My month in numbers - October

Is that October gone already?  I swear the days and weeks are flying quicker these days.  October was a great month - lots of sunny days to get out and lots of rainy ones to hide indoors and snuggle up in front of the fire with a glass of rouge.

So my numbers this month included the vast amount of 14 adults, 14 children and 4 dogs in 2 barns for a weekend in Wales.  Below are the 7 "matriachs" of the 7 families that went, along with 3 of the dogs and 1 random child. It was a blissful weekend full of wine, women and song....literally!...plus a few men, a bunch of noisy kids and some long walks.


Barn 1:

Barn 2:

We took the Kids to see their 1st Bond film at the cinema. We saw the 10.30 showing and enjoyed all 143 minutes of it!  I have now put Daniel Craig on my Christmas list :)

We all went to see Newton Faulkner and sat in Row EE 4-6. The seats were perfect with a clear view of the stage.  It was Josh's first indoor gig and Newton did not disappoint!


Josh grew 2cm in about a week. This is a momentous achievement and I have blogged before about his height challenges! So at the weekend we bought him new jeans that don't argue with the top of his shoes.

My lovely in-laws celebrated 50 years of wedded bliss and we went out for a lovely pub meal to celebrate as they didn't want a huge fuss.

 Alex cleared out her Build A Bear items ready to make room for a desk in her bedroom and so far has made £68 on eBay!!  I am now searching the house for things I can sell too.  Josh has also listed his BAB items and we look forward to his total this weekend when his listings end...

Finally we carved 3 pumpkins to decorate the front of the house tonight.  My attempt is below.  I think the last of the "trick or treaters" have been and I have a Scream like ghost and a strange black hooded figure currently drinking hot chocolate in my conservatory whilst Alex has decided to do the sensible thing and just go to Guides!

Hope October was good for you too.  You can see lots of other Months in Numbers and find out how to join in over at Julie's blog

And I am closing this post whilst chuckling to myself as I've just realised I've been eating a packet of Galaxy counters whilst typing this post.... counters...Month in Numbers... Get it?  Oh well, it made me smile!







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Cover to Cover prompt 5

I am slowly working through the Cover to Cover prompts and today tried some continuity in my album.  I'm doing this by using blue on all the pages as that was the colour of the school jumpers.  At the moment I have half a dozen pages in there so plenty more years to record!

I have used the September Gossamer Blue kit for this page and added some left over words from the previous kit.  I promise you this page is straight - not sure what happened during photographing!!

Back tomorrow with my month in numbers...

Unknown

Nothingness, we all start there,

A spark in the unknown,

Flickering in the shadow of a corner,

Shying away from the rest,

Thinking, waiting to be discovered.

Each one differing from the last,

Moulded into something more,

Evolving out through a dangerous place,

The voice of the mind, it goes on forever,

Limitless, yet so small.

A poem by published author, Alex Heald, aged 13

from Express Yourself Through Poetry published October 2012

Hello Monday...

Hello to Hello Monday! I've not joined in before but I like the idea as a simple way of recording what's coming up this week.

Hello back to school after half term

Hello housework - now they are back I can tidy up and clean everywhere!

Hello Hallowe'en...Josh and I are picking pumpkins after school today

Hello to my parents who are here for a visit later this week

Hello Ed Sheeran in concert on Friday!

Hello to a Christmas Shopping trip later this week - well it won't do itself will it?!

Find some more Hellos over at Lisa's blog

10 things on the tenth...

As I am off to a gig tonight for one of my favourite artists I thought I would share 10 songs today.  You may know some of these artists, you may not.  You may like some of these artists, you may not!  But these are the 10 songs most played in our house or on my iPod right now...

Train - Drive by

Maroon 5 - Harder to breathe

Fun. - Some nights

Muse - Knights of Cydonia (thanks to the Merlin adverts on TV!)

Tings Tings - Hit me down Sonny

Take That - Love love

Sam and the Womp - Bom Bom

Turin Breaks -Pain killer

Noah and the Whale - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.ON

And the man himself.  Very excited to be seeing him for the second time this year but more excited to be taking Alex and Josh as they have no idea... they played his music non stop on holiday so I think they may be quite pleased when we roll up at the Manchester Apollo later!

Newton Faulkner - Sugar in the snow

Hope you enjoyed something in that little lot and a HUGE well done if you listened to all ten!  If you would like to see more 10 things on the 10th then head on over to Shimelle's blog where there will be loads of links added throughout today on all sorts of subjects.

Thanks for stopping by.

Where's the balance?

A different post form me today but I figure if I get this written down it may actually happen!  Balance was my   one little word for 2012 but it is not going well of late.  I am feeling stressed about lots of things so from today I have set myself some goals to achieve by the end of the year...

Find a new job - the CV has been dusted off and is getting it's final tweaks (yikes!).  When the company I worked for was taken over in 2010 I said I'd give it 12 months and see... well I have given it more than 24 and they have not been the greatest months of my working life so it is time to see if the grass is greener.

Book a night away - we decided we would go away once a quarter, just the two of us, but have only managed it once this year.  Time to book something.  I was thinking here or here...

Read some books on parenting teenagers - It has been a particular trying week with Alex.  It seems she has been threatening and picking on her little brother.  Not great as I now work longer hours and they are in each other's company for a while each day now.  I have seen this book - has anyone any  more tips on what to read? - I need to get through to her without shouting!

Scrapbook more - I'm sure we all say this but I love it as it is a stress reliever and I love to capture another memory before it disappears.  I'm thinking I should set aside one evening a week but not sure if that will work.  Try it and see I guess!

Finish a room - we have a couple of rooms that are half decorated for various reasons which I won't bore you with.  We need to pick one and get it done!

Excercise more - I have fallen out of love with Zumba... I need to get the love back!  Maybe I will try couch to 5K... maybe I will walk more... but I need to do something for the sake of my waistline!

Get some routine into the house - with my new shifts we all seem to be at sixes and sevens.  I need to get organised with nutritious meals, an online shop, a check list for school (I have dropped off at least 4 times already this term with forgotten items!), chores for everyone and setting aside time for family. Again if anyone has some organisational ideas then link them up people!

I think that's enough to keep me going for now.  If I achieve it all the balance will definitely be tipping in my favour and that can only make for a less stressed me and a happier house!

Thank you for listening.

Holding Hands

This month the Sketchy Scrapper Sketch was set by the lovely Lisa...

I decided to re scrap a photo that I had found on a page when I reorganised my albums earlier this year.  The photo was colour, with Josh wearing a bright red t-shirt and I had scrapped it in citrus colours (what was I thinking?).

I reprinted the photo in sepia which meant I could then put it with any papers and I chose some of my remaining Gossamer Blue kit from August.

The poem reads

 "Brother & sister, together as friends,

 ready to face whatever life sends. 

Joy & laughter or tears and strife, 

holding hands tightly as you dance through life"

My month in numbers - September

Every month Julie asks us to post our month in numbers which is a fun way to record the month...Head on over to Julie's blog to read more about how you can join in but before you do that here are my numbers for September...

74 was the number of pictures rescued from iPhones, Josh's iPod and my blog from our holiday in Parga after the lap top hard drive crashed shortly after I'd downloaded all the pics when we got home :(. Thank heavens for the technological world we live in and Instagram!

9 was the number of lovely ladies who spent 2 nights in Edinburgh on our annual girlie weekend. Fun, fine food, lots of Prosecco and so much laughter!  I am so lucky to have such fabulous ladies as my friends.

100 cyclists rode through my village as part of the Tour of Britain and straight past my friends house. This included Olympian Mark Cavendish and gold medal winner Bradley Wiggins (centre of the photo below). An amazing site and another excuse to get the Union Jack out!

Years 7A and 9M; the classes Josh and Alex are in respectively at high school this Autumn.

Josh came back from Scouts with no less than 8 badges earned at camp for me to sew on!  He then got to hold an Olympic Torch brought in from one of the torch bearers who is also a local Scout leader.

While staying at Mum and Dad's at the end of the holidays we managed to catch up with my brother and my nephews so there were 4 cousins together...

Thanks for stopping by to read my numbers.  See you in November!