One Sleep to Go

Only one sleep to go and she can say hooray for this
And these
Well perhaps she may need these a little longer until she regains some strength in her leg. It is 8 weeks since she broke her foot and I think that Chloe is almost counting the minutes down now until the cast comes off tomorrow.

It will be a big day tomorrow. She has a couple of specialists she needs to see so here's hoping that everything will be fine and there will be no setbacks.

It has been a big week here. Last weekend I had a work conference. It was a State Teacher Aide Conference called "Lighting the Way" put on by the LHMU and Ed Qld for professional development for Teacher Aides. There was probably about 120 of us there with as many coming from out of the district as there were with local Teacher Aides. It ended with a dinner on the Saturday evening. It is always nice to meet new people and lots of networkng was done. Thought I would share a collage of some of the guys I work or have worked with.I have also managed to do some scrapbooking this week - mostly stuff I have to get done for committments but I did manage to take up Ingeborg's challenge from her challenge blog and complete this layout.
I have not been having much luck photographing layouts lately - it seems to be too late in the day before I can get a chance to get the camera out and then there always seems to be a gloss over the photos on the layout when I take the photo. Anyone got any helpful hints on how to prevent this.

I also managed to get a few more tags done for the Scrap of Faith Hope Tins.
I have also been busy making Christmas Cards for our final scrapbooking get together for 2009 in two weeks time. I am pretty happy with them and now I feel motivated to make my own Christmas cards this year. Am really liking the BG Christmas papers this year -
Had fun using bling, Kindy Glitz and ribbon on these cards - my favourite things to use.

Last night I got to go out for dinner with the ex-Allies girls. We have been getting together for afternoon tea or dinner each month now for 3 years. Even though most of us have moved on to greener pastures, I love that we still get to spend time together. They are such an awesome group of women and we always manage to have a good time together with plenty of laughter. Unfortunately three of the girls couldn't make it last night, so we have decided that we will just have to get together for dinner again in the next month. Any excuse to get together is a good one.
Finally I have so many things to feel grateful and thankful for this week:

1. The ex-Allies girls and their friendship.
2. Laughter - a good medicine for the soul.
3. Gentle breezes and pleasant temperatures.
4. A drive to the beach with my daughter
5. Cherishing days off.
6. Fresh fruit and vegetables
7. God's promises
8. The smell and sound of rain.
9. Great doctors and wonderful medical attention.
10. God's faithful provision in supplying for us each and every day, especially in our work places.

Hope you are all having a great week - not long to the holidays and Christmas now.

Feeling pretty flat tonight

Received some really sad news today. I found out this afternoon, that one of my old neighbours was flown to Brissie today because they have found out that she has a couple of brain tumors. She rang me so that I could let one of our other neighbours know. She didn't want to ring him with the news she wanted someone to be there with him when he was told. It just breaks my heart. It seems we are surrounds by close friends and church family who are presently suffering from the dreadful "C" disease. My heart breaks for them and their families. Unfortuantely all of them are way too young.

I have been busy making these this week.


Just a few encouragement tags for the Hope Tins that the girls from Scrap of Faith put together for those going through a bit of a hard time. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos but they were taken at night - not the best time to take photos of scrapbooking unfortunately but the only time I have at the moment.
Well I need to get to bed - I have a very early start in the morning. I have a work seminar to attend all day tomorrow. 8am for and 8.30am start. The seminar finishes at 5pm and then we have the conference dinner starting at 6.30pm so it will be a full on day.

A Visit from the States

We have a great weekend. Got to catch up with a friend who is out from the States for work at the moment. He has been sent out from America to sort out a few problems at one of the coal mines just north of us, so was able to get a weekend off and pop down and visit us on the weekend. He flies home again this weekend so it was extra special to have that little catch up. Got some photos together and these are for you Angie.We all enjoyed a meal out together on Saturday night
We're hoping that they need to fly him out again sometime soon and that he can bring Angie his lovely wife with him. It has been 10 years since we have caught up with Chris in person.
Friday night Steve had the sports dinner at school and came home with this lovely surprise for me.
Also managed to do a little scrapbooking last week. Trying to still catch up on the backload of photos that are sitting on my scrap desk. These photos are from a family fun day in Brisbane back in July. The collage lifts up to reveal hidden journalling underneath.
I've also been making a few small gift cards with some of my left over paper scraps. Made a heap for some of the teachers I work with for Internation Teacher's Day last week, and then these are a few left overSome other good news that we received last week. Chloe foot is finally healing nicely and she won't need the surgery. Only two more weeks now until the plaster comes off - will probably need her crutches for a week or two after that though until she gets some strength back in her leg. She is on her second cast - these are the new colours.
It was nice to have a pretty relaxed weekend as we have a pretty busy month ahead of us.

Things I am grateful for this week.

1. Great catch up with Chris on the weekend. A friendship that has spanned a decade even though we live on the opposite sides of the world.
2. That Chloe's foot is healing and surgery is not needed
3. Awesome service at church yesterday and that one person can make a difference in the world.
4. Vibrant youth who want to share the message of the Gospel with their friends.
5. A thoughtful and loving husband
6. Pete and Amanda's engagement - about time.
7. Another day off and that I have managed to get a lot done at home
8. A cool breeze today.
9. Fresh flowers on my dining room table
10. Dedicated teachers who enjoy teaching and making the difference in the lives of their students.

Another layout.

Didn't have a lot of spare time of the weekend. We had a memorial service for a very dear old lady from church who passed away last week. She would have been 90 tomorrow. Didn't leave a lot of time to do too much. Also managed to have a girls afternoon at the Movies yesterday when about a dozen of us went and saw "Julie and Julia" Great movie, just wished it would have ended differently.

Really love this scrapbookers work - she does awesome double pages and this one is pretty much a scraplift of one of her pages. I'm working on another couple of layouts and doing a little digi scrapbooking at the moment. Will share some more soon.

Right now there are several things I am grateful for this week.

1. Fresh clean washing flapping in the breeze
2. Rest
3. Bulk Billing at the Radiologists.
4. Coffee out with Angela this morning
5. Sustaining by God's grace
6. Our Uniqueness
7. Worship Music and You Tube
8. Good Books
9. A spare half hour to update this blog
10. A moment to rest. reflect and praise God.

A Little More Scrapbooking.

Not a long post tonight - just some layouts that I have managed to do in the last week or so, plus also some photos of my gorgeous daughter at the wedding on Saturday. Who said Mums are biased. Chloe had to get a new cast on last week so she managed to colour co ordinate it eith her new dress.
A little inspiration from this lady.
The photos on the layouts below aren't the best as they were taken with a mobile phone. The only problem is they are the only photos I have.
Honoring a special friend who is visiting her sister in NY.
I have to say the photo in the layout below is one of my all time favourites, It was snapped without the girls being aware. We had spent the day with family and then shopping in the city in Brissie and were on our way home. We were walking to the bus station to catch the bus home, and these two were walking along arms around each other deep in conversation. Love that they have such a special bond and really care for each other.
Chloe had to get a new cast last week - the swelling had gone down, and there is some wastage in her muscles which meant that the cast was actually quite loose and sloppy on her foot and leg, so it was time for a new one. Chloe had it colour co ordinated to match her new dress hat she had bought for the wedding. Love these shots of her.
Photo of Chloe with her dad and a good look at her new cast.
Just a collage of a few of my favourite shots.
Must be time I hit the sack.

A Beautiful Wedding

Amidst all the drama and fires on the weekend we got to attend the wedding of Toni and Cameron. It was such a beautiful wedding. Cameron is a pretty quite sort of guy - but he had the biggest grin all day. It was just so lovely to be a part of their very special day.
Thought I would add a couple of collages too.
We had our monthly scrapbooking Saturday last weekend too and I did manage to get a couple of layouts done which I will share in the next couple of days.
I had the day off yesterday - it felt so good, after such a hectic weekend, it was nice not to have to rush back to work. I get to have three day weekends for the rest of the year now. I am so looking forward to them. Think I could become very used to them.

Things I am thankful for this week

1. The day off work yesterday
2. Celebrating marriage -
3. Big smiles and happy faces
4. Being able to multitask
5. Our wonderful firefighters
6. Community Spirit and Kindness
7. A life well lived
8. An eternal home in Heaven
9. God's patience and grace with me.
10. Our beautiful church family.

Terrible Bushfires

You know you read and hear about the horrible bushfires that Victoria went through earlier this year but you never really comprehend or understand quite the severity of them or what those living through them went through. Today parts of our city have been under a state of emergency as people have been evaculated form their homes as the fires move closer and closer to the city. Homes have been destroyed, and the whole town in covered in a thick cloud of smoke with ash falling everywhere. There has been an eerie feeling about the town and a just a churning in the gut. These are not my photos but they did capture just how close the fires have come to our beautiful city.
I would ask that you pray for all those fighting the fires in Rocky - they have been working around the clock now for almost two weeks - pray for those that have lost their homes and also pray for rain - we desperately need some to put these fires out. Everything is SO DRY here - we have not really had any rain here since Febraury this year. Never have fires come this close to the city before.