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!

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.

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.......

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

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

We went to hell and had a blast!

We had been waiting ages (4 months) for this to arrive so that Pete could get his birthday present. For those of you that didn't read the post back in August every time I have asked my DH what he wants, whether it be for Christmas, his birthday or just when I go to Asda, he has answered the same thing for the last 18 years - a naked lady and a motorbike. So tonight was the big night when he got 12 motorbikes and 6 naked ladies in the form of the Crusty Demons and the Crusty Babes. Wow, Wow and Wow it was fantastic.

I'm not keen on motorbikes, or half naked babes come to think of it, but this show was amazing. The riders were the 12 top motor cross guys in the world and the tricks they do have to be seen to be believed, the music was loud and rockin' and the crowd was pumped for 3 whole hours. People of the male persuasion loved it and believe me there were a lot of them around. How often do you see this...

Before we ventured to the MEN we had a nice wander round the centre of Manchester something we haven't done for years. I found the shop that Kirsty mentioned once 'Octopus' and I plan to go back there very soon to spend lots of money, what a cool shop. I've still not found anything to put up for white but I will have a think about it tomorrow but I have put some more of my 50 winter pictures up on the slide show on the right. x

Never, Ever Again

After 18 years of being together I really should know better than to listen to one of Pete's "great" ideas. But no last night I had to listen to him and even go along with him. So in the pitch black on New Years Night we got togged out with warm clothes, torches and our GPS and went geo-caching. We managed to find 2 caches, a scratched hand, a bashed shin, a huge puddle which resulted in a soaking wet sock and trainer, a terrified son and a large, muddy, slippy slope - I'll leave the result of that to your imagination! It would help if our wonderful children had the first idea about how to use a torch and that it is better if you shine them at the ground rather than in your parents faces at every opportunity. It would also help if the GPS would switch on quickly as that would prevent us from doing a mile round walk across the said muddy slopes, through woods and brambles and across ditches to find out that we had parked the car 20 feet away from the bloody cache in the first place. So from now on Pete's night time activities are going to be seriously curtailed.

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I must add here that it was actually great fun - but I still won't be doing it again at night.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

Like a few others we do not look forward to New Years Eve as it seems pointless. Last night was an exception we had a great time at our friends house across the road with good food and good company. There is a good reason for the lack of good drink. Graham is our friend who was diagnosed with a brain tumor back in August, he is doing very well but is still on medication which means he has to limit his alcohol intake and it doesn't agree with Pete so he tends to avoid it. Even with the very limited amount of alcohol consumed we had a fantastic night and managed to get the best blackmail picture of Kyle ever - how will he ever live this picture of him at 1 o'clock this morning down?

This is Ang and Graham, sorry about the quality but it was just after midnight and I didn't use the flash for some reason. This proves that I do have real friends and not just pretend friends on the computer like Kyle thinks.

Today we are planning a geo-caching foray at Oulton Park. We found our first 2 caches yesterday which was very exciting so we can't wait to look for the 3 planned for today as we are totally hooked. I have also uploaded some more winter photos into the slide show on the right if anyone is interested.

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.