They got their results yesterday & each got a highly commended (top level) in their cheerleading balloon exam (I think they get a badge or pin with a balloon on)

Kate's comments: "Bright and expressive style with promising control"

Holly's comments: "Good strong rhythm with excellent control. Well done!"

Holly got excellent in all 4 parts of general confidence, posture & deportment, rhythm & timing & potential. Kate got very good for rhythm & timing & excellent in the other 3.

Yay! :)

Still not found Kate's new trainers & it's sports day tomorrow.

Her lunchbox has now vanished & she brought it home yesterday. So annoying!

... my job searching isn't going that well & I've applied for the grand sum of zero jobs in the past few months. I've seen a few that appealed too. I'm hoping that this is job karma & it's because the perfect job is about to be advertised & if I all ready had something lined up, I wouldn't have seen it. Does that make sense?

It's in no way because I'm scared or anything, right? Yeah? You think so? Yeah.

The forceful realisation is that I may be a stay at home mother still in September when Holly starts school. Would that not make me a housewife? I'm unsure. It's not how I see myself. I'm unsure. Really.

Please send vibes for a part-time term-time only job near me. Ok? And actually that I get offered it, that would be rather useful. Not that I'd object in the slightest to working full time, I just love my 3 afternoons (well 2 hours x 3) I currently get to myself & don't want to lose them. Can you blame me? This afternoon, I've typed up the PTFA minutes, read my lj friends entries & watched last night's episode of Wife Swap. I have many more things to do today, but they can be done after I've collected Kate & Holly.

I'm currently reading a book about understanding the pyschology & emotional reasoning behind my disorganisation. I want a decluttered house, I just have zero oomph to achieve it. This should hopefully bring the oomph out. My disorganisation isn't apparent all that much externally, as I'm always on time or early for things, never miss appointments & make dates, write them down & stick to them. It's just the cluttered house, cluttered thoughts & cluttered body that lurk always underneath it all.

And, is it really & truly a brand new Torchwood tonight? I can lust over Captain Jack Harkness & imagine my own life as being a sort of torchwood-y superhero-y wonder woman-y type person? Should I redecorate our entire house as the hub? Though, without all the drippy water & puddles & pterodactyl. He might eat our new hamster. She's called Donna Noble. I'll put a photo up once I un-earth the lead for my mobile phone so I can download the photos I took of her.

Kate wore her crocs to school last week, as complained that both her school shoes & clarks trainers were rubbing her feet & hurting. We didn't have any spare time after school on any of the days to get her feet checked at Clarks in town, but it was so roasting hot anyway, that I wasn't bothered by her wearing crocs.

I took her on Saturday afternoon & she's now a 12.5f, so we bought new half-price trainers in the sale, as she has sports day on thursday. She now has trainers & crocs that fit, nothing else. I'd have bought the lovely looking white & silver sandals as well if I'd been able to afford 2 pairs. Her feet seem to have stretched widthways from an e fitting too, since her last fitting when she was a 12f. It's far easier to buy f width shoes as we had to order e ones in a lot of the time, so that's a bonus. She has no black school shoes, but I shan't worry about that until September.

I must remember to get Holly's feet measured next week to check hers as well. She's mostly wearing crocs anyway, but does have some pale pink leather clarks shoes with cats on the straps. She has no trainers, as I couldn't afford to buy her any at Clarks last time as both their feet grew at the same time & I spent £98 on school shoes & trainers for Kate & the pink shoes for Holly.

Andy collected their M&S school uniform parcels from the sorting office & the both dislike the 3/4 length fitted shirts, saying they are too tight & feel weird. Kate liked the 3 pack of normal long sleeved shirts though. I need to exchange Holly's as she has no shirts, apart from Kate's outgrown short sleeved polo shirts from last year.

Kate also didn't like the jogging bottoms for her PE kit, so I'm returning the matching hoodie too & will look elsewhere. I bought her PE kit from Next last time. Holly wasn't over keen on the tights, claiming they were too long over her tummy, but that's just the way they are & I'm sure the smaller size would be too small on the foot, as these only just fit foot-wise & are aged 5-6 & she's 4.5 with a size 7 foot.

I've written a list of what I still need, but I need school shoes & pumps for both, plus PE kit for Kate & shirts for Holly. She has 2 skirts,(1 outgrown from Kate, 1 new) but will need a dress or trousers or something else too. She'll need more than 2 bottoms.

Kate passed her stage 3 swimming level on Friday, so is very chuffed. She's done very well & has gone up a level in each batch of 10 lessons, though did 2 lots of stage 3 as they changed it all & the old stage 4 is equivalent to the new stage 3 or something confusing like that. She can swim a whole length without stopping now & dive & jump in to the deep end in lots of different ways. She can do crawl, back stroke & breast stroke & is learning butterfly.

She had her ears pierced yesterday too. I regretted it last night when they were red & sore & hurt when I cleaned them. She fell asleep holding my hand. Holly can get hers done when she's 30!!!

Holly is having her bookstart bookcrawl presentation tomorrow & her photo will go on the website, as she's the first child in the country to complete it :)

I've washed my mobile phone :/

Cel forced me to look at the boden sale, by metioning it at least 3 times in lj :p

Holly has the cat pack of 2 nighties, as does Kate (Holly doesn't need anything else, so I stuck to that) Kate also has some denim clam diggers & cherry print shorts, I have a swimming costume as my favourite that I've had for 3 years is wearing thin & Andy has a t-shirt.

Cel even made me sit up last week & order school uniforms in the M&S 3 for 2 offer. I have everything, bar shoes whch I'll do in August. 2 big parcels did come earlier in the week, but I was in the garden & didn't hear the postman ring the bell, so I need to go to the sorting office & collect them.

That made me definiately take note that life will be getting more expensive, as Holly now needs school uniform & once she's 5, she'll be going along to activities. I do keep Kate's outgrown things for Holly, but most of Kate's age 5 school uniform was thrown out as she ruined it. I found 1 polo shirt, 1 skirt & a school logo cardigan. Holly does fit Kate's aged 6 polo shirts from last year (though they are obviously slightly big) so she can wear those too. There are a few summer dresses, so Holly can wear them next summer.

Please send mobile finding vibes as I can't find mine. I've tried ringing it, but it was v low on battery last night, so is probably dead. My sunglasses are also missing, but I've found the empty case. I assume they've been played with & not put back. Annoying, as they are prescription ones.

I helped set up & run the PTFA sunflower treasure hunt yesyerday afternoon. The children had to count how many sunflowers they could find in the playground & playing fields & find letters to make up a word. It was boiling hot & I was doing refreshments & checking answer sheets. Very busy!

Toddler group has been cancelled this morning, though I need to go into town later to buy a birthday present for a 3 year old & take my library books back.

I've persuaded Kate & Holly that they can pass on their outgrown garden toys, so I've just listed the playhouse, little tykes kitchen & frog shaped sandpit in freecyle. I'm sad to see the sandpit & kitchen go, as Kate has had them since she was a baby. They go can to another family & be enjoyed again though :)

Kate's barbie bike is now about 3 years old & getting a bit knackered as it's kept outside. She can only use it with stablisers too, as doesn't have much confidence. I want to take the stabilisers off & get her riding without them as she's asked for a new bike. She can have one for Christmas, as we can't afford to just buy one as & when.

The job I was most excited by (as the school is the closest to our house & Kate's school) seems to have disappeared off the Wakefield council website. It closes tomorrow, should it not still be there? I've sent an e-mail asking about it anyway.

I sold a pair of bikenstocks through my eBay account for my next door neighbour & need to give her the money, less fees. I haven't sold anything for a few years & can't work out where I find the fees listed. Can anyone help me out? Cheers :)

Andy has also bought her old mobile phone off her, as it's better than his, so he now has a Samsung G600 with a 10 mp camera on it.

Holly wants snack time, so no more time for typing.

Cheeky Holly

E-mailed to me over the weekend

"READ CAREFULLY MY BELOVED.

Dear beloved friend. I know that this letter may be a very big surprise to you, I came across your email contact from my personal search and I instructed the doctor here in this hospital to help me email you and I believe that you will be honest to fulfill my final wish before I will die.

I am Mrs. Susan Becknell, from Australia, I am 68 years old, I am deaf and suffering from a long time cancer of the breast, which also affected my brain. From all indication my condition is really deteriorating, and my doctors have courageously advised me that I may not live beyond the next two months; this is because the cancer stage has reached a critical stage. I was brought up in a motherless baby's home, and was married to my late husband for twenty years without a child. My husband and I are true Christians, but quite unfortunately, he died in a fatal motor accident.

Since his death I decided not to re-marry, I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum of $12.8million dollars with a BANK OF AFRICA in Ivory Coast. Presently, this money is still in their custody, and the management just wrote me as the Legitimate beneficiary to come forward to receive the money after keeping it for so long or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf since I can not come over as a result of my illness, or they get it confiscated. Presently, I'm with my laptop in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few months to live.

It is my last wish to see that this money is invested in any organization of your choice and distributed each year among the charity organization, the poor and the motherless baby?s home where I come from. I want your good humanitarian, to also use this money to fund churches, orphanages and widows around. I must let you know that this was a very hard decision, but I had to take a bold step towards this issue because I have no further option. I hope you will help see my last wishes come true. And i want you to please be sure that everything is handle perfect and legitimately.

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the BANK OF AFRICA in Ivory Coast. I will also issue you a letter of authority, which will prove that you are the new beneficiary of my funds. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. Hope to hear from you soonest I have to rest now till i hear from you. Am very tired.

Awaiting your reply

Yours in Christ,
Mrs. Susan Becknell."

Celebrity deaths usually just pass me by as I've usually never heard of them or am busy living my own life & don't have the time to ponder someone I never met or know apart from superficially.

Princess Diana's death affected me, as the whole place came to a standstill on the day she died & it was a shock. I cried for her children.

Farah Fawcett is a celebrity that I admired as a child, as who didn't want to be the blonde one in Charlie's Angels? I barely even noticed the other two.

I loved Michael Jackson's music when I was a teenager. Billie Jean, Thriller & Beat It are fabulous & I wanted to be able to moon dance.

Can't say I think very highly of his past few years, with the cosmetic surgery & dangling the baby out of the hotel window. Or bizarrely covering his children up whenever they went out in public.

It is extremely sad that his vast amounts of money & fame didn't bring him happiness.

Not sure why, but part of it is that I don't go online as much in the summer, as I'm outside whenever possible.

Today has involved:

Going to the park with friends, watching part of Underworld Evolution (too gory for my tastes really) watering the new vegetable patch twice to keep the courgettes happy, examining a garden spider in the bug pot, rounding up all the snails we could find as they've been eating our sunflower plants, making nature notebooks, cheerleading dance class & all the usual day to day busy-ness.

We drove down to St Albans on Sunday to see Andy's family. Both girls threw up on the way down & they then fought & cried on the way back again. Long car journeys aren't much fun, especially as my hayfever is dreadful & I also have a stinky cold & sore throat.

Holly has been under the weather for the past few days & has fallen asleep after nursery the past 2 days. We've not gone to toddler group this morning & have been sorting through Kate's outgrown clothes boxes to see what uniform I have that Holly can wear in September. So far, we've found 1 polo shirt, 1 skirt & a few summer dresses. I think there are 2 cardigans hanging in Holly's wardrobe all ready, as she wears them to nursery sometimes. I have a feeling that Kate wrecked a lot of her uniform in reception, as she is hard on her clothes & they still do a lot of painting etc. I'll be shopping online in the M&S 3 for 2 schoolwear offer & am organising what I need for both girls, so I can combine the offer for both of them. Kate wanted to wear trousers today, as it's very windy & too cold for her summer dresses & 1 aged 7 pair is now far too small for her. Her aged 7 skirts from M&S last year still fit in the waist, but are very short & a bit indecent with socks rather than tights.

It was the schoool summer fayre yesterday & I put about 9 hours work in, initially sorting the donations & folding lots & lots & lots of raffle tickets. Holly helped in the morning too & we sang "I want to fold it, fold it" to make the task less dull. After lunch, it was a bit more folding & then setting up the tables & stalls out in the playground. I was then roped into helping on a stall as someone hadn't turned up. Kate & Holly spent far too much on everything as I wasn't with them to rein them in! Never mind, it's all for a good cause :)

I've been looking each week for the past few months for a local term time only suitable job & there is finally one advertised this week! I'll be applying for that over the weekend, watch this space :)

We've just walked home from the library in the rain, here are 2 Hollyisms from our walk:

Holly: "I need some blutak and a cup, so I could stick it to my head to collect some rain to drink"

and

Holly: "Where does water come from?"
Me: Goes into discussion about clouds, warm air rising hitting cold air, precipitation etc ...
Holly: "Don't be silly mummy, water comes from taps"

Kate & I had a Grand Day Out on Saturday. We caught the train to Meadowhall & attacked M&S, Starbucks, Claire's Accessories, H&M & Primark. I bought a fabulous leather handbag from autograph in M&S with the rest of my birthday money & could have spent a fortune on Kate. The girls range was very trendy, but not tarty. I would have worn some of it myself if I could fit into aged 14 clothes :p

We caught the tram over to Sheffield Arena & squeezed in to watch the show with all our shopping. DJ Talent opened the show, with all the finalists & the darth vader guy in it. I took a few photos on my mobile phone, but they are mostly tiny blurs, lights & that foggy stuff. Susan Boyle was fabulous, she faltered a bit in Memories as she forgot some of the words, but just got back on with it. She had a standing ovation from practically the entire audience.

It was good fun spending the day with Kate :)

On walking to the library this morning, Holly has informed me that I need to have a baby. She needs to be a girl & will be called Daisy Buttercup.

I'm very happy with my 2 children all ready, thank you very much :)

Huge excitement for Holly & I, we've picked our first home-grown veg this morning (photos to follow) We have a few radishes, not that keen on them, so what can I do with them? Can I use the leaves too? Our salad leaves are now huge after our week away, but not sure what they all are, some even have yellow flowers on. First batch of lettuces nearly ready too, I have some small ones & also some tiny seedlings that came up last week (lettuce-wise) My carrots are not doing well & mostly died, will try again.

My laptop is really unwell & was jamming every few seconds all of yesterday. Andy thinks it needs more memory, as it's not really designed to do as much as I use it for. I won't be online as much until that's sorted, though it's running better this morning using IE rather than firefox.

I needed to submit my first CMA for my short course in photography yesterday & the laptop was making it virtually impossible. I'd only covered 5 out of the 20 questions you needed to answer too, so made the decision to put it to one side & complete the course at my leisure, as I'm really, really enjoying it, but should have waited until Holly started school. You live & learn, eh?

This is the first point in my life for several years that I don't have any personal studying going on, so I need to concentrate on getting FLYlady routines up & running properly & decluttering toys & paperwork & general gumph.

The ocado man (as Kate & Holly call the delivery) comes this afty & I've menu planned up until Friday, as we're out for most of the weekend. We're having Jamie Oliver recipes for the next 3 nights of chicken & leek stroganoff, sweet & sour pork & then chicken korma & rice. The korma paste is just a pataks jar, but I will make it all from scratch next time, as I ran out of time to edit the ocado delivery last night. Friday will be chilli con carne in the slo cooker as we don't get home til 6.45 ish from swimming (I'll also put some jacket potatoes in the oven before we go)

Ocado is now doing membership again in the Leeds area, so I'm paying £8.99 a month for unlimited, any time deliveries & will go back to having a weekly delivery again, as the minimum spend is £40, instead of £75. It's very simple to have a regular order of the basics, plus menu plan for 7 days & order that all in. I'll still pop to Asda or Tesco to buy the local weekly paper & look at the special offers & reduced fridge too. I need a leek for tonight, as ocado only had large, expensive bunches & I only wanted one.

Andy had the day off yesterday & plumbed in a new toilet. He didn't take any of the toiletries out of the bathroom though & every single thing is coated in dust :/ I have a dull couple of hours ahead of me to clean, wipe & dust everything this morning *yawn*

4 sleeps til the BGT live tour & Susan Boyle may sing on the Saturday, she's not singing on Friday according to real radio last night. She's one of the main reasons I wanted to go, plus Diversity, so it would be a shame if she's not well enough to perform. Hollie Steele is apparently in it too *blah*

So, back to my original point to this post, please let me know if you have any delicious ways with radishes & salad leaves, cheers :)

For Today...

Outside my window... sunshine, blue skies & white clouds

I am thinking... must write a Things to Do list for today, as there's plenty that needs doing

From the learning rooms... 2.5 weeks behind on my photography course & first assignment due today

I am thankful for... our lovely holiday last week, I'm recharged :)

From the kitchen... porridge, with black cherry jam

I am wearing... 3/4 length jeans, cerise smock top & purple mary jane crocs

I am reading... an easy read chick lit, to ease myself back into the usual routines

I am hoping... to complete my photography assignment this afternoon, when Holly is at nursery

I am creating... lots of laundry to dry

I am praying... for the summer holidays :)

Around the house... need to finish unpacking & today is bathroom cleaning day

One of my favourite things... tea in the sunshine :)

A few plans for the rest of the week...
Monday - collect animals from kennels, photography assignment, collect 2 parcels from sorting office, pay birthday cheques into the bank
Tuesday - ocado delivery, dancing after school
Wednesday - library toddler group, volunteering with year 4, rainbows, explorers
Thursday - Pam's birthday, parent's reading session, volunteering with year 3
Friday - toddler group, dancing, swimming
Saturday - Britain's Got Talent tour, with Kate, day out in Sheffield
Sunday - Day off - phew!

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...