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OK, so I have a dirty mind, but honestly, sometimes things are just begging to be misconstrued...

Lellied Again...

There was an inset day today at my daughter's school, which meant that she had a three-day weekend. With the weather being cold, and the Smith family not owning a car, we spent the day at home. Ellie, being the creative child that she is, diligently spent the afternoon upstairs, only showing her face to ask odd questions such as 'Can I use one of the big glue sticks?' and 'What are the colours of the rainbow again?'

I was puzzled, but left her to it (I have learnt that this is the best way to deal with my ten year old). Half an hour ago she came downstairs giggling and hiding something behind her back. Mum and dad had to participate in her little game, which consisted of a piece of paper with an alarmingly scary-looking face drawn on it, and a rainbow/heart/pocket thingy glued next to it.

Apparently, it was a lucky dip. We each had to pull something from behind a the rainbow. I won £20, while the hubby won £5 (*snicker*). Alas, it was not real money, but the thirty seconds or so of fun (following around two hours of drawing, writing and sticking) was well worth it according to my daughter.

Playpuss

Whenever my daughter brings her toys into the living room, one of the kitties gets involved. I tried my best to capture Belle when she was trying desperately to pull some of my daughter's Polly Pocket dolls from the toy pile, but alas, you'll have to settle for a picture of her standing guard over her hoard instead.

Ms. Jekyll & Ms. Hyde

 

My daughter can be a little angel at times, but mostly she is a typical ten year old. Between the bouts of tantrums, pouting, pestering, and winding-daddy-around-her-little-finger incidents, I sometimes catch her in a genuine moment of sweetness. This was one of those moments, and it's a nice reminder that sometimes, being 'Lellied', is actually quite nice.

Waiting

February seems to be the month of waiting for me this year. I'm waiting for the 10th to come around, because when I finish my shift at 6pm that day, I won't have to go back to work until the 28th (woohoo, and there was much rejoicing!). I'm waiting for the 23rd to arrive so that I can either stop biting my nails because I will have failed to get to the second stage of ABNA, or move onto nibbling my hair (due to lack of nail-ness) if I have magically got to the second stage after all.

OK, those are probably the only biggie things that I am waiting on to be truthful, but every day it seems I am waiting for something. Waiting for my son to get home from school (because he can't be trusted to have a key) so that I can pop out somewhere; waiting for my daughter to finish faffing around in the morning so that I can send her to school; waiting for the kettle to boil so that I can make a much needed cuppa...

This morning I left the house a little earlier than I needed to because I got the bus timetables muddled up (for some reason I thought it was Saturday... must be the pre-dawn waking up that confused me methinks), so I was waiting for the bus to arrive far longer than normal. Hence the piccy for today's Phebruary Photo. The largish shadow is moi - huddled in three layers of clothing (not counting the thickly padded coat) no less. It's been in the minus range temperature-wise for the last week or so here in Cardiff, and waiting for the bus seems to take forever...

I have no patience. Waiting sucks.

Deceiving Sun

It looked like such a nice day when I peeked through the window this morning; the sky was blue and the sun was shining. But the sun was being tricksy again, promising warmth when it had no right to do so. You see, it's blinking FREEZING here in The Diff. Brrrr! I took this piccy earlier this afternoon as I was waiting for a bus (which never turned up, bloody thing *mutters*), and it occurred to me at the time that the sun was a bit of a sneakster. *nods* Hence, 'Deceiving Sun.'

Paws on Pause

About the only time Angel isn't being a devil is when she sleeps...

My little kitty has been suffering with a third eylid problem for the a while. A few weeks back I noticed that the inner eyelid on both of her eyes was covering half of her eye. It was a sudden thing - wasn't there one day, the next it was - and first I thought it was just a cold or something. After a couple of days it still hadn't cleared up, so I checked it out and discovered it was most likely that she had worms. Eww.

Anyway, I dutifully wormed her (and my other kitty too), and while this appears to have slowed down her eating habits, her inner eyelids are still visible.  She is fine in herself, perfectly healthy in fact. Turns out she has 'Haws Syndrome', which generally affects kitties under the age of two, and is not something to worry about. It will clear itself in six to eight weeks apparently.

And that's my ramble to go with the first of my 'Phebruary Photos' posts. :)

Mission Accomplished!

Yup, today's the last day of February, and I have managed to post a picture for each of the twenty eight days. *faints*  A couple were recycled photographs, but the majority were taken on the same day of posting*. I'm definitely not gifted with a camera, and as my only 'tool' was my mobile phone (which doesn't have the best camera on there anyway), none of the pictures will win any prizes, but it's definitely been a fun challenge to complete, even if the challenge was self-inflicted (so to speak).

I'm into the last hour of the last day of the month (leaving things almost until the last minute as usual), so my last photo was a 'grab something - ANYTHING!!!! - and take a piccy' kind of thing. *shifty* Tomorrow is St David's day (the patron saint of Wales), and I have pulled out my daughter's rugby shirt instead of her usual school uniform.  In her younger days, she would dutifully wear the traditional Welsh lady's costume, but she's now at that awkward age where the children's costumes are far too small, and the adult costumes are far too big. She's would prefer the traditional costume, of course (complete with hat and mop cap), but I kind of like the rugby shirt as the alternative option.

Happy St David's Day to my fellow Welshies!

 *One photo this month was taken by my husband, not me, but as he did it on my behalf when I couldn't leave the house, I figure it wasn't cheating. *winks*

Pestering Plans Backfire

A couple of days ago I posted a note on my Facebook page alerting members of HPANA (the Harry Potter site that I moderate for) that I would be doing a mass delete of inactive story threads from the boards next week. The (somewhat sneaky) plan was to remind people that they have unfinished stories that need either completing, or saying good bye to. I was hoping that at least a few members would decide that completing a story was far better than having it deleted.

Anyway, a fair number of threads had people swiftly post a comment to them - making them technically 'active', thus ineligible for deletion - but most of these comments came from just a handful of readers who wanted to keep their favourite stories on the boards. Thankfully, there has also been a couple of authors posting too, with tentative plans to continue their stories.

So the plan worked in a way, though not as well as I would have liked. Unfortunately, it also backfired on me, and now the Guilty Star is hovering slightly too close for comfort. I had some friends post some pestering comments on three of my own threads. One of these threads contains short stories, and these types of threads are always safe as I believe they should always be available to read. However, I also have two longer length stories that I never got around to finishing, one of them substantially long. So I have spent the better part of today re-reading the last third of one of my own stories. It has been eighteen months since I last updated it (this is where that Guilty Star comes into play), and I seriously had no idea what was going on with it. I don't see me completing the two stories any time soon, but I owe it to myself to finish the story that I have, over the years, put a lot of work into. Not to mention that I also owe it to a bunch of readers who have stuck with me since 2005 -!- and have always returned to read whenever I posted one of my infrequent updates.

So the tale of Remus Lupin, boy-wolf, shy teen, and perhaps Best-Of-The-Marauders, shall soon be continued.

An Experiment

One of the nicest things about having short hair (as well as the easy manageability factor) is that you get to show off some nice earrings. I had my ears pierced when I was seven, but eventually had to let them close because of an allergic reaction. Over the years I have attempted to wear earrings on special occasions, but usually I have given up because my earlobes decided to swell to about three times their normal size.

As I am going out for the evening, I have decided to give it another go. I grabbed a pair of my daughter's sterling silver earrings (I've only tried gold in the past), dipped them in boiling water, bathed my ears, and with surprising ease (considering my last attempt was for my wedding, six and a half years ago) pushed said earrings into my ears. They seem fine so far, but it's only been half an hour. I guess I'll find out by the end of the night whether my ears will still look normal, or whether they will look like they've been blown up like a balloon....

*crosses fingers*

Here's One I Made Earlier

Or rather, here's one I took earlier. A picture, that is. I completely forgot to take a picture today what with one thing and another, but I don't want to fail on my Post A Picture Every Day In February thingy, so I am recycling a photo I took last year. *nods*

I took this when me and the daughter were waiting for a bus one Sunday afternoon. I had been busy that day - I'd worked my 6-2 shift, gone home and cleaned the house, bathed the daughter and got us both ready for a trip to the local pub. It was karaoke, and we were meeting daddy. The daughter was bubbling because she couldn't wait to grab the mike and sing Taylor Swift and Keisha songs, and I was looking forward to my pint of Guinness after a hard day's slog.

One of the few pictures of myself that I like, but the memory is even better.

Last Minute Change Of Plan

There was a slight accident at work today. And when I mean slight, I actually mean quite major. And possibly fatal, but thank goodness nobody was around when it happened. One of the strip lights in the warehouse fell down, bringing large amounts of dust, metal from the shelving, and glass from the light itself down with it.

There was an almighty crash, but with my poor hearing I thought it was my colleague dropping a tray or something in the kitchen. *shifty* The warehouse floor was covered in debris and was in complete darkness. The lucky thing was that my colleague from the kitchen was about to walk through that exact area, so she had an extremely close call, and I myself had only been walking through the area minutes before that. *shudders*

Anyway, I meant to take a picture of the mess so that I could post it on here when I got home, but I forgot. *shifty once more* So here's a piccy of the ornament that used to sit on the computer desk in my living room, but since we now have the TV and computer linked, this little fella now lives on top of the hi-fi.

Just Ask! We're Here To Help!

So we got our new uniforms at work today, and they are a vast improvement on the sickly green coloured blouses and black waistcoats that we've had up until now. What's more, the people at the top have been quite generous this time around and issued everyone with one top per shift and a jacket too.

I now have three black polo shirts (much more comfortable and practical than those pesky blouses) and a black jacket. Black being my favourite colour to wear, this is a good thing. And I can live with the 'Spar, There For You' logo which is printed fairly discreetly on the front.

Not so keen on the logo emblazoned across the back in huge letters though...

I foresee a future of finger tapping on the shoulder.

Got Milk?

So Tuesday's the day that I do my weekly grocery shop, and this week was no different to any other. I mentally calculated the bill as I was going around the supermarket, I hunted for bargains, I tried to find something different for meals but ended up getting what I always get...

I hate it. Seriously, I loathe grocery shopping. I actually hate all shopping, but as I never have any money to spare, grocery shopping is about the only shopping that I do. I'm sure that if I had pounds to spare, I would enjoy it a lot more, but shopping on a strict budget is frustrating at the best of times, and downright stressful at the worst.

Today my fridge is full, but as we near the weekend it was slowly but surely become emptier, with less options for the daily main meal. One thing that I always have plenty of is milk. I get through four pints a day, and with the local supermarket having the bargain price of two four pinters for £1.60 (most other places charge the same price for one bottle), my fridge is overtaken by milk on my shopping day.

There, I'm sure you'll all sleep much better now that you know that. *snort*

Mugs Ahoy

I like mugs. Just to be clear, I mean the type you drink from, not people who are extremely gullible. Anyway, I DO like my mugs, and the bigger the better because I am a tea freak. I like the occasional cup of coffee, but tea is my preferred hot beverage.

Now, I have a perfectly good set of matching mugs draped over the branches of my mug tree, but I don't like to use them. I like my mismatched mugs, you see. The ones from the novelty Easter egg sets, the odd ones from the pound shops, the personalised ones, the one you accidentally let drop into your daughter's buggy when you were having a frothy coffee in Starbucks...

*coughs*

Anyway, mismatched mugs are my preferred container when I want a cuppa. Here's a small selection of my current batch:

Avon Calling!!

I don't know about outside of the UK, but over here we have The Avon Lady. In years gone by she would be a middle-aged woman dressed impeccably in tweed, and she would call on you with a brochure to look through. The brochure would contain health and beauty products, and was strictly for women only.

Nowadays, the Avon Lady generally works from home and you only see her when she collects the brochures that she posted through your door several days previously. The products include the original cosmetics and body care stuff, but they now cater for men too. They also sell anything from handbags to lingerie.

The thing with Avon is that I never intend to buy anything, but I usually end up filling out an order form anyway. Mostly it is stuff I don't need, so why I order it I don't know. *is clueless*

This is the latest brochure that was given to me by my friend. I told myself I wouldn't even look at it, but, well, I of course ignored my own advice. Still, they did have a few bargains in there...

Tricky Time

Sometimes it's hard to believe that I am a mother of an almost fifteen year old and a nine year old. It seems like only a short while ago that I was fifteen myself, and I can remember some things from that age clearer than I can remember things that happened just a few short weeks ago. Whether that's because my teenage memories are mostly good, so I remember them fondly, or if it's because my brain is going a bit kooky now that I have a teenager of my own, is anyone's guess.

Anyway, this picture was taken when my son was six and my daughter a mere nine months. If I close my eyes, I can almost trick myself into thinking that was eight days rather than eight years ago, Time's a funny thing.

Slightly Imperfect

I got engaged on my nineteenth birthday, and now, almost sixteen years later, I still wear the same ring. One of the claws holding the stone in place is missing, so it is no longer perfect, but if I were offered a replacement I would refuse. We've been through a lot, my ring and I. As well as several thousand dips into soapy water, it has also survived many blips over the years where, like my relationship, it was on, off, then on again.

Like many things, it's maybe a little bit flawed but, again, like many things, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Never Too Late

Over eleven years after the fact, and thanks to my parents, there's finally a memorial stone at my daughter's resting place. It's taken a long time to happen, but better late than never.

Night Night, Sleep Tight

When my daughter goes to bed, there is a little bit of a routine involved. Along with the usual tidy up, don nightie and brush teeth, there is also the preparing of the bed itself.

The pillows need to be plumped, the five scatter cushions placed just so at the bottom of the bed, the dressing gown laid over the cushions, the character sleeping bag spread over the duvet. And last, but not least, the arrangement of her sleeping companions. These can differ from week to week, but Ellie Belly is always in there somewhere. Ellie Belly is the white teddy bear in the middle, and her namesake (my daughter) never sleeps without her. She is dressed most days in her specially made clothes, and she needs her nightie to wear for bed just like my daughter. She is starting to wear a bit now, but although I'm sure Ellie will love getting a new friend from the Build-a-Bear workshop, Ellie Belly will always be the one who shares her pillow.