Work In Progress

I have spent spent the last couple of days working on the tent/marquee for the ball tonight. Firday was a very LONG day! We arrived at 9am and stopped working at 5pm. We have to go back for a couple of hours this morning and we will be all set for tonight. I think it looks really nice and will be even better when the lighting is finished and candles are lit. The weather is not the best ~ cloudy and a cold 57 degrees with heavy rains expected tonight. Oh well...it is the UK!

How it looked Friday morning

This is how it looked when we left...this is actually my table!

Cupcakes Again!!

I am at again....making cupcakes :-} Maggie has a garden party at school tomorrow afternoon and her class is responsible for bringing cakes. We had a great time making these 'dirt' cupcakes ~ she thinks the girls will LOVE them.

15 Years Ago Today.....

Tim and I were married. It is hard to believe that it has been 15 years already....it really does not seem that long! I guess we are getting old. Tonight we will be going out to dinner and I already received my gift ~ a beautiful double strand black pearl necklace with matching earings as well as a ring :-} His gift, unfortunately, is not ready yet but should hopefully be ready to pick up by the end of the week. I cannot say what it is as he does on occassion check out the blog.

Sports Day and Dance Recital

Maggie had sports day this past Friday and we were lucky enough that the rain stopped for the hour and there was even some sunshine! I cannot begin to tell you how much rain we have had over the past week. Anyway, Maggie had a fun day and even came in second place for one of the events...she was thrilled.

This afternoon, she had her dance recital for both ballet and tap/modern. It was a very nice program but the lighting was poor so I only got 1 somewhat decent shot...oh well, hopefully I will have better photos next time.

It is....wait, it isn't!

Took Andrew back to the Doctor this morning to have his thumb looked at again. This time, the doctor said it WAS NOT broken but rather a brusing/inflamation of the tendons at the joint. So, there is nothing to be done only to lightly exercise the thumb until he gets its strength back. I am glad that is all it is so that it won't interfere with his activity trip to France in a couple of weeks.

Yet another injury!

Yep you read correctly....we have another injury in the family. Any guess as to which child it was this time? Maggie? NO! Chris? Amazingly NO! So it has to be Andrew! His latest injury happened yesterday after school playing cricket. Somehow his friend was falling down and somehow Andrew's thumb got hurt in the process. It was swollen and sore but today he wanted to have it checked out as it was getting worse.

After spending an hour at the walk in clinic we were sent to the A/E {emergency room} at the hospital for xrays and further evaluation. THREE, yes 3, hours later we were told he has a broken thumb {distal phalange} and they supported it with TAPE. We go now need to go to the fracture clinic on Wednesday to have it looked at further and they will do something else to set it/help it. It is crazy the process that you need to go through when you have an injury.
Sorry, but the NHS is an archaic system that is in desperate need of modernization.

Small Change...Big Difference

I have been wanting to take the desk out of the breakfast/kids tv room for ages and it is finally out! {I also added a new rug and what a difference it makes} I wasn't planning on buying a new rug but a man came to the door selling them from his truck ~ yep, door to door carpet man! Anyway, he had one I liked and after a short time of negotiation I became the proud owner of a new rug. The desk was where the chair is in photo #2...bottom right corner. The entire room has been opened up and I am quite pleased with how it now looks. Why it took me SO long to change it around I do not know.

Britain's Got Talent WINNER~

Here is the video of the guy who won the show. I will admit I am not a big opera fan but I really love his voice and passion. He was deserving of being crowned the winner.

Reality TV again.....

Well yet another post about TV and a show I like :-} Simon Cowell has brought yet another one of his shows to the UK and this time it is Britain's Got Talent ~ the UK version of the US show. This week has been the audition phases as well as the semi-finals {2 entrants from each semi go to the finals}. The final will be on Sunday night. It is amazing what ordinary people can do...some not very good others outstanding. The winner gets money as well as gets to perform for the Queen and the royal family.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Isn't she the cutest you have ever seen?? Her semi-final is tonight so we will have to wait and see how she does. EDITED : she MADE it...she is in the finals too!!


Love this guy....he made it to the finals!

What a day!!

Today has been *rap! After dropping Maggie off at school this morning I had a flat tire. Now any other day it would have been no problem but today it was pouring down rain. SO, I had to...

Call the service people,

call a friend to bring me home,

take Tims car back to my car when the service people showed up,

wait for the guy to repair the tire,

drive my car back home ~ with repair guy following me,

drive back to get Tims car

then go home

All of this was before noon today! Then I had to make arrangements to get a loaner vehicle as my car cannot be fixed until sometime next week{they need to order the tire}. Well they dropped the car off where Tim works and I got a ride to get it and guess what....it was a manual car URGGHHH. I can drive a manual but I am not very comfortable driving one over here. I drove home and they will be bringing a replacement car in the morning. Why does this have to happen when Tim is gone? See Diana, it doesn't only happen to you !!

Class Photos

I have nothing of interest to tell you about so I am just posting some photos that I have taken for my photography class. I am really enjoying it and think that my pictures are getting a bit better. I have actually taken the user manual for the camera out of the box and have read part of it ~ who really reads it anyway?? Let me tell you, it was worth a read...there are items of interest in it ~ especially if you want to work in manual mode.

Changes

I have handsome boys again! They both went for haircuts today and to my surprise Andrew decided go short ~ Tim will be THRILLED to see them when he gets back from his trip. Andrew even got molding wax for his new do!

The weather here is terrible, 50 and rainy. It is supposed to be summer, where are the sunny/warm days? Guess I will have to go find some.

Terracotta Warriors Xian China

Once again Tim is in China for business but was able to take in a bit of sightseeing over the weekend. As they were in Xian, they went to see the famed Terracotta Warriors. They are coinsidered one of the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century. Over 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots, and even weapons have been unearthed ~most of them have been restored to their former grandeur. Life size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations are the main features of the site.

Next stop......back to Beijing.

Rafting FUN ~

After school today Christopher was invited to go river rafting with some friends, also from the US, I went along as well so I could take photos :-} It is a purpose built facility for kayaking and rafting so it is not on an actual river. They spent about an hour going through the course....they went 5 or 6 times and Chris said he had a great time. It was a great day to be outdoors as it was close to 80 and sunny. I know it looks like it was cold based on the water gear they are wearing ~ trust me it was warm outside!

ps..Andrew was invited to go as well, but he opted to stay home and study for his exams tomorrow. Although, I think he was playing Xbox with Nicholas :-}

Pirate Master

Those of you who know me best know I am a reality TV junkie ~ I was excited to see that yet another one,Pirate Master, was coming to the small screen here in the UK. This is from Mark Burnett, the creator of my all time favorite show Survivor, so I have high expectations for this. The show will be premiering tonight and I am hoping it will be good. Those of you readers in the US...have you seen it? Is it worth watching? I know that the show here is a few weeks behind you so I want your opinions please.

Speaking of Survivor ... did you hear the next one is being filmed in China? This will be only the second time the show has not been filmed on an island ~ Guatemala being the first. The next season of Survivor will be in China! The location is in the Jiangxi Province of Mainland China in the shadows of a sacred mountain that will include pandas, tigers, and the elements. It is the first time that a major television show will be filming in China {filming should be starting end of June/early July} So once again, itunes will be getting my money so I can see the season in its entirety.

Party Princess

Maggie went to yet ANOTHER birthday party today and it was a princess party. Each guest was to dress up as a princess and be ready to be treated like royalty.

She is such a girly girl and was thrilled with the theme of the party.

Of course I had to go out and find her a tiara ~ every princess MUST have one!!

What Do You Do All Day??

According to the kids....this is what I do :-}

If my life were only as simple as this picture....what would I do with all that extra time???

Look What We Got.....

After having the current set of dishes for almost 15 years ~ YES, 15 years! We have selected new dishes and they are great. They are Wedgwood and the pattern is called Colosseum. The best thing is that although it is bone china it is meant to be used ~ it is dishwasher, microwave and oven safe!! The funny thing is that they are actually CHEAPER to buy here than in the US, who would have thought??

Ball Gown

I HATE dresses but had to get one for the summer ball the end of this month. It is a black tie event so floor length dressed need to be worn.

My dress has arrived in the store and I went today for a fitting and it now needs to be shortened a bit as well as brought in as it is too big for me {at least that is good}.

This is what the dress looks like but it is a blue topaz color not the green as pictured. It also does not have the bow thing at the waist...it looks silly so it is being removed too!

Tim is now the proud owner of a tuxedo!! It made more sense to buy one rather than rent them for the next few events.

We're BACK!!

We have just returned from a week in the Canary Islands. We stayed on the island of Fuerteventura(60km from the coast of Africa) and even made a day trip to the neighboring island of Lanzarote. The Canary Islands are 700 miles south of the southern tip of Spain and West of the African coast. We had a great time enjoying the sun, beach and great food.

Here are a few photos from the week.... The view from our room...and what a view it was!

Check out these beach babes!

Chris and Maggie checking out the sea

There was this man who spent his days creating these fabulous sand creations. Every day something else was added so it was never the same twice.