ummm....belated happy new year.

Wow, has it really been over a month since I posted to my blog!?

Jeez.

Nah, seriously - I knew it had been a while but I just haven't felt like sharing ya know?
In fact its not just that I haven't felt like sharing - I am not sure if I am allowed to share. :-(

We had some pretty heavy stuff happen in the last few months of last year. Stuff concerning ladybird that shook us all up really bad. Don't worry - she is fine and safe, and let me tell you she is a brave little girl. Its all getting sorted - but apparently the legal system sucks so much that it can take up to a year to get anywhere with getting it properly sorted.

So, with all that going on, i haven't felt able to blog. I feel like I am keeping secrets, and I don't like secrets. Secrets allow bad things to happen.

So, I dunno if anyone is still reading....not sure why you would if you think I am AWOL....but we are all OK, stomach virus been doing the rounds since the new years but overall we are doing ok. :-)

sorry for the cryptic post, but its the best I can do right now....

Oh and one more thing, very important!

Always believe what your kids tell you,
and always take action on what your kids tell you.

We are so glad we did, or things could have been so much worse than they were.

take care!

wheeled shopping trolleys.

I have finally become fed up with ordering my shopping from asda online for home delivery. Short dated foods, products squashed, eggs broken, items missing (but still charged for!!) and sometimes just the wrong things sent. I couldn't pick out my own fruit and veg and sometimes got sent loads of green peppers when what I wanted was red or yellow. (I hate raw green peppers by the way, cooked are ok but it cuts down my options with what to do with the peppers.)

I am also fed up of struggling home on the bus, the passage ways are too narrow to fit me up (almost) let along me and 20 million shopping bags - at least without knocking out half the passengers as I make my way up the bus past the seats that are reserved for the elderly. Since I am on the topic of buses, I am also going to mention that I HATE standing waiting at the bus stop for the bus. Not cause its always late, or its cold or even just cause I want to get home.

Why do I hate waiting for the bus?

(little rant)
Its all the elderly people waiting for the bus with me! Now before you think I am suddenly ageist and hate all old people - let me tell you that is so not true. But put elderly (mostly ladies) in a bus stop and all you will hear is moaning and complaining. Mostly about young children and how they get away with anything and are spoilt rotten by young mothers (which by the way, at the age of 28 I think probably still includes me in their eyes) who (in their opinion) have no control over their children and like to go out drinking etc. Then they go on about how rude we are and how we have no respect for our elders etc. Now, for the record, my children and myself are very polite and nice to our elders. We all say please, thank you, excuse me etc as required, and usually let them on the bus before we get on ourselves. I say usually because after listening to their opinions of "young folk today" for 10 or 15 minutes with no regard for the fact that me and my children are standing there hearing all of that, I sometimes bundle my children on the bus as fast as possible (our turn in the queue) instead of letting those moaning about us on first. It really makes me angry and fed up, and this is why I hate using the bus.
(/little rant)

I could get a taxi home with my shopping right? Yes, I sure could but they are kinda expensive and if I have the kids their is always the problem of the booster seats etc....

So, walking is my plan. Without the kids.
But walking with loads of shopping bags hurts. So, I have decided that I need a shopping trolley.

In fact I have done more than decide I need one..... I have actually went and bought one. :-)

I wonder what you think of a wheeled shopping trolley for a 28 year old?
I think I am probably going to be the only person under 60 in our town that has one. LOL.

Will I start a trend or be laughed out of town? Should I care?

I will be getting my shopping home easily without cutting my fingers to ribbons on bags while they struggle up the road. Of course the other upside of this is that I will be able to walk to the store, get my items and them walk home again. More exercise! Might help with the weight loss...it has to right?

ivoryfrogs blog word cloud

Thanks to Wordle

Give it a go with your own blog!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick post to wish all my Americian visitors a Happy Thanksgiving day!

Hope you all have a great time with your families. :-)

We are still all a bit under the weather here - Ladybird has recovered from the chickenpox and is back at school but Ladybug is now a llittle ill. She has a bad cough and we thought we had spotted a few chickenpox appearing on her but nothing seems to haave come of it. She is off playgroup today, and has been since Tuesday. I too am a little unwell - Monday afternoon/evening I had a fever and my throat has been a little sore since then. Was feeling really tired too. Starting to feel a little better today though.

edit....
Ladybug has the "chicken pops" - as I was getting her changed this morning (after I had posted) I discovered loads over her tummy/chest and all over her back too. Then when putting her hair up out of her face I found a load more behind her ear and on her neck. Now she has some over her face and under her chin too. :-(

chicken pox!

Ladybird (my 5 year old) has chicken pox.

Woke up this morning and she tells me she has some red spots on her tummy/chest. Have a look and also notice a few on her neck, arms and 4 on her face. Decided that a quick trip to the doctors might be in order.

At our doctor's surgery, if we want an appointment we have to phone at 8am to get one. If we are too late (8.30am is probably too late, they go fast) we have to phone back the next day at 8am to try our luck again. We can't pre-book appointments, even for things like my thyroid checkups. Its daft. Anyway, so I phoned the doctors office, busy signal...again, busy signal. Few attempts later (about 8.15am) got through to the receptionist, who already sounds harrassed. No wonder mind you - she has probably been on the phone for a solid 15mins at this point. I ask for an appointment with the lady doctor we normally see.....no appointments free she tells me, that doctor is only in for the morning. But there is an appointment at 9.40am for another doctor - I snap it up fast before someone else does.

So, off we go to the doctors, kids cause mayhem in the waiting room - Ladybird wants me to buy a book for her (they sell second hand books for charity at our doctors surgery) - only 50p for her one and one for me so can't complain. Ladybug was too busy running around counting the empty seats to bother about the books. Get taken in to the doctor, 10 minutes later than our appointment and as soon as we get in the room, he has to rush off to deal with something in another room (a nurse asked him to) - another 5 minutes maybe and he is back and ready to help us out. Quick look over Ladybug and he tells us what I already suspected. Lady bug has chicken pox (or chicken pops as she calls it) - he tells her that she will likely get more spots, and they may itch etc. Tells me to keep her off school for the rest of the week and that Ladybug will likely get infected too. Fun.

So, kids at home driving me nuts. Except for a brief 30 mins or so when they were colouring in sheets I printed off from nickjr.com. They may go back to them later but for the moment they are watching Rubbadubbers on tiny pop while I cook lunch. :-)

I will lose weight damn it!

So, my weight is back up to what it was this time last year. Before all that icky sickness bug which by the way worked great for weight loss purposes. But not pleasant.

I'm seriously not amused by this fact. Being fat sucks. Pretty sure all of you are aware of that right?

So, what am I going to do about it?
Well, made a small start in that I have signed up for Sparkpeople (again!)

Its a really cool site, only problem I have with it is that because it is an American site, the food listings are mostly American brands. All this really means is that I have to spend a little bit more time listing foods that I eat as"foods not listed" So not a huge deal.

Set up is really easy and the site works out how many calories and how much carbs, fat and protein you should have per day based on the info you put in (height, weight and what exercise you plan to do)

The site offers more than just a way to track food though - you can also track you exercise, watch exercise demo's etc and get support during your weight loss journey via the message boards or the various groups.

Wow, I sound like I am a sales person or something right? Well, I'm not. I just get carried away about things now and again. lol. Seriously though, I think this Sparkpeople site could be the thing that helps me keep track and finally lose weight.... Has to be a good thing right?

I signed up the day before yesterday, so yesterday was my first day tracking.
I tracked everything, so that's a good point. I did strength exercises (damn the plank is hard!) and walked a fair bit too, another good point. Bad points - I went way over calories (mostly with carbs) partly due to letting myself get too hungry and stuffing some fruit shortcake biscuits while making tea/dinner. :-( Also I didn't drink much water....

But, at least I know where I am doing wrong and have it in black and white on the site so I can make improvements. That's the plan anyway!

Cake picture & recipe

Ingredients

450g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

400g butter
400g dark brown sugar
4 tbsp black treacle
2 tbsp marmalade
1/2tsp vanilla essence
8 eggs, lightly beaten
1600g mixed dried fruits (I used 500g sultantas, 500g currents, 100g cranberries, 250g apricots and 250g prunes)
500g glace cherries, halved
200g chopped nuts (I used 100g hazelnuts and and 100g mixed nuts)
brandy

Method

1. Heat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas2. Grease a 10inch round cake tin and line the bottom and sides with double layers of greaseproof paper.
2. Sieve the flour, salt, mixed spice and cinnamon into a bowl.
3. Cream the butter and the sugar in a large (very large! - I used a soup pan! lol) mixing bowl and then mix in the treacle, marmalade and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
4. Mix the eggs a little at a time into the mixture adding a tablespoon of flour mixture with the last amount.
5. Fold in the remaining flour mixture until well mixed and then mix in the dried fruit, glace cherries and the nuts.
6. Put the mixture into the prepared tin and make a slight hollow in the centre.
7. Bake in the oven until the skewer comes out clean. (Mine took 6 hours in the end - I was cheking every 20 mins or so after around 4 hours)
8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. (I left mine overnight in the tin so missed out the turning onto wire rack step which is next)
9. Turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool.
10. Once cool, make a few holes in the cake with a skewer and pour over 3-4 tbspof brandy. Let the brandy soak into the cake.
11. Store the cake wrapped in greasproof paper and foil and then in an airtight tin or plastic container, holes (for the brandy) side up.
12. For a rich and moist cake, feed it! - spoon over a few tablespoons of brandy every week until you are ready to ice and decorate your cake.

This recipe was originally a bbc recipe - found here. I doubled it cause I had a bigger tin (and wanted a bigger cake!) I also left out the mixed peel - cause we don't like it, instead I added more cherries. The nuts were originally supposed to be almonds but ASDA sent me hazelnuts instead and I had a bag of mixed chopped nuts in the cupboard so I just improvised.

Its only going to get better over the next couple of months - feeding it with brandy every week. :-)

first thematic photo contribution - Blur

This week I noticed over on Carmi's blog his theme of the week is "blur" and for the first time I have felt able to join in.

It turns out I am actually quite good at blurring photo's. I can do it without even trying. If fact I can do it even when I am trying not to blur. Pretty impressive huh?

So, here we have some blurry photo's of the street lights/street/rain outside my house. My indecisive self couldn't pick just one to share so I am sharing them all.

Christmas cake baking day....

The plan for today is baking.
Baking a christmas cake to be exact.

I have had the fruit soaking overnight in a little brandy so it should be ready to go when I am - in a couple hours or so after breakfast is done and dusted.

Will share my recipe later if you like. :-)

Win a free handbag!

To celebrate the launch of their new website on October 15th 08, handbagplanet.com are giving away 24 bags in 24 hours!

Very easy to enter, just click here to go to thir homepage - all you need to enter is your first name and an email address. Then once you click to enter you get to see a full page with all the handbags on offer and you get to pick which one you like best and thats pretty much it. You will be entered in the draw for that hour to win that bag.

I have my eye on that one in the middle with the 2 pockets at the front so hands off that one k?

Where does all the time go?

Its the 11th of OCTOBER already? No way!

Well, first term of primary one is done and dusted for my little Ladybird. Both Ladybird and Ladybug are on holiday for 2 weeks (1 week in already!!) from school and playgroup respectively.

Ladybug is loving being back at playgroup after the long summer and was very sad when we told her that she was on holiday again for 2 weeks. She misses her best friend C. Not to worry though cause its C's birthday party today!! Ladybug is very excited about this and has chosen a little "me to you" teddy bear form Clinton cards - it has "Special friend" written on its jumper. How cute!

Ladybird is also invited to C's birthday. C is between my two girls in age - this party is her 4th birthday party. Ladybug is going to be very upset next year when C moves up to primary 1. :-(

We haven't really been up to much during 1st term, apart from the craziness that is the morning getting ready rush....made even more difficult by the fact that OH now has a morning job from 7am to 9am. Three days a week he has to go straight to college after that (9.30am start) and the other days he doesn't get back home till 9.30am after both the children are in school/playgroup.

So mornings fall to me...wow they are fun. NOT. lol.

Then we have the fun of school uniform. Already my daughter has needed a couple new shirts (polo type as she was not handling the buttons great getting changed for gym) and 2 new skirts. We can not get trousers to fit this child....age 4/5 don't fit around the waist - she has a little sticky out belly, the store doesn't have any age 5/6 in stock (for the past 4 weeks! I don't think they are getting anymore uniform stuff in) and the age 6/7 is way too long in the leg (and shaped - I have no idea how to take trousers up neatly and unfortunately have no sewing machine.) Maybe I should look on ebay? She needs a couple more cardigans too....I just noticed the other day that the ones she has been handed down from another family member are sized 3/4. They are getting a bit tight on her. Is this what I face for the next 12 or so years!? As for the school tie.....we haven't been able to get hold of one yet.....since August. The school office doesn't sell them - only one store in town stocks them at all - and they have told me they can't get anymore until NOVEMBER! I don't understand this - they must know how many children are starting this school - how come they don't have enough ties? Its the only school in the area with this particular tie and the store owner has told me (and I could see by the tie display in store) that this tie is the ONLY tie they have sold out of. Are people buying multiple ties??

My new course with the open university has just started (on the 4th Oct 2008) - its code is DD100 and its title is "Introduction to the social sciences" - its the biggest (worth the most points) course I have done so far and I am a little nervous. I am not going to be able to make any of the tutorials - they are 20 miles away and start at 7pm. I can't drive yet and it would just be a huge hassle. Not to worry though cause we have a forum on the open university site and there are groups on facebook that I have joined. We can also phone/email our assigned tutor if we feel we need some advice.

Weightloss - yeah what weightloss. Its not going well, put it that way. As of this morning I am back up to 232. Only 3 pounds down form the original start weight. But I have my pedometer on - should get some walking in today (taking the kids to the party if nothing else!) and I am trying my very best to track every single thing I eat (even if it is chocolate) on sparkpeople.

Start of primary school!

Almost ready! Just the hair to sort out now....

Left -Hair done and jumper on (excuse the mess!) Right - Almost time, outside school..bit nervous, bit excited.

Outside school with mummy.


Left - Just waiting. Right - In class!


Left - Ladybug on way to playgroup
Right - Ladybug on way up stairs to playgroup.


Ladybird just out from her first day at school.

So, last Tuesday (19th Aug) my eldest daughter - ladybird, started primary school!
We were lucky in that we got a lot of her uniform from a family member who has a child a year older than ladybird so all we had to purchase were knickers, vests, socks and shoes. We also purchased a school sweatshirt, a coat from the school (in school colours) and a gym bag from the school...oh and a lunch box for days she doesn't like what the school is offering. Her grandparents bought her schoolbag for her and her auntie bought her a matching water bottle. So, she was pretty much set.

Monday night I could be found sewing in name labels.....why oh why did I buy the sew in ones? In about 2 years when my youngest ladybug goes to primary school...please do not let me buy sew in labels.

Anyway, I managed to get labels done for the stuff she was wearing for her first day and a few more bits, got everything laid out, not just for ladybird but also ladybug. Both had to be a school/playgroup for 9.30am. Slight problem as everyone (me, OH and both grandma's) wanted to see ladybird start school. So, ladybug was 15mins late for playgroup, but they are really nice and didn't mind at all.

Back to the school story.....
half past 9 arrived and some teachers came out.... we had to find ladybird's name on one of 3 lists and I was relieved (and even had a tear in my eye) to find that she was in the same class as K, her best friend! She also has others from playgroup in her class, L and R. Whew!
So, we just follow all the others heading towards the primary 1 classrooms, find her's - 1D and pop her in. Glad to find that a friend - L, is already there so I give her a kiss, so does daddy and ladybug and we tell her to go sit beside L. I then go and help her off with her coat and bag and thats it...we leave her there!

Thats been 4 mornings at school now and she seems to be loving it. She has completed a book about "red" in which the had to circle every instance of the word "red" in the text, and colour in 1 thing red on every picture. She has read the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty " as homework on Tuesday and drawn pictures of him on his wall. Not sure what else they have done in class but she did tell me she put her gym shoes on herself so I guess they have done some activity of some sort!

They have a break halfway through the morning - 15mins in the playground and a tuck shop. They are allowed to spend a maximum of 40p a day. The first day she bought 2 biscuits and 2 of those little packs of raisins for her 40p...I thought that was a tad expensive so next day I gave her a little pot of sultanas along with her 40p so she could buy a drink or something. She ended up not spending the money and just ate the sultanas! lol. Next morning (Thurs) I thought I would give her a little more, plus she asked me for carrot sticks. So that day she got carrot sticks, sultanas and some cubed chedder cheese. All eaten, and she still didn't spend her 40p. Last day of the week, Friday, she asked me for snack again so I gave her the same as Thursday with the addition of a few baby plum tomatoes. Eaten all up and money still in purse. She even said she shared her snack with a friend! We may start a healthy snack revolution in P1! I do wish she would purchase a drink for herself from the tuck shop though....she has that option or even the bottole of water we send in every day with her. But she doesn't drink it. I wonder if she is a little afraid of needing to go to the toilet if she has a drink?

Me and OH have to go in on Tuesday afternoon of this week - Ladybird has to do a test. Already....yes, a test. Its a 20 minute test based on the computer just to find out what kind of level they are at regarding colours, letters, numbers etc.. Ladybird should do fine at it, she knows all that kind of stuff. Only thing we are worried about is if she has one of her messing about days where she tells us the wrong colour, shape, letter etc on purpose and thinks its funny.

Ladybird's 5th birthday

Ladybird turned 5!
Up early....not that thats unusual around here!

Present opening takes place first of course!
A few pics.....

We had a quiet day really, grandparents were both away on holiday and uncle D was working during the day. Had a picnic indoors and played with new toys.

Uncle D came up about 7pm with A. Coluldn't stay long because A had to get back to work. They got a bit of cake though!

So, not much to post about her birthday really....next year we are planning a party with her school friends, should be good. :-)

you know your kids watch too much spongebob when.....

Your 5 year old says "Poor Patrick in a minute" a minute before he gets lassoed by Sandy while watching a mix video of clips posted by someone on youtube.

Take note it was from a random mix of clips - she didn't recognise the whole episode, she recognised a scene from an episode. Scary.

wow, I haven't posted since the 8th July?!

It seems I have been neglecting (or possibly avoiding) posting to my blog.

I think I may know why - I haven't really been doing very well on the diet/weightloss plan. It fact I pretty much suck at it. I am only 8.8lbs down on what I was at the start of the year - thats a full 7 months ago and I am down 8.8 tiny pounds. That sucks.

Another reason is that the money situation is not good. The kids are on summer holidays and we have no money to go or do anything fun with them. I don't drive, OH does but we don't have a car....hell even if we did have a car we wouldn't be able to put fuel in it. So its difficult to go anyway and do anything with 2 kids. This is making me as a mum feel guilty and sad for them. I suck.

So, what do I have blog about - not a whole lot right now. lol. One thing that is pretty cool - cafepress have a few new products to add to my shop (www.ivorytees.com) including a modern clock, a large clock and a ceramic travel mug!

Pretty cool huh?
I will have to get working on these, as well as generally sorting my shop out.

Also, Ladybird has a birthday coming up - August the 3rd my ladybird turns 5! She starts primary school in about 3 weeks!! Scary.

Anyway - her choice of birthday cake. Spongebob squarepants.

Should be interesting - Will post cake as soon as it is made, probably late August 2nd or possibly Aug 3rd before it is cut obviously!

Yum Yum Yum

pretty word cloud.....

created over here.