Express yourself meme

So, it's Monday and that means it's time for Express Yourself. Express Yourself is an awesome blog hop that is run by two lovely ladies, whose names I am afraid I can't remember off the top of my head, which will make perfect sense, when you hear my answer for today's question.

If you want to join in with all the lovely bloggers posting for the express yourself meme, or read others post them click here.

I am writing this at the bus stop while waiting for my son to get home from school; but, I promise I will add in pictures and links and such later. If they are here, I obviously did it already, so you can ignore that bit.

It's been a little while since I did an Express Yourself as life has been getting in the way lately; but, I am back and don't intend to go anywhere for a long time to come.

So, to get on with the true purpose of this blog post; today's question or task, unless I really messed up and read it wrong is (imagine drum roll here or perhaps create your own with use of nearby flat surface) name a movie character whose personality is exactly like yours.

Well, I was going to ask a few friends about this and then remembered how they have all told me, on more than one occasion, that I am so Dori. You know, the cute little fish from Finding Nemo, who is incredibly forgetful, very ditzy, somewhat clumsy, but adorably loveable with a very upbeat and happy personality. Hey, if I am gonna be Dori, I gotta emphasise her good points.

I, at times, wish I could claim I was not Dori-esque, but that's hard when I frequently do Dori-esque things. Firstly, my memory is terrible. I am always forgetting where I put things, people's birthdays, oh and what I was doing five minutes ago. I am incredibly accident prone, racking up, I believe, a total of five accidental, but self inflicted injuries, just yesterday. 

Here's one of them....

...from a fight with a karaoke machine that the karaoke machine won.

And lastly, of course, I am incredibly adorable because, well that just goes without saying, hehe.

So, there you go; I'm Dori. Who would you be?

Love and hugs, Joss

P.S The knee picture was already on my phone, so it got to go up straight away, hehe. The rest; however, will have to wait.

Winter's coming

I woke up this morning to rain and wind. Yuck! It seems to be a repeating theme of late and l have already begun to pull my winter clothes out and layer up.

Kye, too, is feeling the cold and has started pulling his hood up over his ears as we wait at the bus stop each morning.

I take pleasure; however, in having had a really pleasant summer this year. Even if it did get a little too hot at times, it was preferable to the long, hard winter to come.

It's hard to believe that once winter was my favourite time of year; when, now, I just long for it to be over. The snow that seems inevitable these days can leave us stranded in our small village as it quickly makes the lanes with their hills impossible to drive through. Flooding in the lanes from the heavy rain of winter also creates its own problems. 

But, by far, the worst thing about winter is the dreaded wood burner...

...my greatest enemy! It hates me and I hate it. The hours I have spent trying to coax this horrible beast to life are unbelievable. Once going, I'll admit it's pleasant, extremely so, but the effort it takes always leaves me longing for the day when I can have a home heated in a simple way that requires just a flick of a switch. 

My husband, infuriatingly, seems to have a knack for getting the beast going that I just don't possess. As a result, we both have very differing opinions about the greatness of a real fire. 

I'll admit I do enjoy the crackling noises and flickering light, as well as the glorious heat that it throws out. I especially love seeing all my dogs and cats curled up together in front of it on a winter's eve; but, still, I wish that it would be a little nicer to me when it comes time to coaxing it into life.

So, here's a question for you. What do you prefer; a real fire or a fake fire, and why? And, if you prefer a real fire, have you actually ever had one and experienced the hell that is trying to force the thing to life? Finally, what do you prefer winter or summer, and why?

Well, it's nearly time to get my son to the school bus. We're laying up, as I type, and praying that the little bit of sun we can see holds until we are both safely back in the warm. 

Wishing you all a cold and wet-free day.

Love and hugs, 

Joss xx

express yourself meme

I am afraid I will not be doing the Express Yourself meme this week, mainly because I honestly haven't got a clue what songs I would pick for either my work in progress or my life.

My life would be full of such a mixture of music that I just wouldn't know where to start and my WIP is at the very early stages, so I just don't have enough of a plot built up right now to even ponder on the kind of music that would represent it. So, as it is late here and I have to be up very early to get my son to school I am going to bow out of this one quietly and hope you all have fun.

Love and hugs,
Joss xx

Celebrate the small stuff.

So another Friday is here and another celebrate the small stuff I have quite a few small things to celebrate this week.

First off, good times:

 I have had some really fun times this week with my family. On Wednesday I went with my husband and son to the local beach at Bude. Where we enjoyed the sunshine and also sat for a while in the car park while Kye worked on getting the hang of riding his new bike and Dan played with his big petrol remote control car. It might not have been all that peaceful but it was indeed good times. Then today my husband surprised me having booked a day off work and we headed out to Boscastle for a lovely full English breakfast. Yummy!!! At the Boscastle farm shop and cafe. It was our first time going there, and it was absolutely amazing. They have all local products and beautiful views while you eat. I am just sad that we didn't go there sooner. Especially given how close it is to our home.

my second celebration is for family laughter, chaos and noise:

There are times when the chaos and noise of a loud family can get a bit much and have you begging for mercy. But the reality is that it's not a bad thing. In fact I think it is something to be celebrated. Nothing makes me smile like watching my boys messing around, laughing and having fun. Dan is such and amazing father and is always playing silly games with our son. So I am very lucky to have a house that is full of noise and fun. I couldn't imagine life without it and I'm not sure I want to :)

third celebration is for Asda home delivery.

Every Friday our food arrives at our door in the hands of a lovely asda man or women, requiring us only to unpack it. Which not only  save's us a trip to a busy supermarket but the stress that goes with it. Okay, so sometimes there are substitutes and sometimes the food that comes isn't quite up to your standards, but they are very good at refunding or redelivering troublesome items and compared to the stress of going to the supermarket, it is a a lot more of a  happy process. So I want to celebrate the easy shopping that Asda home delivery brings.

Cornwall:

I am so so lucky to live in Cornwall it is a beautifully stunning place, with so much to see and do right on our doorstep.
Everyday people fork out months of hard earned and hard saved money to come and visit Cornwall for just a week, while I get to live here on a perminant basis. Now, if that isn't something to celebrate I don't know what is.

my final Celebration for this week is boxes of smarties:

OMG! I love boxes of smarties. I don't know why but smarties always seem to taste better out of  the little boxes with the paper bags of smarties inside. Heaven and I got me some of these this week as my final treat before the dreaded diet begins on Monday.

Well that's my celebrations for the week, what's yours ??

love and hugs Joss xxx

express yourself

Another Monday another express yourself and I am currently doing this with two of my fingers strapped as I had to go and break my little finger the other day grrr.
Any who, I am still managed to touch type pretty well, other than being a little slow on the left side, but it could be worse.

So for those of you who don't know express yourself is a weekly meme (I believe that's the correct term although I've no idea exactly what it means) in which we have to answer a question put forward by co hosts Dani and Jackie. The question today is: What are some questions you get asked again and again?

Well one question that up until recently was the most common, was "Did that hurt?" Referring to my lip piecing. The answer to that if you are interested is no. You just feel a weird kind of tugging feeling. Any who the reason it is one I don't get asked any more is because I recently lost the lip ring. It was kind of a trade off with a friend. You see he hated my lip ring and I hated his napping. So he agreed to stop napping if I lost the lip ring. I figured what the heck we all have to grow up sometime right and surprisingly I'm not missing it all that much. Which I never thought I would say as I swore that thing would be attached to me for life lol.

Other questions I get asked are.

What kind of dog is that?
in Reference to my Blue Merle Border Collie, Ludo.

Is he vicious?
In Reference to this big old goof above, who is the most gentle dog you could ever hope to meet. his name Hooch.

Why? by my son. Needs no explanation I am sure.

Are you always this crazy? answer Yes lol.

Can I have some sweets? also compliments of son.

and finally, What's it like to be a published author? Still haven't quite figured out an answer to this one, other than strange lol.

Well I'm off to bed to dream away till morning.
night night all
love and hugs
Joss xxx

Friday Catch up.

Wow!!! It's already that time again. Well I have had a pretty uneventful week. Mostly it has been spent working, doing some singing with friends and playing a little minecraft.
Well when I say writing, I mean staring at the computer screen and just being completely stuck. Am in a real funk at the moment on my current novel.
I just have this one chapter that refuses to go right and it is driving me bonkers.
Do you ever have chapters or pieces of writing like that? Where you know what you want to do with it, but no matter how you lay it out on the page it just doesn't read right.
I've no plans for the weekend either, so a really uneventful week.
The weather has gone from beautifully sunny to incredibly windy and grim.
Talking of wind. My son's grandmother purchased him a trampoline last Christmas. One of those giant ones with the netting around it. My hubby wasn't best pleased when he heard about it, as he is a window fitter and has frequently had to replace glass that was smashed out when strong winds caught hold of these things.
I can't say I was overly pleased either, as you look out now and all you can see is this thing blocking the view. Well a few months back out worst nightmare happened with this thing. The wind caught it and even though we had it strapped down, threw it across out garden and it smashed into our front porch. Thankfully the way it hit, didn't break the glass, however, when I tried to get out I couldn't as one of the bars had wedged itself under the door handle.
Now. at the time I couldn't get out of the back of the house as my husband had blocked the gateway with one of his motorbikes. Being disabled there was no way I could climb through a window either. My back just wouldn't take it. So I had to ring my husband and then pray he got back before it was too late. As the trampoline was slowly being pulled free from the door and it's next stop was going to be my husbands very expensive Skyline.
My husband got her just in the nick of time grabbing hold of the trampoline just as it slipped out.
That was a close one.
Still we kept the thing strapping it down even more this time and until now we have been lucky. However, tonight, it started to go again. Thankfully being close to the fence we heard it crash against it and hubby was able to run and out and throw some extra weight on the thing.
But now we have a dilemma.
We can see the damage that could be done to our car, windows, or even a neighbours house by this thing and don't want to take chances. Given that it wasn't something we were even happy to have in the first place. We really want to get rid.
Our son has used it maybe 3 times since we had it. Which means it is pretty much a useless item, but what do we say to his Gran and Aunt if we get rid.
Should we offer it back to them first to see if they want it, or just get rid and say we have stored it away for a while?
All I know is the thing is more trouble than it is worth.
So Friday for me ends with a dilemma but hopefully one we will figure out soon.
love and hugs Joss xx
P.S. hope you have a pleasant weekend xx

Celebrate the small stuff

I was really struggling today to think what to do for this. I guess the fact that we are all happy and healthy at the moment is a really good thing to celebrate. The yummy dinner I just ate was pretty good too. haddock in a tomato and herb sauce with chucky veg and mexican rice. Good food is always a good things right :)
The week end Yay!! always something to celebrate.
But other than that I am pretty much pulling a blank today.
To many late nights catching up with me.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
love and hugs Joss.