Amendments

Ok so maybe we're not expecting just four paws, we are actually expecting 8!
I haven't got any pictures of the other kitty yet as Phoebe is to decide which one she likes. But only 8 more days before I bring Marvin home - oh and I must go shopping for some toys, litter tray, food and a leash - yes you heard a leash. Maine Coons exhibit dog-like traits so I'm hoping to get them used to being on a leash so they can get outside in the garden. I was hoping to buy a cat toilet training system to get them to actually use the toilet in the bathroom but the Dude was not having it!

Anyway here are some piccies from this week :

Water Babies

Baby Isla and Tosha (also a babe!)

Burnt looking babes!

Silly Baby

Pause

yep eveything is pretty much on paws or pause at the moment! Sorry about the pun but we will soon be hearing the pitter patter of 4 tiny (well not so tiny) paws in the house again.
Meet Majestic Marvin - he's the one on the right (a Maine Coon) He's 10 weeks old at the moment and isn't he absolutely amazing? Look at those tufts on his ears and big paws.



Purrfect! I'm very happy he's coming to live with us :)

What else have I been up to this week - well went shopping and bought some new bedding, nothing exciting really. Met a friend for some drinks, went for a Thai meal with a friend for her birthday, sent my uni assignment in (at last), went to see the film Anti-Christ - not for the faint hearted and only I could laugh out loud at the end! Moved the dvd player to the bedroom as we don't need it in the living room anymore. Was ill - must be a delicate tummy. Went to a spa afternoon in Northampton, dug the allotment and put the lettuce in and harvested 2 courgettes and a couple of runner beans -mmm they tasted really good. And went out last night with the girls for a cocktail and a boogie!

Oh and I organised the garden shed so all the gardening bits and bob are now in one place, I free cycled some stuff but only managed to give away a plastic bin. I did manage to get some more paving slabs for the allotment shed, still no sign of a garden shed on freecycle though. Kinda really really want one now to save me having to lug spade and gardening tools all the time. So if anyone spots a free one needing a good home let me know!

Right I'm off to finish block 3 of my course tonight and drink lots of tea.
xxx


I'm tired today

and they grow up

Just some snippets of updates : got extension for University assignment - whoop.
Work went well and project completed on time.
Didn't do the midnight walk in Cambridge last night as I felt I'd been out all day doing gardening, and helping a friend so felt guilty I hadn't spent time with the dude. Not that I did spend much time with him as I fell asleep at 9pm on the couch watching National Treasure - doh!
Allotment looking good after all the rain.
Got more DVD's from the lovely Kerry and Disney - thanks for inviting us to London for filming the kids had an ace time and were very happy with the Disney vouchers. Rainforest Cafe - over-rated a little :( Harrods - weird place !

hmmmmm

It's been a busy week, very stressful too. Work is piling up in the office and the days left to test a new release is getting shorter. As you know I don't talk about my work on this blog but I thought it's been so stressful this week that I'd better blog about it. Not only do we have a new release of software to test, fix, and retest hopefully by the 22nd July I also have another assignment to have finished by the 20th and I've only just been able to start reading the Unit book :( That combined with the housework and it's all getting too much - I'd love to take some time off work to do my Uni TMA but I know that it wont be granted, so I'm guessing over the next 10 days I may be working long hours not only in the office but also catching up on uni work.

Could someone please make a day last a couple hours longer?

But some good news is that Lisa and Paul have just had another beautiful baby girl! Not only another home birth, with birthing pool, but a big baby weighing in at 8lb 11.5oz! A big congratulations to them both.

Right I'm off, ciao :)

Annual BBQ

Yes we have one big one (just once a year). This year it was Emily's turn to take photos






more photos here http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k3/chenderson99/BBQ2009/

why-waste

I forgot to mention where I got my brilliant waterbutts from - http://www.why-waste.co.uk/
Tess was absolutely wonderful, gave me some advice and helped put the barrels in the car too. I thoroughly recommend them! Not only recycling material but even if you add the price of adding a tap to the barrel, for less than £4, the whole thing costs about halfof what other DIY stores sell them for. Bargain :)

All fixed now

sorry had problems with the wireless router - after fiddling with it for 3 days it was needing a hard reset. And it worked.

So onto further news - this is the allotment so far - its starting to look a bit wilted today as it was a scorcher again. We gave it a quick watering but I think I seriously need to fill up both water butts and give the plants a serious drink tomorrow evening.

The watering system is in for the first part of the plot and I'll have to make a start on putting the same system in for the other part I've managed to plant. My plan is to take Thursday off and try to get the last batch of seedlings in and have a tidy up and refill the water butts. Oh and to also give Lisa some reflexology :)

Dog central

This week we've managed to watch both Bolt and Beverly Hills Chihuahua . Personally I can't comment on the Chihuahua movie as Phoebe watched it with the babysitter (who seriously thought she was going to dislike it - but found out she enjoyed it!) Whilst Drew and I snuck out to watch Terminator Salvation.

Bolt was quite good but I had exepcted it to be as it had some good reviews.






Blu-ray is the way!

The Garden

All the way from Emily down to the brown mound/hill at the bottom - is our allotment!

and

I saw Gary from Eastenders in Lidl on Saturday :)

So many things to say

but where do I start?
Ok , well here's a brief run down of the things that I haven't had time to blog about.
1) We're sponsoring a little boy in China - courtesy of a wonderful charity called Cocoa - he's called Little Bo and he is such a cutey. Abandoned at 1 month old, probably because he has Downs Syndrome, he was lucky enough to be found and is now being well cared for by foster carers. He's now 14 months old and is doing very well and we are looking forward to hearing more about his progress. Another plus for this is that my company have agreed to match my monthly donations so I'm very happy.

2) We are humming and hawing about whether we should move house or not - it comes down to just a couple of things really - the house we like we really love because it has much bigger rooms, more living space but a tiny garden, when I say tiny I mean no bigger than the area from my back shed to the end of the decking - not much room to swing a cat as they say and they aren't wrong. So either stay where we are and maybe extend into the 2 back sheds - not without a lot of bother because we need a party wall agreement with the numpty who runs the garage as he owns the house next door. OR move somewhere bigger, with a bigger mortgage but a tiny garden, and no annoying twit garage owners. Big house or big garden?!?!?

3) Allotment - finally after 3 years of waiting my friend was informed we'd been successful in getting one just last week - today we went to see it and oh my god it's HUGE, about 2 meters wide and about 100ft long! The only problem is there is no water on site - so we have to lug large containers of water which is not nice as my friend is 6 months pregnant. Today we got started on it and did some territory marking, did a little planning - about where we should maybe put a shed and waterbutts. We then had a good hack at the land to remove some debris of dumped soil (thanks to whoever did that), removed some broken glass , had a dig around to loosen the soil and made a start at planting some tomatoes, courgettes and beans. Emily had great fun and was filthy by the time I got her home.

There are so many plans going round in my head at the moment - so far I've posted 3 messages on freecycle for some help in getting a small shed, some waterbutts and any spare gardening equipment - I reckon we are going to need some netting to help protect some plants as well as maybe some wood to help prevent the slugs attacking by making some raised beds. We had a good look around at some other peoples make shift protection and I was very impressed. The people were so friendly too - when we just arrived the guy from the allotment next to us came over straight away and spoke to us, and another came with some strawberries for Emily - I'm gob smacked by their friendliness and generosity - I think I'm going to like it at the allotment :)

I've been doing some reading up tonight about crop rotations, crops that help with bug defences, along with making plans for types of plants to grow and home composting. It's all interesting stuff.

But now I must go - I'm tired, and it's getting late
x

I am so so so so so tired

My eyelids are already half closed right now. Me and the girls have had a busy weekend - 2 BBQ's on Saturday (the 2nd of which I'm still battered and severely bruised from! adult + alcohol + trampoline with broken safety net = OUCH!), followed by a morning donutting at Bassingbourne ski centre - that itself battered my body a little more as the instructor was intent on spinning me around so fast on my donut shaped rubber ring I thought either my head was going to fall off or that I was going to hurl.

Dinosaurs

Oh I'm annoyed that I left it so late but I went to look for tickets for the "Walking with Dinosaurs" show today - only to find all the good tickets have gone and not even any other shows near us. I would have really loved to have seen it, and I think the kids would have loved it too! It looks really amazing. Worth checking out.

Not much other news to tell really - my friend Rob came round last night and we installed a 500Gb hard drive into the playstation, restored all the data, and installed Play TV - which is another groovy device that enables us to play, pause and record tv. It's pretty neet as even the programme guide is quicker to launch than the inbuilt one in the new tv, in fact out old digi-box which we've had for 5 years was still faster at launching its programme guide than the new tv - technology eh?!

It's also that time of year when I blow up a couple of balloons, cover them (and myself) in glue and try to fashion a beaver shaped pinata for my friends annual Canadian BBQ. Tonight Emily and gave the beaver some fur, teeth and eyes - tomorrow I have to stuff him full of sweets and toys.

Well that's enough for tonight - I'm going to relax now and watch a horror film :)

Exam Over!

Thats M257 (Java in the workplace) finished - whoop whoop! It wasn't that bad an exam (haha I'll probably just scrape a pass). Typical they put some little questions in about stuff that you learn about at the end of the course so you are never really preapred for those type of questions. Stuff like aglets - describe what and aglet is and does, also include an example? Erm I read about it but didn't remember what they actually did. Now I've got lots to catch up on with the Interaction Design course, and an assignment due mid July. No rest for the wicked they say :)

Updated Family Photo

as requested by my mum - an updated photo of me and my family. He he he I'm still chuckling.

Emily and Mia

Favourite Shops

I've been buying some stuff from this website recently and I have to say I'm loving them! Great gift ideas for all - from babies to adults. littlemissmatched.co.uk

Experience Matters: Benefit fraud. We’re closing in…

Experience Matters: Benefit fraud. We’re closing in…

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Sleeping Beauty

We've just put on the Sleeping Beauty blu-ray disc and WOW - I know it's been "remastered" but still it looks like it was made just yesterday and the colours are spectactular! Definately recommend watching this one on blu-ray.
http://www2.disney.co.uk/DisneyDVDs/DVDs/Sleeping_Beauty_Platinum_Edition.jsp

but for my own sleeping "beauty" here is something completely different

And what we've been eating today :) KRISPY KREMES nom nom nom

Flats splats!

it's been annoying this week on my bike - after recovering from another viral infection I decided it would be good for me to get back on my bike and cycle to work. I know people think I'm crazy for cycling on the A428 but to be honest the majority of my ride is on pavements and not the actual road it self - in fact I meaused it and I have 2 sections measuring 2 miles each which are only on the road - the rest is pavement. So for my 9 mile bike to work more than 50% is actually on the pavement. But bearing this in mind that still leaves me with 4 miles on the road and it annoys me that so many people drive past with little regard to how close, how fast and what turbulance they cause that either frightens me or does cause me to swerve or stop.

Another annoying fact is that I keep getting punctures lately - maybe its because the inner tubes are getting old, but I've had about 4 punctures to repair over the past week :(

Anyway kids be careful out there and bike safely
http://talesoftheroad.direct.gov.uk/safer-place-to-cross.php
http://talesoftheroad.direct.gov.uk/cycling-safety.php
http://www.bikeability.org.uk/parents/ask_mum/
http://talesoftheroad.direct.gov.uk/


Use your head! – make sure you are wearing the right size helmet and it is fitted correctly
Be bright, be seen! – wear light, bright reflective clothes and accessories
Size matters! – ensure your child’s feet can touch the floor comfortably (bike is not too big or small)
Bright ideas! – accessorize your bike with lights and reflectors, and ensure they are kept clean.
Safe Place to Ride! – Stay on cycle lanes and get off the bike and walk if the road looks too busy

Blu-ray movies are much better

Well the weather this afternoon wasnt looking so great so I decided to put on a movie (Tinkerbell - Enter the World of Fairies) on the PS3 Blu-ray player to see what its actually like and I have to say I'm well impressed - I even sat through the whole adverts section before the film I was that taken with the quality of the images.

Just now I'm beginning to think I maybe should have bought a wider screen tv than the 32"!

The colours are very impressive - why can't normal tv be this good?

Back from my holidays

I've just found some spare time to quickly blog about my hols -woo hoo. Had a great time but I am exhausted from all the driving and now I feel like I have another chest infection :(

Our holiday started off with us staying at Aunty LoLo's house and meeing her new dog daisy - lovely puppy and I was surprised that Minnow, older dog, had matured and calmed down with the new puppy in the house. We had a nice beer and went off to bed, well we tried to get to bed but Emily hopped in and out of my bed and Phoebes for about an hour before passing out in my bed and thereby pushing me out onto the floot - but hey that was ok I got some sleep. Next morning we drove to Kemnay to stay with Amanda for 3 nights. Amanda's little girl Lana was so cute and friendly she even sat on my knee as soon as I sat down! So after a quick freshen up we popped over to see Alison in Banchory at her in-laws house for a few hours. Later on we drove back to Amanda's house, put the kids to bed and ordered a curry. And a very yummy curry too.

Sunday saw us relax in the park with the kids in the morning and then in the afternoon we drove into Aberdeen to meet up with Wendy and her new baby Charlotte. Charlotte looks so much like her father Craig!

Monday we went shopping in Aberdeen and quickly met up with Wendy and Charlotte again for a quick coffee. And in the afternoon we went to the beach and played on the sand for a little while before heading back to town to meet Adrianna and Sarah for some sushi.

Tuesday I drove to Huntly to meet my grandmother, cousing and my sister. So we had a cup of tea and some biscuits and we also got to meet 2 of Yvonnes latest puppies who I have to say were very well behaved with Emily in the room.

Tuesday afternoon we headed back to Alford and met up with Carol and her latest baby Joseph, we had a nice lunch at the local pub and chatted for hours. Tuesday night we stayed at Adrianna's.

On Wednesday we drove out to Banchory and saw Karen and Pippa, and finally we headed back to Cove, ordered pizza and helped to celebrate Sarah's birthday.

on Thursday we drove down to my parents house and visited my Grandmother in her new nursing home.

And finally on friday we drove, in the heat, back home. Total mileage 1242 miles over 7 days!

Thanks to everyone who let us stay, fed us, and let us use their homes.

Now I've got to get my head back to the study books as my exam is in 17 days :)
x

Photos are here

Coolest things

This has to be the coolest fish I've ever seen - you can see inside its head - no honest look!
Commonly known as the Barreleye fish it has a transparent head. There are some people out there who I wish had a transparent head so I could see what they are thinking.

Some holiday snaps

Chilli-tastic!

Update on the office Garden - the chilli's have started to turn red and to be honest I'm not sure we know what to do with so many of them!Even the Jalapenos have started to turn red

Even the purple suer hot are going red - hot hot hot!
my large family of tomato seedlings - strangely they are doing better in the pots than in the aero garden.
And a photo of my American treats from Chris - thank you Chris!
Whoppers = maltesers. and the boston baked beans ar a little like peanut M&M's

999

Had an exciting bike ride home tonight. On my usual path home I stop where the pavement ends and I have to cross the busy road to make use of that pavement. But tonight I happened to notice a car parked in the lay by with something unusual going on. Whilst waiting to make my way across the road I kept glancing at the occupants of the car and wondered just what was going on as I saw someone thrashing about. I thought about it for a second and then I saw a guy dash from the driver seat round to the passenger seat. So I dashed off to see if there was something wrong and well I was shocked to find a woman having a full blown fit in the car. Her husband was trying to bring her round so I called for an ambulance. Nice to know my phone works! I waited with them till the ambulance came and whilst we were chatting I found out they came from Columbia so we had a brief chat about Bogota (friend who comes from there).

I hope she's feeling better.

Tweeting and Twitter

Just added a gadget to my blog - so I can now tweet from my mobile phone. Handy when I don't want to update my blog using the office pc I can now "text" an update.

Cool :)

Phew!

This week I had 2 TMA's to finish and hand in. I finally got one sent in at midnight on Monday and today's one was sent about 30 minutes ago. But alas it doesn't mean I can take a breather as I've got to do some catch up work, and prepare for my exam on 17th June. After that I play catchup again with my other course but then I can knuckle down and concentrate fully on Interaction Design. With that exam in October, that should give me 230 points towards my Open Degree (which I need 300 points for). The next 60 points are made up of a series of 6 small courses which thankfully don't have exams (big woo hoo there from me). The only thing I have to do is figure out which course I can take for the remaining 10 points and more importantly how much finance my company will give me.

Happy weekend everyone! x

I've just been voodooed

Yep I agree this definately looks like me in the morning. :)

Awwww

It's been a busy week - got 2 TMA's to get finished within the next 7 days and approximately 100 hours worth of reading. Anyway I sat here tonight and got some sewing finished, and just snuck upstairs to tidy away some of my sewing materials. I switched on the bedroom light, walked around the bed to my sewing box, knelt down to put my items in the box, when I thought to myself where was that breathing noise coming from? I turned to look at the bed only to find one fast asleep little cutie. Awwwww. She'd snuck up when I'd been busy using the sewing machine so no-one heard her. :)

games test

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=9d99dd11c9994b1cd956df2962098fcbe04e75f6e8ebb871

Blue Days

Just realised I can plug my laptop into my new TV and play blu-ray DVD's ! High Def here we come - oh hold on we need to buy some blu-ray discs - doh!

Cakes, cuteness and cartoons

Hurrah the new tv is now on the wall ! Not sure if it will stay there long as we are still deciding if it looks ok. May have to buy another wall bracket so it's more flush with the wall. As you can see Emily is really appreciating the new picture.Oh and its HD and I discoverd that the new remote control can also work the old DVD player which is a bonus - now just need to save up and buy another gadget (Xbox 360 or PS3) so I can download films on demand. I like gadgets - ALOT!

Tremendous Tomato!

The tomato seeds were planted about 2 weeks ago and this is the results so far. Our Aerogarden is certainly making all our plants grow quickly.