Last night

I told you I was babysitting last night :) and I just wanted to share a few photos of this beautiful little girl! She is the sweetest little thing and I love getting a chance to look after her. Unfortunately, the reason I got to look after her wasn't quite as nice - her Mummy (Theresa) and Daddy (Will) were taking her big brother, Tyler to A&E. He had been playing with his Nan (my sister, Kay) the previous night and had landed awkwardly on his foot. Theresa had thought he was okay, but then yesterday she noticed that he wasn't putting his weight on his foot and when he did, it was obviously painful. He was a very brave boy at the hospital and let them x-ray his foot and it looks like he has fractured his big toe :o( He was still being brave when he came to pick Alyssa up and I'm told he got two stickers for being so good :o) When Theresa brought Alyssa round she was fast asleep. We decided to let her carry on sleeping and not disturb her because she'd had her first vaccination in the morning and Theresa said she'd been quite miserable. (Photo by Emily)

Emily was desperate to have a hold and eventually I had to give in and let her have her turn ;o)

Isn't she the cutest!

When she woke up, and after she had a bottle, she was smiling and "talking" to me. So precious (photo by Emily)

A little bit later and we got a big yawn! She did actually stay awake after that until Theresa, Will and Tyler got back to pick her up then it didn't take too long for her to fall asleep in her Mummy's arms.

xx

Out and about today :)

It's stopped snowing and this morning I woke to the sound of rain! Never before have I been so happy for it to rain. It hasn't rained lots but it's been enough to start the snow on the roads melting (hoping it won't turn to ice tonight!) and this morning I drove Claire to work and then met up with friends for coffee at Neros. It felt SO good!! This is what it looked like looking out our front door at 4.30pm - the fog started after lunch and got heavier as the day went on.

I bought a couple of magazines today and was given some more. I have enough to keep me going for a while :)

I'm getting used to washing dishes again ;o). Our dishwasher gave up the ghost after Christmas and we haven't replaced it yet so I'm washing dishes again. In a way, my kitchen stays tidier because I wash as soon as there is a little pile at the sink and then dry them to get them out of the way. Somehow it's making things look tidier - not sure why! Perhaps because the children never used to put their dishes in the dishwasher and they'd be left until I was ready to stack it?

This orchid is one of five that sit on my kitchen window sill. I bought it earlier in the year and the flowers didn't last that long. I cut it back (as the internet told me to) and it grew a couple more branches (?) and the flowers have started coming out in the past week. I love orchids, love that the flowers last so long and, more importantly, love that I haven't killed them all!! Any other pot plant in our house doesn't stand much chance unless Jon waters it (and doesn't over water it!) but the orchids I seem to be coping with. I nearly killed one in our last house (hadn't watered it for months) but my friend Alison brought it back to life when I left it with her when we were moving house and it's now one of my best flowerers (is that right?).

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Dinner is cooking as I type and we need to eat a bit earlier tonight because I'm going to be looking after my great niece for a couple of hours. More on that tomorrow but for now I'm off to sort out dinner.

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Have a good evening

xx

No baking got done

I know earlier this morning I said that I might do some baking to use up some of the bananas - that didn't happen! We were all at home today; Jon was looking for work, it was Claire's day off, Emily had a snow day and Hugh is booked off work and waiting for a physio appointment for his knee. The girls and I caught up on a few taped TV programmes - Emily wanted me to watch Glee (not sure what I think of that one but seeing as Josh Groben is in it next week I'll watch again then before making my decision).

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I made curried sausages for dinner; we haven't had them for a while and, with the weather the way it has been, I thought it would be a good time to make them again. It's such a simple dish but so tasty.

This afternoon I made a start on going through drawers in our bedroom, sorting out what to keep and what to get rid of. I filled about 3/4 of a black bag with stuff taken from the three bedside table drawers and two chest of drawer drawers. I was fairly ruthless, anything broken/chipped or not used or worn in the last year went in the bag. It felt good to clear some space but I now need to tidy the other drawers (or maybe rope Jon in to do those as it's his things) before deciding which room to tackle next.

My cleared bedside table (with Golden Jubilee teddy)

Tomorrow my table will be cleared again, then maybe I'll feel more inclined to scrapbook!

xx

More snow :os

We woke up this morning to more snow! Not as much as we had before but enough for us to get a text saying the school is closed again because the road outside isn't safe. It had been supposed to be the first day back at normal time (ie. 8.25am) so Emily and I were up at 6am - I could have had a lie in :o( lol!! If you look at the shed in the photo you can just about make out the snow coming down ;o).

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I'm now off to have some breakfast and after looking at our bananas, there may be some baking going on later.

Have a cosy day!

xx