Thank you ~ for the sunshine!!

Today is July 15th ~ which means that it is St Swithins Day!!! Legend has it, that whatever the weather may be on St Swithins day ~ so will it be for the 40 days and nights that follows!!

St Swithin was a saxon Bishop of Winchester ~ and the legend is that when he lay on his death bed, he asked in his dying breath that he be burried outside ~ where he could be rained on. For 9 years his wish was upheld, until the monks of Winchester decided that they would move his remains inside the Cathedral to a splendid shrine. This took place on July 15th 971. The legend states that on the day his remains were moved there was a terrible storm and 40 days of rain followed!! This led to the old wives tale that if it rains on St Swithins day ~ 40 days of rain will follow ~ but if it is fine on July 15th ~ 40 days of fine weather will follow!!!

Thankfully ~ today ~ July 15th 2008 ~ was a day full of sunshine here!!



According to the Met Office ~ there is no truth in the old wives tale ~ it has been tested on 55 occasions and the rain on July 15th has not been followed by 40 wet days!!!

What the heck ~ I believe it ~ after all the rain we have had here ~ the sunshine is most welcome to stay for the next 40 days ~ I would not be complaining!!!!

This and That..

Mondays are weigh in day ~ a day where I dread stepping on the scales each week ~ especially after last week when I lost a total of NO pounds and was a little bit fed up with the whole process of diet, fitness and trying to resist the temptation of bottles of wine and family sized bars of chocolate!! This week I am pleased to report that I lost 4 pounds ~ the extra power walking and killing myself doing a fitness DVD every night has obviously paid off this week. I have now lost 39 pounds and need to lose another 3 to reach the 3 stone mark!! Please note that I still need to lose at least another 3 stone to get where I want to be ~ whether I will make it there ~ I don't know ~ I am pretty determined ~ so I will keep going ~ 3 down and 3 to go still !!!! (I hate looking at it that way ~ I still have the same to lose again and this first 3 stone have been HARD!!). From now onwards I will be getting weighed on a Wednesday and the next weigh in is 23rd July ~ so I am hoping that 3 pounds will oblige and move on before then ha ha !!!!!

Here is a (scarey!!) photo of me taken the other day ~ I couldn't find a 'before photo' there was one taken ~ but I think it was by the slimming club lady ~ she does a before and after shot ~ so you can compare the 2 at the end!! I thought that I would also keep a record here ~ so hopefully when I get to the end ~ I can look back over the weeks!!

(Sorry to any young children or anyone of a fragile disposition who was scared by that photo ~ it can hopefully only get better from here on in tee hee!!!)

On the carrot front ~ the children were very impressed to see that they have grown some more ~ the continued rain is doing them good ~ and I am hoping that they will carry on and actually grown into something resembling a carrot at some stage!!!

I finally got around to putting the tent around the bottom of Laurens new bed, so that she now has her 'boy free' zone to keep all her girlie things in !! She is quite impressed with it and has already filled it with a few bits and pieces!!

Daniel actually stayed still long enough for me to get a photo ~ he was listening to music and reading a book on his bed (not sure how he manages both at the same time!!) ~ so he didn't hear me sneak up on him until the last minute ~ and then it was too late for him to run away (ha ha !!)

The children are in the final part of the school term now, this is their last full week at school and they break for the summer next Wednesday! Then I have 6 weeks of taking them out and about and having some fun ~ before they start back in September!! Hope you have all had a good start to the week too!! XX

A day at the fair!!

We went to the school fair at Daniel and Laurens School yesterday. The rain held off for the whole fair, which was good, and then when we got home ~ the heavens opened and we had a huge storm!!
At least we were able to enjoy the fair ~ and Lauren and Daniel had fun spending their pocket money.

Here is little miss Lauren enjoying riding a little bike in the play area that was set up at the fair!!
A huge smile as she whizzes by on the bike!!
Lauren demonstrating her skipping skills (she is excellent at skipping and would do it for hours on end ~ if she could!!)

More skipping........
Lauren decided that she did not want her face painted this year ~ there was a stall that was doing little girls make overs ~ with glittery eyes and lips and a glittery spray in your hair ~ and to finish it all off ~ a nail varnish too!! (a bargain for £1.50 I think ~ unfortunately they weren't doing Mummies!!)
A day at the fair would not be complete without a good bounce on the bouncy castle!!

I am afraid that there are no pictures of Daniel at the fair ~ as soon as we arrived, he asked me for his pocket money and then promptly disappeared with his friends, popping back every now and then to check in with me (and ask for more money ha ha !!)......when he did come back and stood still long enough for me to take a picture (he won a coconut on the coconut shire!!) ~ the battery ran out on the camera and the opportunity was lost!! BUT ~ he was there and he had a fantastic time ~ he especially liked the football game ~ where you had to try and score goals, the assault course and the stall where you got to smash crockery (????).

Lauren and I had some luck too ~ we won a bottle of lemonade and a bottle of bubble bath on the bottle stall and Lauren won a jar or smarties on the raffle stall ~ when she opened the lid of the jar ~ there was a £2 coin wrapped in tissue paper ~ so she was very pleased at that (for the jar stall ~ parents were given empty jars and asked to fill them with whatever they liked ~ we filled ours with a small note pad, a pen and pencil and some sweets!!~each jar then has a ticket placed on the top and and are placed in the jar raffle).

The children also had a hamburger (I decided to give it a miss ~ I cannot stomach greasy food since starting this diet!!! ~ which worked in my favour ha ha!!). Lauren had a good look at the book stall and bought herself a new book and Daniel bought me a litle set of tea light candles on the bric a brac stall (he is very sweet like that!!).

All in all it was a lovely day and we really enjoyed ourselves ~ I really hope that lots of money was raised and that the children will have their adventure play area very soon XX

I LOVE BEING TAGGED.......

I have been tagged by Julie over at jujukats world to ask a loved one to tell me three random things about myself and then list them here!!!

I asked Daniel and Lauren to tell me three things about myself (then stood back and waited for what they would come up with!! ~ Luckily they were quite sensible ~ for a change ha ha !!), here is what they came up with!!!

1. I smell (nice apparently hee hee!!) ~ I love perfume, bath oils, candles and anything scented and smelly!!!

2. I cannot sing (true!!) ~ and according to the children, my singing sounds like a cat in pain (that is a bit harsh ~ it is not that bad ha ha !!!).

3. I must really love my laptop (as I spend so much time with it ~ ha ha ha ha!! ) ~ I think that is a hint from my darling children that I have been sitting here reading blogs for too long!!!!!

Well ~ had better be off and see what the children would like to do ~ I will be back later to blog about the school fair we went to yesterday!!!
I have to choose a few people to tag ~ so here goes ~ I would like to tag ~

Dani
Tanya
Tania
Kat
Hannah

Look forward to what your loved ones come up with for you!!!

Will be back later ~ but until then ~ happy blogging !!!!! XXXXX

My bookmark is safe now!!!

You may remember that I posted this last week that I had received some gorgeous etsy items through the post. One of the items was an absolutely beautiful book mark, which I ordered from Tanias etsy shop, over at little sweethearts. The book mark has had pride of place in the latest book that I am reading (Second Chance by Jane Green ~ so far I am totally loving it!!)......that is until my dear sweet little daughter spotted it and decided that she actually would quite like it for herself........I have since found it and my book under her pillow, after much searching (Lauren is like a little magpie ~ quite often a lipgloss or necklace of mine will somehow disapear ~ and usually reappears under laurens pillow on her bed!!!)

Today a little package arrived ~ inside was another sweet little bookmark (made by Tania) ~ together with the most perfect little heart with a butterfly in the middle!! ~ and sent for little Miss Lauren ~ by my wonderful friend Dani . Lauren couldn't quite get her head around the fact that it was really for her (she has wanted mine soooooooo much!!) ~ and she then spent 10 minutes dancing around the place and saying 'Thank you Dani ~ Thank you Dani' .


Little Miss Laurens very own butterfly bookmark ~ she was most impressed with the 'L' for Lauren!!!!

The sweet little heart is now on her little teddy bears arm!!!!

Lauren wasted no time in putting her new gift to good use ~ in her latest must read book ~ Animal Stories for 6 year olds!!!

Lauren has had a big smile on her face (since she doesn't have to hide mummys bookmark anymore ha ha !!!) (Please excuse the glittery eye make up ~ we had just been to the school fair ~ where Lauren had a little girls make over ~ glittery make up and nails painted!! )
Thank you Dani ~ I know that I have told you this many times before ~ but I will tell you again ~ you are wonderful!!!! You have made one little girl so very very happy and she has had the biggest smile on her face all day!! She does have a little suprise up her sleeve for you ~ but I have been told not to say a word (shhhhhh!!!!) ~ as it is a secret!!