CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

Tonight I had a horrible phone call from my mother. She had just spoken to my godmother Janette. She and Ron have two daughters, both older than me. The eldest, Isabel, lives in Florida with her husband Mannie. 5 months ago they had a beautiful baby daughter. Yesterday morning Isabel went into her daughters room to find she had died in the night. Cot death. There's nothing I can say or do which will make any of this right. There's nothing any of us can do. We still don't know why cot deaths occur. Maybe we'll never know. Personally, I think every case, every child, is different, and you just have to do your best for your children, and hope that what you do is right. Sometimes..... for no known reason..... children pass away. I am not a religious person. I haven't prayed for years - for my own reasons and now is not the time to go into them - but faced with this news I almost wish I did have some faith. Then at lest I could say that their daughter was gone to a bette

WOW! I've made it back too 11 stone! SOOOOO Impressed with me! It's taken a while to shift that 8lb I gained over Christmas, but not as long as it could have taken. I know I'm VERY unlikely to get to my Valentines Challenge of 10 stone 6 by the end of the challenge as that would require an 8lb loss in 2 weeks - and lets face it, that would just not be healthy! But I'm happy with what I have managed. AND I have prooved to myself that I can do the diet with out going to the meetings - which I still feel bad about. But like I said, the eSource keeps me keeping track of everything, and Weight Watchers Challengers gives me all the support and motivation I need to carry on so it looks like I am going to be fine after all. I only have a stone to loose before I get to my goal weight now! I know the last stone is the hardest to shift, but if I keep to my points, keep to my work-out plan, and stick to the water drinking I'm sure I'll get there. In theory next week I will

So the non-celeb won celeb big brother. Good for her. But in all fairness, did anyone who saw the show think for one second that she wouldn't win? Am I the only one who think's this is a little unfair, and that infact Micheal Barrimore was the "true" winner as he was the last celeb in there? I'm not saying that she should not have won.... I have nothing against the girl. But it was painfully obvious that she would win from the get-go. So knowing the out-come, why did all of us who watched carry on watching? TO SEE THEM SUFFER! Well, it's as good a reason as any I suppose, lol! I wish George Galloway had been in until the end. I think he and Pete Burns were great to watch! And I really wanted them to get their come-up-ance. And they didn't. Shame! Have any of you been listening to BBC Radio 1's breakfast show ? Aled (sorry if I've spelt it wrong) has had some cracking interviews! The George Galloway one has to have been my fav so far - I'm looki

I know I'm sad..... I have tried SO hard not to be sucked on they the TV drivel that is Big Brother - and Celebrity Big Brother HAS to be the worst of them all! And yet, tonight is the final eviction night, and while I sit here typing, the TV is firmly on Channel 4. Infact, as I type this Pete Burns has just been evicted (hee hee hee evil scum bag! He reminds me SO much of SB - only with an IQ she lacks!) *sigh* I have been working hard again today. A lovely lady from Avon called me back today. She's coming over to see me on Monday to sort me out selling their stuff online (yes, I know they already have a web site. Please see prev posts) so that set me off building web sites again. All I need now is confirmation from Kitten Fever and Ann Summers and I can launch my new site! And even if they say "no" I can sell the AVON stuff either on line or the old fashioned away, i.e. door to door, lol. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Went to meet Debs at the Greaves again today. It was a

Well the good news was this morning all my mouse traps were void of mice. It looks like it was just the one lone mouse, so I am feeling much happier about that. I've cleared out all my kitchen cupboards today and bleached them all. The poor dishwasher is going non-stop while I make sure all my pots and pans etc are squeeky clean (excuse the pun) before I put them all away again. I've also been brutal with my throwing away of stuff that I don't use. Nobody who bakes as little as I do needs 5 cake tins and 4 bun trays. So I now have 2 cake tins (incase I want to make a sandwich cake) and 1 bun tray. I've saved 1 pie dish, and 1 pizza pan, 1 lasagnia dish and most of my serving dishes as they will get used sometimes. But the amount of junk that was in there just wasn't needed. So I've filled two huge bin bags with stuff to go to the recycling centre, it'snot even worth trying to flog on eBay. And I have also thrown out over 100 chinese take-away boxes. Sure the

http://charliebeth.blogspot.com/2005/11/worrying.html

Do you remember a while ago I thought I had mice in the house? Well, after clearing up there was no more evidence for a while. Until this last week where there has been a LOT of evidence. Tiny poo's in my kitchen cupboards and a shredded crisp packet on the floor with tiny tooth marks in it. I'm gutted! But trotted off into town and bought some mouse traps. I'm ashamed to say that I did not buy humane mouse traps. I bought 3 back-breakers. I don't really want to kill them, but they can't stay, and if I put them outside they'll only come back. Our house backs onto a field and cold little mice will prefer to be in a warm house with a soft cat who wont catch them, than out side where predators lurk in every shadow. So this morning I bated the three traps and set one in each of the three places we have had mouse evidence. At 3pm today I went to check them. And sure enough in trap number 3 is a poor dead little mouse. It's jaws still clamped round the cheap lum

Not been posting much lately because I'm feeling fed up and wrestless. Yes.... I'm back in the "nothing wil entertain me" mood. I can imagine myself as some fabled medivel queen who had her jesters beheaded for not being funny enough..... Also I have had a lot of work on, and being at MM yesterday just screwed my mood up even further. On Monday I had more converstation with the nice people at Ziterdes and have agreed with them to sort out an order so that my poor waiting customer can actually get his stock at long long last! It was hopefully sorted out yesterday but I am still to see the money leave my account. I wont be totally happy until the money ispaid and my customer has his order. One thing that did make me smile though was this last email I got from them: Hi Charlie, Attached please find the Invoice. That’s the amount we would charge you with … waiting for your “o.k.”! ….and …. one question: On the CC detail it says “Miss C. Oakes” …. so you are Miss ??

I had a little jaunt out on Friday. I went to meet Jen in the Bobbin for lunch with baby Adam - poor girl's going crackers sat inside all day and wants to go back to work, but in the meantime a pub lunch with a friend seems to do the trick! I bumped into her just before we reached the pub and we went in together, but no sooner had we opened the door to go in than Mark lept out at us shouting "Araaaaaaaaagh!", lol, he was already in there with Olly so we got some drinks in and went to join them. Olly had just sent in the last of his college work - none completed, but that was because he'd taked on far too many classes and it had got on top of him a bit. He says he only needs 40% though, and he's sure he's got at least that with the amount of work he has done. Mark was on the war path over his benifits which had been canceled all because he hadn't made a phone call to some department or other during Christmas week. Naturally they needed a good drink after

Well, it's coming off. Slowly, but it is coming off. I have desided to stop going to meetings though. The state my business is in at the moment I have to put a little extra time in, and somethings have to stop to make way for more work. Sadly my WW meetings are one of those things. That said though, I'm not stopping the diet. And with Weight Watchers Challengers and the Weight Watchers eSource I have all the help I need to keep motivated (I hope) so I should be fine. I feel bad for letting Cathy and Annie down, but I'm sure they'll understand, and it's not like they can't get some one else to help out if they need too. They know I have a young business to keep going.

Jeez, another Thursday at MM. And what's more, a FULL DAY! 9am till 4.30 anyway. That's way longer than enough! There's more life in a morg than that office these days. No music, no conversation, no nothing! Bossman was in and out, trying to be bubbley and getting a cold reception from both me and J so he eventually gave up and bogged off out. S had to go to the market to help FB out (and was pissed off because a, he had to do it, and b, bossman made D ask him rather than asking him himself. Typical) so D was stuck in the shop all day on his own. Bored out of his skull. I spent the first half of the morning going through the security cameras trying to get a video off the pc's. On the 17th a guy stole a PSP Sound Station from the shop (it shouldn't have even been in the box, and D told bossman that, but as usual, he wouldn't listen) but there's something wrong with the system somewhere and the files get corrupted so they wont play back. Still, the police t

Dad came over yesterday so I didn't get ANY work done. So today I have been catching up, and I figured that since I was behind on the up-dates for my own web site, and as I have just re-designed MM's web site, I might as well re-vamp mine at the same time. Here's the link: www.battle-heaven.co.uk So.... like I said Dad came over yesterday. He came back from his latest trip to France at the weekend with a new car. A 3 year old Toyota Rav 4x4. It is actually very nice, although I'm not sure why my dad needs a 4x4. I know he's moving to the Alps, but he's hardly going to be living at the end of a dirt track, nor is he likely to be taking it off-road for any reason at all. I thought it might be so he could get to some of his more remote fishing spots (considering how much stuff he takes with him, and the fact that Fay's legs are giving her grief now) but apparently not. He's keeping his old VW Golf estate for that..... But that's my dad and cars for you.

Hey I did it again! This is almost becoming a habbit! I went to the gym this morning, did half an hour in the gym with 100 weighted crunches, and some time on the cycle and rower as well as machines to tone up my legs and bum. I also did half an hour in the pool and my hours aqua fit class. I wanted to do an hour in the pool and an hour in the gym, but I ended up loosing an hour trying to buy a new sports bra. One really isn't enough if I'm going to be in the gym 2 - 3 times a week, We just don't go through enough white things to warrant 3 white washes in a week. It seems that if you have breasts larger than DD you are not expected to want to do sports, as no where could I find a 38 G sports bra! Sometimes I can fit into an F cup, but there was nothing over a DD. I haven't been a DD since high school! I ended up buying an F in an "Ultra Firm Minimiser" which is ugly as sin, but I can cram myself into it, and it does the job. I.E. my boobs don't hit me

Well, it took a long time, a lot of swearing, and some stressed out over eating, but it's done. The computers are both working, and are talking to each other and sharing a web connection. What a nightmare though.... It took poor D a week to locate the problem with Yorkie's PC, and then couldn't fix it so had to wipe the drive and start again There was hassle getting a vesion of XP to stick, so D and I have had to use my old PC's XP Pro on it. Home and Pro don't like sharing! Got the PCs to see each other, but they wouldn't share Got them to share for 10 mins, and then they fell out with each other as I was installing some safety programs 5 hours of tinkering didn't fix the problem! Swearing at them didn't fix the problem! Threatening them didn't fix the problem! Although - as so often happens - a nights sleep made everything clearer, and within half an hour of tinkering this morning I have not only get them to talk, but they are now also sharing a

Ever had one of those days? Well I'm having one of those weeks. The oven's not working The Micro Wave is making strange burning smells and I'm SURE I saw a spark in it today so I'm not going to be using that! My PCs are not good - one is still away getting fixed, and today the other one when wibbily. Poorly PC means I have to fix it asap (for work), and it was too late to get to my WI after I got it fixed and did the essential stuff that needed doing My own scales are sooooo old and useless that I have had to get on them 5 times and take an average reading as they said something different every time I got on them! I think I've lost about a pound, but it could be wrong. I could weigh less, I could weigh more. Basically, it's not been good! I'm I'm really glad that it's the weekend and I can start a fresh. I'm starting to eye up a nice little laptop for the business. Not because I'm hacked off with the PCs, I'm not, but I want to be able

Hey! I did it again! I went to the gym! That's twice this week! Aren't I a GOOD GIRL! Hee hee hee! Regardless of the pain I was in for all of Tuesday, and a big chunk of Wednesday I did actually drag myself into the gym proper today and not just the pool. In all fairness, I did slacken off the work load by not using as heavy a selection of weights as I did on Monday. I have to remember that I haven't been for two months, and not only have I not been, I've not being working out at home either and I have gone a little "soft" over that time and need to ease myself back into slowly. This is my fave machine at the moment. I just CANNOT do sit ups, not without buggering up my neck, so I use this: Total Abdominal . It's great for me because it tones up all the bits of me that I am unhappy with, i.e. my belly and my thighs. You sit in it with the shoulder thing over your arms, and your feet under the rollers at the bottom, and pull your upper half down, and lower

So I went to MM today, and sure enough bossman was there. Very impressed that he's actually stuck to this "I will be in" thing. Normally I would never believe him, but there you go. He's still being nice as pie to me - of cause he knows I'll have read his little email by now......... And he's actually given me some proper work to do for the first time in months! I have been given 25 games to sell on our new ebay shop, and a stack of games workshop lord of the rings box sets to shift on auction too. So if you're in the UK, like LOTR, XBox or PS2, have a look here and bid on something! http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZsony-play-penQQhtZ-1 Please! Keep me employed until my business can support me! Lol..... D's still not been able to fix Yorkie's PC. He's still not been able to pin point exactly what's wrong with it yet which is rather worrying as he is one of the few people I trust with the inner working of my mechanical babies! Still, I

Wwwwoooaaaaaa! How strange is this? What do you think guys, should I be a red head, brunette, or stick to blonde?Had a bit of a mess about with eye colour too.I quite like the red hair and green eyes thing myself..... Although I do look slimmer with the long hair. What am I on about? Well, a few of the other people in my weight watchers thing are on about having a full make over once they've lost weight. So I thought I'd have a little look-see and find out if I should have a make-over. Hence this: www.beautyriot.com Have a go, post up your picks, have fun!

So finally today I get the Jan - Mar price list from Games Workshop. To their credit the post date was well before XMas, guess it got held up in the post somewhere, but it's here now. But it's arrival cocked up my whole day. You see I've been waiting for this price list for ages. Normally I get it well before the change over date which gives me time to alter all the pages on my web site before the new prices and lines come out, and before the old end-of-line items finish. Then I can just up-load them to the web on change-over day and it's all done. But today is the 11th Jan, and that means all my Games Workshop pages are 11 days out of date, so getting the price list today meant changing everything TODAY or I run the risk of being in a world of pain business-wise. It means I have - for 11 days now - been offering products which are no longer available, selling some lines at the wrong price, and not selling new lines. It doesn't take someone with a business degree to

How many blogs does one person need to be attached to? Surely I have taken on too many, but media is media, and promotion is promotion, and if it's free then all the better. I just hope I am not infinging blogger rules (I don't think I am - plenty of people advertise on here don't they). I guess it's just because I am so addicted to blogs.... well, the web in general. Lets face it, I build web sites and blogs for a living, I buy and sell on the web for aliving and for fun, most of my games involve the web, any of my hobbies I have away from the computer wind up on the web in the form of a blog or mini web page..... I think I need to get myself away from the damn thing a bit. But I know I wont. I remember as a child, living in the sticks, miles away from my friends, being boared out of my skull! I didn't have a PC until I became a college student, but when Dad brought his home from school during the holidays (in the days before every one had the net) I wou

Got this link from WW Challengers. My Virtual Model . Here's what I came out with - it's pretty good! Although scarry when I think about how big I used to be! Then Now Soon But I've been ever such a good girl today and actually got off my ass and gone to the gym - even though Yorkie is home, which I have always used as an excuse to not go in the past. I got there about 9.30ish this morning all set up for a long gym session followed by a chill out in the sauna. I thought I better check out when the pool was going to re-open, and guess what! It's already open! Hooray! And better still it's open to the public from 10am til 2 pm on a Monday! So I had the chance of a gym session AND a swim. And it gets even better! When I got up stairs to the gym the lady who does the Aqua Fit was on the desk and told me the class would be running today from 11am till 12 noon, and that's it IS one of the classes covered by my membership! So I'm thrilled to bits with this. Did abo

I am in a wreched mood today. I think I might be over tired, or "coming down" from all the sugar I've been eating the last 3 weeks. I'm not in a "pick a fight" mood, or a "cry" mood, I'm in a "nothing will make my happy today so I'm not even going to bother" mood. Ever get like that? There are things I could do; I could call a friend or my mum and have a natter, but I don't have anything interesting to say today. I'd only moan, and I'm on here to stop me moaning to people verbally. I could do some work, but I have no money to play with and therefore no new lines to sort out, so there's not any work to do apart from the books and I need Andrea's help for that. I could paint some miniatures, but I only have one set of Ork sheilds to paint and I don't want to set up my whole kit for 1 hours painting and glueing. I could play Guild Wars, but with just 1 pc it's not as much fun. I could Sim, but I've bee

OK, so it's not brilliant, but it is a loss, and when you consider what I have been eating this week it's acutally pretty damn good! After all, I have not counted ANY points for the last three weeks, and up until yesterday morning I have been eating chocolate EVERY DAY since the day before Christmas Eve.... But that's all gone now. It's all behind me (litteraly, my arse is HUGE today!) and I'm determined to get back on track. I have to keep telling myself "Hey, I lost a pound without my points or work out, imagin how much I'll loose when I do it RIGHT!" I've even started to post on the Cheeky Chicks message board on my WW Challengers web site, which I haven't really bothered to do much before. Look at this lovely responce I got from my WWC team leader! Hi Charlie I have had trouble with the computer so all links and emails have been difficult to send. I am sure I have missed you and you have already gone out on the way to your weigh i