Less and Shelley sent me a lovely Christmas kit using Creative Imagination papers. I created a couple of layouts as well as a few cards.

I've also been working hard for Remember When and have been creating layouts using their wonderful Kaiser/Bazzill packs that they release each month. I've started writing a weekly article on the blog as well. Here are the 2 layouts I shared yesterday.

Lastly, I am completing the challenges for Pieces of Me at Country Papercraft. We are completing an album about ourselves and are challenged each week with a new theme. I'm doing my pages in 8 x 8 format and am just loving this size. Here are a few of the completed pages so far.

Now I'm on holidays, I hope to have more time to scrap and share .

Too Funny!!

I saw this link on Donna Downey's blog the other day.

The boys went absolutely hysterical when they saw it.

Have a look here!

I hope we've made the right decision!

I haven't talked a lot about Bowen's academic ability, but when we had him tested earlier this year, it seemed he could join MENSA. We always suspected that he was pretty bright but had no idea just how bright he was. He was reading at 3 and can add up numbers faster than me.

After two years of school where everything was so easy for him, Shayne and I have decided that the best course of action is for him to be accelerated. This means he will go from Year 1 this year to Year 3 in 2008. It's been a hard choice, mostly because of the great group of friends he has but I know for his learning, this is the best decision.

He is really excited about it - he can understand that he needs extension. We talked about the fact that he won't be in the same class with his best friends and sports wise, he will be competing against kids a year older than him. In his usual way, he said "Mum, I think my learning is more important than sports and besides, it will be a challenge for me."

Who can argue with that logic!!!

Sport's Day

According to Ryan, Sport's Day is the BEST day of the year. Can you tell he's a bit sports mad???? Given most of my posts seem to be about my boys' sporting exploits, you probably already know this LOL!

Anyway last Friday was Sport's Day at school. The boys both made the sprint final for their year level. The fastest runner in each team at each year level qualifies. Last year Ryan won and Bowen was not impressed coming 3rd. Of course we thought he did a great job!

I was devastated to find that I had to be in Adelaide that day, but managed to organise a later flight so I could catch their races first. Of course, the day was running behind schedule and I made it to the airport just as they called my flight. Thank goodness I checked in online beforehand. But I digress!!

Ryan again won his event - yayy Ryan!!!! Bowen was so determined to win this year, that he gave it his all - the fist pump as he crossed the line in first place was indication of how much he wanted it. The smile on his face was priceless - it was so worth getting to my meeting late.



Congratulations boys - what athletes you are!!!

Two Champions

Although tomorrow is Sport's Day, Mulga Street school always run the marathon the day before. So this morning it was on - fresh fruit for breakfast because apparantly you run faster.

Well it must have worked, as both boys won their respective events - they were pretty pleased with themselves and so were Shayne and I!

My Big Boy is 7!!

Bowen is 7!!! His birthday was on Saturday and we were awoken at 6am by a bouncing 7 year old looking for presents!!



He was pleased with his Bindeez, Deal or No Deal game, Nintendo game and Beanie Kids. We had a yummy tea at Fasta Pasta (his choice) and then chocolate sponge for dessert.



He had a small party yesterday - homemade pizzas and a play at home and then off to Ten Pin Bowling. They all had a great time and Shayne and I were exhausted!!! Ryan was a big help, even organising a game of pass the parcel for the party goers.

What's Up??

It's been a busy couple of weeks - what's new?

We survived the school holidays - in fact I did a lot of nothing! The boys and I seemed to need to just chill out for awhile and that's exactly what we did. I got a few layouts done using the great laser cuts from Remember When and a few for Memories and More that I can't share just yet.

The Mount Gambier Show was on this weekend - we went for awhile on Saturday afternoon. The boys spent their money on showbags and the football game - they do this every year! They didn't go on a single ride! We went back at tea time armed with our fish and chips to watch the fireworks display. Ryan as usual watched from inside the car as he doesn't like loud noises.

Ryan also completed his first game of cricket on Saturday morning. They fielded last week and Ryan was very excited to take the first wicket of the match - bowled middle stump! They batted this week and he retired at 5 not out which is not bad for his first ever match. They won as well, so all in all a good start!

Yesterday was quite warm for Mount Gambier - 30! Here's what the boys got up to!

Inspiration

This month on the Remember When blog fellow Barn Girl Nicole Southworth is sharing her scrapping journey with us. Just reading about her philosophies and smart ideas has got me inspired. So here's a quick layout I did yesterday. Nicole has talked about hand journalling (I know we all hate it) and also scrapping the everyday things. So here's Bowen cooking muffins on the weekend and I wrote the journalling myself - helped make this layout a really quick one. I've got similar photos of Ryan making choc chip biscuits to do next! I've also printed off her questionnaire for the kids to fill in for me. Stay tuned for more layouts.

Catching Up

I went to a scrapping class at Scrapbooking Anonymous on Sunday and caught up with my good friend Kathryn who reminded me that it had been awhile since I had blogged.


So, for Kathryn (and anyone else out there who reads this) here's an update on what's been happening.

• I had a great day demonstrating Fiskars at Spotlight in Mount Gambier - Nicky (the craft manager) was great and had everything all set up for me. I enjoyed working with their staff and customers and the new Fiskars punches and Shapecutter are great.

• We're on school holidays here - starting today. I've managed to get both weeks off for a much needed rest and chance to spend some time with the family. Got off to a good start today - hardly saw the boys as they played with Brad from next door. Had to laugh as they decided that a picnic lunch was the way to go. Here's a picture - as they tucked into sandwiches, sausage rolls and other yummy bits.








• Football season has officially finished. We went to Adelaide twice to see Port Power play Fremantle and then the Kangaroos in the finals. I'm secretly glad that we decided not to try and get Grand Final tickets. They had a great season even though their last match was pretty bad!


• Footy has finished for Ryan too! It's now cricket season. He's playing for the West Under 12's and after a couple of practices is showing promise as a fast bowler. His first match is in a fortnight.


• Bowen is playing basketball and Milo cricket this season - both start in the next couple of weeks.

• Ryan also decided to try out for SAPSASSA Athletics. He represented the school in 100m, 200m, 800m and high jump, competing against other 9 year olds in the district. He won the 800m and came 2nd in the 100m - how exciting! We were disappointed to find out that 9 year olds aren't allowed to compete in Adelaide, maybe next year.


• Let's see - on the scrapping front, I can now let you know that I am a Barn Girl for Remember When Scrapbooking. I've already designed a number of layouts and you can see them here. Kathy has the biggest range of Bazzill anywhere and is now designing chipboard and bazzill laser shapes - both retail and now wholesale. I've been enjoying using them. Here's a couple of the layouts I have done.

I've been tagged!!!

I've been tagged by the lovely Lisa. I got to this eventually!!



Rules are: copy and paste this into your blog and tag 3 bloggers to put it on their blog.You've been TAGGED, now you have to go to scrap the stuff leave a comment AND submit a page or OTP.Tag 3 friends and leave comment on their blog to let them know they've been taggedI tag...
Linda, Steph and Sharon.

GO FORTH and advertise.

Exciting Scrapping News!!

The past month or so has been very exciting in the scrapping arena for me - lots of new opportunities that I can finally share with you, so here goes!

1. I've been appointed an ambassador for Fiskars. This means that I get to demonstrate their great range of products in places like Spotlight. My first make and take is on September 8th - a bit scary but definitely something I'm looking forward to!!
2. I have won a guest design team position with Scrapbooking 4 Less in October. I can't wait to see what wonderful goodies Shelley will want me to work with.
3. I've also been asked to join the Design Team for Sonya at Memories and More. She has some exciting things planned in the next few months and I feel really proud to be part of it all!
4. At Country Papercraft, I was really excited to win 2 challenges at their latest cybercrop - thanks for voting for me girls. We are also playing a new game - Country Papercraft's Amazing Scrapbooking Journey. I'm teamed up with my good friend Robyn and we are awarded points based on meeting the weekly challenge and by the number of identical items/techniques we both use. It runs for another 6 weeks, so Robyn and I are busy chatting, planning and scrapping. You can check out our layouts here.
5. I can't share my last piece of news with you just yet, but stay tuned!!!

I'm so excited about all the opportunities scrapping has opened up for me - it's such a great hobby or is that a lifestyle?

Cheers for now, Deb

It's been awhile........................

since I posted a message and so much has happened.

We've just got home after nearly 2 weeks away in lovely Queensland. We spent 5 days on the Gold Coast with my brother Tony, his wife Megan and now 8 year old Jackson! We stayed in a lovely house at Mermaid Beach - 5 bedrooms, plasma screen TV's, pool, playstation for the boys, table tennis table, etc. It was the perfect place to base ourselves.

Of course we did the theme park thing - 3 parks in 3 days!! The boys tell me they liked Wet 'n' Wild the best. I was very brave and went down a water slide with Shayne - what fun, but couldn't convince Bowen to give it a go. Ryan went on another one with Shayne and Tony though!

My brother was a revelation! For someone who doesn't like water, he got remarkably wet and also surprised us all by going on the Superman rollercoaster at Movieworld with Shayne who went on it twice! They are still talking about how awesome it was. Much too scary for me - I was happy to stay on the ground and take photos!

I was also really lucky to meet the wonderful Robyn - she is such a sweetie and I was sorry I couldn't stay and chat all day. She even made us some of her wonderful bikkies - the boys did leave a few for me!

We said goodbye to Tony, Megan and Jackson and then headed off to the Sunshine Coast for some rest and relaxation. Didn't do too much but enjoyed the most wonderful massage, truly relaxing!

I think I took over 1000 photos - I have included a few here for you - love how the water shots turned out!! I think I'll have plenty to scrap for the next 10 years!!

Happy birthday

Just a really quick post to say happy birthday to my darling husband Shayne for yesterday. Didn't get a chance to post, but I love you heaps.

An almost sunny day....

The weather hasn't been too wonderful lately, although the rain is definitely needed. We decided to take advantage of a nice day yesterday and took the boys (including Bowen's friend Jesse) to the playground. Ryan has decided that at 9, he is MUCH too old for the playground and wanted to kick the footy. So we went to Vansittart Park which has a playground and football ground right next to each other. I made use of the time to try out some new settings on the camera and was quite pleased with some of the photos.

I hate germs!!!

It's been a couple of weeks of illness in the Hosking household. Both Shayne and I have had some flu like virus that took a lot of convincing to leave. I had a couple of days of work but good old Shayne kept on going. It was Bowen's turn on Sunday - he spent 3 days on the couch. He went back to school on Thursday but was back home again today. Even Ryan had Wednesday off. I'm hoping that with a lovely long weekend here that we will all be back to 100% health on Tuesday.

I've got some photos from the boys soccer and football and couple of weeks ago that I haven't shared with you yet. We missed Bowen's very first game of Roo Ball but made up for it at the second game by taking lots of photos. He was very excited to have kicked 7 goals and can't wait for the next match. Ryan continues to play both Under 12 A's and B's not a bad achievement for someone in their first season.

I've been home for a week, but it feels much longer. In fact our trip is a dim, dark memory. We had a lovely time, great to catch up with Dean, Wendy, Rob and Julie and the other Toshiba-ites. Not sure that Noumea is a place I'd go back to though - VERY expensive, not a lot of shopping and there's not much else to do other than sit by the pool or beach (which is not a bad thing)!! However, we did have a nice break. Here are a few photos.

The motel was lovely and we certainly didn't starve - the mai tai's were also a hit - but at $20 each, I certainly made sure I enjoyed every last drop.

It was great to get home and catch up on all the news - not working TV, winning sports teams and an enormous pile of washing.