My gel pen delivery has just come, so...

I can take me pills and head to bed for an early night now!

Good luck, Hannah!

Hannah has got a test this afternoon... good luck Hannah!  I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers all afternoon!

Pepsi

Steve had a Chinese for his tea yesterday.  Got a free 2 litre bottle of Pepsi with it.

I usually drink Diet Coke but have just stolen Steve's Pepsi, had a slurp of it and it just isn't sweet enough for me, unfortunately!

I'll put up with it 'cos it was a freebie and I'm thirsty though... I've just got a seriously sweet tooth!

Just had a very bubbly bath

and it was a lilac bubble bath instead of a lavendar one for a change.

I've ordered some more shampoo with the shopping that cost 50p for 500ml just to give it a try as an alternative to my usual Avon one!  There's an apple shampoo that I fancy giving a go of too for £1, it'll just take a bit of experimentation to find which one I prefer is all  :-)

Good going by all of us this morning!

Steve went for his assessment and got good news.

Mitzi's Bark Beats box turned up with the post and she was happy to eat the nutritional supplement that came with it straight out of my hand.

I got back into NaNo site after not being able to log in at the weekend.

It's not even midday yet so I hope the positives continue for the rest of the day!

We've got a clever little puppy dog!

It's literally just happened, no-one has trained her to do it, but Mitzi responds to Steve saying "wink" by winking at him!

She's far from reliable with it and it may just be a fluke or something, but Mitzi has taught herself to wink without any prompting from either of us or the Dogs Trust - the clever little girl is just teaching herself!

Awesome old girl... she was 7 years old at the end of June this year and she still makes us proud of her all these years later!

Shopping is coming tonight...

but Marie can't make it so I hope M stays away too!

Having a celebratory tea tonight!

Just finished my sci-fi novella so I'm having a celebratory tea of spinach and ricotta caneloni in 45 minutes time!  Yumsk!

Not meeting up with Chris today after all :-(

I was going to meet up with Chris today, but apparently there aren't any trains and the roads will be chocabloc with Bank Holiday traffic, so it's just me and the pup and Steve today.  It means I can write more of the novella though!

Mitzi isn't in our good books this morning

Mitzi wee'd on me and the cushions this morning without even asking to go out.

Not good.

She's been told off and forgiven, but why did she do it all of a sudden?  I hope she's OK!

Creative day today so I'm going to celebrate!

Written 3k in 3 chapters today so I'm going to have a celebratory shower, drink a J2O while tea's cooking, then celebrate with an early night tonight... I definitely deserve it!

Just had me tea

Two rounds of toast with a thick layer of Nutella on each.

I got Nutella all over my face and hands so Steve decided to take a photo as evidence!  lol

Busy morning!

It's 11.15am and I've already walked and fed Mitzi, given the boxes to someone on Freegle, downloaded my email, done stuff on the forum, answered the phone for Steve 3 times and supported Steve with the Social Services bods about benefits he can claim.

On top of that, Steve's arranged to get a medical certificate for a month for his ESA claim and it's not even lunch time yet!

He's now applying for Council Tax Benefit... we've achieved more this week than we had since Steve lost his job back in March!

The pup was up on the arm of Steve's chair this morning...

Mitzi was laying on the arm and Steve had his legs up so when Steve's carer came it took a good few minutes for Steve to get to the living room door!

Then someone came to pick up the toilet seat frame and I've just seen a text from C about coming over at lunchtime today in the middle of it all too!

It's going to be one of them days!  lol

The pup was a walking machine this morning!

I usually walk Mitzi up and down the road 3 times every morning.

Since Thursday last week she's wanted to come back home after twice.

Not this morning!

This morning we walked up and down seven times and she wanted to keep walking too but my poor legs just wouldn't let me...

The pup has got her energy back!

Yay!

Shopping has been and gone, so...

The shopping has already been and gone, Marie put it away so I'm going to grab another bottle of water, take me pills and head to bed for an early night at last!

Pester you all tomorrow!

Where has the day gone to?!

It feels like only a couple of hours ago that I was taking the pup for her walk but Marie has just come so it's almost 6pm!!

I just hope that the shopping comes nice and early so that I can go to bed early too!  lol

Just clipped her front right nail and...

...she hated every milisecond of it so I'm just going to do one dew claw a day so that she gets used to it, then hopefully I'll be able to do it just once a month or so on my own... I'm guessing the poor pup just isn't used to it and I'm not going to put the poor pup through any more anxiety today.  I love her too much for that!

Less than 5 minutes!

Both the deliveries turned up within literally 5 minutes of each other!

The watch was delivered first, that was the one I ordered yesterday and it was on Prime as well as costing 69% of it's RRP and Mitzi's nail clippers have arrived that I ordered this morning!

WTG to Amazon and Argos!

:-(

Not meeting up with Chris after all today  :-(

2 orders being delivered today!

Bought a watch on Amazon yesterday as my digital watch disappeared soon after I got out of the bath.

Then I also ordered claw trimmers for Mitzi's dew claws this morning that is being delivered between 2pm and 6pm today too!

Assuming both things turn up today, that really is it for spending for another week at least, 'cos I've got less than £100 to keep me going next week!

On her walk this morning, the pup...

On Mitzi's walk this morning, she kept squatting down for a poo, so I brought her back here to give her some privacy in our back yard and so that I could clear it up when it had dried instead of it getting stuck in the prongs of the long handled pooper scooper when I cleared it up out in the street.

We came in and I took her out the back.

The pup looked at me like I was nuts and didn't do anything at all, so we went back on her walk.

She didn't produce anything on the rest of her walk, so maybe it was just a fart she wanted to squeeze out?

The pup has just got back from her grooming

The pup goes to get groomed every quarter and she's just got back again, puffing, panting and just wanting to scratch her bum on the carpet, bless her!

She'll sleep well tonight!  lol

Done it so I can kick back and relax now!

Just put the final full stop in my manuscript which means I've written exactly 40,000 words in 17 days, pretty good going I reckon!

Mitzi was a good girl this morning, until...

Just got back from taking the pup for her walk and she was really good until we got home and she came straight in here with me hanging onto her lead and trying to close the front door!

Grrr!

At last!

Steve's just applied for ESA after the Green Square bods said about it when they came over at lunchtime.

He's only got enough savings left for 6 weeks so he's in trouble if his claims take longer than that to process!

At least he's done it now though!

Achieved even more today and it's not even 11am yet!

Just got back from banking 2 cheques and I made it up to the end of the road, into the car then to the bank and all the way back without falling over!

I also almost banked the cheques without help too and I was shaking so much that even my arms were shaking today.

I managed it all though and I'm so proud of myself!

Achieved quite a bit today!

I realise that this may not be a lot to you, but it's an impressive day for me!

Woke up at 8am
Walked the pup
Fed the pup
Caught up with Masterchef and The Bill
Wrote 2k words
Had lunch
Had a long hot bath
Got dressed
Had tea

I'm about to take me pills, read my emails and FB posts then head to bed.

Almost forgot!

I said last night that I needed to phone the pharmacy to arrange for my prescription to be sorted and delivered.  I've only just remembered though!

Good job I did or I would have run out of me pills before they got delivered!

Oops!

So sleepy!

Soooo tired.

No energy.

Hopefully a mug of coffee will wake me up though!

According to Steve...

I could be a cox because I'm "short and shout a lot".

Thanks then Steve!

Good job I've got a sense of humour!  lol

Getting old!

I'm 38 years old.

I had Juvenile Arthritis as a kid.

I could crack the bones in my fingers.

Now the top left of my kneecap is painful.

I'm only 38!

The shopping

I've just asked Steve to lend me an hundred quid until Tuesday because of the shopping and my direct debits will be coming out on Monday too because it's the 15th.

I've got a Namehog bill coming out at the end of August too and Steve's just said that he thought he was doing the shopping in August for exactly that reason!

Starting in September it'll be fine, August is just an expensive month is all!

My credit report has changed

Just had an email from Equifax to say my credit report has changed.

Thankfully it's got better.

It's poor now but I haven't had a major credit problem for over 2 years or a minor one for over a year, so I'm really proud of myself!  Monday is going to be touch and go because the shopping and bills are coming out on the same day, but I'm paid again on Tuesday so that'll cover the overdrawn part of it and it'll only be for 24 hours!

So tired!

Really do want an early night tonight!

Want Steve to apply for Income Support and ask his dad to take me to the bank to, just like he promised yesterday.

That's the drawers sorted now, thankfully

I unplugged the laptop and pushed the trolley over when Jess had gone and started taking the drawers out, one at a time, to swap them over with my drawers... I didn't give Steve a choice!  lol

There is still Steve's stuff on top of the drawers that I'll bung into a carrier bag for him to sort out whenever he's ready but the stuff is 90% done in this corner now... yay!

I'm hoping we'll...

... sort the drawers out today 'cos other than Jess coming, nothing else is happening and it's the last bit of sorting out we need to do!

Wish me luck!

Popular pup this morning!

Just got back from taking Mitzi for her walk and she met 3 new friends!

The first was the man across the road from us.  He spotted me, said hello, followed Mitzi's lead down to her then said good morning to her.  Her little tail started wagging and didn't stop.

Next up, someone walked up the road from the alleyway, said good morning to me and the pup and carried on walking.

Third up was someone parking their car in the street, said good morning to both of us then went into their house.

The pup's bum was wagging the whole time she was out and she's fast asleep on the sofa next to me now, bless her!

Sorted now!

Got the time on my other blog sorted now and it took seconds rather than hours when I found it!

Yesterday I was clicking on the cog button at the top right.

Totally neglected looking on the navigation pane on the left.  Clicked on that, changed the country et voila!  Sorted!

Does anyone know, please...

Does anyone know how to change the time zone on an already set up and used blog please?

My settings say I'm in the right country on my writing blog but a post I made there just now, shows 8 hours behind the time it should be!  :-(

So hot!

Just taken the pup for her stroll and I'm so hot and sweaty now!

At least she's been taken out and she's got her food down for her in the kitchen, so I'm all sorted for a day of writing until the shopping comes tonight!

Yay!

Ginger beer is...

amazing!

I got out of the bath feeling sick, so I got dressed and opened a can of ginger beer.

Half an hour later, I'm fine again!

Ginger beer works better and is safer than prescription anti-emetics!

4k words to write today, then...

I'm back on track!

Yay!

4k words is 2 chapters, so if I can get an early start on it, I'll be back on track by the time I get to bed tonight.

That went better than I was expecting!

Marie and her mum came over to "encourage" me an' 'im to tidy up in here a bit now that I'm using the sofa instead of the pouffe. 

Steve spent 2.5 hours clearing one side of the sofa and I spent 3 hours sorting out the other side.

I'm feeling sick and exhausted now and if it even approaches getting messy in here again, I'm going to ask the in-laws for help again while looking for my own little bungalow so that Marie can see what it's like in here and how much I do to help Steve, even though he's my carer, not the other way around!

Today *sigh*

The in-laws are supposed to be coming over again today.

I bet you Steve will be sat in his chair all day and I'll be the one helping to tidy up the house.  Again.  My legs are killing me, I'm wiped out and suicidal but I can guarantee that I'll be the one helping out while Steve's fast asleep.

This is the last time.  If it happens again I'm looking for a bungalow of my own and moving out for a while, just so that his family can see how much I do around the house!

I have, officially, given up.

Steve's chair arrived yesterday, so...

I'm now on the sofa with an overbed table for my laptop and the rest of the living room and most of the hall and Kitchen now has Steve's stuff, sod me eh?  :-(

Insomnia and psychosis

Didn't take my pills last night and was still awake at 2am then woke up at 8am and I'm starting to get psychotic again, so I'm going to take my pills and head to bed at 4pm this afternoon to try and get back some of the sleep I missed out on overnight.

I've got huge black circles under my eyes and the AP must have been running out by the time I went to bed so I've definitely got to take the AP and AD tonight!

Steve's filling in the PIP form at last!

I just hope he gets awarded the PIP and hopefully he'll apply for Income Support too.

He certainly deserves to get it after all the long hours he's put in since he left school!

My regular readers are back! Yay!

My two regular readers are back reading my blog again!  Yay!

Thank you, whoever you are!

The kerbside recycling has just been and...

while it's not a pleasant job by any means, they still have enough time to smile at me and put the waste food caddy and lid in the box and hand it to me with a smile.  They didn't have to, but they did!

Just found a much better value food for the pup!

We're currently paying £12 for 1.5kg.

The place I've found has 6kg for £27!

That's quadruple the amount of food for just over half the price!

I'm thinking we'll be going there from now on and just get Mitzi checked at the vet until she can come off the food!

Marie is feeling yucky, so...

she's not coming over to help with the shopping or changing the light bulb tonight... I hope she's OK and recovers soon from whatever is making her ill!