Sunday 5 August 2007 - Weather warm & windy

I spent the day doing boring housework!!!  I changed all the beds & washed all the bedding.  Managed to get it all dried outside as the weather was lovely.  The kids enjoyed the day playing out with their friends.  Mark watched TV all day.

Monday 6 August 2007 - Weather a bit cooler & windy

Went to the docs with Faye this morning, as she's been coughing a lot.  As usual, he said it's a virus.  Went into town with the kids, took my wedding ring, engagement ring & eternity rings to be enlarged & then bought a load of holiday clothes for the kids' holiday.

Kids had their swimming lesson in the evening & again they all did brilliantly!!

Tuesday 7 August 2007 - Weather warm, cloudy little windy

Took the 3 older kids swimming while Faye went in the creche.  We had the usual Cubs & Beavers in the evening.

Wednesday 8 August 2007 - Weather warm & sunny

Should have been going to Haigh Hall stately home today with my niece & great-nephew, but Joanna rang me this morning to say that Dario didn't want to go as he thought it was boring!  We ended up at Joanna's house & had a picnic lunch.  We then went to a local park for an hour afterwards.

Took Alix & Faye to morris dancing practice in the evening.  Alix & Wyatt's friend, Zoe slept over.

Thursday 9 August 2007 - Weather warm, cloudy

Went to see my Dad, who has been recovering from a knee replacement.  He gave me my birthday card, which had £10 in it!  The kids were very well behaved while we were there.  Popped into Asda, for some cat food & litter, so that we don't run out while we're on holiday.  Did LOADS of washing!

Friday 10 August 2007 - Weather hot & cloudy

Popped over to the library, so that I would have something to read for the holidays (going tomorrow).  Spent the rest of the day ironing!!!  (Yawn!!!!!!!!)  My sister, Joan & her hubby Dave came over to drop my birthday card off, as it's my birthday next week while we're away.

Saturday 11 August 2007 (writing this in advance, so dunno what the weather is!!)

Going on hols to Morecambe for a week today.  Will update my blog when we get back.

Well, it's the first week of the summer holidays.  My kids have got an extra week off school, as they are moving to a completely new building & it won't be ready for 4th September, when they were due back originally.  They're now due back on 10th September, but I've heard a rumour that due to all the rain, the builders are now a further 4 weeks behind!!!!

Anyway, I had Alix (6) and Aaron (5) in summer school this week.  It cost me £25 each for them, but it was worth it.  It gave me the opportunity to spend some quality time with Wyatt (9), my eldest and Faye (2) my youngest.  It also meant Alix & Aaron didn't have the chance to get bored.

This is what we've been up to this week.

Mark's low on his vitamin B12 again, so he's been feeling generally unwell & had the week off sick.

MONDAY 23.07.07 - Did the food shopping in the morning (boring!) but went to see my niece (Joanna) & great nephew (Dario) in the afternoon.  It's Joanna's birthday on Tue & Dario's on Weds.  I bought Dario a load of socks (the only thing he needed according to his mum) and put some money in his card.  I bought Joanna some flowers.  We had a party lunch & Wyatt & Faye had a great time playing with Dario.  I enjoyed catching up with Joanna, we hadn't seen each other for ages.  Kids had their swimming lessons in the evening.

TUESDAY 24.07.07 - I had booked Faye into the creche at the local leisure centre so that I could go swimming.  Wyatt went to a child minder who looks after Faye for me sometimes.  He had a great time, he baked us all a little bun whilst he was there & has asked can he go again.  Faye loves the creche so she had a good time too.  I did my usual 1 mile, Mark only managed about 20 lengths.  I was hoping to keep up my swimming during the hols, but Bolton Council have just brought in free swimming for all under 16's & so the pool was really busy.  I'm hoping it'll get quieter as the novelty wears off.  We had the usual Beavers where I am a leader (Alix) and Cubs (Wyatt) in the evening.

WEDNESDAY 25.07.07 - I took Wyatt and 3 of his friends, Zoe, Kieran and Oscar swimming.  Oscar's mum looked after Faye, as she's had a temperature, been offer her food & being generally grumpy over the last couple of days.  They had a great time, even though again the pool was heaving.  I took Alix & Faye to morris dancing in the evening.  Alix has been going for about 18 months, but it's only the 2nd time Faye's been.  She's getting the hang of it slowly.  Mark had an appointment with his Consultant at the hospital.  They confirmed his B12 is low & have said he'll need injections of it every 3 months for ever.  They're sending him for some more tests too.

THURSDAY 26.07.07 - Took Faye to the doctors this morning, she has a verruca on her foot and doctor confirmed she's probably got a virus or something.  He said her pulse was a little fast, which means she's had a fever apparently.  Unfortunately, when I got back from the doctors, we got a phone call from my mother in law's warden saying she'd been taken to hospital by ambulance as she'd had a fit of some kind.  We spent all afternoon at the hospital with her, but they discharged her after doing tests.  They're referring her to the Fit Clinic, just to check whether or not it was a seizure she had.  She's 82 & hasn't been well generally for a long while now.

FRIDAY 27.07.07 - Went into town this morning & bought Wyatt a pair of new trainers.  His dad then took him to watch the new Harry Potter film (which they both thoroughly enjoyed).  I did a few errands in town & then took Faye on a little ride that they have in the town centre.  She only went round once & then started crying!    Wyatt had his tea at Oscar's house.  The rest of us went to McDonald's for our tea & Faye actaully ate a little of her McNuggets!!!

Hope I've not bored you to death!

Flash Text by GroovyMachine

To all my friends on Grab!

Hope you have a great one!

My dad is still really poorly, not managing to do much for himself. When I'm not doing stuff or running errands for him I'm on the phone sorting stuff for him. Hopefully it won't be too long before his next operation & then he should be well on the way to recovery.  For those of you who don't know, he's had an infection in his knee that he had replaced in November 2005.  He was rushed into hospital about 8 weeks ago & had an emergency operation to flush the knee out, that basically left it useless.  He's had it in a splint ever since.  He's having another new knee replacement soon - fingers crossed.

We've been told by 1 of our new neighbours that the Council have been working hard on our new house for the last few weeks, so I'm trying to get stuff sorted for us to move. I have loads of clothes that need going through, not to mention toys & stuff. It's amazing how much stuff 6 people accumulate!!!

On top of all that, doing some research into this years holiday. I think we're gonna go into a caravan in Morecambe. It's about 90 mins drive north from here, but means we can visit the Lake District & Scotland from there. I've just sent an email to see if our dates are free.  We're hoping to go in the middle of August, then we'll be away for my birthday & it breaks the 6 week summer school holiday up a little.

My friend & I are in the process of trying to start up a Beaver Colony. They are the youngest group of Scouts, age 6-8. We're hopeing to get our leaflets distributed in the local schools this week. I also have to sort out some training for me, I need child protection, first aid and then some specific Scout Leader training. It takes 2 years altogether! My friend, Yvonne is already a Cub Scout Leader 8-10 and half year olds, so she doesn't need to do any training.

All in all we're very busy at the moment!

Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are retired, and Mrs. Fenton insists her husband go with her to Wal-Mart, but he gets bored with all the shopping trips. He prefers to get in and get out, but Mrs. Fenton loves to browse. Here's a letter Wal-Mart sent to Mrs. Fenton

Dear Mrs. Fenton,

Over the past six months, your husband has been causing quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and may ban both of you from our stores.  We have documented all incidents on our video surveillance equipment.  All complaints against Mr. Fenton are listed below.

Things Mr. Bill Fenton has done while his spouse was shopping in Wal-Mart:

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the restrooms.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official tone, "Code 3 in Housewares," and watched what happened.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and asked to put a bag of M&M's on layaway.

6. September 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. September 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told other shoppers he'd invite them in if they'd bring pillows from the bedding department.

8. September 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him, he began to cry and asked, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'

9. October 4: Looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, and picked his nose.

10. November 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, asked the clerk if he knew where the antidepressants were.

11. December 3: Darted around the store suspiciously, loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.

12. December 6: In the auto department, practiced his "Madonna look" using different sized funnels.

13. December 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled "PICK ME! PICK ME!"

14. December 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed the fetal position and screamed "NO! NO! It's those voices again!!"  And last, but not least.....

15. December 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, and then yelled very loudly, "There is no toilet paper in here!"

Regards, Wal-Mart

Just a quick note to let you know what's going on & why I've hardly been around lately.

My 82 year old dad was admitted to hospital last Tuesday.  He had a knee replacement in Nov 05 & that leg has never been the same since.  A few days before his admission to hospital, he had a check up for his knee.  They said everything was fine.  On Monday evening 22.01.07, after taking his dog for a walk, he began to have some pain in the knee.  This went progressively worse as the evening wore on.  When he was getting ready for bed, the knee gave way and he ended up on the floor.  By this time, the knee was so painful, he couldn't get up & despite having his cordless phone in his hand, he spent the night on the floor of his bedroom.  Luckily he had left the heater on in the hallway, otherwise he'd have probably ended up with hypothermia!  When I asked why he hadn't rung me or one of my brothers, he said he didn't want to be a bother as it was late!

To cut a very long story short, he had an operation on the knee on Wed 23.01.07 to drain some fluid from the joint which was very swollen.  This fluid was tested & it turned out he had an infection.  He also had a temperature, which I think had affected his mind, hence the not phoning anyone & choosing to spend the night on the floor!

On Thursday 24.01.07 he had another operation to flush out the knee joint.  This basically involved taking the artificial joint apart & washing it with sterile water, so in effect a very similar operation as having the knee replaced in the first place.  He is on intravenous antibiotics too.

I went to visit every evening last week, but just can't keep this up.  I am also looking after my dad's dog as well as my 4 kids, so I told my dad I would have to cut down the visiting to every other night.  I am also having to make sure he has clean pyjamas etc.

As you can imagine, this is putting a very big strain on my free time, so this is why I've not been about lately.  Please keep sending me your challenges and I will get round to them eventually!  I am also checking out a few blogs when I get a minute.

I am missing you all loads.

Keep in touch.

I've finally received my appointment date from the hospital, for my operation.  Friday 13 April 2007.  I asked if they'd got a sooner one, but they're fully booked until then, so I've asked that they put me down if there are any cancellations.  The kids are off school that day, so hubby's gonna have his hands full seeing to them all whilst I'm at the hospital.

It should just be a day visit, got to arrive at 7.30 am after telephoning to check that my bed is available.  I should be out later that day, all being well.

I'm having laser treatment to sever some nerves in my pelvis. This should hopefully prevent any further pain.  Apparently, there are quite a few complications that can result from the procedure, problems with my bowel, bladder etc and the operation itself may not even work!  I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.  Luckily, it's done through keyhole, through my belly button, so the recovery time should be quite quick.

We had a brilliant Christmas!  We all went to Mass on Christmas Eve.  They had a carol concert first & then Mass afterwards, we didn't get him until about 9.00 pm, but the kids were so well behaved a lady came up to us after the service & commented on what lovely children we have.  As you can imagine, I was beaming

On the day itself, the kids stayed in bed until just gone 8.00 am, so we were extremely lucky there.  I heard 1 of them get up at about 2.30 am, not long after we went to bed & I thought that was it, but they went back to sleep - phew

The older 3 had their pressies opened for about 9.30 am, but Faye took ages to open hers.  She was getting the hang of it by the time she finished he he heee.  They all seemed very pleased with what Santa had left them.  I usually peel, chop & part boil my veg on Christmas Eve, so it jus needs finishing off on the day itself, & means I can spend the morning with the kids instead of in the kitchen, which is where my mum always spent Christmas morning.  The dinner was lovely & the kids ate most of it, which is a miracle in itself.

My brother came round for an hour in the evening (he lives on his own).  He'd been with my Dad for the day & they'd been to the cemetary to visit my mum's grave (it was her 1st anniversary on 10 Dec this year, we went on Christmas Eve).

The kids were no trouble getting them into bed, I think because they were so tired.  I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.  All in all an extremely good day was had by all of us.

Thought I'd treat you to this, a friend of ours sent it to us.  Would seem she's made an excellent recovery!