All done bar the shouting!.....

Well, after all the hectic activity over the last five weeks, the Dixie Pieces contest is finally over! Tuesday night was the deadline for the final LO entries & all that remains is for the points for this week to be added & tallied - to be announced by Sunday night at the latest!! It really is such a close call - I managed to complete that frustrating PP match game - identifying 13 out of 16 correctly (!!) & was lucky enough to win 10 points on the Word Bingo, but who knows where the secret points will go?!!!! It may be all over but the suspense is now killing me!!!

I did learn a new skill during the contest - not scrappy related at all & for those techie types, will sound like no big deal - but I was very pleased to have worked something out for myself! Please don't laugh, but I found the 'Refresh' button on my PC screen!! It was essential during the Word Bingo & I worked it out all by myself!!

And now for something completely different.......those of you with keen eyes may have noticed that the 'weight loss' ticker I had in my sidebar mysteriously disappeared recently! The reason for this was my falling spectacularly off the wagon during the school summer holidays! The trip to Cadbury World really finished me off!!

So, come the 1st September, I returned to my Slimming World group! I was pleasantly surprised to find that my gain over the summer wasn't as bad as I'd thought, and newly motivated I have stuck totally to the plan this past week. I have eaten well, not been hungry & at times like this I wonder why I am not more able to maintain a healthy weight - it really isn't difficult?!! Anyway, yesterday at weigh in I was pleased to discover I had lost 3lbs, so I have added my adjusted weight loss total to my sidebar once again & will update it weekly - I am hoping for a significant loss before the years end - it would be so nice to choose a new Christmas party frock 1 or maybe 2 dress sizes smaller!!!

Another thing I have done this week is wear my pedometer each day to monitor the number of steps I am taking. With the boys school being across town I rely on the car too much, so this week, I have tried to add in some walking over and above!! The first day was 5800 steps - disappointing as the recommended minimum is 10,000, but by Friday I was getting close to 12000!! Result!! Yesterday I found myself with half an hour to spare between school run & SW group - did I call in for coffee at a friends? No, I parked up & did a circuit of a local park!! Now that's got to help in my weight loss quest hasn't it?!!!LOL!!

Which brings me nicely to our Anniversary lunch out on Sunday! We went to a favourite restaurant where the menu caters for all of us - I was able to choose food within my allowances with ease, even having a dessert!! We had such a fun time - lots of silliness & laughter - I do love times together like this!

For once, the boys stayed at the table with us for the entire time, instead of escaping once they'd eaten to play outside. It was nice to talk, undistracted by TV about anything & everything! Of course the conversation did keep veering back to very male orientated subjects, such as
X-Box games & sport, but I've learned to accept that as part of being in a male dominated household!!

The boys filled us in on tales from school - especially interesting as normally when we ask "how was your day" or "What did you do today" we normally get a shrug & "OK" or "y'know - stuff"!!

We talked about plans for Halloween, Bonfire night & Christmas, the boys taking the opportunity to drop hints like house bricks as to what they might like from Santa this year!!!

So another year celebrated & God willing, we'll get to do it again next September 6th!!

So that just leaves me to introduce my new 'toy' - the Vax Rapide upright carpet washer!! This was my impulse purchase a few weeks ago when I went to the DIY store to buy a paintbrush & found the last three of these at a fantastic price - just too good to miss!

Now the boys are back at school I am looking forward to putting it to good use - especially downstairs, where our lovely 'pale jade' carpet looks more like 'dirty & jaded' in several areas! With the house to myself for a good chunk of the day I will be able to move furniture, clean & have it as good as dry & all back in place before school pick up time!! One room at a time of course!!

I am looking forward to seeing the colour of the water when I empty it out as we have been in this house for over 5 years & I am ashamed to say that the carpets have only ever been vacuumed & I do have an old style carpet washer in my under-stair cupboard!! It was always such a palaver to put together that I've never used it here!!

So that's my week so far - tomorrow & Friday I am having a blitz on the boys rooms & ironing the washing I did on Monday (some things never change!!) On Saturday I am at my monthly crop (yay!) so will need to make time to sort out my photo's etc for that!

I will leave you with this weeks WOYWW - a bit of a muddle I'm afraid!! No work in progress & a bit of a dumping ground at the moment!!