Photo's

Well i managed to take one piccie whilst step daughter was here, well i say i did, it was Amy actually she and Ellie were in a silly mood!

Also I have put one of my fave pics from our holiday in Majorca last year, may have to be a while before i put some more on they took ages to upload!

Where does the time go??

Well, another long time in between posts!
I am struggling to remember what has happened in the past couple of weeks, apart from being ill :-(, according to the practice nurse on the phone i had a viral infection.......wasn't she good diagnosing that over the phone! needless to say they couldn't give me anything for it, so I have been dosing up on co-codomal, ibuprofen and cough lintcus!, but the cough is still persisting two weeks later! :-(
Well we had the car MOT'd and after finding that the advisory notice was as long as the A4 sheet of paper we decided to sell and buy something smaller, now with 4 and sometimes 6 children here that would seem a foolish thing to do, get rid of a 7 seater and purchase a 5 seater.......but i think that i can count on one hand the number of times that the 7 seater has been full over the last year, so put that with the cost of petrol, insurance and road tax for such a big car we sold it and bought a little 5 door Fiesta, nicknamed Florence :-) - she is a zippy little thing and comes with a cd player...woo hoo! feels like a luxury...lol

Over the half term, i took the boys and step daughter to a soft play centre and met an old work colleague with her 3 girls, had lunch,chat and the kids played - nice afternoon :-)

I was supposed to be going to the cinema with a friend from our HE days and then back to their house for some yummy food -which is what we always get when we go there! - if i was married to the man i would weigh at least 20 stone....it is soo good, anyways, this was suppposed to happen on the Wednesday and i sold the car on the Tuesday, so had to go car hunting instead, though the youngest went to a friends for a sleepover and eldest boy went to the said friends and cinema...etc and had a great time.

Went to Stockport to return step daughter and met my sister there, her youngest and step daughter are the same age and love each other :-), we went to the hat museum and they had a great time dressing up with all the clothes...just wished i had taken my camera, then i would have had something good to put on here, i will remember it in future....i will remember it future....note to self!, then we went for a lovely chinese banquet ...yum ...yum.

Had a late night on Saturday..went to see some friends in Morecambe and stayed a little longer than was planned, didn't get home till 545am!!!! i felt like a teenager again...lol, though the roads from Morecambe to home are very quiet at the time of the morning...it was a lovely fast drive :-)

Well it was back to work yesterday and doesnt even seem like i have been away...lol

i am sooo far behind on my Spanish course, with being ill and unmotivated!, i have an assignment due in on Monday, thankfully my tutor has given me a weeks grace, but i have to admit that i am lacking inspiration.....i really wish i knew how to conjugate verbs properly...! also i seem to slip into French so easily it's annoying!

well that's it for now

catch up

Hmm well, been well over a week since i last posted, so here is a little run down on what has been happening...
well last Friday was a fun day!!.... i came home at lunchtime from work and immediately knew that something was wrong.....after much investigating i found youngest daughters school uniform in her bedroom...rang her school to ask if she was there, knowing full well the answer...she wasn't there, she had been in registration and got her mark and then bunked off. I couldn't ring her phone as she had already had that confiscated for an earlier misdemeanor, so didn't have a clue where she was!, by this time i had to go back to work. Unbeknown to her I finish work early on a Friday, so when I came home and found the door unlocked I knew that she was there, what i wasn't ready for was the two 'hoodies' that went out of the back door when i was coming in the front door, let's just say that the air was blue and I don't think that they will darken our doorstep again! - so sanctions for her....grounded, no computer and no phone till 10th March!!! plus she did a day in FTEC (internal exclusion) i really hope that she has learnt her lesson!! .

well, went to get my hair highlighted on Saturday...long time since i have had this done, the last colour that went on my hair was Flamingo Pink!!, gawd i still can't believe that i did that...it was my middle age rebellion - i never did rebel as a teenager. Then me and eldest daughter went into Blackpool to do a little retail therapy.....she got all the therapy and i got nothing...lol, still she was happy, also made a well overdue appointment for her to have her hair cut today.

Watched the Hammers draw with the Gunners, not a bad point, they should have won really!

But of a boring week at work, same old same old, still week to go and then a week off, we have my other half's 6yo daughter coming down for half term, so no doubt we will be busy.

The car had the work done and passed its MOT - yippee!, know all we need to do is clean it out and sell it!

Had a good day with the breadmaker again today...made homemade pizzas for tea, then made dough for croissant, and the bread is on timer to be ready at 10am...yum yum!

this weekend i am planning on clearing out the garage, much needed, also have to use the car with the trailer before we sell it...lol

Also sorted out the coldness in the boys bedroom, finally got the radiators working properly and now it is a little warmer, hopefully this will stop the mould growing on the wall that i washed off today, despite telling the landlord about this he still doesn't seem to car, well we only have to look at the half finished bathroom that he started in November, we still need a windowsill and the rest of it finishing off!...wouldn't mind but i have always paid the rent at the right time every month..the least he could do would be to keep up with the upkeep of the house...hey ho!

well that's about it for now...be time for another catch up before i know it!

the weekend

Well, what has happened this weekend....well, Friday was a bumper day for my breadmaker....i made a spiced fruit loaf, which was yummy!, then went on to make 2 lots of dough for homemade pizzas, which again were lovely, then made a simple white loaf....the breadmaker seems to have gone down well in this house! it is so nice to have fresh bread, knowing what has gone into it, none of all those preservatives!
Friday night, just a few beers, which i must have less of if i am to lose any weight whatsoever!, and watched the tv, the kids were happy with their tv and eldest on the pc as usual!
Saturday, walked into town to grab a few bits and pick up my new cd that the postman said he couldnt get through the letterbox! still got to play that yet, but some lovely 80's music!
youngest went to his best friends for the day and night, and was lucky enough to be taken to watch Fleetwood Town v AFC Telford, which he said he enjoyed and even remembered the score and attendance figures...lol, saturday afternoon at the pub, after watching the Hammers beat Hartlepool on the tv at home, daren't go to the pub to watch it in case we lost!, but we won 0-2 :-), so then went to the pub to watch Man Utd v Tottenham, which Man Utd won -2-1...but it didn't matter as we didn't care who won for a change!
Sunday, had a lovely lamb dinner....yum yum, then to the pub for a few and to watch Liverpool v Everton...1-1-.....can you tell the football features quite predominatly in our lives....lol
So that is it the weekend is over.......'cept to say that i have just checked out my favourite blog...chromasia, to find out that my friend Libby won the North West Woman in Business Award....well done Libby!

Tracy x

the organisation of children

Hmmm, having four children aged 9-15 does come with its problems and little niggles....
so last night we had a family meeting....basically to ask that they are all aware of everyone else and that they do their bit to make the house a nice place to live....i know..some hope!
just little things like tidying up their mess and not leaving it for someone else...namely me, to clear up. Also with the eldest, as she seems to have a boyfriend that lives right at the other end of town - we have never met him and dont know anything apart from his first name....not good really, especially if we need to contact her quickly!-so she is going to give his his full name, address and telephone number, though i wont be holding my breath - i mustnt let this slide...for her own safety really. #2 daughter has to think of a way to pay back her telephone bill!, me thinks that this will take some time...lol.

Also spoke to the girls about taking lunches to school, they either forget or cant be bothered and i am worried that they are not getting the nutrition that they need, though i feel that they are now old enough to be doing this for themselves....its life-skills!

I too and going to try and make the house nicer, i am fed up of coming home to washing up, endless piles of washing and/or ironing that either haven't been done or have been left for a week waiting to be taken to bedrooms. - i am not going to do this for them but gently remind them several times to do it themselves!

As for the dieting, well, this goes well till i come home from work, and i feel so knackered, must be my age, i remember having 4 children under 6, looking after house and working full time....i am not so sure that i could do that now! - i feel so knackered all the time, and at work sometimes i really feel like i could fall asleep....now that is bad...but it only seems to be in one particular room, why is that!....anyway the dieting, i am joining a local diet group, no money to be paid..yeh, but just a group that meets at someones house. Hopefully when i get on track with this things will be better, i know that the major thing with dieting is that it is all in your head, i have done this before....it is about 'getting you head round it' - have also thought about running as exercise...though this may be a little ambitious or a little way down the line...we will see

rightyo....off to do some cleaning...lol

Hmm, not an enjoyable day

The reason - i received my youngest daughter's mobile phone bill this morning....a whopping £89.11 - and that wasn't even a full month as it was confiscated on the 10th Jan!!
She doesn't know how it has happened - a total of 8 hours chatting and 500+ texts when it should have been 200mins and 400 texts - ridiculous.......she will not see any pocket money this side of her birthday, which is in August. She has suggested that she just has a PAYG, which is a good idea 'cept for the fact she won't have any money to top it up, and I am not doing it!

On top of that I feel yuck!, should be starting a healthy eating today, but was so miffed off about the phone bill that i ate 3 choccies and now feel positivly sick :-(
Hey ho....we live and learn

Birthday.....not mine! and other stuff

Well, it is my other half's birthday today, and I think that he loved all the presents he got :-)
off out tonight, probably go for a chinese somewhere :-)

Not much happened this week!, had a lovely haircut today though and am going back in a fortnight to have some highlights put in.

Kids are their usual self, eldest being the typical teenager, youngest daughter still trying to creep as she is still grounded - till 10th Feb, well that is what you get when you stay out all night, when you have been specifically told that your not allowed! - at 13 as well, I wouldn't have dared!

It is my youngest neice's birthday on Monday she will be 6 and I feel sure that she will love the two Bratz DS games that we have got her.

On the weight side of it, it looks like i have lost about 3lb, but i feel sure that will all be put back on over the weekend with all the birthday celebrations and drinking!,oh and still have chocolates left over from Christmas, I had better eat all those before i embark on a healthy eating plan from Monday!. All this is helped by the fact that my car has been off the road for nearly a fortnight, after a second battery it is still refusing to start if it is not run every day :-(, and it is due for it's MOT in February, so I think that I have to bite the bullet, get it throught it's MOT have it valeted and then sell it, we don't need such a big car anymore as we hardly ever have all the children in the car at the same time and it is old now - 11 yrs - and not really financially viable, so as much as I love it, I think that we are going to get something smaller, fiesta like - it makes much more sense really - but I will miss it :-(

Well, that's all for now :-)