Christmas Chaos

I know I have been such a bad little blogger lately...but I got bit by the Christmas scrapping bug and I have been real busy.





I was in a little bit of a scrapping slump, but the cybercrop at Chookscraps on the weekend fixed that. I got all three challenges done in record time (for me) and then I move onto some personal scrapping.

Challenge 1 was to create a layout about someone that is special to you - can be a relative or a friend. It also had to include ribbons and or bows and at least one tag on your layout. I chose Boo's best friend Harley as that special someone. I used some fantastic Daisy D papers and a little hand stitching to finish this layout.
Challenge 2 was to choose one of the Chookscraps December challenges and complete it. I chose to use the fantastic skectch that Tess sent in early this year and scrap the girls decorating our tree. I used the delicious Basic Grey papers on this LO. They are so rich in colour and design....Challenge 3 was another sketch and I used another of the Chookscraps December Challenges for inspiration. I dug out an old photo of me in preschool, I am dressed as an angel for the Christmas nativity play. I also found photos of Boo and Lolly in fairy costumes, photos of them taken around the Christmases at the time. I've used some more Basic Grey, some more hand stitching...and I doodled!!! I never doodle!!! I'm not sure I am entirely happy with this lo, but there it is and I am not pulling it apart again.I also indulged in a little personal "just for fun" scrapping of Bret Domrose. I have these fantastic photos of him and the softball team he occasionally plays with...the Burbank Dirtstars. The Dirtstars are a group of musicians/actors/entertainers that play professional E grade softball. I found the sketch for this LO in a mag a while ago and I knew I wanted to use it for these photos...I just hadn't gotten around to it till now.I was so eager to keep scrapping that I started on Christmas presents for people. First up was a calendar for Kandle. For the past two years I have made her a Keanu calendar...last year I purchased a 12 x 12 calendar blank that I promptly forgot about. I found it while cleaning out my scrapping cupboard on Monday. I quickly got busy! I put the last page to this calendar this morning and now I just need to add the finishing touches. So here we have it....twelve pages of Keanu Reeves....


All thats left to do now is two little altered board books, a canvas album, a dozen Christmas cards, two gingerbread houses, grocery (and Christmas) shopping, a slumber party for 4 eleven year old girls and I guess I need to start wrapping some presents....note to self....BUY WRAPPING PAPER!

A Book MeMe

This was posted at another blog I read at...you just copy the list...bold the ones you have read and then add three more books to the list...

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corellis Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy2
1. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling2
4. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The DUrbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alices Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnet
t52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Joness Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Aue
l93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnights Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. Georges Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilso
n140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick OBrian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlottes Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winters Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winters Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline LEngle
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. OBrien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen Gods Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setters Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookmans Wake, John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach
292. Magics Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magics Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magics Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison.
301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.
302. Enders Game, Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lions Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucaults Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Liliths Brood), Octavia Butler
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magics Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime ONeill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante
356. The Apology, Plato
357. The Small Rain, Madeline LEngle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
335. The Interpreter, Suzanne
. The Moors Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
343. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo3
46. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
350. Time for Bed by David Baddiel
351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold3
52. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
355. Jhereg by Steven Brust
356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
361. Neuromancer, William Gibson
362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
367. Childhoods End, Arthur C. Clarke
368. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman
369. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
370. The God Boy, Ian Cross
371. The Beekeepers Apprentice, Laurie R. King
372. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
373. Misery, Stephen King
374. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
375. Hood, Emma Donoghue
376. The Land of Spices, Kate OBrien
377. The Diary of Anne Frank
378. Regeneration, Pat Barker
379. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
380. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia
381. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
382. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
383. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
384. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
385. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine LEngle
386. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
387. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) - translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest
388. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
389. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill
390. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
391. The Things We Carried, Tim OBrien
392. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
393. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
394. Enders Shadow, Orson Scott Card
395. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card
396. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen
397. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
398. A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle
399. Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
400. Hyperion, Dan Simmons
401. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor
402. The Bridge, Iain Banks
403. The Baghdad Blog, Salam Pax
404. Life and Death, Andrea Dworkin
405. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Mark Haddon
406. The Girl In Times Square, Paullina Simmons
407. Angel Puss, Colleen McCullough
407. Hairy McClary From Donaldsons Dairy, Lynley Dodd

I tag all of you...but especially Jini and Kandle!!

TIS THE SEASON

Some links to some Christmas fun and games for this silly season!

Decorate a few gingerbread men here:

http://agoverflow.shockwave.com/christmasecard/christmas.swf

Help Rudolph get his revenge here:

http://www.mostfungames.com/rudolph-s-revenge.htm

Snowball some kids here:

http://www.iconnicholson.com/holiday/

And decorate a virtual Christmas tree here:

http://www.funranch.com/games/tree/

Go Kart Blast!

Part of my work day is spent with a little boy that has Aspergers' (a high functioning form of Autism)...I love the time I get to spend with my little buddy, and over the past two years we have formed a very good relationship. I have a lot of time for him and I find him very rewarding (and a little frustrating at times!).

I am lucky in the fact that I have known this little guy for a lot longer than I have been working with him, as he used to go to family day care with Boo. He is such a special part of my workload and I look forward to spending time and chatting with him each day.

All this past term he has chattered on and on about his go karts. He is extremely fixated on them and he can tell you all sorts of things about how they work and don't work.

Early in the term he asked C and I to come up and watch him ride his go karts.....and later he asked us to ride them. It was the perfect "bribe" to keep him focused over these past eight weeks!

He would start to act out or become distracted and it was a simple matter of saying..."Hey buddy, we need to get through this work before we can come ride your go karts." And he would for the most part get right back on track.

Well that day rolled around soon enough....last Thursday afternoon C and I went to spend the afternoon with my little buddy!

Now at school my little buddy is very quiet and tends to be a little withdrawn and he can lack self confidence, but WOW!! The little boy we got to see in action on his go kart was an entirely different boy!

He was so self assured...he talked to us about the go karts...about how they worked, how to steer, how to accelerate and brake, where not to touch and where we were allowed to ride them.

Once he got on and started riding...all the inner tension in him just melted. He was relaxed and totally in his element. I melted just a little at seeing this usually hidden part of him.

So after he had shown off a little it was C's and my turn for a blast....and what a blast it was!! These things are seriously fun! We spent about 40 minutes zooming around a figure of eight track, laughing like loons and trying not to lose control of the karts and driving off the side of the hill they live on.

They aren't easy to drive and if you are looking for an all over workout this is a fun way to do it. Both C and I were feeling the effects of this the next day.

Now I wonder if I asked Santa nicely would he bring me a go kart for Christmas?

Christmas Tag!

Natalie tagged everyone over at her blog with this....

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate with little marshmallows, but I am with Nat on this one...Christmas here is not the time for hot chocolate...so give me ice cold iced water or a diet coke.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa wraps EVERYTHING. Lolly and Kate get two totally different wrapping papers and friends & family get something totally different.

3. Colored lights or white lights on tree/house? Coloured I love them.

4. Do you hang Mistletoe? No

5. When do you put your decorations up? Most of it goes up on the 1st December but the girls tend to add to it right up till Christmas day.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? With out a doubt it would be my SIL's chilli bean salad, sadly it's been two years since I had any of this.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I think any christmas I had surrounded by my family was good.

8. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope!

9. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Not sure...I think I was about 10 0r 11.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I do the lights first and then tinsel then the girls add the rest of the.

11. Snow love it or dread it? HATE IT! IT'S COLD...IT'S WET...AND TOTALLY UNCHRISTMASSY! (did I mention it's cold?)

12. Do you remember your favorite gift? No I think cause each year there was a new favourite!!

13. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? I love the time spent with family and friends...the giving...the loving...the whole feel of it!

14. What tops your tree? An angel.

15. What’s your favorite holiday tradition? We always catch up with friends on Christmas Eve!

16. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I love giving!

17. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Trifle or plum pudding with cream.

18. What is your favorite Christmas song? I love all Christmas carols, but my favorite would have to be O Come All Ye Faithful.

19. Candy Canes? Sometimes....

20. What is your favorite Christmas special/movie? I love The Polar Express but the fave on of the girls would have to be Babes In Toyland (stop snikering Bec!!)

Tag your it :)

Today is the last day.....

SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER

Christmas Humor

Scrapping the Day Away!

Last Sunday saw me at the EMM Christmas Crop Day. It was an all day crop starting at 10am and finishing at 5pm....with a huge group of us going out to dinner afterwards. It was so nice to meet some new faces and catch up with some old ones (Hi Ruthy and Heather...not sure if you read here or not!).



As usual we Chooks sat together and for once I actually got some scrapping done! Usually I sit and chatter and shuffle papers around...I had so many projects to do that I really needed to work. So I put my head down and got to.



I completed three altered journals and an altered tin for Lolly to hand out to friends for Christmas, Nat's cj page, one whole LO and started on a second! Never before have I got so much done in one crop...my mojo is back!!!

Walking In a Ginger Wonderland

All this term on Fridays the middle session at school have been devoted to cooking. We have made sandwiches, pizzas, cookies and trifle, but on Friday we made something amazing! We made "faux" gingerbread houses!

Instead of traditional gingerbread the kids used Cruskit biscuts, which we iced to milk cartons for extra stability. We used a lot of royal icing as "cement" and mountains of lollies and cereal as building materials.

Before we started building we talked about houses and how to build them, we talked about what can make a house fall down (earthquakes, cyclones, UFO's crashing into it, etc.) and we talked about the importance of not eating your building materials. The kids came up with this list of rules for building gingerbread houses.....

1. No trading!

2. No eating building materials

3. No licking fingers

4. KEEP AWAY FROM MISS B.!!

5. No touching or put downs of other houses!

6. Don't put too much on the roof

7. Save the "grass" till last

8. No mess on the carpet

9. Don't squeeze out to much icing.

10. No whinging! No getting upset if a collapse happens.

11. Have fun and be creative!

After discussing all these things, we split up into four groups with each group having a parent / teacher helper. This is the result of two hours of intense builing and a whole lot of fun....

These kids never fail to amaze me...they are sweeter than the sweetest lollies on their houses, and so creative it blows me away. We had not one upset, even the rattiest kids in the class were so into this activity. I was so proud of all of them I nearly cried.

It is lessons like this that make me contemplate going to university and getting my teaching degree!

Get Your Thinking Caps On....

A friend sent this quiz to my email and I am passing it on to you all this way. The average person only gets 7 correct. This is mainly based on aussie. info, so those of you that are from shores afar are going to have to think harder.


There are 25 questions about things we see every day or have known about all our lives. How many can you get right? These little simple questions are harder than you think...it just shows you how little we pay attention to the commonplace things of life.

Put your thinking caps on. No cheating! No looking around! No getting out of your chair! No using anything on or in your desk or computer! Can you beat 23?? (The average is 7) Write down your answers as you go. Check answers (click on my reply button at the bottom the answers are in there), AFTER completing all the questions.

REMEMBER - NO CHEATING!!! BE HONEST!!! LET'S JUST SEE HOW OBSERVANT YOU REALLY ARE. Here we go!

1. On a standard traffic light, is the green on the top or bottom?

2. How many states are there in the Australia? (Don't laugh, some...people don't know)

3. In which hand is the United States' Statue of Liberty 's torch?

4. What six colors are on the classic Campbell's soup label?

5. What two numbers on the telephone dial don't have letters bythem?

6. When you walk does your left arm swing with your right or leftleg? (Don't you dare get up to see!)

7. How many matches are in a standard box

8. On the Australian flag, how many stars are there ?

9. What is the lowest number on the FM dial?

10. Which way does water go down the drain, counter or clockwise?

11. Which way does a "no smoking" sign's slash run?

12. What is the channel range available on a UHF TV ?

13 On which side of a women's blouse are the buttons?

14. Which way do fans rotate?

15 How many sides does a stop sign have?

16. Do books have even-numbered pages on the right or left side?

17 How many wheel nuts are on a standard car wheel?

18. How many sides are there on a standard pencil?

19. Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Doc. Who's missing?

20. How many hot dog buns are in a standard package?

21 On which playing card is the card maker's trademark?

22 On which side of a Venetian blind is the cord that adjusts the opening between the slats

23. There are 12 buttons on a touch tone phone. What 2 symbols bear no digits?

24. How many curves are there in the standard paper clip?

25. Does a merry-go-round turn counter or clockwise?

Ok...click the reply button for the answers. I got 14 correct...how did you do?

Advent Time

Each year the girls usually get some commercial brand advent calendar with little squares of chocolate inside. For some reason these have always bugged me. I mean Christmas is not about Barbie, or Cars, or Bratz or whoever it is that they plaster all over the calendars. I have spent past Christmases contemplating making an advent calendar for the girls, and this year I finally got off my butt and did something about it.

It's not a traditional calendar though full of toys or chocolates..this calendar is full of fun and promises and things to do.

I covered 25 matchboxes with some of the gorgeous Basic Grey Dasher range...I added some red ribbon and made tags with the day on them to attatch to the boxes. I cut little tickets from my Sizzix machine and on them I have written little things for them to do.

1. Lets make chocolate milkshakes for afternoon tea.

2. Put up the Christmas Tree

3. Fold origami for the Christmas tree

4. Write a letter to Santa.

5. Make a Christmas card for someone special

6. Have a bubble bath

7. Wrap a present for the giving tree

8. Today is the last day of school

9. Paint your toenails

10. Camp out in the lounge room

11. Make popcorn and watch a movie

12. Bake cookies for morning tea

13. We are going to the pool this afternoon

14. Have a crazy hair day

15. Lets go to the movies after lunch

16. Work on your scrapbooks

17. Lets go look at the Christmas lights

18. Make some puppets

19. Have an indoor picnic for lunch

20. Make cards for grandma and grandad

21. We are going to the park early this morning

22. Have a campout in the lounge room

23. Give yourself a makeover

24. Pack to go to grandma and grandads

25. It Christmas Day! Open your presents, have fun, eat lots and get an early night sleep tomrrow you are going to grandma and grandads!

Most of these things they will be able to do by themselves. I wanted just a few outings that are easy to organize and low cost hence the movies and the pool. I plan on taking pictures of all the things they do and then make an advent mini album in the new year.

The girls opened the first one this morning...and once they realised what was inside them they were very excited and can't wait to see what each day is going to bring them.

Scrappin' In the Chook House

This Saturday just gone I meet up with some of the local Chookscraps girls for a day of scrapping and fun.

Staring left to right...Kathy, Lorraine, Nicole, Jo, Myself and Ally (we also got to meet Melody later in the day)

It was a wonderful, relaxing day full of chat and laughter with a lot of sharing of ideas and scrapbooks. Hopefully we can do this again early next year.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

I am just a little excited here! I got an email yesterday morning to say that my application to become a Chookscraps Design Team member had approved!




I was a little hesitant to apply at the start, having done so once before and been turned down. As you well know my self esteem has taken a battering again recently and I wasn't sure weather I could handle another "Thanks but no thanks" letter. If if wasn't for a certain few of you I doubt I would have even applied, I got sick of you all constantly nagging and did it to quieten you all. Never believing that I would actually get in.



So this is for you all.....

Thank you all for your constant support...for believing in me...for keeping me focused and grounded. Thank you for being there when I lose it...for sharing in my ups and downs...THANK YOU!

Happy Birthday to You....

Happy birthday to you.....happy birthday dear Crocket....happy birthday to you....1906 - The International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin adopted the SOS distress signal that means "Save Our Souls."

1910 - Arthur F. Knight patented a steel shaft to replace wood shafts in golf clubs. 1917 - The National Hockey League (NHL) was officially formed in Montreal, Canada.

1928 - In Paris, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was first performed publicly.

1935 - The first trans-Pacific airmail flight began in Alameda, CA, when the flying boat known as the China Clipper left for Manila. The craft was carrying over 110,000 pieces of mail.

1942 - During World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad began.

1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss the measures for defeating Japan.

1950 - The lowest scoring game in the NBA was played. The Fort Wayne Pistons (later the Detroit Pistons) defeated the Minneapolis Lakers (later the Los Angeles Lakers) 19-18.

1961 - The film, "A Man for All Seasons", opened in New York City.

1963 - U.S. President Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, TX. Texas Governor John B. Connally was also seriously wounded. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was inaugurated as the 36th U.S. President.

1967 - The U.N. Security Council approved resolution 242. The resolution called for Israel to withdraw from territories it had captured in 1967 and called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.

1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon lifted a ban on American travel to Cuba. The ban had been put in place on February 8, 1963.

1974 - The U.N. General Assembly gave the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.

1975 - Juan Carlos I was proclaimed King of Spain upon the death of Gen. Francisco Franco.

1975 - "Dr. Zhivago" appeared on TV for the first time. NBC paid $4 million for the broadcast rights.

1977 - Regular passenger service on the Concorde began between New York and Europe.

1983 - The Bundestag approved NATO's plan to deploy new U.S. nuclear missiles in West Germany.

1984 - Fred Rogers of PBS' "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" presented a sweater to the Smithsonian Institution.

1985 - Anne Henderson-Pollard was taken into custody a day after her husband Jonathon Jay Pollard was arrested for spying for Israel.

1985 - 38,648 immigrants became citizens of the United States. It was the largest swearing-in ceremony.

1986 - An Iranian surface-to-surface missile hit a residential area in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, wounding 20 civilians.

1986 - Mike Tyson became the youngest to wear the world heavyweight-boxing crown. He was only 20 years and 4 months old.

1988 - The South African government announced it had joined Cuba and Angola in endorsing a plan to remove Cuban troops from Angola.

1989 - Rene Moawad, the president of Lebanon, was assassinated less than three weeks after taking office by a bomb that exploded next to his motorcade in West Beirut.

1990 - U.S. President Bush, his wife, Barbara, and other congressional leaders shared Thanksgiving dinner with U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.

1990 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced she would resign.

1993 - Mexico's Senate overwhelmingly approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.

1993 - American Airlines flight attendants ended their strike that only lasted four days.

1994 - Inside the District of Columbia's police headquarters a gunman opened fire. Two FBI agents, a city detective and the gunman were killed in the gun battle.

1994 - In northwest Bosnia, Serb fighters set villages on fire in response to a retaliatory air strikes by NATO.

1998 - CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a tape of Jack Kevorkian giving lethal drugs in an assisted suicide of a terminally ill patient. Kevorkian was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.

2005 - Angela Merkel was elected as Germany's first female chancellor.

2005 - Microsoft's XBOX 360 went on sale.

Time Out For A Little Dummy Spit....