Life isn't always fair

Tonight I am feeling pretty angry and sad. We have had two devastating incidents in Rocky this week - last night after Steve had left to go pick up Chloe from work, I got a phone call from her to say that either her dad or I had to go into the shopping centre and the store to pick her up, she was not allowed out into the car park on her own. As Steve didn't have his phone on him, I ended up having to drive down as well. Appartently one of the young girls was raped the night before as she finished work and walked around to the back of the store to get a lift home. She was attached and taken into a stair well leading to the underground carpark. She was only 15 - a couple of years younger than Chloe. It all happened accross the road from the school I work at - in fact a lot of the parents sit on this wall each afternoon as they await their children. It makes me angry that our children don't have the freedom to walk out of work safely to their cars.
Also one of our little children witnessed his dad being bashed the night before too by a drunken neighbour who came into his house and knocked his dad unconcious. His dad is now in hospital in intensive care in an induced coma, and this poor child had to witness the lot - sometimes life is so unfair. Spare a thought for these families and remember them in your prayers - their lives have changed forever.

I have had another week of scrapbooking this week, and I am enjoying the chance to have a bit of time to myself to scrapbook. I have done a few of the May challenges from Scrap of Faith, so thought I would also share. It has been a pretty quite week here, Steve is much better and is back at work - feeling a little stressed though as exams start in a couple of weeks and he still has so much work to catch up on with the kids. In total this week he has over two weeks off on sick leave. This is a first for him, normally he would be lucky to take a couple of days a year. Anyway these are the layouts I have done this week. The first one is just a layout I have done for me. It is a snap shot I took of Chloe one day at the gardens - she was totally unaware that I had even taken this photo, but I just love how she was totally enjoying watching all the kids have a ball on all the play equipment.

This second layout is for one of the Scrap of Faith Challenges. Challenge 5 - Mystery Challange - "Meet with God". Scrap a layout or OTP which shares where you meet with God. This might be your Church, your Bible study group, the top of a mountain, the shower ... wherever it might be where you feel you meet with God.

Although i regularly spend time with God at home in my bedroom or office, it is the times that I sit watching the sun set or the waves rolling in on the beach that I am really aware of God's aweseomeness and his power. I guess being a creative person, watching a sunset like this reminds me that God is also creative and that each sunrise and sunset are an expression of his creativity, as the colour is splashed across the evning sky. Scenes like this really do bring me into the presence of God and makes me want to worship and praise HIM.

This third layout is for Challenge 3 - Word Challenge - The word for May is "WORLD". Do a Layout or Off the Page project based on "WORLD". I loved doing this layout, we serve an awesome God who not only created the world but the Universe, so infinity bigger than we can ever comprehend, and yet he loved us and set his son to die for us so that we would have a relationship with him in Heaven forever. I was really happy with the way this layout turned out.

Have had a little time to play with my new camera this week. I still have so MUCH to learn, am still a little nervous about taking photos that are really important to me, so tend to still grab the old camera for those important shots. I am trying to play with it more and take photos of things around me so that I can learn more about how it really works. I wonder if I will ever get the hang of it. Still these next few photos are just some shots of some of the things around me that I love.

Love a good foot massage, some girlie flicks, my JOY Journal, some of my pretty matching cushions, my hot chocolate, slippers, my wedding rings, Chloes fun cushions, and the ornate carvings of my full length mirrow. I really think I need to do a course though and might need to look into that.

These last few photos were also taken with my new camera. This is my sweet baby sound asleep. Each evening she comes out to give her dad a hug, and ends up getting him to tickle her whilst she watches a bit of TV. She didn't last too long on this occassion, she was out like a light within 5 minutes.

There is a never ending battle to get one young lady to keep her room tidy - this photo is just to document that it can be done - just doesn't last too long like this. Still we perservere, and hopefully one day it will happen.

Not much else to share this week - tomorrow we have our monthly scrapbooking get together - I am looking forward to catching up with some of the girls - it seems ages since I have seen quite a few of them. Meanwhile I need to go organise some scrapbooking to do. Might also have to go have a bit of a shop in the morning before I go - heard that Embellished has just received another big shipment of new stock. Yum Yum.

Trust you all have a great weekend.

Just leaving you with this quote which I read on Mel's blog.

What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind...
LET IT BE SOMETHING GOOD. Amby Nic Montage