It's Friday

I am so glad it's Friday, it's felt like a long week and I'm ready for it to be over! The shopping in Tunbridge Wells went well and I got the Bobbi Brown eyeshadow I needed. Claire also ended up buying some BB makeup and mum used her gift voucher from Iain on some BB eyeshadow as well. We wandered around the shops (with Claire having to stop at Jane Norman twice ;o) ) and had a lovely lunch at The Nutmeg Tree. It always gets so busy at lunch time and the last couple of times we've been we've not been able to get in because there have been queues waiting outside. On Wednesday we went just before mid day and were able to get a table. After lunch we popped into Marks and Spencers and picked up some of their breaded chicken for dinner (yum!)

On Wednesday afternoon it poured and I was looking out the window when I saw this rainbow. I grabbed my camera and managed to get a few shots before it disappeared.

If you look in the top right corner you can actually see there was another rainbow above it though the second one wasn't as clear. Another shot where you can see the second rainbow a bit clearer.

Yesterday was my morning for meeting up with friends for coffee at Caffe Nero. We meet once a fortnight and tend to spend the whole morning catching up and chatting. Always a fun morning and yesterday was no exception.

Last night Jon and I went to Sackville for Emily's parents evening. We saw most of her teachers and they all think she is lovely and her work is outstanding. I love parents evening like that, you leave feeling really good! Well done Emily and keep up the good work! We love you loads!

This morning I popped down to Sainsbury's to do Mike's shopping for him. They are still trying to get his medication dose sorted out and his leg is still sore so I offered to get his shopping. He is back at the Doctor's this morning because he's also had a pain under his armpit since yesterday and had thought it was from the way he was lying but it was still sore today and they suggested he go in again.

I am now going to do what ironing I have to do so that I can relax this afternoon. Looking forward to a peaceful weekend.

xx

Things happen

I fully intended on posting on Mother's Day but, in the end, didn't get round to it. My children spoilt me with some lovely presents and then we had a very enjoyable afternoon when family came round for tea and cake. Unusually for me, I didn't take many photos other than one of the cakes before everyone tucked in ;) For those who were wondering, I had made a pecan pie, key lime pie, Death by Chocolate cake and lemon drizzle traybake. All were delicious but I now need the little that was left over out of our house so that I don't eat any more.

This was the card I made for Mum

In other news, Jon's brother Mike had had a sore leg since Friday and on Sunday one of the members of his church told him they thought he ought to go to the hospital to get it checked. They took him up to our local hospital who said they suspected it was a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) and that he needed to go to East Surrey Hospital to be checked out properly and have a scan to confirm it. Jon took Mike on Sunday afternoon but they were unable to give him a scan that day. They gave him an injection and told him he'd be contacted the next day and told when to come back for the scan. Long story short, I took Mike back on Monday and we spent about 5 hours there, going from one department to the next. It was confirmed he does have a DVT but by the time everything had been confirmed/completed the pharmacy was closed so they gave him tablets for that day and we had to go back again yesterday to pick up his prescription and get his blood checked again. Fortunately Mike seems in good spirits and from now most of his appointments will be with the local GP, where they will monitor his blood levels and change his dosage as required. One thing about having a larger family is that there always seems to be something going on ;)

Today, Claire has the day off work and I think we're going to head off to Tunbridge Wells with Mum so that I can get some more eyeshadow and for a wander around the shops.

xx

Busy morning

Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the UK and I've invited the family round for tea and cake in the afternoon. This morning, after dropping Claire off at work, I headed into Sainsbury's to get what I needed and then came home and spent the rest of the morning baking. Thank goodness for modern appliances which make some of the process so much quicker :) One of Jon's friends was going up to Twickenham to watch the rugby this afternoon and asked if we would babysit their 6 month old Jack Russell called Oscar. He's been quite good but has reminded me very clearly how much work a puppy can be! I certainly wouldn't be in a hurry to get another puppy and am grateful that our dogs are basically well behaved and not as demanding.

Oscar

And just for a bit of colour on the blog, I went to the garden centre with Mum and Dad on Friday and they had some really colourful displays. These flowers are a prime example.

Hope you are all having a good weekend, I am about to go outside and make the most of what's left of the sunshine. Someone told me we may be back to snow by Wednesday, I'm really hoping they were wrong!

xx

Thursday

I've been enjoyed the sunshine we've had recently and at the weekend we even managed to get our first braai/barbeque in. The garden is looking better as the plants start growing again - I had hoped you might be able to see our daffodils in this photo but you have to look very carefully for the little yellow blobs ;) Jon has cut the grass a few times and is starting to patch up the areas where the grass had died off over winter. I love this time of year with the promise of Summer to come. I thought I'd show you what my little craft area is looking like now. The wall unit, red boxes and red drawers are what I got at Ikea. What a difference they've made! Jon turned the table round and the room now looks like it has a purpose - before it looked like a junk room. I still haven't got round to organising everything properly but it's just so nice to have most of it in one place.

I have also decided that, with Spring here and Summer on it's way I need to try harder to lose weight. I long to be able to wear skirts/dresses in Summer and know that I'm the only one who can do anything about it. So, this week I've started walking into town with Claire when she goes to work. She goes down the road to work and I carry on round on the circuit I've chosen. It takes me about half an hour and has a few hills to go up/down. My legs are still giving me problems but I'm determined to keep going and hopefully as I get more used to it the pain will ease off. It's frightening how unfit I am! I have also stopped eating between meals; haven't had chocolate since Monday (which is good for me ;) and the longer I keep it up the less I miss it!) and am making the effort to eat more fruit. I decided against saying I'm going to do the Weight Watchers plan because as soon as I say that it seems to make things go downhill fast, instead I'm just watching what I eat and trying to do more exercise. Hopefully, I'll be able to give positive report backs as I continue.

Having said all that, Emily and I went out to Prezzo for lunch today. Emily hadn't been able to come when we took Mum out for her birthday because she was at school but today she had an inset day and I had promised we would go out. I tried not to do too much damage by having olives for starter and prawns with spinach in a tomato sauce with my pasta. Emily had garlic bread and Margarita pizza. Really delicious.

Now, time for me to think about what to feed Jon and Claire (Hugh's on a late shift). Emily and I have decided we won't want much for dinner as we're still quite full :) and then I have a couple of job applications to get ready to post.

xx

Sorry the paragraphs all seem to run into one another, I try and leave spaces but Blogger just takes them out again. Frustrating!