Hes back, we're off !!

Keith Nicky and Elvis in Las Vegas!! Carl and his chums on their school trip!!

Carl got back from his trip yesterday and said he had a great time, he said it was very emotional all the graves and trenches. He said the weather had been bad and the guides had told them that this was how the soldiers would have been, wet, cold and very miserable. Some of the soldiers that died were the same age as Carl and that was very emotional for him and some of the others.

Today we have been busy getting ready for our holiday and for my brothers wedding reception which is this evening. We have decided to go straight on to Whitby after the reception so its been a real pain getting ourselves sorted out. the weather has been appauling, Carl took the dog fro a walk and is now filthy as is the dog. After a good rub down she has gone around mum and dads to settle in for the night.

This morning I got up twice , once at 5am and once at 7.30am and I really don't do mornings!!
Carl went off on his trip to France , Belgium and Germany with the school. I was lucky because my friend Tanya has a girl in the same year so she called around and took Carl in He was pleased because he didn't want to be seen in my van, which is a massive embarrassment to him. So in the end all I had to do was make sure he had all he needed with him.
I have heard from him twice, once to say he was just getting onto the coach and one to say they had just arrived in France. I hope he has a good time and takes lots of pictures !

Beth played netball last night and it wa a shambles. Three of the mothers took it upon themselves to swap the teams around because Julie was late getting there, so Beth got swapped off of the team she had been on the week before and the net result was both teams were weakened . They both lost and there were more than a few disgruntled parents there.

The end of a perfect evening came when Beth had her fingers bent back , which is painful and today they are a little swollen and still tender. She really didn't want to play on the team she was on as none of the girls make any effort to speak to her, she goes over to speak to them and they run off! The good thing is she is playing up a year so next year she can move down and lose them all !

Like Buses.........

Well last week DH Tom was offer the chance to take early retirement, a years pay and his pension lump sum. This has turned out to be more thn we can refuse, so he has applied to take it. Since thinking about it he has been looking around for another job, because we will only benefit if he has another job that will pay the mortgage.
So he has applied for two, been offered one and now the second has clled him in for an interview!! Fantastic news, may well end up with a choice of jobs, what a good position to be in.

Today i took Laura and Scott out for lunch and we struck a deal. Laura needs a full time job to get them off the bread line but doesn't seem to be able to getherself in gear to get one. So I make her bring her passport along and I asked her to go into Reed employment in Welwyn and sign on . They supply temps for Police HQ which would be great experience for her.I got chatting to the lady and told her that I worked there as part fo HR and that I knew there would be other jobs coming up. She seemed very keen and we made an appointment for Laura to go in to be tested on Thursday morning.

I told Laura that were would be going to Florida next year and that we would love them to join us, I said we would help out with the cost as long as she found herself a full time job. We went and got some brochures and she seems very enthusiastic, long may this last. I am going to continue to push her until she gets herself out of the doldrums and back into the real world !!

Grrrrrr- 02

Well here we are again at 02 upgrade time and every year after I upgrade I swear I will never do it again. They are so hard to deal with. First of all they upgrade my phone, then once I have my hands on it, it doesn't work. So after lots of calls I finally get them to say that its becasue I'm on the wrong tarrif. They change the tarrif (free of charge) but it still does work. So the next call results in a brand new G3 enabled sim card. Put this in the phone and get that activated. Still no service on the brand new fabby doo dah i mode.
Call them back now it seems I have to wait until the 28th of May for the new tarrif to take affect for the thing to work.
Give me strength.
In the mean time Carls mobile is recalled as it has a tendency to set fire to itself.They sent us a new one that didn't work, so we sent it back they have received it and have assured us that a new one has been despatched, it hasn't arrived. Phoned again and the man is very vague, said it had been sent but was in a place no one could get at it . What the hell does that mean ??? Anyway he has ordered another one, which no doubt will arrive on wednesday morning after Carl has left for his trip to France.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Saturday Morning................

Last night Beth had Emma over to stay, they were both as good as gold, behaved themselves and even took themselves off for a bath wearing swimming trunks !! A lot of time has been spent on the trampoline of course. They are out there now !!
Yesterday I was 'official photographer' for my recently ex next door neighbour. Her beautiful daughter Hannah was going to her year 11 prom. Her mum splashed out on a hair do, she had her nails done and she was set. The only problem was it was freezing cold and they all looked blue !!

Still practicing my Macros shots, quite pleased with this one taken this afternoon, during a heavy shower of rain . I love the blurry background effect !

Missed a few days !

We have had a few busy days. Work has not been too bad, Steph and I have managed to sort out a load of paperwork in the office and we have finally got on top of things. - well at least for today, I expect we will be snowed under again soon.

Yesterday Beth played her first official Netball match for Hatfield, Of course it tipped it down and Tom and I got soaked. She didn't seem to care and was happy to play. She ended up as goalkeeper for the first two quarters but by the end she had managed to get her preferred place of goal defence back. They won 6-3.

Today I had both the kids booked into the dentist, which is 8 minutes away from home, The appointment was at 4.10pm. Carls gets home USUALLY at 3.40pm, today the bus was late and he arrived home at 4.10pm so it was a mad dash over to the dentist, we all arrived flustered and cursing at the bus. Carls teeth are perfect, still not a single filling and he is 15 !! Beth also was ok, with a soft spot on one of her baby teeth, so hopefully that will drop out soon.

I have spent all day trying to spot Keiths Wedding which we have been told was taking place today at the Little White Chapel on the strip in Las Vegas. There is supposed to live Webcam, but all I have seen so far is a couple from new Jersey and a couple from Scotland. The weddings look a bit sad , all isolated and alone. They are very production line and the longest one lasted 11 minutes !! Still it is certainly different and not the way I would want to do things !

I have made some ATC's

I have spent the afternoon designing some ATC's in Photoshop
I am very pleased with the results so far. I have printed them
in textured cardstock and they look as if they are printed on
canvas. I then added a little glitter and a button or two and I
am very pleased with them. My only concern is that I may
have made far too many !!

Macro Challenge

I have been photographing all sorts of things using my Macro button. I was out in the garden yesterday and came across the one and only geranium in flower. The whole clump is covered in luxurious greenery but just the one single flower. So I have taken a few shots of it and this morning it has gone :0( . This shot is a cropped photograph of the middle of the flower. It looks unreal to me and perhaps it could have been sharper, but I am only practicing. I just wish the flowers in my garden would be more co-operative!!

Effing Dare Guest Appearance !!

I was very honoured to be asked to do a 'Guest appearance' on the Effing Dare spot on the Pad. Clare told me the day before the theme and this is my effort. I have stuck with 8x8 and will keep them all in a special Effing Dare album !
I was quite pleased with this one, although when I saw all the others I realised that they had all used very different techniques. I wanted to do something out of the ordinary for me and I think this is nothing like anything else I have ever done !!It sums up for me just how difficult it is to bring kids up, it doesn't matter what you say or do, you can never get it right, all that happens is I end up getting upset and angry. I just can't seem to tune out the arguing, whinging, moaning and constant bickering. It seems to happen whenever there are two of them together. I was hoping that things were getting better ! One day .................................

On Friday we had a surprise barbeque at Rick and Dinas house, Dina collected us at 6pm so I could have a drink. We had our first barbeque of the season !! The weather was nice for most of the evening until there was one huge gust of wind which actually blew over a couple of glasses (and wasted our port and lemonade!) Then the heavens opened!! We couldn't beleive that it was such a change! We all went inside gathering up as much as we could !
Dina and I finished the bottle of port, would have been rude to have left some and after all we had lost half a glass to the wind and couldn't risk that again !!
Tom arrived from work at 10 ish and we had a cup of tea and went . It was a great evening !

Saturday morning we were up bright and early as Beth had a net ball tournament at Stanborough school. It started at 9am she played 8 games unfortunately they didn't win a single one !!! But Beth played very well none the less and was asked to make up the numbers in a team of year 6 players, a whole two years older than her !!

She has now decided that she will play again as she has met a new friend Katie and the two of them spent all morning together, yakking and sharing sweets!

By the time Tom and I had been there for 4 1/2 hours we were frozen, there was a sweet stall, so my purse was never shut, we ended up buying her a sweatshirt as well, so it was not a cheap morning !!

She really enjoyed herself though!

Hunny the Vampire Dog

Well this picture makes me smile :0))
Last weekend we took Hunny out to the river for a walk, its the first time we have taken her there and she loved it. Within seconds of us arriving she jumped straight in, she ran from side to side and got absolutely soaked. She got out and shook getting the rest of us wet as well! She also managed to find some of the muddy stuff at the side and got up to the eyeballs in muck. By the time we got her in the car she smelt like a pongy swamp dog.

You know how we like to moan........

Well the weather here is a nuisance, Monday it was chucking it down, the back garden was awash with water and it was laying in huge deep puddles. It was on with the wet weather gear and off to work.
By Tuesday it was boiling hot and we were all dripping wet with sweat. Today is more of the same. I have finished work for the week and want to do some scrapping but can't be bothered.

This afternoon we had a meeting with some people who were having shift problems, we looked at what they had to offer made suggestions and agreed to another meeting, all while sitting outside in the boiling sun. After the meeting had finished we spoke to the person who asked us to help to ask why we could not find her on our list of paying members? She said becasue she left last year!!! We were so shocked that we couldn't say anything, we had wasted an afternoon helping a non member when we have a million legitimate people to see.

Note to self - check the paying members list before helping in the future.

Dandelions are the new Orchids.....

Well this macro challenge has bought out the dandelion photographer in the best of us. Dandelions just seem to lend themselves to the macro shots, I have of course had to join the gang !!

Today was also a good day to get a shot of Hunny who was tearing around outside the house. We wanted her to sit but it took her ages to calm down enough to do so. In the end I managed to get this nice posed shot of her in the dandelions.

The kids this afternoon have been arguing for England and I have just about had enough of it. Carl has done the garden and Beth has spent most of the time crying over one thing or another.

Give me strength!

Well I am still fiddling around with my macro button. This is a piccie of Beth using the said button!!

I am pleased with it and I like the unusual angle, I have all month to perfect it so I am going to keep trying.

Yesterday was the first day since we have had the trampoline that NOBODY has used it!! It has taken a couple of weeks, but the real reason was the awful weather. Everyone was busy in the morning and by lunch time it was chucking it down, to the rest of the day was a write off. This morning there is another pool of water on it. The annoying thing is that the cover collects the water and by the time you have managed to get it off of the trampoline, its covered in water again.

I was also able to spend a bit of time completing The Scrap pads Effing Dare. This is the result, a complete departure for me. Once I get used to ging with the flow, I think I might even enjoy it !! Roll on next week for another go !

Today was a much needed day off of work. The only trouble is that is wizzes by in a flash and I really don't have too much to show for it. Looking back though I have done a lot. Weeks shopping before 9am, sneaky visit to the cake shop for elevensies. Then around to mum and dads to fill in the millionth form this week, loaded dad and zimmer and wheelchair into the car. Strapped mother into the front, checked for the disabled parking permit and we were off.

Arrived in St Albans a short while later, to try and find a parking space where we could unload the boot and get the wheelchair close enough for dad to get into it. I had no idea how difficult it is to get around with a wheelchair. There are a lot of very nice people out there, but an awful lot of inconsiderate idiots. For the first time I have had first hand experience of just how invisible people in wheelchairs are !! Seems if you are in a wheelchair you obviously are unable to speak up for yourself. We have decided to be more assertive and make people see how talking to the pusher as if the seated person is not there is simply not on.

The lady in The Portland was very nice and I left dad to deal with her himself and she was helpful and polite and she SPOKE directly to him. That was good.

On the way back we stopped off for lunch a a local pub. We had noticed that they had wheelchair ramp and advertised as wheelchair accessible. So we got ourselves set up, pushed him up the ramp , through the door to be confronted with a 6 inch step !!! It was then a case of lugging him up the step. Its so bizarre, as they also have a fully equipt disabled loo. We made them aware of the gaff. On the way out I had to bump dad down the step and ended up bouncing his foot off the floor. I felt awful as he shouted out. Bloody inconsiderate pub !

When I got home I decided to have a go at taking photos with my macro button. The picture above is a study of my pegs !! The macro button is great if you stand back, and then zoom in, it throws the background out of focus. I love that effect.

This is my layout for Kirstys challenge, somehow I have been missed off her list , so I guess I will not be in the competition :0(

Don't know what happened to the entry, perhaps I misunderstood the rules and posted it in the scrappad instead of on UKS.

Oh well !!!

Not to worry.

Anyway what do you think of it now that I have posted it on my blog ?? Its all me, no fiddling with photoshop or anything ;0)

Well this has been one of those weeks, I have been chasing my tail and getting absolutely no where fast. Work wise we have been a day short becasue of the bank holiday but this is not an advantage, all it has done is confuse me.
I was preoccupied at the beginning with a discipline case at work that I was defending. The hearing was yesterday and quite late in the day. It was hard to try and defend someone who had in my opinion probally carried out the 'things' he was accused of. Anyway in the end he was found guilty and dismissed. I felt sad for him, but what else can you say ? I didn't do the deed, and it was a hard one to defend.

Today was one of those be in a million different places at once sort of day. Carl had parents evening at school and did not want to arrive in my van, so after a lot of swapping around I drove Tom's car to work. Once I got there I realised that I had left my swipe card in the van and had to do the whole trip again. Never really caught up for the rest of the day then.

On the plus side the reports from the teachers at school were all good, with some of them very good. Carl is on target to get some good GCSE results, just has to put a bit of work in now.

Thank goodness I am off work tomorrow I may well get a bit of scrapping done, I am going to try and take some photos for the the scrap pad challenge, just don't know what to photograph yet !!

Typical Bank Holiday weekend!

So here we are on Bank Holiday Monday and the weather is typical, pouring with rain . It has been raining all night and now the trampoline has turned into a paddling pool !

Yesterday it took me all day but I eventually cleaned up my scrapping area. I know should be able to get stuff done. I have a few more plans but I am getting there.

Today we planned to take a trip to Windsor but the weather has stopped all thoughts of that. We will have to decide what we are going to do.