A brief post

Today is one of those days when you dash from place to place but don't get an awful lot done. We woke to a dusting of snow which didn't look particularly worrying. Wrong!! I saw Emily off to school; Claire has a week's holiday and was coming with me to Sainsbury's, so we set off about 8.45am to pick up Mum for the weekly Sainsbury's shop. We eventually got to Sainsbury's at about 9.25am!! We live a 5 minute drive away!!!! The snow was obviously covering a layer of ice which was causing havoc on the roads. We sat in traffic for about half an hour to cover the 5 minute distance. Fun!

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Shopping done and we were ready for our weekly Starbucks coffee :)

Mine's a tall, wet, decaf cappuccino with soya milk

Claire's not a great coffee drinker so had a lemon juice and an apple cinnamon doughnut for breakfast

Mum's coffee is the same as mine but with normal milk rather than soya!

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We got home around 11.30am and I had time to unpack before heading out to take some more photos for the Trinity Playgroup website. Jon has been redoing the website and I've taken the photos for it but there were a few more shots they wanted.

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Lunch today was a tub of Saag Aloo from Sainsbury's. I don't need anything else with this, I love it just as it is. I think it must have been Mel's curry and rice lunch that got me thinking I fancied something similar. I didn't remember to take a photo though :(

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Emily has been having trouble with the wire on her braces since she went to the Orthodontist and I finally remembered to phone and persuade them to see her today to get it sorted. They explained that the wire is actually slipping in the brackets because she's still on thin wire. However, they've sorted it out again for now and we've bought another supply of wax and hopefully she'll be pain free.

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I've just had time to type this before going out again to take Tom to the vet for his vaccinations. I'm sure he's going to love it!! and going in his cat box!! Wish us luck ;)

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Claire has offered to make carbonara tonight so I'm looking forward to only cooking for Jon and Emily while Claire makes for Hugh, Craig, herself and me. Final fling before I start a healthier eating programme.

xx

First Tag Book Completed

Those of you who have been reading my blog long enough may remember this post where I told how I was going to do my photo a day as a monthly tag book. Well, today is the 31/01/2010 and I have completed the first book. I'm pleased that I've kept up to date with this project. It's been so much easier than making layouts to show the photos and, this way, I do my journaling each evening and add my photo to the back of the previous day's tag. Simple!!

Front cover

A couple of the pages

Today I've punched holes and added book rings and some ribbon to finish it off. I've now printed out February's pages and am ready to start the next book. (Another thing with this tag book is that you get to see my handwriting whereas I really don't like writing on layouts - don't know why, but that's the way it is!)

xx

Cat update

The kittens had a good night last night, though they did wake Emily up a few times by licking along her jaw line while she was sleeping (which then woke her up!). This morning they seem perfectly happy and have been purring away. I spent a little while in Emily's room trying to take some more photos. They are quite happy to have people around them and I'm hoping later on today that we might bring them downstairs in the cat boxes for Tom, Charlie and Cloud to meet them. I think the sooner we can get them integrated into the household the better.

Bellatrix is very relaxed and quite happy to have her photo taken

Mac is curious about the camera but does sometimes stay still long enough for me to get a shot.

Upstairs and Downstairs

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They've taken a shine to Emily's chair, taking turns to sit up on the seat or below on her computer lap cushion. They were acting like true brother and sister earlier and having a play fight while in this position - quite amusing!

I wonder how amusing Charlie (above) and Tom (below) will find them later on??

Could be interesting.

xx

Thank you to Liz / Chicago

This first picture shows the goodies sent over by Liz for us. We weren't expecting anything because we never know if Simon will get down to see us or not while he's here on business. We were so chuffed with our package - Thank You Liz!!!! We love you :) We love Ranch Dressing and although we can get some here, it's not the same as the American one. Goldfish are Emily's favourites - and if Claire's lucky, she may be allowed to have some too. Hershey Kisses are just so American - though I still don't think their chocolate touches the British chocolate ;). And then, magazines - they always go down well :) :) Scrapbooks etc., Better Homes and Gardens and People Magazine. It feels like Christmas all over again ;)

However, as is usually the case once we've seen Simon, we reminisce about our holidays in Chicago. Each one has been wonderful and we always love spending time with Simon, Liz and the children. Liz and I had our children around the same times - Helen is 4.5 months older than Hugh, Richard is 6 months younger than Claire and Henry is 9 weeks older than Emily. They've always got on like a house on fire, no matter how long it's been since they last saw each other. The photo above was taken on our second trip to Chicago in 2001 - just before Emily started school.

This second photo was taken in 2006 when Emily and I went on our own to Chicago. Emily and Henry hadn't seen each other for at least a couple of years but as soon as they met at the airport again they clicked and didn't stop talking all the way home. That holiday was so relaxing, we spent time in the garden, the children swam in the pond, we went to Barnes & Noble (as often as we could get away with it), visited Craft shops and just enjoyed being together. It was how I think summer should be spent!

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However, looking back at some of the photos on my computer they were showing 2008 and I knew we hadn't been to Chicago that recently. I pulled out the scrapbook I'd made to check the dates (2006) but noticed that I haven't actually finished the album and I thought I had. I'd seen a folder with the papers I used in this album, and some notes, while I was tidying up my craft area recently. Now I need to find where I put them so that I can finish the album (and re-live the holiday again!)

A few pages from the album

We loved "The Bean" in Millenium Park

And this is when I realised that I hadn't finished the album :(

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I wasn't expecting to be posting about Chicago today but it's been fun going through the old photos again.

xx