Deadline is approaching

The deadline for the Memory Lane Scrapbooking design team call is approaching rapidly and I'm happy to say we have some great entries so far !! Very curious to see what we will be getting in the mailbox over the next few days !

This Sunday we'll have to make some tough decisions @ our design team lunch as we all have our fave's and since I have no number in my head as to how many this could be a fun outcome LOL. But mainly we'll be having some serious fun at this lunch & crop !

Saturday & Sunday update

On Saturday, after the Elsie F. workshop we went to the beach, although the weather was a bit strange we decided to take the chance, and it was great ! Michael brought his friend Tijmen and they had lots of fun and we found some great crab(parts) and seashells.



On Sunday we went to the Koningin Julianatoren a fun park for kids (big and small) and had a great day. We were unexpectadly surprised at how affordable this park was, the food and snacks and you get coffee and tea for free ! Next time we are definately packing lighter ! The park opens @ 10.00 but that's only the entrance, @ 10.30 the big mouse Jul comes and cuts the ribbon so that all the children can enter the park. And you know what WE WERE ON TIME, woohoo. For those of you who know us personally you know that is quite an achievement ....... So that's why I HAD to take a photo of my watch ..... Michael was in his sulky I am not treated equally and I'm tired mood stoday, so he's not too happy on all the photo's but thank god these were just a few moments throughout the day. The boys went in just about all the rides they could go in, and were really tired at the end of the day. The park closes at 17.00 so that's a reasonable time and we could be home at a normal time. They didn't fall asleep in the car but on monday morning I had to wake Michael @ 7.30 and Colin got out of bed @ 7.45 !! Here are some photo's:



I was a bit freaked out in the pherris wheel (yes I know it wasn't a big one), I just don't like to be high in the air going very slow and rocking a bit. It either has to go real fast or stand still ! So Ed was having a ball taking photo's on which I tried to look normal but was not happy at all.

Elsie

The Elsie workshop "Culture Study" was so great. She's actually not like you would expect from her photo's & lo's, almost shy. She has a very soft voice, really modest and very complementary too.
I didn't finish the album yet, as it was quite a project in so little time but I really enjoyed making it. Will show it soon (I hope) but I may take it with me to my scrapbook retreat in november ....

Some of the people that make me happy !

The next day things always are better, and so they are for me. THX everyone for the sweet messages, tears and smiles were seen and my afternoon became better and better. Here's some of the people that make me happy (photo's courtesy of my sweet friend Wendy, sorry for some of the chopped off parts courtesy of Picasa2....)






And I'm working hard on collecting all the stuff for the Elsie workshop on saturday (@ 10.00) but I'm also working on the homework for my 1 week in my life book. Hard work in the prep scrap department as you can imagine.

Here's some pic's I will be taking with me .....

E C H O

I am so grumpy (chagrijnig), Gone to bed too late for too many nights in a row, my own fault I know, but I really can't do it or this happens..... The weather sucked all morning totally everything I was airing is soaked, I am not getting any comments on my blog for 2nd post in a row, I am overweight (ok only 3 kilo's but hey on me those xtra kilo's always give me an xtra row around my waist), my house is a mess even though I have been spending every free moment to unclutter, we forgot the little diary for the crow at my mothers so I had to return it to school without it and I am so behind on all kinds of projects and I'm taking it out on everyone (ie. my mom and the kids). Boy do I feel like a great person today ....
**** ok I'm such a dope, people have been leavind messages, I appearantly installed that i want to moderate the comments, I had like 17 posts.... gotta find where I can turn that off. My first smile of the day when I found this out .....and then tears as I was touched by so many sweet posts ***

Funfilled weekend for all

On Thursday Michael brought home a friend who would be staying over, meet "zwaai de logeerkraai" ( Zwaai the stayover crow) school project about caring for a guest. Zwaai was lucky as we had a sportsday (see him hanging in the bag ?) on friday and then the M&M's went to grandma Xena and grandpa Jan for the weekend so he was sure to have loads of fun just as the kids alway have.


Saturday was fun for me as Martine and I were at the arts & crafts market in Hoofddorp to promote MLS and scrapbooking, even though the new scrapbookstore opened in Hoofddorp (hmmm never received any news of this although I had registered at SAG ....) and the market in Rijswijk was open on this same day we still had a lot of great people that came by !



I had a school reunion in the evening. We met at a tapas restaurant in Delft (this is where Angelique and I went to school at the time), then went for drinks and later dancing. Had such a wonderfull time, and while looking at school pictures it turned out we could have invited a much larger group because it turned out some of us still knew more classmates than they thought they did. So we will be planning this again but bigger, and I hope in the meantime we'll repeat this evening !




And my dh, he enjoyed the quiet .....

So how was your weekend ?

Growing up too fast

Wednesday was Michael's first swimming lesson again since the summer holiday started. He almost had his first ribbon before the holiday but had to practice floating on his back. And on his 1st lesson he got the ribbon, a proud moment !



Saturday was his last ski lesson, and he was skiing so much better than the at the beginning of his advanced course. So controlled, another certificate and medal in the pocket !!



Michael called me at work on August 16th to tell me one of his front teeth was a bit wobbly. Today September 10th he pulled it out during dinner because it was in the way while he was eating. Wow toothfairy time already and he's only 5,5 ....







He's growing up fast ...

1st day of School

Just thought I'd share this , here's a pic I take every year of Michael on the 1st day of school. Ed decided I should have mine taken too ....





My first week at school was a breeze, very quiet since students weren't taking classes yet. This week is another story... Had my first confrontation with some students who thought our learning centre was a meeting point and at 12.00 again they thought this was the lunch/coffee break point .... So I had to deal with them and that was no fun. I'm not that good with conflict situations at work (@ home no probs, with businesses/shops no probs but @ work ....I have no idea why that is ....) so I was shaking in my boots but it went well and after discussing with some colleagues they assured me I dealt with it in the proper way. But hey that's my job now so I have to deal with it, I'm sure it will get better as I get more confidence how to deal with this.

last holiday week

I've been a bad with blogging about our holiday so here's the quick short version of the last week of out holiday.

We went to Ouwehands Dierenpark, great weather was promised, it rained A LOT but we made the most of it and still had a nice day (after spending about 2 hours in the indoor playground there..).

Michael broke his photo-camera last year (a 160 euro camera he won in a drwaing contest when he was 3,5 !) while visiting the zoo; so I asked for info on repairs. Then this sweet guy, Frank Kramer responded by offering Michael his own first digital camera. Thanks Frank for making Michael a very happy kid!

As the weather is as usual during our holidays (bad), we decided to take the boys to BuildABear. Here they can pick a bear (or any other animal), help stuff it and dress it... THEY LOVED IT!

Our friends invited us to a nice dinner. While our friend was bringing his daughter to Tae Kwan Do he got into a small accident (check out the wheels...) The kids had a nice afternoon playing and we all eventually had a nice dinner (just a little later than planned).

Here's a couple of my fave's :

7.9.1970

Is my birthdate so do the math ....

Beach Coaster mini album

Whilst in Germany i did do a little scrapping, put a little mini album package together that she bought somewhere a long time ago. I promised to do ages ago for my mother, she liked it I didn't haha. The concept of the mini album looked fun but putting it together wasn't so I won't be using that concept.... won't show a pic either.
Made lot's of photo's in germany so I will make a little collage this week and show and tell later.

I'll tell all about my 1st week on the job in a few days as I don't have that much to share yet. The shool hasn't really started so it's a bit strange, quiet and unclear as to what to do this week. More to follow.....

Went to the dentist today for my new moulder and that went quite well, a bit of throbbing but I took a nap and all was better after that.

I've finished another little project a while back but haven't shared it yet ( I may have given a peek but it's finished now !) Used lots of techniques in this coaster album as I use it as a demo model for my technique workshop. Foto's are of a trip to the beach (we hadn't been in a while) and my ds michael went totally wild, running around yelling how much fun he was having and about loving it at the beach. It was so fun to see, not only for us, I just couldn't stop making pictures of him (which I have censured as he was in the nude, don't want an upset teenager down the line ....) !



So who has gotten their photo's popped by Anita Mundt yet ? See the message below ! I sure am getting some photo's ready for her ..... And that it's for a good cause makes it even better (2 great things for the price of 1) !

Fundraising through Cheap Photoshop Photo Conversion

A friend (Anita Mundt) has a sister who is quite ill. She wants to get her a wonderfull gift but needs to raise quite a bit of cash to surprise her, so she is offering a great cheap photo conversion service. More details here.

Greetz & chitchat from Germany

A little message with greetz from Hesel, Germany. Here visiting my nephew and his family that recently relocated to this lovely area. Femke his daughter is celebrating her 7th b'day tommorow so we picked a good time to visit. I heard that here in >Germany they don't just eat one piece of b'day cake but several, and I get to help with the shopping today. Will be looking for some yummy ones in a bit ......

So I've been reorganizing my blog and maybe you were listed and lost your listing ? Don't worry you're here ! Thing is there are scrappers that update their blog daily and bloggers that don't, there are the ones I know well and the ones I don't .... ok you get the idea right ?? I still like to read your blog but my list was just getting too long so I started a seperate blog about dutch scrappers only ! If you're not on the list let me know and I'll ad you, if you're on there and don't want to be let me know too I'll remove you. Just trying to get as big a list as possible, it will eventually become a better, alfabetical list but till then I will just be collecting ....

I am so looking forward to next week, I start my new job @ school on monday, it's my birthday on thursday and I have a girls only girly party on saturdayevening !! (so if you're bored come by, you are very welcome, I have lots of yummy food lined up !)