i have a cousin that does a lot of scrapbooking with papers, fancy punches, cutters and what ever else accessories.  it looked quite the expensive hobby. i figured, it’s supposed to be made with scraps, it shouldn’t have to be expensive. so i got myself some good old construction paper, foam rubber shapes at a dollar or two for big bags of them, some gel pens and edging scissors and did 2 pages after my son was born. i was planning to do more but with the care of a newborn i did not find the time nor the energy.

i did not find i had it in me to scrapbook.  but when my son was born,  some of the pictures inspired me to do a bit of editing.

When Vivian was born, i decided to make her a page in the sky like Owen’s, but this time with a photo background. while i was at it, i decided to remake Owen’s too.

the last 2 would have been from 2005. i didn’t play much more with photo editing after that for a while.

last spring, while my daughter was in pre-K the teacher had 2 turtle plushies. each week, 2 kids would have their name drawn and would take one of them home for the week.  pictures would have to be taken of what was done during that week with the turtle plushy.  i didn’t know what to do and i felt intimidated by what the others had already done with their pages.  we went to the dollar store and i picked a few sets of papers, some ribbon and alphabet stickers.  i’m kinda happy with how it turned out but i found it rather pricey for just one double page.

then the idea came to me to look for free digital scrapbooking stuff.  i found a few sites, and a few blogs, then some of those blog mentioned their friend digi scrapbookers and along with some blog trains, the list kept growing where i had to subscribe in a blog feed reader to be able to keep track of them all and yet i can fall behind easily.  so now i have plenty of digital scrapbooking material and still keep finding some prettier stuff all the time.  just like font collecting, collecting digital papers is addictive!

last summer i decided to try some of those freebie goodies on a page. it didn’t quite turn how i wanted. i had just recently switched to Gimp and didn’t quite have the hang of how layers worked in that software. the layers would lock together and i couldn’t edit them separately once they were anchored together.  since all the tool functions weren’t located at the same places i was used to with Photoshop, it took me much longer to accomplish the same task i could do in Photoshop.  i was wondering at that point if  Gimp would be practical at all.

oh yeah, before this one, i tried to make a cover for Wii Sport, to fit in a regular DVD jewel case because it only came in a little cardboard pocket.  it might have taken me 7 hours while it would’ve taken me 1 hour with Photoshop.  was somewhat frustrating but at least Gimp is free, right?

i have to find a way to tag the credit for my pages in the image file itself because after a while, i forget who’s paper and elements i used.  is that possible?

my second attempt went a bit better, i figured out what i was doing wrong that the layers would automatically fuse together.  i had just taken pictures of my son, going on his bicycle without training wheels for the first time!

last halloween, the school asked that our kids be dressed in black and orange and have silly hair. i didn’t know what to do so my dearest friend Nancy suggested i look online for tutorial on how to make a yarn wig.  after some digging around i found some info on how to make dread falls.  i made some around midnight to the wee hours of the same morning she was to ware them at school.  after she came back and took them off, i decided to have some fun with them too.  i took a few pictures and decided to add a bit of background to it.

last fall, there was a school field trip to go see a movie. knowing too well my daughter, she would be scared senseless from so much action. and i don’t agree with letting my son see so much action either so i declined to send them on that trip but i took them on a trip of our own.  i took them mini golfing. they had a great time.  after that. my daughter sat with me while i was sorting through some scrapbooking papers and she told me how she loved a pink paper and how she wanted to scrapbook with it.  so i picked the picture and let her choose the rest.  i let her decide where she wanted things to go, how big… all i did was the digital manipulation of it.

starting to enjoy the possibilities that scrapbooking offer. i decided to design the christmas cards that my kids would give away to their friends at school.  i made 2 versions of it.

and that’s about it! that pretty much sums up my scrapbooking experience before i stumbled on The Studio’s Featured Designer Challenge around mid February.  Darlene Haughin Designs had such a lovely add-on that i felt inspired to try it on the spot.   the prospect of winning the full kit was also a nice bonus. so i felt i had nothing to lose by trying to submit my own layout.

i even surprised myself with that one. i like it so much that i’m afraid i’ll never be able to make anything that i’ll like half as much.  i find it neat that Vivian’s dress has pretty much all the same colors as the background paper.

this post is getting insanely long.   i don’t know if scrapbooking is going to resurrect this blog or what.  time will tell i guess.

i might not heal as fast as i would like but i’ll take any improvement over steady decline   i just came across some youtubes video a few days ago where a couple was interviewed and the woman saved her husband from Alzheimer!  can you believe it?  i also saw one or 2 about severely autistic kids that recovered and a few weeks ago, a movie about a kid with epilepsy that also was able to do away with his symptoms (First Do no Harm).  they all seem to have something in common, the same type of diet.

there are a few mother on the diet’s group i follow that have autistic kid and they too have seen improvement so as of this Sunday night, i decided it was the time to switch my son over to the diet. i had meant to do that switch since i’ve been on it but figured it would be easier once school is over for the summer.  school has been over for a month and a half now and is soon to start again.  i guess it’s now or never.

he had 2 tantrum that day and a 3rd one when i told him to go to his room for dragging the cat across the floor by her tail.  it was getting close to bedtime so i told him he’d be going to bed without supper.  but after some thoughts, i gave him the opportunity to eat IF he took all the vitamin i’d give him first. and he did!  he even succeeded in swallowing the tiny fish oil gel cap he wasn’t able to swallow back before.  he was very proud of himself and ask to swallow more pills hehe  i realized that being able to swallow pills would make the whole diet a lot easier to adhere to.  yesterday was his first full day on the diet*  and after some shopping yesterday, it’s his firt breakfast with all his supplements this morning.  time will tell where it leads us from here.  i’m sure there are going to be days where he’s going to miss his old comfort food but i think we’re on the right path.  i’m still allowing them a few things that are not on the diet, like nuts because they are still high fat and low carb and will help in making the transition easier.

*my goal is about 80% of the diet now and work on the other 20% over time

i don’t know if 20 days will be enough to make a difference but i hope that over time, school will notice a change .  i will have to notify the principal of his diet and give her the food list of what’s allowed and not allowed.  last year i provided a list and she was still calling asking if he could have smarties, cake or other treats.  it makes me cringe to think people believe it’s ok to give those thing to their kids and even more so when it’s supported by the school staff. they should give good example of healthy choices to promote health in our society.  ahhh! i guess i better not get started now. *sigh*

I’ve complained to my doc about this situation for many years now and she had reffered me for a sleep clinic about 8 years ago.  there’s a year waiting list and by the time my number came up, i was pregnant and worried to death about an other miscarriage so i didn’t dare take the 2 hour trip to the next city for the sleep study. then came nursing and and repeat for an other pregnancy.

Seeing my condition worsen and not even being able to drive in town or read a book i brought it back up to my doc last year and she referred me again.  this week my number came up to go for my initial visit.  in 3-6 months i will go back for the full sleep study.  i’ve only been waiting 8 years for this, so i am thrilled.  i’m just wondering how will i be able to sleep with so many wires.

Being that i will have to spend at least 48 hours in an other city. i’m also looking forward to the time we’re going to spend there doing some sight seeing.  it will be a nice occasion for the kids to see and do new things

this past december, i had a bad yeast overgrowth reaction (sorry if it’s TMI)  and it prompted me to do some googling for healthy, natural solution and i stumbled on Bee’s website that had the most comprehensive allowed food list to help recover, in fact, she has a whole program to get better so i decided to give that a try.  carbs don’t seem to work well for me anyway.  some of her opinions might be controversial and even doubtful but the diet itself seem to get good result for many peoples.  i lost 10 lbs in the first 2-3 weeks, and an other 5 recently.  it’s a slow and non-linear process for me but like she sais, weight is secondary, what matter is that the body is doing it’s job to heal itself.  she also claim that it takes 1 month for each year you’ve been unwell.  so i guess i have 3 years to go.

one almost immediate change i noticed withing 2-3 days on Bee’s diet is that  i no longer need that to help me fall asleep.  that’s huge for me because i’ve always stuggled to fall asleep, since i was a young kid. tossing and turning was my most regular sport.

you’d also think that since there’s no more fiber in my diet, aside from plant cellulose, which doesn’t really qualify as “fiber”, i would clog up my plumbing. the opposit has happened. i used to consume large amount of fiber and water to little or no avail and now i’m more often on the runny side.  i think allopathic medicine has it all backward.  nuff with this for now.

there is an other news that is well worth sharing and we’re very proud of our son for his achievement.  last week, as my kids got their bikes out. i took an adjustable wrench to lift up their seat since they have grown over the winter… the kids, not the bikes :p   i offered to remove their training wheels and at first my daughter was willing but not my son.  once he saw his sister’s wheel come off, he asked his to be removed too.  i did not have time to get up to hold him by the bicycle seat that he hopped on and drove away all by himself.  hubby was gone to work at the time so i made a video for him to see

i guess it’s time for my nap.  i’ll see what else i can post later

my son’s been in school since the end of September and i’m giving myself at least one more year where my daughter will be starting kindergarten.  she’s very much looking forward to it and i hope it will be enough to get my health and energy back together.

in other news, if anyone reading this didn’t know already :p  we got a kitten in march.  it took our older cat a bit of getting used to. they are still adjusting to a certain point… kitten likes to play and Misty doesn’t care much, she try to avoid  or ignore young kittey’s playfulness.  on occasion she’ll get into it but in a very mellow way.  as kitten mellow down, i’m sure they’ll get along better

it had been a little while since i took a picture of our new cat, Tatie. so i went looking around for her with my camera and found her on top of my sauna… best place to sleep, safe and out of children’s reach hehe.    she woke up as i got near her so she has those sleepy eyes

2 weeks ago, we spent some time in town and the kids had a chance to mingle… i thought it was so good that i was looking forward to an other gym session but look like kids weren’t the only equation in the mingling activity… look like the flue had a blast also. so with runny nose and fever, i had to cancel last week’s gym class.

we were struggling so much with school at the time, i didn’t think we’d make it till the end of school year. but then, Owen asked to do his math first. there was really not many page left in his workbook for him to finish it, so i let him take the initiative.

after he’s done his 3 pages of math, i tell him he has to do his french too. don’t really want to, but i put together a snack in a bowl in bitesizes, and he mannaged to finish around 3 pm… that’s quite good considering he would wait till around 5pm most days for the past while.

of course, with a fever for 2 days, i did not make him work, he slept for a good part of it too. but friday, he was feeling better and wanted to play… if you’re well enough to play like that, you are well enough to do your work, so i cut up a ciabatta(triangular shaped little bread) in bitesize and bribed him with that. he did his work before noon! that was something to celebrate on it’s own, it’s been so long since i seen that.

this morning, i decided not to give him his breakfast and have to wait till lunch time to be able to bribe him with food. my husband just got some raisin/cinnamon bagel, so i cut that up, an apple, and i tossed a pack of bacon in the fry pan. i cut a few slices in bitesize and i had a great bowlful of breakfast bribe. he finished his math on friday so he only had to do his french and it was done by 10 am!!!!!! i must be dreaming.

but since math seem to be his favourite subject, i should order his next workbook and keep trucking. the last lesson in his book was subtractions and i was suspecting he would have a bit more of a hard time with that, but he flew through that too, why stop something that’s going well? right now he’s “playing” with his math again, while chewing on a licorice root.

it cooled down while we were there but i’m glad we stopped. the mother is the leader of our home school group and she let me know there was some gym class we could attend the next day. the kids had a blast and then found out there was a presentation at the library in the afternoon, i figured it wouldn’t hurt to go check it, but there was a misunderstanding in the time of the presentation and a lack of communication between us and dear hubby made us spend even more time there then the kids were willing and it was quite a mess. i nearly lost my son who wandered aimlessly in the library, and after finding him and waiting for quite some time, my daughter became distressed that we did not know where daddy was. we all found each other back in the end since i’m back home but we’re quite tired from 2 long days in town.

during our visit at our homeschooling friend yesterday, our daughter found a baseball bat, and our son found the ball. he tried throwing it to her so she could try to hit it but his aim was not stellar and she received it on the side of her left eye, outch! she had a shiner by the time she went to bed.

now it’s going on 10pm and she’s still making a fuss about what pj she doesn’t want to ware. last year, i had bedtime running quite smoothly. i think i will have to reconsider the routine because they are becoming masters in the art of stalling.

sound like a little bit too much talking between the 2 of them again, i guess i’ll have to go put my foot down.

there’s even a package for it called Edubuntu, that is full of educational stuff for kids k/12 and it’s all free! the kids love it

i found a little application that i can use to blog offline and then publish at my convenience. i’m testing it right now hehe. ok, gotta get kids in bed now, if this work, i’ll have to try and make blogging a habit again. if it ever was hehe

so i got everything i felt i needed ready and in the process started feeling nervous.  what if i miss?  what if i get too nervous?  at first i read about how to snap the neck  or club them behind the head, and i though the snapping would be simpler, but ended up figuring that i might not have the hand and wrist strenght to do it properly and then i’d have a crying panicke animal that would be even harder to handle.  so i opted for the club.  not my first choice but i’ve seen it done before by my uncle’s neighbor.  i’ve also witnessed the skinning and degutting and it is not something you forget as easily as who was the first person i ever dansed with.  even tho it was about 20 years ago.

i finaly went to pick up the bunny. and i took a while to pet him, hoping to make him feel more comfortable… also to calm myself some.  i will spare the bulk of the detail. it went well overall. just one glitch.  the cord that hold him for the skinning process broke, and we could not find an stronger string in the house.  i cut the meat in pieces a bit like you would a chicken’s leg, breast… and cooked it in a pirex with some onion, celery, carrots and spices.  turned out to look a lot like chicken, tasted like chicken but had more of the texture of beef. i guess next time i’ll try to crockpot it.  but over all it was tasty and the kids liked it too.

since march break started, i find that Owen works better and apply himself with a lot more focus.  yesterday took a bit of bribe, nothing like the past weeks, starting from right after christmass. it seem that the vaccation disturbed his good working habbits and he just couldnt’ get back into it.  until this week?  today, he worked amazingly well,  usualy he can drag a work like this for 3 hours. today he was done in 30 minutes or less and did a fantastic job.  much better hand writing then i can remember in a long time and the pride on his face that he was done!  and in so little time at that.   should i let him have his week off and risk the routine being thrown off again for the rest of the school year?  i think he’d benefit more of working well year round for 1 hour max a day then have vacation here and there and then taking 4 times more time to do the same work every day?   i think it’s more of a vacation when he works well all the time , because overall he has much more time to do other things he likes.

my mother reminded me yesterday that Owen was still just in kindergarden after all and so he should do some crafts too, not just becoming a pen pusher.  so, it is true that it had been a while since we did crafts but the craft book i ordered is so uninspiering that i have a hard time picking someting from it. so yesterday for a change i decided to dig the internet for idea, i already had an idea in mind… that of making an elephant.  and sure enough i found a nice and easy project.  unfortunately, Owen refused to do it.  but Vivian did, and she loved it. she went and stuck it next to the mouse we did as our last project.  only when it was bedtime did Owen demand that he wanted to do his elephant.  nice try at stalling your bed time boy! hehe.  today, i offered him to do it and again, he did not show interrest in doing so.   i guess i’ll keep diggin for interresting projects. my mom also offered to look at the bookstore for nice craft books.  not black and white text with small doodle of what the end project is suposed to look like but with nice colorful images

that website seem to have a lot of similar project with a variety of different animals.  i will keep that site in mind too.

also today after Owen done his work, his reenforcer is a chance to play the Wii for 30 minutes all to himself and i think he beat a few highscores in there.  i’m pretty impressed and i will have to get inthere soon and try to beat those scores again to give him new challenges :p

by that time hubby was up and sitting downstairs at his computer trying to wake up from a very short night.  i know from experience he really doesn’t like hearing those kind of news on his first day off after so little sleep but this is not just leaking in the sun room type deal, it’s in the house and could cause more serious damage.  and the roof is not even 3 years old   how frustrating is that?

He came, saw the dripping, was not too happy but went in the attic and confirmed it was coming from the roof.  he went to check on the roof and push some snow off, called the roofer, but the roofer had 35 years of experience when we hired him and was talking about his retirement. he’s also hard of hearing and sound quite grumpy a lot of time.  so hubby did not have a productive conversation with him.  maybe 15 minutes later, i found the courage to call him again.  we had a little chat and he explained to me that there are several reason why it might be leaking. that the roof was done properly, there was an ice/water shield put in place but that it’s only good for the first 3 feet, if there’s a lot of snow on the roof and some ice on the edge, the water might reflow from higher.  with the high snow and high wind storm we just had, the snow could have came into the attic from the soffits venting holes…

so i went to talk again with hubby and he went back up on the roof with a hatchet and chipped away at the ice so the slushy water that was trapped on the roof could drain away, and it stopped dripping in the window sills.

i guess in a way it makes hubby feel better that a professional job is leaking due to these winter conditions. if a pro’s job still get that, his own job on the sun room’s roof might not be all that bad either after all.

this summer we’ll look into installing some heat tracks to prevent ice from forming and trapping water on the roof.

the rest of  the day went relatively uneventfully.

Happy Fat Tuesday!!!