Jake Turned 12!

This month is moving too fast, time to give you all an update.



Jake had a very unusual birthday. Two days before the date we all went out for a family dinner to celebrate, the next night he had his yummy birthday cake and presents, finally his actual birthday arrived and off he went to camp at 7.00am! I managed to smuggle some treats onto the bus with his teacher so he didn't miss out totally! He got all the goodies he wished for, top of the list was an MP3 player.

Kit is Zesty by Lasa Whitney at ScrapArtist

The week that Jake went to camp (he had a fantastic time) Scott and I both got sick, just the usual cold thing but it sure didn't help having a birthday plus all the organisation for camp at the same time. We got through it OK but last week I was just really tired. I feel so much more on top of things this week thankfully.

We had cat troubles last week, Daisy disappeared for 24hrs, I was expecting the worst but she finally came home very much the worse for wear. She was exhausted, covered in dirt and oil, had some minor injuries and was terrified. She wouldn't eat or drink for another day and Grant ended up taking her to the vet. After some painkillers and a big bill she finally decided to drink and is now slowly coming right, almost back to her usual cat aloofness.


I have been constantly busy with my course, I got the first unit sent in last week and now I'm into the second one which is even more work. I had a good day at school today and managed to squeeze in some study (a happy combination of students on trips and Christmas carol practice). So I'm devoting this evening to this update. I was late home because I went to the hairdresser straight after work (Jake sat in the cafe next door, ginger beer and pizza did the trick!). I aim to get the next unit done before we head to NZ for Christmas but its a real struggle.



We went to the motor racing last weekend, they had a big meeting at the Autodrome. It was fun, plenty of noise and action! There was a new class called 'Speed Cars' kinda like Nascars and of course Scott was keen on the single seaters! Grant and Scott managed to snag some media passes and could roam all over but Jake and I got stuck in the stands. Still, the weather was nice and it was something different to do. Unfortunately half way through the day my camera died, I've tried all the easy fixes to no avail so I'm thinking its the shutter. It has had a hard life and done a huge number of shots so I can't complain too much (they don't make 'em like they used to, that's for sure!). Anyhow, with the Rotax Grand Finals coming up this weekend Grant took pity on my and said OK to a new camera! It would have been too painful to just have the little point & shoot. Ended up paying more by getting it in Dubai but no time to wait for someone to be going to the States. I got a Canon 40D, been too busy to even play with it yet, sooo not fair! But at least I will be in business for the weekend.

And speaking of the Karting - WOW it's all happening! Scott and Grant have been away in Al Ain for 3 days now, Scott is all registered and ready to go. Jake and I will go over on Thursday after work and then stay for all the racing over the weekend. At the moment its all the official stuff and they should finally get onto the track tomorrow for practicing. The qualifying heats are on Thursday. I will try to add a link to the official web site, hope it works. I noticed there are a lot of 'coming soon' pages but hopefully they will keep it updated when everything gets going. Scott is very excited, he will do his best but knows that it's going to be super tough. We will all be back on Sunday and I will have some photos for you all then.

http://www.maxchallenge-rotax.com/events/2007_united-arab-emirates/united-arab-emirates.html

OK time to get to bed, I'm trying hard not to get too tired, it makes life miserable!