It is the evening of the day

I sit and watch the children play. Smiling faces I can see, but not for me. I sit and watch as tears go by. ("As tears go by" by the Rolling Stones)

Today is my last day of maternity leave, tomorrow I officially start work. Sad as it makes me, it makes me feel sadder that I will be spending 3 to 4 days of the week away from Emily and I will miss those first new changes in her life. I may miss the first morning she wakes up with her first new tooth. I may miss the day she calls one of us Mama or Dada. I may miss her cuddle whilst feeding her in the afternoon. I may miss the first time she feeds herself with a spoon. I will simply miss her.

Going
Going
Gone!
Hold on what's that flash?
Hey it's Mommy, I'm awake!

Wild Cat

Just got this link from Lisa's blog and quite liked it, try it for youself

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Offsetting

https://energy.money.uk.msn.com/msn/CarbonOffset/

Whilst browsing this morning I found this handy tool to calculate your carbon footprint. Using our electricy and gas payment we calculated that we use 45% less than the national average (this goes down if I switch to a diesel car as they cause more pollutants!). And it worked out that our carbon footprint is 2.4 tonnes per year.

Another thing - its RND at Phoebes school so here are some piccies of the red head babe and her dodgy finger (no it wasn't me - her friend accidentaly shut her finger in the door at school, luckily it wasn't broken just badly bruised, and it took A&E 4 hours to find that out!).

Yawn I'm tired - I was up till 1 am getting rid of this worm , stupid firewall was off when I update some java files, friggin thing rode straight in. Luckily I had Mr H online to give me some pointers and hand at removing the beast. All looks well now, and I know I'll be in bed real early tonight :)

Busy Bee

This is my morning so far, woke up at 6.30 and listened to Emily cooing in her bed. She then fell asleep and I read some chapters in my book. I then got out of bed at 7.20, made lunch for Phoebe, got myself dressed, put on one load of washing, made a cup of tea, made biscuit filling and finished off making custard creams, wiped the couch free of cat hair, ran a virus check on the PC and cleaned it, said good bye to Phoebe. Changed, dressed and fed Emily. Went into town to do the fruit and veg shopping, picked up a can of red hair spray (for Red Nose day at school tomorrow). Checked PC again for viruses, cleaned registry, deleted files. Unpacked shopping, oh and blogged. And it's only 9.30 - who says I'm not a superwoman?

Bargain Booty

Since I'm in a bargain hunting mood this week - please note that if you have Nectar points - that Nectar are having a sale starting on the 17th March - over the following 4 weeks they are having sales on CD/DVD's, Electricals, Wine and then Music!

Feeding Time

Ahhh finger food going down well!

Fashion Shoot

Ok I found some trojans on my pc that were affecting my internet connectivity - hence the lack of blogs. But we are clean and up and running - so I just had to post some photos of Emilys new clothes that I was able to buy at Tesco (and I got some great bargains too!)

Shopping

Emily received a gift card from Alison, so this meant I had a licence to shop (only for clothes for Emily!)

Drew is feeling arty this morning - the above picture was created using the rasterbator.

Early Mornings and Hangovers

It's now almost 9am and I've been awake for 3 hours and I feel a tad rough.
Last night we had a small dinner party and I surprised myself by being able to cook fillet steak to everyones delight. They all loved it! I was surprised as I'm not a fan of red meat - let alone cooking it. But I bought the steak from a reputable local butcher and I have to say that it was the best thing I've tasted in a while and I was so chuffed that I was able to flambe too! I could be another Nigella in the making - but somehow I don't think I could look as saucy as she does in a kitchen ;)

Anyway it was a successful night, lots of laughs and lots of wine and beer were consumed. One thing that sticks in my mind is what my friend thought of me and my internet obsession. Apparantly I'm like a hamster in a wheel!

Audrey - this is for you

Strange things that I do

I've not been up to much over the past few days. Mainly housework, looking after kids and trying not to ruin any more cakes. Yesterday I did a quick tidy up of Phoebes bedroom and noticed her pedometer. So I decided to try it out today for a laugh. I found out that in the morning when I get up and get Emily and sort out Phoebes lunch I do about 300 steps. Then we went to the Market and that was another 3200 steps. I went for a 2.7 mile run and that was another 5600 steps. At the last count I've done 9603 and I've still got the rest of this evening and a Tae Kwon Do class to attend so my little experiment isn't over yet!

Crazy Lady

Crazy Lady Driver was back again today, this time she really astounded me with her parking. She must be at least 2 foot away from the curb and is seriously asking for her car to be wacked. It happened to us yesterday on our way back from Tesco. We had just parked and I hadn't even opened my door when some plonker drove to close and clipped the wing mirror.

I still hate Mondays

Bleeding sewing machine broke today.
The End
:(

Pervs and other such things

I've come to the conclusion that swimming pools are places where perverts prey on anybody. Not only have I been flashed at by a lesbian in an Aberdeen pool changing rooms, I've also been perved on by some pool stalker.

Yesterday I took Emily, Phoebe and her friend to the Parkside Pool in Cambridge. This was going to be Emily's first time in a swimming pool, and also a great chance to let Phoebe and her and mate have some fun larking about in the water. Everything was going well, Emily was enjoying the warm water and the girls had gone off to try the slides. After half an hour I decided Emily had probably had enough so I told the girls I was off to shower and if they needed me I would be at the poolside cafe. I got changed, found a seat beside the pool and started to feed Emily some lunch, when I noticed that one of the lifeguards was staring at me. I didn't think too much to begin with but after 15 minutes every time I looked up to see if I could see the girls I caught this man looking at me. This went on for another 10 minutes, he'd wander off only to return to the same spot and turn to look at us. This also caught the attention of another lady who also had a very young baby and I mouthed to her "is he staring at me", she replied "yes". Slightly uncomfortable now, I finished feeding Emily and held her in my arms till she fell sleep exhausted, and then I got my chance. I saw the pervy guy leave and I took the chance to get one of the other lifeguards to get the manager. I explained what had happened to the manager and that another lady with her baby had seen the guy as well. The manager was nice about it and said he knew who it was and would have a word with him. I felt relieved but I also wanted to now leave the pool but I couldn't see the girls as they must have been in the bigger pool. So i had to wait, finally one of them appeared and I asked them to get showered and come out. Both appeared happy about that (well they had been in there for 2 and a half hours), when next thing I know Phoebe is in pain. I thought she had stubbed her toe on the side but when she came limping over and sat down at the side she showed me an earring sticking out of the bottom of her big tow. Yikes - I got a shock. I was almost in tears as I could understand that that would really hurt. My poor mite was in pain, luckily she let the lifeguard take a quick look and he quickly removed the earring from her foot. We then all got taken through to the first aid room, where lo and behold I met the manager again! Phoebe was brave and let the lifeguard clean the wound and put a plaster on it, whilst I helped fill out the incident form. At this point I really desperately wanted to leave. Finally the girls got dressed and we were about to go when Phoebe realised she had lost her goggles. *!?*&%$!*!?!?! Once again I had to speak to the lifeguards about her missing goggles, just when I thought everything was over, the lifeguard then presumed that another lady in the pool had nicked Phoebes goggles. So we watched her like hawks only to have the manager (again, he must have been sick of us by now) come over and hand over the goggles that had been left in the first aid room. I made a quick exit with a sleepy baby, 1 tired kid and 1 kid barely able to walk.

This is not quite the end of the story - before we got to my car at the fire station Emily decided to sneeze in Phoebes face and throw up a little over my arm as I carried her.

I think all this calls for a big pressie for Mothers day :)

Drink!

The dude and I often have this occasional discussion of who we would like to be in our drinking club. Let me explain , this is just a fantasy club of people (famous or not it doesn't matter as long as the other person knows who you are talking about), that you would like to have in your said drinking club. Now the dude already has a fair amount of people in his drinking club so I thought that I would start my own club.

My list of VIP's would be -

Madonna (even though I think her adoption of the Malawian boy was OTT, I still like her, she's smart, sassy and doesn't take cr*p)

Posh Spice - well you just have to get to know the girl, and she looks like she could do with a drink to loosen up.

Brad Pitt - goes without saying!

Matthew Fox - sweet eye candy :)

Helen Mirren - for her award winning performance in The Queen

Catherine Tate - am I bovvered?

Tosha - She's a yummy mummy, doesn't take cr*p either and has a wicked sense of humour

Lisa - someone who I trust enough to help me deliver my own baby!

(Tosha and Lisa - I still haven't been out with either of you two on the town - so whenever your ready!)

It's not easy being Green

Over the past couple of years we've been slowly getting greener, and I'm not talking about my skin colour. When the council handed out their blue and green bins I thought that this was brilliant. I love recycling. This year Drew worked out how much money and electricity would be saved if we powered everything off that we normally left on standby - I think his calculation came to £12. But not only does this save us money it also saves carbon emissions - being Carbon Neutral is the latest subject in the news. At the moment we only drive to our supermarket once a week, we shop at the farmers market in town on a regular basis (no car needed), and we recycle every available item that I can think of. I've even been lucky enough to have such good friends who have lent me baby items such as clothes, toys, and a cot. Does anyone else have suggestions on reducing carbon emissions or being greener.

Some suggestions here

Petrol

Big news that people are noticing their cars are failing after buying Tesco petrol. Looks like you will be compensated if they find a fault but it's increadingly looking like they will. Fill your car up now - get the compensation :)

Vrrrooom

Drew bought me a new toy yesterday, and it arrived first thing this morning. How about that for fast delivery?

Once I've mastered the art of threading the machine, performing a test run I've got about 8 aprons to make for the Brownies, a baby sling and I'll probably try making a hooter hider. :)

Go swim

Today and tomorrow the Cambridge Fire Brigade will be practicing their rescue skills at Grafham Water. Please feel free to visit, point and laugh :)
Girls - I'll pop along tomorrow and capture some pictures for you to droooool over ;)

Oh blogger

It's been a bad day. First of all I burnt the cakes, then I burnt the steamed vegetables, and now my hotmail doesn't work. I'm going back to bed. Lets hope tomorrow's better.

At least this picture made me smile.

There's a moose loose aboot the rabbits hoose

I haven't told many people this but this strange event occurred last year one day when Phoebe was cleaning out the rabbits hutch. She gave a tremendous scream and said there was a huge spider in the rabbits bed. I dashed down the garden to take a look and there I found the cutest little brown mouse with huge brown eyes. (everyone go awwwwww). I chuckled and told Phoebe it was just a wee moosey hiding in the straw and he obviously liked it as there was plenty of free food from the rabbits dish. Anyway after cleaning the rabbit out we all thought that we would no longer see our dear little moose. But he's amazed us even though the rabbit is cleaned out once a week he never fails to return at some point and make a little bed for himself. So on Saturday when we were cleaning Peter's hutch once again we came across our wee moosey. This time I felt that he was so determined to have a bed in Peter's hutch that we should ought to do something about it and hey presto I had an idea. We had a bird's nesting box that GrandadH had made for Phoebe to put up in the garden a couple of years ago. This was still hanging around in the shed so I thought we could put this inside the rabbit's hutch, with some straw and sawdust inside, then our wee moosey could make a nest for himself and we wouldn't have to disturb him every time we cleaned out the hutch. To enable Mr Mousey to climb into the box we turned the bird's nesting box on its side and then put some straw and sawdust in, voila one mouse nest.

Next time we clean Peter's hutch I'll try to get some photos of our Mr Mousey. :)

IKEA

Great news you are now able to buy Ikea items online

New Shops

I was admiring the change in our local High Street yesterday. The Powerhouse shop shut down about a year ago and work only just started last week on the shop front. This makes us excited you see as there's not that much in town really, ok we have a Dorothy Perkins but there hasn't been much in there to buy, we have a Woolworths, Argos, Waitrose, Somerfield and some other local shops. Then Nero's came to town - a proper coffee shop offering more than just a freeze dried cuppa. Then to top that Marks and Spencers arrived - woo hoo! I have to admit I am a bit partial to some M&S goodies :) So back to the old Powerhouse shop - I was getting excited by the rumours that is was to be anther clothes shop - hmmm I wondered, could we be getting a GAP or Next - well erm no it turns out to be Bonmarche - a clothing shop for, well how can I say this, the 45+ lady. Then I just realised I'm only 8 years away from that age group! Will I be wearing fashion like this? I find it hard to believe, as right now I'm wearing combat trousers and t-shirts from New Look (who's market is mainly the 14-20 year olds). I'm worried I'm mutton dressing as lamb!

That reminds me I've gotta to pick up my order from the butchers.

Ciao amigos

ps I also wanted to say a very Happy Birthday to Jack who was 2 yesterday - he knows how to party and always has the best chocolate cake from http://www.tomscakes.co.uk/.
Any cake left?

Big Baby

Just taken our little bundle to the Health Visitors clinic this morning for her monthly checkup.

She's now a whopping 16lb 12oz! She obviously loves her grub (like her mum!). There are some small signs that she might be teething soonish, as she's had red and dry flaky cheeks along with eating her fingers and lots of drool.

Deputy Dawg

Meet the Dawgs :

this is Minnow (looking coy)
And this is Sula with her best side (Lorna's dawgs)

Just spent the week in the Highlands, visiting lots of relatives such as Unlce Rob (and one messy kid)

Grandad John

This is Loch Meig - just down the road from Grandparents house in Strathconon

I'm back!

Woo hoo a return to normality! We've just spent 7 days in the Highlands visiting relatives and showing off the ever happy little Miss Emily to everyone who will take a look. No honest, we visited a friend of Do's in a home and Emily kept everyone amused with her smiles and boy she smiled for everyone. There was a sea of arms wanting to hold her. Very sweet. I was kept amused by the residents asking at least 5 times how old and what her name was.

Big thanks to everyone who looked after us. Lorna - I'll blog some photos of the diggy dogs tomorrow as I'm too tired today.

Right off to bed - see you all tomorrow :)

Bad mothering

Here I am in front of my pc blogging away whilst I let my 10 year old watch Silent Hill (rated 15) horror movie. Well she did say she didn't find it scary.
So it may be a whole week before I blog again as we are heading up north tomorrow for a week in the Highlands. Not feeling so well at the moment - 3 of us have been suffering from sore throats, coughs and runny noses. Doesn't bode well for the beginnings of a holiday but hey there you go. I suppose it's just this time of year when everybody gets snuffles and coughs so I think we just have to ride it out.

:)

And on the 6th day...

We created a snowperson. (Ps it's the one on the right with the bunny ears)

Pah

can't believe it - 2 inches of snow and everything closes!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Hobbies

Yesterday I bought some wool and a knitting pattern. I haven't done this in years but I've taken up knitting again. Lisa is expecting her 2nd baby and even though the birth is still 4 months away I thought it would be a good time to start and knit something for Beanie (nickname for baby). At least I'll have some spare time to get it done before I head back to work eh?

Tonight at Brownies our new brownie helper told me she had an old sewing machine that she didn't use and she was going to give it to me! Brilliant - as I could now help make some aprons for the brownies (sure would help in keeping the paint off their clothes - anyway that's another story).

Once I have finished some creations I'll post up some photos.

Tired

I know it's been a while since I blogged but honestly I have very little to say at the moment. I've been discussing new working arrangements with work and have negotiated coming back 34 hours a week over a 4 day period (this means I loose very little money and still manage to have a day off every week). Drew and I have also worked out that it would be financially better if we took annual leave off to look after Emily rather than pay a childminder, as we discovered last week that we would end up paying the childminder for 38 days and only actually user her for 18 days till the end of this year. It did seem silly, and rather a waste of money. Drew and I both agree that we would both feel a whole lot better looking after our children rather than handing them over to a childminder, not that I didn't mind the lovely childminder that we found - she was highly qualified and we liked her instantly, it's just with handing over a child this young to someone else just didn't feel right to us. The only drawback is that I get less holidays (well only 2.5 days less) but it also leaves me with just about enough holidays to have a 2 week break with my family. Maybe next year we shall employ a minder.

I've joined a local running club in St Neots last week. I push myself to run with them on Monday nights (because they only run 4 miles on Mondays!). So far I've met a few people, Neil was my running buddy last night and he was lovely. We managed to chat about running, injuries etc, until we ran up a slight incline - then I had to concentrate on breathing as I found it hard. I'm quite pleased to say last nights run was great, and I'm looking forward to next time I can run with them. In the meantime I'm going to have the pleasure of trying a run in the Highlands as we are all heading off for a weeks break in Strathconon.

Well that's it for today!

Prizes

I just thought I'd keep a list of any prizes I win this year too. Anyone who knows me will know that I enter lots of competitions for anything! Last year I won a fab prize of a 3D Scan of Emily - this was a fantastic prize that really meant a lot to us. I hope this year that we will get lucky with another biggish prize.

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. :)