OMG, I've Created...............A Bloke!

Xander drinking his milk last night: first sign that I've produced a pure bona fide Yorkshire bloke!

Reasons To Be Cheerful; 1, 2, 3...

With everything that's been happening round here the past few weeks, it's easy to get bogged down with all the bad things in life. So this morning, being in a contemplative mood, I started to think about all those little things in the day that are a light relief. Anyway, I then remembered something I had read on both Kim and Rachels' blogs called '5 Positives' and how I'd wanted to do that on here for a while.

Obvious things would be the kids etc but that's too obvious; so I've set about photographing the little lights of my life today (knowing how fickle I am, this could have all changed tomorrow!). So, here are my 5 positives:

1) The tree I planted for Babe (my cat who died 3 years ago) is looking all lush!

2) I replenished my stash of Oreos!

3) My lovely coffee pot, couldn't live without it! (It also goes very nicely with #2!)

4) The stash of books next to my bed; love having them lined up. Any less than 3 and I get jittery!

5) Getting jiggy with it; loving this jigsaw, though it's far too addictive!

Costa Cons Ritas?!

Do you know, I blame that Marie! Her and her whole family have had a really bad dose of the flu and I spent a good 10 days sending all the {{{GET WELL VIBES}}} I could over them hills to get them better. Well, I knew I should have kept a few back and it's now come to bite me in the bum!

First of all there's poor Billy Jim's chicken pox; though thankfully he seems much better today so I think we're over the worst of it. But, I've been having a lot of breathing difficulty lately and towards the end of last week it got quite painful. So, quick call the my cardiac nurse on Friday and she told me to get some ibuprofen down my neck and see my GP. So, off I trot to the docs this morning and it turns out I have something called costochondritis. Yes, my initial reaction was 'er, I've got what-itis?!' too. It's basically an inflammation of the cartlidge between my ribs and breast bone, so every time my ribcage expands to breath, it hurts.

So, I sort of guessed that I couldn't really do anything about breathing, but the doc's prescribed ibuprofen and told me not to lift any heavy objects or push the pram! Now, can anyone see a bit of a 2 stone object that may be a bit of a problem?!

So Marie, can you send some {{{get well vibes}}} back over the hills, just while this Costa bloke stops conning Rita?!

Scraplift Challenge #1

Right, I have my list (yes Kim, saw your post!). So, there are 6 of us for the scraplift, which I think will be quite a nice number. I have 1 person on holiday and 1 who needs a bit of time to get her stash together. I've also tried to mix it up a bit so that you're scraplifting someone's work who's style you don't really know (with the exception of me and Rach, but I know everyone and I've never lifted one of Rach's layouts before!). So I'm thinking the order can go something like this:

Rach

Lou

Kim

Lauren

Marie

Julie

Can you let me know if you don't have the following person's email and I'll make sure you get it.

Happy scrapping!

The Pox!!

Our poor little boy has come down with the pox of the poultry variety! There's been a bit of an epidemic round here so I suppose it was inevitable that he'd get them. Luckily, he only seems to have a mild dose and isn't covered from head to toe like Emily was (how exactly do you put calamine lotion inside eyelids?!), but is still a bit cranky. So, lots of {{{ANTI ITCHY VIBES}}} for Billy Jim please!
In other news, thanks to my sis Zo for the offer of the books, but it seems it's a bit of a dead duck. The course has an exam at the end...which is on the same day as Gemma and Dave's wedding! As I'd probably find it hard to get to the exam from Antigua, and they won't allow me to sit it at another time, I'm now on the lookout for another course! What were the chances eh?!

To All You Literary Types...

So, as many of you know, I'm in the middle of completing the last year of a degree with the Open University. Anyway, at the moment I'm doing English Grammar, but have to pick another course to complete the 3rd year, which in turn will complete my degree.

Anyway, I've decided on a course called 20th Century Literature: Texts & Debates. At first the whole English Lit thing was giving me shivers, but as this course starts as soon as the current one finishes (as opposed to others which don't start til 4 months afterwards!), I thought I'd take a look. Anyway, once I looked at a few of the novels it uses, I've actually became quite interested. So, I took a list of the 16 books used to the library today and how many could I find? A grand total of 2!!

So, I'm on the scrounge! Obviously if I do go ahead with this course I'll need to buy them all as the library doesn't take too kindly to members returning the books covered in highlighter pen; but if anyone has any of the following books they could lend me so I can have a quick look through before I sign up, I'd be really grateful!

The Cherry Tree - Chekhov
Sunset Song - Lewis Grassic Gibbon
1930s British Poetry - Robin Skelton
Profrock & other Observations - T. S. Elliot
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
Galileo - Bertrolt Brecht
Labyrinths with Path Of Thunder - Christopher Okigbo
1950s Poetry - Frank O'Hara & Allen Ginsberg
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep - Philip K Dick
Kiss Of the Spider Woman - Manuel Puig
Waiting For Godot - Samuel Beckett
New Selected Poems - Seamus Heaney
Paradise - Abdulrazak Gurnah
The Ghost Road - Pat Barker

TIA!!! xx

Happy Anniversary!

OK, so it's Happy Anniversary to me and Rob, but why not eh?! Yes, it's a whole 9 years since Rob was dragged up that aisle, kicking and screaming, to make an honest woman out of me (hmmm, that one didn't quite work did it?!)

So, for those of you who were there who fancy reminiscing, and for those of you who weren't who would like to see us both before the grey hairs and wrinkles kicked in (ie, pre kids!), here's a few pics of the day!