What IS going on .....

... with the weather! We are having such heavy downpours one minute and then it clears for a short while before the next one hits - horrid!! Feels like winter, I've had cold hands all day!

However, that didn't stop Emily and me from going into town. A lady I know, had told me she was getting married in the local church today at 12 o'clock ...

I had, half jokingly, told her that I was going to come and stand outside the church so that I could see her. She said she'd love it and why didn't I come into the church. I decided against the latter but, seeing as I had said I may go, decided to turn up so she could see I was there. We got into town just before 12 and made our way to the church. It was awfully quiet! We decided to wait a little while and see if she arrived.

Took the above photo of the church tower and the one below, of Emily. (It had just started raining so she put her hood up - but soon had to put on her jacket as the next downpour hit.)

Still no sign of any guests or the bride. Took a couple of photos of the flowers inside the entrance to the church

and then decided to make our way back into town for a bite to eat and to get the sweets for Emily's Saturday night viewing (and sometimes mine!). We thought perhaps the wedding was at 12.30pm but making our way back again proved that wasn't the case. I don't know where I got the time from (or maybe even the date???) but can you guess what my layout for tomorrow might be?? You better check back tomorrow and see if you were right.

A quick visit to Marc and Ali's - where Emily got a slice of birthday cake - and then we headed home again. I started making my layout and have just finished it and photographed it, so you can see it below.

Hope you got to do the things you planned to, today!

xx

Today's layout and sickness in the house

Perhaps I should go back to Wednesday for this post. That was the day when Jon woke up not feeling well - severe headache, nausea and upset tummy. He made it in to work but was home again around lunch time. He was in bed Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and this morning; finally getting up around lunch time today but still not feeling wonderful. Unfortunately, yesterday when Emily got home from school she had a blinding headache. I gave her medicine when she got in and again before she went to bed - thought she may just be tired and would sleep it off. Oh no, this morning she came down when I called, went through the motions - breakfast, getting dressed, etc. but by the time I went up to see if she was ready to leave, she was as white as a sheet and really not feeling well. The headache hadn't gone and she was quite weepy (and worried because it was only her second day at the school!). I decided to keep her at home and she has been given medicine every 4 hours but the headache hasn't gone yet. Not what we needed for the start of a new term :o( - I'm hoping they'll both be feeling better by Monday! I did take Hugh out for some driving practice this morning. Had a few things to do in town so he got to drive to each place and then home again. His test is on 14 October and he needs to get in as much practice as possible. I'm not good at going out on the road with learner drivers but, I have to admit, he has improved since I last went in the car with him. Must be a good sign ;o) When I got up this morning, I noticed that my ring finger on my right hand had a big red band on the front, where my ring normally sits. Jon bought me this particular ring years ago and I've worn it every day since and never had a problem. Today, there was a problem! I popped into Boots to see if they could shed any light on it; we are putting it down to a reaction to something that might have got under the ring. I've got some hydrocortisone cream to put on it and hopefully it'll heal quickly and I can go back to wearing my ring again. Very strange! For today's picture, my layout of the day. The photo is the one I took of Emily yesterday morning (we do a layout of something from the day before - make sense?). To end - "Thank You" to the three people who posted messages yesterday (my Mum, my sister and a friend - haha!!). No one new prepared to risk it?? Maybe today??

Have a lovely weekend and I hope you all stay healthy and bug free

xx

First day of school and another layout

Today was Emily's first day at Senior School. Needless to say there were lots of nerves (both hers and mine), some tears (Claire's and mine) and I think, mixed in there somewhere, a touch of excitement. New beginnings. Scary, for sure, but a challenge and new friends to meet. Emily said it felt really strange getting dressed in a different uniform and, for me, it made her look more grown up. I've been here twice before and I know it doesn't take long for them to grow up and become more independent. In a way I'm looking forward to this stage, for Emily, but for me - she's my baby!!! Claire got up early and came to see Emily before we left for school. She surprised me by getting quite emotional. I think even she was feeling the loss of her "little" sister as she knows only too well how quickly you change after starting Senior School (you can see that Emily has overtaken her, height wise, in the above photo!) We always have to have a photo next to the car - I suppose as a standard, to show how much they have grown each year. On this occassion we went out before we actually needed to leave so that Emily wouldn't be too embarrassed as the other children hadn't started walking to school. We are now on our third layout for Shimelle's class. In this one I've used an older photo as the one I took yesterday didn't turn out so well (I forgot to change my White Balance setting for the tungsten lighting and can't get it to look right no matter how I try!) It still works for me.

For those who might be interested, I lost another 1/2 pound last night at Weight Watcher, bringing my total to 12 pounds so far.

Finally, I know I'm getting a few more people from around the world looking at my blog now. If you're feeling brave enough, please leave me a comment and tell me where you're from and, if you remember, how you found my blog. For those who don't have a blogger account, click on the annonymous button, leave your message and just add your name at the bottom. I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone takes me up on this one ;o)

xx

Last day of the holidays

Emily's last day of the holidays! We went into town this morning to get a few last minute things and then went to Cafe Nero for her last hot chocolate of the holidays :o) Had time to unpack when we got home and then it was time to take her to her friend Rebecca's. Today was Rebecca's 12th birthday and they had snacks at the house before going to see Mama Mia! From the run down I got when they got home, they'd had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

While Emily was out, Mum and I went out to The Craft Barn. I saw a quick demo of the Bind it All - quite impressive (once you've got the hang of it, I would imagine!). I bought a few sheets of cardstock and patterned paper and some flowers. Also managed to get refills for the Xyron 150 which had been one of my main reasons for going. They had just arrived in the store and they had to hunt through the boxes to find them.

Yesterday my diary for next year arrived.

I first got one of these in 2006 (for 2007) in a class on Big Picture Scrapbooking. I loved adding the papers and dressing it up so I decided to do another one for next year. Haven't decided what papers to use yet but will try and remember to post when it's done.

The diary for 2007

I've also done the first two layouts for Shimelle's "Learn Something New Every Day" class. I decided to leave the first one as it was after all. They are very simple so, further down the line, I'll have to decide if I want to add more or not. (The pages are 6x6)

Day 1 (01 September 2008)

Text reads: Rooibos tea helps to calm me when I'm stressed.

Day 2 (02 September 2008)

Text reads: The friends I have are an important part of my life!

xx