Sunday 28 March 2010

One Man and his Dog!

It must be love when Fred abandons his beloved Teddy (seen on the left of the sofa), for a cuddle with his Dad!

Friday 26 March 2010

Is It Just Me???

I've got Flu!
I caught it off Paul, who has had it for the last 2 weeks!

Since Christmas I seem to have been permanently ill! What the heck is going on?

I've had two stays in hospital, 2 operations and now flu..... We are only 3 months into the year!

I must have been really bad in my last life!

Monday 15 March 2010

My 2nd Disaster of the Weekend...

As we were getting into the car to leave Birmingham, the wind caught the door on my side and slammed it too rather hard! Paul gave me a piece of his mind about being careful, and I told him as I was not touching the door at the time it was a case of forces-majeur, and act of nature so to speak!
Before we had even gotten to the end of the road, there was a big clatter and the window on my side started to slide down - great! that means the internal gubbings of the window had just broken and we would have to drive 350 miles with the window down!

We stopped off in the local cutting for the newsagents and Paul shoved a load of cardboard into the window frame between the rubber and the glass to hold it in place, and hopefully get us to Cornwall before it gave up the ghost again.


The journey south went uneventfully, and just as we crossed into the Cornish boarders the seal started to come apart from the glass and a small draft crept in..... I kept quiet for fear of the wrath of the Husband! Not only had I damaged the Laptop on Saturday night, but now I had damaged the car as well, less than 12 hours later!

After arriving home and fixing the laptop, which you will already have read about, he set about pulling apart the car door to access the window gubbings (yep that's the technical term according to the brain of Jo!)

He then jammed the window into place with a piece of 2x4 wood to keep it secure until he could get to the dealer today (Monday) to buy the replacement bit

Upon getting home from work, having collected the replacement part from Renault, he started to refit the new bit to the window works



The little green plastic thingy on the left of the gubbings is the offending broken item!

Paul fixed it into position and then started to attach everything back onto the car door frame once more

I think it was more fiddly to take the panelling off and put it back on, than it was to fix the broken part!

but slowly it began to go back into place

just the door arm now......

and finally, it all went back together

and we had a working electric window once more.....
PHEW! - Good job I wasn't near anything else I could break eh!

Sunday 14 March 2010

I'm A Walking Disaster!

Whilst in Brum, we helped Mom to sort her laptop out and speed it up by transferring everything to an external hard drive - in doing so, I was a little clumsy with my own lap top and once again managed to damage it much to Paul's disgust with me!
I placed it onto the floor, and unwittingly allowed Fred to run across the keys in his excitement to get to a dentistix in my hand - the result was the breaking off of the D and E key pads, as you can see above!
Once we arrived home, Paul went onto You Tube to see if there was anything on there on how to fix them back on. It transpires that there were a few really helpful videos, and it could be fixed, but we would need the parts..... Ah Ha! what about the last lap top I destroyed says I - after all I never throw anything away LOL
and so, my little old Acer came out of hiding at the back of the cupboard, and some keys were popped off to see if the fixing underneath was the same as the one we needed - Bingo! They were the right ones.... Off came the first ....




and placed onto the current laptop keypad, still following the instruction on the screen from You Tube!


Once it was in place, it was a matter of hooking the key pad back on top and clicking it down into place....

then off came the next key from the old machine and the process was repeated again with the E key
It was very fiddly and there was just not enough light to see what we were doing, but it all just came together......

and Voila! a fully working keyboard again, all thanks to the wonders of the internet and a little lateral thinking in relation to the spare parts needed!

Well done Paul, and thanks for fixing my lifeline, LOL

Saturday 13 March 2010

Mom and Dylan

After a pretty good journey up from Cornwall last night, we arrived at Paul's moms to a hearty meal and big hugs and kisses.
We settled down for half an hour before heading off out again to see his sister briefly, as she was unable to see us any other time over the weekends due to other commitments.
Saturday morning saw beautiful blue skies once more, and we headed off into Sutton Coldfield with Mom to see what we could get her for Mothers Day. We suggested a charm for her Pandora bracelet, and she was told to pick what she liked and we would get it for her. After a successful shopping trip, we headed back for a quick lunch, and to get ready for our trip over to Walsall for Dylan's 1st birthday party.

After 2 failed attempts at visiting with Kelly, Paul and Dylan since November, we finally arrived in time for Dylans 1st birthday party, and I was able to get a cuddle with my new Godson.
He was such a happy little chap on the day, and kept us on our toes with all of his running around - I think he had an eye for the girls though, and Abi certainly doted on him


Paul was lucky enough to get quite a few cuddles from Dylan before it got to crowded, and every time I turned around there was this lovely little lad tottering over to Paul with his arms out to be lifted up.... then everyone turned up and he had his pick of people to fuss over him LOL



It was a great chance for me to catch up with my friend Lisa and her daughter Abi, who I haven't seen in the last 3 years since moving to Cornwall.

Abi eventually overcame her shyness of the camera and was then giving the orders of who to take a picture of and what the poses should be LOL

It was a lovely afternoon and we were very sad when it came to an end

We headed on 'home' to Mom's and by now were looking forward to the dinner she had planned for us - Lasagne, salad, garlic bread, Baileys cheesecake and double cream with Baileys..... are you starting to get the picture as far as Baileys is concerned LOL.


The cheesecake was very boozy, and very lovely, and as there was some left I was told I could bring it home to share with Sally~Ann.......
It wasn't until I got through the front door after the drive home that I realised it was still in the fridge in the West Midlands! NOOO!!!!!!
It was really sad to leaving everyone once more for the trip home, but we know the next trip is just around the corner.
Thanks for a fantastic weekend x

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Weekend Fun Ahead

This weekend is a very busy one.
We shall be travelling up to Birmingham on Friday afternoon to spend a couple of nights with Paul's Mom. It is Mothers Day on Sunday after all, and I seem to have managed to be ill on the last 2 occasions that we were supposed to go up to see her.... not on purpose of course!
It is also my Godson, Dylan's 1st birthday on Saturday, and Kelly has asked us to come over to see them for his birthday.
It will be a fun packed weekend, and despite having to take a knockout tablet to be able to get in the car (long story, involving and accident many moons ago, and a terrible fear of passengering in a car on a journey) I am really looking forward to seeing Mom and my friends.
Fred is all excited too - he will be having his Teddy and his Bear packed, so that his Nanny can see him being a good boy playing with them....
Role on Friday and to be able to have a Mommy hug xx

Friday 5 March 2010

Birthday Meal

It's been a manic week this week, in terms of card making - I've had loads of orders for the imminent Mother Days on 14th of March, and so have been holed up in my spare bedroom clipping and cutting and creating to my hearts content.
Unfortunately most people have asked for 3d decoupaged cards and these take time and patience, especially as most of the ones chosen have about 9 or 10 different layers to them - it's been enjoyable, but very tiring on the hands and eyes LOL.
The cards will soon be visible on my card blog, so keep an eye out.
In the meantime, it was Mikes 65th birthday yesterday, and we took the opportunity for a lovely meal at the Arms in the village last night....

We all ordered the scampi, as it's very good there, and then followed it with some very yummy puddings - us girlie's had Baileys Cheesecake!

It was a lovely meal, and great company as usual. By 10.30pm we were home again, and I was back at the craft table trying to finish a card that was to be delivered today!

I managed to finish it finally this morning, before I went to work, and thankfully all of the ones I took in today were instant hits.

Now all I have to do is finish the rest of my orders!