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.