New year, new me and all that.

Rather looking forward to 2013.
So far I have got booked Example in Feb, Lana Del Ray in May, and just about to book Tough Mudder.
Got trainers for my birthday and tracksuit for my Christmas so I am set for going out running. Weather has been absolutely pants for even getting from house to car, galeforce winds that misty rain that has you soaked to the bone by just looking at it.. hope I get the chance to get out soon.
Doing the yearly budget this week. I haven't ever done one, but as this is now my 3rd year of attempting to live frugally, I want to participate with numbers in mind.
Gordon laughed at me when I mentioned I had a spreadsheet for Christmas, like laughed for days. I like the idea of spreadsheets, it wasn't a budgeted one, just one where I could keep track of where my money went.
I also received vouchers for skiing, think I am using them for Lyle to learn, will need to call up and see what the score is with kids lessons.
Of to clean up, the house is bursting at the seems with toys and I can't get to wash the floors with Lyle around. He is not here just now, so off I go!

Christmas cakes for teachers

I made banana cupcakes for lyles teachers and support teachers, I iced them with cinnamon butter icing, that sort of tasted like ice cream!
Some have the little toppers, edible snowflakes and some glitter sugar.
I would really love to go to a cake decorating class.
Boxes and toppers came from Wilkinsons, snowflakes from lakelands and sugar glitter from Tesco .

Mixed nuts

My gifts for my neighbour.
Jar £1.25
From bottom to top. All from lidl.
Chilli coated peanuts,
roasted peanuts,
Almonds,
Honey coated cashews and peanuts ,
And hazelnuts.
All bags have enough for one or two more jars.
Just seen I have a whole bag of roasted and salted cashew nuts.
All I need to do now is add a gift tag and some pretty ribbon.



















e.t.a. I made two more of these jars and a bigger screw top jar.
The bigger screw top jar I took with me on Christmas day to give to the boyfriends parents when we arrived at Loch Lommand for christmas dinner. Went down a real treat :)

School show!

It's lyles school show today.
What a faff that has been, didn't get the tickets, or the letter to say what was needed. So a lot of running around like a headless chicken!

My mum is their just now, I am going tonight. Will add pictures later :)

(Edited to add pictures and some dialogue)

He told me he was the donkey, and he was the best donkey ever!
He didn't mention that he was in the second part as well, his class came out and sang a Gaelic song.
I am soo proud of him, and his class, their are only 8 of them for primary 1,2 & 3 together, and they done marvelous to go in front of a packed hall of adults and sing :)

Food, glorious food!

Lunch for Lyle today is sandwiches, and I can't remember haha.

(Edited to add, plain cracker type biscuits with sliced goats cheese, a plum and some Christmas shaped biscuits.)

My dinner tonight was a massive tuna steak, I had to slice it up so it would cook all the way through. I put a pinch of sea salt to one corner and a slice of lemon at the other, sprinkled a little crushed peppercorns on top. Delicious!

17th Dec Lunch

We both got the same today.
Ham n goats cheese sandwiches, a penguin wafer biscuit, little fruit cup, mince pie and a chopped up sweet, don't know its name.
Lyle has his in the green box, I have mine in this new one I found in Asda.

Christmas party!

Lyle didn't want to go to his Christmas party in school, practically had to bribe him (that I would stay for ages). 
He didn't like the noise, wouldn't dance with his friends. The head teacher brought over a chair and placed it just outside the dance hall with the doors open so he could go in when he was ready.
One of the English medium primary one teachers came to chat with him, the head then asked me to come check out the treats, and see what he can and can not have. When I went back, Lyle was just inside the door dancing with the teacher and some of his friends from class, I let him know I was going to sit in the car til the party was done.
He came out from the party saying he had a great time and complained that it was too short!
I'm loving his Christmas jumper. Here he is just before we left for the party :)

Thirty!

I turned 30 last Saturday.
No big deal.
Gordon bought me my fav flowers - ornamental cabbage , he got me four plants, they look amazing.
Vouchers for skiing for Lyle and me (& him).
He also went up to the European market outside St Enoch's center and bought be a handmade thick poncho. Now it is lovely, he has probably paid a pretty penny for it, but it is a poncho! I hate poncho's, like really hate them. This one is nice. But I will not be wearing it outside the house.
It makes a great blanket for Lyle n me to snuggle up on the couch with. So it is a keeper.

We went to Lyle's drama show, I'm soo raging at that drama group. I spent over £100 for him to learn TWO songs and wiggle in time!!!
Currently looking for a new drama group.

December lunch

We went to Costco one Sunday, think it was the 3rd Dec, the place is massive! I got raspberries, pineapple chunks and flying frisbies, others call these flying saucers, the discs of sherbet. This was a massive tub. They somehow disappeared within 3 days. Don't know what happened to them.
This is my lunch one Tuesday. Pasta with a garlic n herb tomato sauce, pineapple and raspberries. That was a great wee lunch to munch on throughout the day.

Bubbles!

Bought some bubbles from Lush after meeting Iron Man as we where staying at Gordon's house and I wanted a bath (I only have a shower unit in mine)

We bought The Comforter Bubble Bar, I crumbled some of this into running water, the water turned a nice shade of pale pink/purple, Lyle then swirled the Rocket Bubble Bar and the water changed colour again, this time to a turquoise blue.

Now Gordon's is a Jacuzzi bath.

Look what happens when you switch it on.

two third's bubbles, one third water

My wee bubbly frog!

Great fun was had by all. 

Iron man

Soo, we went to see iron man.
Here are some pics until I get to a p.c. to write up.

(Updated from here!)
A mummy at the school gates told us about Hamleys doing a 'meet Iron Man' day in November, she told me in front of Lyle, so every few days I would get a question to the effect of "mum, is it tomorrow we go see Iron Man?"

Well, the day F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. arrived and off we set in my new car (more on that later),

 I parked in Govan instead of paying for parking in Glasgow City Center  we went for the Underground train to take us into St Enoch's Station, this is Lyle waiting patiently for the train from Govan Subway. 

We wait in a queue for over 2 hours, have to say, I was well impressed that Hamleys didn't exploit the situation and have the elves out playing with all the wonderful toys that they stock, instead the elves where going around all the children, chatting to them, and offering them jelly sweets. 

Lyle was Úber excited, even though it was boring to wait in the queue, even more so when Iron Man flew back to America for his lunch with Pepper Potts, and then flew all the way back, and broke his suit in the process.

And of course, Mummy HAD to get her picture taken with her fav two males in the St Enoch's Center!

29 years and 50 weeks old; I finally grew up.

I asked him to move in.

What prompted this?

It has been on my mind on n off for a long while, but more so a lot lately. He moved in with his parents as the flat he had was a nightmare to heat, his gas bills ran up to £800 last winter, and winter wasn't anywhere near as bad as the year before, or as bad as predicated for this year.
So, he lives with his parents, he works with them and his sister. She is always in the house, with her three kids. Who do not respect rules very well (they are nice kids, just a bit erm, independent, head strong, good qualities you like if u are hiring a 'go getter', just not what u expect from a 3, 5 and 7 year old, seems like they have been given management qualities instead of growing to learn them, luckily they have great little personalities or they would be the kind of kids you wouldn't want your child playing with.). He has no space to call his own. He is the kind of person who NEEDS his space, needs his stuff not to ne touched, moved, taken away to be left discarded and forgotten about. He needs his privacy. He doesn't get that in his parents house.
He has been their for around 8 weeks now, I hear the difference in him.
He sounds; deflated.
I'm not saying living at mine is going to be much easier for him. But at least at the end of a hard day (they are all hot headed and arguments can start over the smallest of things, they end quickly too) he will know that he can come home to a somewhat quieter area, not so much a sanctuary, or even tranquil house, but a calm house.

We went in town and got keys cut, one for £5.50, two for £8 or three for £10, so we got 2 for his parents house and I got 1 for mine, as a spare.
Walking through town I jokingly gave him the key to mine, saying I would rather he had it than my mum, he said it would get confused with the other two new ones.
We went for lunch at this great wee cafe I found a few weeks back, soup n a sandwich for £2.25 to take away! Whilst munching on a spicy chicken sandwich, that temporary left me with no taste buds, I asked him to move in. 

First response was "But I'm not divorced yet"

I don't let him stay as he is married (for a visa in America). He said last October that he would get divorced as I don't want to have a relationship with someone who is married. So our relationship has always been a little fecked up due to the way I feel about that.

Anyway, he explained that his divorce hasn't been paid for to get the papers sent over to sign yet. Something to do with money he is owed in America needing to be reissued in his wife's name so she can cash the cheque, pay for the lawyer to send the papers over and proceed with it.

For the rest of the shopping trip, we sort of talked/joked about him moving in. I think he now realises I am not joking. So big talk due this week. I dropped him off at his sisters house, where I know he will talk about this, to her, then his parents.

I suppose this is where we find out how committed to us he is, as this would require him to pay his way in here, and as he isn't earning much just now, would mean he wouldn't be able to save a deposit for his own mortgaged house. But in doing that, we would effectively have more to spend  in my house, pay it off quicker (as I'll only have half the bills to pay, thus me over paying my mortgage) then we can concentrate on a 2nd house that we either rent out or move into and rent out mine. Currently I have abt 14 years left on my mortgage, so thinking this way, we could have it paid off between 7-10 years. But that is me being ever optimistic haha.

Thinking about Advent, in November.

So it is middle of November, and for the past week I have done nothing but think of ideas to put in our Advent Calendar. (I have just searched for an hour, my Facebook to find a picture to show you it, but their isn't one in my albums.) Anyways, our advent calendar consists of red socks, u can put a little treat in them or a note, I have two sets, possibly three somewhere. one I put downstairs above the radiator and one goes upstairs just outside Lyle's room and the toilet. This year, I intend to mix what goes in them, one day a lolly, another something for us to do like on the 8th, its my birthday but it is also opening night for Lyle's show, so that day is going to say something along the lines of, share birthday breakfast, Lyle go to drama and mummy go watch her star in the Christmas show, another one will be write Christmas cards, make Christmas cookies for the neighbours.
I am going to put the list here, and I will come back and edit it as i get ideas... and hopefully I will get pictures throughout December of us doing the daily Advent.

1. Select a present for the Church Christmas 'Giving' Tree
2. Write out Christmas cards
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Make Christmas playdough
8. Perform in Christmas Show with Drama Group
9. Entertain Gran at the Christmas show
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. Put up Christmas Tree
17. Make Christmas cookie's for the neighbours
18.
19.
20.have a Christmas film night
21.
22.Have dinner to candle light
23.
24.
25. Celebrate Christmas at Saint Joseph's Chapel.

a little update....

I'm really sorry, i haven't been able to get logged on here, it wasn't accepting my password on my mobile or on a p.c., yet its the same one i used to get  on tonight.

New Job is great! I am now beginning to like the work. I detest the travelling. I especially detest it when its really bad weather, and the spray back from the trucks and lorries means I can't see much in front of me.
The money is good I guess, although it is over £4000 less than my last full time job, that being over 3 years ago! But, it is a JOB!!! And pretty soon, I shall be in my own office, in my own town, that will only take me 10 mins to get to after dropping Lyle at school, and I will finish at 5pm! Need to sort out where Lyle will be going after school, so far, my parents take him and he likes that, but they have their own lives to lead, and I can't make them commit to this forever.

Bento's/lunches, most days I have been sticking to my bento idea lunches, I can't take pictures as my memory card is full and my computer is not recognising my mobile to transfer the pictures over to clear my memory card :(
Mine are boring numbers, Lyle's has been a lot better than mine, but they are helping me with the amount of food I am consuming (and spending) each day.

I am liking this, it is on the Lakeland website, I could be doing with this for my snack/breakfast at work.

These look fun! from a great wee company who I have ordered from before, and I intend on ordering from again, the delivery was nice and quick.

This is what I ordered previously

I love this lunch box.the dividers are removable or u can put them both vertical to give you three compartments of the same size, or just use one to give u a skinny vertical area and a square area. Personally, I use it the way it is in the picture, one segment for veg sticks, one for fruit and the other generally for a wrap or sandwiches.
I love that it also comes with a snack box. this fits a half jam sandwich plus about an inch to an inch and a half at the side. I sneak a little treat in here, either a chocolate finger or 2, or a small thin-ish toy to play with like a tiny matchbox car/kinder egg toy type thing.

The little company is called Becky and Lolo, they have a lovely selection of gifts and lunch boxes aimed at kids.
I am thinking of getting the pink one for myself, but that is Lyle's fav colour and I will probably end up with the green. For £6.99, I'll most likely get the blue too :)
To see ours in action, have a quick look here. 

Employment...

... I am currently unemployed. It sort of sucks. Only sort of, as I get to spend the weekends with my son. We can just chill or go out exploring with no time restraints on what we can do. It has been great. At the moment I have very little worries. The mortgage and bills will be covered. Next month is a different story.
But as I write this, I am awaiting a phone call to tell me I start my new career. I got a call back yesterday from an interview I went to on Tuesday, to say they are checking out my reference's and unofficially, the job is almost mine!.
I'm now like a cat in a hot tin roof. Very jumpy, nervous, can't stay still.
Couldn't concentrate on my book (Dan brown - lost symbol), the sort of boyfriend picked today to bring up a 'condition' of us being together and then try and get out of the conversation, and when I told him we were discussing it, he hung the fone up! I've been trying to have part of the conversation for a week or so now, but timing/situation wasn't best. But today he git more than he expected (or what I actually wanted to say, although the implication would have been very clear).
The fact he Hung up is really grating on me. He seems unable to or unwilling to have any conversations with me where he looks like a bad guy. Won't listen to his short comings, yet I have on a few occasions, sat and listened to mine from him.
That will be changing this week.
Only decision I have made today is that if he isn't divorced by end of year, I will be starting 2013 as a single 30 year old. Hopefully an employed, single, 30 year old mum :)

No lunch pictures today. The fone has no memory space, and I have deleted everything I don't want.

I am thinking of joining the October dress project, where u wear one dress for the whole of October. That will depend on if I get the job, as the training is 3 weeks, in a different area, 2 train journeys away. With lots of new people to meet. And I don't want the company to think they have hired a weirdo. If I had been their a while, that would be a different story.

Enjoy your day....

x

Dinosaur family

Just a quick one today.
Lettuce as a nest, scotch eggs as dinosaur eggs, two cheese dinosaur sandwiches as mummy and daddy, little yellow plums, and banana bread. All with Orange juice carton.

I done a cracker on Friday, thought I had bogged it, but its not here, and I've deleted the pic, as I have no memory space on this fone.

Hamburger style lunch

So, our new lunch box arrived today.
And it is a winner!
Lyle loves it. He wanted to try it out last night, so he got a night time snack in it. He spent ages making sure he could close it. It is a bit tricky to close, especially for small children. But he got it!.

Today he has a goats cheese and Chinese leaf lettuce bagel.  A fruit salad (with a Christmas tree pick) consisting of Orange segments, red grapes and strawberries.
A small piece of rocky cake, a yogurt, some mini chocolate fingers. Fruit juice. A banana and water for play time.
This all went in his scooby doo lunch bag that is shaped like a bowling bag. So the box (& food) stays up right.

Feck off Thursday.

It's one of those lovely Scottish days, where the rain is a constant drizzle, you walk from the house to your car and u are soaked, as the drizzle gets everywhere. I love that kind of weather, especially just now, when its not too cold n freezing, although it is getting colder by the day.

I need to start looking into making warm lunches, Lyle isn't a big fan of soups, and the canteen have told ne they won't reheat anything as they can make the food themselves.

Todays lunch was put in the new lunch box, that I am loving already! It consists of a wrap with turkey slices and cucumber slithers. Some chopped cucumber (I need to get more Veg in!) , the very last of the sausages and dippers (these where only added as the carton of juice was too long for that segment) little blob of tomato sauce, and grapes n mandarin segments.
This lunch box also comes with a small snack box, and as it will be a wet play today, I gave him a strawberry jam sandwich with 4 little chocolate fingers and a snack bag of raisins.(he gets 2 play times, so I always make sure he has the option if having something for the afternoon) along with his bottle of water.

Yesterday my fork picks arrived. And we love them. Ok, they are Christmas themed, but so what. They are cute and do a job.  Today he has Rudolf for the fruit and an elf (that sort of looks like a ghost) for the cucumber and sausages.
All I need now is sauce bottles.

Yesterday I had a lot more on my post, but for some strange reason, it didn't post anything after the picture.
Oh well.
Here is Todays picture.

Wed, 12th sept 2012

Yesterday in the car, Lyle said to me "mum, everyone loves my lunches you make" . I drove home with a massive smile on my face after he told me he opened his lunch and said "cool lunch mum" and everyone wanted to see/eat it :-)

For today I made sandwiches, using a dinosaur cutter, I even cut out the turkey with it too, so it all fitted good. I rummaged in the fridge and used up the last of the cocktail sausages and the southern fried chicken dippers. Couple of leaves of a Chinese lettuce, sliced some cucumbers

Slept in Tuesday's lunch

awoke at 8.17am, not very good when we need to leave the house at 8.45am to make sure we get to school on time.
so todays lunch consists of cocktail sausages, southern fried chicken strips, blob of tomato sauce, grapes, cucumber, grated carrots and some breakfast called chocolate pillows.... orange juice and yogurt.
iced gems (& bottle of water, &a manderin) for playtime.

tonight i hope to make carrot cake to add to tomorrows lunch.

me, i am just about to make some beetroot soup that i got for about 5p a packet in the world of food isle ... i think it is Polish, the instructions are diagrams so cant be too hard to make haha.

Monday lunch for a dreary day.

Lunch time is now taking over nearly all my waking moments. It is all I think about. From what containers do I have, to I absolutely must buy a Bento box (recently bought a hamburger shaped one & can not wait for it to arrive, via amazon.co.UK from Hong Kong!).
I am constantly thinking of what to put in those containers. Last week was sandwiches or bagels, with some fruit and a little sweet...
To start this week off, I used small round crackers/biscuits.3 slices of lime, corriander & chilli chucked, diced, goats cheese sliced and 4 cocktail sausages sliced. These went in silicon cupcake cases and into the 2 small sections of the tub.
In the big space is a small bunch of red grapes and a few chocolate coins.
I added an alpro soya chocolate yogurt to the spiderman lunch bag and then from the car (as half my messages are still their from my Tesco shop at 1am!), I added a carton of Orange juice to complete his lunch.
I am actually jealous!
My lunch will most likely be a plain ham sandwich.

If anyone is interested, his play piece today is a Btl of water with the choice of mini pancakes or a 'pains au chocolat'  or fruit flakes.

Life of Lunches....

Todays Lunch for Lyle was hastily arranged, but still seems good. well i wouldnt be unhappy upon opening this. 

alpro soya chocolate milkshake and yogurt.
Bagel with goats cheese and honey ham.
quarter of cucumber thinly sliced and then quartered.
silicon cupcake case of cheerios and another with blueberries.
each wee segment is wrapped in cling film as the lid isnt flush with the inside, so the food moves about.

I am a little proud of this, considering i havent been proper shopping for over a week!

It finally happened...

<p>One of us took the plunge and called it a day on our relationship. <br>
Thursday 12th July. <br>
A total of 15 months of lies. <br>
Even when we ended he still lied. I didn't call him out on it. I just asked when he was going on holiday, and he insisted he want going, even tho I have seen the payments. I asked if he slept with others, technically he didn't lie at this, as he said I won't hear of him running around, he's correct in that, as he went with ones who stay at least 50miles away from us. <br>
Aw well. </p>
<p>Timing was shit. We where booked for skiing lessons, evening guests at my friends wedding and the Saturday before we ended, he had booked us in to a hotel for one of my best friends wedding. It's booked and paid for. But I won't be able to use it, as I won't have a car to get me their or back. So he has wasted his money.

My son has taken it very badly. Keeps on asking when we will be boyfriend and girlfriend again. Keeps asking to fone him. Go do stuff with him.

Stood up Sunday...

Only the 8th or 9th in a row... but that's not the post for today, it just so happens that due to being ignored this weekend (again) we could MAKE stuff.

And we made blue play dough, with a little peppermint oil (for candy) and yellow play dough with some lemon oil (again edible, not that u want to eat play dough, but just incase, then its not harmful) they smell good.

Then we made jelly, in molds, just waiting on them to set, then it was off to drama class. When we got back, master L wanted to make lollys to freeze, so we mashed up the fruit
(Strawberries and blueberries in separate bowls)
Added goats yogurt and honey to each bowl
Gave a good mix then spoon them into these new freezer molds.

Put the lids on and now they are in the freezer.

Really lucky that we had any to freeze, cos every time I looked master L was having sneaky spoonfuls

A place of secrets

I read this on Monday and finished on Tuesday. I loved the idea of the book, but it is badly written.
I don't know if it is just me, and that I need MORE from my books, but I find that a lot of books these days seem to be written by a teenager doing a story for their English teacher.
The style of writing and the predictability was really annoying me, but I persevered to see how it would go.
Like, for example, 2 of the main characters, u know the minute that they met, they where going go be a couple by the end, the relationship between the sisters was explained on the surfaced, but nothing too deep, same as the relationships between the sisters and their mother and grandmother, also the relationship between the mother and grandmother, and as this book is all about relationships, it left the story rather lacking. 

No monsters in this house!

We watched a dvd in bed tonight, the Fantastic Mr Fox - truly a fantastic film. Lyle, who did not even want to watch it, loved it!
When the film finished we done all the bed time things we do, brush teeth, wash face etc, jump back into bed, kiss, cuddle, I love u thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much to the moon and back. Etc etc. I turn the light out, put the little fan heater on and Lyle says "mum I don't like the dark, incase any monsters want to come in." So I precede to tell him the same thing I have been saying for nearly 3 years; "we don't have monsters in our house, monsters are only made up for cartoons like scooby soo..." GASP!  As I'm saying this a little stallings flies out my open mirrored wardrobe and hits the roof a few times, both of us dive under the covers, heart going 10 to a dozen, I peek out, see its a bird and prepare to get brave.
Turn the heater off and the bird goes back into hiding. I open the window and put the heater back on, tell Lyle to go under the covers just in case the bird poo's on him and as I say that, the poor frightened creature flies soo fast out the window it nearly flew into the lamp post.
Half an hour later and my heart is just starting to calm down.

Kaiser Chiefs

Who is really excited for tomorrow night?
I am!
This is my Valentine's gift to Gordon. Bought the tickets months ago, and I somehow managed not to tell him, so its a surprise!