Thursday 31 January 2008

I got a new toy!!


This is going to be a really quick post today as my lovely postman has just knocked on my door and delivered a parcel containing my new camera lens. I just took this picture with it for today's HS:MS prompt. Right I'm off to play with some buttons and settings.
Edited to add: I use a Canon SLR and on the advise of Anita I just got a Tamron 28-75mm lens for it.

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Child Labour

For nearly 2 weeks now I have had 40 Omany Rials sitting on my windowsill waiting for me to go and get them exchanged, which I did yesterday and wouldn't you believe it today's photo prompt at HS:MS is currency. So instead here is the other currency in our house - ticks!

Each day the boys have to do jobs to earn pocket money so the more jobs they do the more money they earn, most are simple jobs like putting their shoes away and putting their dirty clothes in the wash as it's little things like this that help me. The most recent addition is brain training, they have to do 3 exercises and one has to be mental arithmetic. Then on a Sunday if there bedroom is spotless they can earn a whole English pound! These lists do change periodically in the past Kyle got paid for changing his underwear each day! So anything that they need to do, like practising their maths and exercising, or things that they hate doing, like changing underwear, showering and brushing teeth get put on the list until they become a habit. Then because I'm the boss and I can be evil if I want to be they get the jobs I hate added on too like cleaning up dog pooh and sorting out recycling. Kyle had to clean the dog pooh yesterday but today the list gets turned over and it is Matt's turn (the list is laminated and double sided). This system has worked well for us for years now, when they were smaller it was 2ps and 5ps that they were earning but as they have got older so has the amount we pay them.

Tagged Again

Marina has tagged me so here I go.

Five things I was doing 10 Years Ago

Looking after a 1 year old son and a 3 year old son
Childminding
Not making the most of life
Eating too much
Sitting on my butt for most of the time


Five things on my to do list

A Parachute jump
A Helicopter ride over Manhattan (to be done this year)
Organise and scan all my photo's
To see the Northern Lights (fingers crossed for when we are in Canada this summer)
To smile more


Five things I will do when I am a Millionaire

Buy an expensive camera and do lots of photography courses
Buy a house in Canada
Pay for Pete to see all the top specialists
Give some money to Kidney Research and Crones charities
Make sure the boys are set up for life


Five things I will never wear again

Halternecks - my boobs won't stay up on there own anymore
High heels for more than 10 minutes
Crop tops
Dungarees
Pinafore dress


Five of my favourite toys

Computer
Cricut
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo DS
Bind it All (well it will be when it arrives tomorrow)



Five banes of my existence

Twig when he gets lost every time we let him off his lead
The loan company who put our phone number on all of their demand letters
PMS
Bad Customer Service - there is no excuse
? Will have to think about this one

Now I supposed to tag someone, consider yourself tagged if you haven't done this yet and you want to join in.

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Think Pink!

I had to think hard to come up with today's picture for HS:MS but it eventually came to me. Since I got this little beauty for Christmas I have trained my brain everyday and it has paid off as my brain age has decreased from 84 to a wonderfully youthful 22 just got to work on the body now.

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I sat and had a fiddle on CS2 last night and came up with this. I'm doing each of my digi layouts in 2 sizes one that fits into a blurb book and one that fits onto my computer screen. Still got a long way to go with this digi scrapping malarkey as I can see lots of effects I want to achieve and have no idea how to get them. I think it will help that my style seems to be on the plain and simple side.
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Bits from : Kirsty Wiseman, Mischiefscraps and Shabby Princess.
Font used: 28 Days Later

I let the cat out of the bag last night as I felt so guilty and showed Pete my blog from yesterday. He really is a sweetie he just smiled at me and said "I don't mind".

Sunday 27 January 2008

Having some ZZZZZZZzzzzzz's


There is no chance of snapping a snooze here for today's prompt at HS:MS as I'm home all alone, the dogs are constantly bouncy, the dragon only sleeps at night and I am wide awake so a delve into the archives was the order of the day. I am going to be in sooo much trouble if he sees that I have posted this picture so ssshhhh nobody say a word. This was taken on the Ferry over to France last summer and yes he was snoring.




Yesterday we went on a mammoth geocache in the form of a 4.5 mile circular walk which started on a disused railway in Audley. We found most of the ones we went to look for but failed on a couple. The first one we had to look for was next to a roundabout, a pub and a shop so how we were supposed to do this one without being spotted I'm not sure and just to make it that little bit easier it was a nano cache which means it is about the size of a broad bean. Predictably this one didn't get found.
The next few were easy as they were 35mm film boxes and then it started to go wrong when we met 3 old ladies and their dogs. These old ladies were stood right next to the cache as their Yorkshire Terrier had got itself completely lost and the sausage dog was stuck in the undergrowth. We helped, well Matt tried to, and then we waited for about 15 minutes before they decided to move on but as soon as we started looking someone else came so we gave up and moved ourselves on to the next cache. Where, would you believe it, the 3 moldies (Kyle's words not mine) were stood chatting to a friend so we gave up on that one before we started. The rest we found without too many problems as no one else seemed stupid enough to trek 2 miles across muddy fields in January so we didn't have to try and look inconspicuous. We did have to avoid a few, rather large bulls and lots of mud which I wasn't too successful with as I managed to get totally stuck at one point which is about the time I discovered that my nice funky wellies have 3 holes in them- yuck.

The End Of My Street Cred.

The lovely Rach has tagged me to name 5 songs that mean something to me. So this is when I completely ruin my image.

1. Whose Garden Is This? by John Denver. When I was little my Dad had (still has) all of John Denver's albums and I loved playing them and singing along to them. This was one of the ones that I knew all the words too, it is such a sad song and it makes me cry everytime I hear it. I can't find the John Denver version so the link is to the original recording.

2. Doctor Doctor! by Thompson Twins. I bought this album when I was in Belgium on a school trip, on the same day we went to hear the last post. This song was in the charts at the time and I always think of Belgium when I hear any of their songs.

3. Crazy For You by Madonna. This reminds me of those young teenage years when I used to go to the Police disco at the Civic Hall on a Monday night. I had a huge crush on a boy called Jamie, my first major crush, so when I hear this song it makes me remember that feeling.

4. Almost Paradise by Mike Reno & Anne Wilson. This is the song from Footloose. For our first date Pete and I double dated with 2 friends from where we worked and we went to the pictures to see RoboCop 2. We then went back to Pete's parents house (they lived abroad and still do) where he played this album and sang this song to me. Soppy I know.

5. Whole Again by Atomic Kitten. This was number one when Pete was first rushed into hospital and when we first found out that he had something wrong with his kidneys. This is when our lives completely changed for the better. I know that sounds weird but it bought us closer together, more appreciative of what we have, including each other and it made us start making the most of every day. This song also marked the end of arguing as we have not had one since then (2000) - life's too short!

Pete's just looked at these laughed and said "How Gay are you"! Mmmm thanks love. In my defence I do have to say these are NOT my favourite songs but they are some of the ones that mean the most to me.

I'm tagging Mima, Sue and Lou - sorry girls.

The Devil's Goose?

I don't know about you but I think that this goose that we fed yesterday looks a bit suspicious with his butter wouldn't melt blue eyes, his sharp fang like teeth and his orange eyeliner. Even though he is bordering on evil I am using him as my Show Of Sunday picture.



Just a quick post from me this morning as I am in the middle of making a picnic of homemade tomato soup and fruit for us to take with us when we go geocaching today.

Saturday 26 January 2008

I'm Just An Old Fashioned Girl

Well today is Self Portrait Saturday and even though I didn't take this picture, obviously, it is me and it was taken today.


It's the last time I let Pete hold the camera while I go for a quick sit down in the woods while we are out Geocaching I can tell you.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been watching the first series of "My Name Is Earl" on DVD and I don't know if anyone has noticed that every time Earl has his picture taken his eyes are shut. Guess which idiot decided that this is a cool idea and that it would be really funny if he did it all the time.


My Name is Pete

Today is also the day for Photohunt and this week it is Old Fashioned. This was one of the photos I took at the Black Country Museum last October as this man reminded me of the way my Great Uncle Jack used to dress when I was little.



The dinosaurs from yesterday are now safely tucked away in a box in the attic. When it came down to it a really couldn't part with them so they are going to live in a hidden corner until someone will love them again.

Friday 25 January 2008

After the horrible start to my day yesterday things did improve. Matthew came home from school and was actually quite nice, having morphed back into a human at some point during the day, he was still on go slow but that's nothing new. Kyle got the talking to last night about not dumping your girlfriend by text as that makes you a bit of a toad. Apparently Matt had seen Vicky (the ex) outside the Drama studio sobbing her heart out - bless.

Everything at school went well last night and Matt finally decided on Triple Science, Art and Geography for his GCSE options we just have to cross our fingers that these can all be time tabled together and he doesn't have to make any alterations as I really don't feel like dealing with the TEENAGE strop that, that will cause.


Today's word is three at HS:MS so I snapped these 3 guys who are sat on my living room floor. They, along with about 60 others, are very patiently sitting there waiting for me to photograph them so that they can be sold. I can't believe how sad I will be to see them go as Kyle was dinosaur mad for about 6 years and this means my little baby is getting all growed up :(

Thursday 24 January 2008

CBA

That's right I have a bad case of Can't Be Arsed today. I am putting the total blame for this outbreak of CBA on the shoulders of TEENAGE Matt who got up in the Mother of all strops this morning. I have never, ever known anyone go so slow as him, if he went any slower he would be going backwards. So at 7.30 this morning he stropped, I yelled, he stamped mud everywhere, I yelled, he went out, I got a headache. So now I am just sat here waiting for him to get in from school so that he can start all over again - who said having kids was fun!
Matt is currently in the process of choosing his options ready for next year and his GCSE's. We have a meeting at school tonight about this but I think his mind is pretty well made up. He will be doing the core subjects which are Maths GCSE, Statistics GCSE , English Lang GCSE, English Lit GCSE, Science GCSE, Additional Science GCSE, IT 2x GCSE's, Philosophy and Ethics 0.5 GCSE (how can you do half a GCSE), PE, Life Skills, and Work Related Learning. The three subjects he has chosen to take are Separate Sciences which will give him GCSE's in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, Art & Design GCSE and History GCSE. I'm very pleased with his choices we did have a bit of a dilemma between History and Geography but my Dad **Thanks Dad** soon sorted that one out for us as he used to do Careers advice at the High School where he taught and said that History would show that Matthew was about more than just science and would help develop his debating and essay writing skills. So in total, if he passes them all, he will end up with 13.5 GCSE's, 5 of them will be Science based which should help him in his quest to become a Doctor.
I will return later if I think of anything that I can take a picture of for today's prompt of "Overflow".
The love affair is now officially over Kyle has just come in and informed me that he has dumped Vicky as she was getting annoying. Not only that he has done it by text - that's me having serious words with him tonight. See Sue I told you he was a treat em mean type of man!!

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Hand Grenades and Hearts

Every day I look round other peoples blogs and see them showing off something that there child has created. One day it can be a beautiful rainbow covered coaster another day pretty fairy cakes covered in sprinkles or even a pretty picture, I always look longingly at them remembering the days when my two boys bought presents home from school for me and hoping that one day, one of my children will once again bring me home something pretty that I can treasure. Well yesterday that day came and I need wait no longer as Matt (14) has fulfilled my wish as he bought me home a beautiful cake in the shape of (are you ready for this) a hand grenade !! I am reliably informed, by him, that it is in actual fact a Green Day Heart grenade, I think that is supposed to make it better somehow. Then he goes on to tell me that everyone else made Spongebob, Rainbow, Flower and Heart cakes to take home so now I am left wondering where I went wrong. To be honest though I do think it shows a certain level of ingenuity and creativity.
Edited to Add : I haven't tasted the cake and won't be - a moment on the lips and all that.


I had a lovely couple of hours round at Mima's house yesterday with her and Sue, something that we are planning to do again very soon. Sue is a lovely lady, lady being the operative word as she uses a glass with her diet coke, Mima and I just glug it down out of the can, common as muck we are.

On to the reason for the post the word at HS:MS today is tube so I am going to go for the obvious and the boring and show you our toothpaste.

We have a great collection of Canadian toothpaste in our bathroom as everyone likes a different one. Here we have Orange, Lemon and Vanilla Mint which Pete used this morning and when I kissed him he was delish so that one is highly recommended. We bought a bag full home with us a few years ago and my Aunt has kept us well supplied ever since.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

There's no wrinkles on a balloon.

Just a quick post this morning as I have lots to do today including taking the dogs out in a minute while the sun is actually out. I am then going to imitate a domestic goddess and make some tasty homemade tomato soup (recipe on my other blog) to take round for Mima to try this afternoon. Not only do I get to see Mima this afternoon I get to meet Sue too which is kinda exciting.

Today's word is "wrinkles" and seeing as my old wrinkly has already gone to work this little guy that lives on my bedroom wall will have to suffice.

The title to this post? This, according to Pete, is the reason he looks older than me.

Monday 21 January 2008

My precious


Remember the other day when I said that Pete nearly died a couple of years ago. At the time we were on holiday on the Isle of Wight, we knew he was ill because he couldn't climb a couple of stairs without having to sit down we just didn't know how ill. Pete being Pete, and this not being the flu, he carried on throughout the holiday without much complaint and one day, towards the end of the holiday, when we were on a beach he found this ring made from shell and as a romantic gesture gave it to me. It was a few days later when we got home and I rushed him to A&E that we found out exactly how ill he was. The Doctor was amazed that not only was Pete alive he had actually walked into the hospital himself and driven home from the Isle of Wight the previous day. A man's blood count should normally be around 160-180 - on that day Pete's was 46 and dropping. I didn't have to think twice about today's prompt or hunt for it as it sits on the shelf on my side of the bed.

Sunday 20 January 2008

Rain, Rain Go Away

Today over on HS:MS it is Show Off Sunday. It's not really show off material but I was quite pleased that the bird was in focus! This was taken last week while we are out Geocaching in Warrington. I dread to think how stupid I looked creeping along the bridge to where the birds were all sat to try and get a picture of them.


We were hoping to go out and do some more caches this weekend but the weather is so bad it looks unlikely. Even the poor dogs are pacing about waiting for it to stop raining long enough for a walk.


This weeks word on photohunter is Important and these 3 guys are the most important things in my life and as usual the only shot I could get was one of them walking away from me!

Saturday 19 January 2008

Politically Incorrect

Today's self portrait is a bit of a cheat but I can honestly say hand on heart I had one that was taken this morning but then as I was transferring it the computer ate it. It was a really good one too as my head had been replaced by an orange bowling ball as it was taken this morning while we were ten pin bowling. So instead I have scanned in a couple of pictures that I found while looking through some boxes yesterday.


This was me aged 7 months on Boxing Day 1970 with my new toys, I loved that Golliwog.




This was in the very hot summer of 1976 when I was 6 years old, I think we were on the Isle of Wight? Mum wasn't too happy with me as I refused to wear my bikini top for the duration of the holiday and I kept getting called sonny. Can you see my hernia? That was my party piece when I was little I used to do a crab and it would pop right out, further than in the picture, and then I would push it in with my finger and it would temporarily disappear with a satisfying crunch. Don't know what happened to it, I never had an operation so it must have just got covered up with layers of fat over the years.


I've done another one at last taking my total up to 6 - a Digi layout that is. I have been putting it off for weeks now as I know it takes me 10 times longer than anyone else to do these as I have to look up how to do everything. I know I will get there in the end but at the moment it is slow going. I'm quite pleased with this one as I made the patterned papers myself using some brushes called Dark & Gothic from SS ? and some paper from Digitreats. The font used is called 1928. I can't work out where I got the star stamp thing from it says mmareda on it so I don't know if that means anything to anyone. **I must remember to make a note of where I get these bits from in the future**


I did this one for a scrap lift challenge on Designer Digital's. I stuck pretty closely to the LO that was to be lifted I'm sure when I am a bit more confident I will start to make it my own but at the moment I am learning loads from copying and find that challenging enough.

Friday 18 January 2008

The word of the day at HS:MS today is "dangle" and Kyle has some really cute danglies so I just had to share them with you.

These little guys live in Kyle's room hanging from his shelf. He fell in love with the brown one and it's baby on a day trip to Chester Zoo in 2003 and just had to bring him home - they've been hanging around ever since.


While looking for this picture of Kyle in 2003 at Chester Zoo I found this photograph of me in 2003.

This was 7 months before I started to loose weight and about the last photo that I agreed to have taken until exactly a year later when this one was taken.


I've just noticed that I am frowning in both pictures - I do smile sometimes honest! I'm hoping that by posting these they will keep me focused on losing the 2 stone I have put back on over the past 2 years.

Thursday 17 January 2008

His numbers nearly up.

It looks like Kyle is going to be off school for the rest of this week as he seems to have Man Flu pretty bad at the moment. How I have not strangled him yet I will never know, so if I go missing over the next couple of days you know I could take it no longer. Pathetic isn't in it, if you can imagine a cross between a sloth and Eeyore you've pretty much got it. He has a productive cough and insists that he is being sick every 5 minutes but when he tells me it's in that really poorly voice that men do so well. I would try and take a picture of him to post but I am not his favourite person at the moment as I am making him eat some food which is, according to Kyle, a form of child abuse.
Today's word on HS:MS is "number" and seeing as I live in a man house I had to take a picture of the most important numbers in the whole wide world.



I don't know about anyone else but I am getting really fed up of trying to take photos in this pants light that we are getting - where is the sunshine, we need spring!

Wednesday 16 January 2008

One down..

One to go. Matt has returned to school today but unfortunately Kyle is still not well enough to go back. He spent all day yesterday just lay on the sofa with his quilt over him sipping lucozade and honey and lemon. It looks like we're set for more of the same today too.

I think Kirsty and Anita over at HS:MS have got it in for me today as the word is indulge so I am going to have to go and look at everyone else's delicious cakes etc while I'm stuck with these.


I can't complain though as I started my diet on Monday 7th and so far I have lost 6lb so it's obviously working.

Unless you are interested in my husbands health I suggest you stop reading now! I had a really strange day yesterday as we had a major surprise. Over 4 years ago Pete nearly died, due to anemia which could be caused by either his Crones or his reduced Kidney function ( I refuse to give it, it's proper title of chronic kidney failure as they still work enough to keep him off dialysis). Pete's crones consultant did all the tests from every end to see if he could find anything that could be causing this blood loss but without any luck so 4 years ago he put him forward for an URGENT test where Pete would have to swallow a teeny, tiny camera and it would be tracked all the way through enabling them to check his small intestines. In the meantime Pete has been in the day care unit about once a month for either blood transfusions or iron infusions until about 6 months ago when his blood count seemed to go up and hold it's own as he started fortnightly injections of EPO. EPO is basically (simplified) something that your kidneys produce which sends a message to the bone marrow to use the iron to make the blood. So reduced kidney function = reduced epo = reduced blood count. They didn't give him these injections 4 1/2 years ago because they were too expensive, like monthly infusions and transfusions are free ??!?? So just as everything is settled and the hospital only sees him once every 3-4 months I get a phone call from Liverpool hospital informing me that Pete has an appointment to swallow the camera on Valentines Day. Apparently the lady that phoned me has been fighting Pete's corner for 3 years since she first got the request for him to have this test, unbeknown to us he was actually booked in for it in 2006 but they had to cancel it due to the lack of funding. It has taken her all this time to get the PCT to agree to pay for his test and without that they would not perform this very new test on him. The only problem now is that I can't stop thinking about that film "Inner Space" as I have visions of this little teeny weeny man sitting in the capsule that Pete has to swallow ready to take photos of his innards. The fun bit is that Pete has to catch the camera afterwards and it could take up to a week to appear, doesn't bare thinking about.

CURLY WURLY'S ARE YOUR FRIEND

I have had a few comments about my curly wurly which is actually one of my secret weapons when I am on a diet, the other being Solero ice lollies. I lost about 5 stone a few years ago now, going from a size 20/22 to a size 8/10 and my treat on the days I had been good enough was a curly wurly as they only have 2.5 Weight watchers points and you can make them last for ages, Solero's only have 2 points for an exotic or 1 point for an orange fresh one. Having these to look forward too at the end of the day always makes me more careful about how many points I eat for the rest of the time as I HAVE to have enough points left so that I can indulge in front of the TV at night.

Tuesday 15 January 2008

My name is Rachael .....

and I am a cheat! Today's word on HS:MS is Away and because I couldn't think of anything else and because it is tipping it down outside so there is no chance of me going out to take pictures, I am using the same photograph that I used last year when we had the same word.


For those of you that didn't see it the first time this is the Ferry that we were supposed to be on to get home from France. The kids were on it with their Grandparents while all we could do was stand on the beach and watch it sail past. Somehow, I had managed to loose our passports in the car so we weren't allowed to get on a Ferry until the port in England opened. When we eventually got back to the UK we just drove straight through customs without any problems and without having to show any ID!!! Amazing. The passports were found when we got home, in the rear foot well of the car, not sure how we missed them the first 30 times we searched the car in France.

If I get the chance I will try and take a new picture later on today. I have 2 boys at home today Kyle has still got his man flu thing and Matt got a groin injury playing rugby yesterday so Pete said he could stay at home. Notice that it was Pete who said he could stay at home - I would have sent him in hobbling about and wincing every time he moves if I'd got to him first. So I have a day of boys who are not allowed on computers, the Wii, DS, PSP or PS2 as I refuse to let them enjoy having days off school. Ooooohhh just thought of the photo I can take later the boys being "Away" from school. Back soon.......

Monday 14 January 2008

Hey You Is there anybody out there?

Today's prompt at HS:MS is CD. Now we don't have CD's as all our music is in the format of MP3's and fills up 2 hard drives. After hunting around for a bit I did find this stray CD of mine that was hidden on a shelf in between computer games, Wii games, PS Games, DVD's and backup discs - doh! I could have used one of them!


I am tending the poorly again today as Kyle was coughing for most of last night and it made him icky too. Seeing as he was sent home from school early on Friday for pewking in the teachers bin I thought it best to keep him here today. He was well enough over the weekend to come geocaching with us, we found 7, and play a game of feed the swans imaginary bread and see how much it hurts, strange.
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The final picture is of one of the annoyed and confused swans that I am going to use for "White" in my 50 winter pictures challenge and as the catch up for the white I missed with HS:MS at the beginning of January.


Mima has given me this award **thanks Mima**.

I have to pass it on to two people so the first is going to be SuzyB, even though she called me a COW at the weekend, I know I didn't believe it either, talk about lowering the tone of blogland. The other shall go to Chris because she always says such nice things and would never dream of using the word COW!

PS Suzy you are forgiven but I will never forget!!! LOL

Sunday 13 January 2008

Mega blog

I apologise now for the length of my Show Off Sunday blog but I am still very excitable which explains the nature of the pictures.

This is part of the huge lake we will be staying on the blobs in the water are Pete and the boys and the boat is one of my Uncles.

This shows some Canadian "cottages" that were across the water from where we stayed last time. This is only a very, very small inlet of the very, very, very large lake.


This is the side of the rental cottage that we stayed in, in 2005. The bins have to by hung like that with the lid on tight to stop the wild bears from ransacking them. There was a family of chipmunks living under the cottage my Aunt was renting, that the boys loved feeding nuts too as they came right to your hand. I don't have a picture of the cottage that they bought last year so I can't show you the house we will be staying in this time.


This is us on the Jet boats at Lake Niagara and was one of the highlights of the trip. We are on the back row, you can see the boys in the blue waterproofs.

We are still on the boat somewhere under the water, which when sat down went up to our waists until it drained out of the boat. Thankfully it felt like warm bath water.
I have been asked if there is any room in my suitcase to stow people across with us. This could be a problem as Pete seems to have the idea that we are only taking one small suitcase between the four of us for 3 weeks - in his dreams I'll fill that one with just my shoes!!

Saturday 12 January 2008

A sort of picture of me.

Today is Self Portrait Saturday on HS:MS and I can quite honestly say I hate it and can think of a million and one things I would rather be taking pictures of. Even so I have taken one of me today - well sort of.

It should really be a photo of the big silly grin that's been on my face since yesterday but I really don't want to subject you all to that sight. The reason for the grin is that I booked our flights to Toronto yesterday afternoon ready for the summer. We are going for 3 weeks and I still have to work out and organise a 4 day stay in New York as it is only about 2-3 hours away on the train and the boys have never been there. The rest of the time will be spent at either my Aunts house about an hour east of Toronto or her new cottage up at Parry Sound about 2 hours North of Toronto which is complete with a bin that you have to hang on the side of the house to stop bears ransacking it.

Photohunt 92 - Skinny

This is my first week of taking part in photohunt and this weeks word is Skinny. I wish I could show a picture of me for this word, I am working on it, but for now it will have to be one of Kyle showing off his ribs.


Friday 11 January 2008

Brrrrrrrrrrr

Today's word on HS:MS is cold. This is getting to be a familiar sight with everyone over the last couple of months.


Just a quicky from me today as I am just off out to fill a trolley with bone idleness **WW ready meals** at Morrisons while they are still better than half price.

Thursday 10 January 2008

We'll drink a drink a drink

To Lily Rach the Pink the Pink the Pink
The saviour of the human race
For she invented medicinal compound
Most efficacious in every case.

It appears that my medicinal compound *grapes, hot chocolate & crisps* worked yesterday as Kyle has returned to school today - so I am now in heaven with a nice quiet house. Thus allowing me to find some of my pink threads for today's prompt on HS:MS.

My new GPS arrived yesterday so after sitting and playing with it for about an hour I have now figured out how it works *sort of* and am raring to go geocaching at the weekend. We might be a bit more successful now that we have the correct equipment and Yoda isn't navigating! I have planned to visit a few caches in Warrington as we have to go check on my MILs house and mail as they live in Oman but still have a house over here. This way I get to go look round Ikea with the promise the 'boys' will get to go treasure hunting afterwards so a win, win situation.

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Nice while it lasted

The peace only lasted for 2 days before I had someone at home again. Kyle decided to be sick last night, everywhere. It's not because of the dreaded stomach bug, thankfully, but as the result of a migraine bought on by a cold. So in typical male style he is all cuddled up on the sofa requesting, that's putting it politely, hot chocolates, fruit *will that be grapes dangling from above oh master* and all other manner of things. Luckily I managed to get a visit in with Mima yesterday before I had to cater to Kyle's every whim. We had a good gossip and I came away with some DVD's for us to watch my favourite one being "28 days later" which we are saving until Friday when the boys aren't here. That way I won't loose face when I end up a gibbering wreck who won't go upstairs alone.

Today's word on HS:MS is "steam". I am just hoping that no-one notices that strictly speaking mine is in fact condensation *damn did I say that out loud*. You wouldn't believe how difficult this was to take as bright spark here didn't think that the lens was glass and would steam up too.


Just in case everyone decides that, that shot is a cheat I prepared another one of my favourite piece of kit in the kitchen that gets used almost daily.

I now have a window to go and sit in while I wait for my ANC guy to deliver my new GPS. After Saturdays farce of a geocache we decided that it would be a good idea to get a proper GPS rather than use the Tom Tom that we have. The idea being that the batteries last a hell of a lot longer, it shouldn't try to put us on a road at every given opportunity and Yoda won't be saying "turn left you do" to us loud enough to scare small squirrels out of the trees any more.

Tuesday 8 January 2008

The torture continues.

Today's word on HS:MS is BLING so here is mine. I don't have much to choose, like the perfume, I don't really wear it. This piece is very dear to me though as it was my Great Aunt Nell's so even though I have never worn it I would never part with it as she was the nearest thing to a Grandma that I ever had.




I'm not happy with this shot so I might try again later if the light improves.

Last night we watched "I am Legend" that a lady at Pete's work had given him. It's not bad at all and Will Smith is Mmmmmmmm throughout the film especially when half naked and working out. Talking of Mmmmm that Chocolate Orange is still sitting on my desk torturing me every time I glance to the left. It's sooooo tempting.

Monday 7 January 2008

In between the cleaning....

I managed to snap this quick picture for today's HS:MS prompt FOLD. After 2 weeks of having 3 males around the house and under my feet everyday the house was like a bomb site. It was that bad I only managed to do downstairs which means upstairs will have to be tackled tomorrow along with re-tidying the rooms I did today now that they have been in them again.


With all things considered I would have preferred them all to stay at home for a few more weeks until this sickness bug has finished doing the rounds. The boys are under strict instructions to wash their hands at every opportunity now they are back at school. I really do seem to be getting quite a stomach bug phobia going on here. Strange really as I don't mind having them that much but they can cause some serious problems for Pete who, in turn, isn't worried about getting it at all. Maybe I should just learn to chill.
I started my diet proper today and have done very well even with a chocolate orange sat on my desk calling out to me at every given opportunity. I have been strong, ignored it and eaten kiwi, apple, pear, melon and pineapple instead. Not sure I will be so good tomorrow so it is going to get sent to work with Pete.

Sunday 6 January 2008

I love this photograph that I took of my boys last week when we are out walking so this is my SOS for this week.


Saturday 5 January 2008

A bit more than we could chew!

Today we decided to go geo-caching for a change so against my better judgement I let Pete decide the location. True to form he cocked up and choose the hilliest area for miles around Bickerton and Peckforton so we set off from home at 11.30am and got to our destination just before midday. We climbed up, and up and up and eventually found the site of the first cache. By this time it was nearly 1pm so we decided the picnic would be a good idea it was after this that things started to go wrong. We had a decision to make we could go the easy way and find 2 more cache or we could go the hard way and find 3 so our wise, self elected leader decided that he would take us the long way. The boys easily agreed to this as there was a promise of ice-cream or cake at the candle workshop so off we trotted up further into the heavens. To cut a long story short the boys got cake and then the GPS gave up, did that put our great leader off, oh no it would take much more than that for my man to admit defeat. We walked, we climbed, we moaned, believe me we moaned and we eventually gave up as the sun went down and we were still half way up a mini mountain in the woods with only one torch between us. It was at this point that Pete decided that he had hurt his knees and that he could hardly walk, the journey down was joyous to say the least!!! Has this put us off - not a chance! We got home and ordered a new GPS which should come next week and is much better for the job in hand and I am planning tomorrows foray which is next to a canal so should be a much better bet.

The one thing I did get out of today was a picture for SPS it's a bit of a cheat really as Pete took it when we were about half way up, I just hope it counts.

Friday 4 January 2008

What's that smell?

Today's prompt at HS:MS is Perfume which reminded me of the time that Matt smelt something he didn't like so stuck his fingers in his ears and asked "What's that smell" believe me we have never let him live that one down. Anyway back to business I don't have much choice for this picture as I don't have many perfumes as I don't really wear the stuff that much. So here is a shot of the only one that I own, everyone say ahhhhh!