Today

This morning I got stuck in and did the washing, ironing, hoovering and mopped the floor so that I would then be able to relax. We went into town at lunch time, picking Emily's friend, Emily up on the way. They are getting to the age where they quite like to go into town and then wander round the shops by themselves (and I feel a little bit redundant - lol!). Today I met up with Claire in her lunch hour and had a coffee while she had lunch, so I didn't have much time on my own. Emily (the friend) then came back to our house for the rest of the afternoon and, quite honestly, I'm not sure what I did exactly but the day certainly disappeared quickly. I have a few photos again today, starting with this one of Jon's Uncle Morris (5th from the right) who was invited up to No 10 Downing Street, to meet the Prime Minister and his wife (5th and 6th from the left). Morris sent the photo through this morning and we thought it would be nice to include it on the blog. This photo of Jon was taken a couple of evenings ago when he decided to go for a walk after dinner. Do you think it was quite cold outside??

The two Emily's - taken today.

Now a little story about Tom, Claire's cat. Here he is sitting outside Claire's door hoping that I'm going to let him in

Why won't you let me in????!!!!! I'm not happy and if you don't let me in, I'm going to .....

Jump off the landing!!!!!

Cloud was most concerned!

Ok, time for me to go and get a life! Hope you enjoyed the pet story ;o)

Claire is now traumatised and not talking to me - hehehe!!

xx

A sunny afternoon

Today I was planning on popping into town to pick up a couple of things and then doing some housework. I thought I'd phone Mum and see if she wanted in to town for anything and offered to pick her up. It's been bright and clear but quite cold. We decided to have a coffee to warm up before doing the shopping. A good chinwag later we left Nero's and did what shopping was required before heading home. A better morning than doing housework ;) A little later, when I had just sat down to have my lunch, Hugh came in to ask if I fancied going to Starburger before he went to work. As it was coming up to 1 o'clock we phoned Claire and asked her if she wanted to meet us in her lunch hour. So, I had lunch with two of my children instead of sitting at home - another result!

By the time I got home I was feeling a little sluggish, and there was an hour before Emily was due home, so I decided to take the dogs out for a walk and take my camera with me. As it turns out, it's not that easy trying to take photos and hold two leads at the same time =) We walked for over half an hour and I felt so much better by the time we got back. It was really fresh out which helped blow the cobwebs and sluggishness away. Here are a few photos from our walk. Hermitage Lane

Walking down Lower Mere you could see over the fields in the distance though there was a bit of a haze.

Passing the green in Lower Mere the sun was filtering through the trees.

And near the bottom of Lower Mere we even saw some daffodils in bloom. I'm sure they're probably too early but it was lovely to see them all the same. Makes me think that it won't be too long before spring arrives (PLEASE!!!)

Not sure what we're doing this weekend but hopefully I'll find something to take photos of. Hope you all enjoy your weekend

xx

A Snapshot

A snapshot of our everyday life. This is what taking a photo a day is making me look at. It's comforting, it's fun, it's our life as it is at the moment. It makes me stop and think about things and makes me wonder where we'll be a few years down the road. Will we still be in this house? Which of the children will still be living with us? What will we be doing? Now we just have to wait and find out! This photo was taken on Sunday evening. Hugh with his friends playing games in his room. You can see they didn't pay too much attention to me ;o) I did a layout about Iain's 50th birthday on Sunday and this was my table as I was finishing up.

As some of you may know, Jon has been working from home and just going in to the office for meetings since the New Year. This meant that yesterday he was at home; Hugh wasn't due in at work until late afternoon; Claire had the day off and Emily had an inset day. I had a couple of vouchers (buy one main meal get one free) for Pizza Express which needed to be used by Friday so we went out for lunch as a family. It's been a while since we've done this, so it was good and I was glad I had my little camera there to capture the moment.

Emily, Hugh, Jon and Claire

Yesterday afternoon Emily was working on a timeline of her life for History. She wanted to add a few photos and the best place to start was with this one!

In her crib in the hospital not long after she was born. My beautiful baby girl who is now the beautiful young lady you see below :o)

What a fun afternoon we had, looking through photos and remembering the memories. This is what photography is about and scrapbooking helps to document some of those moments as well. I love it!

xx

Iain's Birthday Bash

Last night was, my brother, Iain's 50th birthday bash down at The Broadway. The spread that was laid out for us was very tasty and the company excellent. It was a really enjoyable evening - thank you Iain and Louise.

Below are some photos from the evening.

The "Birthday Boy" and his Mummy

The cake Lighting the candles Big Blow!! Tyler wasn't too keen on the red eye light on my camera ;)

Theresa and Mum

Will and Dad

Me and Louise

Sarah and Hugh

Graham and Claire

Max

Emma and Kyle

Emily and Mum/Grandma

Hope you have all had a good weekend. I'm off to get ready for a new week.

xx

Caught up

That title could be misleading - caught up for how long??? More of that later. This morning my friend, Helena, picked me up from home just after 9am and we headed out to have breakfast together. We decided against going to our usual local haunts and Helena had a couple of different places in mind. Unfortunately, the first place had closed completely and the second hadn't opened by the time we got there. We were driving into Lingfield when we saw a couple of pubs offering breakfast. The Old Cage is one that I had been to years ago but never really think of going to nowadays. We decided to give it a try and are so pleased we did. We each had the English breakfast (sausage, bacon, egg, hash brown, tomato and toast) and a couple of cups of decent coffee. The pub is quite quaint; low ceilings, beams and old memorabilia around the walls. We sat in a corner next to the open fire and chatted the morning away. So nice to go somewhere different and really enjoy it. We've agreed we'll definitely go there again. Emily has had the day off school today. She's had a headache for the last couple of days and this morning was feeling sick and had a slight temp. Sounds very like what Hugh had a week or so ago. Fortunately, Jon was working from home this morning so she could stay with him until I got back. This afternoon I completed Week 3 of my Photo A Day layouts. This is where the caught up part comes in. I now have to try and keep up with making these layouts each week. How long will I stay "caught up"? I'm going to try really hard because I would love to end up with a complete year of layouts and journaling. What fun to look back on it years down the line!

Now I'm off to make a start on dinner - Toad in the Hole.

xx

Photo a Day

Today I decided to make a start on the layouts for my Photo A Day photos. I've looked at a number of blogs to see how they are doing their layouts and I've decided to more or less follow the Project 365 layouts. I think I'm going to keep all the layouts the same as it will simplify the process - and I'm all for simple!

Week 1

Week 2

The part I find most difficult is the journaling. At the moment I'm giving a brief rundown of what I/we've done in the day. I really hope I keep up with this because it'll be interesting to look back on it in years to come.

xx

Another birthday :)

Today we celebrated my nephew Tyler's 2nd Birthday. Mum and I were just saying we remember so clearly rushing down to the hospital two years ago today to see the latest addition to our family. Tyler is my sister Kay's grandson - her youngest daughter, Theresa's son. Tonight I'm just going to post some of the photos from this afternoon. They're not all brilliant quality as I was shooting without using my flash and some are a bit grainy. Hope you enjoy them anyway.

When we arrived Tyler was keen to show us the Playdoh he'd got for his birthday

Practicing blowing out candles so he's ready for the birthday cake (Kay's holding him)

Mummy watches Tyler open one of his presents

Postman Pat! I think he liked it. Sitting patiently :)

Look at those little feet! xx

When's the birthday cake coming?

On it's way!

Blowing out the candles for real!

And again!!

The cake was delicious.

Hope you enjoyed the rest of your birthday Tyler. Love you lots xx

xx