I am T-I-R-E-D

Why can't I sleep past 3:30 am lately? This past week there I am, wide awake staring at the ceiling at 3:30. Why?? I guess I have a bunc of stuff on my mind. I can't think of any other explanation unless it's that arched window in our bedroom! It's the only thing about our new house that I don't love. If I had the choice, it wouldn't be there. We are having a hard time finding a covering for it. Of course I sleep on the side of the bed where at 6am, the sun shines directly on my face. I have also noticed lately, that at, oh around 3:30, the moon is also shining on my face! I have a mask but I never sleep as well with it on. I guess I will have to give it another try. Keep your fingers crossed that I will find some suitable covering for it soon!

Grace started school this past week. Her first week in the new school and in grade one. It seemed to go well. It's her first time riding a bus to school. I was worried that she would be to afraid to get on the bus all alone, to a school that she has never been to, and to a class full of kids she didn't know. Boy was I wrong! She hardly had time for a kiss goodbye! She ran over to that bus, got on, and waved happily from the window. I guess it was mom that was too afraid!

There was only one story from the past week that broke my heart. She said that she asked some kids to play with her at recess and they said no. She said that she spent the rest of the recess standing by herself by a tree. I cried when I heard that. The next day she took a skipping rope to school and the report was that she played with Mackenzie at recess. So we are getting there! New kid in the new school syndrome. Grace is so sociable so I'm sure it won't be long until she wants to invite her whole class over for a play date!

Simon starts school this week. We will see how that goes. I found out last week that he is still on the waiting list for speech therapy in Hamilton. We waited 8 months to get in at Erinoak in Burlington. We were told that there wouldn't be a wait here since we already waited so long in Burlington. I guess they were wrong. The thing that bothers me is, that it was one of the deciding factors about whether or not we should move. Since we thought there was no wait we figured it would be okay. Another tearful day for me on Friday. I'm so embarassed to say that I actually broke down and cried on the phone with the speech therapist intake coordinator. Simon is so resistant to speech therapy at home with us. He needs that one on one with the therapist. I know we will get there...it's just such a long road and I'd rather get back on it sooner than later.

Here is a picture of Grace on her first day of school. Love that missing tooth! Just as Murphy's law works. My battery died on the camera after the second shot! Bad mommy not checking the battery level the night before!

Canadian Scrapbooking Crop for Kids

This October (the 12th-14th to be exact), I will be teaching at the London location of the Canadian Scrapbooking Crop for Kids. All proceeds from this event will go to the Children's Hospital in the city that the event is held. The Crop will be held in 5 cities across Canada and I can't even tell you how dear this cause is to my heart.

My son Simon, although healthy today, had two stays at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto immediately following his birth. Had it not been for the amazing doctors, surgeons and nurses that work in the Neonatal ICU there I wouldn't have my son here with me today.

Let me see if I can find some old journaling I did on a layout about the events surrounding my son's birth and hospitalization. One sec...

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Okay I found it!! Here we go...feel free to skip this part if you aren't at all interested...it's a bit long.

Simon’s Story

March 31, 2003. The day you were born, the height of the SARS crisis in Toronto. Daddy and I were the only people allowed in the hospital with you when you came into this world. No one would be able to see you until we brought you home from the hospital. You were born by c-section at 36 weeks because I had no amniotic fluid left to sustain you in the womb. Your birth was very exciting and you came into the world surprising us all that you were a little boy. You were beautiful and 6lbs1oz, a good size for being born at 36 weeks.

Shortly after birth you developed breathing problems and had to stay in the nursery on oxygen so that they could keep an eye on you. I went to see you a short time later and you looked comfortable lying there in the incubator. I wasn’t able to hold you yet because of the oxygen.

Through the night your breathing became more laboured and the doctors put you on a CPAP machine which would help you breath easier. Because of the CPAP, the pressure in your lungs built up like it sometimes does and you developed a collapsed lung. In the morning the nurse informed me of this and I immediately went down to the nursery to see you with tears streaming down my face. Your father was on his way.

They told me that you would need a chest tube and would need to be intubated. Since this was what you needed you would be transferred to Sick Kids in Toronto. Because of SARS it took them hours to arrange the transfer since they had to get special clearance. The nurses that transferred you were wonderful and took some Polaroid’s of you without any tubes so that I could keep a picture of you by my bed since I wasn’t able to go with you. It was less than 24 hours since your birth.

That night was one of the hardest nights I have ever experienced. Daddy wasn’t allowed to come back to the hospital because he had now been to another hospital that may have had a suspected SARS case. The next morning I signed myself out of the hospital so that I could be at your bedside with you. I sat by your side for hours on end. Your little body hooked up to so many machines. Daddy and I had to take turns because only one parent was allowed in the hospital at a time. This was extremely hard on us to not have each others support at your bedside.

You did very well and 3 days later the chest tube was pulled and you were extubated. This is when I was finally able to hold you for the first time. I was sobbing as I held you in my arms, so tiny and through so much already. Later that day you were transferred back to Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington.

In Burlington you were still being tube fed as you wouldn’t take a bottle well. We were having difficulties with your feedings as you were vomiting them all up. The nurses told us to be patient and that everything was fine. We just knew that something was wrong. When you were 7 days old you began vomiting green bile and then the doctor’s knew something was wrong. They told us you had what was called Malrotation.

It occurred when you were developing inside me. The intestines didn’t attach to the abdominal wall like they were supposed to and now you had developed a rotation in them that caused an obstruction. This required surgery.

Again they started the process of transferring you back to Sick Kids. Hours later we were on the road again. At 1 am and 8 days old you had surgery to fix the obstruction and take out your appendix as it would now be in a different than usual spot. Daddy and I were allowed in the hospital together just while your surgery was taking place and then it was back to one at a time. We waited anxiously and after what seemed like an eternity, the doctor came out and told us that the surgery went well and that there was no further damage done. What a relief!

The next 11 days were long and tiring to say the least. We spent hours on end at your bedside. The nurses and the team at Sick Kids were wonderful and always took the time to talk to us and update us on your progress. You were kept asleep for a few days while you recovered so that you could receive pain medication.

After they took your breathing tube out for the second time, the work of getting you to drink from a bottle started. It was frustrating to say the least. The one wonderful thing about it was that we could now hold you as much as we wanted! We would sit in the rocking chair at your bedside and hold and rock you for hours.

Finally on Easter Sunday and almost 3 weeks later we were allowed to take you home! What a wonderful present for Easter! We brought you home at 5lbs1oz. One whole pound less than you were born at. You were so tiny! Finally the rest of the family could meet you! It was wonderful to see Grace’s face when she met you for the first time. She just kept saying, “baby” and would so tenderly touch your face.

A month or two later we got a call from Sick Kids. They wanted to send a photographer out to take pictures of Simon so that he could be in their annual report. The photographer came and took tons of pictures (I wish I had copies). Later we found out that you were going to be on the cover of the report! The picture turned out fabulous and you looked so cute on the cover held in daddy’s arms.

I’m so thankful that everything worked out okay and that you are a healthy toddler today. I love you buddy.

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Well that was four years ago now and I am now able to give a little back. I hope you will help me if you are a scrapbooker and come out that weekend, take some classes, and crop for a while. Classes are only $20 each and are taught by some amazing teachers (humbly leaving myself out of that group).

Here is a peek at my classes. My layout class, sponsored by Cosmo Cricket, will be taught at all the sites and my layout in a tin class, sponsored by Gel-a-tins, will be taught at a few of the locations.

Gel-a-tins Coaster Album in a Tin

We will bind this album together making a board book of sorts from coasters. When completed it will fit inside the altered tin. We will use brand new release stamp sets from Gel-a-tins and explore some stamping techniques like heat embossing, masking, layering, and shadow stamping. We will also be breaking out the alcohol inks for this one!

Gel-a-tins Altered Coaster Christmas Wall Decor

We will use coasters to make this altered Christmas wall hanging. We will use a new font set from Gel-a-tins along with the amazing Fancy Flakes set and a tried and true alphabet. Techniques include heat embossing, layering, and a unique use for heat embossing as well. I can't wait to put this up on my wall this season...who am I kidding..it's already up!

Cosmo Cricket Use Your Diecuts Layout

We all have them and sometimes don't know how to use them. In this class I will get you to think outside the typical diecut to use them in new ways. Using the brand new Gretel Line we will rip, sand, paint, and ink our way to a beautiful aged layout with hidden journaling!

Cosmo Cricket Dates to Remember

In this class we will alter a Plain Jane Cigar Box from Cosmo Cricket with the brand new Gretel line and "to die for" Ready Set Chipboard Letters. Inside you will find a perpetual calendar where you can store all your important birthdays and anniversary's of loved ones. We will even make a couple of cards to get you started!

Happy Days

We have had quite a few happy days lately. The stress has decreased significantly around here. We sold our house in only 2 days and finalized all the details of our new house. We got 99% of our asking price and are extremely happy. I still can't believe that we bought our dream house. The house that we will hopefully grow old in (until we can't climb the stairs anymore).

We have been to the new house weekly since we bought it and have spent long periods of time inside and imagining what it is going to be like when we finally move in. The big move date is July 24th which makes me a bit nervous as I won't get home from CHA summer until the 23rd most likely! Eek!! Just thinking about it makes me a bit nervous but I'm so happy that we will be moved in with a month of summer left. The kids will get a chance to make some friends before school starts in September.

Here are some photos of the new house. The outside, two shots of our kitchen, and the great room (minus the carpet). Ignore the mess...I haven't dusted for a while! :P

Simon turned four March 31st which somehow got lost in my blog posts along the way. I can't believe that my baby is 4. What on earth have we been doing that four years has gone by so quickly? After our rough start with Simon, he has grown into quite the young boy and SO happy all the time too. We are incredibly blessed to have two wonderful children.

Just to keep with tradition, Simon made sure to have a nice fall the day before his birthday and had a nice upper lip abrasion to show for all of his photos. I think I should do a layout of my poor battered children on their birthdays. I have a ton of photos that show the evidence. I'm totally going to do that!

Grace started soccer on Monday. She was SO excited! She loves soccer. I think it is her favourite. Unlike Ballet. She is counting down the days until the end of ballet. I guess we won't be signing her up for it next year. I must admit that I was surprised that my tom-girl wanted to sign up for it in the first place. Soccer is much more her style.

Not much else... it has been nice to just relax a bit after the whirlwind house selling. I promise I will try my hardest to keep up my posts in the future! I swear mom! :)

So...here we go again...

I know, I know...it's been forever, but I'm here now and I plan on staying on a "fairly" regular basis. My life seems to have been just crazy lately and many things have had to take a back seat lately including this blog.

I am back working full time at the hospital and that has been a bit of an adjustment. Trying to balance work, kids, my designing commitments, and new adventures has been difficult at times but I'm liking the direction my life is taking.

Start with the kids you say? Well...even if you don't say that I am...so there. :) Grace is doing well...sassy as ever. I can't believe that I have an almost 6 year old! Where does all the time go? Simon has started speech therapy (after an 8 month wait on the waiting list) and we are having almost weekly sessions. Another challenge in our lives right now but much needed for Simon's sake. He will be starting JK in the fall and I want people to be able to understand him. He still drops the majority of the ends and beginnings of words and has been classified with a "moderate to severe" speech delay. Right now we are working on the "f" sound and he is making slow but steady progress.

I will add a couple of photos of the kids enjoying winter...just because! :)

I'm starting a new schedule at work next week and I'm excited about that. It will be a 4 days on and 5 off schedule. SO much easier to manage my life (or at least I hope so). Shift work can be so hard, especially when you have to work 2 weeks of nights at a time. I'm hoping that this new schedule will find me less tired on a day to day basis.

I recently finished my very first scrapbook teaching experience at the Nook! It was a fantastic first experience. I love my friends Patti and Elia. Working for them is a pure pleasure and they made the whole experience so enjoyable! I had a ton of fun throughout the day and I hope that I will be able to teach again soon! It was great meeting some new people and seeing a bunch of my friends as well. I hope it was as fun for those taking the class as I had teaching it.

I have started submitting again. Yay me! I figured it was time to get myself out there again. I just heard that I got a layout picked up for Blue Media's Layout Blueprints 2. SO excited to be at it all again!

And...I have something very wonderful in the works right now. Unfortunately I can't share the details yet but I am so extremely excited about it all! I have been working very hard on this along with a few other friends and I hope that you will all be as excited about it as I am when it is all finished! I can't wait to share more...and I'm sorry about the tease. It will all be revealed real soon! I promise.

If you stumble across this new post...thanks! I know that many have given up on me and if you come here on the off chance that maybe, just maybe I posted a new entry, I love you for not giving up on me! I will try very hard to be a better blogger I swear!