Yesterday I was faced with the horrible heartbreaking realisation dear reader that leopards really can't change their spots and no matter how many false promises someone makes their true colours will always show.

In the whole of my heart I lived with the hope that we would all be together again as a family one day, I didn't want to give up and I didn't want to have a failed marriage, I never wanted that but I realise that all of the things I have inside of me which make me feel like I've failed and make me feel like I wasn't good enough again were not caused by me.

Life I think in some respects is about to get much harder, without hope I have to go through the breakdown of utter heartbreak again but I was deluded to think that things could ever have been different, in as much as I wanted to hold together the fabric of our family I should have realised that it was ripped to shreds beyond repair long ago.

I think in some sense it's a bit of a relief because now I know the path before me and although I'm facing being lonely for a while I know in the end I'll be ok, one day I'm going to be quite brilliant and I shall sparkle on a daily basis.  I know now that I'm going to work hard to make my business amazing so that I can provide my children with every thing they'll ever need and I will do it on my own without any financial support and without complaint and each moment when I am not at work I shall use it to spend with my children so they know just how much I love and adore them, we'll make our house the best home ever, we'll have as many friends around as we want, we'll continue to rescue animals who need a second chance but I think we'll stick to the four legged ones.  We'll go on adventures to wherever we want and no one will ever be able to say "you can't do that."  I think I'm still in a better place than I was at the beginning of September because a lot of the things have just become clearer to me.  I know this much is true, if you love me, you love the whole of me and all of my children equally because all of my children are fabulous amazing people and I'll continue to tell them that every day.  When you're in a marriage or relationship you have to accept everyone in that unit, you can't pick and choose and you can never expect the other person to allow you to ignore or turn a blind eye to your hatred of any of them.  Mums will always choose their children above a man no matter how old their children are.

It's been hard of late with Abigail spending more time at her dads than at home but today she's going to be here when she finishes school, Iain broke up from college for half term on Wednesday and Looby broke up yesterday so by later this afternoon we'll all be together my children and I and we're having Tacos and it's movie night, Malificent being the movie of choice as it is a tenuously linked movie to Halloween and it's of course that time of year, let me just say that some of the suggestions on our board for this weeks movie had a definite Christmas theme but I am saving Elf  (btw, it's only £8 on blu ray on that linky thing) for another day.

Tomorrow I have a day off and I honestly have no idea what we'll do, we did have family plans but it really looks like we can't pretend anymore and they're just not going to happen, I think the most I can hope for is friendship one day, in the end you can't have someone on your own terms, I think my analysis of the situation was that while I wasn't wanted completely I was wanted enough to make sure that I could never move on and you can't do that, it's pretty clear cut for me, together as a family forever or get on with our own healing and lives being co-parents to our children and dog, you can't have it all and expect someone to have a weird courting sort of relationship with their own husband without a promise of anything else for years, I'll never accept second best even if it's heart breaking, one day someone will love me properly with their whole heart without any conditions or expectations that I'll ever be anything other than just me, it may be years before that happens, it may never happen but you never really truly know what's around the corner.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to love the ones you're with and be with the ones you love.

More Best of the Year award wins for Portraiture and a couple of special offers

I counted myself to be very lucky when I won 2 best of 2011 awards for wedding photography earlier this month so last week when I found out I'd won another best of 2011 award for Pet photography and then yesterday when I found out I'd won a stonking 5 best of 2011 awards for portraiture I had a smile like a cheshire cat!!

This was my favourite portrait image that won and my favourite portrait image of last year, taken on location at the Cedar Court Grand in York with Dr Mariann Hardey of So Seriously Social

Beautiful Ruby is one of the first pets I've ever photographed so a bit of an honour to scoop a top worldwide award.

This weekend in the studio I had the honour of photographing 23 members of this lovely family in celebration of Grandma and Granddads Golden Wedding Anniversary

It made me so grateful to have a studio big enough to fit them all in, Holly and Craig in the back row are old clients who's wedding I shot 3 years ago, it was a lovely opportunity to catch up with the whole family and know that they're all doing so well.

all of the great grandchildren were so cute and it was an absolutely pleasure to photograph them all.

So onto the offers, this months offers are I think pretty brilliant - 

Book your 2012/2013 wedding before the end of February and I'll add an extra hour onto your wedding coverage, imagine what you could do with that extra hour?

Also book a portrait shoot in the studio before the end of February and benefit from a special £20 sitting instead of £40 and you'll even get a complimentary 5x7 print.  You could even buy a gift certificate for a future event and benefit from the half price offer.

To take advantage of any of the offers just click through and contact me through my website

In the blink of an eye

Short posting today but I had to get it written down...

Iain started High School this morning, he's going to be 12 on Saturday and I really can't beleive how quickly time passes, one moment you have them on your knee singing nursery rhymes and all too soon they're going on into the world on their own. For the first time Iain is making his own way to school, he has to leave before most of us get up because his school starts nearly an hour before the girls school does, he finishes earlier as well of course and that has meant that he's now got his own key as well, now that is a scary thought!!

I still can't quite get over the fact that twelve years ago i was contemplating the imminent birth of my first child and it reminds me as I remind you to enjoy and savour each day that children are young, those little funny things they come out with, those joys of childhood need to be held on to for as long as possible because in the blink of an eye they're gone.

Sports Day and Yashimoto Nara at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art

Monday and Yesterday was sportsdays at school so off I went sans camera to capture a little of the action.




Abigail absolutely loves sports day.



she really loves the football!



as you can see in this action shot!



and imagine my delight when she won first place in the year 1 girls race!!

Yesterday was stonkingly hot and humid for Loobys sports day




I loved watching her jumping!



and having a well earned drink at the end of the day!




Today, there was a strike by members of UNISON so it meant school being closed, it's a little odd because they go back on Friday for one day and then it's summer holidays!!

anyway I decided that we wouldn't waste a good day so we went to see the Yashitomo Nara exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and Wow, I loved it, the kids loved it, it's fab!!

Goodness only knows what we'll get up to tommorrow....

Photography Field Trip

Well being that I didn't get to shoot today and I didn't want to sit around twiddling my thumbs plus the fact that Paul wanted to watch the first Grand Prix of the season meant that I took the girls out this afternoon for a photography lesson.

I was armed with my 20D plus Sigma 50-150mm, Abigail was armed with my Holga and Looby had a polaroid camera!

We had a lot of fun modelling for each other and looby got some great shots, we'll have to wait to have Abigails film developed and I got some great shots of the both of them :-





On our way to practice photography!




We took turns to be the model.



Abigails face when I told her to relax her eyes.



Abigail is very good at posing when she wants to be!



Looby looking lovely!



Camera Faces!



LOve this one!



and this one.





What a great afternoon :)

One of the nicest things about being a wedding photographer...

Is meeting so many wonderful couples and getting to enjoy the celebration of their love, I love this moment from Stuart and Michelles wedding where she was looking on as he made his speech.

I have a little downtime today whilst I prepare for tommorrows wedding so I'm catching up on getting ready some photos for despatch and another batch edited also! I also need to go to the local organic shop to get some more groceries as my husband would have us beleive that we have no food in the house even though the fridge is full of organic vegetables, in the next sentence he says he needs to eat better and I lovingly remind him that if he didn't complain say there was nothing in the fridge and then ask for take-away pizza (which BTW he didn't get, I made him Pitta pockets with tuna and organic gubbins)this wouldn't even be an issue. I'm really clamping down on proper eating this week as I want to get the children back on track for starting school next week. I have to say I let it slip a little during the holidays and didn't complain too much when they asked for sweets and constant ice-pops but this week it's back to fruit, vegetables and plenty of organic rice, pasta and other lovely gubbins. We are lucky to have an award winning organic far shop literally just around the corner. We've been shopping at The Honey Tree since we moved here and it's really the best reason I have for not moving away in the near future, also we now get an organic grocery box every friday from North country organics, this little wonder comes with all the vegetables and fruit you need (to feed an army) for a week plus meat, milk, eggs and bread and all for a bargain £39.99, mmmmmm, I love it!!

Life sure is busy...

Yep, can't beleive how quickly life can turn on it's head, at the weekend I had the pleasure of meeting this gorgeous pair of baby feet, oh and the rest of him is just as scrumptious, I really had a lot of fun with this wee man, and his family!

Today I shot (in the photographic sense of the word) another gorgeous boy with the biggest blue eyes you have ever seen. He's such a poppet and even though he wasn't keen to be the star of some photos for mummy I managed to bribe him with some lollies and he was good as gold! If you want to see more of either of my wee stars feel free to click on my website, you may even want to book yourself in, I'll warn you now, I am pretty much booked for the next couple of weekends, I have a shoot on Saturday and then next weekend I have an Asian wedding which takes up the whole weekend and the Sunday of the weekend after, oh yes as I stated earlier, I sure am busy!!!

Going Away

In honour of Abigails big 5th birthday on Monday we're off to Cheshire tommorrow, we're going to Gullivers World (a theme park for the under 13's) and then on Monday we're making a visit to the Blue Planet Aquarium, all terribly exciting but the best bit is that we have a hotel suite booked for tommorrow night, it's 10 star (Abigails own category) and thrilling because it even has a pool (new swimming costumes all round) in which I plan to have my very first swim for atleast 5 years tommorrow night, probably before we take a meal in their award winning restaurant.

Sounds good doesn't it!!! Well I am looking forward to it so much, I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel discounting the Travel Lodge in Dundee 4 years ago! We may only be going away for 1 night but it will be the best holiday ever according to the children and you know what I have a tendency to agree.

I went on a bit of an unplanned spending spree today and bought new outfits for the children, a couple of new jumpers from Next for moi and a petrol hedge trimmer for Paul, I'm assured he won't be using that on our Mini-break (ooh see I've gone all Bridget Jones now!) and it is in fact for his fledgling gardening business. Soon there will be 2 of us in one house with our own businesses!

Speaking of which, I have a new website, have a look HERE, ooh and celebrate with me when you read the front page, I only got notification of that award yesterday and I could win quite a few dollars at the end of the year.

1 more thing, I bought myself an official grown up lady purse today, I thought it was time to stop having the purse of a 5 year old because after all I am now a grown up..... well maybe!!

Did I mention.....

That the Craft Kingdom has had a merger? Hmmm, can't remember, anyway it has and it's now combined with www.craft.co.uk and I have to say I think it's quite a splendid little forum (well bigger than it was actually) it kind of reminds me of the olden days (yes atleast 3 years ago) when I first joined the now defunct Papercraftuk (although I beleive thats now another name as well, LOL). I'm kind of thinking it's going to be a nice place to dwell as there are so many different crafts on the board and so many crafters with their various specialities, it leads me to wonder what new and interesting things I'll end up trying myself given some time! I'm quite lucky in that Phillip whom I've merged with is far far far better at the technical stuff than I ever could be and it's going to be a very exciting and interesting partnership I think!!

Anyway, rambling on, thought I should blog really but to be honest my energy levels are still in my boots, my cellulitus seems to be fighting back though lord knows how it can beat all the various medications I'm taking at present!!

I set myself one task for the morning today as I couldn't see myself getting anything more done and to be honest I was shattered just doing that one thing, it's done now though and I have a certain sense of satisfaction knowing I achieved something atleast.

Only 1 week to go until Abigails birthday and all preperations are in place, I bought her the prized Lelli Kelly shoes yesterday, I can't wait to see her little face when she sees those, after all she's asked me atleast twice a day, every single day since before Paul started at the post office (around September if I remember rightly). The Sylvanian Mansion has been safely hidden though it took some doing as it's so very big and all plans are still afoot for going away on Sunday morning :)

Really looking forward to this weekend and just hoping that I'll be well enough to enjoy it all.

Bland!

Nothing really much has happened over the weekend which is why I haven't blogged but I do know that if I don't blog for too long I have wanted notices and people worried I've been abducted by aliens.

I came to the mammoth decision to close the Craft Kingdom at the weekend and no sooner had I announced it I received a lovely email from another small forum wanting to do a merger so by the end of this week we should be fully merged with www.craft.co.uk another multicraftual society, I've also started a Myspace group called Crafters are not Twee or CANT for short LOL, it's my hope that we find some members on there and then we can redirect them to the new fabulous forum. I'm really looking forward to working with Phillip who owns craft.co.uk and I think he's genuinely looking forward to it as well, hopefully this is the dawn of the new forum!

Also this weekend we hatched a cunning plan to distract Abigail from having an exhoribitantly expensive party at one of those damned awful child hell establishments, I'm sure you know the places , 50 random monsters of various descriptions running around high on too many e-numbers and paying around a tenner a child for the priviledge, ah well no thanks very much, we're instead going to go and stay away for a night in a travellodge and spend a full day at a Gullivers theme park, a theme park specifically designed for the under 13's, We told her what we had planned and it seems she's quite excited about it, hurrah for that, I class myself as quite a good mum but I just can't stand childrens parties!! Anyway we're planning on getting her just one present for her birthday as we don't have the room and we don't believe in commercialisation, it is however the one you see here which comes in at just one penny less than a hundred pounds so it's not like she's being stuck in a corner and given a broken stick to play with LOL. I showed here pictures of it yesterday and she's still a little undecided between this or getting the Playmobil Manor house which is around the same price but just a slightly different concept. I think whichever one she chooses is hopefully going to bring her lots of fun and enjoyment for the future and either this Sylvanian families house or indeed the playmobil set can be added to at a later date.

Personally I think this is every little girls dream and if it were going to be my 5th birthday it's something I would dream about!

OOh almost forgot, whilst we go away I've managed to squeeze in a photoshoot for a lovely internet friend of mine, I'll hopfully be shooting her (she's just lost a ton of weight and is looking fabulous) and her gorgeous daughters. I'm quite excited about it as you all know how passionate I am about my photography. Talking of which it's not long now until my ad appears in the yellow pages and also not long until the local paper is featuring me in an article about the local enteroprise centre, hopefully this will me lots more business and lots more opportunities to photograph gorgeous people and their fabulous families. Don't forget if you live in the north east of England and you're looking for a photographer, I'm available and very reasonable, no Venture Photography prices here!! Email me for more details.

Saying Goodbye

Bernie returns to school tommorrow and it's with a heavy heart that we send him back, I really have had the best school holidays I've ever known and I have to thank Bernie the bear for being very much a part of that. He's really revolutionised things so much that we're going to go out at the end of the week and buy our very own Bernie who will come on adventures, journal the times he's shared and probably even blog about it.

I made a fabulous scrapbook for the school with lots of photos and plenty of journalling and I hope that the whole of Abigails reception class will enjoy looking through it.

In memory of his wonderful time, please take a whole 1min and 7 seconds to enjoy some of the highlights of our Easter, Bernies holidays.

They're Happy, We're Happy, everyone is happy!

It's true, this little bundle has brought so much joy to our collective lives already, he's found a place in our hearts, I just wish that he would sleep through the night, as I've never had a puppy before paul didn't bother to mention that puppies are much like babies in that they don't sleep through the night, the demand constant attention and the poo and wee mostly everywhere they can!I'm just thankful that I haven't started decorating the livingroom or bought the new carpet yet, thank goodness for indecision eh?!

Actually he seems to have mastered the puppy pads so it shouldn't be too long until he's toilet trained, it's just that at the moment he's too teeny to hop up and down the stairs so we kind of have puppy pads in every room of the house at the moment! LOL

Looby is looking after him today and giving him 3 kazillion percent attention, she's off nursery as she's hhad a temperature although some calpol seems to have done the trick, she's currently sitting in a rather large and posh wicker basket which we bought from Ilva yesterday, we're using it as a doggy bed because it doesn't look out of place in our bedroom and matches the other Ilva wicker basket we have, oh and then I bought another one for the magazines in the livingroom too. I wubs Ilva!!

Have no idea what this week will bring but remember I'm available for blog design and photo editing all week as well as the standard photography work so if you think I could be of use to you, email me :)

Lack of goings on!

This cake is probably the most exciting thing to happen in our house at the moment! I made it yesterday whilst hubby had a snooze, thing is that the children have been out at various places all weekend and so hubby and I really haven't done a lot and subsequently haven't taken any photos, hubby tends to object when I keep pointing the camera in his face, still I did manage to capture todays POTD on Don't Pose which imho is a bit of a cracker!!

So nothing to report really, spent an exhorbitant amount of money in Sainsburys this morning but isn't that always the way, we now seem to have enough food to last a month and can barely shut the fridge door but you can bet by friday that it will need restocking again!

Happy Mothers day to all those lovely yummy mummy friends of mine. I received a little bunch of flowers from Looby, a bar of chocolate truffle from Iain and a vanilla scented candle from Abigail, we don't really beleive in huge gestures in our house, we simply mark occasions with something meaningful. Anyway I loved it all, all three had signed the card, even Looby and that made me melt!

So as we speak dear reader Hubby is watching the Australian grand-prix season and you know in my eyes that means spring has arrived although all the snow forecast over the next 48hrs or so might just wrangle with that!

This week - well nothing really planned as yet but in The Charlton household you can always rely on an impromptu adventure occuring! :D

Aah thats better...

Yes thats right listen to my friend here, he knows what I'm talking about!!

We went off to the park this afternoon after school, first evening it's been really nice enough to do that this year, Saltwell park just outside of Gateshead is such a lovely park, particularly since all the renovations to restore it to it's former glory, anyway we spend lots of time there but this evening was the first time we had managed to squeeze it in on a school day so Spring must be here mustn't it! It certainly feels like it, I saw plenty of daffodils just beginning to bloom and had the joy of watching a couple of busy squirrels as they went about their work, sadly though i had my long lens on and no tripod so no photos of them today.

I did though as per usual get just one or two of the children, they were particularly taken with some stone sculptures which now reside in the park and as I took this one of Iain and was processing it tonight I was thinking just what a brilliant boy I have, he's such a nice person and always helpful and loving, he's such a grown up these days and I'm so proud of him, If you're wondering that text was added in photoshop, I think suits him!!


So much gamboling and larking about took place and the girls had lots and lots of fun, they did seem a little on the tantrummy side though, Abigail seen here when she was in a slightly better mood had the biggest tantrum in the world on the way to the park and the whole of the journey going there and then Looby decided to reciprocate and had the biggest tantrum in the world on the way out of the park and most of the journey home, I suspect they were both very tired little girls tonight though I can't be sure why that could be, anyway they both had a half past seven bed time this evening and lets hope thats all the tantrums out of the way for a while as they can be quite exhausting, I'm sure that you parents will know what I am talking about!!

Paul is at the hospital tommorrow with his groin injury, he's seeing the sports injury people in the hope that they have an answer to just why it has gone on for so long and also of course the hope that they can put him right and he can get back to his beloved footie.

I'm going to the hospital on Thursday to see the dreaded liver specialist and I am dreading it, we already know that there is something wrong it's just a case of finding out exactly what it is. I have to say that over the last couple of months the pains in my liver have been getting more persistant and I am in the back of my mind quite worried, then again if it hadn't of been for those blood tests which told me there was something wrong I might have just assumed it was a muscular thing, well i mean I only really found out the location of my liver when I had the ultrasound scan LOL!!

Blackpool

Firstly abject apologies and also thanks to all those lovely people who noticed that I hadn't updated my blog since Tuesday and wondered if I was Dead/Missing/abducted by aliens. I had a horrid week and thank goodness I have the most lovely gorgeous caring family or I don't think I would have made it to Sunday! The week culminated in a daytrip which was supposed to be to Fountains Abbey but due to some roadworks and a little fate brought us to the bright lights and gaudy colours of Blackpool.

Blackpool is one on it's own really, for my US buddies, it's on the North west coast of England and is a mecca of amusement arcades, theme park rides and all that is traditional about the good old british seaside, there really isn't another place like it in the world, I love it for the occasional daytrip but I don't think I could afford to spend a week there!! In fact at the rate my children like putting money in tuppence machines I couldn't afford to spend more than a day there!! It was one heck of a day though, we arrived around two-ish in the afternoon which wasn't bad considering hubby had been to work in the morning. The kids quickly set about destroying as much of our finances in the quickest space of time and of course they loved every minute of it. I think the highlight of the day for all of us though was having a horse and carraige ride along the sea front all the way from the pleasure beach to Blackpool tower at the other end, if you want my unique veiw from the ride then check out my photograph of the day over at Don't Pose. We certainly did have fun yesterday and we didn't get home until 10pm last night, the children slept most of the way back and still managed to drag me out of bed at 7am this morning, for all the many talents my children possess, staying in bed and giving mum a rest isn't one of them!! I'll leave you with one of my most favourite images of the day, Looby on Pauls shoulders just as dusk was falling, she had a wild old time although that poor Care Bear you see there got lost and to this moment we don't know quite where, lucky we won (for won read spent £50 trying to win!!) a couple of other soft toys along the way, Hubby even won me a Tigger cuddly, no one has won me a cuddly toy for years so I was chuffed to bits!! I really love my family, there may be only 5 of us but we have enough love for a whole planet between us, I am the luckiest girl in my universe!!

My Signature!

Every artist should have a signature style, something they do that no one else does or something which really can sum them up without words and this photo is mine, I took this one today but I have several similar ones in my collection, I love jumping photos and happy photos and this really sums up both emotions. I guess if you have a photoshoot booked with me then this might just be one of the things I'm going to ask you to do and I can guarantee that every time you look at the photo you'll smile a quiet smile.

So as you've probably guessed dear reader we have been out and about this afternoon, a couple of hours spent rambling at the Wallington Hall Property near Morpeth in Northumberland helped to blow the cobwebs away and we enjoyed the late winter sunshine to the maximum, I also really got to grips with my Sigma 70-300 mm lens, I didn't take my tripod so I tried it to it's max with just myself to steady the lens and I have to say that it performs pretty well! All the children once again enjoyed the ramble though we did have several moments with Abigail and her tantrums again, I'm not entirely sure what to do about her at the moment but she seems to think that she can get whatever she want by throwing strops and when she doesn't there are further strops and tantrums, it's funny because we don't seem to encounter any of these things with Iain or Looby though they have both been brought up under similar conditions. I'm guessing that middle child syndrome has a lot to do with it but we shall try a reward chart to go with the normal naughty stair extravaganza and see where that gets us, if anyone has any better ideas then feel free to suggest them on the back of a sheet of Hambly and sent post haste to Stressed parents in Newcastle!

Tonight we're having a couple of glasses of a gorgeous South African Grenache, I don't usually do Grenache but I bought Paul a case of red wine for Valentines day so I thought I better join in, oh and in case you're wondering he bought me a gift wrapped packet of Love Hearts and a bottle of my favourite Gucci perfume! Ooh yes much love in the Charlton house, but then again isn't there always!!

I'll leave you today with this photo of my hubby which just goes to show one of the many reasons we're still so blissfully happy, I mean after all with this much laughter and silliness every day you wouldn't want to give that up in a hurry would you?!

Yay We Made It....

To the weekend once more!
No family dinner last night as Paul took Looby and Iain to Adventurelands, Abigail was already there at a party so they all had quite a ball. I have to say that I stayed at home working but managed to get finished up by the time Paul got in today so that we could go for a family lunch!

We went off to Amble to a family pub there and had quite a delicious meal, the food portions though were huge and I have to give medal of honour to Iain who almost managed to eat a whole adult portion of fish and chips.

Looby and Abigail had lots of fun playing funny face/nice face, this is my secret ploy now to make sure that I get some great photos of them everytime, if you are a parent and you're having trouble getting your kids to play nice for the camera why not indulge them in this fun game, the rules are funny face photo and then nice face photo, that way you can assure yourself that half the photos you take will be fabulous and the other half will probably be priceless!

It's funny this week Paul and I have both worked exceedingly hard, Paul clocked up nearly 48 hours and I managed my own job plus photography work and a memory book, my only hope is that when all the payments come through that we'll have the time to enjoy it!

Ring Ring.....

6.15am this morning :-

Ring Ring, Ring Ring

Me:- Mhelo

Burly man : Is Paul there please

Me: Mmm no he's at work

Burly Man: no he's not he's broken down

Me: oh ok

Burly Man: could you ring him and tell him i'm standing by the phone now

Me: oh ok

I hang up, call hubby:

Me: Ok the man is standing by the phone now

Hubby: thanks darling, bye.

Now then, can I just say there are better ways of being hoisted from your dreams in the morning, especially when you are just about to make a surprise appearance on a catwalk in Milan wearing a rather attractive "This seasons Poncho is all about the bigger woman"

I should have really asked Hubby or indeed the Burly post office employee if both hubby and car were ok but at 6.15am I wasn't really in the mood for pleasantries, I'm sure there was some definite sense somewhere in the phone-call but I tiredly missed it!

I did climb back into bed but I was too perturbed to sleep so I thought I might as well get up, blog about it and then atleast I could laugh about it at a later date!

Right, time to go and stir the children, funny how on Weekends they come into my room at 6.45am asking if they can watch "Cartoons Quietly" 2 things spring to mind, 1 - how come they only sleep in on school days and 2, My children never do anything quietly!!

Oh yes the diet....

Well it was going really well and by Friday I was feeling like a veritable stick insect, I had pretty firmly stuck to loving my rice-cakes with cottage cheese and my steamer has never been so busy, I do really love the steamer though which is more than can be said for the rice-cakes, it's not that they're awful it's just that they're bland!!

Anyway so there I am feeling skinny (yeah like thats going to happen!!) and the weekend arrived, Friday night we were out for family dinner, Saturday we were out for Family lunch, Saturday night I was out with hubby for date-night dinner delights and we'll not count the amount of G&T consumed over the last weekend, in my defence atleast the tonic was diet tonic! Yesterday I was back on track though with a steamed feast for lunch and then smoked salmon and extra light cheese on bagels for tea, again though those G&T's were calling my name last night!

I have to say though that for once I really feel like we had a weekend, Paul had the entire weekend off, I only worked yesterday, an hour or so for the photography job in the morning and then a couple of hours for Happy Scrapper later on, we did though manage to squeeze in lots of family fun inbetween and I think dear reader we're all a little sad that Monday has arrived so very quickly!

So whats in store this week? Well my highlight will be my ultrasound scan of my kidneys this afternoon, really looking forward to that one, plus 2 parents evenings this week, tons more work, lots of ferrying children to and from whereever and then hopefully before we know it the weekend will approacheth and we'll get to have fun, fun, fun again!!

Aah It's the Weekend!

Aah don't you just love the weekend?

I had planned to spend most of the weekend working but alas I'm far too easily distracted and it seemed a shame to waste Pauls day off making thw whole family wait around for me. I guess thats the good thing about working from home.

Tommorrow I have a photography job at 11am and hopefully I'll get that done before the kids come home from grandads where they're spending this evening and tommorrow morning.



I thought I would share some photos from the last couple of days, I took this lovely photo of Iain the other day and I think I must have caught him unawares as he's got such a great smile and doesn't look to freaked out like he usually does when I point the lens at him! The other photos I took this afternoon when we were out and about in Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales, we had a lovely home cooked meal and as you can see here we all took the opportunity to take photos of each other, I think somewhere I also have a photo of Paul taking a photo of Iain taking a photo

of me, thats life these days, I become a photographer and they all jump on the bandwagon! LOL Actually it's great that the whole family want to take the chance to record their own memories of out times together, thats one thing I definetly encourage and celebrate!

As per usual Abigail and Looby provided many chances to get great photos and these two were my particular favourites.

So what does tonight hold in store, well as I mentioned, all poppets are off for a spot of entertainment at the local ball pool and then in the morning they're off swimming and shold get home about 1pm. My Photography job isn't until 11am so Paul is taking me out tonight to kick my heels up and then hopefully we'll get a wee lie in tommorrow and after the week of work and fun we've had I think I'm just about ready! Oh did I mention Hubby bought himself a 7 foot fish tank? No I don't think I did, less said about that one the better!!