Bye bye 2013

Well it is the last day of 2013.

I think I can say this has been a year of ups and downs.

Husband had his first book published so most of the beginning of the year was devoted to getting it finished and off to the publisher.  Then getting it back for approval and finally it goes into the shops.
I am very proud of him for getting it all done.

We have lost two members of my family.  First my grandfather then his brother a week or so after.

My daughter started full time school and my son started nursery. They are both getting so big and so grown up. My son is loving school and goes on about his friends and what he has been learning.  It is just a shame we found out he can't hear. (See earlier post) My daughter also likes school and has three boyfriends lol. We did have a few issues with her, at home, behaviour at the start of the term. Think this was down to being tired after a full day at school. Her behaviour at school was expemporary. She has has a couple of certificates praising her behaviour.

We also had the bead incident (see earlier post)

I have had my pacemaker for over a year now and I can say that I have not collapsed since I had it implanted. We have found out that the pacemaker will last another 7 years not the 10 it should be. This is down to it being on rate response rater than being constantly on. But 7 years is better than collapsing any day.

Christmas was lovely we stayed at home for the frist time. I did the cooking and I think it came out ok.

Hoping for a good year for 2014.

Knee

For the last few weeks I have had a bad knee. I don't know what I have done but it came up in a massive bruise.

Now let me explain...

I have previously had an operation, called a lateral release,  on this knee in 2005. This was performed because my knee cap was miss tracking causing pain and dislocation.

I thought that that was that all fixed, well for 8 years all fixed. But then this bruise came up.

Now I have pain, clicking and grinding noises coming from my knee every time I walk.

I made an appointment with the GP who said that I needed to rest for two weeks and it should go away!
How am I supposed to do this when I have two kids who I have to walk to school and back three times a day. This trip is three miles every day. Good for my weight loss not good for my knee.

Dam Doctors

Well after pushing for my son to get a hearing test. We have found out that he has glue ear in both ears. He has hearing loss -50 in this right and -40 something in his left. He also had a pressure test, this test sees how well your ear drum is working, which came back as a flat line on both sides. Normally it will go up and then come down.

So what do you think the doctor is going to do about it...

...NOTHING for three months.

This has been going on for almost a year. I know all about glue ear which is why I waited 9 months before seeing my GP about his hearing. Then it took three months to get an appointment to see the docs at ENT.

The doctor did say he would need gromits and most likely a hearing aid! So why make me wait!!! He should be on the waiting list for the operation.

Well I can tell you I was not happy so I made an appointment with my GP. After seeing the GP we now have to wait for another two weeks as there is nothing she can do until the letter from the hospital comes through to them. If the letter says that we have to wait my GP will call the consultant in charge and tell them I am not happy to have my son wait.

This is affecting his balance and he keeps falling over. Currently my son is sporting a nice black eye from the latest fall.

I am now going to start writing a list of how meny times he is falling over and if it has resulted in an injury.  Then present it to the doctor and see what they say then!

Will blog again when something happens.

How much trouble can beads be...

Well very in our case.

On Friday at 4.30 while I was washing up and just about to start dinner. It was a bit too quite in the living room. Upon going from the kitchen to the living room which is only a case of going through a door. I find my son saying to me 'mummy I have a bead up my nose'! After telling him off and looking up his nose I can see a blue/green bead stuck up there. So off I go to get my daughter, who was no where to be seen, telling son not to try and get the bead out.

So up the stairs I go and half way up is my daughter covered in blood! She had put a bead up her nose too but instead of telling me she had gone upstairs to the bathroom to try and get it out herself.
This consisted of sticking all of her fingers up her nose which pushed the bead past the point of no return.

Not sure what to do I got them both to put their coats on while I called our GP, as I thought they could help and I would not have to end up in A&E but if they couldn't help I would need to catch a bus to A&E which I can pick up from near the doctors.

So being on hold to speak to the GP we walked down our road and by the time I got to speak to someone we were only a few minutes away from the GP practice.
But the procedure is that a doctor would call me back and then they would decided what to do. But at this point I was so close to them that I decided I would wait in their waiting room for the phone call.

This came about 10 mins after we arrived. So explaining to the doctor what had happened and that I was in the waiting room she came to get us. Once we were in the room she said there was something we could try and explained that if she held my sons unblocked nostril closed and I breathed as hard as I could in his mouth the bead should come out.
So with a ping the bead flew across the room and I was covered in my sons snot!

We then tried it on my daughter but aftet 4 attempts nothing.  The doctor said she could not see the bead and it was time for a trip to A&E. Just what I had wanted to avoid as my husband was picking up my sister as she was coming to stay for the weekend.

After a long bus ride to A&E we were booked into the children's A&E department and were told it could be a long wait.
An hour and a half later we were finally seen. By this time my husband and sister had arrived. The doctor looked up her nose but couldn't see anything and said we might be off to another hospital which had an out of hours ENT department but luckily for us there was an on call ENT doctor at our hospital.  After a little wait he saw us and looked up my daughter's nose and said he could possibly see something but he was not sure. So to be on the safe side he would book her in for an emergency operation in the morning and we were to come back at 8am to The Blue Bell ward for the operation.

So on Saturday off to hospital we went and we got to The Blue Bell ward quite early and were told to sit in a play room. Then at some point just before 9 am we where taken to my daughter's small room. It was quite nice and had a telly and an outside patio area but it was raining so we never went out there.

My daughter was admitted to the ward and received her customary wrist band with her name, hospital number and date of birth. She had the magic cream put on her hands and we were told the doctor would be along shortly to see us. So here we were and in for the long hall.

The doctor came around about an hour later and he had a look up her nose but couldn't see anything.  So he said there are two options, one was to leave it and the other was to operate. I decided that the operation was the best option as if the bead had gone down into her tummy the operation would confirm that and if it was still there the doctors would be able to get it out.

We waited and waited and waited lunch came and went. Which disappointed my little girl as she had picked the buger for her lunch. Then meny dvds down we got told that it was time to go down for the operation. My girl was laying on her bed the whole time.  The anaesthetist came and explained what she was going to do and asked a few questions about her medical history.  Then we were taken to the anaesthetic room. The anaesthetist got the catheter in but my daughter got so upset she pulled it out before they could stick it down. Then she started to fight even though I was holding her. The anaesthetist then gave me a mask which was pumping out laughing gas. As she would not let the doctors put the mask on her but I just tried to force it onto her face and tickle her with my other hand so she would breath in the gas. Once she had fallen asleep I was taken out of the room by the nurse who had come down with us.

I went off to go buy my little girl something nice to wake up to.  Then I was called back to the recovery room. The operation only took 10 mins.  When I got to the room she was fast asleep on her bed with a mask and wires measuring her heart rate.  Then she suddenly woke up bolt up right and ripped all the wires and the mask off. She also tried to get the new catheter out. But we got her to stop by asking if she wanted a drink. Lucky enough she was so thirsty that it look her mind off pulling the catheter out.

After a sort while we were taken back to her room on the children's ward. She finally got some food and then fell asleep.  It was getting late by this time so I asked when we would be aloud to leave as it was nearly 7pm. The nurse said that we could go as soon as our ride got to the hospital.  The catheter was taken out and we got to leave. Once we got home my girl was a bit teary and very tired. She went to sleep in just a few minutes.

Now I have a small little specimen jar with the bead that was removed from her nose.

Son's 1st Day at Nursery

So today is the day! My little boy is off to nursery for the very first time. Where have the three and a half years gone?

I am sure he will be fine if his settling in seasons were anything to go by. At everyone he has been the first child through the door. The last one that he went to was last Thursday and I felt like a spare part. I didn't know what to do with myself. He just got on with playing and making friends. He even went to nursery in his school uniform.  He is so excited that I have needed to stop him sneeking in to nursery until his start day. The nursery stagger the start days so the first group started on Friday.

As he know the school so well, his sister was in the nursery last year, he just goes off and plays until it is time to go in.

So no I am all on my own, I think I might cry. He is getting so big.

Ambulance trip yesterday

Well what a shock I had yesterday.  My little boy fell over in the school playground, he doesn't start until Wednesday,  while waiting for his sister to finish school.

All I heard was the thud then nothing, then crying but he didn't get up. I dropped everything I was carrying and picked him up. There was blood streaming down his face and a pool of blood where I had picked him up from.

Me an another mum ran him to my daughter's classroom where her keyworker put a cold compress on his head which was still spurting blood all over me and my son who was crying his eyes out. I was then taken to the head teachers office were we looked at the wound but he was so covered in blood that you could not see where it was comming from.

We were then joined by my sons keyworker who is first aid trained and the decision was made that he needed to go to hospital and an ambulance was called. Which got there so quick. They put a bandage on his head and took a few details down. Then we headed to the ambulance where they put some stickers on him and attached him to a monitor to check his heart and blood pressure. We then were taken to hospital.

Here I must say how good the school were in sorting everything out and getting my daughter sorted and taken to a friend's house while my son and me went off to the hospital. 

At the hospital I was given some wipes to clean the blood of his face. Then after a short while my husband arrived. The school had called him while we were waiting for the ambulance.  My son at this point was playing with the toys in the children's waiting area. Soon after we were called into see the nurse, who took more vitals and looked at the wound. She gave him some calpol and ibuprofen which would help when my son was glued back together.  She also said that we could use the hospital shower to clean all the blood off his hair, as there was so much. I know that head woulds bleed but this was so much more than I was expecting.

We then had to wait for the doctor to see him. After the doctor saw him we were given towels to go shower him. Now he hates showers at the best of times. This was no exception, the screaming was emence. But we got all the blood off him. The cut itself was so tiny but it had gone deep and cought a vain which is why it had bleed so badly. When we got back from the shower we had to wait for a nurse to glue him back together. 

When we were called in the nurse cleaned up the wound as it had started to bleed again but this time much slower. And she then glued it back together.  I will say that the wound is so so very small. After all this we were finally let home with instructions to keep an eye on him for 6 hours.

So that is one stressful afternoon. But with my son I fear it will not be the last time!

Daughters First Week of Big School

So the first week of big school has ended and it has been a weeks of ups and downs.

First I ask my daughter what she has done every day and her reply was 'nothing' she used to say that when she was in nursery but I didn't think she would carry on in Reception.

Then she decided that she wanted to go to the park and when I said no she through one hell of a hissy fit, something that she has not done before.  I am putting it down to tiredness from being at school full time.

Today she has come home with her first home work, which is to read a book called Drat That Fat Cat and we have to fill in her reading record.

She also has show and tell every Wednesday and next weeks theam is A favourite story, rhythm,  poem or book. The book that she has chose is Goodbye Mog, she loves this book since I bought it after our cat Jezebel died at the beginning of the year.
It is such a lovely story and explains the death of a pet really well.

First week down loads more to go!

First day at big school

Well tomorrow is the day, my little girl is off to big school.

Last year she was at the nursery at the big school but this will be her first day where she will be going every day, all day.
She has said she wants pack lunch so tonight I'll be making her first proper lunch in her new Hello Kitty lunch bag.

Today I spent time putting her name in her school uniform. Packing her PE kit and making sure I have everything she could need.

I also took her to the hairdressers for the first time, to get her a proper hair cut instead of a mummy cut. I don't think I have done too badly but for her first day at big school I thought she should have a proper cut. No she looks so grown up.
The hairdresser was surprised that she had never been before, she sat nice and still, did everything that she was asked to do.

So here we are an new chapter in life.

A little operation

Today I am having a couple of lumps romoved. One on my leg and one on my breast.

The lump on my leg is just a fiberous lump and nothing to worry about, but it is going to be sent away to be tested.

The lump on my breast on the other hand. It is a mole but has recently changed and has got darker and more lumpy so it needs to be taken off and looked at, just to be on the safe side.

I'm not worried as I have had quite a few lumps like this before and they have always come back clear.

One Year On

Well today it has been a whole year since my pacemaker implantation.
And I can proudly say that I have not collapsed at all since having it implanted.

My children can finally be children again and not have to worry about me collapsing any more.

I can finally got out without worrying and I have lost weight due to all the walking I can now do. I am no longer house bound, this makes me so happy.

My scar looks good too.

Lets hope that that is that.

My Children's First ever Holiday

So this week we went on holiday for the first time.

Day 1

It is a staycation in the lovely county of Somerset. 

The journey there though did not go as planned!  It started from the moment we set off.  We had just got on the motorway when my husband said he forgot to pick up his cards! !! So back to the house we went. So for the second time we set off and all was going well. Then about an hour and a half in to our trip came the sound of my son saying 'I need a wee'. At the next services we stopped for a toilet break.  Then back on the road for the final hour and a half.

Over two and a half hours later after getting stuck in an hour plus of traffic jam going passed Stonehenge and loads of roadworks in the local town to our cottage and getting lost on the diversion. We finally arrived and went up a very steep gravel hill and promptly went skidding back down again. We found our cottage was up another lane in the farm. Which was good as there was no way our car was going to get up that hill, due to the amount of gravel.

We met the owner who showed us around and then sorted a bed out for my son so that my mum could have a proper bed and not need to use the sofa bed in the living room.

My children were amazed that the cottage was upside down.  The bedrooms down stairs and the living room and kitchen up stairs.  They were so very very excited that they were bouncing around like bunnies.

After a little while my husband and I went into the local village to the village store to get some things for breakfast. When we came back we went to the nearest sea side for fish and chips.

So after doing loads of driving to get to the cottage we went on more driving to the sea side. Using sat nav which took us down all these very very little roads, which annoyed my husband immensely. He hates sat nav's with a vengeance!

We finally got there, walked along the sea front and found a little fish & chip shop.  The fish was very nice, and for some reason always tastes nicer when at the sea side. After dinner walked back to the car on the sand, which the children loved. That night they slept almost as soon as their little heads touched the pillow.

Day 2

We went on the West Somerset Steam Railway.  The children loved it and were so very excited. The train was a black, Great Western Railway 2884 Class 2-8-0 3850 and it pulled us from Bishops Lydeard to Dunster where we got off the train and walked into the town. We saw the castle, but did not go in as the children were hungry so we went for lunch in a pub. The children's meals were bigger than ours. Which went down nicely with my daughter even if she didn't finish hers.

On the way back we were on the same train as we went on. But this time it was cuppled to the carriages the right way round.  The children slept most of the way back and even my mum and hubby did too.

Day 3

We went to Glastonbury Abbey. The children went round the museum with a clip board with a A4 sheet of paper with some photos of items in the museum for them to find. After we found all of them the children were given a badge. We then met one of the guides who was wearing period clothing. I took some photos of the children with the guide. 

The children saw some birds of prey at the Abbey and my daughters favourite was a falcon called Ruby, as Ruby is the same name as her best friend at school.

Day 4

Today we went to a cider distillery so I could pick up some local cider.  Well you must have the local produce while on holiday.  I particularly liked the cider with honey.

Then it was on to the beach at Minehead.  The children were a little disappointed that the sea was out such a long way but they did get their feet wet in some very deep wholes that had been filled with water from the out going tide.

On the way home we had to go cross country as there had been an accident on the main road.  So we turned around and using the dreaded sat nav we ended up going all these very steep roads. Ahhhhhh.

Day 5

Time to pack up and go home :( 

On the way back we first stopped at Nunney Castle which is in the middle of Nunney Village. The children loved walking around it but they had to be careful because it is surrounded by a moat.

Our Second stop off was Stonehenge where we had lunch sitting on the grass next to the site. 

Broken

Well what a day I've had today.
It started of lovely and at 7.50am I was walking down the stairs and boom step on Sushi cat and down I go!

At first I was more worried about the cat tham myself. I put ice on my wrist and got my daughter ready for school.
Still being in pain I took some strong painkillers. On the walk to school my wrist got very swollen and I made the disision that I should got ti A&E.

One of the lovely mums said she would give me a lift and Makeshiftmummy said she would pick up my daughter. So off to the hospital my son and I went.

When I got there it was empty. This is quite unusual for my new local hospital. I was quickly seen by the nurse and sent through to minors. I waited there for a little while, while my son decied to entertain the only person apart from us in the waiting area but going to every empty chair and saying its colour.

I was then called into see the nurse practitioner who sent me to x-ray after explaining what had happened for the second time. Off to X-ray we went. When I was called in I found out that my son could not come in with me. Normaly I have someone with me but on this occation I was by myself. Lucky for me a very nice old gentleman said he would watch my son for me while I had the x-ray. I wish that the hospital would put up a notice to tell you that unless it is the child who needs the x-ray they can not come in with you.

I had 7 images taken, by which time I knew something was wrong. Normaly they only take 2-4 when I have had x-rays of my list before.

So back to minors I went. By this time my son wanted to go home and was playing up. I was quickly called back in to be told that my wrist was broken. While I was waiting for the back slab, plaster of paris half cast, put on we got to wait in childrens A&E where all the toys are so my son could play while we waited for the plaster to be put on.

We got called in about 15 mins later and the plaster cast put on. After I finished I was given an appointment for fracture clinic where I will have the fiberglass cast put on.

So thanks Sushi cat!!!

Who am I

This is a good question...
I am a mother, wife, daughter, friend, naughbour, church goer, consumer, pet owner, the list goes on and on.

But who am I!
Yes I am all these things and more but is it my experience that makes me me? My experience changes me, hopefully for the better, all the time. I am diffrent today than I was yesterday. A future me will be diffrent from the me of today.

At one point in my life I thought I knew who I was but now I'm not so sure anymore. Since becoming a mum I have had my fair share of things that have happened as I have explained in my first few blogs.

Most of the time I am mum it is mummy can I have this or that. The mummy who walks them to school and back, which I will be doing six time a day from September. I am the mummy that tells them off when they are naughty. I am the mummy that gives them cuddles. I am the mummy that looks after them when they are ill or injured.

Then when they go to bed I am a wife who cooks and feeds her husband. I do have some me time as my hubby puts the children to bed most nights, unless he has to go out. Then I become a TV addict which really just another lable put on me.

When I do get to go out, Thursday night I go to evening service at church. I class this a me time but actully it is time for me to pray to god. As our last curret said 'Prayer is wasting time with God'. So that is me as the church goer.

So again Who am I...

I'm not sure I can really put my finger on it...

What does everyone else feel?

Sports Day

Today was my daughters first sports day. Being in the nursary class they only run two races, one a sprint race and the other was a obsitical race.

So the class was split into groups of 5 and first it was the sprint. My little girl was first until half way down the course when her sun hat fell off. She hesitated, thinking should she pick it up, but she carried on and came 3rd.

Then it was the obsitical race again she set off doing all the obsiticals this time holding her hat on her head.

I am so proud of her doing so well.

Parent Teacher Consultation

Today is the last consultation I will have for my daughter in her nursary year.
Where has the time gone?!

She has grown up so much in that time. Not only is she taller but she is smarter and can write her name. She is becoming quite a little lady and that is all thanks to her teacher Mrs Horner.

So at 12 noon today I find out how she has progressed throught out the year. 

Well back from the school and she has done so well. She is very bright and doing work way above her age group. 
Am very glad there are no dyslexic traits showing up. 

We have to keep up her learning over the
summer holidays. 

Interview with my kids

An interview with my children daughter 4 and son 3.

Daughters interview was done first.

What is the meaning of life?
Don't Know.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Singer, so I can sing - Mio Mao (channel 5 kids show) and Blackbird by the Beatles.

What brings you the most happiness?
Cats.

When do you feel most loved?
With our cats Baskerville and Sushi and mummy and daddy.

What are you afraid of?
Dinosaurs

If you had one wish, what would you wish for?
Hello Kitty scooter and a slide.

What is the funniest word?
Poo poo

What is the hardest/easiest thing to do?
Picking up heavy stones/tidy up my bedroom.

What is the best/worst thing in the world?
Cats & Hello Kitty/Still thinking...picking up very very very very very very very ect heavy stones.

What makes you mad?
My brother ignorning me.

What is the meaning of love?
Hugging my brother.

If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with it?
I would buy lots of cats.

Now for my son.

What is the meaning of life?
Loving cars.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A car.

What brings you happiness?
Aston Martin cars.

When do you feel most loved?
When I have mummy.

What are you afraid of?
Mummy leaving me.

If you had one wish, what would you wish for?
Aston Martin DB9.

What is the funniest word?
Tickle.

What is the hardest/easiest thing to do?
Unstick something that is stuck/Play with cars.

What is the best/worst thing in the world?
Cars/My Mini Cooper being broken.

What makes you mad?
My special cars falling off the shelf.

What is the meaning of love?
Mummy I love you.

If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with it?
Buying an Aston Martin.

Well as you can see from the above my daughter is in to cats and my son loves his cars.

Feel free to use this for your children.

Accidents

Why is it that children seem to have accidents and then do the same thing again less than a week later!

Well this happens to us all the time. Like today, after having a lovely meeting about my daughter going into reception and then a nice look around the local garden centre. I got back to school to be told she had fallen over her own feet and had a very nasty looking cut on her nose. Which is broken, not much can be done and the doctors don'y even x-ray then any more.

This only being just a week since she hurt her nose on the walk to school!
Some people say it just that she is growing.

I just hope it heals quickly

Three Phantoms

Well what a night I had last night. I went to see Three Phantoms at Milton Keynes. As a late birthday present for my birthday last year.

Before the show we went for dinner at Giraffe restaurant as I had £40 vouchers. The food was so yummy and the puddings were, well let me put it this way I think it is going to take me a week to burn off the calories!

After a short walk to the theatre we were let in and where we sat in the second row from the front, nice and close. The opening of the show was so funny and we were told that we could take photos and film if we wish and it was encouraged.
(see pics below)

The show was a mix of songs from musical theatre with a big section on the various versions of The Phantom of the Opera, including Love Never Dies, which is set 10 years after phantom, finally ending with The Phantom of the Opera.
The cast are all former members of the show, who have played The Phantom, Mr Earl Carpenter, Mr Stephen John Davis & Mr Matt Cammelle.
And no Phantom would be without his Christine and we were delighted to be in the presents of the great, wonderful and beautiful Rebecca Caine, who originated the role of Cosette in Les Mis and was also the Canadian Christine staring next to Colm Wilkinson.

My husband, not normally a musical fan, that's my thing, really enjoyed himself too. (quote from his twitter account: How refreshing to be entertained by real singers who know their craft! Really enjoyed tonights show @Three_Phantoms #autocorrectnotrequired)

As we were allowed to film I took this footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ0lu1B1vww of Stephen singing Mr Cellophane from Chicago.

The photo above is the Three Phantoms talking about the Phantom

I came away from the theatre buzzing after a funny and very very enjoyable show and I finally got to meet Stephen and Rebecca who I have chatted to on twitter. They were both very kind and possed for pictures with me. I so want to go again and the next time they are near where I live is two days after my birthday 

MMR

Well I've had to have the MMR! My son had to have his pre school injections and while talking to the nurse I found out I have never had the MMR.

Well when I was a child it was not around so we would have single injections. I remember having the Rubella at school, at the time is was only girls that had that one. This did show up on my medical records but not the single messels injection. So to be on the safe side I had to have the first does of the MMR jab, at the same time my son had his second dose. Then four weeks later back for my second dose.

Now I am all protected and thanks to my mum keeping my baby book. I found out I had messels in 1986 which could be why I have not had the single injection all those years ago. But at least I am now protected against Mumps which I have not had.

Look what has happened

The veg patch has come alive.
We have leeks, potatos, parsnips carrots, beetroot, spinach and purple sprouting brocolie. Hoping for a good year and we have already had one lot of spinach, which was yummy.

It is lovely that we can just go out and pick some veg and it is on the table in less than 30 mins.

Explaining the news to your child

This is something that I knew I would have to deal with sooner or later.

With the terible news this week of the attach in Woolwich. My daughter had seen the news but I had put my hand over her eyes while they were showing some of the graffic pictures. Some of you may say I should have turned over the channel but I do think she should know what is going on in the world. We watch the news every day at 6pm. Normaly she will sit and watch for the animal stories, sometimes she will be running round. Most of the news stories at this time are not normaly graffic and if they are there is normaly a warning. I can not sheld her from the world nor would I want to.

She has since asked why I had put my hand over her eyes. So I explained that the pictures where not very nice and I did not wish her to see them, as she might get scared. She was fine with that explination. But I think that sooner or later she will want to see and know what has happened and I will need to explain.

Now I think my daughter is quite mature for her age but when is the right time to let them know all the facts. I will normaly just let her diggest what she has seen and then let her ask me questions, which I try to answer to the best of my ability.

She is a very bright little girl and will ask questions about what she has seen.

My Hot Water Bottle

I have forgotten how much I need a hot water bottle. For meny years I've had a heat pack. But it has got lost in the house move so when I came down with this chest wall infection, which by the way is oh so painfull. I was at a friends house and she did me a hot water bottle and it helped with the pain.

Think it is going to come in handy in the winter time too :)

Even my cats are loving it. Every time I refill it they have to come and sit as close to it as possible. Not that that is helping my chest as Baskerville lays his whole body up against the hot water bottle and as it is against my chest I then have the extra weight of a cat on my chest too. So he gets pushed off and gives me that dirty look that cats do.

Chest wall viral infection

I woke up today and I couldn't breathe in without being in severe pain. My husband said that I was making noises while sleeping.

I ended up calling the doctors to get an appointment to see someone about the pain. I am very lucky that I can leave my daughter with any of the mums at school, if I need to leave her earlier than normal. Then one of the other mums gave me a lift in her car to the doctors.

After lots of tests including an ECG the doctor said that I had a viral infection on my chest well. She did give me a name but I can't for the life of me remember. There is nothing to do but take painkillers. The doctor did say that it could last 6-12 weeks.

Fell asleep and woke up in so much pain but think my body needed the sleep. Only thing about being ill with this is that going up and down stairs hurts and I can't do any house work. I have been told to rest up.

I want another kitten

A friend's cats have had very cute little tabby kittens and I sooooo want one. There are 9 of them and my friend put up some cute pics and video of them.

We already have two cats as I have blogged about before. But I want one more and I would like a ginger one but a tabby is also ok by me. I nearly chose a little tabby when we got Baskerville. But the tabby was in a big litter that my hubby didn't want to spilt up and little Baskerville was all on his own in a pen and we couldn't leave him alone.

I cleaned out the shed!

So I have spent the day cleaning. I started with the normal hoovering, washing up, cleaning down the kitchen work tops, putting a clothes wash in the machine.

Then I remembered that I am getting a bbq from my mum, now that my little brother has bought a swanky new gas one. So my shed needed cleaning out. As I don't want it going rusty if I left it out in the garden.

The shed is one of the many dumping grounds that I have, this one is for all the garden stuff plus the painting equipment. There is also all the rubbish that the old owners had kindly left us.

So I started by taking out everything and found that a family of mice had taken up residence but the cats, got to love them, soon scared them off. Baskerville almost had one but the silly thing let it go.

Once all the rubbish was out I had to block up all the holes so the mice don't come back. Then I had to bin a whole load of things that the mice had used as a home. I also found so meny snail shells so a good sweep out sorted all that.

Then to put everything that we are keeping back in. Now this took a while having to decided where everything was to go.

But now I have a useable shed. The only thing is that in the next year or so I am going to have to buy a new shed as it is rotting which is how the mice got in. This is becuse the person who put the shed up did it on bear earth!

Daughter off on her first school trip

I think I am more nervous than her about it. I know she will be well looked after and it is only to a farm.

She has been going on about all the baby animals she is going to see.

Well we got to school very early this morning. With her packed lunch in a backpack off she went into class. I did want to wave her off but the coach was no due to arrive until 9.20am. So me and my son left her for the walk home.

It seems a long day not having to pick her up at 12.

We went to pick her up at 3 and the first thing she said was 'Mummy I didn't like the farm it was smelly' 'I did like the kids. Kids are baby goats mummy'

And that is all I can get out of her!

Insomnia

I don't normaly get this but over the weekend I could not sleep.

I stayed up as was not tired at my normal bed time, which is normaly between about 10-11pm. Even my husband went to bed before I did. In the end I dragged myself up at 1am but still could not get to sleep.

I watched some anime, which for those of you that don't know is a Japanese form of animation. I got though almost a half a series and normaly when I do this I will get about 3 episodes watched before I fall asleep. But no luck this time.

I even went on twitter to see who was up. I think that night most of the people I follow were asleep. So not much going on there.

I even when dream house shopping on one of those property sites. I saw meny lovely properties but nothing that if I had the money I would buy.
Even this didn't help the getting to sleep.

Counting sheep was my next call as maybe I was getting too much stimulation from watching, tweeting and dream house hunting. This still didn't work.

I have also found that my hubby snores and so do both my cats who had gone to sleep at my feet.

By this time it was getting light then the next thing I know my alarm is going off, so I must have been so excusted that sleep just happened.

I still got it!

Well the other day I got wolf-whistled! I was coming back from the school run, it was sunny but cold so I still had my winter coat on. I can only think it was because I have dyed my hair a cherry red colour.

It kinda felt quite nice to have the attention. I know some women will find it sexist but it gave me a spring in my step. As you can tell this hasn't happend for quite a long time.

Think I'm starting to feel old. I was looking through some old photos I had taken for an acting agent, one of them below, and it feel like a lifetime ago. The other is a pic of me with my new hair colour.

Bread Making Again

Well I seem to have got into this habbit of making bread.

Today is my second loaf this week. I love that I know what ingredients have gone into it. None of these extra bits you get in normal packet bread. Don't get me wrong we do buy packet bread as it is easier all round to use and doesn't go hard as a rock after 24 hours.

But fresh baked bread is sooooo yummy.

No Hospital for a Year

Yesterday I had my 6 month pacemaker check up and all is well and nothing needs to be changed.

I was told that it has paced me over 1700 times and is working for about 6 hours a day.
All I can say to this is wow! I was also told that if it works at its current rate the battery will last 8 years now. It was 10 years at my six week check, they only had the six weeks fully working data at that point but now with 6 months data. It is amazing just how much data the pacemaker collects about me.

But before we went to the hospital we, hubby and the children, went to the Science Museum. As good as it was I think the children were a bit too young for it. Maybe in a few years we will go back and try again. The only thing that my son liked was the cars and the space part. Daughter was just bored and not very impressed.

Back to the hospital. It feels nice not to have to think about going to the hospital for a whole year. I never thought I would get to this point. I am a new woman and have even changed my hair colour. Just need a new proper hair cut now.

Don't you just love Twitter

I love it and have met some very friendly, lovely and all round nice people.

But there is a dark side too, things that come back to haunt you, so to speak. I am very careful with what I say and I work to the moto if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all.

If any one looked through my tweets you will find that I am very sweet to all. I try to help where I can, give moral support or just have a friendly chat. I do love to chat and my husband can confirm that I like to talk.

I have a love of musical theatre and I am lucky to be followed by a few people from this industry. Most of them are people from my fav musical The Phantom of the Opera,
they have either been in or currently in the show. It makes me smile when they follow me and it brightens up what have been some dark days. Especialy while I was collapsing all the time before my pacemaker was fitted.

I am also followed by a very lovely young lady who has a rare form of cancer and I have been following her tweets about her treatment in Germany. She has a very good out look on life for someone so young and I hope that this experimental treatment she is having works for her.

There have also been a few very sad stories, another child who I follow with the same condition as the young lady died not that long ago from the condition. It was with a very sad heart that I read what his mum wrote about him. His account is still active and run by his mum, I think it was always his mum who tweeted from the account, as a tool to help other people with the type on cancer her son had.

That is the thing about twitter you met some very lovely people who can inspire you. I'm not one for following celebraties but there are a couple who I do. One is Stephen Fry, well I think most people follow him. The only problem I have is that I follow about 400 people and sometimes if I don't regually check my time line I miss some tweets. These seem to be the funny ones too.

So I love twitter and would miss it if it ever went away.

Blackberry and Banana Muffins

Today I decied to use up the remaining fruit in my fridge. Looking in there I found some blackberries and then lookin in the fruit bowl on the kitchen top there was a banana.

I deceided to make some blackberry and banana muffins. Using a recipe that my sister gave me I replaced the chocolate with the blackberries and banana. The mixture was wetter than normal so I added a bit more flour and that helped very much. The colour is a very bright purple which all comes from the blackberries.

In the oven for 25minutes and out to cool down.

Easter

Well that is it over with for another year. Lots of chocolate eaten, see pic of my son below, still have more to eat though! Also see Easter Egg Corner pic below too.

As most of you know my daughter goes to a church school, which she loves. She has been telling me all about Holy Week, where Jesus has dinner with his friends, then is put on a cross with nails in his hands and feet. Also that he dies and then comes alive again on Easter Sunday so she can have chocolate eggs! Not sure she quite gets it but she is only four.

Now we have two weeks off school and I need to think of things to do with them. Could use some ideas.

One day I must repaint the bitumen on the bottom of my house as some of it is peeling off and I don't want any water getting in under my house. So that is one days job.

I would like to get the house painted but it is still too cold.

I am a 'yummy mummy'

Well that is what my daughter just said.

I have to laugh as I don't see myself like that at all.

I'm the mummy who just throughs on a pair of jeans and at the moment a wooly jumper, not the most glam things in the world, to take the children to school.

But as they say take a compliment when given :) even if it from my 4 year old daughter.

I have had enough!

As the title says I have had enough... of this weather.
It is cold and windy, my feet and hands are so cold even with thick socks and gloves on. Today it was -2°C on the walk to school. Both of my children have runny noses which get worse when they go out.
They are both moning about how cold it is. This time last year we had just bought our house and it was lovely and sunny. My brother and hubby were helping me work on the garden while we were waiting for the builders to start work. This year I can't even dig the ground over to get ready for planting the veg patch. A couple of weeks ago I put up my small green house and started to sow some carrots, it was sunny and warm at the time. But it has got so cold that all the seeds with either rot or take ages to germinate.
I am hoping for a good year with the veg as last year with all the rain it didn't work so well. We got a few things a couple of cuecumber, a couple of small butternut sqush, I still have some leeks in the ground and they are sooo small. The slugs and snails got the rest, all my nice salard leaves and spring onions. I had even used organic pet friendly slug pellets but all to no avail I lost the lot. This year it is carrots, parsnips, potatos, beetroot, spinage and brocolie. I might try the leeks again but as I have a green house this year I think I might have to leave something to grow in there, where the slugs and snails can't get them.

I also need to cut a hedge but can't as I don't want to put an electric cable out in the snow. The poor birds too they started to nest in the headge and if they had layed any eggs I don't think that they will survive :(

There are so meny jobs to do in the garden and I also need to get the outside of the house painted. It is a horrid pinky orange colour and I would like it white. Which meens hiring a long ladder but I don't want to do that when it is so cold.

I know that we haven't had any thing half as bad as the Isle of Man or Isle of Arron. They have 10 foot of snow and have no electric. The farmers have lost live stock and this will have an impact on our food prices too.

I am also lucky that I have not come down with anything, illness wise, as this would not be very helpful with the children to look after. Most of my friends have come down with some sort of bug and there is also chicken pox going round my daughters school. So am on pox watch at the moment too.

Moods

I am a monster at the moment. I feel very angry for no reason then I can be nice as pie, I'm feeling tearfull and all I want to do is curl up and sleep. It seems like I'm on a rollacoster of emotions that I seem to have no control over.

The children are just making it worse. They are not listening to me when I ask them to do something and I have to keep asking them. In the end I'm shouting at them just so they pick up a toy and put it away. This is so not like me. My husband says I have the patience of a saint when it comes to our children and life. I have never let things get to me, even when I was having all my health issues my doctor could not believe how I was coping and how I could be happy and smiling.

I can't put a finger on what is wrong, I'm not ill. It's not PMT as I have not had any of them since having my coil put in three years ago. So what is it?

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just want to screem but I can't. Even having a nice bubble bath is not working, when normaly it is just the job.

I have had some very bad thoughts too... But I can't say what they are, I haven't even told my hubby about them. I know I should but he is soooo stressed about getting his book to the publishers on time, I can't let this silly mood problem of mine worry him. I know that he would worry.

Help x

Husband Under Stress

With less that two weeks before my hubby has to get his book to the publisher and the stress is at a high point.

He is currently drawing a picture for the book as he could not find one that was suitable. I have to say that he is a very good illustrator. Pic below.

We have spent quite a long time now sorting out photos for this book. Some are going to cost us quite a bit of money to use but the book needs them so needs must and all that.

The photos that we could take ourselves have all been done and I will get a few credits in this book, yay me. But others we have to pay for. I think after this book is done I will join one of these sites and put my photos up and hopefully get some money for my efforts.

Anyway back to a stressed hubby. I have notested that he has a very short fuse at the moment and I'm just trying to keep the children from getting in his way as they play. The children love playing round the house making as much noise as they can, even this gets on my nerves sometimes and with the book so near to being finished.
This is not a good time for them to be running round the house screeming.

I know when he tells them off for this he doesn't mean it but they don't seem to realise this. But they do love him and he will always read them bedtime stories every night.
And our daughter will only be bathed by him. She refusses to be bathed by me at the moment :( not sure why but she won't.

We just have two more weeks and it will be all done. Well the first draft will be. He will be sent a proof of the book to go through and make any changes to it. So it will be stress again.

His work is not helping his mood much. He hates his job and only sticks with it so we can pay the bills. I think he is hoping that he will get made redundent then he can look for new work near home instead of 45mins away by car. It would be quicker but having to travel in the rush hour it takes longer.

I do try to help as much as I can but there is only so much I can do for him. I wish I could do more.

Baking

Ooh I love a bit of baking.

I'm not that good at it but I'll give it a go, the family love to eat the results even if they don't come out properly. They do say practise makes perfect and I have been doing lots of practise.

I have just been given an very nice receipy for chocolate chip muffins. The only part that takes time is the chopping up of the chocolate and trying not to sneek a quick square in my mouth. The mixture make 12 muffins. Now I have this reciepy I can use it for any cake sales that the school do. I will just have to double the reciepy for that.

I am going to start making bread again so am now on the look out for a faccatua reciepy. The children love it with rosemarry when we go out to our local Italian. I would like to be able to make it at home.

I have so meny ideas for things to bake but never get round to doing it. I blame all the cooking programs I watch. I love The Great British Bake Off but I'm not good enough to go and take part. I just like watching it on the telly box. And who thinks that nice Paul Hollywood is a bit of alright? ;)

I am also watching Great British Menu and will be watching Paul Hollywood's new program on bread when in starts soon. More inspration to bake. I think I am going to need a new electric whisk though as I broke my old one while making the muffins today :( more things that I need to buy.

The ironing mounting

There is one job I hate in my house and that is the ironing.

I hate it soo much I have a mountin waiting to be done. See pic below

It is one of those jobs that I as soon as you do it you start to build it up all over again. I will keep putting it off long enough that the children start to run out of ironed clothes, bad mum. It has got to that point again were it must be done. I don't iron underwear and PJs but everthing else needs to be done.

I don't mind doing the washing as all you do is put it in the machine and let it do all the work. I don't even mind hanging it out but when it comes to the ironing I will put it off as long as possible. I will clean the toilet before I will do the ironing.

Any one else with me or is it just me?

Why is having a Pacemaker expenceive?

I have found out that now I am one of many people who have a pacemaker, things have got expensive. Living in the UK my visits to the hospital are free, thanks to the wonderful thing that the NHS is (God only knows how much I would have had to pay if I lived in the US). So, thinking I could now start learning to drive again, I thought I would check how much insurance would cost me.

Well, after putting our details into one of those price comparison sites with me as a named driver my husband's insurance would jump from around £250 to a whopping £800+ and that is if I have passed. If I went on as a provisional driver it was well over £1700! If I didn't mention the pacemaker it dropped to around a nice £550.

However, I'm not sure that a driving instructor's insurance would cover me anyway.

Also, if I go on holiday abroad I need insurance for that too but again it goes through the roof for a person with a pacemaker and I don't see why. I have my pacemaker to stop me collapsing. I was more of a risk before having the PM than I am now.

I also have to tell any organisation, who I belong to, that needs public liability insurance for events as this will make their insurance go up and all to cover me! But I am probably the only one in a group that will not have any problems as my heart rate is kept at a nice 60bpm.

Then there is life insurance. I am lucky that I already have some but if I didn't that would have gone up too.

Migraine Again

Well I woke up on Sunday with a Migraine, it is the first one that I have had in three months.

I should be used to them by now, I've had them since I was 10. The first one I ever had was horrid it felt like I was being hit by a sledgehammer every second or so and all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball or hit my head against a brick wall to try and stop the pain. I am very lucky as my mother also has migraines she knew what was going on, with out her I don't think I would have coped.

I have Migraine with Aura, please click the link to find out more, I get to see many patterns of light flicker across my vision. For this condition I was put under the care of a neurologist at The Royal Free Hospital in London.
In my time, I have been on many medications including anti convulsants and anti depressant  medication, here is a list of  medications, I have been on most of them. With some of the medications I got fat, it was a side effect. I also had to inject myself with one of the triptan medications I had. My boyfriend (now hubby) came home one day after I had taken it and he said I looked like a deranged rabbit cought in head lights. It did make me quite hyper, well more hyper than normal. I was bouncing off the walls and even had a chat to the cat we were looking after about the rain and he was talking back to me! (I am not mad)

I am currently on Maxalt which has helped a bit, you put it on your tonuge and it melts which helps if you get sickness as there are not pills in your stomach for you to vomit up. I think that I am going to have to change medication again soon, nothing seems to work for very long on me.

I also have the problem of having Salicylate Sensitivity and an allergic reaction to NSAIDs and I can't take these sets of drugs as they trigger migraines and I come up in a rash that looks like a burn!

Today I have had to take Tramadol and this seems to have cleared it up no end, as you can tell by me writing this blog. I am hoping that I will only get these a couple of times a year at most now. In the past I could have a migraine for 5 out of the 7 days in a week! When I was pregnant with my daughter I stopped getting them. Then when I got Vasovagal Syncope I didn't really get the migraines at all just very bad headaches and only then once in a blue moon.

One thing I have found is that my pacemaker seems to work overtime while I have a migraine and I wonder why? I think I shall do more research into the matter and I will get back to you with what I find.

My lovely Bath

Oh how much I love a bath.

A shower is all well and good if you're in a rush and need to get clean quickly, and I know that a shower is better for the enviroment, but to have a bath with my fave Molton Brown bubble bath is heaven, I could lie there all day if only the children would let me. If they do I will let them in the bath after I am done. So really there are three of us getting clean in one bath when I know for a fact that I would use more water if we all had a shower.

How do I know this I hear you asking? Well, one day we tested it by putting the plug in while we all took a shower and when I finished washing my daughter and myself the bath was full. So in our house the bath fills up on two people, well one person and a small child.

When we became the owners of our house we had to replace the bathroom as it was old and very, very broken with one of the pipes leaking. So I went shopping for a nice pea shaped bath with taps, sink and toilet included, for only £500. It was a bargain. The pea shaped bath was ideal as I could still lay out even if the children had joined me, which happens quite a lot in this house.

But back to the bath, the thought of it now is just so nice I'm almost tempted to go and put one on.
The warm water just eases those tired muscles and the bath gives me time out from the monsters.

The only thing I have to be careful with is my pacemaker. If the water is too hot when I get out my pacemaker will start pacing me as soon as my heart rate drops (when you get out of the bath this will happen as the blood vessels all open up due to the heat and take the much needed blood from the brain and vital organs). This is very bad for me as blood will pool in my legs and, if I didn't have the pacemaker, my heart would stop and I would collapse. But now with my lovely pacemaker none of this happens. So I can have the bath as hot a I like and I don't need to worry.

Making a cake

Today I am going to make a cake.

I am going to try a victoria sponge as it is simple to make. You just have to remember that sugar, flour and butter must always weigh the same.

8oz of butter
8oz of sugar
8oz of flower
2 tsps of vanilla extract
4 medum eggs
Jam for the middle

This is all you need to make a simple victoria sponge.

So you start by creaming the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. I used an electric whisk as my arms are not up to doing it by hand.

Then you slowly mix in the eggs bit by bit, until the mix is smooth. Add the vanilla extract then slowly add the flour. At this point I added some pink food colouring as the cake was meant to be made for Valentines Day.

Then pour the mix into two greased 7" cake tins. Put them into a pre heated oven gas mark 4. For 20 to 30 mins.

Then take out your cake and allow to cool completely before adding your jam or cream or both.
We had added some pink icing and pink sprinkles in the pic below.

Then you can stuff your face :-)
Enjoy.

Happy Valentines Day

Today is the day that we are supposed to show our love to our partner. But shouldn't you be showing your love every day of the week, not when some card shops tell you too?

Well this is what I got today (pic below) and I must say I love it. But we have not given each other cards this year.

As my lovely hubby was on the early shift at work I have not seen him yet. I think I'm going to bake a cake for him. Will try to blog about it later or tomorrow.

Pancake day

I love pancake day as we get to stuff our faces with pancakes and not feel guilty about it. I love the lemon and sugar ones but also love Nutella®. What are your fav combos? My daughter has asked for maple syrup, lemon and ice cream. I think she learnt about it in school.

But there is a reason why we do this.

Shrove Tuesday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With the children at a church school they are learning about why we have lent which starts tomorrow. 
I think that I should give up something for lent but don't know what as we have many birthdays between now and easter so cake is out. I could do sweets but I don't eat meny any way, same goes for biscutes. So I am going to give up fizzy pop. This for me is hard as I do like a bit of fizz. I now have to think of what I can drink instead.

Our open fire

Today I finally got the open fire going. The house already had it when we bought the place. We had it checked and cleaned while the builders were in fixing up the place.

But it has taken us almost a year to get it up and running. We had a buy a few things first - fire guard, a fire side set with poker and finally a CO2 monitor which is very very important.

But after today I just wanted to put it on. We have snow and my daughter got sent home from school as they had a power cut and the heating went off. When I got the text message I was waiting to see the doctor for my son who has a lump in his neck. It is fine, it is just a lymph node that has come up because he is fighting a virus.

Back to the fire, it did take a little while to get going as I couldn't get the wood to catch fire! But after a whole news paper it is now roaring away and heating us up quite nicely.

The only thing is I have found that I'm not so good at making fire. I now smell of burning and the fire keeps going out! Think I'm going to need more matches.  By the time I get better at this fire making we will be in late spring and I won't need the open fire.

Sleeping Children

Don't you just love sleeping children?

I love the point at night where they are in bed and sleeping so we can have some adult time. At the moment this is happening about 9 to 9.30pm even thought they are put to bed by 7.30pm with the lights out by 8.30pm after story time. But they are still up talking to each other. I should mention that they share a bedroom.

I have added, at the end of this blog, some cute pictures of my two that I have taken over the years when they have fallen asleep in strange positions or just look cute.

I have often wondered what they dream about. I think my son dreams about cars as they are always on his mind. He can name any car just by looking at the badge and if he doesn't know it he learns it for next time. We often walk down the road on the school run with him naming every car that passes us.

My daughter on the other hand dreams about cats. She loves cats and anything to do with cats. She is more of a cat person than me. I think. I will try to get her to draw her dreams one day when she is off school for the holidays. I will be intresting to see what she comes up with.

I have been very lucky that we haven't had meny, one or two so far, bad dreams. But the ones we have had mean that I and my hubby don't get much sleep as normally everyone, with all the crying one child will have normally woken the other, and they jump in our bed. Luckly we have a king size bed, it just about fits my husband, two children the cats and me!

Are you a cat person or a dog person

Well in this house we are cat people. We love cats, as you will know from some of my other blogs we have two cats. One Baskervile who is 8 months so still a kitten and our new cat Sushi who is 4 and fully grown. Well when I say fully grown, over weight is more like it, she has lost a little in the time that we have had her.

I always wanted a cat as a child but as my mum is alergic to animal fur so I was never allowed one or two or three. All we could have was fish but as first pets they were ok until I went to clean them out and I used hot water while they were still in the tank, I was only 10 at the time. In those days late 80's early 90's you didn't have all these nice fliters and you cleaned out the tank fully every week. Now we know that for the best fish health you need a fliter and only need to change 10-20% of the water every two weeks and only do a full clean every 6 months.

But anyway back to the cat or dog person. I think that as nice as a dog would be my house is too small and if I go to work when the children go to school full time the poor dog will be left on it's own for too long.

So for us cats are just right. You can leave them and they will come and go as they please as long as they have food and water they are fine.
They are welcome to sit on our laps for fuss and this is always on their terms. We make sure that they are groomed every day for our medum hair cat and once a week for our short hair cat.

It is lovely to have the little faces at the door or sitting on the sofa when you get in after you have been out. Baskerville is a very friendly cat who loves attention and will come sit on your shoulder and purr in your ear.

I think I'm going to become that old lady with the cats lol.

Six month check up

Today is my six month check up since having my pacemaker. So I am on my way to The Royal Brompton. But what a day we have had just to get to this point.

First we had my daughters parent teacher consultation at 8.30 this morning, as I couldn't do it this afternoon. She is doing very well and her teacher is pleased with her progress. We have to get her asking questions though and we must try to get her to do artwork that represents something that she has done. Now it is thinking caps on to go and do something that she can then try to draw or paint. I'm thinking maybe I should get her a art book of some kind that she can draw in and it could be her project for this term.

From a very good report we left her at school to enjoy her day. We did have to pick her up early though as she normaly finishes at 12noon and I would have to be in London for my appointment at 2pm. It takes about 45mins to get to my mum's house where the children would stay while I went down to the hospital. We were to meet my sister at 12 and then get strate off for my appointment but she was not there. In the end we had to wait for 25mins before she turned up.
So now it was a quick walk to the tube station and onto the London Underground.

Underground was running very well and we got to the hospital with time to spare. We had a quick sandwich and waited for my appointment. Well the appointment went well and I am now discharged but I do have the email and phone numbers if I need anything. I am very happy to report that I have not had any collapses since having my lovely pacemaker implanted. The only thing I have had is a small dizzy spell when I was ill. But I will still have to keep drinking lots of water and adding extra salt to my food. During the summer I must not get dehydrated or I could have more dizzy spells. But at least I won't collapse any more, well until the battery in the pacemaker needs replacing that is. I will be staying on the meds for the time being though.

So all in all a very busy day and it is not over yet.  I think I need an afternoon nap!

First Head Lice

I hate head lice. So today what do I find in my four year olds hair. You guessed it head lice!

We were getting ready for school and I was just about to put her hair up and she itched her head. So I looked at her hair and there they were the little tiny lice, ewwwww.
So instead of going to school we headed for the pharmacy to get the products to get rid of them. This is the first day that my daughter has had to miss school.

Once we got to the pharmacy I had to ask what to get as having never had to buy these products before I didn't know what one to buy.
I was allergic to most of these products when I was a kid so we used vinager when I got head lice.

The lovey lady told me that they now do a new product that contains no pestasides and that it is make up baced, which drowns them. I went with that one and used rubber gloves while treating my daughters hair. I have now done a skin test on myself and have not reacted yet but I do have to wait for 24 hours before I will know.

But why does it take all morning to treat when it says 15 mins on the box?  Well I will tell you.

5 mins to put on her hair and my daughter only has shoulder lengh and it is quite thin. It will take longer on think or long hair.

15 mins for the product to work just like it states on the box.

15 to 30 mins to wash the product out of her hair.

Finally it is about 1 hour combing out all the dead lice and nits. You could do this quicker but I wanted to make sure I got as meny of the nits (the eggs that are glued to the hair by the lice) as possible so there would be less of a chance that she could get re infested by them.

Even so I have to repeat the above prosses in a weeks time. I will be combing her hair with the nit comb every day after school from now on.

Lucky for me she reacts very quickly to the lice when they bite her. Her hair was checked on Sunday while she was having a bath, I always check her hair when she has a bath now she goes to school. She must have picked the lice up on Monday or yesterday at school.

After treatment I counted how meny lice that came out of her hair and it was only 10 but there were very meny full eggs ready to hatch.

Lets hope she doesn't get them again for awhile.