I may be a while & Introducing us

I am going to apologise in advance for the fact that I am more than likely going to be a delinquent BBfS participant over the next few days – ‘wind up internet mode’ brings out the worst in me as I just don’t have the patience.

In the meantime I am going to get some naming conventions sorted. I love how you clever folk out there have pseudonyms in blogland for your loved ones. I completely ‘get it’ and I am going to (unashamedly) copy you all.

You must excuse this very ‘au naturel’ shot, twas taken in a hurry at Christmas

I have already started this in using t’hubby for my lovely husband – this does however run the risk of divorce if he spots it.

For my grown up son we have The Boy B, bit boring I know but he’s had this name for ever although it is usually followed by his full surname.

For my 2 lovely daughters we have Grumpy & Tattyhead - although I have to say that I’ve not actually agreed Tattyhead with youngest little darling so I may be in trouble there too. Tattyhead is simply because as a toddler and young child she often had a tatty head, as can be seen below wonderfully, and Grumpy I think is self explanatory – but she does have a gorgeous new smile

There is a story behind this sad little face.

Collectively they’re often know as either The Girlies or Triple T’s (two truculent teenagers) depending on how I feel about them at the time lol.

Mad Dog Maisy is, well, Mad Dog Maisy also sometimes known as The Maisy Monster

And so now you’ve been formally introduced to our little family, there are others that will make an appearance from time to time like my Mum whom you met the other day and my sister and her offspring - I’ll just make their names up as I go along though.

Finally and lol, I don’t believe I am actually about to share this – I present a really, really old layout – one of my very early ones but it does tell the tale of that sad little face. I think you can just about read the journaling if you click on the layout.

Thanks for dropping by and please feel free to leave me a comment.

Wendy xx   (hmm, maybe I need a pseudonym too – answers on a postcard please)

A Day in the Life – Part 1

It started late, I blame eldest dd. She’d kept my phone overnight and so I had no alarm to wake me, consequently it was 08:08 before I even stirred for the first time. Second time was 08:25, this time I forced my eyes to stay open one at a time and I reached for the laptop. Time to check in with the world and see what was happening in blogland.

09:00 I finally got out of bed and into the shower.

09:30 saw the first load of washing out on the line, and the first poo collection – important point this, maybe I’ll explain that one later. What a glorious day it is looking to be with clear blue skies and a gentle warmth in the air already. Actually its hot in our kitchen. I desperately need to get roof blinds sorted for the conservatory end, otherwise we are going to roast.

10:00 Second load of washing is on, my toast is cooling (hmm, are you a hot or a cold toast person?) the kettle has boiled (twice now) but is cooling a little ready to make my coffee. I thought perhaps I’d start typing this up – whether it ever actually gets published remains to be seen, especially as at this point I have no idea what todays prompt from Shimelle is going to be.

I tried to catch the steam and the furious whistling but failed miserably

10:10 Ah, kettle had cooled a little too much, boiling now for the third time.

10:20 Breakfast outside on the bench, ok the washing is shading the bench a little, bit of a logistical error by me there but hey, I wasn’t awake enough to realise I’d be breakfasting al fresco. Scrummy seeded toasted bread with lashings of t’hubby’s homemade marmalade, obligatory cup of coffee and there we can see the Maisy Monster waiting for her daily toast titbits.

10:35 Ok today's prompt is not actually a post so I guess this meandering gibberish might actually get posted. Now though, if I’m not careful I’ll not have ‘done’ anything else because I’ll be lost in Blogland!

10:55 See what I mean, I’m still here!!

OMG, can you see how dirty my windows are – more work!

11:25 Well, I managed to tear myself away from my laptop for a little while, although I did pop back and tidy up my sidebar just a little. The washing from yesterday got sorted and put away. I hate, with a passion, pairing the socks – especially the black ones. Often not helped by the fact that youngest dd has a tendency to wear odd socks by choice ok they’re not black ones but it still adds to the frustration. This little sortie only added a single item to the ironing mountain but that damn clothes line is FULL of stuff that’s going to be added to this here little pile!

I’d love to be able to show you a before and after shot (you know the one where the second shot is an empty basket) but it just aint gonna happen. I CAN’T STAND IRONING. Hmm and have just realised (as I buried a handful of black socks that I couldn’t pair down inside the ironing basket) that a good portion of the mountain might actually be socks!

11:55 Third load of washing is on, second load is on line and (hangs head in shame) tumble dryer is on. I’ll have to explain myself later as I need now to dash out, pick up youngest dd from my sisters where she stayed the night and then pop in on my Mum.

Say hello to my Mum

13:05 Back home I’ve uploaded and tarted up the shots I want to use, now I think it’s time for a coffee and a bit of a read sat in the sunshine.

13:30 Aaaarrrghhh, not managed to get that coffee yet as I decided to have  a quick look at whether I could add a poll here. Guess what, I can’t in Live Writer no matter what plug-in I add, aaarrrgghhh.

13:40 Ok, I think enough is enough I don’t want to bore you any more than I have so far. I am leaving this here and calling it Part 1. At some point I want to post the poll asking if you’re a ‘hot’ or a ‘cold’ toast person but I don’t want to resort to normal blogger posting so we’ll see.

Thanks for dropping by and if you have persevered and read the whole lot, a whole load of extra thanks go to you (but you must be mad), please feel free to leave me a comment.

Wendy xx

Well hello there beautiful smile

With our road trip safely concluded, Monday morning dawned with blue skies and sunshine. I had a new class starting (Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers – BBfS) and a new phase was dawning for eldest daughter too.

The journey to this beautiful smile started more than three years ago when a referral to the consultant orthodontist at the local hospital resulted in an extensive treatment plan being designed for the eldest of my Girlies. Oh we had the usual crooked teeth but we also had a misaligned jaw, in other words DD’s bottom jaw was too far back! I’d never heard of this before and I’d certainly never noticed it but, of course, as soon as its pointed out to you it stands out a mile – How could I not have noticed this in my baby before now, I must be a bad, bad mother? Anyhow, the main man himself advised us to pick a local orthodontist and start the work as soon as possible. This we did and so almost three years ago we started. First it was the retainers to move the bottom jaw and after a year of those the good old tramlines were fitted. We’ve had our ups and downs with this process; most notably when she left her retainers on a restaurant table, discreetly covered by a napkin I might add, and didn’t realise for an hour! Bad enough you’d think but given that this took place in a lovely, but busy restaurant at the heart of San Gimignano in Italy with T’hubby and I only possessing rudimentary Italian and you perhaps begin to get the picture.

Fabulous place to visit and thankfully they have a good sense of humour too, I can thoroughly recommend it. After hurriedly returning to the restaurant T’hubby did manage to convey that ‘daughter had left her teeth in napkin on table’. Much scurrying and rummaging (there’s that word again) through the BINS later a sudden ‘Ta Da’ was declared. ‘Gracia, gracia’ said T’hubby ‘ but there’s another one!’

They did find them both and took great delight in presenting them to a rather shy daughter of mine, accompanied by a generous round of applause from the audience, oops sorry, the diners.

And so the eldest of my Girlies started today with her beloved (she had grown rather fond of them you see) tramlines still in place. She was really quite nervous about having them removed, she was worried they might have marked her teeth and I think she had just grown so used to them that she didn’t know what to expect. She actually didn’t think she was going to like being without them. She was in the chair for quite a while having the metal work and cement removed but eventually it was finished. She didn’t look in the mirror until back at the car …………..

………………  she hasn’t stopped looking at herself and smiling since.

Today, this is THE most beautiful smile in the world. And, yes, I am biased and I don’t mind admitting it.

Me being me, I still need to work on the first prompt for BBfS but I think I’ll come back to that when I can. For now, I hope your day has been as full of smiles as mine, thanks for dropping by and please feel free to leave me a comment.

Wendy xx