May 31st 2015 - Fighting

May 31st 2015 - Fighting

This quote just about sums up today.  My eldest son has been nasty to the youngest and therefore the youngest has decided to take it upon himself to beat up his eldest brother.  To the extent the eldest has been crying.

I split them up by bringing the youngest downstairs, the eldest comes downstairs and the youngest throws himself at eldest again "because he hadn't finished his fight".  Apparently it will teach him not to be nasty again!

The joys of having 3 boys that fight loads!  I'm quite lucky it has never ended very seriously or with injuries!

May 30th 2015 - Strawberry flowers

may 30th 2015 - Strawberry flowers

I noticed that my strawberry plants have small white flowers on them.  I recall my Nan saying that its the flowers that turn into strawberries but  I wasn't sure as never grown them before.  So I hit the internet for advice and yes the flowers are what turn into strawberries.

Lil man is very pleased as last year when we bought the plants we didnt get any strawberries off them, but upon counting the flowers today we have 16 flowers at the moment.  Hopefully we will get some nice strawberries in a few weeks and more flowers come up over summer!

May 29th 2015 - Sir Topham Hat craft

May 29th 2015 - Sir Topham Hat craft

Today lil man came downstairs with 1 of his Thomas Tank books and asked if we could make Sir Topham Hat (aka the  Fat Controller).   "Errrrrr......Ummmmm.....I'm not how we would do that" says me.  "it's easy, we follow the instructions I need a toilet roll tube, a egg and tape" says lil man.  So I take the book off him and have a look.

It says that you need to scan the picture of Sir Topham Hatand print it to fit the toilet roll tube, well I don't have ink so I drew the image of his shirt, jacket and trousers on the toilet roll tube.  Lil man proceeded to colour it in with felt tip pens and did the same to the polystyrene egg and drew a face on it.  I set about making a hat from thick paper.

I'm really impressed with how it turned out.  We may have to re-do it when I get some ink as well.

May 28th 2015 - Would you rather.....

May 28th 2015 - Would you rather.....

My boys are always asking questions when we are in the car, so I thought I would see if I could find them a quiz type thing that I could print off.  I came across this Would you rather..... link on pinterest and it seems ideal.

So I set about copying the questions from the link as well as loads of others I found on the net and added them to a word document/table.  I will print them (when my ink arrives) and laminate them, so that they can be added to a carrabena type clip to keep in the car.

The questions I have are as follows:


Would you rather have an elephants trunk or a giraffes neck?

Would you rather swim in a pool of marshmallows or swim in a pool of skittles?	Would you rather eat carrots or apples all day?	Would you rather have bright blue hair or bright blue feet?
Would you rather have pink and green hair or pink and green skin?	Would you rather live in a place that was always hot or a place that was always cold?	Would you rather live in a desert or in the snowy mountains?
Would you rather wear your shoes on the wrong feet or your pants back to front?	Would you rather have a bucket stuck on your hand or your foot?	Would you rather ride on a camel or a tiger?
Would you rather eat a whole pack of biscuits or a whole cake?	Would you rather go sledging in winter or outdoor swimming in summer?	Would you rather have super hero power of flying or being strong?
Would you rather clear the table or clear your toys?	Would you rather have chocolate or sweets?	Would you rather go to the zoo or an aquarium?
Would you rather play a trumpet or a flute?	Would you rather drive a convertable car or a motorbike?	Would you rather have a pet goat or a pet chicken?
Would you rather eat cabbage or brussel sprouts?	Would you rather have a pet cat or a pet dog?	Would you rather eat cookies or donuts?
Would you rather be a teacher or a doctor?	Would you rather be a fire fighter or a policeman?	Would you rather have a toy robot or a toy space ship?
Would you rather stay up late or get up early?	Would you rather go for a long walk or a long bike ride?	Would you rather sleep in a tent or under the stars?
Would you rather have all white clothes or all black clothes?	Would you rather go up and the stairs or up and down a hill?	Would you rather have ice cream or cake?
Would you rather go to school by bus or car?	Would you rather have a dog or a dinosaur?	Would you rather play football or basketball?
Would you rather paint pictures using brushes or your hands?	Would you rather have a chocolate flake or sauce on your ice cream?	Would you rather go to the park with swings or water park with slides?
Would you rather keep an otter or an octopus in the bath?	Would you rather be a plumber or an electrician?	Would you rather be a deep sea diver or an astronaught?
Would you rather whisper for ever or shout only once?	Would you rather have long hair or be bald?	Would you rather be a doctor or a vet?
Would you rather mix all your food in a bowl or have to use a spoon for everything including drinks?	Would you rather live in an igloo or a teepee?	Would you rather sleep on the floor with a cover or an 20 mattresses with no cover?
Would you rather be a princess or a fairy?	Would you rather play football or rugby?	Would you rather be clean and unhappy or dirty and happy?
Would you rather walk backwards for ever on your hands for a day?	Would you rather have a lizard or a snake?	Would you rather be a pig or cow?
Would you rather go on a train or an aeroplane?	Would you rather be inside or outside all day?	Would you rather live in a top floor flat with nice views or the ground floor flat with your own garden?
Would you rather wash the dishes or clean the bath?	Would you rather live in the busy town or the quite countryside?	Would you rather have a tv or a computer?
Would you rather go skiing or snowboarding?	Would you rather cartwheel or walk on your hands to get about?	Would you rather have antlers or a fluffy tail?
Would you rather have short straight hair or long curly hair?	Would you rather be tall or short?	Would you rather wear ballet shoes that are too small or clown shoes that are too big?
Would you rather have a clown wig or clown nose?	Would you rather live in the past or now?	Would you rather eat pizza or hot dogs forever?
Would you rather stay in a hotel or a caravan?	Would you rather be a dancer or a gymnast?	Would you rather write with a stubby wax crayon or a permanent marker pen?
Would you rather eat burgers for breakfast or cereral for tea?	Would you rather eat all food hot or all food cold?	Would you rather go everywhere by skateboard or scooter?
Would you rather have brothers or sisters?	Would you rather drink milk or water?	Would you rather have a cold bath or no sleep?
Would you rather have a big garden with no tree or a small garden with a tree?

Would you rather have stripes or spots?

 Would you rather wear a bobble hat or gloves?

 Would you rather swim with jellyfish or starfish?

 Would you rather live in a beach house or on top of a mountain?

 Would you rather shovel snow or rake leaves?

 Would you rather no electricity or no water at home?

 Would you rather have a peg leg or an eye patch?

 Would you rather drive a race car or be a pilot?

 Would you rather eat from a napkin or the floor?

 Would you rather pull up weeds or cut the grass?

Would you rather wear a snowsuit in the sun or a swimsuit in the snow?

 Would you rather be stuck in a room with 30 screaming babies or 1 hungry crocodile?

 Would you rather be a famous pop singer or a famous actor?

 Would you rather have no teeth or no hair?

 Would you rather be a unicorn or a leprechaun?

 Would you rather find out your mum & dad are aliens or witches?

 Would you rather be a pencil or an elastic band?

 Would you rather celebrate halloween or christmas?

 Would you rather celebrate your birthday or christmas?

 Would you rather have mcdonalds or chinese as a takeway?

 Would you rather go fishing or sailing?

 Would you rather be a lion or a tiger?

 Would you rather kiss a frog or hug a hedgehog?

Would you rather be a snail or a slug?

 Would you rather have 2 houses or 2 cars?

Would you rather be a pirate or a ninja?

 Would you rather build a snowman or build a sandcastle?

 Would you rather make a snow angel or have a snowball fight?

 Would you rather drink hot chocolate or chocolate milkshake?

 Would you rather be a princess or a mermaid?

 Would you rather go on a 1week holiday to a foreign country or a 2week holiday in your own country?

Would you rather have no pudding or no sweets for a year?

 Would you rather be able to control the weather or talk to animals?

 Would you rather live in narnia or hogwarts?

 Would you rather have 1 eye or 2 noses?

 Would you rather be father christmas or the easter bunny?

 Would you rather sing jingle bells everytime you walk into a room for a week or dress as an elf for a week?

 Would you rather live in a rubbish bin or a pond?

 Would you rather ride a flying carpet or a flying car?

 Would you rather raise a cow for milk or chickens for eggs?

 Would you rather have hands for feet or feet for hands?

 Would you rather have a ladies name or ladies hair style?

 Would you rather have a mans name or a mans hair style?

 Would you rather eat a tin of cat food or 3 lemons?

 Would you rather have a pet dragon or be a dragon?

 Would you rather drive a beautiful, sleek sports car that was unreliable OR an ugly, dented, rust-covered beater that never broke down?

 Would you rather be batman or spiderman?

 Would you rather read a book or watch a dvd?

 Would you rather grow your own food or make your own clothes?

 Would you rather be a tree or live in one?

 Would you rather ice skate or roller balde?

 Would you rather be a caged animal or free in the wild?

 Would you rather shot fire or shoot ice at people?

 Would you rather be a big giant or a tiny person?

 Would you rather fight 10 duck sized horses or 1 horse sized duck?

 Would you rather answer all questions with "ha ha that's funny" or "sorry your an idiot"?

 Would you rather be the oldest or the youngest brother/sister?

 Would you rather be a piece of fruit or a vegetable?

 Would you rather be a cat or a dog for day?

 Would you rather fall into a watery puddle or a muddy puddle?

May 27th 2015 - Lego jelly

May 27th 2015 - Lego jelly

I have had today's pin on my boards for absolutely ages.  It has been moved from party ideas to food, to ideas for the kids to do to lego ideas.

My boys are having a sleepover (just them) in the big bedroom tonight with dvds and snacks so I decided to make them some Lego Jelly snacks.  I haven't quite done it as per the pin as they say to use lego blocks washed out, but I have a lego brick mold and a lego man mold that were bought for sons birthday 2years ago.  They were used to make chocolate lego bricks and men.

Once the jelly has set and I can take them out of mold will add a pic.  Obviously if this were for a party you could do them in multi colours and lots of!  But as only for my boys they have got red.  IF it sets in time I may make them some green ones as well.  We will just have to wait and see.

I haven't added the full amount of water it says as I want them to set quite thick/hard.

Well I can safely  say this DOESN'T work with a silicone mold!  Although the jelly set hard when I tried to remove it from the mold the "bobbly bits" on the lego stayed in the mold and when I tried to get the men out they split!  Total FAIL!

May 26th 2015 - Bowling

May 26th 2015 - Bowling

Today we had booked a lane at the local bowling alley as a couple of my 12yr olds friends had said about going.  The plan was that me n hubby "were there" but not playing and it it was 12yr old, his 2 friends and 2 brothers.  Well the time came and went that we were due to meet them and they didn't show up and were not answering phones either.  So me and hubby played with our 3 sons.

We all got some spares and lil man and hubby both got a strike.  Lil mans strike however, was on my turn as my knee started hurting so lil man was throwing for me.  We all got half decent scores both games.  Lil man started to get bored part way through last game and my knee was hurting.

But it was good fun and they got a mcdonalds afterwards!  We probably wont be going far for the rest of the week because of my knee.

May 24th 2015 - Sleep (or lack of)

May 24th 2015 - Sleep (or lack of)

This quote fits me perfectly - I'm so tired..... but i'll probably be awake until 3am for no reason!  This is most nights.  Usually it is because of the pain in my knee though, which isn't getting any easier a year after surgery on it!

I can sit on the sofa and almost be asleep yet I go up to bed and i'm wide awake clock watching for hours!  It drives me mad.

May 23rd 2015 - DIY watering can

May 23rd 2015 - DIY Watering can

Now that lil mans has properly established and is all growing well  he needs a watering can, rather than connecting the hose up.  So I have made him one from a pop bottle and my drill, similar to this one on pinterest. It also means that he can water his veg rather than me doing it.

Here's the lid:

May 22nd 2015 - Ultrasound Scan

May 22nd 2015 - Ultrasound scan

Today lil man had to go back to the hospital for his pre-booked Ultrasound scan to re-check him and that there was no problems, as the one on tuesday was inconclusive due to swelling and pain.

The swelling has gone down loads, everything is almost normal size.  He's still in bit of pain, more so after the scan and being prodded about.

But all seems to be good, they could see what they couldnt on tuesday and are pleased.  There is still slight swelling and some odema and raised lymph nodes but everything else was as it should be.  They re-scanned kidneys as well and they are happy that they are correct size as well.

Even though we are no nearer to knowing the cause of the swelling and pain, we can rule out the torsion that they initally suspected on monday night.  Which is a great relief to us all, especially lil man as means no operation.

May 21st 2015 - Finished Story Sack

May 21st 2015 - Finished Story Sack

Yesterday I should have been at the last session of the family learning at the  school where we were meant to be finishing our story sacks and talking about them with the group.  But due to lil man being in hospital I wasn't there, but my story sack is now finished.

Pirates Love Underpants Story Sack was made by me, if you follow my blog you will have seen bits over the past 5weeks that I was making to go in it.  Here is a picture of the finished thing with everything and I will add pics and descriptions of other bits below.

First off was the sack, we were given plain canvas sacks and told we could decorate them how we liked.  A lot of the people in the group did them to the book they were putting in it, I decided to do it as a general sack so we could change the contents.  More info on my sack can be found here and here

My main story book for the sack was of the "pirates love underpants", my son already had dinosaurs and aliens and likes them and he likes pirates so this seemed a good choice.  As part of a story sack we were told that the sack has to have a "fiction/fact" book, so I bought the 100 facts on pirates shown above, this was much bigger than I thought it was going to be.

I  made a little "work book" linked to the story and laminated the pages so that they can be used again and again.  I have included white board pens and hi-lighter pens that rub off and a board rubber in a pencil case.

My son  asked if we could have a monkey like in the book, and brought me his toy one from upstairs.  This was ok but the monkey in the book had pants on, I asked my friend to make me a pair of knitted pants for him.  Her first attempt didn't work and we ended up with a monkey "mooning" us, which was quite funny.

My friend had them back (after I embarrssed her on facebook with the "mooning monkey") and re-made them so they fit him better.  I was very grateful as I can't knit. They did look good once done.  I added a gold earing to his right ear, and made him a banana to go in his hand.  (Banana instructions are here.)

I made a Pirate and a Parrot hand puppet to go in it.  The parrot was a "wash mit/flannel" bought off ebay, but was green.  The parrot in the book was red, so I glued red feathers all over its back and wings and made it a tail.  I also made it a pair of underpants like in the book.  My boys didn't know about the parrot as I didn't make a post or tell them I had bought it.

I made a Golden Pants Trophy  like the pirates are hunting for in the book.  My boys thought it was really good.

I bought the dvd "So you want to be a Pirate" and added it to the bag, it's only 18minutes long but tells you things you need to do to be a pirate etc.  I didn't realise it was so short I thought it was a proper film.

I bought a travel version of the traditional game pop up pirate and I made a set of  matching pairs underpants cards.  When they were printed you could see the pants through the paper so I made a sheet the same size as the cards using the cover of the book, cut them out and put on the back of pictures of pants and then laminated and cut out.  Now you can't see which pants are which.  I printed out a mini instruction card and placed them all in a small drawstring bag.

Last week at the family learning I was given a small wooden treasure chest which I decorated and added gems and coins to.  This was also meant to be a suprise for the bag, but I forgot to put it up before the boys came home from school so they saw it.

Lastly I added a (brand new) pair of boxer shorts (Aldi had packs of 3 reduced to £1.49 and they are next size up for my eldest son but now only has 2 pairs) and an eye patch so that my son(s) can dress as a pirate in underpants when we read and re-tell the story with the props.

Here's my lil man as a pirate in underpants with the parrot puppet.

I really enjoyed this course at the school it has been good fun and my kids like their story sack.  Hopefully I will be able to make a different one (or 2) so that we can change them round from time to time.  They want to put it in the car.

May 20th 2015 - Sleep (or lack of)

May 20th 2015 - Sleep (or lack of)

Sleep is for the WEAK, but maybe it should be sleep for a WEEK!  This 1st pin for today about sums things up - sleep catch up at the weekend, for all that I missed during week.  And the 2nd pin for today sums up why I have had no sleep - Mothers and sleep.

I have spent the past 2 nights at the hospital with my youngest son.  He has slept ok, apart from waking in pain few times (which woke me).  Monday night the boy in the next bed kept crying he was in pain and woke me (his mum slept through it).  And last night the new boy in the ward and his dad were watching tv (very loudly) until nearly 11pm (had paid for movies), the dad then spent most of the night snoring (very loudly) and the boy had the tv on from just gone 5am again very loudly!  Add to this all the machines and bells going off all night, nurses coming and going to do temperature and pulse etc (with not much room between my fold out bed and sons bed) i kept getting woken up!

I am safely saying I will sleep tonight!

May 19th 2015 - Cumberland Infirmary

May 19th 2015 - Cumberland Infirmary

Although Cumberland Infirmary has been added to my board of places to visit this wasn't actually somewhere I wanted to visit but ended up visiting!!!

My youngest son was taken by ambulance with "blues n twos" from where we live to the Cumberland Infirmary on Monday night due to suspected major problem and possible urgent surgery.  He thought this was a great adventure!  We spent from Monday evening through to Wednesday lunchtime at the hospital.  He had various tests done and all came back clear, which confused the staff as they have no idea of the cause of the swelling or what they were treating.  All they know is the swelling and pain wasn't normal and have been given him high anti-biotics and pain killers.

He has got to go for more tests on friday and hopefully these may give us an answer.  He has charmed all the nurses and has had fun except for the pain and being prodded n poked by staff (during examinations as they do!)  He has even started to make a "Story Sack" of his hospital trip and has put his wrist band, stickers, syringe, pulse ox etc in a bag and is going to make his own little story to go in it.  He has even taken a toy ambulance from our car and put in it!

I can't fault any of the staff, they were all very polite, friendly and helpful and made our stay as nice as they could.

May 18th 2015 - Bird book

May 18th 2015 - Bird book

Today has spent at the computer and printer!  I have made little Bird books similar to this pin but with extra pages for the Badgers to do on Wednesday as we are talking about birds as part of their Wild badge. 

I have included a garden bird survey, a colouring page, a wordseaarch, a missing letter in bird names sheet and some draw and write about the birds you have seen.

I thought I had got all the sheets in the right order for when printed to make a book - errrr no!  So me and hubby sat and cut the pages and stuck them to other folder bits of A4 paper to get them as they should be, I then opened out each page and moved my cut n paste worksheets to the right place.  Once this was done and re-printed they were as I hoped they should be.

I also printed off some news paper articles on animals and pets for the Cadets to use on Wednesday as part of their Animal Welfare badge.  At least this part was very easy to do!

May 17th 2015 - Plastic tub boat

May 17th 2015 - Plastic tub boat

Lil man has a plastic box outside (bigger than A4  and about 10cm deep) that he keeps all of his sand pit toys in, but it has no lid!  This means that the rain can get in it, this isn't a big problem as the sand pit toys are all plastic.

It has rained a fair bit over the past few days so there is loads of water in it.  Lil man has decided today to remove all the sand pit toys so that he has a boating lake for his toy boats (bath ones) and those for his toy soldiers. 

He had 1 toy soldier in each boat as thats all he could fit in.  I saw 1 of my small plastic tupperware tubs (margerine tub size) near the sand pit (no idea what its doing in the garden but never mind!)  So I got it and put it in the water, lil man was impressed it floats!  So I told him to put his soldiers in it and he said "but it will sink Mummy".  I told him to try it.  He puts 1 in and was happy it still floated, so I told him to put another in.  Again he was happy it still floated.

Anyway he turns round and says " I bet it would sink if I put 10 soldiers in it".  So I told him to try.  He ran indoors and fetched more soldiers and started putting them in the tub.  All I hear is "Mummy, it still floats with 10 soldiers in it, i'm going to add more" as he runs past me and upstairs.  He comes down with even more soldiers and goes back to his tub of water.

I go outside and see what he's up to and he now has 15 soldiers in the tub and it still floats!  The tub is full and he can't get anymore soldiers in it as they are pilled on top of each other.  He says "I know how to  make it sink......" and proceeds to fill the "boat" with water to make it sink. lol!

What he didn't realise was that his innocent playing was actually learning and numbers and science of floatation.  Play to learning and all through a tub of water,some boats and soldiers. All was good until he decided to see if his shoe would float and he took it off and put in the water - it didnt float and he now has a wet shoe!  BOYS will be BOYS!!!

May 16th 2015 - Whitehaven Home & Garden show

May 16th 2015 - Whitehaven Home & Garden show

Today we went up town to get son some new shoes as he keeps pulling his to bits and to go to the Home & Garden show at the harbour.

I know alot of work has gone into organising it, but there seemed to be more food stalls than anything sadly.  And of the stalls selling garden bits none of them were that cheap.  My youngest son had taken the money from his piggy bank in the hope of getting something for his fairy garden.  He saw some wooden "plant pot men" and asked if he had enough to get one, he didn't and he had £15! Plus some of the stalls were not open when we got there at 9:30am.

There was no money spent by me or my family today, but we did go for a walk around to try and support the local events.

May 15th 2015 - Making a banana

May 15th 2015 - making a banana

In my story sack for family learning I have a monkey.  In the book the monkey is eating a banana, so my son said that his monkey needs 1, so I found an idea to make a banana.  The 1 I found is made from felt, of which I don't have have the right colours, so I decided to make 1 from fabric.

I pinned yellow and white material together and cut out a sort of banana shape, I am stitching the 2 pieces of material together to make both the inside and outside of banana skin.  I have also made a white dome from 3 pieces of material to be the actual banana.  I am going to stuff it and stitch it all together.

May 14th 2015 - Pirate Treasure Chest

May 14th 2015 - Pirate Treasure Chest

Yesterday at family learning at the school I was given a wooden treasure chest to use as part of my story sack.  It was plain wood and not decorated.  I did the edges in a grey felt tip and coloured the box in brown.  When I got home I went over the grey with a silver sharpie pen and added "plank lines" with a darker brown sharpie.

I covered it all in clear nail varnish.  (maybe I should do a post 1 day of my many uses of nail varnish!!!)

I painted the inside of the box with a pale gold nail varnish and then added a gold glitter nail varnish over the top.

 I then added glitter/sparkle nail varnish to some gems left over from last years pirate party, and added them, a ring and various pirate coins to the treasure chest.

May 13th 2015 - Food chains

May 13th 2015 - Food chains

Today's pin is linked  to food chains.  This is what the Badgers at St John Ambulance will be doing tonight as part of their wild badge.  We are talking about food chains and life cycles.  I phave made some sheets for them to fill in linked to both.

May 12th 2015 - Tried it but didnt like it!

May 12th 2015 - Tried it but didn't like it

A few weeks ago I was sent a free packet of lime rice and quinoa.  Sounded and looked quite nice.  There was a receipe idea on the back to have it with salmon.  So we decided that we would try it.  We bought some salmon today and cooked the rice stuff and salmon.  And served it.

Well all I can say on it was the quinoa looked like frogspawn, my hubby thought it looked like loads of eyes!  Not a good start.  The lime flavour with the rice and salmon went well together and is something I will try again, BUT it will be without the quinoa!  I didn't like the taste or texture.  I can safely say I have tried it but didn't like it.

May 11th 2015 - Making underpants (for a parrot)

May 11th 2015 - Making underpants (for a parrot)

Yes you read that right I am making underpants for a parrot!  Not a real one but a hand puppet, well it was bought as a wash mitt/flannel, but wont be by the time I have finished with it.  This is linked to the story sack I am making at family learning at the school.  The book Pirates love underpants has a parrot in it as well as the monkey.

My kids don't know about the parrot puppet, they have seen most bits that are going in the story sack but I have kept the parrot from them as well as few other bits.  I used this underpant template as the basic idea to make them, but the parrot in the book has shorts as underpants so I had to alter the shape to make them work.

I have sat and stitched the underpants and then stitched them to the puppet.  I plan to add feather to it at the school on wednesday to make it look better.

I think my kids are safe in the knowledge that I wont be starting to make their underpants as it's not that easy!!! LOL!

May 10th 2015 - Planting sweetcorn part 2

May 10th 2015 - Planting sweetcorn part 2

About 6weeks ago me and lil man planted his sweetcorn.  Well we still have nothing grown and it says should grow by 21days!  I have dug around in the soil where we put them and cant find anything.  So today me and lil man are going to plant some more sweetcorn.  Hopefully the tips on the pin will be of use to us.

The packet does say if the seeds fail they will replace or refund, so if these ones dont start to grow I will be taking them up on this!

May 9th 2015 - Sock heat bag

May 9th 2015 - Sock heat bag

My knee is causing me lots of pain at the moment, and I have no idea why as I haven't done anything.  The most annoying thing is that I can't find my microwave heat bag to put on it. So I went on pinterest to see if I could how to make one.

I found a pin about making a a heat bag from a pair of socks and some rice.  I followed the instructions and filled 1 of the socks with rice,tied a knot in it, placed it inside the other sock and then heated it in the microwave, the pin says for 1minute 40seconds, but after 1minute it was already boiling hot, not sure if my microwave was higher power etc.

But it worked as a heat bag, although the rice doesn't stay as hot for as long as my wheat bag.  But until I can find it this will work as a short term one.

1 bag of rice

1 sock

put rice in sock

tie knot in sock

place inside other sock

May 8th 2015 - Don't back down.....

May 8th 2015 - Don't back down......

.....When you know you are RIGHT!  This matches today's pin which is a quote :

"I love proving people wrong, 

because it proves what I 

knew all along - 

I was right!"

This is very apt following today's events.  I spent over 3hrs on the phone and internet chat to a company trying to sort out the bill they had sent me that made no sense.  In this time I spoke to a total of 8 people, 5 of which were total muppets and didn't listen to what I was saying/asking, told me their was no managers available when I asked for one, dropped calls (I got the message "the other person has cleared the line") and couldn't understand why I was slowly getting more and more annoyed!

When I got a call back I asked for a manager and was put through to the insurance department!!!  LIKE REALLY???  they don't even sound the same (maybe if you say them both 10times really quickly when drunk they do - but i'm not trying it and i'm not drunk!)  Anyway the nice man in the insurance department was like "can I help you?" So I explained all of what had happened and that I asked for a manager got him, he couldn't understand as customer policy is a manager is asked for the call handlers have to try and find one or arrange a call back.  He put me through to one.

The poor manager got the brunt of my temper as I explained the previous people I had spoken to, the mixed information of yes its disconnected/no its not, calls being dropped, the extra charges on the bill, the fact the price had gone up from £23.98 owing to £54.63, the insurance was still on it when should have been cancelled in January.  She said she would look into it all.  I knew that the amount they were saying was wrong as when I spoke to them in April it was £23.98 owing to them.  However, I worked it out that they owed me nearly £60 in charges that they had taken since January that they shouldn't have done.

At the start of the 3hrs I owed them (according to them) £54.63 and they owed me £60 which according to maths meant that there was £5.37 owed to me.  My figures that they had given me in April was I owed them £23.98 and they owed me £60 which means there was £36.02.  After loads of discussions and umming and arring, they cancelled the insurance that should have been done in January and are going to credit my account - except I no longer have an account with them.  The manager agreed to send the money to my bank, but we were still not agreeing on figures, she reduced her figure to £37, I was still not agreeing as she couldn't tell me where the extra £14 had come from since last month!  I stayed on hold, she went to sort things out and eventually came back to me that I was right and they owed me more than I owed them!  

What a turn around, in the space of 3hrs it had gone from me owing them £54.63 to them owing me £45.88 and the difference was being wiped due to the inconvinience.  They also confirmed the problems had come about because the account wasn't fully disconnected in January like it should have been.

IF you know you are right on something don't give up!!!

May 7th 2015 - Genealogy

May 7th 2015 - Genealogy

I have spent today searching and matching hints to my family tree.  This quote just about sums it up!  There's not much else I can really.

May 6th 2015 - Polar Bear craft

May 6th 2015 - Polar Bear craft

Tonight with my St John Ambulance Badgers they are continuing their Wild badge and we are talking about wild animals, last week we talked about pet animals.

As well as a few written sheets to fill out we are going to make hedgehogs from cut triangle of paper and coconut polar bears.  I was very close to not being able to do it as I tried everywhere yesterday to get desicated/ground coconut with no luck.  There was only 1 shop we didn't try and hubby went there today and they had some.

Here is mine to show the kids what they are doing:

This is a very easy craft to do - print pictures of polar bears out, cover in glue and then cover the glue in coconut, shake the excess coconut back into the tub.

May 5th 2015 - Pain

May 5th 2015 - Pain

NO idea what has happened BUT the past few days the pain in my knee jas gone through the roof again! I've not done anything to make it worse.  Pain killers don't seem to be helping much either.

I'm back where I was before I had the operation a year ago, well not quite as I can walk without crutches, although not very far without pain.  I am still getting heat patches (like when you rest a cup of coffee on leg), I am still getting shooting pains up thigh and down calf, I have constant pain under and around knee, my muscles twitch loads, resting doesn't help walking doesn't help, heat and cold don't help!

I have just about had enough of this now 2.5yrs of constant pain is beyond a joke!  But I no if go back to docs they will refer me back to surgeon and i'm not sure if I really want another operation on it as 1st one hasn't helped much!

May 4th 2015 - Matching pairs game

May 4th 2015 - Matching pairs game

As part of my Story Sack for family learning I have made an Underpants matching pairs game.  The idea was from the link which is linked to the Aliens love underpants book.

Rather than using that 1 I went on the net and found loads of bright, colourful,patterned underpants and put them in a grid so that I can cut them out and laminate them.  I then realised that the images could be seen through the A4 white paper so I printed out the image from the cover of the book in the same size grid and stuck them to the back of the pants - making them non-visable.

There are a total of 24 pairs of underpants that I have made for the game, and they will be going in a mini bag to keep them safe and together.

May 3rd 2015 - Iron on transfer

May 3rd 2015 - Iron on transfer

As part of my family learning and the making of a story sack we had to design the sack as well.  Most of the group used fabric pens and drew their design on or used bits of material or a printed a picture laminated and glued on but were linked to the book they have chosen.  I decided that I wanted my story sack to be universal and able to be used for any books.

I asked my friend who did me some iron on transfers the other Christmas if she still had any and if she would do me one to go my sack.  She agreed and posted it to me, thanks Col!  It didn't arrive until after I had been to the school last Wednesday, not that I know HOW I would have ironed it on at the school anyway. Lol!

Then when I went to iron it on the other day I hunted the house high and low and couldn't find the iron!  Me and hubby remembered that it went in the bin after it burnt/melted my sons shirt and we hadn't replaced it.  (I don't iron very often and when I do it's usually shirts for going out.)  So I had to wait until yesterday to go to town and buy a new iron.

The quote that is going on it is from Dr Seuss.  Here is the pic with it printed in reverse (so that it's the right way once ironed).

The next pic show it turned over and the "printed bit" is now facing the sack ready to be ironed in place.

Here I am ironing the image into place on the sack.

Here is the sack with the ironed quote in place.   

My story sack is almost complete now.  I just need to finish fixing the quotes into the felt book which I am going to stitch onto the front of the sack under the Dr Seuss quote. 

Most of the contents of the story sack are complete as well.  I have the book - Pirates love underpants, a Golden pants trophy that I made, a monkey in underpants that just needs a banana making, a pop up pirate game (bought) and a few other bits.  I'm not saying all as I want some of them to be a surprise for my children.