Pukka Peppa Pig

Tosha kindly let me help set up the NCT sale in Waterbeach on Friday night. In return I was able to purchase some clothes and toys for Emily in advance. On Saturday when I showed her the clothes she said no to everything that was nice (designer labels) and wanted to wear - could you guess?

Note she's wearing Peppa Pig wellies and a Peppa Pig top!

I bought some of this crazy crystal stuff in London a few weeks back. You add 3 litres of water to it, wait 3 hours and hey presto it swells up! You can also add some food colouring for extra pazzaz! Makes me really thirsty looking at this picture - i just want to drink some cocktails now :)

How to wind up an 11 year old

Phoebe's birthday is just a mere 2 weeks away and I'm steadily winding her up by leaving cryptic messages on the family calendar. Things such as "whoohoo having fun at 4.30pm" on the 22nd Nov in her calendar section.
I get funny questions like "what are we really doing at 4.30 on the 22nd November? " and I say "oh nothing".

What she doesn't realise is that I've orga... oh hold on she reads this blog ! Muahahahha!!!

I had to fess up about the Maine Coon cats though - even I couldn't keep that one to myself. Oh just remembered I didn't blog that one did I? Ok so Elvis went home to his mum and dads about 2 Sunday's ago. And I felt like we have lost some little personality in the house. So I started taking a look at the options, could we adopt - sadly no! As the CPL wont let us have kitties because we live on a main road - so another reason to move to another house, preferably one that is not on a main road. I looked at the cost of buying a Kitty (though that did make me feel guilty as there are so many kitties out there desperate for home) but then I thought about it and I haven't had the chance to have any kittens for many years as I've always fostered or adopted cats, so I figured I've paid my dues. But then I found the cost of £350-450 for a Maine Coon kitten a bit much and something that we can't really afford just now. But by pure chance one of the breeders I had been speaking to told me she had 2 females she needed to rehome - so bonus I thought, ok not kittens but still Maine Coon cats that I have so desperately wanted to have for many many years. So on the 15th November we are taking a trip out to Ely to be kinda "interviewed" by the owner to see if we are suitable. So I'm feeling really nervous about this as I really really want to have a Maine coon cat and would be more than delighted to have 2!

I will update once we have some more news - in the meantime I gotta get some work done as I have an online lecture tonight!

101 things to do with a pumpkin

First of all you cut its' head off, then you scoop it's guts out

Then you set stick a lit candle in the middle and burn it (muhahahaha)

The witch is Emily's pumpkin and the Cat is Phoebes.

After scooping it innards out we then roast them as a tasty treat.

Then we roasted the tender flesh and turned it into a tasty soup.

We then steamed some flesh and took a blender to it (queue more witch cackling)

and then made a sweet pumpkin pieNot one pie but 2 pies!

And finally baking a batch of cookies from the left over flesh.

Yummy Yummy!

Hi

Yes a small and short blog but I'm busy and on holiday - HA! This week has seen us have our lovely friends Adrianna and Sarah visit (sadly just for 1 whole day and 2 nights) so we tried to pack in as much as possible with a day trip to London. Boy that was a physically demanding day - lugging a buggy around the central tube stations in London was no fun, and with my shoulder in a bad way I was a pretty grumpy pants by Sunday morning as I've not had a decent nights sleep for over 3 months. What also didn't help in a round about kinda way was the physio I had on Friday afternoon was pretty hard core and I REALLY did suffer. She had a go at my stiff jaw too - I was almost in tears it was that bad. But no pain to gain - hmmm? I succummed and decided to try out my stash of cocodamol for some mega pain relief, so one hour after taking it on Sunday evening I was pretty high! Went to bed and slept right through with rolling around in pain once! I enjoyed it so much I took it again last night, but I didn't get quite the same effect :( but maybe that was due to Drew occupying the bed too!
Sunday also saw us transport Elvis back to his folks - I met up with Steve at Scotch Corner for a quick cuppa and exchange. Elvis was an angel during his journey and didn't complain (or make a dirty protest). I got a text about 8 pm that night to say he had arrived safely. So far he's settled in pretty well, hiding under Amanda and Steve's bed and taking to exploring the house when he is feeling braver. I know he will be ok as he's started kissing his mom - I wont be missing his drooling that's for sure, though today I did feel a little unsettled as I thought I heard him meowing, and usually when I go to the summer house to work out he follows me down and sits while I row. So I did miss him a little tonight. But we have some plans in the pipeline to adopt a couple of larger kitties (google Maine Coons!) . I've been wanting one of these cats for years (YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS) and I've been speaking to someone who is looking to re-home 2 females (aged 4 and 5) . I'll update you later in November.

Birthday Bonus

Thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday! I've had a nice weekend, had dinner with some friends and some drinks. And a easy (though still early awakening) morning in bed where Phoebe made me scrambled eggs on toast with a cuppa. We lounged around (as much as Emily would allow) whilst watching Nemo on the laptop. I received a lovely bunch of flowers on Saturday morning, some dosh and a lovely chocolate champagne bottle. Thank you lovely Lisa for my punky-ducky, he's taken one dip in the bath (yes Emily threw him in!), and I havent touched my chocolate bar yet, which is a miracle!

Hurrah M255 exam over

3 hours of pure hard work (for once!) Exam paper not too bad - though there were some tricky questions that haven't been asked in previous papers! And some sneaky wording - ha! But I think I did ok considering. Roll on Decemeber when I should get my results. For now I'm taking a couple of days off work and will be socialising with some friends and other mums and kids. I've also seriously missed exercising for the last 2 weeks so I should be getting my backside back to rowing, running and cycling this week. Along with some celebrations on Saturday night.

Happy Birthday my Happy Smiley Cherub!

More photos can be found here http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k3/chenderson99/emily%202nd%20birthday/

Oh my is that a Firefighter?

Lisa I saw this fabric and thought of you!!!

Some Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisadurbin

Crazy kids

Can't stop

busy finishing last TMA of my course and preparing for a 3 hour exam. Normal service will resume in 5 weeks. Of course Birthday Party photos will be posted on the 21st Sept.

love you all

That's all, you can go now.

no honestly go! I'm too busy!!
:)

sleepy blues

Back from holiday, had a 4 our lecture today and I'm still tired.
Brief Summary - holiday good, lots of alcohol, lots of food, less sleep than normal, wet. Met chickens and pigs, visited a wildlife park, saw a pengiun poop. Laughed, walked, shopped.

Photos here!

Ah yes and the silliest thing we heard was at the wildlife park. In a thick manchester accent "I wonder if there are any vegetarian tigers."

And on the 7th day God (She) made Cakes

and they were good!

Oh and yeah God (he aka the Dude) laid a lawn and we had grass

Someone stole my grass

Friday saw my garden being rotovated. I came home after a nice but damp day out with Tosha and the kids at the Milton Maize Maze to find my garden was now brown.

Some random naughtiness
Phone in one hand and mobile in the other,
More blue butterfly cakes
and a Victoria Sponge

Ice Cream Heaven

Yes it tasted good - but very creamy so I may try to make it again but with alot less cream. Though Phoebe though it was great!

Today Phoebe and I went to the cinema to see Wall-E . Wall-E (short for Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class) is the only one of his kind of robot left on earth after a botched attempt at trying to clean the earth that has been overrun with garbage.

Ok get the message of the film? Then why the hell do idiots still litter the cinema with their popcorn, sweet wrappers and coke cups? feh sometimes the human race I despair of you.

Pressies!

At long last I am now the proud owner of a food processor! I spent my much long saved for Nectar points and just decided last week to spend them on a food processor. A much needed piece of equipment for my itsy bitsy kitchen. Yep I know the dude moaned "where are you going to put it" but I've made space in the tiniest room in the house (aka The Kitchen) and it now sits under the worktop next to the pots and pans - which I also need more of!

In fact I just need a bigger kitchen - NOW!



So here it is... ok it's not the much loved Magimix I was after but it was free and it's also got a juicer and some other extra attachments which means Phoebe can make her own smoothies.

At the moment we are testing out our abilities to make some chocolate cookie and vanilla ice cream - let you know if 3 hours if it tastes nice!

x

Odd Dreams

I had an odd dream last night that I had a miscarriage that looked like a runny egg. Sadly as it turned out this morning it looks like I actually did have a miscarriage. For those of you not in the know I found out I was pregnant last Thursday. Today I woke up and found some blood and in the proceeding hours I had some cramping, not unlike one of those nasty periods I rarely get. So I did another pregnancy test only to find the positive line so much fainter than the first one.

It looks like my little "poppy" aint staying.

Yep I'm bummed but I also know that my body is doing what it needs to do right now for what ever reason it has to. People who know me know I have been through far far worse and so this is just a little set back in our plans to create another beautiful child to cherish and love.

I've already spoken to lots of people today about it and I'm fine really - though I do appreciate peoples concern I think I'm done talking about it.

Some highlights for the week though - I managed to get a staggering 97% for my last TMA - yee haw! I'm amazed - though I think my tutor marked it too high :) I'm such a swot!

Just randomness today

I've been in a better mood today.
Moodiness levels reached an all time low yesterday. It was Wednesday and I was
pissed off severely.
Really didn't want to be in the office at all - nope not one bit!
Everything was just peeing me off big time, only thing that cheered me up was a
giant burger which Chris and I popped out and down the road for.
Now it's not often I get a hankering for something but boy the burger, salad
and relish really hit the spot.
Nice nice nice very nice indeed.
Tehehehehe xxx

ooh Cakes Glorious Cakes

I was told about this fantasic baking accessory shop in St Neots, called Sugar Daddy's, and I think I've discovered heaven! I went in last week and spent a small fortune buying some quality regal icing in red, blue, pink and green, along with some powdery stuff that I had to work into the icing to make it more pliable to mould into shapes. A butterfly cutter and some professional food colouring.

Tonight I used a Nigella fairy cake recipe and I had a go at making some butterfly shapes and wow I'm impressed at how nice these look. But I will be making several other attempts before Emily's birthday as I'd like to use butter icing and some of the food colouring just to see what they could look like.


So yummy looking !

Mighty Mouse Hunter!

Now Elvis I suspected for some time had been keeping the level of mouse activity in our garden to a minimum over the last 2 years, but he surprised us yesterday by appearing through the cat flap with a freshly caught (and thankfully dead or sleepy as Emily liked to call the mouse). I know this was a present and I rewarded him with lots of cuddles and much praising, but I did have to take the poor sleepy mouse outside so Elvis could erm play with it somemore and hopefully dispose of it without us having to watch him.

Pen washes off doesn't it?

Emily in the park having some juice whilst feeding the ducks

For my Children

I had 3 silver rings made to celebrate my children.

Top Kid Top Marks

Phoebe came home with her sats report this week. I still can't get my head around what all the numbers mean but apparantly most kids are at level 4 and she's at level5 (thinks she could be at level 6 but they dont teach that far at the school). So I'm pretty chuffed that she's come out at the top grading. I'm hoping her move to Longsands will give her the educational stimulation I think she really needs. I'm happy the existing classes will be split and I look forward to Phoebe making new friends and flourishing in a different environment.

Other things we are (or not as the case may be) is that I'm going to put a hold on Tae Kwon Do lessons. I feel bad about giving it up but for just now my studies are taking a lot of my free time and I really can't devote what time I really need to dedicate to the sport that it really deserves. I don't give up things easily and I tend not to do things in short measures either, if I want do do something I want to do it well! So this will be our last month. As for the studying (and I know some people are going to scream "Geek" at the top of their voices), but well I am enjoying learning about Object Oriented Programming with Java. Ok I do find it tough and once every 6 weeks I have to complete the dreaded TMA (Tutor Marked Assignment) but I do feel pretty chuffed when my code works and I can either make the damned frogs dance or split Maps into Sets. I can just hear those words slipping from your lips "Nerd!" - I say Ha!

It's been pushing the limits of my patience but it's also been stretching my brain which is a good thing a I haven't done this in a while. And I'm really focussed on getting an Open Degree, I can later attempt more coures to get a named Degree, and then if I feel like pushing that boundary some more then maybe a post-grad course.

What else is new - well about £106 pounds worth of school uniform for one! Yep I popped up to Longsands and spent what seems to be more money in one sitting than I probably spend on clothes for myself in one year. Phoebe now has 5 lovely Longsands polo shorts, 2 fleeces, some shorts, 2 sets of lovely red socks, and 2 red polo shirts. Oh darn and now I've realised that come the end of the summer hols I will have to take her shopping for school trousers, shoes, stationary and pens/pencils along with a calculator and some maths equipment - yikes!

Right I'm going to get back to my TMA and try to figure out how to return the values of a Map depending on the top value in the set.

Ciao

Another one!

so I spent 30 mins this morning typing a blog when Emily came along pressed one button and deleted the whole freaking lot - Sheesh! I'm already in a bad mood.

Hoorah for Canada

On Sunday we were invited to Lisa, Paul, Jack and Mia's BBQ to celebrate Canada Day. We had a lovely time, but I think the kids had a blast - check this lot out...

Emily giving us a big "watz up"(either that or she is auditioning for Kiss)

A very serious Lois, maybe this wasn't the car for her
Naomi smacking the beaver

Phoebe with beaver butt on her head (what can I say she's wacky!)

Beaver about to get a beating

I think the beaver has seen better days

We all had a thoroughly good time, and Martha oops sorry Lisa made some seriously good cakes! must get those recipes from you some time?

The Wedding - The full story

I've caught up on some sleep - not all though!
We left very early Saturday morning and got our flight to Pisa. Arriving at Pisa at about 11:30, we had to wait an hour before we could get our luggage from the plane in a hot and stuffy no-air-conditioned baggage area. Finally after getting luggage and meeting fellow friends also attending the wedding we jumped on a train to Firenze (Florence). It's amazing that for a 90 minute journey it only cost us about £3! Though hot and we must have stopped at every small village along the way we got to see some of the countryside.
Jumping into a taxi we stopped off at another hotel and had some beer and snacks before Drew and I jumped into another taxi and headed to the Villa Poggio. (our bedroom is room 4). Had a quick shower in the large bathroom, and then headed for some dinner with the other wedding party guests. Feasting on fresh local food we drank champagne and laughed, drank some more and then the Groom went off to bed. Most people slunk off to bed to leave us (Amber, Olli, Drew, Dani and I) to slope off to the pool for some skinny dipping! I'm glad to say we were well behaved and managed to get to bed for 11pm.

In the morning we had some lovely and much needed cappuccinos, freshly made bread and scrambled eggs. We then had another dip in the pool and then headed down to a local restaurant with the other male guests (ladies were off to get hair and nails done). We then headed back to the villa and we all started to get ready for the big event itself.

After getting ready and meeting up with the other guests, we sat in the heat and humidity and watched as Danni and Matt made their vows, exchanged rings and walked down the aisle as husband and wife.

The wedding meal was lovely too, 4 courses followed by the wedding cake that was made there and then in front of the guests! Amazing to see this cake being slowly made - first a large biscuit wafer was placed on a table and then cream was piped around the edge and then the chef filled in the middle with more cream, topped with strawberries and another layer of biscuit. The chef then placed some white rose flowers on top of the cake, covered it with icing sugar and sprinkled more flower petals around the cake. Looked good and tasted heavenly!

Dancing and more drinking we partied the night away till about 2 am.

This had been one of the most beautiful outdoor weddings in one of the most beautiful locations I've seen.

The Wedding of the Year!

Matt and Dani's Wedding We've just returned, exhausted and lacking sleep, from what I would have called one of the mose beautiful weddings I've ever been to. We all travelled to Firenze north of Pisa, and stayed at a beautiful old villa that had its own pool. Our rooms were large, cool and comfy. The views were fantasic. Wish I had the energy to tell you all about it, but I'm exhausted and need to catch up on my sleep. So instead click on the link above and enjoy what I've uploaded so far.

Saying it with choclates!

Quick Summary

Sorry still too tired to blog so let me give you a quick summary:
left work at 3pm, arrived at Hollington at 6pm (jams on M1). Drinking, eating, chatting, jacuzzi, gossiping and bed!
Saturday morning, breakfast, Pole Dancing lesson, lunch followed by the jacuzzi again! Glamming up, dressing up and heading into Derby in a white stretch Limo, complete with Canadian driver called Woody who looked after us. Some Pizza/Pasta at Pizza Express, playing silly drinking games followed by a night club and a long limo ride back to the cottage for some much needed tea, toast and bed.
Sunday 7.30 am, up, tea and toast. Pack bags and leave at 8 and home by 9.30am.

more piccies and some video clips are here