Funky Gogs

I've been meaning to blog my boots for a while but never had a reason. We went for a nice long dog walk this morning so I took the opportunity to take a shot of them to use for my 50 Winter Pictures.

I'm not going to blog about all 50 pictures so I have created a slide show thingy to the left which I will update as and when. My Nintendo is now working properly as it's telling my brain age is 36 (it was 28 yesterday) but the Wii is still lying and telling me I am in my 50's, I feel some baseball practise coming on tonight after a good old fashioned family game of rummikub with no power leads required. ** See Mima, I'm practising ready for next week **

I got on the scales this morning, which was a mistake, and nearly had a heart attack there and then. There is no point what so ever putting it off any longer so I am now officially on a weight watchers online diet - again. Breakfast this morning was a banana and for lunch I made some homemade butternut squash and chilli soup which is delish, easy to make and as an added bonus is a no pointer. The extra added bonus is that it can also be used for the soup prompt!!

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Happy New Year to everyone - just in case can't be bothered to blog again before Tuesday.

I must have been .....

....a good girl as Father Christmas bought be one of these from my other half. By the looks of the bottom screen it's a good job I put the screen protectors on it straight away! Benj Beecherling had better watch out as he now has some competition in the Nintendo Nerd stakes but I am afraid I only play mine whilst fully clothed so there will be no Nintendo porn on this site.

It's just a shame that it doesn't seem to be working properly. It keeps telling me that my brain is 81 years old which can't be right so I think I might need to exchange it. It could be a console virus that we have picked up as the Wii keeps telling me that I have the fitness level of a 76 year old much to Kyle's glee. Not that he will be feeling gleeful for long after he gets home tonight. I have just taken him to meet his girlfriend Vicky and as we got closer to the drop off point he told me that I wasn't to make eye contact with her!! It seems I am OK to meet his mates but not his girlfriend so I pulled him up on this. Apparently my loving youngest son has told his mates that I am retarded and seeing a mental doctor so that he has a reason as to why I am so embarrassing.

Last but not least here's a picture of my beautiful niece that I took on Boxing Day. Looks like I could be doing the 50 Winter photo challenge as these pictures cover pink and blue - only another 48 to do.

Ah Ah I've done it at last!!

I have eventually got round to spending some time messing with my photos on blogger and you can now click on them to see an enlargement. Woo Hoo. Just got to find something to upload now seeing as HS:MS is on holiday until January 3rd.

I spent some time with Mima this afternoon which was lovely and got to meet her Mum and Sister which was an added bonus. They both seem really nice and are both very friendly and like Mima her sister is sickeningly pretty. I even tried some of Mima's pretend diet coke and it's not too bad at all, you'd soon get used to it. One of the reasons I went round when I did was to get away from temptation because I had just made Nigella's Rocky Road biscuit bars and our house smelt of chocolate. It didn't help though as Rose (Mima's carer) bought me 3 chocolate bar biscuit things with my diet coke, but I resisted temptation and only ate one. Talking about this I have just thought what today's photo could be - back in a minute.

Mmmmm is about all I can say about these. The pink bit is mini marshmallow and the other bits are rich tea biscuits - they are too die for. I've just fought through the masses in Asda to go and buy some more cooking chocolate so I can make another 2 lots of these. I wouldn't normally dash out just for that but the chocolate was half price Organic, Fair Trade chocolate so I wanted to make sure I got it while it was available. Mima and Rose you'd better watch out because you are going to be subjected to my baking next time I see you!

Recipe

125g soft butter
300g best quality dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa solids) broken into pieces
I used half dark and half milk chocolate as I find it a bit bitter with just dark.
3 x 15ml tbsps golden syrup
200g Rich Tea biscuits
100g Mini Marshmallows
2 tsps icing sugar

Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a saucepan. Scoop out about 125ml of the melted mixture and set aside.

Put the biscuits in a freezer bag, pretend they are someone you don't like and then bash them with a rolling pin. You are aiming for both crumbs and pieces of biscuits.

Fold the bashed up mess into the mixture in the saucepan and then add the marshmallows.

Tip into a foil tray (24cm square); flatten as best you can with a spatula. I used a normal baking tray lined with foil. Pour the other 125ml of melted chocolate over the top and smooth the surface.

Now for the hard bit - refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight if you can resist that long. You can always go out like I did!!

Cut into 24 pieces and dust with icing sugar through a sieve.

Enjoy!

MAN FLU!!

I just knew that this picture I took the other day when we were snuggled up round our coal fire was going to be useful one day. Today is that day as the HS:MS word is glow.

I would have been earlier but I had to do an impromptu school run as my wonderful eldest son lost his bus ticket in his pocket!!! Apparently the fairies must have put it there in the middle of the night as that's not where he left it. Our fairies are a busy bunch but not very helpful they are terrible for hiding things, breaking things and they even pee on the toilet floor. Where as my boys are little angels and wouldn't dream of doing anything remotely like that. That's one of the downfall of having 2 boys - you don't know who has the rubbish aim and peed on the floor unless you become the toilet police and inspect after every event.

Had to share this with you as it is so true. My Mum sent it to me the other day.

Top of the world Ma.

Today's word is win and because I am being lazy and really can't be bothered to think about this one today this is all I have come up with. Kyle was only 9 at this time and it was a High School thing. He got his brains from me you know! Don't you just love the electrocuted look that he insisted on back then. I'm not sure what's going on with his cheek either, it doesn't normally look like that.


Not a brilliant scan but I can't be bothered doing it again and I still can't get my click to enlarge thing to work again !!? The blurb says "A Maths whiz-kid from Winsford wowed teachers by scoring a perfect 10 in an algebra contest. Kyle Tunbridge, a pupil of Middlewich Primary School gained full marks in the inter school competition held at Middlewich High. A school spokesman said "Kyle worked very hard and we're all proud of him. It's a credit to the school and Winsford as a whole."
The day the paper came out we got a knock on the door and an elderly lady who lives across the road handed Kyle a £5 note for being in the paper for doing something positive - how nice is that.

Glass

Here are my offerings for today's prompt glass all taken in the playroom.

The whole thing - rubbish light though as it is in the corner to the side of the window so I had to use the flash. The red thing behind it is the little lizards heat lamp which is totally annoying me as it doesn't match the rest of the tree.

I don't think Elliot is very impressed with Pete's attempt at decorating his house as he keeps trying to scratch them off, or hump them depending on how your mind works. This is one of the decorations that the boys painted years ago which have now been banned from the main tree as they don't match. Now they are stuck in other various places around the house along with all the other unmatching decorations that I can't bare to part with.

I'm actually doing it....

... a SPS that is.

I don't join in with Self Portrait Saturday very often but I have managed one today. This is me, this morning, trying out my disguise ready for tomorrow's meet up. This way I can hide, unnoticed in a shop doorway until I establish that everyone else is not mad as a hatter , I could be in that doorway for quite a while me feels!! Lol

There's a hole in my bucket...

Kyle is back in school today, ready to show off his gaping hole. He dealt with it all very well and only moaned once or twice yesterday afternoon, not bad for a would be man. Matt managed to get his laces back so that saga ended happily too. Matt's had a Maths test this week and came top of his class which he is thrilled about. Not long ago Matt was struggling with his maths so we enlisted the help of a brilliant, retired, maths teacher (my Dad) to tutor him and it seems to have done the trick. Matt is now a lot more confident with his maths and that is after just 2 hours worth of tutoring, can't wait to see what results he gets in his Yr 9 SATS next year after lots more sessions. *** waves to Dad ***

Today's word on HS:MS is puddle, there aren't many puddles in my space today and none as pretty as Kirsty's but I did find this only lurking about.

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I'm still trying to work out if I can manage the meet up on Sunday but it's looking unlikely so if I don't manage to make it I hope you all have a fabby time - I will be there in spirit.

Just a quicky from me today as things are a bit hectic round here at the moment. Kyle is off school today as I had to get him an emergency appointment at the dentist as he had the start of what looked like an abscess. I was expecting some antibiotics to be administered but instead the dentist decided to whip the tooth out instead. Kyle is currently curled up on the settee in his dressing gown feeling sorry for himself and demanding soup.

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I have missed out on a few HS:MS prompts this week but here is my photo for today's prompt which is teddy. This little guy is just about to get bunged on to a Christmas card. A few more busy days ahead and then hopefully I should be organised and back to normal ready for Christmas.
To be fair I did plan to take a picture yesterday but Matthew came home and told me that he had had his shoe laces stolen in school!! How on earth can you get your laces stolen whilst you are wearing them? That just shows you how slow my eldest son moves. Apparantly the girl is going to give them back to him today !!

Done the Blue Peter Way.

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Today's word on HS:MS is frosty which is a bit difficult when we only have wet, cold and damp outside so here's one a prepared earlier in good old fashioned Blue Peter style.

I managed to get Photoshop CS2 onto the computers this weekend so I am now busy playing with that making words into circles, squares and every other shape I can think of. I think I will have to learn how to do something else soon as there are only so many things you can do with that skill. Pete is getting me the classroom in a book to go with it for Christmas so that's my Christmas Day and Boxing Day sorted out.

Beautiful ...

One of my favourite ever songs sung beautifully by the great, late Eva Cassidy and Katie Melau.

Good times....

Decided to move away from Christmas a little bit today as I don't want to be all Christmassed out before the big day. I found this picture in a box under the stairs this morning and thought it would be perfect for the word celebrate. This is a 7 year old me in 1977 celebrating the Queen's Silver Jubilee in my stunning red white and blue outfit.

Kyle went off to school today with a huge girlfriend card for Vicky, who gave him his card yesterday. It is homemade, she declares her undying love for him inside and it lives in his blazer pocket - everyone say ahhhhhh. He has even bought her 3 Christmas presents out of his own money, which is amazing as he usually prefers to sit and count it rather than spend it. Me thinks he is wanting to give her a proper snog as an unnatural interest has recently developed in Pete and I kissing as he keeps asking us to kiss all the time.

Too much to choose from....

I couldn't choose which photo to use for todays word Christmas so I decided to share both of them. I bought this cute little guy on Monday on the way back from the boys consultation day. I kid you not instead of having a parents evening this time, it was a whole day where we went in to see the boys form tutors for a total of 10 minutes each at 9am and 9.12am precisely and then they got the rest of the day off school. So by 9.30am we were busy spending money in the garden centre round the corner getting funny looks from people wondering why the boys weren't in school.

I couldn't resist sharing this picture of part of our tree when it was on last night as I love the shadows it casts on the wall.

Yesterday went down hill pretty quickly as I wasn't as well as I had thought so after overdoing it in the morning I was feeling icky again by early afternoon. Taking it a bit easier today with plenty of lucozade to keep me going. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that Pete doesn't come down with this as I dread to think what it would do to him, hopefully the flu jab he had a couple of months ago will keep it at bay.

I'm dreaming

of a Christmas just like this. Today's word is Chilly and this is obviously a cheat as it is not snowing here in the UK today and to top it off I didn't even take this picture. My Aunt sent me this picture via e-mail the other day to show us what she could see out of her office window, at home, in Ontario just East of Toronto. I am soooo jealous but I suppose I would get fed up with it if I had it for 3-4 months every year like they do.

We went to see "Beowulf" on Saturday in 3D and it was OK I suppose. It did crack us up when Beowulf fought the monster naked as we played guess what they can cover his willy up with next. Pete now thinks that he has seen Angelina Jolie in the buff which made his day, bless him. I'm not going to be the one to tell him it was part cartoon and that she was covered in a gold slime, I'll let him dream a little longer. We had planned to go to F&B's for a meal but that didn't happen as I felt too poorly so the boys went to the food court instead as I couldn't eat.

Sunday we relaxed, I wallowed in self pity and then we took the boys swimming and while they were there we went Christmas decoration shopping. This then got me in the mood for putting the tree up which normally doesn't go up until around the 15th Dec as it just gets in my way and on my nerves - Ba Humbug!! My family has quickly learnt that, like SuzyB, I am anal about my tree and I will only move anything that they put on it, including the branches. So last night my little helpers sorted out the baubles according to the colour (not much to sort only brown and gold ones are allowed), shape and size and then passed them to me ready to hang. I must admit I did let Kyle hang some baubles in the middle of the tree and they are still where he put them so maybe I am getting more into the spirit of Christmas.

I have even managed to keep up with the Christmas Journal prompts from Shamille but I'm not sharing as it's just for us. And I made - wait for it - half a Christmas card.

Done and Dusted.

I can't believe I have actually knitted something functional that hasn't fallen to pieces - yet. It's taken a couple of weeks but I finally finished it on Tuesday but saved the photo until today's HS:MS prompt which is soft. All 8ft of it is now wrapped up and labelled for Matt ready for Christmas Day. Kyle's is started and is progressing well as I do seem to have speeded up a little bit and can now actually manage to watch TV and knit at the same time - sort of.

We are off to the pictures and Frankie and Benny's tomorrow at Cheshire Oaks and I may even sneak into 1 or 2 shops. Not that I need to as I have finished Christmas already without stepping foot into a shop. I think I will be doing it on the Internet every year from now on as there is no stress involved and I can still wander round the shops to enjoy the Christmas crush atmosphere if I feel like it.

Can't be bothered to think of a title today.

Not a fantastic shot for Bristles today I am afraid. Still feeling pretty blurrggghhh especially first thing in a morning and then again in the evenings.

We didn't manage to go to see Beowulf last night as the show times were all wrong for a school night so we have decided to go on Saturday instead. So last night we bought Fantastic4, which was pretty dire but hey ho it's now listed on eBay so with any luck I will get my money back for that one too. Our local DVD rental store, Choices, shut a few weeks back so if we want to see a film now we have to buy it, not that we ever rented anyway at £3.75 a night.

I must say congratulations to Mima who has got one of her OU photography course submissions being used for the OU e-card this Christmas and it is stunning. You can see for yourself here.

Smooth Moves

I have come to the conclusion that I must be the rough type as I can't find many things here that could be classed as smooth for today's HS:MS's prompt. Eventually found this little pussy cat that my step-sister Rachel bought for me when she was working in Israel one summer. When Rachel was living here it did get confusing verbally, written was a bit easier as mine is Rachael.

We watched Shrek the Third on Monday night as I had pre-ordered it from Amazon for a total of £9.80. So yesterday I listed it on ebay as used, put a buy it now price on and bingo someone bought it. So now I am feeling quite smug that we watched it for free as they bought it for more than I paid for it so all my costs are covered.

It's Orange Wednesday again today at Cheshire Oaks so we are going to go and watch Beowulf tonight as it is buy one get one free! We might even go to Frankie and Benny's to share a platter before the film.

Rough as an .......

..... Emery board. It could have been worse it could have been me looking and feeling rough or it could have been one of the dogs barking "ruff" - get it?? This was the easier and less embarrassing option as I really do look very rough today.

SuzyB asked yesterday "Why Twig", now this is a question I have pondered over many times without any luck. I have no idea why Kyle called Twig what he did, when he got him for a birthday present, we all came up with more sensible suggestions but no it had to be Twig. Which is probably a blessing as Pete's idea was "Oi You" and I really didn't fancy going for walks shouting "Oi You come 'ere". So basically it was the best random suggestion at the time and ultimately it was Kyle's decision.

Kyle is still all loved up with Vicky, but, having a girlfriend has made him more popular so now Vicky is getting a bit miffed with all the female attention he is getting. On the other hand Kyle is loving it!

We eventually got Kyle's school report and he has the grand total of 26 A's on it - well done that boy!

Forgive me, for I have sinned

Today's picture is a blatant cheat as I can't stop coughing long enough to get a decent shot but I still wanted to take part in today's HS:MS prompt which is wet.

This was taken in North Wales last Feb when Twig was just a baby.

Hopefully I'll be feeling a bit better by tomorrow and I won't have to cheat again.

MY NEW BEST FRIENDS

Here we go again. I seem to have come down with another cold which is not funny so close after the last one. Basically I feel blurggghhhh at the moment as it is making be light headed which is horrible. So off to bed I go and I'll be back when I feel a little better.

YESTERDAY HELD A FEW SURPRISES

For the first time ever I didn't get chattery teeth at the hospital, I did get sweaty palms, felt sick and shook ever so slightly but my teeth stayed still, amazing. I seem to suffer from White Coat Syndrome so two years ago now I stopped going to all of Pete's appointments after about 7 years of torturing myself every 3 months. I didn't plan to go yesterday, maybe that's why my teeth behaved themselves, but Pete called home on his way so on the spur of the moment I went too. After a weigh in, blood pressure test, a visit from the dietitian and a hour and half wait we got to see Dominic. Amazingly enough Pete is well, which is something we have not heard for years. His kidney function has not altered for years, his blood count is excellent for him and comes in at 104 instead of the normal Pete level of 79-85 and his iron levels are OK but this could be due to inflammation rather than actual iron. Apparently they are going to try and find out where Pete is hiding his iron as it isn't where it should be??? I tried to look in his wallet for it last night but he wasn't having any of it. So basically everything is as OK as it can be and come back in 3 months with a bottle of wee. Seems like the symptoms he's getting are due to the lowering of the steroids which has set the crones off so up go the steroids and my grocery bill.

Today's promy (it's catching on Sue) is crystal. My take on this is in 4 parts as there is a story behind my crystals. This can be blamed on my Uncle Nick who is a geology professor, author and documentary maker and is mad about rocks - obviously and who took us to a rock fair when we visited Canada a couple of years ago.

The facial expressions on the pics do look like they weren't enjoying themselves and were there under duress but they boys actually loved it as they got to choose their own geodes when they were in one piece, they looked rather like prehistoric eggs.

Then they got to watch the man split them into two pieces.

They were then left with four large pieces of geode that got us surrounded and stopped at customs when they went through the x-ray machine.

And, finally, if you are still with me my take on the word for today.

THE DRINKS ARE ON ME

Today's word on HS:MS is Thirsty which is an easy one in this house. We have boxes of these things here as Pete has to stay hydrated otherwise it will risk the limited amount of kidney function he has. So we have to have these in all the time in case he gets a bad bout of crones or a tummy upset or is just generally dehydrated.

He's seeing Dominic (his consultant) this afternoon so hopefully it will all be good. We know his iron and blood levels are pretty bad at the moment as he is getting the symptoms of anemia so Dominic should book him in for a blood transfusion or an iron infusion depending on how low everything is. So fingers crossed I will have a hyperactive husband sometime next week.

Help me I've been elfed...

Being nosy like I am I visited Vanda this morning to see what she was up to and found this so I had to have a go too.

ELF YOURSELF

Today's word from HS:MS is grain. I have resorted to using Elliot again as the best light in the house is in his vivarium so here it is the grains of ground walnut that we use as his substrate which have ended up scattered on his basking rock. Pretty lame I know but I couldn't be bothered to tip out the rice box or the bird seed container as I would only have had to clear it up again and it's pitch black outside so that was out of the question. I will try harder tomorrow but don't hold your breath, I will be in a total tiz as Pete sees his kidney consultant in the afternoon.

Waiting for my telegram

As the title say this is my 100th post with HS:MS WoooHooo I didn't think I would last this long but it is truly addictive. Today's word is Alley which I don't happen to have in my space so here is one I prepared earlier, at The Black Country Museum in October to precise.

Elliot now seems to have settled into his new home and has put his beard away, turned back to his normal colour and started eating his crickets again this morning. It's a bit of a relief I can tell you. Got a wonderful day planned today of tidying and cleaning my craft room - urrggghhh.

I just noticed, the other day, that when I click on my photies they don't enlarge, they used to when I started but then they just stopped. Does anyone know why this happened or how I can make them enlarge again?

A brand new dragons den

Yesterday, without intending to, we ended up buying Elliot an new home, which is actually more like a mansion. He has out grown the fish tank that we had put him in to start with and is now living in a huge 4ft long purpose built Vivarium and he's not a happy dragon. He was originally in the Living Room but due to the size of his new abode he has relocated into the playroom, trouble is there is more activity in this room and he is not used to that. Hopefully he will settle down in the next couple of days as he gets used to it and his beard will change back to it's normal colour. So my photos for show of Sunday are of Elliot and his new home, sorry they are not very good but the light is really bad this morning and I can't be arsed to faff about. The one of Elliot in my hand is for Mima as she asked what size he was when I saw her on Friday. He is still only small and has about another 8 months worth of growing to do so should double in size.

I've also played digi style a little bit this week. I have decided to not do 12x12 digi layouts but have gone for 13" x 11" as this size fits better onto my screen for screen savers and is the size of a blurb book - how handy is that.

WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S.....

....A WAY. Which is today's prompt on HS:MS well away is but I couldn't think of a title for that so I sort of adapted it.

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This shot has obviously not been taken today from not so sunny Cheshire with no coastline. It was taken in August on the way back from France. That big boat is our ferry which was quickly sailing away from us, taking the boys away from us. Don't worry though their Grandparents were on the boat with them. I had somehow managed to loose our passports on the way to the terminal so they wouldn't let us on the boat. We spent ages looking through everything and searching the car to find them but we couldn't. The nice French people phoned up the UK and then let us on the next boat home where we got through customs in this country without having to show any ID !! Sort of makes you feel safe and secure knowing that security has been stepped up with the threat of terrorists doesn't it. Anyway we got home and started emptying the car and found both passports in the back of the car in the foot well. We still can't understand how we missed them as 4 adults searched there in France at least 2 times each and didn't find them - strange.

I'm off for an afternoon of gossip with Mima this afternoon which should be fun.

Kyle is still loved up and has actually changed his undies for 7 days on the run now which is unheard of normally.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MIMA,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Today's HS:MS prompt is miniature. This is how my miniature rose looks this morning. I'm keeping it brief this morning as I have a really busy day today and want to try and get as much done as possible. I have a pile of paperwork a mile high sat in front of me which is nearly as high as the ironing mountain in the other room.

The Lizard is still missing - I think we have seen the last of him.

Kyle is still in love and has reached his 1 week anniversary today - bless.

NEVER TOO OLD FOR MY DOLLS

HS:MS's prompt today is collect which got me thinking about my dolls. When I was little I used to collect dolls but not just any old doll. I used to collect national costume dolls the catch was that they had to have been bought in the country that they represented. During the 1970's and early 1980's I amassed a collection of about 70 dolls in total from all over the world, mainly thanks to my wonderful Grandpa who passed away when I was 16. He travelled everywhere and got me dolls from Russia, Africa, Japan and Romania to name but a few, all of which were unusual places to visit in the 1970s. My picture today shows the only one that I still have on display which is the Indian doll that he bought me back from one of his visits there. This is my favourite as it is where he was born and lived until he was 17 and where I hope to visit one day. All the other dolls are safely packed away in tissue paper and boxes in the attic as they collect far too much dust to be on display. This one is growing old, fading and getting moth eaten on my bedroom windowsill.

This is what happened to the rotten bananas the other day they magically turned into chocolate and banana muffins and then magically disappeared!

The lizard is still missing.

Kyle is still with Vicky and still in love. He kissed her for the first time yesterday from what I understand it was a peck on the lips but was very pleasant!

Twig is at the cleaners which is a good job really seeing as somebody left him outside this morning and I didn't realise until it was time for his appointment. By this time he had been for a swim in the pond, dug about in some mud and rolled about on a dead frog. I'll let you imagine the look on the groomers face when I dropped him off this morning and what I will be saying to the somebody when they get in tonight.

IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE ....

.... a lot worse. My initial thoughts for todays HS:MS prompt of snip was obvious for a dog owner, wasn't it? The problem was it is very difficult to photograph what is no longer there so that idea was a non runner from the start. Twig is not due to the groomers until tomorrow so another non runner. So I have resorted to snipping off the end of a spring onion, mmm not very good I know but it's the best I can do without going down the crafty path. It's taken on my glass chopping board - hope that answers your question Mima.




We have an escapee in the house running loose somewhere in the form of a tail less lizard. We have 6 small lizards in one vivarium who have lived happily together for 2 years now until "Spikey" decided to become a bully. Poor "Sticky" (yes, we are genuinely that bad at pet names) got in the line of fire one day and lost his tail. I think this was the last straw for Sticky and he made a bid for freedom last night, when Pete opened the door he used his arm as a spring board and headed under the sofa. Trouble is he is that bloody fast we can't catch him. Matt's idea was to tip crickets all over the floor and wait for him to come out, yeah really clever Matt the crickets won't go into the dark under the sofa will they! Pete's idea is not much better as he wants to leave it there until Twig finds it and eats it, very caring I must say. Kyle didn't have an opinion as he was too busy talking to Vicky on MSN again. So I will probably be spending most of today on my hands and knees with a torch trying to catch a tail less lizard as that is the only idea I can come up with. It's amazing how they keep wanting pets but then I am left to deal with them.

Rach
x

Love is in the air.

Kyle has been smitten all weekend. He has been chatting to Vicky on MSN constantly and his even changed his user name to "This is Kyle and I love Vicky for ever and ever". I only know this because I sneaked a look when he was having his lunch, which he threw done at break neck speed so he could get back to her. Ahhhhh Young Love - I just didn't expect it quite so soon. He has even ordered her a cuddly bear over the Internet for a Christmas present, after 2 days! Last night he HAD to have a shower and do his hair before he put the web cam on! This morning another shower, hair all spiked up, Lynx on, Blazer wiped down, tie perfect and off he went to school - Boomchickawaawaa. Made me think back to when he was younger and we had temper tantrums and tears every time school was mentioned this lasted all through pre school and infants, every school day was a nightmare with him, he hated it that much - not anymore!

Well on to today's HS:MS prompt is almost. All I could think of was the horrible bananas that are sitting waiting to be frozen or made into banana bread. So here they are almost brown, almost dead, almost frozen or almost baked, take your pick.
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Now I have all my Christmas presents sorted out (they arrived 20 minutes ago) I am going to tackle Christmas cards today - just don't tell SuzyB as she thinks I'm washing my hair so shhhhhh. Hopefully I will have something to show tomorrow.

Rach x

Welcome to the Asylum

Self Portrait Saturday again. I thought I would go with my hands today with badly manicured nails and all. Ohh look I'm knitting - again. The scarf is growing and is about 1/4 finished, which isn't bad seeing as he wants it to go from knee to knee and he's taller than me.


A nice surprise dropped through the letterbox this morning in the form of an interim school report from Matthew. The last one was dire, very dire so he was threatened persuaded to pull his proverbial socks up and make more of an effort this year. It appears he has done just that so the bribe persuasion obviously worked resulting in 17 A’s, 27 B’s and only 6 C’s. I can’t wait for him to come back from his trip tomorrow to congratulate him and hand over his £17 bribe money reward as I am sure he will be as pleased as we are. I must point out that the marks are for Classwork Quality, Homework Quality, Overall Effort and Behaviour not for his working level which makes it even better that he has got good scores as it means he is trying hard. I have a feeling the fact that Kyle has now joined him at High School has something to do with this dramatic turn around – sibling rivalry and all that.

Now SuzyB might just be starting to think of buying things for Christmas presents but not me I’m not that slow. I have not only bought all our Christmas presents, well at least ordered them all, I have even bought Pete’s Valentines present for next year. Normally we don’t even bother with cards for Valentines day but I couldn’t resist and needed an excuse. We are going to Manchester Palace theatre on Thursday 7th February to see “The Asylum- the Circus of Horrors” not suitable for children! The circus of Horrors is now back with a brand new, super shocking, awe inspiring, jaw dropping show that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat (when not falling of it with laughter).

How cool is that? I like stretchy skin man myself, Pete's looking forward to the scantily clad females - typical. He'll certainly get an eyeful as I booked us front row seats this morning.

Pardon What Sorry?

Guess what I've been doing today instead of taking photographs titled disturbed. I bin playin' digi style and created myself a new header, like you need telling! Before anyone asks it's called that because apparently I use those words so often they must be my favourites either that or I'm going deaf.

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The big news is that Kyle has got himself a girlfriend. Vicky asked him if he would go out with her on the bus when they were returning from a school trip yesterday. According to Kyle they have held hands and hugged, which he thought was nice, but they haven't kissed yet. He took her photograph today and she is now the wallpaper on his mobile and I must admit she is very pretty. Kyle bought her a hedgehog toy yesterday and she bought him a rubber, Pete thinks this was a bit forward of Vicky so I explained that it was an eraser and he's now settled down.

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Did you know - It is estimated that the average person will spend about 336 hours kissing in their lifetime.

Anxious

is today's word on HS:MS which is a lot easier than yesterdays word of confused which I avoided. I don't do confused, I'm just confusing instead!

Today I am anxious because Matt is going away for the weekend, with school, on a Science revision thingy in Wales so his bags are sitting on his bed ready for him to pack tonight. He has been on lots of residential trips including Germany earlier this year but it doesn't get any easier, I still worry about him. I don't think the fact that he returned from Germany with a sling on one arm and an x ray in the other actually helps much. On the other hand I am looking forward to a teenage tantrum and argument free weekend - way hay!

My cold is progressing nicely, I now have a dry nose as it all seems to have gone south to my chest - like I need anything else down there. I'm hoping that it will be all cleared up by next week so that I can go and see Mima again.

Matt's scarf is growing and I have an order in for another scarf from Kyle so I must be doing something right. Just not sure that they will be ready for Christmas the little bit that I have done has taken about 3 hours so far. As a result of this I am planning to enter the speed knitting championships early next year. And yes I do know that I dropped a stitch on the red bit but I couldn't find it again and anyway I've told Matt that it is part of the design and what he doesn't know won't hurt him so shhhhhhh. I think it's a valiant first attempt at knitting.

Rach

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I'm So.....

Excited. Which happens to be todays prompt on HS:MS.

At the grand old age of 37 I have finally learnt how to knit - well sort of. I am starting off easy with a Dr Who scarf for Matt in red and black. It was all going swimmingly last night until I had to change colours and cocked it all up. I tried to undo it but lost the stitches so I had a hissy fit and unravelled the lot. My next door neighbour started me off again but she knits really loosely so that got unravelled too. A quick search on Google and I found out how to start off and now I am about 20 rows up and have gone wrong again so Mum is on her way up soon to sort me out. I think, at this rate, I will be ready for Monkey making by early next week at the latest and by the following week I should have a whole jungle full each with their own scarf!! Or I could just be buying one off Monkee Maker .

Not only am I excited about learning to knit I am double excited about learning to digi scrap using Kirsty Wiseman's tutorials. I got the third one this morning and have worked my way through it and done this weeks challenge. Not really pleased with the outcome as I don't like the flower but the challenge stated to use everything in a free kit and use it I did. The kit is called Peace & Quiet and I got it from here.

Rach

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Sad :(

Todays prompt on HS:MS is sad but we are not allowed to use a human face to convey this emotion. I have gone with todays sad and gloomy weather as seen from my computer seat as I think it makes everyone slightly sad when it's like this.

Not a good shot, the lighting is very bad here at the moment!