I've been a very very very bad scrapbooker of late. My poor desk has sat unused and unloved for a good few months now. I got taken over with all things woolly and completed neglected all my lovely paper, glue and ribbon. However, a couple of weeks ago I gave myself a good talking to and forced myself back into the craft room and spent some time with my first love! Here's what I've been doing.
First up, a LO I've had planned since last summer, a good old mi hearties piratey one about Xander's pirate day at school (ahem, last June!):
Bit of a more tricky one next. I wanted to scrap about discovering Xander had autism. This pic was taken the day after we found out. I decided in the end to keep the autism part on some secret journalling so it is there just for me and him, and the main LO to be about how he's still our special little boy:
And lastly a chance to use some lovely lettering I picked up the other week, plus I couldn't leave her ladyship out of my crafting now could I?!
Kind of into it now, I think with the evening's being lighter it makes it much more pleasant to go out to the craft room. Now for the 300 half finished projects stacked up in there....
It's Comic Relief again. Like most people we can't afford much this year but just a few quid helps so we've done our bit by buying red noses, red hair streaks and donating a pound each to dress up for school (the kids in red, me in rainbow colours).
Must point out my beautiful rainbow orange bracelet, made by my wonderful daughter when I realised I didn't have anything orange for my outfit, thanks Em!
Hope whatever you're doing for Comic relief you're having fun!
You may have noticed the little widget to the right. Some of you will have seen my links on Facebook and I apologise for repeating myself but this is a cause that really affects me and many people I know.
They are talking about shutting children's cardiac surgery in Leeds. You may remember that there were a high number of deaths during children's heart surgery at another hospital and this prompted a review. The result of this review is that the government will shut some of the 11 children's heart centres in the UK and make less larger centres with all the expertise in this area. Not a bad idea until you consider the impact...
There are 4 million people living within an hour of Leeds, 14 million within 2 hours. When 1 in 100 babies is born with some sort of heart defect, that's a lot of people...and Leeds is currently closing in 3 of the government's 4 alternative plans. Wherever these units shut it is going to affect people - heart patients, relatives, friends - but a quarter of the population? I am failing to see sense.
I have had a child in hopsital. Some of you may remember how ill Emily was as a toddler and she had to have lung surgery. A horrible time for us and the people around us, but what if we'd had to drive hours to see her? That is what these parents and families are facing.
And then today I got an email from my cardiac nurse saying that the government had refused to take into account those of us that are adults but see the paediatric cardiac teams due to our conditions being congenital (both my cardiologist and surgeon are paediatric, I look very silly in their waiting room!) when considering shutting these units. However, if the children's surgery ward goes then so do the surgeons, the cardiologists and the lifeline to people like me. In October 2008 I had an emergency operation in Leeds within 2 hours of them diagnosing my problem, if I'd have had to be transferred to another hospital, well....
So if you could click to the right and sign the petition? Whether we can change the government's mind I don't know, but I need to say I at least tried.
We decided that this weekend called for a family walk and a bit of fresh air. I'd noticed a few crocuses out at work so we decided to head for flowers. We could have gone to my work but I doubt that would have been too interesting so we headed for Kirkstall Abbey as they always have carpets and carpets of flowers:
Very pretty eh? Unfortunately the temperature doesn't match the view and it was blooming Arctic out there!
I do like the fact that we live near such an old monument like this:
It's lovely to look around it and imagine what used to happen there. This time we didn't go in though, that cold air whistling through the ruins didn't quite appeal!
The kids had fun:
And Xander took us all exploring on a bug hunt with his exploring kit. "Come on everyone, follow my nose!":
Xander even made notes on what he'd found and drew pictures!
And collected, er, the stones the bugs lived on! Well I supposed it is more humane locking a stone in a tin than a living insect!
So, first 'spring' walk of the year. Hopefully they will start getting a tad warmer from now on, couldn't feel my hands when we got back in the car! We had fun though.
This is a little message for some relatives we have over in Australia. My dad has spent the last few years researching his family tree and over the past year or so he and my mum have started flying round the world and visiting these long lost relatives. Earlier this year they went over to Australia to meet his cousin Heather, her husband Alan and all their family. My parents had a great time and said our Ozzy cousins were lovely.
So last week a parcel arrives at my parents house with presents in for my kids! How lovely is that? It had cost Heather a small fortune to send it too, and for kids she'd never met, I'm kind of liking her! So here's a message for Heather and Lalan (as Xander calls him!). Thank you so much and hope we get to meet you one of these days!
Oh and just a little extra. I think Heather and Alan feel sorry for us Brits not having our own kangaroos here, so they sent Xander a little kit to grow his own! And blimey is he growing! Here's the (yet to be named) joey on Saturday:
And here he is yesterday:
Don't worry, Joey has now been rehomed to something more accustomed to his ever-growing size!
