Run Forest run!

That title will only mean something if youve seen Forrest Gump. Its been a hectic week, one that has meant no time for blogging or much else other than working, home improving and sleeping.

Just a little time to post these photos from last Sunday's race for life at Woodbank Park. How lucky were we with the weather? I came back sunburnt.

Left to right, Billybob, mum, me, cousin Diana. Looky at us being cheesy with our medals. We went round in just under an hour which was pretty good going seeing as mum has tendonistis and we all ran the last 200 metres. Apparantly they take photos as you cross the finish line which should be interesting as Emma was running holding her pants up to stop them falling down and I was running holding my top down so that it wasnt flying up. Such an attractive photo I can see that making. You can see from this photo why my mum calls Emma and I her cuckoos. Cuckoos being birds that lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, I think in this analogy in a smaller thin birds nest with us being the big buxom cuckoos.

It was hard not to feel emotional at reading the notices on women's backs that told of who they were running for.


Anyway, we've smashed our target which is ace so job well done and shall definitely do it again next year.

Other than that, its been a week of a full floor refurb going wrong at the same time as finding out our new owners (we've been taken over) were coming to visit today. Both events on separate occassion, manageable - in the same week, not a good idea. Shall no doubt report on that next week. Snooze under the desk time methinks.

Race night nerves

I am my daughter's hero. No, really, I am.

Why am I my daughter's hero?

Because I did an unspeakful, gross, disgusting thing to bring her into creation....

Betty had 'Sex ed' on Wednesday.

Thursday morning she asked if I could hit her with a large hammer to make her forgot all about it. She wouldnt tell me exactly what they had learnt but whatever it was it was 'disgusting mum and how could you do it??'. Probably due to a large bucketful of tia maria if I remember rightly my darling. Joking. In my defence I pointed out I'd only done it twice, you know, just to bring my two little angels into the world but even then she said I should have stopped after the first time and tough luck on Ben's existence.

'Its horrible' she kept telling me. 'Yep' I said 'Dont ever do it, Ive booked your place in the local nunnery, there's a better option'.

Still, the whole thing kept me very amused for the entire length of Wednesday evening and even now its still funny to ask her what she learnt and watch her screw her face up, start muttering disgustedly and walk off.

Other news in the Beecher household is the death toll in the fish tank being now 3. 3 out of my 5 new fish have gone to the land of bin. I tell you, if the other two die, Im putting the tank in the shed and replacing it with a mug tree.

The replacement mirror for the long awaiting item now known as 'The mirror that Ben broke' arrived yesterday. Thought it felt heavier as I dragged it to my desk only to find that when I opened it, there were two inside. Despite the sounds of my work colleagues shouting 'Keep it, sell it, keep it, flog it' I had a nosey through the ebay sellers shop before carefully wording my email to him advising him of his mistake and pointing out that had I known there was to be a free gift I'd have prefered the matching magazine table.

Minutes later, email comes through thanking me for being so honest and offering me said magazine table at cost. Result? I think so.

Pig got hung up too. Ive heard the expression 'hanging yer mutton' but hanging yer pig?

New laptop also arrived, ordered earlier than it was supposed to have been ordered but that's because Beech really annoyed me by gloating over the whole mirror smashing thing and ordering it made me feel better. It was supposed to be one of those things to get once all the housey stuff had been done and if there was any money left from the loan I got with the intention of buying a car. I figured seeing as it was my loan, and my mirror and he was mean about it that it meant I could pretty much order what I wanted and so thats how it happened.

It was a relatively cheap one being that it was to replace the desktop which will need surgery in order to get onto the internet competently and was supposed to be for the children to use for homework and 'stuff'. However when it arrived and pouted its big and shininess at me I realised there was no way I could let them put mucky fingerprints all over it and so they will have mine and I shall keep the new one. Besides, its the healthier option for me, there's no way I'll want to eat chinese when Im playing on as the rice is always a bugger to remove from the keyboard...

Got Billybob here this evening in preparation for tomorrows 5km, she's tapping away on the old laptop enjoying being on line and playing on facebook. She asked me to take a photo of her for her facebook profile so of course I obliged...

Doesnt she look gawgus? She looks no different to when she was 5 at school, see?

Still the same grin, makes me laugh.

Spose I should go now, need to conserve energy for tomorrow. Managed to raise a fantastic £728 between the four of us which is brilliant. Shall report back tomorrow no doubt.

History in the making

Its such a shame that this didnt scan very well.

Its a thank you letter to the nice lady my mum works with from Ben, thanking her for the books she sent. Difficult to read and I couldnt get it any darker in elements so this is what it says:-

"Dear Lynne,

Thank you for the history

books it just so happens that I am doing a project on the tudors

but I have a quitsion where

is the victorian age? Give me a note to explain where it is

from Ben B"

Starts off so nicely then degenerates into a whole load of cheekiness. See, history dweeb on Sunday reading whilst waiting for his pasta in TGI Friday's.

Looky what arrived today...

Volume 5 woo hooo. Volume 4 hasnt arrived so Im presuming thats because it has more pages than volume 5 as they were ordered the same day. In fact, volume 6 should be done around now, only because Ive been blogging less, 3 months worth March to June just wont fill a book. Goes to show I have little of interest to go on about at the moment. As the back of this one says...

Yes, I realise Ive spelt instalment wrong. Its a nicer one this time around as the cover is printed and not a dust cover as the last 3. Looks more like a real book than ever. Oh and in case anyone was wondering, I have given credits on the inside for using the digital kits to create the front cover.

But hey, least this wont be me in years to come...

Scuse photos in this post by the way, all taken with my phone, compact flash card is playing up at the moment so camera is resigned to its bag until the new one arrives.

Thats about it for the moment, I shall go away, have some toast and listen to Def Leppard on my phone, hey I know how to have the perfect lunch half hour..

Changing Rooms

A lovely lady that works with mum sent the children a box of almost new looking books. Ben was over the moon as he loves books, even more so when he discovered there were several non fiction books covering one of his favourite subjects, history.

I didn't really like history as a child but these days when I happen to come across a historical type drama, I watch with interest. Likewise, I found myself flicking through these books and learning a bit more than I knew earlier.

He can competently list Henry VII's children, talk about his son, Henry VIII, his 6 wives and what happened to them, and list his children, by birth year and blah blah blah. S'lovely to hear him waffle about it. Bethany had a question though, 'not being rude or anything' she said on Saturday, 'And I need to swear, but why was Bloody Mary called Bloody Mary?'.

'Because she killed lots of people' granny answered. 'Yes', said Ben, 'She killed all the pedestrians'.

I think perhaps you meant protestants Benj.

Lots of things went on last week... I pulled up and said goodbye to...

Minging carpet. God was that hard work. I tried rolling it but it got to heavy to push so I ended up having to fold it back on itself into the above huge pile then realised that at that point it was really really too heavy to move so had to leave it there.

Beech still out of commission at this point, thinking of sueing him for being more useless than normal in a time of needing him not to be useless. Anyway. Em came Thursday evening to play the Wii and very kindly helped slice and dispose of minging carpet in exchange for a new chrome toilet seat that she has to polish with her tushy, fair exchange I thought.

I did one of my favourite things yesterday - went shopping for home furnishings. Thats because (drum roll) the flooring has been done in my lounge. Finally. If I do say so myself, it looks cracking. No photos because its still a way to go before being finished, mainly because there's barely any furniture in here, not because Ive got rid of stuff but because there's never really been much furniture in here. So, now is the time for furniture and lovely new 'stuff'. Only one glitch which spoilt the week, the long awaited over the mantle mirror, the mirror that I fought tooth and nail with a rogue ebayer seller, that took 2 months to arrive (and wasnt the original mirror ordered in the end) and that looked fabulous held over the fireplace to see the effect (yes, the fireplace has been fitted too!!!) accidentally fell foul to Ben on Friday when he knocked it over.

Dammit I said. Id squished it somewhere I could have sworn it was safe but you know Ben gets everywhere, like castor oil. Double dammit. Or words to that affect. I discovered that floor lamps can be really really expensive, s'pecially the ones I like so instead bought a stick and a shade and paid a fraction of the price of a ready made one...

I had fun yesterday, Au Naturale in Alty are closing down and that was worth a visit - two rugs and an early Christmas present for Tara later, and likewise Homebase were having a sale which meant a hanging basket and wooden leaf thingy.

See the corner of the book there? Im re-reading 'The Secret'. Ive decided that all these things I order that either dont turn up, turn up and are broken and faulty, the bad bad service I encounter etc are all of my own doing. Why? Because Ive come to believe that this is the service I will receive. As the book says, if I think negatively, then I attract negativity. Wow, profound for a Sunday hey. So this is me, thinking positively and expecting the best things in life to happen to me. Now where's my new car?

Talking of my hanging basket, Ive been after one for ages and almost bought one several times on my trips to B & Q. Only thing is, they've been by the entrance door and Ive forgotten to go back for one once Ive got my trolley. In to Home base we go yesterday and what do I spy?

Cheesy mucho? Definitely, but there was never any doubt I'd go for one of these. Was there? Ever?

Still lots to do, hanging canvases, beading on the floor, bit more painting and then I just might be finished for Christmas. Tally ho.

A chain of events

So, the fun and games began yesterday with the arrival of Wii Fit. Its only taken me days and days of watching the magic stock update page like a hawk waiting for its magicness to tell me where was in stock the minute it hit.

Then as I'd try desperately to register with each site, it would be gone before Id completed the process which is very annoying. Finally the wonder of the magic site told me on Friday that Amazon was in stock and with baited breath I placed the order and voila - it arrived yesterday.

Shock?? Wasn't in it, we all know how my on line ordering normally ends up don't we.

Anyway, I dutifully did the test thingy and cringed as I waited for it to tell me my wii fit age.

31. Another shock. I'm not saying Im unfit or anything but the disappointment of finding out you cant do it all sat down was a harsh reality. Just joshing - 31, thats good yes? Seeing as Im 35 I mean. It also told me Im unbalanced but you know I haven't reached the grand age of 35 without hearing that a few times I can tell you.

Its also became apparent that it takes the mickey. It became apparent around the time it saw fit to shout 'one at a time please' as I stood on the board and how when it realised I was there the the mii character increased in size. How rubbing it in is that?? You're mii character swells as it calculates that yes, you do like your food and perhaps could do with loosing a pound or two. 'I know' it thinks, 'lets turn your online character into a barrel, that should encourage you to work out more'.

Its alive, I swear.

Anyway, it seems Im a champion hula hooper, that Bethany was good at heading a football and that Ben has no co-ordination what so ever. At all. I have more co-ordination in a single eyebrow hair than he has in his entire body. Funny? You havent seen funny until you've seen Ben trying to do step aerobics, I swear I had to run to the toilet before I had an accident from laughing so hard. Bless him, intellectually he's on a higher plane, physically he's made of wood.


Anyway, today's word over at Her Space My Space is 'Chain'..

I did try to photograph it whilst wearing it but the bad lighting in the ladies toilets, coupled with the chinage that kept getting in the way made for a bad bad shot, so resorted to the flat on paper thing.

Billybob has said she'll come play wii fit tonight, she might even let me take photos to document it, will you Em?

....

Can you dig it?

Yes you can!

Today's word for Her Space My Space is 'Dig'. I couldnt really be arsed doing the whole spade, soil, muck thing so instead asked Ben to show me how he would purvey him 'digging' something, as in, really liking something...


So there you go, my interpretation of 'dig'.

Bobs awarded me this little fella yesterday - thank you Bobs.

The rules are to pass it on to 7 people who I think are blog worthy. Its always hard to narrow it down so much when my bloglines is home to over 50 blogs that I read regularly but seeing as its a day for doing as Im told I would like to pass this on to Kitty, Louise, Amanda, Vanda, Maz, Michelle and Chrissy.

Its a lovely sunny day today, the skirting board man Jim the Joiner is coming at 12.00 and Mike the carpet is coming later tonight so that I can choose stair carpet. Today is going to be a good day. I hope.

Let's twist again.....

Not like we did last summer because we didnt really have a summer last year did we.

Get me uploading a work on the day the prompt is posted! Today's word for Her Space, My Space is 'Twist'

Betty's hair this morning. Neatly plaited in the hope it stays this week for the duration of the entire school day. Never does though. She always returns back looking like shes been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Banana - see?

The one person that I didnt expect to ask the banana question, was in fact the first person to ask the banana question. Its her own fault, she even read my blog this morning but 'skipped' that part. So, as I wrote the word 'banana' on said banana, Tara asked 'why are you doing that' which lead me straight to the answer of.... see above. Worth doing just to take the mickey for the rest of the day.

Meet replacement fish 3, 4 and 5 (the goldie coloured ones, not replacement fish 1 who is the speckly one).

Obviously they need training to stay still when I approach with my camera. Im not so sure they like their names either, must think of some better ones.

Scrapped last night, just a quickie with the 'Goin' Bananas' kit from Nit Wit collections - matched perfectly with this chimpy face...

Little monkey that he is.

Also sent off next two blog books so volumes 4 and 5 should be winging their to way me very soon, how exciting. A process that takes ages to complete but well worth the effort when they arrive all shiny and hardbacked.

Thats about it really, resisting the temptation to mention any sort of DIY goings onsies.....