Time flies

My baby will be 4 tomorrow.... wow I can hardly believe it.
She has come so far. The last two years have been hard but oh so rewarding. From uncertainty if she'd ever walk to this bouncy, cheeky, heart warming and gorgeous little girl that fills my house with laughter and my heart with joy. She's talking up a storm now and mostly people are actually able to understand what she says. Admittedly she is still well behind her peers but at least she communicates without me translating, which means she is starting to make friends now too! It makes me so happy to hear her talk about her friends at kindy and to hear from those girls' mothers that their daughters talk about Annabel at home too. All the therapies and constantly practising and incorporating physio and speech excercises at home has paid off. As exhausting as it can be she is catching up. Next month she starts morning kindy and I have to admit that I think it may be harder on me than on her. I am so used to having her around me all the time. She won't leave me out of her sight. And then next month she'll be gone all morning, I won't know myself!
I worry though, about her safety on the play fort and equipment. Granted she will have someone with her for half the sessions but they will have to divide their attention between Annabel and another child with special needs. I worry she'll get pushed aside by the big kids. Her sense of balance is pretty marginal. I mean she can't even walk up and down the steps without holding on to something. When I take her to the playground I still have to watch her like a hawk, always hovering, cathing her when she misses a sport on the ladder yet again. I worry she'll be overwhelmed by the noise and activity that comes with morning kindy. She doesn't deal with large groups easily. But I have to let her go. Trust that she'll be right. It will be good for her too. But secretly I'm happy that I work there in the office two mornings a week so I can keep an eye on her just to make sure ;-).

Check me out!!

As promised finally my last entry for Last Scrapper Standing last month. Sheez has it really been that long? Anyway, had to use 10 patterned papers:

Okay, now on to more exciting stuff from the present. I saw a post on 2Peas today for someone urgently needing 'fillers' for their E-zine. Since I had some that filled the requirements I flicked her an email. She immediately emailed me back wanting all four layouts and asked if she could use me as their Featured Scrapper! The E-zine was due within an hour! As I was not familiar with their site I was a bit taken aback but agreed anyway, I mean what did I have to lose right? So I quickly typed up a bio, dug up the one and only decent picture I have of myself and sent it off. What a whirlwind afternoon. But check me out, on page two of the E-zine of Scrappin Trends. Go me!

I'll leave you with another little creation from last month I made for the Scrapgal September newsletter: a cute little mini key ring album made from two slides. If you came to a 12 hour crop last year at KiwiScraps you would have seen this in it's bare form. It was my make-n-take project. Was it the Christmas crop? Can't remember. Inside it has a few pages that I created digitally.

Feeling humbled

It's about time I posted an update.
I just want to thank everyone who have left a comment on my previous post. It really means a lot that so many people are reaching out to me. Can I just say that scrappers are the most awesome people and in many cases friends that one could ask for? Seriously, I have offers of people babysitting for me if the need arises. I am floored. And you bet I'll be taking you up on those offers you local ones!

We are doing well, but I must admit that the school holidays starting tomorrow scare me a bit. I'm thinking lots of play dates and (cheap or free) outings! Please let the weather co-operate...

With all this turmoil going on I did not get to enter For Keeps Awards for Excellence. To say that I am disappointed would be an understatement. My head just wasn't in the right place to create. I did make an attempt at a last minute rush but I never really stood a chance with my painfully slow creating pace. So now I have 3 pretty cool layouts created over the past week (that's a record for me!) with no 'home'. Well of course they have a home in my album but you know what I mean. I may just have to spend all of tomorrow night pimping them everywhere to see if at least I can get one or more published anywhere.
Annabel is starting morning kindy the second week back after the holidays which means I should have some more time to actively submit my pages. I just somehow never get around to doing that. In fact I may just make that my goal until the end of the year: actively submit to publications until they get sick of seeing my name in their inbox and take pity on me and publish my general submission.

I have a layout in the latest Scrapbook Creations (#34). I was asked to contribute something for their Astrology Article by Jeni O'Connor. I haven't seen the mag yet even if Ali has already received her complimentary copy. If you see this layout you'll be able to tell that my current status as a solo mom doesn't exactly came out of the blue. I've got another one coming out in issue 38 - a scrap therapy layout that one is, created before the bubble burst so the commentary with it won't be exactly current.

Ill post my final entry for the Last Scrapper Standing in the next day or two as I never got around to posting that here. Unfortunately blogger won't let me upload it today.

A family of three now

On Sunday (notice the irony here, Father's Day) John went to stay with his parents for a while. Mutual decision you could say. I won't go into all the details here in such a public place but those of you who know me a bit will know that we've been struggling as a couple for a very long time.
It may be a permanent situation, it may not be. I just don't know. I do know that a major stress factor complicating my life is now at least out of sight. I am in limbo but do know it is the right thing for me at this stage. No more frustration, no more resentment, no more arguments. That's a good thing right? So for now scrapping is going on the back burner and I have to focus on ME and my kids. Not saying I won't be doing any, just not putting any pressure on myself to create something wonderful and publish worthy all the time (not that I get any picked up anyway). However I do acknowledge the benefits of 'scrap therapy' and once my head is in a better place I'm sure I'll be doing plenty of that. But for the moment I'm focussing on the practical things like money and stuff.
Had a very emotional bedtime cuddle with Thomas today, gosh this is hard.

New blog banner

I finally figured out how to replace my banner thanks to directions here by Lindsay Teague. It still took me forever though, flicking backwards and forwards to the directions and my template, but it's done!!
I won a RAK over at 2Peas a couple of weeks ago and Chris Jenkins made this one and another bonus one for me. Isn't she clever?
Not feeling chatty tonight. My life is a serious mess and I have to sort it out first, sigh.