Money, Money, Money

Today's HS:MS is Currency. Steven went to France last week and like most blokes one of the first things he does when he comes home is empty his pockets of change - his Euros were still laying on the side in the kitchen where he left them!

After taking that one I decided to try and be a bit creative and take one of a coin in motion...this led me to the discovery of yet another non-talent of mine - spinning coins; they either ricocheted off in the wrong direction at a rate of knots or span once and then fell over! Anyway, this was my only vaguely successful shot out of about 70......

Thoughtful Tuesday

Today's HS:MS is think and quite appropriate it is because today I sat in on a lesson at school given by a lady called Vicky from Bletchley Park where they cracked the Enigma code. She brought in an Enigma machine and explained to the children all about different types of codes and ciphers, it was really interesting and I loved to see how much the kids were enjoying learning, they got really into it and asked some great questions which proved they were really thinking about it. It would have been lovely to take some photos of all those thoughtful young faces but I don't suppose it would have been very appropriate for me to post them on here anyway so never mind!


Every Saturday my Dad buys me a copy of the Mail when he goes for his own, partly because I like the crossword and partly because I like the TV magazine that comes with it. These days I don't get around to doing the crossword much and some weeks I don't even open the newspaper at all - this week so far I've managed to find one answer! So anyway - this is my 'think' for today......

HS:MS - Snooze

Today's HS:MS is Snooze ....... such a great word, just thinking it is relaxing! I'm cheating by using a picture I took yesterday. Coco was having a lovely little sleep in the sun and Darcy seemed to be deliberately trying to disturb her by chewing her ball as close to her as she could get - she didn't succeed though, Coco is too old and mellow to be bothered by things like that!

PhotoHunters Catchup

Important: These little vials may not look all that important but when you have Type 1 Diabetes, as my daughter Tess has, the insulin inside them can mean the difference between life and death....

Old-Fashioned: Forget CD's and iPods - this is the proper way to listen to music!

Sunday already...

Why is it that the weekends pass by so much more quickly than the weekdays. I'm determined to get my washing to fit back in the basket today so another short post.

Today is Show-off Sunday. I haven't really taken very many photographs recently apart from those inspired by the HS:MS daily prompt so I've had to raid the archive yet again for this one. I love this picture of my girls - the reason they are both looking so fed up is that we were taking them out to the New Forest for a nice lunch and a bike ride.......yes, I know, we really should be imprisoned on the grounds of unnecessary mental and physical cruelty towards minors ***sigh*** the joys of parenthood!

Saturday Catch-up

I think I've just about got over my little tantrum about having to go to an evening meeting on Thursday now! In fact it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, particularly as I was only required to stay for about 20 minutes. Anyway, yesterday was hectic, work was really busy then in the afternoon we were bathroom hunting ........ bathrooms are so incredibly boring I've decided ........ and then my friend turned up after school and we ended up finally having our tea after she left at around 9.30pm!

So, I'm really behind with HS:MS:

Thursday, overflow .. as uninspiring as it is, this is mine!

Friday, three ... paws (that could do with a bit of a trim!)

and Saturday's self-portrait, eye-eye!

Off to look at more bathrooms now.........yawn!

Sulking

I'm not blogging tonight because I'm too busy sulking! I have to go back to work at 7pm for a meeting and I'm not happy about it - they don't need me there, I have nothing to contribute and I don't want to go!!

Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have picked up all my toys, put them back in my pram and be in a better mood!

(Just realised that technically I am blogging now........but I'm not!)

Shouldn't be here......

I am so hugely behind with the housework that there's no way I should be blogging today. Mollie has well and truly gotten over her helpful bug and I suppose I got a bit too used to her help because now everything has gone completely to pot! I'm in violation of a New Years Resolution: be a better housewife ....... failed again!


Steven is, again, bobbing his way across the Channel. He had a good crossing last night but I'm not so sure he'll be as lucky tonight - looks a bit windy out to me. Still, so long as my bottle of Brandy survives the crossing intact I'll be happy!


Today's HS:MS prompt is Tube, here's mine:

Anybody else old enough to remember The Tube? It was a great 80's music/comedy programme, hosted by Jools Holland, Paula Yates etc and actually had proper bands playing proper live music - It got taken off the air after Jools Holland said the 'F' word live before the watershed!

Smooth Crossings

Ever have those days when everything just seems to whizz by, like somebody pressed the fast-forward button on your life?! That's what my day has been like.



Steven is merrily bobbing across the channel right now on a ferry and I'm not in the slightest bit envious, it's pretty cold and windy out there tonight. But him going away did mean that he didn't go into work this morning which mean't that I could forego the school run and get to work nice and early. This meant I could get out of work nice and early so that we could have a lovely pub lunch before he caught the ferry - and probably threw up his lovely pub lunch!!! Yes, he is in the Navy but he still gets seasick!



Anyway, HS:MS, I'm so late and wasn't going to bother but then I took a photo of Fletch and told him to wrinkle his nose ...... I think he looks like an alien!

And in honour of Steven's boat journey I'll leave you with this photo that he took this morning. When I stepped out the house at 7.10 I desperately wanted to go back inside and get my camera because the harbour looked so pretty but didn't have time - he obviously had the same thought because a little while later he did just that.........he never ever takes photos so he must have truly been inspired.

Here's hoping the water is as calm for him on his journey to and from France tonight and tomorrow!

Sunday Blues

Catch-up again! Don't know what happened yesterday but I was in a vile black mood all day, I have no idea why, it was just a normal Sunday but I felt horrible all day! Steven didn't help matters when he asked me if I was 'due on or something'.....a question that always conjures up a red mist and does nothing to help at all. Why is it that men always assume that if you're in a bad mood it must be down to your menstrual cycle?

Feeling slightly better today though so best not to dwell on it I guess.

Didn't do SOS yesterday but if I had I think I would have chosen this one as I needed something to make me smile and this photo of Fletcher demonstrating what could possibly become a future foot fetish usually does the trick:

Today's HS:MS prompt is ring, must admit I had a bit of a giggle about that - show us your ring (guffaw!). I expect it's probably just me! This is my electric ring.......

SPS

Firstly, lets just get the dreaded SPS out of the way! Two for the price of one this week!!

Mollie loved her birthday present! Although whether the rest of us are thrilled about it is another matter because now everywhere you go and everything you do she's there...click, click, click!

This is her taking her first photo - and the photo she took.......

We had a birthday tea and and a bit of fun with Mollie.....

Re-lighting candles!!! What mean parents we are - took her quite a few puffs before she realised and I can't say that she was as amused as we were!

Birthday Girl

My lovely Mollie is 11 today! Hard to believe time can travel so quickly. Got a quick snap of her this morning for prosperity...... Eleven already?! She's a typical middle child, strong-willed, confident, competitive, challenging and already she's showing signs of taking after her father as one of those people who can just do new things and learn with the minimum of effort - sickening!

She opened her cards before school but is having her present later. A few days ago I was uploading photos and thought it was strange that I didn't remember taking a couple of them! Didn't take long to work out who was the culprit so we've got her a camera for her birthday...I'll try and capture her reaction later!

Today's HS:MS is dangle

Just look at that weather would you?! Had to brave the wind and rain to get this shot of my windchimes. I bought these on holiday in Majorca last year ........ we went at Easter and if you can remember back that far you'll know that it was glorious in England ... like a mini-heatwave ... whilst in Majorca it was about 11 degrees and raining all week. That's why we're not going on holiday this year!

Blah Blah Blah

Catch-up today since yesterday turned into a bit of a nightmare. I was late to work through a combination of bad traffic and bad weather and then when I came out of work I had a flat tyre, then I had to go to Curry's to pick up Mo's birthday present (very exciting, I'll tell all tomorrow) which took forever. Anyway, by the evening I was k-nackered so blogging was out the window.

I did manage to take a picture for yesterday's HS:MS word though.......indulge (although really I've fitted the word to the picture rather than the other way around)

I indulged Fletch by letting him eat a gingerbread man before his tea - big mistake, as I then had to coax and bully him into eating his sausage and mash!

Today's prompt is number ..... here's one of my favourites!

Old Dog

Yet another uneventful day in the Sheap household. The highlight was taking Coco to the Vet for a check-up; I have to take her every six months to get a prescription for the drugs she has to take so she doesn't wet herself ..... which is of paramount importance since she's adamant that the leather sofa in the kitchen is her personal property! She got a clean bill of health so good news there ... not that she's very impressed as you can see.......

She'll be 11 this year so she's getting on a bit now.

HS:MS word today is Away ...... made my brain hurt thinking up this one .....

I Don't Like Mondays

Monday - bleurgh! Nothing more lovely than having to get up and go to work on a dark, rainy Monday morning is there?!

Nothing exciting to blog about, just a normal boring Monday here, so, straight down to HS:MS which today is CD. Took my life in my hands trying to get this shot. Since I got iTunes I don't play cds anymore so all the old ones have been relegated to Tess' room, this meant I had to negotiate several trip hazards and have my lugholes assaulted by a very loud Kate Nash into the bargain. Consequently I pointed, shot and ran.......

If I'd had more time and patience I probably would have chosen a more hip selection of music to portray!

Not Sunday already?

It' so annoying that the weekends go so quickly. Yesterday was quite busy, we went into town in the morning with the kids to get shoes for Fletch then in the afternoon a friend of mine came over for a natter and then before I knew it the day was gone. Today we got up late, got going very slowly, went out to look at a couple of cars .........Steven's on the hunt for a new one (again) ..... and lo and behold it's tea time already and I haven't even finished getting the kids uniforms ready yet. At least I'm not cooking though, Steven is going to pick up some take out soon!

Anyway, on HS:MS it's Show-Off Sunday. There is a technique I've been playing with - think it's called High Key - this is my first real attempt at it......and as such, I'm fairly pleased with it.

Dreaded SPS!

Is it just me or do these HS:MS Self-Portrait Saturdays come around just a bit too quickly?! I'm not sure if this qualifies as strictly speaking it's not really a photograph as such. I've scanned my face instead this time......it could have been worse, at least I didn't get drunk and photocopy my bum!

Chilly Willies!

HS:MS word today is cold, but whenever it's cold I always say it's 'chilly willies' ... no idea why but it embarrasses the kids so I'm sticking with it! Anyway, it's not particularly cold today, apart from the wind but I didn't know how to photograph that. So I've gone for very very cold - frozen in fact, but I'm hoping nobody will split hairs with me over it!

I'm so glad it's the weekend but I did do better today, worked solidly all morning and cleared quite a bit of the backlog so I'm feeling more positive and my lazyitis is hopefully behind me!

Howsabout this for ridiculous....yesterday Royal Mail tried to deliver something but it was too big for the letterbox and I was out so they took it back to the sorting office and Steven popped in there today to pick it up. It turned out to be a spare part I'd ordered for the vaccuum cleaner head. Below is a photo of the part in question - you can probably just about make out the teeny tiny little orange thing on the floor next to the gigantic box they sent it in!! Somebody is 'havin' a laff' somewhere surely?!

PhotoHunters: Delicious

Have decided to participate in Photohunters weekly challenge - any excuse to take photos! This week is delicious......now I don't think mealworms are delicious but this robin sure did seem to get excited about them!

Wish it was Friday

Still suffering from extreme lazyitis, I certainly didn't make much of a dent in my in-tray today that's for sure. I'm determined to try harder and snap myself out of this lethargy tomorrow so watch this space!

I bet all the other ladies (and occasional chaps) over on HS:MS have loads of cool ideas for today's word which is thread - they all seem so arty and probably have lots of beautiful haberdashery items adorning their spaces. However, since I failed all forms of domestic science at school it's lucky I married a sailor otherwise I wouldn't even have been able to come up with this shot - I found this in his little sewing kit - (bless!) ...... although I can't for the life of me work out what he could ever need orange thread for!

This morning the two youngest chidlers announced that they have to make masks for a masked disco tomorrow evening......I'm off to find the glitter glue now!

Lacking in Steam....

That's me at the moment, I could quite easily have dozed off at work today and it's not for lack of things to do.......just feeling incredibly lazy.

Luckily, Mollie is still feeling incredibly domestic - washing, cleaning, loading the dishwasher......

.....if she keeps this up I might consider hiring her out.

HS:MS challenge today is Steam, I really wanted to cheat for this and use this picture which I took on a day trip to Iceland a few years back:

But, my conscience wouldn't let me so I took this one instead:

Pampered Pooch

Short post today, it's been an immensely unexciting day consisting of school run, work, dog walk, school run and now dinner predictably followed by tv and bed......No doubt when Brad eventually turns up and whisks me away from all this drudgery I will occasionally look back wistfully, hankering after a quieter and less exciting existence - or maybe not!

HS:MS prompt for the day is bling and there is only one member of this family glam enough to carry off anything even remotely bling ..... can you guess who she is??

Back to School

Sooooo hard getting up this morning! Two of us were back to school today, me and Tess, the other two start back tomorrow so I guess at least that has staggered the shock slightly in that I only had one lunch to prepare this morning and one drop-off to make! I was busy so work passed by quite quickly and it's only 29 more working days until half-term (am I sad or what?!).

The good news is that Mollie was having one of her amazing domestic goddess days....every now and then she comes over all Nigella meets Andrea Turner and gets the tidying, cleaning, helpful bug. Today she has sorted all the pants and socks and distributed accordingly, likewise the rest of the clean clothes that were threatening to take over the laundry room. She has done about three loads of washing, tidied the kitchen and laid the table for dinner and mashed the potatoes for me - what a star!

Anyway, the HS:MS prompt today is Fold, and again found I was completely lacking in inspiration so this is the best I could come up with:

HS:MS Catch-up

Had a good day with friends today, we took a walk on the beach along with what seemed like the entire population of Bournemouth and I had intended taking lots of photos but every time I opened my rucksack the rain started spitting and I didn't really want a wet camera so I gave up - pathetic or what?!

One of the things I really wanted to do this year was to start HS:MS again properly......failed!

Already I'm doing catch up which means I've taken photos in a hurry and not really put much thought in ... so here goes:

SOS.......this is one I took a couple of months ago but I was really pleased with it..




The dreaded SPS - as usual whenever I'm the wrong end of the camera I look like a rabbit trapped in the headlights!

Perfume: I never wear perfume but I still have this bottle which Steven bought me probably 10 years or so ago........goodness only knows what it smells like now!

Finally White: I spend an awful lot of my time with these guys!

Day out

On Thursday we took the chidlers to the O2 to see the Tutankhamen Exhibition. We had booked to go on the skating rink too but didn't tell them until we got there.....they were very excited - unlike me!

I was feeling pretty apprehensive, not having skated for probably 27/8 yrs. None of the kids had ever skated and I was amazed at their bravery and confidence....

Steven seemed to think he was competing in some sort of Olympic speed skating competition which made it all the more enjoyable for the rest of us when he landed squarely on his arse.........

Silly old fool!!

I would just like to point out that I was the only one who managed not to fall over at all - maybe all that money my mum forked out on lessons all those years ago wasn't wasted (I only went for about six months then I fell out with my instructor and told her to F off so I got banned - my mother was mortified as I was only about 11 or 12 at the time!).

We had a good meal in Frankie and Bennys together with what seemed like the entire female, peroxide blonde population of Essex who were all there for the Spice Girls show.

The Tut Exhibition was good although Mollie was gutted when she discovered his mummy wasn't actually there.

So, only one day left now and then we're back to school - boo hoo! This morning we had to be out of the house at 9.15 and that was hard enough, dread to think what Monday morning is going to be like!

Happy New Year!

Ok, so I've already failed slightly in my resolutions - I didn't post yesterday - but, in my defence it was a pretty busy day and we were all feeling tired from staying up to see in the New Year. This is my first picture of 2008, taken just after midnight.....



Mollie really is that pale! Anyway, Mum, Dad, Lisa and Jason were here all evening and we played games, ate and drank and had a very good time. My mum is convinced that 2008 is going to be so much better than 2007 but I'm a bit too cynical to believe a change of date can really make any real difference - I'll let you know at the end of the year.


Yesterday Steven cooked one of his lovely roast dinners for everybody - I can safely say (because he doesn't read this blog) that he is an absolute star! The meal was fantastic as usual and everybody ate far too much.......no chance of starting any dieting resolutions just yet!