a few random thoughts to add weight to my 400th post

outside my window.................it's almost dark, low cloud creeping down over the hills

i am thinking..............some things just aren't meant to be

i am thankful for.............an adaptable 18 year old

from the kitchen...........leftover lentil soup sitting in the slow cooker waiting for mr scrappy to get home from squash

i am wearing..............work/office clothes. still! MUST get into my pjs!

i am creating............finishing off the journalling on several scrapbooking layouts i made over the weekend

i am going to...........have some 'girl time' tomorrow with misses 20, 18 and miss 18's bestie

i am reading..........'people of the book' by geraldine brooks. recommdended by blog friend cat

i am hoping.............that miss 18 bounces back ok from her non-acceptance of the degree she wanted to take at university (college)

i am hearing..............the dishwasher!

around the house...........all is quiet (except for the dishwasher), even though 'space jam' is being watched rather loudly in another part of the house

one of my favourite things.....when my kids teach me

a few plans for the rest of the week/weekend.........girlie day tomorrow followed the girls' music academy concert tomorrow night, visiting a friend who's recovering from surgery wednesday, work, work, then a mini break with mr scrappy on friday night!

a picture to share..........and it's a giveaway!

my lovely real life, scrapmate and blog friend mandy makes these gorgeous necklaces and she gave me one to give away!

simply tell me something. something random. something fabulous.

whatever takes my fancy, that's who wins.

OPEN INTERNATIONALLY - for one week.

happy 400th post to me and happy monday to you :)

photostory friday: black and white

we've been having these family photos taken since.....well - this long ago

some years were better than others

1999

2000
the small-children-on-the-back-of-the-older-children-and-everyone-had-fringes (bangs) year

2001

the we-couldn't-get-everyone-to-smile-at-the-same-time year

2002
the half-lying-around-half-sitting-up year

2003
the i -wish-i'd-insisted-she-cut-that-straggly-hair-and

the-composition-of-the-group-shot-is-starting-to-fall-apart year

we had them regularly every year until the family revolted:

"do we have to have a family photo EVERY year?"

no, i replied sulkily.

so we skipped 2004

cut to 2005

the there's-that-tall-blonde-child-again year

then the family REALLY revolted and i didn't ask again for a couple of years

i think these turned out pretty good though
(my family's growing up!)

2007

of course after many years of family photos, we're runnin' out of ways to pose the girls...

i didn't bother the fam last year for a photo in case my head got bitten off, so you can imagine my surprise, when the chance to have a sitting came up, and i casually put the question to miss 20.

her answer: "i wouldn't be TOTALLY opposed to the idea"...

then of course came the juggling act to find a time that suited everyone. miss 18 works saturdays, miss 20 sundays. you get the picture.

in the end i dragged them all out of bed at 7am on a saturday morning...

...but it was totally worth it.

Hosted by Cecily

wordful wednesday - my favourite column

so this is my favourite roman ruin. it's [what's left of] the temple of apollo sosianus at marcello's theatre in the jewish ghetto (just known as 'the ghetto').

the temple was built in 435 BC, restored in 179 BC and re-built in 32 BC by the consul sosianus.

the ghetto is a very cool part of rome where we stayed. we had breakfast most days right near here - a quick coffee and yummy custardy pastries and croissants.

we walked past these ruins countless times, and EVERY time i passed it, i snapped at least a couple of shots.

you could say i'm slightly obsessed with it.

for more wordful wednesday, go see angie over @ seven clown circus.

ten on tuesday aka i'm bored

1) i should be cooking dinner right now (a new meatloaf recipe), but i can't be bothered

2) i really enjoyed co-hosting photostory friday (on friday), but feel bad i didn't get around and say hi to everyone

3) i have that pre-christmas BLAH - anyone else have it?

4) i've forgotten half the things i was going to write on here because i got distracted post-dating several blog posts

5) my 18 year old had her last exam today. it was physics and it was "shit" (quote unquote). i'm now ever hopeful that she'll use her spare time to help around the house while i'm at work.

6) i only put #5 in for your benefit and to give you a laugh on a monday, coz i know it ain't gonna happen!!!

7) is it bad to want my 2 weeks off at christmas without having to go through the whole 'christmas thing'?

8) my 18 year old STILL hasn't heard whether she's been accepted into the degree she wants to take and it's really starting to tick me off - imagine how SHE'S feeling!

9) this is my first christmas/holiday season as a 'working mum' and i think i might be feeling a little overwhelmed

10) i'm going away scrapbooking with girlsfriends this weekend - wahoo! (and i'm getting a new hair cut and colour first!)

thanks for listening - here's a funny to finish

photostory friday: ace cafe, auntiegwen and other things we got wet seeing in london

we only had 2 nights and [effectively] one whole day in london, so we wanted to squeeze in as much as we could.

first on our list, was meeting this lovely blogger at london's ace cafe. as previously mentioned, auntiegwen made an almost 12 hour round-trip just to have dinner with us - AND she brought us an anniversary gift!

she complains that she never takes a good photo. i simply DON'T understand why...

see? luverley

i love this kind of diner. i remember going to one in downtown atlanta before a falcons game - it's something about the square plastic tiles on the floor i think
but behave or else! (click to enlarge)

lots of old stuff on display

it was italian car night - they have lots of themed nights, not just bike stuff, but definitely things with wheels that make lots of noise

then the next day we hit the ground running for a walking tour of london, care of my sister christine, who's been living there since 1991

me loves a peaceful protest, but wonders where they put the tent pegs

what is it about old style phone booths

that brings out the crazy

"i'll take one of everything please"

me and him indoors with the houses of parliament in the background

ah - the aussie, kiwi and south africa shop

pineapple lumps and pinky bars for everyone!

i took this pic for you mel!

getting a bit gloomy

so time for lunch!

gravy on my chips?
how very english (they were yummy btw)
we had lunch here at 'the punch and judy' at covent garden
click on the pic to read its history

this is as close to the tower bridge as we got, because by now the skies had opened and we were getting wet. uncomfortably wet

i want to live in this shop

how could you be unhappy in this shop?
it was in covent garden also

admiralty arch

deciding which half price show we'd see that night
toss up between lenny henry as othello and the one we actually saw

ok, this photo is out of order - however...
it was well and truly bucketing down by this stage and THE MALL is rather exposed, and we didn't really fit under my tiny cute umbrella
but we had to have a pic outside buck house didn't we!

and THIS is the show we ended up seeing that night at the west end

avenue Q
a cross between sesame street and the muppets
don't go if you're easily offended

it was freaking hysterical

(i'm not easily offended)


AND CHECK IT OUT!
it's my turn to co-host with utah's 2009 housewife of the year
CECILY!!!
go check out her gorgeous children
honestly, with the adorable things that come out of her mouth, she could write a book!

Hosted by Cecily and Sue

To play PhotoStory Friday, check this.
Copy this code into your post and sign Sir Linky:

<center><a href="http://whatworksforus.blogspot.com/2007/06/iphone.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc50/whatworksforus/pfw.jpg" border="0" alt="PhotoStory Friday" /></a><br/>Hosted by <a href="http://mychaosmybliss.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Cecily</a> and <a href="" target="_blank"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Sue</span></span></span></a><p/></center>

wordful wednesday: oscar update

well, despite the best love, and care money can buy, oscar's eye didn't really improve, and the vet decided that he'd be more comfortable if he had his eye removed.

...and so it was removed.

...and i have pics...

it's pretty gory, so scroll down fast if you don't want to see

YOU WERE WARNED!!!

graphic bunny eye stitches coming up!

LOOK AWAY NOW!!!

come to think of it, these photos are pretty over-exposed and perhaps not so scary, but that really depends on the individual...







ok, you can open your eyes now.

here's his good eye - all cute and brown

...but don't feel too bad for him

he has all the fresh carrots and hay he wants and he spends most of every afternoon being cuddled in a woolly blanket watching disney.

for more wordful wednesday

go visit angie over @ seven clown circus

photostory friday: not giving them everything when you can

Hosted by Cecily and She's a moron and can't remember...

mr scrappy and i come from working class families. both my parents worked semi-skilled jobs. my mum worked to provide the 'extras'. mr scrappy's mum didn't work outside the home on account of the fact that they had 7 kids!

we never had overseas family holidays. we didn't have 'label' clothing. my parents made me pay $4 a week rent when i received $16 a week from my place of study. man, i hated them for that! not now tho!

THAT'S how times have changed. we got PAID to study! now of course there are student loans.

we certainly can't compare how it was for us at the same age, but at the same time, we want our daughters to have the same experiences.

we want them to have to work for everything they have, not because WE had to (our parents couldn't afford to give us lots of 'stuff' even if they wanted to), but because it's the right thing to do (well, we think so!)

do you have any idea how hard it is NOT to give your kids everything when you have the means to?

don't get me wrong - we're totally at peace with our decision - while all around us friends are buying their children their first car, paying their rent, paying for their entire university (college) education etc etc.

having said that, mr scrappy is a BIG SOFTIE.

mr scrappy: "how'd you like to go through life with a big debt hanging over your head?" (referring to student loans)

me: 'it's called a mortgage hun"

mr scrappy: "no! as a teenager!"

me: "meh. they'll live. it's character-building. like digging holes."

so we decided to buy them a macbook each. miss 20 (as a 2nd year design student) has done well to manage without one so far; and miss 18 (who is waiting to hear whether she's been accepted into the same course - ANY DAY NOW!) will make good use of one too.

we had decided not to buy the laptops until AFTER miss 18's end of year exams, but like i said before, someone's a softie...

opening screen - "it's so cool!"

posing for their profile photos
someone had just done a hair toss...

CHEESE!!!

"how about the cute look?"

"ok, i've done mine. need help with yours?"

miss 18 had to go off to a gig about 15 minutes after she got hers, so mr scrappy set about loading it up full of fun programmes!

did i say that university (college) doesn't start up again until late feb?

i expect that until then, it's facebook and youtube all the way

oh, and iphoto and garage thingee or whatever it's called

anyone notice how apple CREEPS into your house?

we now have 4 ipods, 2 iphones and 2 macbooks

how'd that happen?