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.