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!