On our way

I thought this day would never come. Today we (myself and 17 other scrapbooking friends) are on our way for our third annual scrapbooking vacation. This year we will be spending a week on Virginia Beach. ON THE BEACH! We have rented an 8,200 square foot beach house that sits right on the beach.

Sigh!

I just may not be coming back!




I'll have internet access so I'll be able to post here.

No matter where I go with Spencer, people always ask "Where did he get his hair?" They are always surprised to hear my reply "From me." Yes, that's right, I have frizzy-curly hair.

My hair was always frizzy when I was younger, and I hated it and did my best with a comb or brush to get it straight. Unfortunately, back in the old days I didn't have products to put into it to tame it so I always hated my hair. In may late teens I finally learned how to straighten it, and have done so everyday of my life since then. Very few people have seen that other side of me.

When Spencer was small, he had white, straight hair. As he started getting older, his hair started to thicken up and develop a wave. Then he hit the beginning of puberty and his hair became quite a bit more curly. The lucky boy has some products that he uses to keep his hair from becoming a frizzy mess.

So, for those who have asked if he perms his hair (...is there a 15 year old boy on the planet who would consent to having his hair permed??), or wonder where he gets his hair from, or refuse to beleive that my hair is, infact, curly, here's the proof.





I can't believe that I actually posted those pictures of myself on the internet!!!

The Third Assignment, and other tidbits

I'm still working away at the Got Sketch online class. It's given me the kick start that I've been needing for a while. The thirds sketch was a little challenging for me as it was a little girly for my taste, but I managed to find some pics for it and kept it from being too feminine. (for some reason that's important in this house, I don't know why.)



John's off again this afternoon for another business trip (second week in a row.) He won't be back until Friday. I have pretty ambitious plans for myself while he's away. I will be painting Spencer and Cameron's bathroom. I found a great shower curtain that is perfect for two teenage boys (OK, so Cameron isn't officially a teenager for another year, but who's counting.)



Isn't this a great shower curtain for boys? I love the colours. So today I need to run off to Home Depot and pick paint colours and get a gallon of paint.

Yesterday Cameron had an audition in Toronto. They have decided to start up a Junior Divisional Youth Band so Cameron wanted to try out for it. I really hope he gets in as a lot of his friends from camp will be in it. He's really enjoying music these days. He's been talking about auditioning for the Halton Junior Jazz Band too, but that may be a little ambitious for him at this moment. Fortunately, his music teacher/homeroom teacher is one of the directors for the HJJB this year. I really credit Mr. Meebeor for Cameron's love for music.

OK, I'd better get off this computer if I'm going to get anything done today.

Remembering

So today I was driving to pick up Matthew and Spencer from school. I had to pick them up early as they both had an orthodontist appointment. As I was driving up a main road, I passed a police car that was up on the sidewalk with it's lights on. Kinda weird because it was just sitting there. Then, a little way up the same road, there was another police car, parked up on the sidewalk, again with it's lights on. Hmmmmm, I thought. I wonder what's going on.

As I turned onto a side street, and then onto another street, I noticed a couple of other police cars parked at different stop signs. Now I was very curious.

I pulled into the front of the school and watched one of the police cars in my rear view mirror. Then, I noticed a helicopter that was hovering overhead. OK. Now this was getting really strange.

A few seconds later, I saw a 6 officers and a police dog walking past the school, but they weren't just normal officers, they were from the swat team and they were in full gear, carrying their semi-automatic weapons (or whatever you call them ... they were just big weapons.)

By this time, I started to get nervous. Then another mother pulled up beside me, rolled her window down, and informed me that the school was in lock down!! As I started to panic, she informed me that they were looking for some guy and so all the schools were in lock down. Well, at least that meant that the problem was outside the school, not in, so that made me relax a little.

Matt called me from inside the school as he knew that I was outside waiting. He told me that they were in lock down and likely would be for the rest of the school day. They weren't allowed to leave the rooms they were in.

As it turned out, the police were looking for someone who had escaped custody and the kids were never in danger. The story is here: http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_26677.aspx

It turned out to be nothing major, but for a brief moment it was a little scarey. (Cameron's school was also put into lock down)

A lot of nothing

• The first week of school was semi-successful. Both Spencer and Cameron hit the ground running, but Matt has not handled his anxiety very well at all this past week. We hope that we have helped him and that this is a small bump in the road and not a glimps of a tough year ahead.


• I'm starting to gear up for our third annual girls scrapping vacation. This year we are spending a week in Virginia Beach. We have an 8,200 square foot house right on the beach. I'm sure that it will be ample room for the 18 of us who are going.


• I can't believe how much work I have to do in the gardens. A summer of neglect is really catching up to me. At least the grass is still green thanks to all the rain we've had this summer. This time last year the lawn was dead.


• John will be doing a lot of travelling over the next month. This week he's off to New York for four days, and then next week he will be gone for the whole week.


• My sweet boy Oliver (the cat) has been throwing up a lot this week. I need to take him to the vet. I really hope there's nothing wrong. He seems OK otherwise, and is still eating and drinking so I hope it's just something that he ate outside.


• I'm really enjoying the sketch class over at Got Sketch. The girls there are a very friendly and fun bunch. It's a fun place to hang out for a while. This is the layout I did for the second sketch for the class. The pictures are of Spencer teaching an instrumental class at Junior Music Camp this year.

My first assignment

I'm so happy. I made sure that I set aside some time today to scrapbook. I sat happily today for a couple of hours and by the time I finished I completed two layouts and one huge mess ... and it felt so good to be scrapbooking again.

I finished a layout for my first assignment for the Got Sketch online class.



On another note, the boys are back at school. Matthew is calling himself a "super senior" (I guess that's what they call the students who go back for a second year of grade 12.) We suggested to Matt a year ago that he take his time doing grade 12 as he was having quite a bit of anxiety over not knowing what he wanted to do after high school. He thought it was a good idea and said yesterday that he was surprised that so many of his peers were back for a second year.

Spencer is now in grade 11 and I think he will have a challenging year ahead of him. He's selected some heavy courses so he will have a big work load and on top of that will still be working with this advanced piano teacher, and playing in several bands outside of school.

Cameron was really hoping that his music teacher would be his main teacher so he was really happy to find that he was in his class yesterday. I find it hard to believe that he is in grade 7! He's already looking forward to playing in all the school bands. He loves his music teacher (and I know the feeling is mutual!)

So ... life is getting busy again in our house.

I love sketches!

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm addicted to sketches. I love to be able to sit down to scrapbook with an idea in front of me on how the basic layout will come together. Sketches are perfect for me. I have a tonne of sketch sites bookmarked in my favorites. One of my favorite sketch sites is Valerie's Got Sketch site. There's so much inspiration there.

Yesterday she began her second on-line sketch class that will last for a month. I couldn't resist. I had to join up. I'm hoping that this will give me the kick in the butt that I need to get back scrapping again after not doing much all summer. So, for the next month I will be hanging out around there and hopefully pumping out some layouts. That's the plan anyway.

Whooooooosh!

Can you believe that the summer is over already? Just when the weather started getting nice too.

We spent the last week in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. After being there last year with the girls, I knew that I had to take my family back there.

We stayed in the same cabin resort, but in a smaller cabin. Unfortunately, we got hit by rain from Hurricane Fay so we had basically four rain days. One of those days we were able to get out on a driving tour through the mountains, and the rain stopped enough that we could get out and explore. It ended up being a good day because at one point when we stopped, we saw a bear. He was still a cub and he was up a tree eating. We (along with several other people) watched for a while as he was eating and climbing from branch to branch. We were very surprised to see how high he went. After a while, he layed over a branch and started to fall asleep.

We did a few driving tours through the week, some hiking and exploring, spent some time at the aquarium (on a rain day) and did some white water rafting. The white water rafting was very fun, and definately a highlight of the trip. We had a great guide who kept us entertained.

In spite of the rain, we all had a really good time. I loved it as much this time as I did the first time and I can't wait to go back again. If you've never been, you really need to put it on your short list. I guarantee that you won't be disappointed.

What a great way to end the summer!

By the way, the song playing is Smoky Mountain Memories, sung by David Archuleta.