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