Not much to report today, have been looking at more ways to improve my blog, seriously thinking of changing it as I can't do all I want with this one, will keep playing in the mean time!
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Nature walk

Ian and I decided to go out for the morning to a nature reserve, I felt I needed to get some fresh air. We had a good walk round and saw a heron and a lake full of very large fish that looked very scary with their fins appearing every now and then just like a tiny Jaws! They even leapt out of the water a few times to catch something. There had been regular sightings of a kingfisher at the hide we were in, I would have stayed all day to try and spot it but I could see Ian was getting restless so we left to come home for lunch. I made a note of the time and said I would check when we returned as all sightings were noted down. If it appeared after 12.30pm on Aug 30th, Ian will be in a lot of trouble!!!
sudoku - 531

my pet

I've been playing around with my blog, trying to get more things on it. I spent ages trying to put Mika's lollipop on from you tube but without sucess, so I have adopted Willow the hamster instead!
We went out early to the shops as we were out of most things, spent £110 which was a bit of a shock! Jenny and the children then came round to eat all of it, Jamie even finding Ian's carefully hidden chocolate bar!
Have just watched 2 of our women come first and second in the 400 metre race, nice to see that for a change.
It is lovely here today, I've sat out in the garden reading my book and enjoying the sunshine. Yesterday I was so tired I slept all afternoon!
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Must get organised!!

I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things here. Yesterday Ian, Peter and I had a coffee by the sea, it was nice to smell the air and enjoy looking at all the yachts on the sea. I didn't feel too well in the afternoon so took it easy for the rest of the day.
This morning we went round Jenny and Ed's so Peter could have a go on the Wii, I was very impressed with his tennis skills and brain power! I had a little play with the hamsters, they are very cute.
I have been busy cleaning and doing the washing this afternoon. I had just finished the bathroom when Andrew cam home from football with a very bad cut on his knee, it had only just started to heal from the last time, of course it was straight in the shower to mess up all I had done, then he needed a nice cool drink and a bacon and egg sandwich to recover!
I played a little on sims and looked at various threads on UKS and now I am going to read my book, First Lady by Michael Dobbs.
Tomorrow I must make a menu for the week, do the ironing and sort out my craft stuff.
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I'm back!!!

Hi everyone, just to let you know, I'm back!

Poor mum has been in hospital and I have been staying at her home with sister Sue so that we could visit and help out. The doctors and nurses have all been very kind to her and I'm glad to say she is feeling a lot better. It was very hard leaving her today but lovely to see her moving about and feeling a lot better. It was the first time she had been in hospital and she was very frightened at first but I think she is relieved to have got it sorted as she was in a lot of pain.

Will hopefully post tomorrow, I feel like I have been away for ever!

Hope you had a smashing birthday!!

Aug wk 3 challenge

Here is my layout for the Aug week 3 challenge on UKS set by secret stash faeries.
We had to use some colours associated with the allies - I used red and yellow.
A heritage photo - I used this street party with Ian's Grandma sitting 3 from left in the front row.
Something metal - the C and D for Coronation Day
and hidden journaling - this is tucked behind the photo.
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Folk Week

It's folk week here and somewhere in that crowd, Ed and Becca are dancing!


Some ladies did a clog dance.



and these peculiar thing did a dance for the children.

I walked over to Jenny's this morning to get some exercise and go down the front.
Ian came on later in the car! Andrew and Ed played golf which Ed won very stylishly.

Haven't really done much today, kept thinking of mum. She has made an appointment for Friday and I am going with her, hopefully the Doctor can help her a bit more.

sudoku-514

more scrapping!!

Here are some more classes from the UKS summer crop. The first was by scrappy do's and was a sewing class using gorgeous love elsie papers.


The second was by scrapdolly and was a chance to use up scraps of paper. I love using white space now!



This was the weekly challenge which I did in a great hurry as the time was nearly up. You had to use purple, a first, 5 different scraps and some doodling.

We took mum home yesterday and stayed the night to make sure she was ok. We did her garden and pottered around yesterday and she seemed a bit brighter. I think it's good for her to do something perhaps I did too much for her last week.
She was up in the night though in a lot of pain but felt a bit better after a nice hot shower. We left after breakfast and had a very quick run back which was nice, did it in under 2hrs.
We hope to go back on Thursday to see her and go to the doctors with her.
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summer crop

There has been a summer crop over on UKS and this is the first layout I did. I used some papers Jenny gave me from a kit she had and some back to school photos of the children.


This was a kit from Rebeccas Scrapbook, a lovely little purse to decorate and use for a file. I will be frightened to spoil it though! I used photos of our holiday in Vienna.

We are taking mum home tomorrow and may stay the night to make sure she is ok. We took her to the shops this morning to stock up and she bought lots of birthday cards. She can't walk very far and is in a lot of pain all the time, I do feel sorry for her. I might go with her to the doctor's before we go to David and Zen's. I think we will all have to visit her more and help out with gardening and shopping. It must be horrible to be unwell and on your own although I do know she wants to be in her own home.

Mum

Just an update for the family on mum. She has been a bit better today. Ian went to the cricket for the day so mum and I have had a quiet time. She walked to the local shop, I was quite anxious and watched from the window, reminded me of when the children were young! Although she was very slow which irritates her, the walk did her good. She then did some ironing for me and helped wash up after dinner. This is a great improvement on the last few days as all she did was sleep.
Let's hope she gets a good nights sleep tonight and feels a lot better tomorrow. The doctor had given her some pills which had been opened and then returned to him with a couple gone, I didn't think this was right and they have not been agreeing with her so tomorrow she is going to try without them.

On the beach!

We had a nice time on the beach this morning, it was a glorious day.


Jamie played cricket and football.



Becca and Alex enjoyed paddling in the water and searching for crabs.

Mum enjoyed soaking up the sea air. it was great that she felt well enough to come on the beach. She was a bit concerned she wouldn't be able to get out of the chair, but we managed to pull her up to go home. We didn't leave her there, promise!!!!

Happy Birthday Rebecca

Rebecca is 4yrs old today and we all wish her a very happy birthday!!
It's a lovely day here so hopefully we will get on the beach for a while. Mum is here and hasn't been at all well, but after a slightly better night she sounds a bit more cheerful, although still in a lot of pain, so we hope to take a chair down to the sea for her to watch the children play and enjoy the sea air.

And this is for Alex

This is for Rebecca

Champion!

Jamie is the champ on Wii, well done Jamie

The evil, singing tree!!

Have had a great time this afternoon creating this flutter book. It was a Design Collective class by Alison McGovern.

It is about a rather tacky tree mum gave me one year, I think it came free with something! It would sing whenever you walked near it in a very jolly, irritating way, of course that always gave me great pleasure getting it out each year. Poor Becca was frightened of it at first but Alex really loved it. Unfortunately the tree is no more, everyone assures me they didn't kill it!

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August wk 1 challenge

Here is my layout for this weeks challenge. We had to follow a sketch, use 11 of something (because this was the week England won the world cup) use fibres (the team setting the challenge were the scrappy cats) a musical term or image and create somthng to use (I stamped over the paper I used) Quite enjoyed this as it is good to try something new, I'm beginning to prefer white space though!

New month so yet again decided to get to grips with the housekeeping, then went to the shops and spent almost £80, oh dear! It must be all the extra food bought ready for mum coming!
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