Bye bye January

No photos for you today. Sorry . I ought to have taken some of Steph who was over yesterday and Andrea who brought her! Or my car with its dented boot, STILL waiting for insurance to sort it out but atm at least able to drive it for the time being..even if it has a bit of a rattly bottom!.
In other news...I am going to the prom!! LOL they didn't even exist here when i was at school. I finally got invited to go this Summer...they are MY year 11's the ones who started when I became a teaching assistant and they hold a special place in my heart. Well it will be fun looking for some thing to wear ..all help gratefully accepted :)
Derek and I popped out for a couple of hours this morning and left the kids!!!The youngest is almost 15 so its not as bad as it sounds, but because of all the behavioural problems they have we were quite worried. They just didn't want to come. So we got up early to be at the Range when it opened at 10. Thankfully Dan and Natalie didn't even wake till we got back and we were chatting to Meg via face book on our iPhones ( good ol' FB). Not sure we will do it again though as it was quite stressful, and if you could hear the fighting between them at teatime,well lets just say I think we got away with it this time.
Craft wise, i am still only half way though Dolly's 52 in 12 week four but will get it done this week along with week 5. I have been making a few more mini calenders as some of the people at work have asked for them. This will be the last week though as we are almost in to Feb. I am half way though an exploding box ( again a couple of people at work have expressed an interest) and have two more ready to decorate. So, hopefully lots of photos next time.

Cooking

Thank you Lyzzy for my award. You are too kind :) ..Go check out her wonderful blog.

Here are the rules

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3 List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!
5. I am not such a stickler for rules if you are like me: do as you please with it!!!

So here is my Top Ten!

1.Family ( most of the time) ..i copied this from Lyzzy ( she is so wise!)
2. Sunshine.
3.Finding somewhere quiet and sunny to sit and read.
4. Crafting. Making anything.
5. listening to music.
6. Everyone getting on with each other.
7. The kids at school and my work mates
8.A freshly made bed and snuggling up.
9. a good weepy film.
10.my Pc/iPhone..anything gadgety :)

I shall award :
My wonderful Sis Annette who makes the bestest cards.
Yizz my twin...thats an injustice, she much slimmer than me :)
Debbie..one of the sweetest most talented people i know.
and Katie who apart from being so talented in lots of ways , inspired me to buy my particular brand of car.


Back to the cooking :)

Two Chocolate cakes. One is for the freezer :)


And Debbie's Fab recipe for Lemmon Drizzle cake, made into cupcakes.

I like Dereks discription because he had to pinch one as soon as it was cool enough to eat. "sweet but twangy" :)

As well as cooking tea tonight .. I am now worn out.

Busy Busy Busy

Week has just flown by!! My birthday was Wednesday and i was at work . I was very lucky to receive lots of fab prezzies, cards and flowers. Derek took me and some friends out for a meal which was lovely. I had vouchers, money, lots of sweets incl a big jar of jelly beans!, jewelry,and a new card for my slice :).Ohh and three cakes!..all gone now of course. I am just about to cook Debs lemon drizzle cake but i intend to make it into muffins/cupcakes..if i get chance, i'll be back with photos.

Have been catching up with Dolly's 52 in 12 challenge today ( as prompt 4 is up). The above images are from prompt 3..what advise would you give your younger self? This was fun and easy as i used to be so uptight, prim and scared LOL....nothing like i am now!!

Last post

as a 40 something year old :( Yup tomorrow is the big day ..or not really , another day at school working to tell the truth.I certainly wont be telling the pupils my age..not that I ever hide it or am ashamed, worried, or fed up about it ..more bewildered..how the heck did I get here so soon??! I certainly don't feel very much older ,(or wiser). Inside i still feel the same, sound the same and in my head look the same. Its only sometimes when i catch sight of myself in the mirror and wonder who that short fat old woman is :D I should really have felt a bit older this week when last last of the teachers who taught me retired. She started at the school the same time I started as a pupil in 1971. Quite a few of the teachers left now were babies or not born then!
So I wake up tomorrow as a 50 year old. I have prepared myself a little, tonight i made sure that there wasn't a grey hair in sight!................................for now

Sunshine at last!!

While wandering though lots of blogs, i found another weekly challenge Here
The challenge was to list 10 things. so here's mine.

Still no word on my car. Hopefully it wont be too long till i have it back now..if its much longer i shall need a refresher course on how to drive!!
I enjoyed the first full week back at work. It is strange to be in one room for most of the day and i don't get to see as much of the teaching assistants as i used to :( I am enjoying it and hopefully i am learning lots! Its very very busy with so much paperwork. But i still get to see quite a few pupils which is great.
The sun is finally out today and all the snow gone..my feet are still cold though LOL
Derek has taken Daniel and Megan to see Avatar so i am going to make the most of things and enjoy the peace..its a lovely LONG film LOL. Natalie is still in bed so the only sound is me hitting the keyboard....sigh :D

52 in 10 update

So far I am keeping up to date, but we are only on week two!. My book is 8" x 8" which is a nice size. I have made the cover but not quiet finished decorating it so will show you later.

The first weeks challenge was to look back over the past decade and include a photo of yourself. I don't like my photographs and couldn't find one from 2000, so typed over a mid 2000's one of me.

This week was about goals and aims for the year ahead. I wanted to keep some of my journaling hidden so loved Karen's stitched idea.

I used the page from my desktop diary for today for my personal aspirations journaling as I love the quote.

Some of my fav stamps at the moment are a tiny Maya Road set that I bought at the ATDML retreat with three little clock faces on, I have used two here.

Looks like i shall be back to work tomorrow, I just hope Megan is too!

Stocking up and Baking.

Before the frosting. Derek even bought he exact cake tin I wanted. The frosting was used in the middle and not on top..to discourage fingers from helping themselves! Yes even teens do it!!

I am sure you can forgive me for thinking the worst ;) ! I sent Derek out to get some shopping and added a new torch, matches and a portable camping stove to the list. Lots of people in East Anglia have been without electricity for a few days and in this weather , i can't think of anything worse. Even though we have gas heating, it wont work without electric. Anyway there are all ready ..just in case :)

I spent some of the afternoon making a fab carrot cake found HERE. I changed two things: 1, the walnuts, Dan hates nuts in thing but doesn't mind if they are chopped up small and i had some chopped hazelnuts so added them instead. 2. the cheese, i used low fat philly as i already had lots in the fridge and prefer to use that because of Megs diabetes. I am very happy with how it turned out ( as are the rest of the family!) I also made a couple of sticky date cakes to be eaten with hot butter Scotch sauce and ice cream for another day.

You couldn't make this stuff up!!

Those who have read my blog recently, know that I have had a few problems with my car :) It went to the second garage yesterday and I FINALLY found out that a sensor needs replacing. I was really happy as i had thought that was the problem and it cost less than i was expecting. It has just been serviced and MOT'd but not picked up. Anyway really pleased to finally be able to pick it up this week.
I had a phone call from traffic police at 10.30 last night asking if i owned a citron belingo, reg no etc etc...i was getting worried...was it involved in a robbery before i bought it? I only bought it in April !! No..was it parked on the forecourt of a garage in Diss? ...yes. A drunk driver took a turn too fast and crashed into a lamp post ( he was fortunately not injured and has since been arrested) but the lamp post fell on your car Mrs Jones!!! I had visions of my poor car with a lamp post embedded in the middle of it.!!
Derek went to look at it this morning and it is not a write off .......thank heavens!! But i somehow don't think i will be picking it up just yet!! I know its not funny but i can't help giggling ..do you think i have finally flipped?!

Cold Monday

Still making the mini calendars. Finished this one this morning and am half way though another.

Had to get up at a normal time today as Nats went back to the workshop. The other two should be back to school tomorrow but I got a call saying that the teacher training day at our school tomorrow is cancelled and to go in on Weds. The head has given everyone ( staff) an extra day off..cool!

My car is booked in tomorrow afternoon, so i should hopefully find out whats wrong by Weds.

Had to bake a load more muffins as the others had all disappeared. This time I made raspberry and white chocolate. We also had a lovely warming beef stew and dumplings for tea and for once , they ate it all.

See ya later xx

Still Housebound!

We were supposed to go see my sister today but the children wouldn't get up before lunchtime and then reused to go out. Even though they are old enough, i just cant leave them home alone together as they all fight so much. Plus with Meg being diabetic and not looking after herself at the moment, i just couldn't trust them. Sigh. It would have been okay if i had my car as i would have popped over by myself. I am phoning the garage tomorrow, so please cross your fingers that when they hook it up to the diagnostic machine thingy, that it is something very simple and VERY cheap to fix.
I don't have to go into work until Tuesday and that will just be to sort out my desk and maybe help re arrange the office.
Today I made some banana and choc chip muffins ( a brill way of using up the bananas that no one will touch) Check out Debbies Blog for a great weekly recipe challenge.


I have also made three mini hand bag calendars. I used this site to print out the 2010 calendar and the just used scraps of card and paper to make them up.


Rubber stamps, glitter, rubons and stickers embellish them.

They are all different as i get bored too easily.

I still have Dollys class to do for this week her first prompt is up. It will a difficult one for me as so many horrible things have happened over the last 10 years that i don't want to journal about too much. I will concentrate and the good stuff :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We managed to stay up till 1am ...all of us. I have to say that the Asti Derek bought for the children was blinkin awful! Thankfully they all thought so too.

I woke late with a headache, surprise surprise! and the boys went shopping, not that there was much open today.

Not going to make any promises for the coming year...carry on as normal and TRY to be better :)

Anyway if you are reading this i wish you a WONDERFUL new year and new decade xxXXxx