Thursday's Thoughts

It's now about 8:00 pm and wet and cold here. I think Summer is officially over, because it's so cold I put my coat on just to take Kero out in the yard for a pee, and I usually try to avoid wearing my coat.

OK, so, I got up at 7:30 am after not getting to bed until about 4:00 am. Needless to say, by the time I got home from the gym I was exhausted! I've really got to stop doing this to myself, lol!

Oh, and I forgot to say "welcome to my blog AliceKay" when I was on here early hours of this morning. So, I'm saying it now. We're getting quite a nice little blog community with all of us back and forth on each others blogs, aren't we?

There's still no sign of my exam results. So, I called the college but couldn't get an answer. Wasn't surprised though since it doesn't officially open back up for the new school year until next week. I figure I'll try again tomorrow and if not then I'll just wait until Monday when they'll be back open. So, in theory I should have my exam result by Monday evening.

Well, anyway, I think that's about it.

Tori

I think....

I think I've finally found a background I like! LOL!

Tori

Kelly's side of the family

Thought I'd share a photo I had sent to me the other day.

The little boy is my nephew Devin who's now 7 & 1/2 years old. The young girl is my neice, Tamara who will be 13 in October. And standing between them is my sister-in-law Sherry.

There are a couple of other photos of them in my albums.

I also thought I'd post this photo of my mother-in-law Jenifer that she sent me a little while ago.

So, there you go, now you've met people from both sides of the family, lol!

Late post for Wednesday August 30th 2006

I know, I'm late with this, I mean it's early hours of Thursday morning and only now I'm posting Wednesday's blog. Oops. Ah, well, better late than never, eh?

Before I go on, whenever I say 'Today' I mean Wednesday, ok?

Right then...

I woke up feeling really dopey and drugged this morning. It took me forever to do anything. Firstly it took me half an hour just to make and eat a bowl of cereal, then, even though I live like two minutes walk from the bus stop it somehow took me nearly ten minutes to get there. I did catch the bus though... just!

I almost didn't make it to the gym because I was so dopey I decided I'd just go down town and run the errands I wanted to run and then just go home. But, by the time I'd gone to Tesco to pick up my clubcard - which I'd left there the other day, oops - and fetched a couple of other bits I wanted, I was more awake and alert so I did go to the gym after all. Didn't do much because where it had taken me over an hour to run the errands I was short on time. But, at least I made it.

Came home, put some laundry on, washed the dishes then decided I was still tired and wanted a nap. So, I had one. And when I got up Kelly had moved the laundry on for me. Bless him.

Once I managed to wake up properly again - which didn't take nearly as much time as it had this morning - I I made some pies for us for dinner and to freeze for days when I can't be bothered to cook. I've never made a pie from scratch before but figured it couldn't be that hard so I'd give it a go. As it turns out I did a pretty good job it I do say so myself! The pies can't be that bad though, 'cause Kelly was happy to eat them... lol!

By the way, still no exam result!

Tori

Tuesday in town

Well, my head bearly touched the pillow and I was asleep last night. But still, when my alarm went off I really didn't want to get up.

When I did finally get up I had to rush around to get everything done in time. I did it though. I got the laundry on, washed some dishes, walked Kero and still got out at the bus stop in time. Bearing in mind, I had to leave the house about 8:00 am and only finally dragged myself out of bed at 7:30 am. Oops! Oh, well, at least I made it for the bus, eh?

Anyway, after all that I never got to the gym because after figuring out what we both had to do Mam and I agreed that we were pushing it for time so once again we missed the gym. We will get there soon though. Honest, lol!

Went to the bank and got everything sorted out quicker than I expected to, then went with Mam to run some of her errands. When we were done with all the errands we went down to Tescos to do my shopping. We were going to go home by bus but we decided to do it the easier way and call Dad to pick us up.

Got home, put the groceries away - ok, fine, I talked with Kelly while he put them away - then did Sakura's birthday photo shoot. One of the photos is in her birthday post, the other three are in her photo album in my photo albums section.

I cooked Shepherds Pie & Peas for dinner today. Made up all the mince even though there's just two of us, because I figured then I could freeze the extra and it wont be so much work to cook it next time. Had some left over peas to freeze too.

Still no sign of my exam result by the way.

Tori

Sakura's 2nd Birthday

Our little Sakura is 2 years-old today. I can't believe it! Where has the time gone?

We got her a pack of her favourite treats - Whiskers Temptations - for her birthday. And, of course, she had her birthday card.

Too tired to sleep, maybe???

Considering how tired I was you'd think I bearly got in to bed and was asleep, right? WRONG!!! I was still wide awake at 5:00 am this morning having had not even a 2 minute nap all night. I tried to read, thinking that would stop my mind working and I'd fall asleep. Nope, didn't work! In fact, I never got passed the first word because where I was so tired it just didn't make any sense. So, I gave up on that idea and just lay there thinking "if I fall asleep now, I'll get about five hours sleep before Kero is probably going to want out." "But, if I fall asleep now it'll only be four hours and about fifty minutes." And so on! Until my system crashed (I think around 6:00 am) and then Kero was good and never woke me until about 11:00 am when I think he had to go too badly to wait any longer, because I swear he only just made it out the door. Bless him!

Speaking of Kero. He's not too happy with me this evening, because I bathed his cut again today. It looks worse than it is because he keeps biting the scab off every time it forms and then, of course, it bleeds and he licks it and sort of smears the blood all over his butt. Anyway, like I said, I bathed it again today and it is trying to heal. But, it would do a better job if he'd leave it alone.

You know, I'm sure there was a movie I wanted to watch on TV tonight. I can't remember what it was or what channel it was on though. I know it was on about 9:30 pm ish, but that's all I can remember. Too late to try and figure it out now though, because it's now after 10:30 pm, so, even if I figured out what it was, it would be almost over by now. Ah, well, I'm sure it'll be on again soon.

Well, I had better see about saying good night and going to bed, because I've got to be up early enough to walk Kero and get him back home in time to leave the house for the gym at 8:00 am tomorrow, because Kelly doesn't do morning walks and I have to get the earliest bus I can to the gym or I wont have enough time to fit everything I want to do in town in. Especially since I want to go to the bank, and we all know how long I could be stuck in there!

Oh, guess what? This is my 100th post on this page. Just thought you'd like to know that bit of useless information.

Oh, and one more very important thing, which I 'have to' mention....

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY to Kerry's Westie... Sauder Scotty MacDuff Fyfe!!!

Hope you've been spoiled rotten today, Scotty!

Tori

Changes

There have been a few changes to the pages on the site.

Our old photo albums link is now 'Tori's Photo Albums' and there is a new photos link called 'Kelly's Photo Albums' because Kelly now has his own page on Ringo. Also, Kelly has some new posts on his page on this site (click on the 'Kelly's Page' link to check them out).

Man am I tired!!!

I never got on here yesterday. I did plan to, but Carl called right as I was about to and then I spent so much time talking to him I forgot I hadn't blogged. Oops!

Well, anyway, last night I thought I'd call my Sister-In-Law, Sherry, and have a little chat since she and the kids are - as I mentioned the other day when telling you I'd spoken with my neice - in Canada. Anyway, we were on the phone for nearly two hours before we knew it. Oh the phone bill!!! lol! We did have a nice chat though. I called Sherry a little after 1:00 am my time, because of the time difference, and with how long we talked it was around 3:00 am I got off the phone. Of course, that meant it was close to 4:00 am before I got to bed, so, I'm exhausted today.

I tried to get a chance to read today, but it never worked. I've been reading this same book since about 15th July and haven't managed to read more than 3 chapters yet what with one thing and another. It's very annoying! I haven't even had the time to jot down the story and poem ideas that are flying about in my head. Anyone got a spare day I can borrow??? Anyone??? No? Oh, well, was worth a try, eh? lol!

Kelly, Kero and I went out for a walk together this afternoon. We don't do that often. Normally it's just one or the other of us will take him end of story, but today we thought it would be nice if we all went. It was a nice little walk, just a shame I was too tired to really appreciate it.

Kero's cut was healing nicely, but he bit at it and made it bleed and now it's an open wound again. I wish I could get him to realise that though I know it's really itchy, it's going to heal a lot faster if he leaves it alone than if he keeps biting at it. Silly boy.

Wayne came down for a while tonight because he wanted to watch 'Dark Water' on Sky Movies and since my parents don't have sky movies he asked me if he could come down here and I said he could. I kinda watched it with him and it was a pretty good movie. I hadn't thought I'd enjoy it, since I don't usually like the movies Wayne watches, but I did enjoy it. And, yes, I'd watch it again.

Still no sign of my exam result. I've decided I'll give them until Wednesday and if there's still no result then I'll call up and find out what I got that way.

Well, I think that's about it for today.

Tori

Friday

Never got to the gym today because the bus didn't show up. I suppose we could have gone later, but there was so much we wanted to fit in to our day that we - by which I mean my Mam and I - both agreed we really didn't have the time, especially since it would have been over an hour later that we would have gotten to the gym if we'd waited for the next bus. Shame, because I actually felt really ready to go for the first time since we started going, if you know what I mean.

Anyway...

Kero's a bit sore around his tail area. He's got a cut where his tail joins on to his body - I know how it got there but can't prove it - and he keeps biting it and making it bleed. I'm putting some cream on it and I think it soothes it a bit, because for a while after the cream goes on he leaves it alone.

I'm still waiting for my exam result. I'm meant to have gotten it this morning in the post, but it didn't arrive. That's how it goes though, isn't it? The more you want something to arrive, the less likely it is to do so! It's VERY annoying. I don't mind how good or bad I've done - as long as I've passed - I just want to know and get it over with. LOL!

I was playing about on the Kodak web site last night and made me a little slide show, which you might want to take a look at. Don't worry, I set it up so you don't have to join to look. All you need to do is just click on the 'Tori's Kodak Slideshow' link on the side - top right, under the heading 'Other Pages' - and when the photo of Kero loads up, click on 'Play' and the slideshow will play for you.

Spoke to my neice briefly tonight. Don't get to talk to her or my nephew much since they're over in Canada, but anyway... she's 12 and still as sweet as she was when she was 8. I didn't talk with her long because of the cost of the call - and the fact that after a few minutes she goes all shy and stops talking - but I enjoyed talking to her. I miss having them around, since they - they being my neice and nephew - were regular visitors when we were still in Canada.

Well, I'm going to leave it there since I'm tired and want to go to bed.
'Night!

Tori

Stairs & Scenery

I posted this pic for Kerry to see. This is Kero at about 4 & 1/2 months old about to make his first attempt at the stairs. I never got to take a pic of him on going down the stairs though, because just after I snapped this he fell and after that wouldn't try again for quite some time (as I told you on your blog). Anyway, just thought I'd share the photo with you.

Right, back to today...

I went to the gym today. Haven't been in about a week for one reason or another, so, it was about time I got to the gym. Didn't go swimming though, because we're not doing much swimming at the moment since the pool that we use has a 'free swim for kids' thing on every day until school starts back in September and everyone seems to be taking advantage of it and the pool is always so packed with kids that you can't swim more than a few inches without having to stop.

Went out with my Mam and Dad to take some scenery photos this evening. It was a nice little outing. A bit cold though. I did get some decent pics though. They're in my photo album if you want to look.

Tori

Chance's 1st Birthday

Today is our little Chance man's 1st birthday. We got him two little mice on strings to attatch to the scratch post since Chance loves to play with the toys on the scratch post. He seems pleased with his new toys. We gave him - and Kero and the other cats - some ham too, and they all loved it. They keep asking for more. lol!

Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun.... Pick one!!!

Well, what do you know, another day where the weather doesn't know what it wants to do. Rain one minute and beautiful sunshine the next. Sheesh!

Kero and I went for a nice walk this afternoon during one of the sunny spells. It was a lovely walk. We stopped and talked to my neighbour, Margaret for a while on the way home and Kero got to play with Chicco - her little Shitzu - and Jade - her daughter's Yorkie - which I'm sure he really enjoyed.

Haven't really done much more than that today, but I did make a nice pork dinner for me and Kelly this evening. At least, I enjoyed it and Kelly says he did. But, Kelly could just be saying it to keep me quiet... LOL!

Tori

Day out with Mam, Dad and Rachel

Dad got all his photos sorted out and in to his album on the Kodak site, but I think you need to be a member to view his photo album, so, I've snagged my favourites and put them in our photo album with "by Doug Portman" in the descriptions.

One of my favourites was this one of the whole family. Not sure who's who? Don't worry, I'll tell you. From left to right - Back: Wayne, Kelly, Dad, Nan, Carl and Elizabeth. Front: Willow, me, Mam, Rachel and Kero. Just a shame my Grandma couldn't be there too.

Like I said, my favourites of Dad's photos are in my albums, so, if you want to take a look at them, then just go ahead and look in our 'photo albums' section. For now they are the most recently added, but knowing me they wont be for too long. LOL!

Anyway...

I got weighed today and I lost 1 lb. I'm kinda surprised I lost even that 1 lb though, because I was eating junk all weekend.

Went out for the day with Mam, Dad and Rachel as planned. I'd thought Carl was coming but he wasn't. We had a pretty good time. I brought myself a nice Adidas top and some wrist bands - loojk to the left for a photo of one of them - and my Dad brought me two more tops. I also brought a new mug for Kelly and got both of us enough treats from the Cadbury shop to last at least a month. And I had a nice tuna, cress, letuce and mayo baguette for lunch. Oh, and I also got Kero a couple of little teddies that cost me 35p each. After that we did my food shopping and I went home to be with Kelly and Kero.

Wayne went back to our parents' place today instead of tomorrow so he will get to say a proper goodbye to Carl and Rachel, who are going back to Norwich tomorrow morning.

Hmmmm....

I think that's pretty much it. So, I'll say goodnight now.

Tori

Monday Me

Since you didn't get to see a photo of me with the other pics yesterday I thought I'd get you one. Not bad for a photo I took myself, eh?

Anyway, guess what? Another family member has joined the wonderful world of blogs! This time it's one of my brothers (Wayne). He only made his blog like a couple of hours ago, but I think he's pretty pleased about having his own little blog spot. And, by the way, it's the link called 'Wayne's War' if you want to take a look.

We had a beautiful sunny day today. Shame we didn't get it yesterday for the photos, isn't it? That's how it works though. When you want the sun you almost never get it. Still, too much sun would have given problems with the photos anyway, so, I guess in some ways it's good that we never got the sun until today. Only thing is, because pretty much every kid in the area seemed to be playing near our place, Kero and I couldn't be out enjoying it because they wouldn't leave him alone. Poor baby. I mean, he really loves kids, but when about a dozen of them run towards him at once it's a bit too much for him to handle. So, for the most part we've been stuck inside.

That'll have to do for today, because I have an early start in the morning as I'm going out for the day with Mam, Dad, Rachel and I think Carl too.

Tori

Family Photo Shoot

Well, it was dry today, which we hoped would be the case, so, we did the family photo shoot.

I don'thave all the photos - and none of the ones that I've got have me in them - because my Dad did most of the photos with his camera, but here are a few of the ones that I took with my camera.

Before we left, I took a photo of Kero in his bandanna - which he wore for the photo shoot. Well, we were all dressing nice, so, it was only fair that he did too, right?

Here's a photo I took of my brother (Wayne) walking Willow over to us for her photo shoot.

And here's one I took of my brother (Carl) and my Sister-In-Law-To-Be (Rachel) while Dad was adjusting his camera to take their photos.

Here's my Dad (Doug) during his photo shoot.

My Sister (Elizabeth) and Mam (Karen) quite happily posing for the camera.

Like I said, there are more, but most of the rest of the photos my Dad has on his camera. I'm going to add the other few that I have to my photo album, but we'll have to wait for Dad to sort the rest.

Tori

Water, water everywhere

LOL! I knew it wouldn't be long before we had my Dad blogging too! Hehe! Yep, that's right, my Dad's got a blog now too. He does have a proper website too (see the 'Doug's Personal Site' link) but he's now also got his blog which he's using for his photos. Go ahead and take a look... it's the link called 'Gendrill's Photo Spot'.

Anway....

It's been a cold and wet day today and that means we never got to go on our picnic at the park. In fact, it was all I could do to get Kero to go out for a walk. He hates water, bless him. Even with his coat on he didn't want to be outside. Poor baby.

While he was wet anyway I decided to give him a shower. He was such an angel. He HATES water - as I've already mentioned - but he still let me shower him. Reluctantly, of course, but still. So, he's all nice and clean now. I took a photo of him after I showered him. It's the photo at the top of this message.

I hope the weather clears up in time for tomorrow afternoon when we want to take the photos.

Tori

A Newish Video Clip Of Kero

I'ave had this clip on my camera for a while but been waiting until I got the photo albums up to date before I got it off the camera. Anyway, since I've now updated the albums (including the photos that were on the camera) you can finally get to see the clip. So, here you go. Just click on the little picture to watch the clip. And click on the 'Photo Albums' link to check out all of the photos that I've added - both old and new.

Tori

Bad News & A Visitor

Firstly, I have some bad news, which I want to get over with so that we don't have to talk about it any more. My little sister, Elizabeth, lost the baby. As you can guess, she's very upset and so are the rest of us. Anyway, I know it's not something you can just sweep under the rug and forget about, but I'm sure Liz would prefer as little discussion and questioning about it as possible. I wouldn't even have mentioned it if I hadn't mentioned her being pregnant on here already.

OK, so, moving swiftly on...

We have a visitor staying with us. My brother, Wayne, is staying with us for a few nights because Carl and Rachel have Elizabeth's room and she's in Wayne's room (because Wayne's been away) and it makes more sense to send Wayne down here than to move Elizabeth, change the bedding and put Wayne back in his bed. If that makes sense. So, Wayne's sleeping in our spare room until Carl and Rachel go back to Norwich on Wednesday.

That's about it, I think. Oh, except that I finally finished updating the albums so all the photos that are on the PC are in the albums now. Just got to get the new ones off the camera and my phone and put them on. But, at least the albums are up to date now!

Tori

Lazy Thursday

Didn't go to the gym today. I know I was saying only a couple of days ago how I needed to so as to get the weight off and all that, but I decided to have a few days off. Spent the day at home fiddling on the PC and stuff instead. About the only times I went out were to take Kero for various walks and to go to the park with Mam, Rachel, Willow and Kero. Basically, I decided I was having a lazy day and that was that!

By the way, this is another old pic of Kero (taken about the same time as the one I posted yesterday) but I think it's cute so I decided to make it today's photo.

Oh, yeah, finally remembered what I was going to say the other day. I was going to tell you I've got more of Kero's photos (as well as a few others) put in the photo albums. Almost done getting Kero's album up to date. Anyway, after all that fuss, that's all it was. LOL!

Tori

Wednesday

You know, I still can't remember what I was going to say. Hope it wasn't important. LOL!

Anyway...

Went to the gym with Mam, Carl and Rachel again this morning. Didn't go too well for me today though. I had a bad day and just felt like I couldn't do it. Was fine after a while though. Just one of those tough hurdles I've got to get over, I guess. Anyway, Carl and Rachel were doing really good today and I know that Carl at least is enjoying coming to the gym with us while him and Rachel are visiting.

By the way, that's my brother Carl in the photo with Kero. That photo's over a year old now. It was taken at the start of July 2005.

It's Jo's birthday Friday and I went with her to pick up her cake today. Me and Mam ordered the cake for her last week because she doesn't know anywhere that does them as good as Sweetmans does. The cake looks beautiful! But Sweetmans' cakes usually do. And they taste great as well. I don't get to have any of Jo's cake until Friday when she comes for tea at my parents' place though. Man am I looking forward to that cake! LOL!

My Dad got me some pressies today. He got me a chain with one of my birthstones on it (the stone is a Hematite), a pewter triceratops pendant and a little toy triceratops. See, Mam, Dad, Carl and Rachel went to Dan Yr Ogof Caves today and when I found out they were going I was a bit upset that I wasn't going too. I mean, they'd already been to St. Ffagans without me and they are going to the Swansea Museum tomorrow. Anyway, I asked if I could have a triceratops because I always used to get one when they went to the caves and had quite a collection before - wonder what happened to them - anyway, to cut a long story short, to make me feel better about not going, Dad got me some little pressies.

After they left to go to the caves and before Jo took me with her to get the cake, I helped Elizabeth make herself a little blog site. I think she's really pleased with her little site. It's in the links section on here, so, you can take a look if you like.

OK, I think that's everything. Well, that is, appart from the thing I STILL can't remember from yesterday.

Tori