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my meme (from domesticali blog)


my meme (from domesticali blog)
Originally uploaded by toniann.

I love the whole randomness of this (apart from the non-random revision of answers if the 1st page of pics didn't suit)

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? toni
2. What is your favorite food? chocolate
3. What high school did you go to? sundon park
4. What is your favorite color? blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? carmine giovinzzo
6. Favorite drink? tea
7. Dream vacation? oregon
8. Favorite dessert? creme caramel
9. What you want to be when you grow up? photographer
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you. loyal
12. Your flickr name. toniann

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Toothless


IMG_1150
Originally uploaded by toniann.

I cannot believe I haven't noted this, but Munch lost his first tooth on Apr 20th. His second tooth was already growing behind it (it's a family trait).
Sadly we do not have that first tooth, Munch was so busy watching tv and eating sweets he forgot about his tooth coming out and swallowed it!

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Darn it

my running blog has been disabled.

Maybe they knew that I really wasn't getting the running vibe going on this time.

I've just had to re-request access. I cannot face having to put in 7 weeks worth of pretty rubbish running stats again. Let's just say I am still fat, have not lost weight and can only run a 12 minute mile...only 1 of them anything more than that and my stats drop to 14 minute miles (for the 1 3 mile run i have done). Rain has stopped play for today in the running stakes but at this rate it's going to take 6 years to run 5k in under 30 minutes.

so i am putting my buckeye outdoors widget on this blog. I don't know how other runners put lots of runs entered into Buckeye onto their blogs but when I do it it'll only do 1. Maybe because I have no gadgets (garmin, nike+ or anything at all except a Special K heart rate monitor watch).

I have been tidying up the garden and am really pleased with it. Have dug up loads of very old shrubs, by old I mean about 10 years old, my garden is small and cannot cope with large shrubs, nor can it cope with 3 boys and numerous footballs/basketballs but at least I can get rid of old shrubs. Will post pictures when it stops raining.

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Friday after school, 3 boys and a toy grabber

if you didn't guess already I love it that flickr has video now

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the only time #2 concentrates and the only thing #3 can say


23052008013
Originally uploaded by toniann
Munch is able to concentrate for a whole minute on his nintendo. Sadly for his teacher Nintendos are not allowed in school.
Pip is 2, he thinks he is 9 but he can only say 'boo', 'oi', 'no', 'help', 'mum' and 'dad'. He does a nice line in non-specific verbal communication though, accompanied by a dazzling array of pokes, prods and hits.
All our hopes are pinned on #1.

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Laying low

This greeted me on Monday, my poor little guy all puffed up and swollen with an accompanying red rash that made me cry.
After the school run we stood at the Doctors Surgery until it opened and got an emergency appointment. Many tears (from me) and a prescription for Loratidine later we were on the mend. Doc said it was heat rash, Sunday was hot and we went for a long dusty bike ride at Marston Vale (a tale of sore knees and nice cake), and she said it was likely that he was just out in the sun too long.
As much as I like my Doc, I do think she was wrong. The rash was not where clothes had been worn it was where skin was bare and it progressed to cover all his body on Tuesday. The swollen eye was a mystery, but I think the dusty conditions of the bike ride and the high pollen count probably contributed to it, Loratidine did work in soothing the rash and reducing the swelling. I am convinced the harsh sun brought out a non-specific viral rash, he's had them before and will no doubt have them again until he's a little bigger. Munch gets rashes too, Sam gets worryingly high temperatures.

He's better now, esp after a 35p Ikea Ice Cream.

All these following pics are taken pre-illness.
King of the Hill (well Prince of Playground, but a fearful Prince)Asleep in friends car after bike ride - note the shoe in hand and wildly inappropriate car seat for a child his age (my fault not friends).
This is 'dinner refusal but will eat breakfast all day' after the bike ride, photo taken specifically to document the 'non-crust' eating foibles of the smallest child in this house.

I have avoided both the gym and running this week. It's not been a good week and it is continuing to be a very sucky week, Hubby's job is in jeopardy (the reality of working in the house building industry is that we have to ride the waves of recession in a harsh way - he has been made redundant twice in two years).

I am not loving life so much at the moment.

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Not Green Thumb

I enjoy gardening, but not the bit where you are trying to do something (like weed or dig) and you have to keep an eye on:-

  • the 2year old who still has a penchant for putting stuff in his mouth (stones, cat poo that has been missed from the cat poo trawl before kids are let out of garden (he hasn't done this yet but I am waiting, I am sorry this is so disgusting - but I have worse tales to tell))
  • the 2 year old who wants to escape through the wrought iron gate into the outside world.
  • the 5 year old who likes to indiscriminantly dig (nice new plants, shingled bedding etc)
  • the 5 year old who likes to hit tennis balls. Hard. Over the fence. Tennis balls are not cheap.
  • the 9 year old who just wants to sword fight with everything that moves (although he is brilliant at making up complicated games that his younger brother joins in with, not so brilliant at fair minded rules)
granted the 2 older ones are at school during the week, but all that means is that I have to handle Harry Houdini by myself. Preferably under lock and key.

So in the hope that I can both keep the kids under control in my very tiny garden and not let them wreck any work that I do we have engaged someone to come and treat our sorely in need of feeding lawn. Our lawn was nice when we moved in, and then we happened, we have no idea how to keep a lawn - patenetly from the photos - and over the years it has been neglected and then neglected some more. The new chap (Green Thumb) is going to get the lawn all better with chemicals (poor poor environment) and all we do is mow it. We've even been doing that all wrong, we're cutting way to short.
So, armed with hope, luck and chemicals our lawn should improve from it's current state.

To further furnish you with details of our sadly neglected outer space there are some photos of tut central (tut being a work we use for rubbish/debris/not useful stuff).


may 08 garden
Originally uploaded by toniann.

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Just what I was thinking too

I was talking to a friend as we were in my car about giving kids sweets, as in letting your own children eat sweet things in the house.
As luck would have it The Felt Mouse Has voiced my thoughts much more eloquently than I could have in her post here.
When I was a kid my Mum tried to limit sweet things because I was a chubby child (just as I am now a chubby adult with major body issues) and a chubby child just did not fit in with her whole visual take on the world, if you didn't look perfect like on the tv or in the papers then you weren't worth bothering with or you needed fixing. She was always trying to fix me but all she ended up doing by denying me the odd biscuit or sweet was creating a pathological desire in me for sweet things. Like any kid I wanted what I could not have. She loved sweet things herself but was slim, she often had a toasted tea cake instead of a cooked meal, esp if my Dad was working away. She hated cooking and always said that if she could take a pill and not ever have to eat again she'd be happy. I think what she meant was she wanted a food pill so she didn't have to cook. My Dad got so fed up with Mum's refusal to embrace the whole cooking thing that he started cooking the meals himself. Don't get me wrong, she cooked meals but just didn't enjoy it - that kind of pushed through to the dining room and the whole family meal ambience. I love cooking, esp when my kids actually eat the food. I love to see them clear a plate and it's worth the effort, and it is a hell of an effort sometimes. The kids know I love food too, so I hope that they understand the meal process and learn to cook for themselves when they grow up and move out (dear God please let them move out when they get to 25)
You know, I don't really know but I think that the denial/reward thing that went on in my parents house is now so entrenched in my pysche that I cannot dig myself out of it. I still sneak and eat biscuits when no-one is looking yet appear to never eat at all. I skip meals and snack all the bad stuff. 42 years of inappropriate eating is a lot of baggage to shift (in all senses of the word).
So, in conclusion (!) if my kids want a biscuit or a sweet and they haven't had seventymillion packets already that day then I let them have one. They don't associate sweets with anything other than a treat that is not a meal. These kids are worked so hard at school, they work hard at home on homework, they do sports during the week and at weekend and are generally a joy to be around (I type this and they then bicker and scrap til blood it drawn) I find it's a reward to myself letting them have something in moderation.
I have found these past few months referring to my parents parenting techniques quite a lot.....and doing exactly the opposite. So my kids get lots of positive reinforcement, very little expectation as long as they are doing some work, lots of encouragement, they get taken places and I do a lot of research to ensure they get a rounded childhood (i google stuff in other words)and oh yeah they get told 'I Love You' all the time. I was never sure I was loved and I certainly am not now by those parents.

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Flickr Favourites:- Bags


Flickr Favourites:- Bags
Originally uploaded by toniann.

1. Tote, 2. lotta jansdotter bag, 3. Flowing Dots Tote, 4. lotta jansdotter, 5. Vintage blue and yellow bag, 6. patchwork pottery & bag, 7. Tree bag, 8. messenger bag 1, 9. Bag, 10. Wallet, case and coin purse, 11. Bag, coin purse and case, 12. more bags, 13. buckle bag, 14. Diaper Bag, 15. Simple Sewing Tote Bag, 16. Zarah's Hand Sewn Bag


Oh how I love bags.

I flciked through flickr, scouting for some inspiration bag wise. Looks like I am drawn to the muddy autumnal palette of olive green, grey, brown. Maybe that's the practical mum of 3 boys in me.