I will!

Ok well today has been a very draining emotional day. My work was really hard and upsetting but hopefully did some good, and I kept rowing with my mum which did NO good lol. I currently have a splitting headache so off to bed but said I would blog every day so I will :) Even if just to remember that today was a hard crappy day, but its over and tomorrow will hopefully be better :)

WOYWW

Well mine is more of a workrug than a workdesk but still :) Got a bit further with the bunting but having Cameron off sick and then family drama means its taking a bit longer than I thought! Almost done though. I've also got the rest of an old page kit out that I want to do some layouts with.

Well Mark woke up today feeling ill so didnt make it up town. Didn't do much of anything today except tidying and clearing the garage. We had a leak in there before Christmas which ruined a lot of stuff but at the time just closed the door and ignored it lol, felt good to get some sorted though :) Having a bit of a down day today so hopefully a better mood tomorrow!

Oh well lol

For valintines day I ordered mark a box of sweets form the american candy website. As thier boxes have their logos on the side I asked for it to be delivered to my mums but they went to the wrong door. Rearranged to deliver today but they got lost and rather than phoning my mobile like I told them to they phoned the house and talked to Mark who promptly gave them our address to deliver to. So he now knows his gift and has been stuffing his face all night lol. Oh well at least I know he liked it!
Quick photo of what we got, and yes, that is a 'french fry' flavout lipbalm there. Random! Got to love americans lol, think Mark might give that to Caitlin lol

Well last night me and my mum had a big row about Nicola and everything. It used to be that each of the grandkids took a turn spending friday night sleeping at hers which they loved. However a few weeks back Cameron came home and told me that Lillie stayed too. Mum refused to tell me why until a few days later I saw my sister and her face was all messed up. Turned out she'd got wasted and her friend rung my Mum to tell her to come get Lillie. So dad got lillie and nic and took them back to mums. To say I was angry that a drunk/stoned/very vocal pissed of Nicola was in the house with my son and NOBODY told me was an understatement. I've been around her when shes in that state and more than once the police have been called to deal with her so as a result I stopped my kids sleeping over. Mum was fine with that which I admit hurt, anybody tried to stop her seeing the girls she'd hit the roof but not too fussed with mine. Anyway yesterday I messaged my sister and asked what she was playing at which resulted in a rant from my Mum telling me to keep out, so I told her not to contact me again for a while. got to love the fact though that got an abusive text off my sister saying to keep out of her life, then another text this afternoon asking a favour. yeah, seriously. lol. So to keep my mind off things I pulled out an old jigsaw. Managed to do a 1000 piece jigsaw in one night so kept me busy!

Tomorrow we need to go up town. Got lots of boring little jobs to do and a few things to return so dull day ahead!

On and on and on

Ok moaning first so if you can't be bothered to read my rant skip down this paragraph lol. Well the news i got yesterday was that my sister had yet AGAIN met up with the violent ex and got in trouble with the police. So this morning went to social services to fill them in and yet again beg/yell/cry at them to get them to do something. Nope still doing nothing. So thats been one year four months since she's been told if she goes near him the girls will be removed and time after time shes been near him and even moved him into the house and the girls are STILL there!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok rant over. After our very pointless meeting mum and I went to Asda for a coffee and shopping, then tesco for coffee and shopping (rock and roll lifestyle we lead lol) Tescos has been opened for only 5 days now and reading their facebook page has proven to be SO funny! The amount of people kicking up over the daftest things, seeming to take actual offence because they don't stock something they think they should is honestly mental. One reacurring topic is Lucky Charms cereal. I'm sure this was out when I was a kid and I dont remember it being very nice, obviously I'm wrong on this as they sold out of it within an hour of opening and theres been a pretty much constant 'when will there be more?!' conversations on facebook since! On Saturday they posted they had actually sent out a van to get more and apprently they managed as this was there today.

£5 for a box of cereal?! Is it just me or is that a bit much? lol. I was half tempted to buy some just to see what the fuss is all about but not at the price.
Well I have a pounding headache and a busy day tomorrow so early night I'm thinking!

mess/tidy

I started today with good intentions, I wanted to tidy out the wardrobe then get my scrapping stuff in from the garage to put into the space. Well i got everything out the wardrobe,made lunch and did a jigsaw with Cameron, got some of the stuff in from the garage and dumped it in the bedroom, rememebred I had craft stuff in the drawers, got distracted going through the drawers, realised it was time to start dinner, did dinner, mum came round, did bath, homework, beds, and now here I am. Theres craft stuff all over the bedroom and livingroom and nothing is where it should be.

Oh well, I had good intentions lol, and I did tidy out the drawers pretty well so thats something. I'm under no illusions that tomorrow will be better as had some news today that needs handled first. Will see how that goes before I say more on it.

Challenges

Ages ago I used to go to a crop once a month, when money got tight at the start of last year though I just couldnt afford to go anymore :( Instead one Saturday a month I set up in the livingroom and while I'm still there to take over if needs be, the kids are pretty much Marks problem lol. I haven't managed to do it in a while so as cameron was happy on the computer I got caitlins playdough out and started scrapping :)
Another thing I used to do was the challenges on UKS but for some reason that stopped too, new year new start and all that so decided to catch up on those.
This was week 3, rules were:
Use sketch provided - Done
Use stitching - Theres faux stitching around the edge of the brown tags.
Use paints/inks - Used the blue paint in the background.
Use a lin or quote from a poem - Theres loads of poems called Dream :)
This was a photo taken in Turkey, we were on a trip to a local market but stopped off at a Turkish rug facory first. OMG the prices were insane! £250 for one the size of a doormat lol. Dad nearly passed out! Got some nice photos outside though :)

Challenge week 2, rules were:
Use sketch - done
Use new stash - The brown background paper was in a pack I got for Christmas.
Use 5 of somthing - Used 5 sitckers.
journalling reads, 'Mud, wellies, the great outdoors; your Nanny has often said you two should have been born on a farm. So camping out in one one weekend was right up your alley!'

Challenge week 1, rules were:
Use one large photo - Done
Use scraps - The paper and photo are all from my scraps to be used box.
Use a meaningful quote - Not sure if 'I love you a bushel and a peck' counts but I think its meaningful :)
Struggled with this one as I never know what to do with big photos. Dug out this paper from a page kit from last March and thought it was nice enough to not need too much more.

Still have the house challenge to do but think the kids and Mark were patient enough letting me do these three. Had a lovely relaxed day :) Rounding it off nice with fish and chips in the oven (pizza for fish allergy Caitlin lol) and some dvds tonight.

Bargains :)

Today I met my Mum for coffee before going to the Social services meeting (uneventful really) While at town mum had to go to Wilkinsons to get a couple of bits so I tagged along. Glad I did really as there was a big section where all their christmas stuff and little stocking filler gifts were all reduced to 10p! I grabbed some bits which can be used in crafting and really were bargains. I love the little wooden shapes, 3 for 10p, :)

You can't see it in the photo too well but there is also a bottle of gold stickles there which I think was accidently labeled so I grabbed it lol. I don't use gold that much but for that price I wasn't complaining :)
Tonight was family night and we all cuddled up on the couch and watched 'Arthur Christmas' bit past the season granted but still fun lol. We'd bought the kids some sweets and Caitlin was amazed at how big the Yorkie buttons were. To be fair they are pretty big! I was expecting something along the lines of chocolate buttons but these were the same size as her palm! Considering the amount of snow thats coming down again can't see us going far tomorrow so chilling day I'm thinking :)

Winter crafting

During the summer I have no issue sitting on the floor and scrapbooking. When its freezing cold however I'm more likely to be curled up on the couch under a blanket in my dressing gown lol. Kinda hard to scrapbook then! So the past few days I've pulled my cross stitching back out.

This has seriously been going painfully slow, lol. I actually started this during the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Cameron! It's not something I do constantly however, I find it difficuilt to get into as once its done theres not really anythig to do with it iykwim. Scrapbooking yeah it just gets stuck into an album but its part of my kids history, while cross-stitching is just a pretty picture. Its relaxing though so nice to sit and do, :) Maybe I'll keep it and put it in my grandkids nursery or something lol, at this rate it should be done just about in time!
Poor Cameron was still off school today, think he will be tomorrow too as he actually asked to stay home, told him he'd be missing forest schools and he cried and said he just felt too poorly. :( Poor baby. Tv and duvet day I'm thinking! I've got to go to a social services meeting in the afternoon which isn't ideal as Mark will have to drag Cameron out to pick up Caitlin but can't be helped. Family night tomorrow night too so looking forward to that :)

Big red X

Think we need one of those on our door, lol. Mentioned yesterday Cameron was being a bit off, well he's got whatever Caitlin had. :( Poor boy had a high temp last night and is not a happy bunny this morning so is asleep on the couch. Hope he's better for Friday as it's his turn at Forest schools at school and he LOVES it! Don't know if I've mentioned it before but they basically go to a local nature reserve, play in the woods and get caked in mud. Right up Camerons alley :)
Well obviously due to having another poorly baby home not much is getting done again, certainly not crafting, but I wanted to share this with you in the meantime. :)
When we re-did Caitlins room before Christmas I saw a picture in Next which I liked, it was a smallish white frame with lots of 3d hearts inside in different sizes and colours. While it was really nice it was very pricey at £30 and I wanted butterflies. So like all crafters do i decided to do it myself lol. Unlike many things I think that about I did actually get it done an I think it looks really pretty. Took me ages punching out all the butterflies and positioning them then gluing them all down. love the result though :)

Well tomorrow we have GOT to go shopping! No milk, no bread and no washing powder at all. Thinking we're going to have a look at that new Tescos which opens tomorrow.

So cold!

I think I have spent most of today with either numb fingers or numb toes lol. Well today was both kids back at school, yey! Caitlin was quite excited to see her friends but I think cameron was hoping for another snow day, oh well! I for one was quite happy to get back into routine. This morning I was helping a friend who struggles to get about, obviously in the snow its 10x worse so we took her eldest to school, then I dragged (and I mean dragged)her youngest in her buggy to asda to go shopping. We have a massive new Tesco store opening on Thursday and Asda seem to be going a bit mad with the big banners and thigns in store showing promotions lol. was an interesting trip trying to get the buggy and the trolley around all the ladders and cages of food that filled all the isles.
It's seriously sad how much I'm looking forward to tesco opening on Thursday. I love supermarkets. All the different foods (yeah bit surprise I like food :p) and all the other products they sell these days. Crafting things, household stuff, and I love looking at the foods and sweets from other countries. My Mum always jokes about me being in Asda all the time, looks like I'll have another place to go now lol.
Camerons friend came for dinner today, same one who came on Saturday to play.Its great to see Cameron having fun, though he was a bit weepy, think he's getting what Caitlin had :(; but am I the only one who struggles with having other peoples kids in the house? I don't mind with my neices and close friends kids as I know how they behave and I feel ok telling them not to do something if they do something they shouldnt. but with a child and I don't really know the parents..... it just feels wrong! Don't get me wrong I'm not shouting at any of them or anything but it was like at dinner the wee boy was talking with his mouth full. My kids I'd tell them to swallow first but I don't want cams friends going home telling their parents I told them what to do. See these are the stupid little dilemas nobody tells us about before we have kids!
Still watching Greys anatomy. Halfway through season 2 now. Poor Marks losing the will to live I think.

Snow day!

Remember how I planned to have the alphabet bunting done byt tomorrow? This is how far i've got. lol

Yeah not the best. but both kids were off school today which pretty much shot in the foot all my productive ideas lol. They had a great time though :) Caitlin is back to her usual self which is such a relief, they spent most of the day playing a game where they both lived in space and went from the moon to mars. At one point Cameron, who was playing the king, forgot to get the food for dinner, so caitlin, the queen, kicked him out into space. Harsh but bet he won't forget again!
Still watching greys anatomy. I don't know about others but sometimes if I'm watching a show and theres a guy I like in it, who does something stupid I don't just get mad at him, I get mad at all men pmsl. Poor Mark knows and understands this. Well for those of you who don't watch the show theres an intern Dr called Merideth who on the first episode sleeps with a guy she meets in a bar, next day she finds out he's her new boss. Drama! But he's a sweetheart and they fall in love. All good! At least until his cheating Ex-wife comes back into town and he decides to give it another go. Drama x2 and I'm now in a bad mood with men, lol. Now I know they get back together because in the season on TV they're married with a baby but obviously I'm going to hate men in the meantime. I did expect it to be quite soon, so watched another few episodes but no, hes still with the ex! So I cheated and googled it, 23 episodes to go!
Poor Mark. lol

Lots of snow!

Well Caitlin woke up today a lot happier. :) She slept from 5:30 to 11:30 only waking and being sick once so i think that really helped. She's been running about today and playing with Cameron so much better. Planning on keeping her off tomorrow (assuming schools are even open) so she can get her appitite back and get to hopefully 100%. Thinking it was sending her to school Thursday that set her back as it did.
Showing how well she was Caitlin was really excited to go out and play in the snow :) She was only out for about 15 minutes and was bundled up as much as possible but had great fun making a snowman.

I was amazed how deep it was! I know its been coming down a lot but its not really heavy just pretty constant so seems to have built up quickly. Think I'll be taking the sled to Morrisons tomorrow lol.
Well again not done much at all today, played with kids, read a bit, cleaned a bit. I have GOT to start the alphabet bunting for homestart though as due on tuesday!!

Still poorly :(

No photos and a quick post today as I'm SO tired!!!! Poor Caitlin is still not feeling 100%. Temps still a tiny bit high but nothing compared to how it was before. Shes basically just sleeping constantly, blocked nose and coughing. Poor baby has eaten nothing but Jelly today and is in a right mood with me because I won't give her a yogurt. Hoping she will be better by Monday as we need to take Mark for a medical assesment which is a couple hours drive away :(
As we knew we'd be pretty much stuck in this weekend we decided to take up the Lovefilm instant 30 day free trial on Friday. After MANY issues we finally got it sorted this morning and personaly I hate it lol. Its so tempermental and nothing has subtitles so not great for me. Hopefully Blockbuster won't go under and we can keep with them but will wait and see. While we have it however I'm making the most of it. :) I recently watched the first couple of episodes of greys anatomy. Seriously how have I not watched this before?! Ok I'm a fair few seasons behind so catching up on instant as we speak lol.

Cleaning

I don't know about in your house, but here there are different levels of 'clean'
Level 4 - Kids are up and playing. Toys everywhere, probably a collectiong of cups on the table where they have drunk half a drink then gone and got another one.
Level 3 - Kids are at school - Toys where they should be, dishes all done, floord cleaned but a couple of rooms probably still need dusting, or the ironing needs done or something. This level I call 'the calm before the storm'
Level 2 - Mum coming to visit - One toy each child out (or mum will moan they're bored) on the surface everything spotless but my bedroom will look like a bombsite with everything without a place shoved in there last minute.
Level 1 - Someone visiting your house for the first time. Also known as panic level. EVERYTHING must be cleaned, sterilised and put away out of sight. Windows cleaned (I dont care if its snowing outside) Toys all put away (Just sit on the couch kids, dont touch anything!) New air fresheners in every room, kids all clean and looking tidy in nice clothes.
Right now we are attempting level 1 lol. Camerons friend Jack is coming to visit and play with his Mum tomorrow, assuming they can manage it through the snow, so been cleaning like a nutter all day lol.
Caitlins been off poorly again today, no temp this time but all snotty and full of a cold. She's been up in my bed with her also poorly Daddy though so still managed to get everything done including making a card for my friend.

I'm dreadful at cardmaking but didn't think it was too bad. Worried it might be a bit of a waste though as with all the snow coming down I might not make it to the party!
Also got this layout to share. Was a seriously quick one I did the other night. I did do two others but haven't titled those yet so can't share them. These are pictures of the kids in the stocks at the farm when we went camping. Cameron thought it was the funniest thing ever lol.

Right well back to cleaning!

Scrapping instead of cleaning!

Ohh scrapping :) As I'm so tired at night lately and I'm up to date with the housework (before I start decorating Camerons room next week, eeek!) I thought I'd chill out and do some scrapping this morning. :) I'm lucky that although I don't have a desk anymore to scrap on, the kids are really good at being careful around my bits if I keep them on the rug, they often have games actually where the rug is the 'lava' and they need to avoid it lol.
One thing I need to make is a card for a very special person. When Mark was sick, I had a newborn (caitlin) and a very poorly toddler (cameron) to care for and I was only 24 myself it was seriously the worst time of my life. My health visitor connected me with a family support worker called Yvonne and I genuinly think Mark and I wouldnt be together if it wasn't for her. She came every week to the house to see me and it gave me someone to vent at and to give advice. I remember on one bad day I was angry at how much I had to do, Cameron was suffering from colic, night terrors and petit mal epilepsy and caitlin was only a couple of months old so I had a lot on my plate, due to Marks illness he was more like another child and absolutly no help. I was really upset and ranting at how unfair he was and why wouldnt he help, when she simply said to me 'Maybe you're asking him for something he just cant give' it was actually like a lightbulb had gone off, it was just suddenly an omg shes right moment. I suppose I'd been so tired and so stressed I had focused on what Mark WASN'T doing when it was more Mark COULDN'T do it. Obvious now but then I didn't really get it. At the time we didn't know quite the extent of his illness which didnt help either. Anyway thats stuck with me since and at the time really changed my attitude towards him.
Anyway, since then things have got better, I started doing volunteer work in the same building as Yvonne and she trained up as a social worker. She is now leaving us to hopefully go on to bigger and better things, theres a little leaving party for her tomorrow so need to make her a long overdue thank you card .:) I've already bought her a Yankee candle set with a candle and a little shade over the top to light up when the candle is lit, and an extra candle called 'A childs wish' which I thought was particually apt :)
Managed a few layouts so far, rug is completly covered lol

How is it wednesday?

How is it Wednesday?! Wheres the week gone? Got a busy day ahead today, shopping, cleaning, bills etc. Caitlins still off today, she went to bed ok last night but woke up at 11:30 burning again. Gave her some neurophen and tucked her up with me and she slept a bit better than the night before. This morning shes still not 100% but seems a lot brighter so hopefully thats the worst of it done now :)

Haven't scrapped in ages! Well Saturday but seems ages lol. Been meaning to but by the time night comes I'm no good for anything except collapsing in front of the tv. i've been asked to make some bunting for our local homestart center so need to do that. I've also got to prepare a presentation for Ofstead for tomorrow with the aim of starting a crafting class at the children center. Slightly nervous but hopefully will go well. Short post as haven't really done anything of note! My mum made me laugh though:
Txt from dads phone - Hiya its mum, whats Nicolas (my sister) number, its not on your dads phone.
*Ring mum*
Me - Its ********** Why do you need it anyway?
Mum - *stressed out* Well your Dad doesnt have it on his phone and I don't remember it and I left my phone at her house, so need to ring her to tell her to bring it round.
Me - If she has your phone why didn't you just ring your phone?
*Pause*
Mum - Because I need to ring you for you to tell me to do something clever like that!
I was still laughing about half an hour later.

Poorly baby :(

Well Caitlin was still poorly this morning. :( She was better than last night, not shivering and wasn't complaining that her legs and arms hurt so that seemed an improvement. She did scare me though as she had spent pretty much the whole day on the couch, then got up to get a tissue and suddenly sat down saying she felt she was going to fall down. I took this to mean she felt faint so bundled her back up. She slept most of the day and is drinking loads so will see how she is tonight to see if she needs to go to the Dr tomorrow. Certainly she will be home from school though.

Well I finally remembered to photograph the layouts I did at the weekend. :) This is one of Caitlin at turkey. I was SO proud of her as she was determined to swim around the whole pool. Poor baby was paddling for all she was worth with Daddy and grandad walking along side her but she refused to give up :)

This one is a bit different, I had this lace snowflake paper for ages but never used it because it was too nice. However I've had it for I don't know how long now so got to use it sometime! I wanted the paper ot be the main focus of the layout so just added some paper and 2 stickers around the photo, and added some stickles to tie them in.

The photo is from Caitlins old ballet classes when she was a snowflake fairy, so perfect for the paper. :)

Well tomorrow I have SO much to do! Didn't get much done today as I admit I fell asleep on the couch with Caitlin lol. Really need to get some shopping so asked my Dad if he'll watch Mark and her after work so I can go in the afternoon with my Mum, poor Camerons favourite onsie broke yesterday and he was inconsolable! Keeping fingers crossed I can find him another one!

What a difference a day makes!

Rememeber I was asking where the snow was? Well it turned up! lol. There was a small amount at night so a sprinkling when we woke up, but it came in full force during the day. We took the sleds when we picked up the kids and took them over to the park to play.

Cameron was a little daredevil as usual but was quite surprised how brave Caitlin was! She doesn't like falling, its a big no no, but she didn't care and had a great time.

After getting soaked and cold we went home to heat up and get some dinner. caitlin was being really whingy on the way home and then constantly complained she was cold. Even with fluffy pjs, dressing gown, blanket etc, however she scoffed a whole pizza and banana so thought she was just playing on it. Gave her a hug at bedtime though and OMG her temp had shot up! Got the thermometer and it was 41 degrees. :( Gave her some calpol and settled her in my and marks bed. She came down about an hour later though crying she was all alone :( so shes now sleeping on the couch. Apart from the high temp and feeling cold though she seems fine so hoping she'll feel better tomorrow.

Well had planned to craft but oh well! Tv night I'm thinking!

Wheres the snow?

So much for this huge snowfall we were predicted this weekend lol. Lovely and sunny outside. Cold still though! We had planned to take the kids to east carlton park but they wanted to ride their bikes so took them to the park instead. Was a nice relaxing day really.

Managed a little bit of scrapping tonight but will photograph and share tomorrow. Have been asked to make some bunting for the homestart office so will hopefully use up more scraps lol. Have brought in my stash from the garage and put it in the bedroom for now so got to try and organise that tomorrow too! Keeping fingers crossed for a snow day :)

Oh well.

well today started off great, kids slept in so didn't get up until almost 10, then I left them in bed with mark watching TV while I made a mega breakfast for them. :)

They were so excited and I was called 'awesome' more than once. Go me! lol. I admit I had a few bits too but OMG the toast was amazing! It was hedgehog bread from asda and toasted with butter and jam was so yum. We have a freezer full of it from Christmas eve where asda had them all reduced to 5p. 5p for HUGE loaf, wasn't saying no to that!
During our nice relaxing morning however I got a call from Homestart. They needed some help and were desperate, would only be from 1-3 would I come in. 5pm I was home lol. hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more to plan!

Woop woop!

yey its the weekend! Meeting with cameorns teacher went well. She was svery supportive and explained all the steps she was taking to be sure the incident wouldnt happen again so feeling much better now. She again praised Cameron for his behaviour and hard, so all in all a good meeting :)
Tonight was 'family night' and typically the boys played computer (well Cameron did Mark watched lol) and the girls did crafting :) Caitlin had a box of different crafting kits from a friend for christmas so she decided to do one of those. they were really nice kits, all different things including one where you used a seclection of foam stickers to make a picture. she needed help with this one as it had a lot of layering but turned out pretty cute :)

Well have a nice, relaxing weekend planned. Have pancakes and some pastries for brekkie tomorrow, yum :) And think more crafting with Caitlin is on the cards. Yey!

Almost the weekend :)

I'm really excited about this weekend. :) Tomorrow Cameron is going to 'Forest schools' which is a weekly trip with his class to a local animal park where he goes in the woods, gets muddy and learns about nature. To say he's excited would be a GROSS understatement :) After school we're going to my Grans for dinner which the kids always love then home for family night. Caitlin wants to do more crafting and Cameron wants to play the computer. Fine with me lol. Saturday is usually a relaxing day, playing games and doing whatever takes our fancy. think the kids will need a chill out day after the first week back at school, usually they're up way before us but every morning this week we've had to wake them. lol.
The only blip on our weekend is tomorrow after school, we have a meeting to go and talk to Camerons teacher. Yesterday he came home saying that a girl had punched him in the ear twice. There was a little in his bag confirming this and stating a cold compress had been applied and the situation dealt with. However this girls name has come up a number of times in the past with violence against Cameron and also talking with other parents she has been violent against their children. Now I know kids can be kids, Camerons come home loads saying 'so and so' pushed him in the playground but this is a different level and I admit its concerned me. Cameron doesn't seem to be bothered, he was more surprised that a child would do that as its been drummed into him so much that hitting is wrong! But talking to the teacher would put my mind at ease if nothing else. Hopefully will go well and I won't come across as one of those mothers who is a little TOO protective of her child lol.
Quite fittingly I've been reading this on my kindle. I've just got to a part where the boy in the story has been excluded from school for excessive violence which while unexceptable was simply learned from his horrible home life.

I don't know how it ends yet but I've been told to prepare myself for some shocking revelations. I love all these kinds of books, having worked with so many children from very difficuilt backgrounds and all kinds of abuse, and also working with their parents I enjoy reading about others who have similar experiences. If Mark wasn't so ill I would love to be a foster carer myself but as things stand I couldnt give the time or attention a vunerable child would need. Maybe one day though :)
Well that was a bit of a depressing post. :S Wasn't meant to be lol. Hopefully have some happy layouts to share tomorrow :)

YEY!

Marks results all came back fine :) Hes got to lose weight which will help his bones a bit but his liver is doing well so YEY!! Happy bunny here :)
Well this morning my niece is coming for visitation with her Dad, We usually do it Saturday but Paul felt ill so moved to today. Currently Lillie is 'making dinner' for us in the toy oven, which seems to consist of banging pots and pans around lol.
Last layout I did with Caitlin, with the weekend coming up sure I'll be doing more soon. :)
I love these background papers, the colours and patterns are just my kind of thing so wanted to make them the focus rather than lots of embellishments. They are brighter in real life this isnt the best photo lol.

These photos Mark took last summer, was supposed to be getting a nice photo of Cameron but in true mark style had to make some a bit silly. :) the little blue cat was originally a keyring Cameron won in a 2p machine on holiday.

SO boring when Pauls here, I need to stay in the living room so can't do jobs and nick jr isnt my kind of tv lol. Thank goodness for pinterest!

Distraction day

Once every 3 months or so Mark has to go to Birmingham for a check up on how well his liver is doing. Usually I'm worried enough about these as it is, the travelling down there, getting about, what the drs might say, even though he goes with his friend Eric who I fully trust with Marks safety it's still a concern. This time though it's a little worse :( When Mark had that infection before Christmas they found out his spleen was enlarged. Now apprently this could be due to a number of things, one of which is his portal vein becoming blocked and his liver packing up again. NHS being NHS they decided to wait until his appointment at Birmingham to find out, so today is the day. rather than sitting at home freaking out the plan is to clean and tidy the house to distract me this morning then going to the shops with my Mum this afternoon. Poor Caitlin seems to have gone through a growth spurt over Christmas and her tights are way too small for her now lol.
Last few of the layouts I did the other night now :) Need another crafting session I think. This is a super old photo of Cameron. We found an old phone of marks when clearing out the garage last summer and it had a load of photos on it of Cam as a baby. This one was when poor wee man had the nerovirus :( oh it was horrible! He got it a month or so before Christmas and it wasn't until February he fully got back to normal. I called it 'Poorly little dragon' as the dressing gown he has on had little spikes down the back and ears like a dragon on the hood.

Amazes me how little he has actually changed from this age, except obviously getting bigger lol.

Another one of Cameron. In Disneyland there is a area where they have thrones like the Queen of hearts from Alice in wonderland. All the kids took turns sitting in the throne but Cameron was the only one to sit like he owned the whole place lol.

Very smug look there. The tag on the side I made at the last Sarahs card retreat as a Make and take. Not long till the next one now!

Well off for Coffee soon. Have has 'What happens in Kavos' on in the background as I type. not sure if you've seen that but OMG those people are mental! Basically go on holiday to drink anything which doesn't move and sleep with anything which does. If I say I've just learned from the show that drinking urine from other people can give you STDs it pretty much sums up the tone of the show lol.

Storytelling Monday

One of the blogs I follow 'Buckinghams palace' by Jo, does something called storytelling sunday. It started here and is such a good idea I think :) :
http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.co.uk/
I have no idea how to do links lol. Made me think about the whole memories for the kids should I die thing so going to try to keep up with it :) Not the best start granted that I'm doing it on Monday instead of Sunday but hey, better late than never!
So the first prompt is to talk about something precious to you. After much thinking about this I picked my Lord of the rings charm bracelet. Ok this is a picture I got off the internet but mind is upstairs and I'm very lazy lol.

Anyway, story behind this is that I'm a huge Lord of the rings fan :) When the films first came out I was still living at home with my Mum and Dad. I loved all the Lord of the rings merchindise but it was all so expencive! I was at college working part time and while my Mum and dad both worked we were not well off by any means so most of it was a bit of a pipe dream. This bracelet was one of them. I'd seen it in a magazine and fell in love with it but at over £100 NO chance! Few months later it was christmas and each year my um keeps one special gift until after dinner for us, kind of a way to keep the day going iywkwim. Anyway my sister was given a beautiful gold charm bracelet and I was handed a little box. With much anticipation I opened it and found...........a purple jewllery box. Pretty, but a bit of a letdown lol. Then I noticed the base was a little wobbly, ohhhh secret compartment. Opened it to find this bracelet :) I went a little mental lol. I think it's the first time my parents have managed to genuinly surprise me with a gift as I always find them out beforehand. The fact I knew they couldnt afford it and had obviously scrimped to get it just made it that more special. Over the years I've lost a LOT of jewllery but treasured that bracelet :)
On the subject of things that are precious this is another layout I did with Caitlin. This coat was such a bloody hassle last year! Cameron saw it in the Next catalogue and as it was blue and therefore the best thing ever in camerons mind he wanted it. It was £28 for a blue jacket which in my mind was a bit much. Tried every cheaper store we knew he didnt want anything they had. Went to Next, tried some of their nicer jackets, nope just wanted that one. There was one in his size but I was still iffy about it so said we'd keep looking. Nearly two months later he had grown out of his current jacket and desperatly needed a new one so I gave in. Could I find that blue jacket anywhere?! NOPE! sold out online, in corby, northampton (both stores), peterbrough, and even in london when my Mum went down there. I was seriously regretting not getting it when I had a chance! Finally when we were shopping one day I thought I'd have a quick check and see and yey! They had one in his size! Look how happy he is :)

Love this little chipboard shape. Think it's a girl really but still cute :)

Well today was first day back for the kids. Cameron was a little weepy as he always is after holidays saying he was going to miss us but was fine when he got there. Caitlin was pretty much skipping :) All worries about lunchtime were put to rest when she got there (thanks for messages telling me it will be ok!) There is another little girl shes friends with called Lucy, lovely wee girl, so sweet. Anyway Caitlin showed her her lunchbox and said she was having packed lunch today, Lucy squealed 'yey!' and gave her a hug. :) So sure she'll be able to sit with Lucy :) All that worry for nothing! lol

Not ready!!!

I know it sounds daft, but I'm SO not ready for the kids to go back to school tomorrow. They drive me mad but I love havign them home, knowing they're OK and safe and happy. I don't know if the shooting in America just made things more scary but at school i have no idea whats going on! Even small things, like for reason Caitlins hot dinner order didn't go though so she's on packed lunch this week. Caitlins thrilled about this as shes wanted to go packed lunch for ages so she can sit next to her friend Rosie. But what if she can't sit with Rosie, theres not enough seats or Rosie doesn't want to sit with her? My baby girl will be heartbroken and I won't be there :( Oh being a parent sucks sometimes!!!! God knows what I'll be like when they're all grown up and move out, think I'll have to go spy on them.
Ok subject change before I stress myself in a panic. Caitlin really enjoyed our crafting session on saturday and was NOT impressed when i said we couldn't do it again today lol. But between dinner, bath, getting everything ready for school we didn't have a spare second. I did manage to do some layotus the other night though, again using scraps :)
I love these pictures of Cameron :) Last year in his nativity he was an angel and he loved it. These are even more special now as they didn't do a nativity in his class this year so no photos :(

I love the flower paper in the background here. I've no idea where I got it from I think it was a kit but not sure. The photo is of Caitlin last summer at the boating lake. I sent Mark to get the kids a drink and he came back with juice, crisps and HUGE ice poles for each of them. Typical *rolls eyes* lol.

I got a pack of 3 of these metal words in my stocking swap this year. Used all 3 already lol.

I called this layout 'traditions' because when I was a kid, my Mum wouldnt let us go downstairs on Christmas day until she had taken a photo of us. To a kid you can imagine this was cruel and unusual torture and I always swore I wouldn't do it to mine....... Yeah I do it every year lol

Well I've now worked myself into a panic and debating if I can homeschool Caitlin. Maybe if I fill her lunchbox with treats she won't care where she sits. Seriously HOW am I going to cope when she goes to uni?!?!?!?

Crafting with Caitlin

Sounds like a tv show doesnt it lol. Well tonight was my daughters first intorduction to scrapbooking. We bought her akiddie kit for Christmas and shes been askign daily to use it so tonight we had a crafting session together. :)

Now I had a lovely image in my mind of how this would work. She would pick a picture with my help, we'd pick pretty papers together, I'd help her to put her embellishments on and then we'd both stick it all down together. Note a running theme there, TOGETHER! Yeah that wasn't how it worked:
Me - Do you want me to help you Caitlin?
Caitlin - No I'm doing it, you do yours.
Yeah *sigh* shes a little too much like me sometimes. My involvement was basically handing her stuff, and letting her use some of my embellishments. lol. To be fair though shes pretty good all by herself. I even heard her saying to herself 'Lilos dress is red (in the photo) so I'll use red paper for the back' Bless her, I didn't think she was ever paying attention when I was scrapping but shes got it from somewhere!
She managed 4 layouts before she got bored, but did ask if she could scrap whenever I did again. :)

Crafting :)

Last night was Marks night at his friends, so settled the kids in bed and started scrapping! Theres a strange satisfaction in using up scraps which is great because I have plenty of them! Did manage 3 layouts but only titled one of them so far.
This photo is from I think last summer, either that or the summer before lol. I used some of the bits I got in recent Christmas swaps along with other bits from my bits box.

The butterfly was actually from an old necklace which snapped. Waste not want not lol.

Well today we went to B&Q. Not my fave store but the only one we could go to as had £50 of vouchers. I had a simple list of things I wanted, some 'No more nails' glue, and a short bookcase for Camerons room so he could display his lego models. Nope, doesnt exist! lol. After much deliberation and looking about at what they had we ended up with a couple of shelves and some RUB boxes. Not ideal but does the job, god knows what I'll do after their birthdays! lol

13 things about me

One of the films I watch every Christmas is 'Mrs Miracle'. Its a typical predictable Christmas film, guys wife dies leaving him with 2 kids, he becomes a recluse until a new nanny called 'Mrs Miracle' comes along and helps him find love and a new lease of life. One part of it though hits home, the boys ask their Dad what their Mothers favourite colour was and the Dad has no idea. If I was to die while the kids were still young poor Marks got no hope of telling them much about me as his memory is dreadful lol. in that vein, and with it now being 2013 I thought I would share 13 things about me you might not know (2013 things would be a bit much!)
1 - If I could pick any job in the world I'd be a Criminal psychologist. I LOVE to figure out why people do what they do and killers often seem to have such random thoughts its so interesting to put them all together to find the reason why. It's originally what I started university hoping to be but there's so few routes into the job I went down the teaching route instead. I now live my dream watching things like Criminal minds and Castle lol.
2 - I HATE people who park when its not a parking space. Daft I know but it drives me mad! At our local asda there's always people parked on the end of rows which are NOT spaces!!! it means I can't see if a car is coming around the corner and might cause an accident. One day I swear I'll take a brick to some windows. lol.
3 - Speaking of that, once I lost my rag and almost wrote off a van lol. I was pregnant with Caitlin and Cameron was only about 5 months old. Our neighbours at the time would always have their parents park across the end of our driveway when they came to visit despite the fact they had their own, perfectly good driveway! One day I was late for a midwife appointment, Cameron was screaming the place down and they had a big bloody van blocking my way. I beeped and beeped but nobody came out so I lost my temper and reversed full speed into it, (Cameron wasn't in the car I'd like to point out) then calmly went back into the house. Not my proudest moment but they didnt block our driveway again. :)
4 - I've always wanted to live on a farm. Grow my own veggies and have small animals like chickens.
5 - My ideal evening is staying home, relaxing with a glass of wine and either a good book or some crafting. I'm a right homebody :)
6 - I love the ocean. Stick me by the beach and I'm at my happiest. I love swimming but pools always smell horrible and are so loud and fake, give me the sea any day :)
7 - My first memory is of my little sister being born. I was wearing a yellow dress and got out of the back of a van (no seatbelt laws back then!) with a big bunch of flowers for my mum. Funnily enough can't actually remember meeting my sister lol.
8 - When i was a little girl i stuck a piece of lego up my nose. One of the really tiny bits. I think I had a runny nose at the time and found that under my pillow. Obvious solution! My mum completely freaked out and no amount of pepper would make me sneeze and dislodge it. Ended up in hospital where they removed it and gave me a huge teddy bear, lollypop and balloon. Was ready to go home and do it again!
9 - I love eating out, I love eating full stop really, but sitting in a resturant having someone else cook for me is a great night out to me. :)
10 - I LOVE teal. As my new living room shows lol, but my other favourite colour is lilac.
11 - i love music and walking. In Summer I could happily walk for hours just listening to my ipod.
12 - I'm a great person to have around in a crisis. I usually keep really calm, deal with everything then freak out later. I never used to be, I used to freak out at the drop of a hat but I think Marks illness and everything we went through then mellowed me out a bit.
13 - I have a pink and lilac eeyore I struggle to sleep without. I need something to hug otherwise I feel uncomfortable and the Eeyore mark bought me years ago fits perfectly.
Well that was harder than I thought! God I'm boring if I can't think up 13 things about me lol. Ah well, kids enjoyed swimming today and have gone off to bed to watch tv. marks at his friends house last night so relaxing night for me hopefully scrapping! Now christmas is over I'm working to reorganise my stash (again!) as the garage is leaking and I'm not risking my stuff getting moldy or rusty!

Looks good so far. :) Loves those bargain jars.

Ugh, horrible weather

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Happy new year!!!

Happy new year!! Hope everyones having a great start to 2013 :) We didn't do anythign special here, Mark and I watched some tv then tried to sleep despite all the pounding music lol. To be honest the music wasn't too bad, the VERY drunk guy in the street singing 'I would walk 500 miles'. However like most of us he only knew the chorus so sang it over and over. Including the 'dah da da da' bits lol.
Well new year means new years resolutions. Not many this year just:
Lose weight - Not too bad this year. Wanted to lose 3 stone last year but only lost 2 before I'd had enough of it so want to lose the extra stone (plus a couple of Christmas pounds) this year.
Spend more time with mark - While talking to a friend earlier I realised that Mark and I had been out with Mark a grand total of twice this year. Yeah seriously! Usually when we go out its with the kids which is obviously fun but we need to make more of an effort to go on 'dates' again. To get it off to a good start we're going to see the hobbit tomorrow. :) Even better its free as I had enough Odeon points to pay for one ticket and with Orange Wednesday the other one is free anyway!
Blog more! - During a bout of insomnia the other week I was reading posts from last year. I loved all the little details about the kids and our days that I'd just forgot, so this year I vow to blog every day even if it's just me babbling on. Which lets be honest most of the time it is anyway. :)
Well the kids are 'camping out' tonight, which means they're sleeping in the livingroom on their mattress' and I'm on the couch. SO glad we have a bigger couch now as makes it much more comfy :) Tomorrow Caitlin wants me to teach her to scrapbook. We bought her a kiddy scrapbook kit for her Christmas and shes so excited about using it, problem is is that Mummy hasn't got any photos she's willing to part with just yet (bad Mummy!) so might convince her to use her mask making kit instead. Uses just as much glue and pretty paper, less of Mummys stuff :)