Oscar the Guard Cat

This is what I found when I popped my head it to check on Jack while he was having his nap!



Oscar is very protective of Jack, he can usualy be found either on top of the bed frame, watching over him, or lying next to the wheelchair some where. He tends not to lie that close to Jack when Jack's awake because he gets thumped when Jack is awake and throwing his arms around lol, but he's never very far from him.



THE DOGS on the other hand, are only around Jack when there's food going, and they're after the 'fall out' that hits the floor rofl

I had a great sleep last night. I slept right through with out waking up! I didn't wake unti 10.15 am ...... I'm supposed to give Jack his meds by 09.00 !!!
After sorting Jack and having a shower, I decided to make a start on the next needle roll. Another Shepherd's Bush - Stitcher, this time. I did less than 2 stitches and fell asleep :o. I slept for another hour and a half until Cindy woke me up when she came home!
I'm not sure what it's about, but I feel ok apart from sleepy. Perhaps I'm coming down with what I had as a child, my mam called it ............... lazy-itis rofl

I'll hopefully, have an WIP of the needle roll to show you next time :)


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Jack's knee

You may recal that Jack has been having problems with his right knee since October last year, when he returned from a respite stay with a swollen and painful knee. I had it x-rayed, which didn't show any thing, and the trauma consultant was very cursory about looking at it. I've had him back to the GP's 3 times until he agreed to refer him to a different consultant.
I went to Oswestry RJAH hospital yesterday and it turns out he had broken the growth plate in his knee joint!

My poor boy, who can't talk, so can't tell me what is going on, has been suffering all this time! The upper bone has moved on top of the knee cap and pushed the cap back, which has then grown new bone behind and it's now fused in a bent position!
It is healed now, so shouldn't give him any more pain, but he'll never straighten his leg again! The consultant ( Mr Keily, a very nice man) said that as Jack isn't ambulant there is no point in putting him through surgery and a general anaesthetic for cosmetic reasons. If he was walking around it would be different, but he isn't, and never will be and it won't effect his every day life in any way

I feel terrible! I feel I should have picked up on it some how, even though I kept taking him back to the GP and telling him that it wasn't right.

Stitching

I've finished the needle roll !

I'm very pleased with it, and I love the ribbon that came with it :)

Lisa if you email me your address, I'll send you the chart now I've finished with it :)


I've got another couple of needle rolls lined up to do, so I've got to decide which one is next. After seeing Barb's (no blog) basket full of rolls, I like the idea of doing several more :)


Hope you have a good week end with your family and friends x



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A lovely day :)

Today has been a busy day, but with some lovely moments :)

I had an unexpected visitor turn up just before lunch. I opened the door to a man standing there with a motor bike helmet on, saying 'hello'! I peered into the eyes, as that's all I could see and was just thinking 'I know those eyes' when he said 'it's Martin!'. He is a friend of ours from waaay back and used to work with the ex. We haven't seen him for about 6 yrs, so it was really lovely to have him turn up out of the blue. I made him a cuppa and we had a lovely chat for about an hour before I managed to get the ex on the phone and he came around. Richard then spent 45 mins with him while I made cups of tea for my cross stitch ladies who'd arrived in the middle of all this and had been left to sort them selves out!

After Martin had left I was telling the ladies about the Edinburgh Tattoo trip advertised in our local paper.
I wanted to go on it, but both girls said no! They are usualy very good and take pity on their poor mother when Jack goes on respite and I want to go out some where ie cinema, meal, shopping etc., but this time they put their foot down and said no way! Irene, one of our ladies listened for a while then said she'd like to go on it, and would go with me! How fantastic is that? So we're booking two seats and we're off to Edinburgh in August .... yeah!!!

And to finish off a lovely afternoon, I managed to get all the stitching finished and get the beading and pulled threads done on the needle roll. So it's just the making up to do now, which won't take long then I'll have a HD at last! ..... watch this space!!






Remember I mentioned that my foot had swollen up at the end of the holiday? Well it's still swollen and painfull. I mentioned it to the doc thinking it was because I'd forgotten my blood pressure tablets,(it did go down once I'd started taking them again) but he said it wouldn't do that. After looking at it, pressing it and making it hurt like mad, he tells me he thinks it's a DVT .... blood clot! So I've got to wait to see if the hospital want to do an xray on it (he thinks they might not because it's passed the danger period for blood clots!) So .... here we go again, just as I think my body is going to behave it's self and not go wrong again, it throws a curve ball!
On the bright side .... this will be the 7th year of problems and they do say that things go around in a 7 yr cycle!!! ..... I'm hoping!! One things for sure, I'm not going to let this get me down again, I'm on the 'up' and I'm staying on the up !!!!

pancake day :)

Today is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day and we've had traditional pancakes for tea .... mmmmmm yummy!
As my girls just love pancakes, and don't like having them for desert, because they think they're missing out by only having one! lol I usualy stand at the cooker, making them one after the other as the girls (and b/f's) keep coming back for more until they've had their fill. They usualy have about three each and I'm lucky if I get one, but today I made two bowls of mixture and made sure I got three lol ... greedy or what? lol

Talking of food, have you tried the new Walkers Crisps flavours? Today I got Onion Bahji, Chilly and Chocolate and Cajun Squirel
... they're are certainly different! The girls liked the chilly chocolate but not so fussy on the other two, but I only liked the onion bahji. What happened to just plain ready salted crisps? Or those with the little blue bag in? I used to love those when I was younger lol

.... can you tell I've started a diet and can only think of food at the moment rofl !




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TGIF !!

I've never been soooo glad to see Fridays as I am today!

The two extra foster children left this morning, and I'm exhausted!!! It's all my own fault of course lol. They were only here 4 days and I packed in as much as I could for them, forgetting that I'm coming up 54 not 24 and I can't do what I used to, with out suffering the consequences for days after!!

One Tuesday we spent 4 hours at Boogles Barn The children ran amok, had tea and a go on the go-carts, then ran amok again rofl. After their bath they fell asleep almost immediately absolutely shattered rofl.

Wednesday we had to go to the wheelchair clinic for Jack's new chair.... waste of time! The new moulded seat doesn't fit properly! the broken brakes got fixed, then broke again the next day! The headrest was so narrow it rolled his ears into sausages! and the chest strap had buckles which isn't any good for Jack as he drops his head onto his chest and the buckles mark/bruise his cheeks and chin!
all in all, a complete waste of their time and mine. Another appointment has been made, so we'll see what they come up with next month!
The children were very well behaved, so we had our lunch at McDonald's as a treat :)

Thursday was Chester Zoo day! OMG I'd forgotten how many miles you have to walk to get around this place .... and pushing Jack in a wheelchair too !! My feet were (and still are) twice their size and hurting like mad, but the kids LOVED IT, and that's all that matters rofl. We had lunch there and they each got a giant helium balloon to take home. They fell asleep in the car they were that worn out ... bless 'em.
The young lad spoilt almost a perfect day at tea time though. Twice I said that as we'd had a cooked meal at the zoo, I was doing soup and sandwiches for tea, but he waited until I put it in front of him before deciding he didn't want soup. I will normally cater for likes and dislikes of foster children, given notice, but to wait until it was put in front of him was a no no! He had a paddy and tears and a sulk, but he ate it in the end! It was home made, not like I'd opened a tin and his sister said it was delicious, so I stuck to my guns, said he could sit there until bed time, but he was eating it ... I'm wicked I know, but my pet hate is fussy eaters, and it's not like he's thin and wasting away, as he gets away with this all the time at home. Any way, he didn't choke, vomit or die, so it can't have been that bad! rofl

This morning, after the children left, the repair man came to replace the brake system on Jack's chair, so he's got a mechanical tilting 'thing' now, instead of the hydraulics, and APPARENTLY this one won't brake ...we'll see!

On the stitching front, now the children have gone, I'm getting out the Shepherds Bush 'Mother's Love' needle roll that I'd made a start on. Here is the WIP so far. I'm hoping to get it finished this week, meetings, appointments etc permitting!










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visit from Jacqui (cushie) and Craig today

I had a lovely afternoon and evening today. Jacqui and her husband of 7yrs (tomorrow, valentines day!) Craig are spending their anniversary in Chester and as it's only 20 something miles away, decided to pop in and see me. We had a lovely time chatting about family etc and catching up on the gossip. At tea time we ordered in a chinese take-away, and Craig got a shock when his arrived. He thought the special chow mein with king prawns would come in one dish, so ordered fried rice too, but it came in two big dishes and was too much to fit on one plate so he had to resort to a pyrex casserole dish ...rofl..!




I couldn't resist getting the camera out rofl !!!




I've given Jacqui the leaflet from the Nimble Thimble and they are going to pay a visit tomorrow. Well it seems rude to come all this way and not call in to the best american cross stitch chart shop in the area doesn't it?

Talking of stitching, I'm half way through the Shephards bush needle roll, but didn't get much done on it this week. I'm hoping to get it finished over the week end, as next week I've got two more children coming to stay on respite and I know I won't get any done while they're here. I had them to stay for 10 days during last years summer holidays, so I know what I'm letting myself in for .. rofl

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From 28c to -5 bbrrrr!

It was a shock to the system to leave Gran Canaria in 25c and then to arrive in Manchester - over 2 hrs late - to find it -5 in the early hours of Sunday morning, I can tell you!!! Richard, the Ex, had instructions to collect us with several big coats at the ready so we could wrap up warm on the journey home rofl.

The holiday was wonderful! We stayed here at the Dunas Suites and Villas, in Maspalomas in the south of Gran Canaria, and it was gorgeous. The whole complex was spotless and spacious, the staff were very friendly and helpful, the food was gorgeous, the beach and dunes were 10 mins away and the weather was between 25c and 30c .... heaven on earth!
I must confess to being very concerned when we first arrived and started the tour of all the hotels, dropping people off. The east of the island is very built up and commercialised and I was worried about what I'd brought the girls to, as we don't like 'busy' complex's, but the south of the island was much better. The hotels in our area (3 of them) were single storey complex's with hundres of palm trees and cacti plants about, and plenty of land between them making it very nice. Our complex had 'villas' grouped in 4's so you didn't see your neighbours patio and you felt as if you were the only ones about :) ..... until you got to one of the pools ofcourse, but even then, there wasn't that many people as it is the low season and not a school holiday.


our 'home'


our pool, viewed from our patio


Maspalomas dunes and beach (to the right) viewed from the path from our hotel .


I took some stitching and reading with me. I made a good start on the Shephards Bush 'A Mothers Love' needle roll, and read Folly by Alan Titchmarsh. The book took a bit of getting in to, but very enjoyable. I also re-read two books of the Chronicles of Narnia that I'd taken for the girls to read lol. I was really amazed that they actualy did some reading! Infact Cindy amazed me most, by taking a book with her where ever we went, and I've even got it on film rofl.


airport


coaches back from trips


every night in the villa



We did a couple of trips out and on the last day, the girls went horse riding for 3 hrs up in to the hills and down on to a beach. They loved it! but came back walking like John Wayne rofl

I was very stupid and left my blood pressure tablets and anti-depresants behind! It was a long way to the nearest chemist so I did with out! I felt great and had no side effects all week except on the way home. Having to wait for the extra 2+ hours at the airport had my left foot swelling up, but it's back to normal now I'm home and have started taking the blood pressure tablets again. Now that I've done with out the anti-depresants for a week, I'm going to stay off them, as the sun and warmth did a much better job at making me feel better rofl. The doc said that I would get the optimum benefit from them after 6 weeks and I've been on them for 5 weeks so that's good enough for me :)

It's back to the grind stone now! Loads of washing to get through :(. Jack will be home tonight after school and the girls are back at work today so it's back to the usual routine for us all.... roll on the next holiday lol