The life of a Dutch Scrapper

Ho ho ho, I feel like Santa!

I do! but it is not Christmas yet and my HUGE give-away just have to wait till it is Christmas day. Tomorrow at 10 o'clock in the morning I will be launching my new Weddingphotography website and I also will be doing a HUGE give-away that I know you do not want to miss, no you do not, trust me ;)

So after you finished your Christmas breakfast come take a look here or on my photography blog.

Corinnexxx

Which health insurance to choose?

That was the top question this week for me. I want a heath insurance that would cover the medication of me and Anthony because now I have to pay a lot of money each month and I do not want to pay for that anymore next year. So I was on the hunt for the best heath insurance for our family that would also cover most of the Orthodontic things for Anthony. Coincident or not the magazine Balans was falling on my doormat this week and they pointed out a few health care choices that were perfect for us and if you were a member of their magazine you also would get a discount. So I checked things out and also looked at other health insurances out there but Avero Achmea did it for me. I choose the royaal package for my family. I opted for an extra dentist insurance but she told me that it would cost me at least 200 euro(the cheapest package that I wouldn't have chosen anyway) a year and if we are not know for having tooth problems she said that we probably wouldn't even need it. We would only have to go to a much more expensive one and that would bring up our monthly cost insanely. So we choose not to take an extra dentist insurance(the kids are covered anyway) and hope that our teeth will stay good hahaha.

So now our monthly costs are 251,74 euro a month AND our ADHD medication is fully covered(which could costs me 90 euro a month otherwise!). So if you are interested in this kind of insurance as well make sure you subscribe to the balans magazine(www.balansdigitaal.nl) to get the benefits of this(follow the link through their website to the health insurances). Oh and the heath insurance will cover 85 % of the subscription costs as well :).

I hope this will help people who are in the same boat as me.

Corinnexxx

PS: be sure you keep an eye on this blog because something AMAZING is coming up soon!!!!!!!! 

Update on Anthony's school

Yesterday I had a meeting with the care-team at Anthony's school and his teacher and we came up with a plan for Anthony. I explained them that Anthony has been underachieving for years now and that this started at another school where he did the same things as the year before(I found out after that year) because they thought it would take away stress from him and build his self-esteem, accept it turned out that it only made his self-esteem lower( he thought he was stupid because he still did the same things he already mastered the previous year) and his fear of failing only grew from that moment on. Also on this school they have never challenged him, pushed him through his panic attacks which comes up when he needs to do new things. But my experience with this is that once he gets through this panic he is calm again and gets everything done flawless. Now Anthony also knows that when he puts on a temper or such he knows that his teacher doesn't push him and he is let of the hook and he is OK with that because he is fine by how it is right now. Everything is easy for him so why bother right? 

I also explained that I think his dyslexia is also a BIG part of his fear to fail. He can't spell, he can't write down what is in his head, he has no idea how to do that right so he is not answering the questions right , only short answers because he simply panics when he can't do it and gets frustrated. I told him that we are getting him his own laptop this x-mas and will put a programme on it for him so he can have help with his spelling. We also will enroll him in an on-line programme called typetopia where he will learn how to type blind and it is also for dyslectic kids. He can take his computer with him each day to school to work on it because at school they have computers and apparently the programme but no one is using it or knows how to use it....sigh. They will also start with teaching him the basic grammatical things for English instead of just words. He will be getting a day task to complete in the beginning but we will build this out to a week task or more then one. This way he learns how to plan and to finish things. In return we will talk with him about a rewarding system because it will be a lot of changes for him and for a child who hasn't been challenged for years it will be scary to get to a place were he needs to actually do things that might be difficult for him.

The lines with school will be short, updates each day by mail in the beginning.

I hope these changes will help him to grow the real potentials that are inside of him.

Corinnexxx 

Focus and tears

Focus: So I have been taking Ritalin for a few weeks now and I have to say I am more focused when I use it. I can focus longer and therefor get more done in a day which makes me very happy :)
I will have an appointment with my doctor this week to test my bloodpressure etc and I will probably am going to use concerta instead of ritalin for the future. It is the same medicine but it lasts 12 hours and ritalin lasts 4 hours. I have to say that in the first two weeks after 4 hours I felt the rebound effect but not anymore so i guess it is true that it is working good after two weeks.

Tears: Anthony will be going to high school next year and he had to make a test(NIO) to see where he is capable of going to. We got the test results on Friday and when I saw it I broke down and cried out of sadness and frustration. Anthony thought he did very badly but he did the opposite he did great, no better then great, he got HAVO advice, which is pretty high. The reason why i broke down was that I have for years been tellinghis teachers that they are not getting out of him what is inside of him, that he is capable of more then what they offer him, that he is not challenged and that he is kept lazy and that Anthony doesn't mind that at all. They never listened and now to see that I have been right all along is so painfull for me because even if he wanted to go to a normal HAVO class he couldn't because he is so far behind in everything. 

So just before he got the results I went to a school that is perfect for kids like Anthony that are behind with schoolthings and have learning problems like dyslexy and such. He could go there for one to 3 years and they will work with these kids hard to get them up to the same level as other kids so they can go to a normal school after one to 3 years and blend in with the rest without being different. The classes are small 15 kids max. So compared with 30 kids in a regualr school that is a big plus coming from a school with 9 kids in his class. Also a dyslexia coach in each class(halleluja!)

Sounds perfect right? well not so. They do not take kids with HAVO advice. TL is the highest class they have(one below HAVO). So now I have to go through a commission(and I am not so fond of commisions due to the horrible expreience I had with them last time) again to try to get Anthony in this TL class becuase a regular HAVO class even if it is a smaller class at a regular school is too big of a change for him and will not due. So today I will be calling Anthony's school to make an appointment because I have had it. No more doing nothing, playing on his DS and attending all these fun classes(technics, sports, cooking and drawing, etc, etc) but start challenging him, learning him new things and pushing him to do more, simply because he CAN! He told me that they started for the 3rd time the same English class(in 1,5 years time) and he was sick of it. It are only words and he is pretty good at English and just needs to learn more then just words. He is also not reading any books sinds he started school and he is dyslextic!!! Last year at the computer lessons they had they had to type a piece of text over from a piece of paper and who was finished could go online to do games. I mean come on!!! It is more like let's keep these kids entertaint and that is it. So frustrating because when you tell them you want more or tell them how you feel they always come up with excuses and not with change. well no more! I have had it and I want my son to learn things from now of on!

Corinnexxx

For the Love

Last September I went with my friend Florence to the USA to follow a workshop of a fellow photographer that I have been admiring for years, Barb Uil. The workshop blew me away and left me with so much inspiration(I will start sharing the pics I took of the workshop later this week on my photoblog). Barb now released a new E-Book(a pdf-file) that truly is an inspiration for proffesional photographers but truly a gift for those moms with cameras that would like to document their kids/family in the right way. Over 160 pages filled with ideas, inspiration but also lots of technical stuff we usually do not understand(and this is when we set our camera to automatic ;) ). She makes it look easy.....which it is! I am all inspired again and I am 100% going to use her ideas to document my family in another way.

And guess what?!

I am a contributor!!! I am so honored that she choose me to be in her book, I might have screamed a little when I saw it :)


So if you do not know what to ask Sinterklaas or Santa this year, ask this or give it to yourselve as a present. It will be a gift that last a lifetime, promise!!! (and if you buy it now you will get it at a lower price!)

You can go HERE to buy it. GO!

Corinnexxx

Tales of the scale - the loser edition

That is right, I am a loser, or at least that is how I feel lately. I gained weight. After coming back from Barcelona and America I let it slide and now I can't fit in hardly any of my new clothes anymore. LOSER! That is truly how I feel. Ashamed that I let it happen AGAIN! When I was so happy to get rid of it all. I never felt better. Now I look in the mirror and I feel fat again. Of course I only gained a few kilo's so that shouldn't make me fat but for me it feels like that. In the beginning when I gained I went with my old behavior and just eat more, completely out of control. Since Monday I made the switch in my head again, because I truly want to break the pattern within me with food. I knew this lesson was coming, did I truly learn something the past year or not? I hope I did. Therefor I am now back to eating healthy, no snacks, no sugar and low on the carbs. Now after 3 days I can see my belly get thinner again, as the carbs make you look swollen. I also have less cravings. I do not want to get back on the shakes and such because I simply need to make a healthy lifestyle work for me, no more crash diets for me. I will take it day by day and hope to lose my weight before the new year. I refuse to buy new clothes, REFUSE you hear me! 

Another thing that I made a decision in is that I am going to start with Ritalin tomorrow. So far I never used any medication for my ADHD. I always made things work for me with more planning, lists, etc. But somehow I am still too destracted, especially with my work. The result is that I am constantly busy with doing nothing or everything, but it feels so chaotic to me. I have too little time for my kids and family life, let alone some me-time. Focussing is hard for me and I like to have some time to relax a bit. So I have been doubting about this for so long now and today I called the doctor and he said I could start tomorrow. I am scared, but I truly hope it works.

Corinnexxx

And it is out!

My gallbladder that is. I went into surgery on Monday afternoon and I was not nerves at all! It even felt weird that I was so calm going into this, but somehow inside I felt it would be alright.

The doctor called Raymond after the surgery to tell him the gallbladder went out very smoothly and that the stones were "crumbled"(vergruist) and not one was whole anymore. I truly believe that the healer Kyle from the Spa at the Ace hotel in Palm Springs did this. I never felt so much healing energy from someone and me getting a huge fever after it made it clear for me that my body reacted on it big time.

So now I am at home again, still a bit sore and difficulties with sleeping as it is difficult to find a good way to sleep, but hopefully it will get better each day. I can't do a lot yet because I am tired and can't stand or sit for more then 10 minutes. I will take it slow and watch some tv, read and rest.

Corinnexxx 

Update of some sort

I have been swamped with work for the past 2 weeks and today I will finish it off with two photoshoots, just in time because I will have surgery tomorrow. My gallbladder will be removed at 2.30. I do not have time to be nervous because I ardly have had any time to relax or breath since I got back from the USA. Luckily I hardly had a jet-lag from the way back.

I gained a few kilo from not watching my food in barcelona and the USA and after my surgery I am focussing on getting those off again fast. Not with Canbridge but with low carb eating. I knew that I would gain but I made the decision to enjoy my whole trip and not think if I could eat something or not. Not that Ieat more then normally just different things(oh damn you cheese cake factory!).

As I already told you when I was in barcelona I was losing my hair, to the point I thought I truly was getting bold. When I got back from Barcelona I had an appointment with a hairclinic. The tested my blood and they took close-up photos of my hair:



They told me that I had 15% of good hair left......15%.
It was all too thin. They also told me that my livervalues were of the charts. For a woman it is normal to have a max of 24 and my value was 164!!! They actually didn't believe it so they tested it twice to get the same results. I told her that my gallbladder had to be removed soon. She was happy to hear this because now she knew why my values were so high. But my liver not working good, the rapid weightloss and me stopping with the Pill in february all lead to my body getting into shock. And all my hair fell out all at once. She thought that the worst was over now(and I had to agree, it even had been worse then this back in barcelona) and she expects me to get my hair back in a year from now. She gave me some pills that I have to take every day and that wa sit. There are a lot of bad and exspensive hairclinics out there but the pills cost me 28 euro for 2 months and the consult 75 euro which I got back from healthcare. So if you are having hair problems my advice is to go to these guys, they know what they are talking about.
My hair is already thicker now and you do not see parts of my skull any more. Hopefully it will al get back to it's original state.

Ok off to do one of my last shoots, please think of me tomorrow and pray for a good outcome, thanks!

corinnexxx

PACS give-away!!!

 

The Paper and Co show Italy 2012 have a new blog http://scrapbookiando.typepad.com/pacs/

To celebrate the blog they are doing a give-away this week. 

This is what they say:

The Paper and co show Italy 2012 is coming to great strides! 

We want to live the expectation of this magnificent event with all of you!

Let's celebrate with a nice giveaway! Oh yes!!! A really big giveaway where you can all participate, participants and non-participants! You have just read that right!

Joining is easy! 

 

• Save the top logo of this posts for the giveaway and also this tiny one above. 
• Use the top logo to make a post about the Pacs on your blog and insert the tiny banner in the sidebar of your blog. 
• Leave a comment to this post(on their webblog not mine!!!) linking to the post in your blog.

We will pick up three lucky  winners!

3 prizes: 

1° Prize: a class (a value of about € 50) or alternatively 50% discount in the shop (for orders  to a max of spending € 100) 

2° Prize: 20% discount for 1 package of 3 classes (value € 40) or alternatively 40% discount in the shop (for orders  to a max of spending € 100) 

3° Prize: 10% discount for 1 package of 5 classes (value € 28) or 30% discount in the shop (for orders to a max of spending € 100) 

NB: by order total excludes shipping, discount for orders in the shop is available until February 5, 2012.

Deadline: September 25, 2011 

Annunciation winners: September 26, 2011

So not much time left so get to it! 

I have been to the PACS before and their workshops and kits are AMAZING!! and Naples is pretty cool as well I must say :)

Corinnexxx

Pacs Italy 2012!!!!

I was so happy when my friends from Naples, Lory et Simona, decided to organize the PACS in Italy again. I was there as a scrapbookteacher back in 2009 and it was AMAZING!!! This time I am not going as a scrapbooker but as a photographer teaching my self-portrait class.

For those of you would like to take my photography class, get scrappy with my sweet "sister" Celine Navarro, meet awesome Donna Downey, Kesia and see how talented my Italian friends are, come to Naples on February 3,4 & 5 2012 for the 4th edition of PACS Italy , it will be worth it!

corinnexxx

Watch this space because they are doing a great give-away!