Stick and Stones...

a friend sent me this link, could turn out very handy if you want to call someone names
http://www.cheezus.com/mean/index.cfm

My personal favourite is "pea-skulled hosedemon "

Quiet Tuesday

Busy weekend! First of all Drew's mum arrived on Friday evening, I think the car journey from the airport to here took longer than her flight! A nice Chinese was ordered for dinner and we all ate heartily. On Saturday I took Phoebe and her friend to the cinema (cheap seats £1!!!). When we got back we caught Drew, Do and Emily heading out to the coffee shop so we tagged along and have a lovely decaff-cappuccino and a stroll round town. Later on Drew and I were given an evening pass - so we headed out to our local curry house, where we had a wonderful meal some beer and no chat relating to babies! We then did a small pub crawl around town and ended up in The Old Sun before being kicked out at 1.30am. This was probably our second night together out in 4 months and we both thoroughly enjoyed it - Thanks for babysitting Do!


Emily trying her best to out stare the camera!
On Sunday we had a leisurely morning (well I say leisurely but I think I did 3 loads of washing and drying, cleaned out a cat litter tray and helped Phoebe clean out the rabbit), then we sauntered off to the pub for a Sunday roast and took an easy stroll home to rest!

Fearless

Today's Fact: Honey Badgers are the most fearless creatures known. They can lock their jaws, and have been known to kill elephants and other large animals. Well that concludes today's lesson. Class dismissed.

Share your secrets

Ever wanted to tell everyone your secret but were afraid? Well now you can - send in a postcard (address supplied on the site) and they will publish your little dirty sorded deed!
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Good Souls

I wanted to share this picture with you all. I received this clip from a newspaper in an email I got from a friend. It not only touches my heart that someone would hold a child all night to give her some comfort after such a horrendous experience, but it also shows that even though there are some horrible things that happen there are some angels that bring some light and goodness.

The caption at the bottoms reads "Air Force Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt, of the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group at Balad, Iraq, cradles a young girl as they both sleep in the hospital. The girl's entire family was executed by insurgents; the killers shot her in the head as well. The girl received treatment at the U.S. Military hospital in Balad, but cries and moans often. According to nurses at the facility Gebhardt is the only one who can calm down the girl, so he has spent the last several nights holding her while they both sleep in a chair."
You can read some more about this story http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/gebhardt.asp

Nee-Nah!

Yesterday Emily and I took Jack and Lisa to visit the fire station in Cambridge. I thought Jack would go a little bit nuts when he saw a real fire truck but he went very very quiet. Drew explained a lot of kids get a bit quiet when they see a real truck. But we managed to persuade him to take a look in side, sit in the front seat and look at some of the equipment. In all I think he had a good time, but I think the toy puppy he got may have been the highlight of the day! chuckle




Anyway I was having a look at a new blog I found called Turquoise http://www.turquoise.me.uk/ and I was quite pleased to find this link to a green cleaning guide. I may no longer need all those bottles of chemicals and it will probably save a little money too. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,1994096,00.html. I won't be ditching the hoover or all my cleaning products immediately but I shall be giving some of these ideas a go.

Baby Slings

I've just been looking at some fab ideas for carrying your baby - check these guys out http://www.babaslings.co.uk

Updating

Once again I decided to change the look of my blog - I prefer this one but found it difficult to edit the html code for my own liking, I didn't like the narrowness of the blog. Anyway I shall persevere with this one and read up on html sometime soon.

Spring Clean

Yep as you can see I've decided to update the look of my blog to a nice spring green colour. I have to admit I was getting a bit sick of the pink.

New Camera - New Piccies!

What a handsome pussy!?

Emily's Bedroom - very Russian Velvet!
Sucka!
Look into the eyes.

Make you laugh

£1 off Listerine?

http://www.listerinepromotions.co.uk/SendToFriend.aspx

The Postman Always...

Visits when you are out!

It's true. Yesterday I eagerly awaited the delivery of our new digital camera (Canon A710IS). I'd spent weeks looking at reviews of cameras and asked my friends at work for their opinions(JamesB and MattH thanks guys). I finally then tracked down a super deal of the camera plus a 2 GB SD card, rechargeable batteries and charger and a camera case. Oh what a let down it was as the company I ordered it from was out of stock. So I had to play the waiting game. I checked every week for an update on the order, first the order didn't arrive, then it was delayed - at this point I was about to look for another supplier on the Internet when I got an email to say my order had been shipped via Next Day Delivery. Whoop Whoop. I was going to arrive on Tuesday. So we sat in waiting and it was about 2.30 pm when we got fed up and decided to go for a walk when I turned to Drew and said jokingly "Bet you the camera arrives when we are out" we laughed, oh how we laughed. We were in the process to start organising ourselves to go out when I happened to notice a delivery van across the road and someone coming straight for our house - hurrah hurrah it was MY delivery at last!

I haven't had much chance to play with the camera yet - but I'm hoping to publish some photos tonight. Yippee!

Return to Work

I made contact with my boss last week to discuss returning to work. Now I never normally discuss work as a rule but returning to work has been praying on my mind this week, I'm worried that I'll loose too much money, not have enough hours to fulfill my contract. I only get one chance per year to request flexi time and I don't want to stuff it up. I also worry about working less hours than everyone else, would I be regarded as part-time if I only work 30 hours a week? Would I be regarded less than a full-time employee?.

There are so many questions and yet I also have to ask would it be ok for Emily to go into Childcare 2 days a week - how will this affect her. Both of us agree we really don't want to have to put her into childcare at all but to loose 2 fifths of my salary is just too much and childcare would certainly work out cheaper. I guess we just have to go with it and see. I no have the tough task of finding childminders who don't mind working to Drews shift patterns, being flexible and also being suitable. Out of the 4 childminders I sought out for Phoebe only 2 were suitable (the other 2 being down right horrible and 1 verging on being abusive). If Shona is reading this could you please come and stay to be our childminder?

Vouchers Galore

Ever wanted to buy something and wanted some discount? Well I found these guys
http://www.vouchercodes.com/

Seems like a pretty good place to start looking for discounts if you have your eye on something to buy.

I've also decided to keep a tally on my savings for this year. I mainly buy items from Ebay as sometimes I can get new items much cheaper than in the shops. I also make an extra bit of money from referral sites such as mutualpoints.com and market research sites like lightspeed. Just thought it would be an interesting experiment.

Wakey Wakey Time

Sorry these pyjama's were just too cute and I had to buy them.

Emily has just been learning to make high pitch screachy noises, though this is sometimes cute it doesn't half scare you when she finds that really high note.

A Big Congratulations!

A huge congratulations to Carol and Craig on the birth of their beautiful daughter. Joshua's sister Georgina was born on Thursday afternoon weighing 6lb 10oz. Everyone is doing well. I can't wait to meet her. :)

H2O

Well the water has receeded, the front street looks completely normal - you would never have known it was flooded. The back garden is almost back to normal. Peter's hutch is now drying out, but we had to throw out his bale of straw. Tonight he will be sleeping in the cat basket. The poor mite he was up to his neck in the water this morning, standing on some bricks we had placed in his run to stop him digging tunnels out again. He's a very lucky bunny.

These are some pictures of the brook that runs down Cambridge Street, you can see it was pretty wet.

Knee Deep in Water

When I woke this morining it seemed like any other day, that was until I opened the front room blinds - cor blimey we're flooding!

Poor Peter rabbit was almost drowned.

after this photo was taken his hutch upturned

Her First Book

Emily enjoys reading her first book with Dad. (Liz and Roger - many thanks for the book tokens, Emily now has 4 books in her collection)

3G-reeeat

Just got my bargain £1 3G Orange sim card from ebay today. Placed it in phone, called orange to arrange transfer of account to new sim etc, and 10 minutes later we are up and running. Hurrah - this means I can now send and receive pictures and video messages on my phone!

Bagpuss - Old Cloth Cat

Murphy was loosing weight again so I decided he should finally go to the vet for his yearly checkup. I have to admit for a 15 year old cat he's doing pretty well, despite the bullying incident which has frightened him off going outside to wee. Murphy had been displaying some odd behaviour of dragging his bum on the floor and I figured his anal glands were blocked and not one for squeezing puss filled spots I decided the vet was the best person to do it. Murphy protested at being put in the cat basket, protested loudly at the vets and protested even louder when he had his temperature taken (even I was a bit upset by this - but it's the only way). He hissed after having a blood sample and boy you should have heard Murphy swear when he was having his glands emptied - yuk!

Turns out my old boy is not doing too well and is beginning to suffer from renal disease. I consulted my friend Becky, who is also vet, on this matter. Her advise was well received and I can't thank her enough for setting my mind at rest about how to treat the problem and alleviate any suffering. So it looks like Murphy will be on a new diet from now on, with the occasional vitamin injection, which he had today and I must say he perked up a heck of alot - wolfing down a packet of his new diet wet food and then having a good helping of some of his new diet dry food. I have to say I've never seen him look so interested in his food.

I know it's not a curable condition but the diet should help sustain him a bit longer and I know that at some point in the future we will have to look at putting my dear kitty to sleep.

I've never contemplated a future without any cats and now I'm facing it for real as Elvis will be heading back to his folks when they return from Oz later this year and then Murphy won't be here too. I know I've sworn that I'll have no more pets after this but I've always loved my kitties and still miss my original cats Johnny (Honk Farty Pants), Timmy and Kitty - they were all taken to kitty heaven when they were young. I honestly can't see me being without a kitty friend roaming the house, eating bugs and sleeping in the sun spots.

Cats rule!

What do I do?

It's 1.30pm, Emily is asleep, Phoebe is out for the day, Drew is at work and there is nothing to do! I'm off to run around *quietly* yelling!



(Emily playing with her doll who is also called Emily!)

By Request

some more photos of Emily - doing what she does best, lying around and posing for cameras.

Respect

I'd just like to mention in my early morning blog today a big Yo Respect to Hamish who died last week. Hamish was Alison and Neils westie dog. He will be sadly missed by those who knew him. A lovely cuddly white bear who used to howl at me like a wolf whenever I was walking up the stairs to Alisons flat.

Hamish - I'll miss you. x

MOT's

Looking back over the last year my body has undergone a radical change. It undertook the nurturing of Emily from conception to birth, endured 4 months of horrendous morning sickness followed by another 5 months of nausea. Also with various aches and pains, sore hips, heartburn, cramps, a damned hot summer, swollen legs and ankles, passing out, blood tests and scans. Culminated by a 4 hour labour, post natal recovery and 8 weeks of broken sleep. Thankfully Emily has been sleeping through the night now for the last 7 weeks - and I hope that continues. I've gone from an 8st runner to a whopping (mumbles something about 2 and a half stone heavier) equalling a large barrel by the end of the pregnancy. Luckily I lost a lot immediately after the birth and have only 7lbs to loose (if I choose). Even though some things still wobble I'm well on the way to regaining my fitness. I've started running again and have joined a local running group, Tae Kwon Do is still on the menu combined with some weight training and bike turbo training at home when I can fit it in. This year I think my body will pass it's MOT.

I was going to add that unlike my body my car didn't pass it's MOT - but I got a surprise today when it did! I think that's the first time in 4 years that the blooming thing has passed an MOT first time.