http://scrapgirls.com.ipbhost.com/index.php?app=blog Community Blog List Syndication Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:33:38 +0000 rozanne@scrapgirls.com (ScrapGirls Message Board) IP.Blog 60
I love the Autumn. This year we seem to have had a relatively mild one so far (in this area). As a result, the late Autumn low sun, the rain squalls and the dark rain clouds semm to have colluded to produce some of the most striking rainbows I have ever seen.

Thing is, they nearly always occur when I have'nt got my camera!

They make me think. I always start to wonder whats at the end (although in a perfect world, they would be circles!)

The presence of a rainbow always seems to mark an event, so it seems. In my world, sometimes these are good, and sometimes they are bad. There's usually a point and counterpoint for each "end" of the rainbow!

The last one I saw was a few days ago, and was just before my son had to visit the Cardiologist in Leeds to determine exactly what work was required to sort out his problem with his surgery scars.

We had been told to expect another invasive procedure but I think the rainbow intervened! The problem with his scar is purely down to his growth rate and the lack of flexibility he has in that area. He does not need any surgery and with some management of his skin, the pain he has been getting should recede completely within a few months! First bit of good news we have had in a while!

On the other hand, the opposite end of this rainbow, is that my Mother has been admitted to hospital due to Lymph Nodes in her lungs and abdomen. She had treatment for cervical cancer a couple of years ago, but it seems that the cancer has spread or returned in another place.

While this is, to many, sad news, my relationship with my parents is well documented and has never been easy. Whilst I would not wish this most awful of illnesses on anyone, I find it hard to feel anything in my heart for my mother and father at this time.

Because of this, I am fighting on 2 fronts. I feel equally guilty and not guilty for feeling like I do (?).

Please dont judge me on my feelings, as I said, my history with my parents is a torrid one at best!

Maybe I need another rainbow to lighten the way!]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:31:00 +0000 They had several games for the kids and for one of them, a bowling game, the prize was a golden fish. My son got one and I started trying to convince him that we shouldn't take the little fish home. We don't have a fish bowl or fish food. Anyways, one of the other moms told us then that her kid got a fish last year at the same fair. She then started telling us how she didn't want to feed the fish and let it starve to death! She thought we'd have "fun" with her story; she was giving us all the details on how the little creature showed despair while starving. I was so shocked!! I asked her why she did such a horrible thing and she quickly changed her tone and said she didn't know why... I had that terrible story in my mind for the whole night. Then I ask myself why we, humans, think we possess the right to decide who of God's creations deserves to die or to live! This is a religious school!! The previous chapel day the pastor was talking about compassion and kindness...
We all should be very careful when we state we "are" christians or whatever other religion. In my opinion we should simply say "I try to follow Jesus' teachings". It's a huge responsability to say "I'm a christian". In my opinion we should take this more seriously and be more grateful for God's beautiful creations.

http://scrapgirls.com.ipbhost.com/index.php?app=gallery&modulhttp://scrapgirls.com.ipbhost.com/index.php?app=gallery&module=images§ion=viewimage&img=91361e=images§ion=viewimage&img=91361]]> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:27:00 +0000
This is exciting for me but also quite scary because it requires that I reveal things about myself, that as a private person, I am hesitant to do. That is one reason that 'secret' journalling or 'hidden' is a fave on my hybrid and traditional pages. Not so easy on digital though ;-) but not impossible to make the journalling a smaller part of the bigger story.

Having people know why things were important to me, why stories and photos matter, is a legacy that I want to share for my son and my future family. Coming from a small family with little to no connection to our distant relatives or access to stories or photos I feel a strong urge to 'correct' that in a forward way. Digital photos sure help, I can snap snap snap pictures all I want and keep only those which tell the story best. Those are not always the 'best' photos, of course, but they are the ones which say the most.

Coming from a background in media, photography and graphic arts the tools and toys of scrapbooking intrigue and enthrall me - I love them all! So much to try, so much to do...so many photos and stories but alas, not always as much time. Time spent scrapbooking, for me, is time invested in being the modern version of the clan, tribe and family story teller. Who else is going to keep track of things like the photos of the cross stitch done by my 5 x great great grandmother when she was 11? Or my baptism in a river? Or my husband using something for a ladder that isn't one? Who will remember the stories and keep them safe? Who will listen to Baba and Kokum when they tell our history? I am proud to be that keeper, and I will work hard to do them proud. I have lost ground with my own grandparents but cousins and family are helping and that's great to even know I have those people! Wow...who knew? I didn't!

I don't come to Scrapgirls as often as I'd like but working, ranching, being a Mama and a wife and everything else sometimes gets in the way of my scrapping and socializing...I hope this blog will help me keep in touch with my Scrap Sisters whom I love! Be brightly blessed...always and in all ways, Shanyn, the Mystic-Mom]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:11:00 +0000
Because this house is not in close proximity to where we currently reside, the transactions are all taking place via cell phone, email, and that most wonderful of inventions, the .pdf file. And while these technological marvels allow us the luxury of being able to do this off-site, there is really no substitute for being able to look the realtor in the eye and saying, "What is this?"

We would have made perfect candidates for the TV show "Property Virgins." The street address of the house has been wrong on virtually every piece of paper we needed to sign. The square footage was miscalculated to be almost 200 square feet larger than the house actually is. The appraisal (which had to be redone because of the square footage issue) came back about $12,000 less than the agreed upon sale price--meaning the loan won't be granted.

So, now we wait--again--to see if the seller will accept an offer closer to the appraised value--which would be good for us, not so good for them. In the meantime, though, we're out quite a few bucks for the appraisal, pest reports and repairs, and other inspections that it was incumbent upon us to pay for. My husband keeps asking me if I still want the house. He is caution personified. I keep saying I do want it, that I may be totally delusional, but I have never felt like it was the wrong thing to do.

We have to laugh--otherwise we'd be tearing out what hair we have left. I'm still not sure what our kids think about this impending move. But that's probably a topic for another day.]]> Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:36:00 +0000
Most of us have a man in our lives and in our homes. And most of those men pride themselves on being able to fix a car, truck, motorcycle, lawn mower, chain saw, or anything else that has a motor, oil, grease and a noxious smell. How does the sink play into all this? Let's venture forward.

Your loving partner tries his best to help save money by fixing your vehicle. So off you go, driving his, to the grocery, to pay bills, pick up the dry cleaning, running the children to their various activities, and after all this you decide to be a gracious lady and pick up dinner. Upon your arrival home, you come into your kitchen, (yes, this is labeled your domain) and find some greasy, oily stinky car part in your sink, soaking in only goodness knows what. No sense in making a big deal out of it. It does not do any good. Here is the rub. This greasy, oily, stinky car part could be soaking in a bucket in the garage or workshop just as effectively. Why the sink? I think, after much study and personal research, I have the answer. The kitchen has great lighting (to see all the problems that the part has.) That big bright overhead light in the garage is just too bright. There is a seemingly endless supply of wiping off material available in the kitchen (Usually the best brand of papertowels we will allow ourselves to buy, and those lovely kitchen towels that get the dishes so dry, those shop towels we buy by the box just don't do the job as well). There is plenty of cold drinks available in the fridge (that small shop fridge just doesn't seem to keep a 24 pack as cold). Our darling men get so tired of running in and out to keep up with the football game (the big TV in the living room is so much more veiwable than that little black and white one set up in the garage right on the shelf near the working area.). Now we would not want our Master Mechanic to get all pooped out changing the oil or fixing that carburetor for us, would we? Light, towels (paper and cloth), Cold drinks, and TV. This is why those parts end up in that fabulous, shiny sink. It is perfectly acceptable to them to use it. It is there and it serves the purpose very well, in their minds.

So when you see this happen to you, just think, oh how much money you have saved by not sending the car to the shop! That money should just about cover the plumber that has to come out and remove all the gunk from all the parts that have now clogged your kitchen drain.]]> Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:14:00 +0000 ]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:45:00 +0000 So as it turns out the doctor wants me to come back in a year for another endoscopy to see if it has turned from Pre-C to the Big-C? Can You believe that???? Not me, I am not about to wait a year to see if I get the Big-C.

So Yesterday, I search google (my family calls me "QUEEN of Google" and I find a procedure that state of the art hospitals have been doing for 5 years, that reverses Barrett's Esophagus. They use radio frequency ablation to kill the Pre-C tissue. The cure rate is 90% and the tissue goes back to normal, Not back to Pre-C but back to NORMAL!!! Isn't that awesome. So I will get an appointment and dear hubby will take me in Nov or Dec to a medical center that does that procedure, and Get-R-Done. Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville is 5-6 hours away. That will be FANTASTIC. I was on cloud-9 on Saturday. Praise God I don't have to wait a year for the Big-C.

Thanks for reading ]]> Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:33:00 +0000 I started seeing on magazines these gorgeous LOs all made on the computer. I needed to find out how that could be done! And this is how I am: when I set my mind on something, oh boy, I don't rest till I accomplish whatever I want. I started my digital adventurous quest with a simple program for scrapbooking. I liked it, but it was very limited. So I found out that PSE was a start and I found that Costco had one, PSE4. I got it but I almost went nuts trying to figure out how to do anything with it! Time passes and I still don't know how to use my PSE4... very frustrating... The manual was not an option at all! Too complicated! Then SG website crossed my path... oh, the freebies! But I still couldn't work with my PSE4. I couldn't rest till I could make a whole LO all digital. And then I attended this classes online that we offered by the local community college. It wasn't scrapbooking oriented, but taught me a lot about the program in general and photo editing, etc. One day I finally created my first 100% digital LO! OMG, I felt so powerful, on top of the world!! But that's when I started having these funny symptoms: interest in the world around me just as a source of creating LOs, a overwhelming disgust for wasting time with house chores and cooking, a urge to spend nights awake scrappin', the overwhelming necessity of photographing just about anything and anyone... So it was obvious, I was suffering from DSA syndrome! "Severe Digital Scrapbooking Addiction"
The most interesting sympton of this syndrome is the total refuse of getting treated against it, no interest in "healing"!
Now to add more to the problem, I'm also addicted to SG forum, loading my gallery, cruising through other SDSA patients' galleries, etc. I love SG!
How did I live before digital scrapbooking? How could I feel complete before?? Oh, wait... That's probably why I was on Prozac before... ]]> Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:28:00 +0000 Anyways, I've always struggled with my hair. Since I was a little girl. I have curly hair. But not any kind of curly. I have UGLYcurly hair! My mom hated it too, so she'd do all kinds of crazy things in my hair, to tame it. Once I remember being about 6 and coming back from the hairstylist. My mom washing my hair and I watching it fall in the tub in big chunks! Yeah... crazy... Or she'd put these bobs in my hair, I hated them! I was just 6!!
So I grew up knowing my hair was ugly... But I'm a fighter. When people have something they don't like, many of them just sit and complain about it. Well, I too complain but I try to change it. So I did with my hair.
I started experimenting with different tools: round hair brushes, different sizes of hair driers, etc. Then I found this Connair hair dryer. It's cheap and simple. This hair drier has a round brush attached to where the air comes out. So I don't have to use both hands to style my "bush". That would make my hair curly, but not ugly curly, just normal curly. Then along came the flat iron! OH, MY GOD, it's my best friend!! Now I can wear my hair straight!
The same happens with my hair color. It's just plain, dark brown... urgh!... So I "experimented" with different colors, different brands. After many trips to Wal-Mart I settled with Nice & Easy, redish blond. I love it!
The funny thing is that the other day my daughter told me about this article she was reading. It talked about how to recognize people's signs of the horoscop by their behavior. The article said Leo spends a lot of money and time on their hair. WOW! This is so true! And it makes sense: what makes a lion a lion? THE MANE, of course!! And even funnier is the fact that the color I settled with is the same color as the lion's mane! I swear this all happened uncounciously.
I spend over an hour styling my hair straight. When I'm too tired or too lazy, I just use that one Connair hair drier and keep it "normal" curly. What happens if I don't do anything?... Hmm...it's not good... One day I washed it and went straight to bed. The next day the ugly curls were all smashed... I looked terrible! My husband said I looked like I was some terminal diseases patient! :rofl:]]> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:25:00 +0000
Its been quite a ride since the last entry!

In late July, my maternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Lakin, passed way peacefully at the ripe old age of 91 years young.

She was a calm and inspiring lady who, despite having had a very harsh life, gave an unequalled air of confidence and calmness in the worst of crises.

As a young lady she started work in service to one of the larger households in the then affluent town of Blackpool, returning to Yorkshire to marry her childhood sweetheart, Thomas, just as the Second World War broke out in Europe.

She leaves 3 surviving Children, 4 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. Rest in Peace Nan!


Two days after the death of my grandmother, my daughter went to a specialist hospital and received a diagnosis of having "Tourette's Syndrome". We had suspected this for a while, but it takes around 18 months of observing and noting behavioural characteristics before a proper diagnosis can be made. I did not realise that there are several aspects of Tourettes. (the one regulalarly portrayed by the media in the UK is "coprolalia" which is the random shouting out of sometimes very offensive language). DD has the "tics with vocalisation" aspect.

Although we had our suspicions that it may have been Tourettes that she had, it still hurts to know that you are right!

This, whilst not unexpected, has knocked us for six and left my wife and myself reeling. Although it was a good few weeks ago now, its taking its time to sink in. Still, we find strength somewhere!


Last month (August) we also discovered that DS has to return to the Cardiac Surgery unit to have some remedial work done on his scar received when he had open heart surgery as a baby.

DS is now a whopping 6ft 3in tall, (at 15 y/o) and the scar tissue is stretching to the point where it is quite painful for him to stand straight. The idea is for him to return to surgery so they can "loosen" the tension in the scar (probably by grafts, I don't exactly know how yet!)

Still, its invasive surgery on a person who has already had 3 heart ops. I have complete faith in the cardiac specialists who work with DS, but...there is always a risk..


Its not all bad. I think the therapy I have had has given me tools to be able to deal with these situations and to realise that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Its just that the tunnel is a little long! Life never ceases to amaze me, the ups and downs, the changes of pace that leave you breathless one minute and bring you to a dead stop the next!

Something in me has definately changed this year Despite all I've said and all that is happening, I am still able to say that I am dealing with these things in the best way I ever have. Before, I would lapse into long depressive bouts and not want to do anything. I would wait for others to take the lead. I would want to hide away from everything and everyone, quite happy to relinquish my role.

But not now! I am fully determined to get to the end of this tunnel.

Wish me luck!


Thanks for listening.



Dave]]> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:39:00 +0000