Crunch Time!!

I think it might be time to do it. I've been avoiding it for the last 2 or so years.

The "A" word.

Funnily we haven't come out and said to Mackinley, "Your brother has Autism." I had seriously over-estimated my ability to work around it, and Mackinley's willingness to co-operate in my "therapy-disguised-as-play" sessions.

Although we've seen great progress in both boys over the holidays, I really think the constant, "What's wrong with him?", "I don't have a brother!" and the best one, "Why can a 2 year old speak better than Rainer who's 4??". It's just wearing me down to a point of no return. Not only that, but other kids have started saying that Rainer has Autism, and I know that Mackinley will hear and question, so it has to be said.

Some people disagree with it, but for me and some others, if the Devil has a name then you can deal with it better. In this case, we need to explain this condition to Mackinley and emphasise that Rainer WILL GET BETTER, but it'll involve constant management. I'm scared as hell because if I don't do it right I'll have a very pissed off 7 year old to deal with! I'll be contacting AQ and AEIOU this week for some helpful hints.

Australia Day Grand BBQ today. Watts over again (same as last year), backyard cricket (same as last year), chooks trying to avoid the balls (something new). I'll need to make more of an effort with decorations for the kids next year. It's starting to get a bit ho-hum ... I even fell asleep today watching a DVD with Rainer!! Great day but Watt kids and Rainer to school tomorrow .... YAHOO!!

And very little FINISHED scrapping. Lots of bits here and there and experimenting with colours, shapes, textures and generally torturing ribbon, flowers, chipboard - it's been fun!!

Here's what's FINISHED....
123 entry for January and some mucking around for one of my Feb classes at Inkredible. I think I'll frame this one.


and for the CC at Forever Always "Do you See" - trying out some cool colour combos and painted backgrounds and altering photos. I do love teal cardstock!!


HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY HOLIDAY.
Brighter and buoyant.....

back to creating

Yep, and it feels good!!!
I couldn't stand it anymore. I had sooo many ideas in my head, I thought I would explode.

So here's a sneak peek at a sample of ONE of the classes in February. It's a step-up from the Texture Paste class last year, so if you're feeling more adventurous, keep an eye out for the updated class list in the side bar.



It's collage-inspired, but you know I'll never go completely nuts with the collagey stuff (heehee).

Lots of to-ing and fro-ing with the boys and play-dates because it's back to school next week!! Can I be more excited???

Still waiting on word from Rainer's speechy (grrr, hate waiting!), Michael's already doing more short trips, ordered some cool crafty and ASD books from Amazon for the first time (that was a little freaky) and had a wonderful time at Inkredible's VIP night last Friday.

The "poofy" shirt has not been altered yet (thanks for asking Tamara LOL!!). I have to resurrect my sewing machine from the nether-regions so hopefully soon.

Went to Molly's baby shower yesterday which was a fantastic extended break from the kids. Naturally Kelly couldn't help herself and we had 3 games. Normally I don't like these kinds of events where you play insipid, gender-defining, clap-trap, but the competitive streak in me just burst forth!!
The first game was "Who's Your Daddy?" and I'm sure you had to be a trashy-mag-junkie b/c I had NO idea who these celeb kids' dads are!!
The next was more up my alley! 20 songs with BABY in their title. One point for artist and another for title. Did I kick proverbial ARSE or what??!!! 26/40 - way too much time clubbing in the 80s and 90s.

Just for fun....here's one that NO-ONE BUT ME got correct!! Ah, I miss Countdown!! and nice to see skinny jeans back in fashion.....NOT!!! Some 1979 goodness!!



BRIGHTER AND BUOYANT IN '08!!!

Update....kinda.....

Well, it's been an interesting and crazy/beautiful few weeks but, let's face it, I'm still playing Mum/taxi/activities co-ordinator/house-slave/blah blah blah - until the boys are back at school (very VERY soon!!) and so won't be able to do a proper update until Feburary.

I have some very cool classes in February at Inkredible that I'm super-excited about. More of "me" in them and I've had time to chill and take in some inspiration from heaps of other scrappers and multi-media artists (which should be a clue). Haven't scrapped a thing since around Christmas Day, so really should get a wriggle-on, eh?

I've had a few more layouts accepted by Scrapbooking Memories which is also something to get excited about!! My first published layout comes out in the next issue of SM, so I'll buying out the newsagency of that issue. Had my first acceptance into the Basic Grey gallery. I was joking with Tamara that it's always the layouts we "least" like that BG accept PMSL!!

It's already shaping up to be a very jam-packed 2008. Have the 2008 resolutions written and 2007 resolutions evaluated and I didn't do too badly by the way!! Lots of milestones on the way in 2008.....Mum's 70th, Michael's and my 40th, (and all my school friends' 40ths - yikes), Darren and Amy's wedding in Sydney, Rainer's last year at AEIOU, looks like I'm going back to Uni for a wee bit to do a subject on Special Education (I know, slap me down now!!).....

More details to come of course. Still deciding on a new WORD for 2008
....perhaps MULTI-TASK
or
STUPIDITY
or
OVER-COMPENSATING
or
PERSEVERE.....