Sunday Ice Skating.

Today we went to London to go Ice Skating. We had a great time,The weather was by and large awful, raining and cold, freezing bitter cold.BUT the company was good, we went with Dina and Rick and their kids. We started the day at Hyde Park there was German market and a few rides for the kids. We went to Oxford Street, via a bus ride and then moved onto the Tower of London via at least 4 million steps at a variety of train stations. On our arrival it was raining again, but the skating looked great the Tower was bathed in a blue light as was the skating rink. We decided to eat at the nearby KFC, very traditional London Fayre!!
Once it was our turn on the ice (I use our very loosely, as it was only Beth from our family who went on!!) They all got ready, Beth was a bit worried about it, but she did so well, never fell over once!!
We had great fun watching everyone else fall over, this one poor woman did cartoon skating, her legs were moving faster than she could cope with and she ended on the floor so many times we lost count!! It was almost as much fun as watching people coming down the waterslide in France!! (another Rick and Dina shared past time!!)

Emilys Art Challenge

I have got hopelessly behind on my cards. I don't have the time at the moment. The two prompts that I have caught up with tonight are 'My happy place' and 'Idea' My happy place is the beach, I love being able to walk along the beach with the wind in my face, the roar of the sea, the smell of the water, I love collecting stones and shells and lately we have found loads of fossils on the beach at Whitby.So I think I was meant to be a beachcomber!!

The next was 'I have an idea' Well I have loads of ideas, my main frustration is that my ideas are brilliant in my head but I can't translate them to paper or any other medium !! I wish I could draw or paint, I have loads of brilliant pictures just queuing up to escape from my brain and land on paper, shame that they crash and burn before the arrive!!!

Wet and Wild!!

Today started and has ended wet and wild, It wouldn't be so bad if it was snow, at least it would be interesting. I took Carl to work at 3.30 and it was dark, I mean really dark, miserable and freezing cold. I hate this weather. I long for a bright blue sky with a crisp frost or an inch of snow, enough to make the place look pretty and no more.

This morning we hit Matalan again. (I am turning into a Matalan groupie) Carl came along, he had found a hole in his school shoes so the plan was to replace them. Anyway the shoes cost £15 and when I got to the till the bill came to £91!!! I knew that I had bought other stuff including, for once, clothes to fit me. But I was surprised to find that I had spent that much. On the way out of the shop I checked the receipt and spotted something for 50p that I hadn't bought, so I challenged my bill. Carl was groaning saying its only 50p, but that's not the point is it ?? If they get away with 50p this time it'll be a fiver next time. So we unloaded our bags at customer services and went through our purchases. By this time Carl had retired to the car muttering that he would give me the 50p. While the Saturday morning queues were forming behind us, I discovered that Beth had bought herself a necklace for £1.50 which had scanned in at 50p!! They were very nice about it, helped me pack the stuff back up again, so that I could sneak out of the shop never to return again!!!
We popped around to see mum and dad, they have just got back from holiday on the QE2,(As opposed to a break in the QE2, our local hospital!!) I was very lucky because they bought me back some beautiful Chanel 'Chance' perfume. I had never seen it before but I did tell mum that I liked citrus smells and not floral ones, and this one is perfect, it smells heavenly!!
Carl put their cases back in the loft and got the Christmas Decorations down. So now they are all set up for Christmas.
I have spent the afternoon finishing my Christmas cards and writing them.
Looking forward to tomorrow, we are going up to London to have a look around a German market and winter wonderland that has been set up in Hyde Park, followed by ice skating, (Not for me!!)Please let it stay dry, it doesn't have to be warm, just dry!!

The Last Birthday Party

Tonight we finally celebrated Beth's 11th birthday with a party at Roller City for her class friends. We decided to do it as its going to be her last party at junior school. I was well prepared with a packed lunch for everyone, plus drinks and labelled cups, I packed up the party bags, bought drink, birthday cake and remembered the candles and matches. I was pleased to have the help of my friend Heather who filled in all the kids contact telephone numbers in case of emergency. As it was it went off without a hitch, nobody got hurt, although there were plenty of pre teenage hormones flying around !!

Beth did extremely well out of it, to add to her birthday money that she received on her birthday (£85) She received £116 tonight!!! grand total of £201, Unbelievable, I feel like charging her for hiring the place!! She is saving up for a laptop, and now has a shed load of thank yous to write!!

School Play- Political Correctness gone mad.

I went to see Beth in her school play, the dress rehearsal, they did very well, and I really enjoyed it. I kept asking her what the play was and never really got a straight answer, even the title of 'Magnolia and the Merry Minors' didn't give me a clue. It wasn't until it got underway that I realised Magnolia was in fact Snow White and the Merry MINERS were the seven dwarfs!! What madness is this?? It seems that you can't refer to the original title because you are discriminating against dwarfs and implying the Snow White was pure because she was white. Who knows if this is the true reason, but that's what other viewers were saying !!!!

Hello.

Well I THINK I have nearly done the Christmas shopping, just a couple of things left to get, its always the hard ones that get left to the end.
I am 4 days into my last minute advent swap, and I am so thrilled with the gifts I have received, Ginger has done me proud with her selection.
Work has been busy, I have been all over the place doing all sorts of meetings with managers and members. Tomorrow we have even more of the same plus its been cold and miserable, I would like to stay at home!!
Today I had to spend some time looking for a white overall for Beth to wear in her school play, I finally tracked one down (thanks to Dougie in Scientific Services)and tonight I spent some time flattening it with a cool iron. Should be interesting to see what the play is like in the morning !!
Its nice to have a clear craft table, the shame is my mojo has been tidied away with the rubbish.

Wet Weekend.

What a dreadful weekend weather wise it has been , rain, sleet, rain and freezing cold. I had hoped to get so much done and now looking back I have not done quite as much as I wanted. I did all the cleaning in Friday, but might as well not have bothered, I can't seem to make the kids understand that they need to PUT STUFF AWAY. We put it on the bottom of the stairs, they are supposed to take it up on the next run up, it just doesn't happen.
I did manage to wrap all the Christmas presents, buy a few more, Beth and I went to Stevenage for some more shopping.
Carl started his new job, so I had to get up at 7am on Saturday to get him there. On the plus side the new place has a better way of doing things, they are paying him half as much again so he doesn't actually have to work as long, so that will cut down on my travelling. They also seem more organised so that can only be good news.
The big job of the weekend was clearing my craft table, it had become a dumping ground and I simply can't create when its like that (That makes me sound like a right Diva!!)Now its nice and tidy and I have a chance of doing something.
This afternoon at the time it rained hardest Beth had the first rehersal for the church nativity play, so we got soaked getting from the car to the church.
I did manage to make my Christmas cards, so all in all a reasonable weekend !!!

Little packets of love !!

For the past few years I have joined in with online Advent swaps, but this year has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for a few of us,(illness, relationships, jobs) so I decided to give the organised one a miss. Anyway what I didn't bank on was some of my friends getting together and suggesting that we did something between the four of us as a last minute thing. So thank you to Ginger, Jaffers and Shirl for the little pile nestling on my coffee table under the stairs. I can't wait to see what I have been lucky enough to receive!! (Todays was a beautiful Rachel Ellen stained glass window Advent card!!)

My Christmas Card for 2007.

This year I have moved away from the traditional Christmas card and decided to try out something a little more off the wall, I hope you like it !! I expect my family will be thrilled to get one !!

Remember our Engine Warning light problem??

Well today we took the car into our usual garage for them to look at along with the long list of problems that the Vauxhall Main dealer had identifed while trying to find the reason the engine management light went on. I still don't know why they took the wheels off when they were checking the engine !!! Anyway trusty old Malmack and Mannion took a look their verdict was nothing wrong with steering or brakes, in fact the pads were not even half worn and were perfectly safe. We have got a small oil leak which they think is coming from the areas that they would need to get to if they were changing the cam belt, so we are having that fixed next week and the cambelt done (due at 60,000 miles so a bit early but better safe than sorry as we know from bitter experience!!)The main dealer even pointed out that there was a bulb out on the numberplate. Malmacks replaced that and charged us absolutely ZERO.
So what will these repairs cost?? The thieving Vauxhall main dealers wanted a mere £1500 to get it 'back on the road' Malmacks on the other hand think that £400 would be more than enough.
I really think these garages take the Mick and ramp it up when a woman walks in. I will never go there again, I can't type the words on here about what a bunch of T.....s they are !!!
Onward and Upward - Girl Power

Christmas is here !!!

Today I got my first Christmas card through the post !!! I think thats an all time record. I am about to make mine tonight, I am going to use those beautiful photos in the previous post and turn them into a Christmas card a la Creating keepsakes stylee!!

A thing of beauty.....

What can I say?? I asked my family to pose for a Christmas Card and this is what I got!!!

We are sailing...

Today I took Mum and Dad to Southampton to board the Cunard QE2 Ship for a cruise around the Canary Islands. It was very exciting, very windy and very cold. We arrived around 1.30 after an uneventful journey down there. We drove into a huge departure hall and they were collected by two 'Mobility Assistants' who got them wheelchairs and took them into the departure lounge. We said BonVoyage and took a walk around to see if there were any good photography points, unfortunately the majority of the ship was hidden by the departure area so I only managed snippets of it. Beth and Hannah had a run around and between them managed to frighten a million pigeons that were snaffling up some spilt grain under a nearby silo.
On the way home we stopped off to see Shirl, had a nice cuppa and a chat and a cuddle, couldn't stay for too long as I was worried about the roads. As it turned out there was an accident on the M3 which closed it and delayed us for an hour or so. I will be pleased to get back to work for a rest !!

The third time.

Because we had a stream of visitors all day, Beth got to blow out the candles on her cake three times, plus we had to have two cakes to feed everyone !!!

Happy Birthday Beth.

Today is Beth's 11th Birthday!! Can it really be eleven years since this little girl caused me so much trouble having her?? Has she stopped causing me trouble since?? NO.

She was born after a hard 12 hours of labour at 5.50am on the 24th of November.

Today she is excited, she has received £55 in hard cash plus some presents, she isn't having her party until December.

Today she is starring as an Elf, Santa's little helper at the school fair. I am serving on a stall. Should be fun!!

Oliver - The Stage Show!

Since September this year Carl has been involved in the school production of Oliver. It has been a long hard slog for him and for us. It has involved us travelling to St.Albans to collect him during the rush hour virtually every night, which has been hard work. Carl has put in long hours in his role of Assistant Producer, but it really paid off. He decided that if they were all going to put in the effort that it should be a sell out, so he really promoted it and sold out every show!!

I have been to many school productions over the years and this was by far the most professional and entertaining, in fact it was absolutely brilliant!!

The acting was outstanding, Oliver had the voice of an angel.

Last night was the last show, Tom and Beth went, Beth for the second time, After the show they had a party and Carl was presented with one of the props, (the picture above) signed on the back by lots of the cast and teachers involved, he also received gifts from the cast.

His teachers said that he has done an outstanding job of the production, remaining calm throughout and pulling off the best show ever!

Well done Carl we are all very proud of you!!!

Hertbeat Radio.

This morning we managed to get a request played for Beth on Hertbeat Radio!!
Tomorrow is her 11th birthday so I sent an email off to Steve Foland and the morning crew, to say Happy Birthday between 7.45 and 8 this morning, so we were laying in bed when Beth heard her name!!!
He read out my email word for word and even included my free plug for Panshanger school Christmas Fair tomorrow!!
She is mega excited about tomorrow!!!

A new Hair Do!!

Tonight we all had our hair cut. Beth begged to be allowed to have a fringe again, something she has not had since she was a very little girl, so I gave in and I think it looks ok, I'll go one step further and say it looks nice!!
I have had my hair trimmed and I am going to do something similar, changed from a side parting to a centre parting, with a fringe. Because we haven't had our hair cut for ages the length of my hair is quite Long so he has trimmed it all to a similar length, like a short bob. I think it looks nice, we'll see how it goes!!

A new little gadget.....

I have been blog hopping and I have found a guest book which pins guests to their location, I have added it to the bottom of my blog, I can't wait to see if I have any visitors from Lapland !!!

Phew, done it !!!!

A long long time ago my friend Nets asked for people to take up a card challenge to make a Christmas card using non Christmas papers, I took up the challenge and then forgot to scan it!!
So here it is, my card made with basic grey from a million years ago, scraps of ribbon and stickles glue!!
Phew, by the skin of my teeth!

Emilys Art Challenge.

Be Happy with where you are,that is my moment of self realisation.After a strange and sometimes trying year I am at this precise moment happy with where I am. Perhaps its my age, but there seem to have been a lot of people struggling this year health wise, lots of friends and family have had unforeseen operations, there have been job losses, relationship breakdowns and that's all within my circle of friends. On the positive side we have had good out comes to those operations and I hope that my friends get over their setbacks and find the positives that a new start can bring.

Off to take a look at the other cards for this week.

Searching for Squirrels.

Yesterday we took a walk over to Moneyhole Lane, Hunny, loves looking for squirrels, she hasn't worked out that the chances of her actually catching one are probably millions to one!! That doesn't stop her from having a good go, every tree she come to she gets up on her rear legs to get a good look. Yesterday we spotted a couple, but they were at the tops of the trees and well out of Hunnys way!!

I couldn't believe how quickly the sun set, it was only 4pm and the light was fading fast, as soon as the sun went it got really chilly. There is something special about this time of year, I love all the leaves and the smell of autumn.

Autumn Days!

It has been a beautiful day, very cold and crisp but bright and sunny, as usual Beth finished school at 2pm so I took the chance to take a few photos out the front of the house without anyone else being around! Loads of leaves still around, just need a strong wind to blow them into the next road!!

We are now going to take the dog out for a walk, hopefully Will get a few more shots as well!!

I have started and nearly finished!!

Today Tom and I went to Watford and started on the Christmas shopping. We went to a huge TESCO'S in Watford !! I think I have just about every out of family cracked, need to sort out the kids and close family then I am done.
I took advantage of the the wine deal, I bought 6 bottles that were 50% off, and as I bought 6 they gave me another 25% off, so that was a real bargain. I decided to use the double points voucher on this shop as well, so this quarter is going well. I must do an online order to get a few more free points!!
I bought quite a few things that had a printed guarantee, I was amazed to find that there was a years guarantee for a set of earphones that cost 97p!!! I think I will keep that one !!
We had a lovely lunch at ASK! and felt too stuffed to walk around afterwards.
On a bum note the engine maintenance light came on on the Zafira, so we stopped and switched it off. When we restarted it, it worked. The book said that it would go into 'limp home' mode, but after the restart it was fine. It did it again on the way home, so we have it booked into the garage for next Tuesday, Apparently its safe to use , I'll just have to use it as little as possible until its fixed.
Tonight we had Carl's parents consultation, he is doing very well, but has a bit to catch up with after the time he missed on holiday. He has a problem with giggling, which I blame on my mother!! So all on schedule for a great year of study!

Its nearly Christmas.....

and I have precisely ONE present stashed away. I mean what am I to do?? I really think its the holiday being so late that has done it. I am usually mega organised, but this is a horrible feeling not having done anything much.

I am hoping to crack it tomorrow with a shopping trip to either Watford or Stevenage with DH, can't make up my mind which would be best. I will make my list tonight and that way I will remember everyone. I like to take a flexible approach, don't usually have a firm idea in mind, I like to see what is available and go from there. Beth has a birthday before then and I haven't

even got her present yet!

This month I was asked to be a last minute stand in as a guest on ATDML, and these are three out of 4 of the layouts I submitted (they are up on their site as well!) I am pleased with them.

Catching up with Emilys art Challenge.

I have been away for two weeks and last week I was so jet lagged I couldn't have done anything !! So here are the three missing cards, just in time for the new challenge issued tonight!!

The first one is if you had a magic carpet where would it take you? Well I would love to go back to America, only just home, but I love it there, everything is so cheap there are so many craft shops that its like heaven on earth! Hot weather (not all over) Nice cars, HUGE houses, cheap restaurants, the whole place is bliss !!

The next one is thankful week, well I am always thankful when Friday arrives, although at the moment my weekends are far more stressful than my weeks, I feel in control of my weekdays!!

The third one is Home, I decided that these are some of the things that mean home to me. Even after a bad few days it usually means calm, fun, peace, its a creative place and a place I love to be (most of the time!!!)

Roll on tonight for the next card.

What has happened to my weekends???

Well all I can say is that it is less stressful being at work!!
All we seem to do at the weekend is drive drive drive. It starts with taking Carl to work Saturday lunchtime,I arrived home for a short while and then Stuart arrived to try and fix mums computer.Tom took Beth to an audition for the Wizard of Oz. That dragged on so we ended up dropping her off at Laura's for the evening before heading off to a quiz night. Luckily Mum and Dad offered to get Carl from work at 9, so we collected Beth at 10 and headed home.
Today has been no better, Tom took Carl to work for 8am, came back and then it was shopping, now Beth wants to go over to see Hannah and Lee, which is an hour return journey. Carl needs collecting at 4.15 and then he has an interview at another pool which is closer to home,so I hope he gets it and I hope he cuts down on his hours so that he has a bit longer to study.
I want to do some scrapping but its impossible to fit it in..........

The Victors!!

Today Beth played goal attack for Panshanger School in the schools tournament at Stanborough, for the second tournament in a row they WON !!!They played so well all of them, they never lost a match and only conceded 2 goals in the whole tournament.

Also as usual it was freezing cold, glad I wasn't there all the afternoon!!

Don't they look happy??

It was great to see Sue, who popped along to see us and check her school performance (sadly out in the first round!)

Tomorrow we have some of the windows being replaced in the conservatory, so we have been furniture shifting tonight!!

Some photos from Epcot.

We spent a couple of days in Epcot, the weather was very mixed with one of the afternoons ruined by torrential rain. Beth got into swapping pins at Epcot!!

Where has the weekend gone???

Well I think we have finally caught up with all the washing and clearing up after the holiday, suitcases have been put away, passports stowed back into the cupboard, nothing to do but wait for the next holiday now. I have decided to try and save up for our next holidayby accumulating Tesco Club points. I started last month and so far by taking advantage of all the different double and treble points offer I am underway, so as far as I am concerned if you can't get it from Tesco's I don't want it and that includes Christmas presents. The offer on at the moment is buy two J&J toiletry products and get 100 extra points, so watch out everyone you will be getting attractive gift packages containing baby talc and soap for Christmas, you have been warned!!

I have ordered my holiday photos to scrap, (guess where from??) I have also ordered a set for Laura, so just 400 pictures! Snapfish were going to charge me £42, but Tescos was only £20.50 plus the points and I collect them from Hatfield in the morning - Bargain.

This weekend I have been scrapping, managed 5 pages plus I have been playing with the stamps I bought in America. I want to do some cards to announce Laura and Scotts Engagement, having a play with designs for that at the moment. I have also bought a couple of Magnolia stamps, its very therapeutic painting them, you could waste hours on them !!

Off to plan my next assault on Tescos!!!

Poorly Baby....

It always happens, we come home from holiday and someone is ill, just before the holiday Carl and I both had throat infections, Laura came down with a cold on the last day, but yesterday Beth went one better and got herself an earache and sore throat. This morning we went to the Doctors and she is now on Penicillin and an ear spray. Not allowed to swim for a week. She has started the course and three doses in she feels better. Its such a shame when they are poorly.

I have to sort out my photos so that I can upload them and order them, some of them need photo shopping to get rid of red eye. I will try and sort that tonight. The three below were taken on the first day after we arrived, in the magic kingdom. It was soooooooo hot 95 degrees which was unusually hot for this time of year, The second week cooled off and got a whole lot wetter, so shouldn't complain!!

Back at Last.

We finally arrived home at 8.30pm last night, after a horrible journey. We arrived at the airport 2 hours before the flight only to be told that it had been delayed millions of hours, we dumped our cases and we were bussed to Altamonte Springs Hilton, we were served with a very nice hot buffet, lots of fruit punch and tea and coffee. Which was just as well because after that they took us back to the airport where we had to wait for 8 hours overnight on very uncomfortable seats. We were all exhausted and finally got on the plane at 5am arriving home in England 24 hours late.

We are still trying to get our heads sorted !!

I have managed to upload my photos and I am really pleased with one that I took of the Space Shuttle Launch. I think it was the most fantastic experience of my holiday Discovery launching on the 120th space mission


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