Can you beleive it????????

Yet another company to add to my never deal with them again list, this time is the fantastic BRITISH TELECOM, I have now been holding (on a free phone number) for over an hour now to try and find out why they have not swapped over Laura's telephone number to her new address. Its a nightmare, they put me through to one place and then they say its not their problem, they leave me on hold to another department who says its not their problem either.
So BT are even worse than my previous worse company SKY TV.

They need to get their arses in gear and give their customers SERVICE, an alien concept it seems.

I am turning into Victor Meldrew. I don't believe it!!!

Farewell.......

To my Daisy Bus, she has gone to live by the seaside in Bournemouth, with a funky family who will love her and take care of her. I heard from the guy who bought her today and he said that his family are thrilled with her and they have decided that when they emigrate to Australia next year Daisy is going with them !! So it looks as if she will be seeing that part of the world long before we will!!

Today we picked up the new wheels, a Vauxhall Zafira called Ruby. So far she seems to be very nice, might 'lighter' to drive, so I keep over revving her at the moment, I will get better! One of the great things about the new car is that we were treated to lunch at her former owners house when we went to collect her, Thank Debbie and Malcolm!! I have not photographed Ruby yet, but I am sure I soon will.

Dust anyone dust???

Well I seem to be eating and breathing it at the moment. The kitchen floor has turned out to be a huge job that is generating a ton of dust. I am just not as tolerant anymore and the dust situation is driving me nuts. I can't do any scrapping as everything feels crunchy. Woe is me!!
Yesterday I took a run out to our one and only craft shops as word on the street was that it was closing, sadly this turned out to be true, the big bonus was everything was 50% off!! The bad news was we were three days too late, most of the best stuff had gone :0(
I still managed to be able to spend £20 on chalk ink pads, magazines, rub ons and a few fat quarters for my next bag (if my sewing machine survives the dust)

I can't beleive it!!!

Tonight we decided to try and sell the daihatsu flowery van, we have been offered a Vauxhall Zafira at a very good price so we went for it. We posted the van on ebay and sold it within the hour!! Amazing

And shes home !!!

Good news mum is home and doing very very well! She was going to be discharged yesterday, but there was a hold up with the drugs (as usual) so it rolled over until today. Anyway dad and Carl went in at 9.30 am to get her, Carl carried the huge bag that she had. Mum said she didn't have too many problems getting into the car. Its nice to have her back!!

We have been busy today, Laura and Scott moved out of Moatwood Green and into a flat above John Lewis in town. The poor removal men had to get the stuff from the third floor and once we arrived at the other end they had to lug it all up 5 flights of stairs, the poor buggers were drenched in sweat, I was exhausted for them, they were only small skinny blokes as well. The new flat is lovely a bit smaller than the one they have moved out of but its homely. The living room looks out over the roof and walkways, The bedroom and bathroom look out over Parkway and all the pretty gardens. The kitchen is fairly small but the living room is bigger. They entrance hall is great with a huge cupboard and enough room to have a desk and storage cupboard. Beth unpacked loads of boxes of DVD's and put them back in the shelves. We managed to empty around 8 or 9 boxes. The huge cupboard is such a bonus because we put all the boxes in there to be emptied one at a time.

We are all exhausted tonight and I am happy that we have done as much as we can, at least their bed is up, and there is room in the living room to sit down.

Why we were slogging there, Carl was life guarding and when he finished that he continued lifting the tiles in the kitchen, that is also a huge job and everything is covered in brick dust, I think he is about 3/4 of the way there now.

Bed, where are you???

Doing well.....

Tonight we visited mum and found that she was much brighter, she walked down to physio with a zimmer frame and came back with just her sticks. She has now managed to get out of bed by herself. True progress. She is also back to normal mentally (whatever that means!!)

Sunday, another day!

Well this morning dad called to say that last night mum was out of bed when she fell out of her chair. I think a lot of this was to do with the drugs, she is totally confused and confuddled and really doesn't know what day of the week it is. Mum told dad she was on the floor for hours, dad spoke to the staff and they said minutes, they had to see to a patient who was just back from theatre, but as soon as she had been stabilised they had her back up and in her chair. So I feel the truth is out there somewhere.
Dad,Carl and I went to visit at 2pm and she seemed much brighter, sitting up in bed and talking lucidly.She has decided to stop all the drugs apart from Paracetamol, that has given her control of her brain. I think she will be better off now.
Tomorrow the physio starts in earnest, and they will be walking her down to the gym, I hope everyone is prepared!!!

Another day on......Happy Birthday!

We have been in to visit mum again. She has been out of bed, the catheter has gone as has the morphine pump. She has been to the loo and has had a shower. She has had the dressing changed on her knee. All positive things. On the negative side she is finding the pain hard to deal with and they have put her on two hourly morphine by mouth. That seems to be doing the trick.
Today is also her birthday, so we took her presents and cards in and I took her a birthday cake, that was nice, she got to blow out one candle, we couldn't risk anymore!!
Still making good steady progress!

One Day on....

Popped into see mum today and she is doing very well, sore, but on the way to becoming better, with a knee that works and is painfree.She was well dosed up on morphine to keep the pain under control, and of course that made her make some strange comments which in the interests of good humour I am going to record here so she can have a laugh afterwards.

Me - 'Hello mum how are you feeling??'
Mum - 'Hello, I am fine I have had trouble with my mobile phone today'
Me - 'Well its working, you have sent me 5 blank messages today'
Mum - 'Oh, whats that,Yorkshire puddings?'
Me - 'What'?
Mum - 'You know there are sheep coming out of India'
Me - 'Oh dear, is the morphine working well'?
Mum - 'No, its no working at all' (eyes rolling and a smile on her face)
Me - 'Bye mum, see you tomorrow'!!!

I expect tomorrow she will be back to normal!!!

Good Morning.

Today Mum is having her knee replaced, she had been thinking about having it done for a while, but as the pain in her knee has got so bad she has decided to go for it. She went in at 7.30am and I have just had a text from her to say that they are going to operate under epidural, I know that will be a relief as she was worried about being knocked out. Don't know what time to op is as of yet, but fingers crossed it all goes well and she will eventually end up with a pain free fully mobile leg.

Sports Day!

I love this photo!! Beth had just been told that her team - 'Active Alligators' had just won the team event for the third year running! I think she is well pleased!


One of the sessions involved dribbling with a basket ball and shooting.


You can't beat a water game on sports day!!

Once I checked out my photos I realised that in loads of the photos Beth was concentrating so hard that she had her tongue sticking out!! I think I will do a collage of all those shots.
The Active Alligators did so well, they were very competitive and tried so hard, it was great that they managed to win again. Along with the team event Beth took part in two other races she came second in the straight race, as she called the sprint ,and first in the obstacle race. We were so proud of her!

Art Challenge, not sure which week!!!

The prompt is all about what you want to achieve by the end of this week. So I have chosen the run up to the end of school.

This card is all about the manic end of school year and how I yearn to be sitting on a beach with it all behind me!! All you mums out there know how frantic the end of the summer term is, sports day, swimming, children's fete,leavers assembly, not to mention new class teachers in prospect and school reports. there is so much going on, its nice to actually get to the first day of the school holidays and chill!!

I think this card sums up that feeling for me!

What plant is this??

For years and years we have had a bowl in the garden which has lots of rockery alpine type plants in it. I don't do anything to it apart from the occasional drop of water in the dry spells. So all of a sudden for the first time it started to sprout these very beautiful flowers, they are on the end of green stalks about 6 inches long, each head has around 12 heads. I don't have any idea what they are, does anyone know what they are called??Answers on a postcard.....

Getting Stuck in.

For the past few months I have been having terrible trouble sticking religiously to my eating plan, I think its a combination of being at home and the stress of the diagnosis. Anyway you know what its like any excuse to hit the chocolate is a good excuse!! Actually making the meetings has been difficult as well I have had Governor meetings on the same evening and things have got in the way. According to my own scales I have put on at least 7lbs, so even though I couldn't go to last weeks meeting I have got back on the wagon and have been good since last Wednesday. I am hoping that I will be able to knock that gain off and continue, my aim is to try and lose 2 stone before my holiday, not sure if that is attainable, but I'm going to give it a go.

I am due to go back to work on the 22nd of July, but I have a doctors appointment before then so fingers crossed that she says I can go back. Generally I feel good the tiredness is getting more manageable.Being at work will positively help my eating plan!!

This week at school is a very busy one with school sports day,kids fete and leavers assembly, Its going to be very sad this time next year as Beth leaves :0(



Carl is still working down the pool, he is down there just about all the time, he is very conscientious and worries about the rules and if everything is being done properly, not a bad thing,BUT I worry about him having all the responsibility at 16.Its essentially a boring job unless anything goes wrong and then it could be life and death,that's scary.

Its on the way back up!!

This morning Tom and Grant have been hard at it since 9am, we now have two brand new gates which look fantastic they are now on setting up the roof struts. So 4 new panels, plus gates and the start of a roof, they have made very good progress. I am going to load up the back of the van for a dump trip later on. Who would have thought fence erecting could be so exciting?

Its coming down!!

Today we (I am using the Royal we here!) started to replace the fence and shed area between the two houses. Grant next door is very handy so he came home from work with a borrowed Kango hammer which speeded things up no end, we emptied the alleyway into the back garden and started to dismantle it. Within a few hours the shed fence had gone and three out of the 4 new panels were in place. Tom and Grant have now gone to B and Q, to try and secure a pair of new gates, so that our houses will look beautiful!! Mind you the back garden is a dump area but I can live with that, now praying that it doesn't rain!!

I have been crafting !!!

Today I finally got around to trying out 'bag' making!! I am thrilled with the results. I have used materials that had been languishing under my bed for years, including the iron on lining. I even got my iron out today, something I have not done in possibly years!! I used some buttons from my scrap booking stash. I a so pleased with it, it only took me 3 hours from cut out to finish!! The only thing is I haven't included in that time the weeks of advice I sought from Debs!! I mean how am I meant to know what Pellon is??

School Trip - Lemsford spring.

Walking in the river, Shocking all the wildlife!!


Hard to believe it , but Beth was actually
wearing welly boots at this stage!!


Here we have Beth and her teacher trying
to measure the flow rate of the river. Again
No sign of Beths wellys!!


Here they are emptying the river out of their
Boots !!!

It was a good trip the object being for the children to learn about rivers, make up, flow rate, river banks and most importantly just how cold it is !! The kids had a great time but were frozen by the end of it!

Pink Letter Day!!

Well yesterday was a bit of a surprise for me, I took Laura out to Tesco to buy some clothes from the sale for our holiday in Florida, and shock horror she chose a PINK Top!! I was shocked must be the first time since she was about Four that she has chosen anything pink. I had to have a lie down!!

Art Challenge - Junk Mail.

This weeks prompt is Junk mail, something we all seem to get tons of!

We are going on holiday to Florida this autumn, we seem to have a huge

amount of junk mail all about Florida! We have been a fair few times before

but this will be the first time that Beth has been since she was three. She

and the rest of us are really excited.

A few more shots

Southwold Pier. This is a great Pier, recently rebuilt in a Victorian style, there were lots of beautiful little shops selling 'nice' stuff. There was also an arcade which had loads of whacky machines. We had a go on a few of them. Great entertainment.

This is my beautiful 'little' God daughter Becca.
Becca made some gorgeous food over the weekend including some delicious pasta shells with cheese and bacon.She has also discovered that she is an accomplished cake maker, All of her food was very yummy!

Home and refreshed!

Beach huts on the seafront at Southwold.

Rough Seas at the entrance to Southwold Harbour


I have just spent a couple of days with Fran, Pete and Becca Gibbs. They have a lovely home in Suffolk. We called into see them on the way back from our cheap Sun weekend in May and they asked me up for a break to get over my op. I had a very nice time, the first day we spent ages talking and catching up on all the chat that we had missed out on. On Friday we spent the day out, I treated them to lunch as a mini thank you for having me. We had lunch in a pub in Southwold harbour.

After lunch we went for a walk down to the sea edge, it was very windy yesterday and the sea was very choppy, I managed to get a few shots of some of the activity!

We then moved onto Southwold itself, it was there that I found some rows of beach huts, Fran said that these colourful 'sheds' were changing hands for £40000 each!! The thing is you can't stay overnight in them and there is no power, so really its just a very expensive well located shed!!

We looked around some antique shops (another luxury!!) and finished off at a factory outlet. Once we got back home it was quite late,we had sandwiches and sat chatting until 11pm !! the time flew by. I got back home at lunchtime today.

having fun !

I have spent a very nice couple of days with my friends Fran and Pete and their daughter Becca attheir beautiful house in Suffolk. Thanks for having me it been great can't wait to download the photos

Banks, How I love them!

Much to my disgust our bank, The Woolwich, has been taken over by Barclays, we have known about it for a while, it has been coming for a while and to be honest I would rather not be a Barclays customer. The problem is we have such a short while left on our mortgage its not worth going out and changing it.
So the fact that we have known about it for a while made me think that they would have everything sorted, after all that is what they have told us, its rubbish. We have had all our 'old' Woolwich accounts closed BUT they have not sent us the cards for the new accounts, so now we are trapped in Limbo not able to access the old accounts OR the new ones. Its our money and its trapped. This morning I am off to the bank to try and sort it out. ARGGGGGGHH.

I hate Barclays.

Art Challenge Week 26

This weeks prompt is daughters, celebrate our daughters or women in our life. I have two daughters, but since Laura moved in with her boyfriend I don't have as many photographs of her. I have even fewer of her together with Bethany. This photo was taken while we were on holiday in Florida in 2000. That means that Beth was only 3 and Laura 15. The great thing is that we are heading back to Florida this autumn, and Laura and Scott will be coming with us!! We can't wait!! Roll on October.

What is happening to the weather??

The weather today has been strange to say the very least, its been sunny enough to get my washing dry but it has rained so much that there are mega huge puddles everywhere, its all very strange.

Today I have been interviewing at school its been a busy day, followed up by a Governors meeting after school, sometimes it seems as if I have been at school more times than Beth in the past week!!

We have finally finished the redecoration of the kitchen and the Conservatory. Its been a huge job. Carl did the kitchen by himself last week. he left us with one wall to do in the conservatory, the problem being all my craft stuff was on the table in front of it. It took me two hours yesterday to clear the table off and after painting it took another three hours to put everything back. But now its finished I am thrilled with it! It is now a delightful shade of green called 'Bali' when I bought it from B and Q the man said it was half price, but it hadn't been marked up, I was expecting to pay £10 a tin for it, anyway the man came to the till and told the assistant to charge me half of the price that came up when she scanned the tins. She did, and I ended up paying £5 a tin, what a bargain!!!