On the Road Again !

I am beginning to think there is a conspiracy going on and we will never get to stay in the same house for more than one Christmas.

Yep, our landlord has put up the rent by $100 per week and it is definitely time to move. Not sure what his reasoning is behind this as nothing has been done to the house in the 12 years since it has been built and he has no mortgage on it. However, it is done.

Luckily it did not take us long to find a new place this time round as we were no longer constrained by school zones. I contacted Eilish's school and they said they were happy to keep her irrespective of where we end up. Yippee!

The new place is a lot closer to the places the kids do their sports so I am also looking at less driving. See, it gets better all the time.

There has to be a 'but' don't you think?

Here comes the 'but'.

Actually it is not too much of a but so much as a feature we will get creative about. We are moving to a much smaller house. Gosh, you must all be saying, and Gosh it most certainly is. Although we have had 3 international moves and a few domestic moves we seemed to be constantly moving into larger places and then still managing to fill them up.

The new place is a smallish courtyard home with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, small lounge and open plan kitchen, dining, family room with an island of grass out the back. For those of you who remember our house back in Moera many many moons ago, it is not too much larger than that.

I think we are all going to see a lot more of each other than we are used to.

Today Gary and I took Connor's bed apart yet again. Another reason why we would be more than happy to stay in one place longer than a year. It is not so much a bed as it is a jigsaw puzzle, with many pieces. Connor decided to come and help as the electric drill was involved. Boys and their toys, lol.

As his bed is spread across the floor Connor is now sleeping on the fold out double bed in the study. This will limit my computer time a bit but he is over the moon as the big bed just rocks mum!

I haven't been too busy with my camera of late but managed to take a few pics of Connor at rugby training and yes, even scrapped them.

Template: http://jonigray.blogspot.com/

Papers: http://digitreats.typepad.com/

Well they do say that Tomorrow Never Comes - oops!

I was going to do an update post the very day after my blog hopping post but life kinda 'hopped' away with me. I think I should change my name to taxi. Lol !

We had a very busy week followed by a busy weekend. In fact, I think Gary and the kids went to work/school this morning for a rest.

Here is our last week -

Monday- Connor had a pupil free day so we had mum and son time, followed by homework.

Tuesday- Eilish had rowing after school and we had to drive out to get her (30 mins each way).

Wednesday- Rowing cancelled due to heat. However a friend was feeling a bit lonely as her husband was away on a sailing trip so she came over for a couple of drinks and stayed for dinner.

Thursday- Rugby training in the evening and stay at the club for a bit of a catch up

Friday- Connor has two friends over to play after school. My friend and her 2 kids also pop over for a catch up. Everyone stays for dinner.

Saturday- I have a rugby conference to attend and Gary takes the kids to Nippers. Conference ends early and we all fall back to the pub. Great plans are hatched and it is off to someones place for drinks and pizza. Late night had by all.

Sunday- Catch up on sleep and then work on cleaning the house frantically as we are finally having our first property inspection since moving in nearly a year ago.

Monday- Here we go again!

I did however find a little time to scrap.

I am loving playing around with the block templates at the moment so you may see a few more of these kind of layouts. For all you kiwis the pics are from when we lived in NZ and Connor went to Belmont Playcentre.

He was the type of kid who hated getting dirty and would only involve himself in messy play with a stick, if he had to. Eventually the fear of getting dirty was mastered and you had never seen a happier boy in a mud puddle. This particular day he insisted on running in and out of the big puddle until he finally fell over.

The funny bit was that all of us mums were running around like headless chickens. No, not to look after him but to find a camera. He was well and truly coated, even his gumboots were filled to the brim with muddy water. Camera found. Pics taken and at last he could be emptied out and changed.

Credits: Template-http://niniedesigns.blogspot.com/

WordArt-http://elegantwordart2.blogspot.com/

Papers&Elements-http://summertimedesigns.blogspot.com/ (Courage set)

Been Tagged, Blog Hopping and a new Layout at last

This could turn into a bit of a long post so get comfy and you can always listen to the music on my blog. I have been tagged by Kathy of WordArt Fun to participate in a photo challenge. Now this is the type of challenge I like as I don't have to think, lol. Here's how it works: •Go to your photo folder in your computer •Go to the 6th folder of photos •Go to the sixth picture •Put the picture on your blog and a description of it •Invite six friends to join the challenge •Link them in your blog and let them know they have been challenged! So I went to my pictures folder and looked for my 6th folder. This turned out to be where I am storing all the scanned versions of the kids baby and early childhood pics. Here is photo number 6 This photo was taken way back in January 2002 when Rox came to stay with us for some of the school holidays. I had scanned these pics with the thought of scrapping them eventually. So, of course I had to scrap them now. My new layout is below but first, to pass the challenge on. My contacts in the digiscrapping community are fairly limited so I decided to look around and the first site I stopped off at had the same thoughts as me. Blog Hopping! So here I go. . . Pamela - Blog Hopping rocks Lindsay Jane -wow, when you blog hop you find other people who live just round the corner from you. Mo - my good friend who always has a camera attached to her face. Lou - for her tour of Derbyshire Nicole - a new blog hopping discovery. Your collaborations rock. Bethany - I know you love to take pics (when you remember your camera, lol) and thanks for the great WA I have used in my latest layout. I think that is everyone. Now I can post my newest layout if you are all still with me. Remember, you can click on this image to enlarge it and see the pics. The kids are quite cute.

Credits: WordArt -http://elegantwordart2.blogspot.com/ Template -http://teristhingomyjigs.blogspot.com/ Papers&Elements - http://kimbsdesigns.blogspot.com/ (Fresh Posey kit)

Will update tomorrow on our goings on.

Who pulled the Plug? (and yes, I am alive)

You may recognise this picture from one of my previous posts. It is the river Torrens which runs between North Adelaide and Adelaide city. Chris took this picture when he and Rox were visiting us last month. Doesn't it look picturesque!

Unfortunately someone pulled the plug. What an eyesore!

The Adelaide City Council is beside itself. The river Torrens is a big part of the scenic look of Adelaide city and now it is just sludge. There is talk of mechanical malfunctions of the weir gate and hints of possible vandalism. I am not too sure if the true reason has been unearthed yet but I sure do know it is gonna stink as the weather heats up.

For now it is Adelaide's newest tourist destination. I swear I haven't seen so many people rubber necking as they walk or drive past ( me included heh heh ).

Now, I am alive but have elsewhere occupied. I have been working furiously on the rugby club website http://www.vikingssa.rugbynet.com.au/, take a look if you feel like it but also just generally feeling uncreative. I had a small problem with my eye which has now resolved itself but looking at computers was not too comfortable at the time. So onward to sit at my comp.

Eilish has settled in wonderfully to High School life and has even been known to walk home on the occasional non boiling hot day. Tomorrow she is off to West Lakes to try out for the school rowing team. Normally training and trials would be on the river Torrens but, ITS NOT THERE! The good thing about junior high school rowing is that it is in the afternoons. That whole horrible 5.30 in the morning thing doesn't start til they are a senior at the school. will update again on Eilish's thoughts.

Rugby training starts on Thursday night though I have a committee meeting on Wednesday night first. Nippers goes til the end of March so there will be a double up for a while but hopefully no clashes.

Time to go, book and coffee calling.

A slight drop in temperature

It looks as though a bit of relief could be on the way. While it is not cool it is no longer over 40 degrees. I still break in to a sweat each time I do the ironing and popping out to hang the washing in the garage is like visiting a sauna. However, the temperature to set to slowly drop and we may even manage to slide back into the 20's by Sunday.

The above layout is of Connor on a Nippers (junior surf) day. I decided to have a little play around with colouring and erasing parts of pictures. I quite like the overall effect.

We all went down to Nippers this past Saturday, but as it was over 40 degrees (how unusual) Nippers was cancelled. The kids still had access to all the boards and there was many a child standing up trying to catch a wave or two.

While I remember. A funny story!

Eilish and Connor decided they would both like to have a go at growing some flowers. As we have no garden/dirt to speak of in our rental property we purchased a couple of plastic planters. The kids have been religiously watering their little charges and we have even brought them inside as it was too hot out. It was Connor's turn to water them this afternoon and at dinner he had a question to ask me.

"Mum, a few of the leaves on my plants are brown. Are they dead or just tanned?"

I think his brain cell may have got a bit tanned, lol!