Back from the hospital

Well thats over with now, thank god!

We got to the hossy at 7.30 and walked up to day surgery and the waiting room was absolutely heaving, my heart sank when I saw it! We stayed there for 45 mins, apparently there was a problem on the day surgery ward, beds were being occupied and obviously in day surgery, they shouldn't be!!!

I managed to put my BIG bag down on a womans foot (although my hand was still bearing most of the weight of it), I apologised profusely, as you do and Joe and I got the filthiest of filthy looks from her, and then continued to for the the whole time we were sat there! It was awkward as we were sitting opposite her and the seats were so close together I could probably have leant forward and kissed her without my bum leaving the seat!!!! Later on I was walking past her bed and heard her talking to the surgeon about her 'foot' operation - ooops! But really it wasn't purposeful and if she had any compassion, she may have realised that shooting filthy looks continously at an anxious mother was a little below the belt.

We then got called one by one into the ward, we were about 2/3rd down the list and I had a little sigh to myself thinking that might be the running order. However we were seen so quickly, first from the anaestatist who was lovely and then by the surgeon, then before we knew it Joe was walking to theatre. Joe got very upset on the trolley and didn't want to go through with it, but the anaestist (i'm never spelling that correctly) put 'cars' on for him and then he had to breathe strawberry flavoured gas, he was asleep within 40 secs. I then had a little cry, its not nice seeing them go under.

I was told the op would take 40 mins and it would be 60 mins before I could see him. 20 mins later I was stood with him in recovery, it was sooo quick! Joe was shivering violently, so they put a really warm heated blanket on him and then he just babbled rubbish and fidgeted so much they couldn't get obs from him!! The nurse was bantering with him a bit, telling him she didn't need his whole cv - Joe was listing his favourites for all to hear bless him! Oh and telling her the NHS were the best, much to the delight of the whole room.

We then went back to the ward, where Joe became more coherent and then 90 mins after the op we left!

That was 6 hours ago and Joe has watched a film, had 2 portions of spag bol and a yog, asked if we could go into town to the toy shop, and he has had no pain killers since the paracetamol straight after the op! He is now rooting round the kitchen deciding what to have for tea!

Kids are resilliant little bleeders

Arrrghh!

Its been one of those days! Kettle has tripped the main fuse twice and is now very broken, sick to death of Breville, 2nd Keep Warm we have had in a year, I love the kettle to death, but its so tempermental!

Yesterday I had to buy calpol, Joe is having dental surgery tomorrow, so I bought a HUGE bottle so we wouldn't run out. Went to get it and Boots were closed as they had no pharmacist on duty (surely they could have opened the shop and just not the pharmacy bit, but no!) so went back at 12.30 when they said they would be open. Great open, go to get served and she is the

s l o w e s t assistant in the world, Jason and I were rolling our eyes, and honestly it was so slow it was comical! Cut to today, and I have just smashed said unopened bottle of calpol on the floor, I swear it leapt off the counter at me! Bottle only seemed to have the end of it, so I poured the calpol through a fine seive, but shards of glass in it, so thats the best part of £6 wasted and I now have to get another bottle of it!

Jessica has managed to chip her back molar, not a little horizontal chip, that would be too easy, its a big vertical chip that looks to me like it goes quite far down, shes in no pain and it is a baby tooth, but she has a hole in her heart, and any decay that gets into her tooth, could cause her serious gyp, so we are off to the dentist tonight, to see what he thinks!

I guess thats 3 things now? so heres hoping that tomorrow passes without incident, I am not looking forward to seeing Joe go under the aneasthic (or however you spell it!) and we have to be up at the crack of dawn for a 7.30am admission.

I've been working on this Layout for a week and I had to get it finished today as its taunting me, I love it but its not quite right, the balance is off and bugger me if I can sort it, so I have called it finished and thats an end to it!

Finally Bruno, I just walked in the lounge to get my camera, to find him buried in my cardy, he has taken to covering his face recently, I was a bit worried he was smothered but I called his name and his tail wagged! Daft dog.

Odds and Ends

Bruno likes it when the kids are at their dads, he gets to have a go on the Xbox

Weigh in day for me, 4 week weigh in, 6lbs total loss!!! Yay, thats not bad for 28 days, so here is a pic of me now, I did have a big bloated spare tire around my tummy, and its still not slim, but at least its a lot flatter than it was! woohoo, I can do this!

Gutted

Just found out that Scenic Route is going into liquidation, they are my absolute favourite scrap company, their papers are EXACTLY to my style and I am not pleased, If one had to close why couldn't it have been Basic Grey (they are NOT my favourite scrap company) I can't believe that there will be no new collections! I will have to stock up while I can.

Poor Joey really needs this op on Tuesday, I got called to the school to pick him up yesterday after lunch, he had raging toothache and was as white as a sheet and tearful when I got there, luckily 2 spoons of calpol and he was right as rain.

Yesterday afternoon was all set to get some photos, as I need some new ones for the scrap weekend I am going on. I was going to take loads of pics with Joe and his beloved Nerf guns, I already have a title for a LO (Nerf Ninja!!!), Jess got dressed in some really cute and funky clothes, we brushed her hair and set off outside to get a load of cool pics (getting kids to do this, organising them, dressing them and getting them to happily co-operate is a nightmare) Switched the camera on, and the bloody batteries were dead! Gah! So now I have to go through that whole rigamole again on Monday!

Busy Day

I've been crafting most of the day, can't show you as its for the Scarlet Lime Scrap Weekend I am going on next weekend, I have had to make 6 pages all about me, its for a CJ, we will all swap pages, and have a little book about all the attendees at the end! I'm really pleased with what I have made, I decided to use papers that are not to my taste (to use them up really) but I love how the pages have come out, and its nice to use colours I wouldn't normally use.

I had another d lesson today, thats 3 this week, Jason's pupils have been cancelling a lot this week, sometimes its like that in his job, so I have jumped in and had a lesson in his gap! My lesson today went so well, only one stall (and that was cos something came out at me unexpectedly!) drove all round the local area, 2 seperate goes on the ring road, made my highest speed of 56mph (Jason wants me up to 65 on that road) and generally drove really well, with little instruction. Jason said that (bar the ring road) you could take the signs off and no one would know I was a learner. Another lesson at the weekend, although I have to make 65 mph on the ring road which makes me a little nervous! Oh and I have started manouvers too. This was the first lesson where I was relaxed and my leg didn't ache, and/or shake lol!!!

Knackered now, not stopped all day!

And just cos you can't have a post with no pic, here is some more of the stash that I got the other

day!

Mojo- jojo

Loved having a play with my new papers this morning, made this from a sketch from 52weeks:






Having a problem at the moment, am doing some cracking pages and then at the end I don't like them, I am trying to fill more space and do pop-art/grafitti like Layouts, and its just not working for me, consequently this LO was a lot better at the half way stage, but I still kinda like it, and I certainly enjoyed playing around with it!

Got another couple to show soon too, when I can be bothered to photograph them, they are only kinda liked ones too! Need to do something I love rather than just like! What I really need is some new photos, I seem to be running out of all the good ones!

I had another d lesson yesterday, did really well, lots of roundabouts and traffic lights etc, we ended up the lesson doing a 70mph stretch of dual carriageway (I only went up to 50) and then there was a bit of confusion as to what lane I was supposed to be in, and it all went downhill, I refused to do anymore (Jason was being an arse!) so that was that!!!! But I am having another attempt tomorrow!

STASH!!!!! at last STASH

Getting a bit worried about my Scrapbook Nook kit now, still not here, was shipped from America on the 3rd! Got my Sarahs Cards order today and I only ordered that on Friday, so most puzzling! You'd think that the American kit would at least of got in the country promptly!

Anyway here it is in all its lovelyness!


Jillibean Soup White Staples (I love these papers, and they are all polka dots on the back)


Fire Engines (bought this for the border under the engines!)




Bella Boulevard



Fancy Pants



More Jillibean and 3 Bugs

also got some American Crafts and Abby Road but can't be bothered to load anymore pics, got scrapping to do!

Well this stash is gonna have to last me a LOOOONNG time, Just cancelled one of my sub kits and cancelled the kids school dinners. The kids both have residential hols to pay for this year, Jess's school want £280 this year for her trip next year and Joe's school want £170 for a trip to Paris later in this school year, both schools want large deposits within the next month, also we are paying for our wedding this year also, somethings gotta give and its gonna have to be my stash!!! School dinners are also costing me £22 a week, I can feed them for WAY less than that!

Farwell lovely stash shopping :( (at least I went out with a bang!!!)

Glasses!

About 2 years ago, I was moving the bed and I heard this ominous 'crunch' sound, I had just signed the death certificate of my glasses. I wear contacts and the prescription in them was out of date so it wasn't the end of the world.

2 years on and still no glasses, Jason and I have had a tough 3 years, he was made redundant twice in about 18 months, and then he had to retrain in order to get out of management (which he hated) £100 for a pair of glasses wasn't on the agenda, other things I wanted to spend any spare cash on.

Jason has been a driving instructor since Jan, its basically self employed on a franchise and of course you have to get your own clients etc, so although technically we are ok off now (at last no worries about where next months money was coming from) we are classed as low income whilst he builds up the business, so I recently received an NHS exemption cert (Getting that now, when we really needed help 2+ years ago is a WHOLE other story!!!)

So today I got some new glasses, they cost me £15 with the cert, and I am pleased, its nice to be able to give my eyes a break from contacts, and not to have to put them in first thing in the morning. I only went for bog standard as I will wear my contacts most of the time!



Here I am modeling my new glasses, excuse the horrid scraped back hair, and christ! how many freckles do I have??? You should see me when we have a hot summer!!

Time 4 Cake

Well STILL no stashy post today :( I have not had a new pizza box style parcel in almost a month! Scrapbook Nook was due 2 weeks ago, a weeks hold up on their part and a weeks so far on the Royal Mail! I need new stuff. I might just have blown £42 on new papers at Sarah's Cards as I was feeling so sorry for myself! I got loads of the new CHA releases, inc Jillibean Soup, Fancy Pants and LOTS more, spent almost the whole £42 on paper! Can't wait for that to arrive, although god knows how long Postie will keep it from me! I have been very good lately and its the first time I have spent money on stash (that wasn't a sub kit) in about 4 months!!!






All that shopping inspired me a bit, so I thought I would finish off what I started yesterday here it is!! My Thickers and alphabets are so disorganised and messy at the moment that I made the title with my Craft Robo, its got to be getting bad when I prefer the hassle of the craft robo to Thickers! There is still no a shed load of embellies on it, I think that I am going to have to come to terms with the fact that I am a clean and simple scrapper, I prefer lots of pp and not so much of the pre made embellies.

And an update on Joe losing his wallet at school, it never MADE it to school, dozy boy had left it on his bed!!! Honestly I swear he is the doziest kid at times, at least that saved me a tenner, although he is getting through dinner money at a rate of knotts, I think I am going to have to start giving him a packed lunch.

These Two

Right Mr Postman I have just seen you go past my house and no Parcel, AGAIN, I know for a fact that my Scrapbook Nook kit is a week late now, so I would like it please, now please, its all very well striking and causing complete chaos with the post but I have paid for these goods, and I wouldn't mind seeing them, thanks very much!

Pah!

But at long last we have an appointment for Joe's dental surgery, it will be the 29th September, 4 days before I go away on the Scarlet Lime retreat, so I am hoping that all will be fine and he will be fully recovered by then, he should be, touch wood.

Had another driving lesson yesterday (ROBBIES DRIVING SCHOOL, GOOGLE ADVERTISERS PLEASE, that place puts food on our table) And it went well, made no silly mistakes and only two incidents of the stally stalls, did emergency stops, they rock! I'm good at those!! Next time I have to do dual carriageways *gulp* not too sure I like the sound of that!



And finally I did this today, used a sketch from http://52sketches52weeks.ning.com/ (even though they didn't pick me to be on their design team - HATE them lol) This was a disaster from start to finish and how it even looks remotely ok is beyond me, it was really 2 steps from the bin at one stage! See how I tinted the black and white photo, its not an outstanding job, but I was quite pleased with it for a first try

ETA: Google advertisers are taking the proverbial!

This LO is of my Jason, we had only been going out for maybe a year when this was taken, I prefer him with his hair a little longer, so I have always really liked this photo, I don't really do lots of slush and sentiment so I find it hard to scrap Jason, however I managed this one, and really its not much of a compliment to him LOL!!!

I was feeling like I wanted to do something productive on Friday but I didn't have much mojo so I spent a happy couple of hours cutting various borders on my craft robo, I love my craft robo but I find I rarely want the hassle of it mid scrap, so getting some random borders cut whilst bored seemed a good idea, and it was, I've used 4 of them on this LO! Also I am loveing the old wonkyish borders on my LO's at the moment, so you may see many more of them!

I had another driving lesson on Saturday, and it was a long one, not really sure how I feel about it, the first 45 mins were cracking, I drove really well and confidently and then it kinda went downhill. I was in the left hand land of a roundabout, indicating left, but for some reason I turned right 0000ppps! I think I got tired, I was concentrating sooo hard. Then driving home, I had to stop on a hill because of temporary traffic lights, I am not so brilliant at hill starts, and I was at the front of the lights so holding everyone up when I stalled! Things I am good at is apparently I do not hesitate and I move the car confidently, Jason sometimes says "Emma I'm not sure if that was a little fast on that turn (there was a car coming) or if it was just very confident" Its confidence of course!!! LOL

One more thing on driving, Jason works for Robbies Driving School, I am not mad pleased that my blog advertises other schools just cos I talk about driving, its Robbies, Robbies, Robbies Driving school that you want!!!

We had a lovely weekend and I even managed to eat out on Saturday without breaking my diet, mind you it was the worlds most boring meal, plain steak, plain jacket pot and plain salad, I almost fell asleep eating it, it was that dreary, but at least it meant we could socialise with mates.

And ARRRGGGHHH Jospeh has just come home from school saying his wallet has been stolen (he's lost it more like) and it had all his weeks dinner money in it as I had no change. I am beyond cross with him, he can be so bloody dopey at times, and I gave him a big lecture about responsibility and money this morning when I gave him the tenner!

Toilet Roll Mini Album

This is a fun idea that I have been mooching about with today, that I saw in the latest edition of Scrapbook Inspirations. Its made using the inner bit of a toilet rool (the cardboard tube). Heres how I made it (and I didn't go scrambling in my bathroom bin for this honestly! - ok the maybe I did!)

1. Get some toilet rolls and squash them very flat, I would recommend getting a crease on the sides of them. Make 2 holes in each one as shown

2. Cover them in fabulous papers (I used Cosmo Cricket Early Bird)

3. Cut 3 Tags to fit the inner pockets of the tubes

4. Add metal clips or ribbons to the end of the tags and ring binders or ribbons to the holes on the tubes to attach the 'pages' together!

5. Decorate away! I used the tags for pictures and the blank pages for journaling, finnished article below!

Be Brave

God this has taken me 4 hours!! I do love it though, the photo does not do it justice the colours are so much better IRL. That stitching took so much time, I am getting a bit tempted to get a sewing machine to do stitching on, as its such a time waster by hand!

This is Joe last week on his first day of secondary, used a sketch from http://52sketches52weeks.com/ again, I really like the site for sketches, go and have a look!



My diet is still ticking along nicely, this is the easiest I have ever had it on a diet, 10 days and 3lbs lost, which suits me fine! Last night I had whole baked rainbow trout with sweet potato wedges and salad, with fruit salad and yogurt for afters, and it was LOVELY, will deffo do that again! Slimming World I have always LOVED your diet plan, but your new EXTRA EASY plan is fab!!! I don't care if the weight crawls off me, its got to be worth it to eat so well and so much!!

Learning to Drive

Had my 4th or 5th driving lesson yesterday (can't remember how many, but it equates to about 6 hours) Hopefully will be able to have more regular ones now the kids are back at school and Jason (who is an instructor) will be able to take me out whenever he gets a last minute cancellation, and teaching 17yr olds as he does, there is always a fair few of those! (think hangovers, not wanting to get out of bed and just general dis-organisation) Still Jason insists on payment for short notice cancellations so if they want to pay for me to learn in their place all the better!

I was a bit nervous at the start yesterday, we are just starting to as Jason calls it "Play with traffic" and go on busy roads and my first experience of this was a bit nerve wracking! So off we set to do it again, when Jason says "Be good today Emma, cos i'm not in the mood for this really" well that sent me into a right fluster, which he did apologise for and of course made me fluff up a bit, but I soon got into my stride, and off we went to attempt a circuit including the little but very busy roundabout by our local pub. Now I was so nervous of doing this, because we are regulars at this pub and known by pretty much everyone, if only on nodding terms. The pub is right on the roundabout and the tables outside even more so, and of course we knew the people sat on the tables so I knew that I had an audience!

Anyhow the first time some nutter stepped out right in front of me as I was turning, Jason was most amused to hear my road rage including "Is he bloody stupid or something, fancy stepping out in front of a learner" turns out he is mentally backwards, oooops! 2nd time went without a hitch and then the 3rd and 4th times which were right turns went well too, but I was lucky in that I was clear to go everytime which makes it so much easier. I also went on a 40mph stretch of road, which was exciting. After taking the roundabout there is another right turn on a very busy stretch of road which is very scary as lots to think about very quickly, but I got there!

At the end of the lesson Jason said "Do you want to drive home?" so I did!!! Sorry long post but am very excited to be doing this! Now I just need a car, well Christmas is coming up!

Random stuff

I've not been looking forward to my next 2 subscription kits, they have both gone down the vintagey, pretty delicate route, all very well but I am not a pretty delicate scrapper and frankly I did not know how I would use them! However today the childrens father sent me this photo of Jessica, it is GORGEOUS, such a lovely shot of her and I think it screams out for pretty and delicate, now I can't wait for the kits to arrive - i'm so fickle!! I am hoping I can hold off scrapping the photo straight away!

It seems that I have lost 1.5lbs on my first week of diet, pleased with that lose, this diet has been a breeze (compared to others at least!) slowly slowly does it.

Might have another driving lesson today, its very usefull having a driving instructor as a fiance, not sure he felt the same on my last lesson, where I very nearly killed us! ah well he is used to being very nearly killed by his learners, and I was surprisingly calm about it too!

Toddler Tea Time

Last night I slept! I slept really really well, I get occasional bouts of insomnia and I have not been sleeping all week, yesterday I was like a zombie, I could barely function. So lovely Jason offered to sleep on the sofa so I could have the bed to myself, and it was ace, I slept till 5.30 and then on and off for a couple of hours. Today I feel soooo much better!



Managed shed loads of ironing today and then on to scrapping, this Layout has a pic from 2001, Jess would have been about 15 months, and as usual is with a dog! This is another LO from my Scarlet Lime August kit, which is fab! Its a good job I like it so much, cos I am not mad keen on both of the ones I have coming this month, they are both vintagey and red/black/grey - yuck!

Off out tonight, first time in 3 weekends so really looking forward to meeting up with friends and relaxing with a drink (I can have them, i've saved up my syns all week!)

I made it!

Despite severe sleep deprivation (ok maybe I exaggerate slightly) I did manage to scrap today! As I said there was a sketch that I wanted to have a go at and its here: http://52sketches52weeks.com/ And heres my take on it!

This is my rarely scrapped cat Skittle, she hates me but thats ok cos i'm not that keen on her! I drew on the little pink boots!!! And the word 'boots' is fabric thickers that I stickled in pink!

Now I have to go and pick up my daughter from school, and as per at 3.00pm its raining. Did I mention that my doggy Bruno HATES getting his tummy wet/muddy, I am so severely tempted to buy him this:

Want to scrap...

I really do, I have a sketch I want to use, I am feeling creative and I am a little bored, all good things for starting scrapping you'd think, but I am knackered and my eyes feel so tired and sore. I am not sleeping to well at the moment, last 2 nights its been gone 1am and I NEED at least 7 hours a night. Last night I fell off about 1.30am and then was up 3 times before 7 to use the toilet!!! I think I will try to scrap in a min and see if it works, but I am on such a go slow that I doubt anthing will happen!

On the diet front I am on day 5 and no slip ups, I am following Slimming World, they have a new (ish) plan now where you can mix your free green and red foods on the same day, I hope it works!! I am not going to group as it does my head in listening to people say they have been so bad and then they lose like 4lbs and I will have stuck to it religiously and lost 1lb!! it actually de motivates me to hear that sort of talk lol (and I know its cos they have lots to lose and I don't etc but thats no help when I have been soooo good!!!) Jason started dieting yesterday, that man can eat 3 chocolate bars in one go and thats AFTER a large main meal!!! So last night he's had his meal and is on the mooch for something else and thought he was having my fruit! NO chance matey jim, buy your own fruit, it cost a bomb and I get through it at a rate of knotts! I did relent and let him have a peach - I'm nice like that.

I sound awful I know, but I get very protective of my fruit when I am dieting!!! There is a definate 'my food' and 'everyone elses' food divide in our house at the moment.

Jess back at school today, so I just have Joe in the house today, and he is on the xbox, its sooooo quiet, Jess is like a little wirlwind, definatley miss her chatter!

Tuck In

At last the end is near! Jess goes back to school tommorrow and Joe starts secondary on Thursday, Happy days!!! Back to routine and peace! Jason went back to work today after a week off, was glad of that too as he's been a bit of a nag, all i've heard all week is his voice telling the kids this or that!!

This Layout is of Joe on his birthday, we took him out for mcdonalds and swimming, here they are (with his friend Luke) scoffing their faces. Not sure on this LO.