We are mobile again!

At last, we have another car! It's only a Ford Escort, but it was a real bargain, the woman could've got another few hundred for it really. It's much nicer than our old Passat. The best news is, if I pass my test at Christmas, it'll be all mine *grin*. I'm so pleased that we have one, mainly because I was getting quite anxious about not being able to go to the cemetery to see Nanny Farm next week. It's been a year since she died, I'm not missing her any less and it still hurts almost every day. It would've really upset me if we couldn't go.

Pete missed Taylor's Sports Day today. It was rained off last week, so with the awful weather today he just presumed it'd be off again. Of course it wasn't, and Pete felt terribly guilty(Taylor couldn't care less). Pete's going to take him to a swimming pool with flumes tomorrow, just the two of them, to make up for it. He's taking Ryan to paintball on Sunday, so it's only fair really that Taylor should have some male bonding too.

Doesn't Ebay suck? I'm selling stuff on there at the moment and it's completely taken over my life. It takes hours to wash, iron, sort into age appropriate bundles, photograph, list and then track it, all for a few measly quid. I'm in £18 profit at the moment. Yippee.

Musical Monday#14

This song gives me goosebumps the minute I hear the piano riff at the beginning. I'm not a huge fan of Coldplay, I like them, but don't buy their albums or anything. We saw them live at V2003, they were the headline act on the Saturday night, but we'd been in the dance tent all evening. We wandered up to the main stage to catch the end of Coldplay, and Pete and I were rather wasted by this time. We stood right on the top of the hill at the back of the crowd, cuddling each other, and this song just brings that memory right back to the front of my mind. I fell pregnant with Isobel a week later, so this song instantly reminds me of what was to come, and the excitement of it all.

Coldplay - Clocks

Neglected blog

Well, I think that is possibly the longest I've ever gone without writing a blog post. Do I win a prize? To be fair, if there was a prize for the most neglected blog, Dan would win it hands down. We'll let him off though, now that he's back he can't stop posting. :D

I had a party to go to in the Community Centre where I work on Saturday. I really didn't want to go, couldn't justify the money spent really. It was one of my customers 65th birthday parties, and my boss was doing the catering(he's doing my wedding too). All the staff were invited and we felt obliged to go really, as she's a lovely lady but doesn't have many friends. It was a good laugh anyway. One of my colleagues requested Don't Cha by The Pussycat Dolls for a laugh, and the DJ whacked it on straight after the waltz or something. There was a massive group of elderly ladies standing there in shock, not knowing what the hell to do, but fair play to them they all had a go and started bopping. The barmen were pissing themselves laughing.

Wendy, Carol and Me


The Birthday girl with her Elvis cake, Elvis balloon, Elvis picture and Elvis Shirt. She likes Elvis.

Summer Solstice

It's Midsummer today, the longest day of the year. I'd rather be at Stonehenge right now than stuck in the office, but I'm going to force Pete to take me next year(I'm sure he'll love every minute of it! /end sarcasm).


Of course, it being the longest day means that the nights will start drawing in again, which I hate. I want it to stay warm and light all year. I wait all year for this bit, when the plants are growing and the days are warmer, and now we are at the pinnacle it's all down hill from here on in...boo!

Summer storms and munching on flowers

After dinner last night I decided I fancied some Elderflower Fritters. The plant is only in flower for a few weeks, and I'd missed the boat really so wasn't expecting much joy. So, off I trotted with my carrier bag and scissors. I'd been walking for a good twenty minutes(and secretly loving every minute of being without the children) and disappointingly only had five flower heads, when I got a sudden headache. I noticed a change in the atmosphere, turned around and there was a bloody great thundercloud on the horizon.

Now, I love storms...when I'm indoors or in my garden. I don't go out in the open, haven't for years, as I had a near miss with a thunderbolt when I was in my teens. I power walked home(I cheated and pretended that it was my exercise for the day so I didn't have to go on the bike later), and got home just as it started to rumble overhead. It was a great storm, but I ended up sitting in bed with Isobel until 9.30pm as it was a loud one, the house was rattling! We eventually got to eat our fritters, even Pete liked them. They are a strange flavour, and I know most people baulk at the idea of eating flowers, but they really are delicious. They taste perfumy and sweet. We had Cornish ice cream melted on them...yum.

We had no veg in the cupboard or fridge for tea last night, so I finally got to dig out some spuds from the garden. We had these Catriona potatoes for tea, covered in butter and rosemary, and my god they were tasty. I'll definitely be growing more next year.

Proud of my man

I just wanted to show you this excellent photo of Pete playing football in Poland. They played quite a big side, equivalent of a Championship reserve team in this country(and of course got stuffed!), but it must have been cool to play in such a big stadium. They even had the newspapers and photographers there. Scary.

Musical Monday#13

I love love love this band, the album Becoming X is brilliant from start to finish, so I found it hard to pick just one song. Maybe I'll post another in a few weeks.

Sneaker Pimps ~ Six Underground

Grumpy

I'm feeling grumpy and miserable and not a very nice person to be around this evening, so I shall just leave you with a picture of my rock garden with my new plants I bought yesterday, and my newly sprouted French Beans.

What a bizarre evening

We went to Taylor's football presentation tonight, and I'm so glad we went as I bumped into some of my long lost family on my Dad's side there, completely by chance.
I'd noticed a few months ago that the Manager of the Under 11's side was called Greg and had the same surname as my cousin(who I knew lived in Basildon). When we got there tonight I looked around for someone familiar, and I spotted him straight away, even after 10 years I recognised him, and it was confirmed when I heard someone call him Greg. After the presentation I took a chance, went over and just randomly said hello. It was great! The last time we spoke was when I was 17 and Greg was 28, so it was fantastic to catch up. His Mum(my Dad's sister) Marion and his Dad Bob were there too and were really pleased to see me. Marion has been ill with Cancer, but has finished treatment for now. Can you believe my Dad called her once in the last year to see how she is doing. He's so bloody anti-social! I think I'm going to invite them to the wedding reception, I know I'll regret it if I don't. We all took pictures with our cameras.


Here is Taylor and some team mates waiting for the presentation to start;


Showing off their trophies;





This was Isobel at my Mums, emptying out the toy cupboard.

Old pictures

I got my scanner working earlier, and scanned in some pictures taken on our old film camera.

Me with Taylor at a few weeks old.

Taylor and his Dad at 12 weeks old

Garden gnome!

Just Chillin'

Peek a Boo

Taylor at age two

Trying his hand at Bowling

Cute!

Ryan aged 7

Broken car...again!

I don't believe it, the bloody car has broken again. We should have just scrapped it the first time, when it broke down in Portsmouth. Since then it's cost us another £1000, and it still keeps breaking. The last job was done in December, and 6 months later we have the exact same problem. There is nothing we can do about it now, we'll just have to be car-less until September. I refuse to throw any more money at that car, and we haven't got any spare cash to buy another one. If and when we get the mortgage money(which of course knowing our luck, will not happen), Pete can go and get his new car. Until then, we are slumming it on the buses.

Pete is off to Poland at 9am tomorrow for his football tour, so I'm going it alone for 5 days. I'm not looking forward to rushing backwards and forwards to childminders and work, but I suppose I'd better get used to it as I'll be doing it every week when Pete goes back to work full time. My Dad and Pauline are coming over this Sunday, so I'm going to bake an apple pie. I haven't made one since December, being on diets and all that, so I can't wait. I've even bought Cornish ice cream to melt all over it.

Ryan is in trouble today, we really caught him out! I always tell the kids that I know everything that goes on in this house, I am the all-seeing eye, and I proved this week that nothing gets past me. In the past Ryan has tried to get us to allow him to have bikes that him and his mates have found lying around. We always say no, because that's basically handling stolen goods. Last week he announced that he was buying a bike off a lad called Lewis for a tenner, and it had belonged originally to his cousin. Later that day, I overheard Taylor ask Ryan "Did Lewis find that bike?", and Ryan said "Yes...I mean no, it was his Cousins". Then we realise that Lewis has covered it in stickers and changed the seat on it, which made me immediately think he'd nicked it and was covering his tracks. We hatched a plan to scare Ryan into thinking we know, so today we sat him down and gave him a chance to tell the truth, letting him think someone had stopped me in the street asking about the missing bike. Luckily for him he told the truth(he doesn't want to find out what Pete gets like when someone lies to him, it's not a pretty sight), and now he will be riding it up to the Police station on Saturday and handing it over. I'm pretty sure it was just an abandoned bike anyway, but that is not the point, and he needs to learn a lesson. I'm going to call the Police beforehand and tell them to have a chat with him about handling stolen goods. I hope they do, it'll scare the crap out of him!
I just love parenting teenagers. *sigh*

Breezy

It's what my Nan would've called "a washing day" out there today(which is good as I have about three more loads to do.) The breeze and sun are just right, I'm getting lots done. I've been sitting out there weeding, playing with some Play Doh with Isobel(it's banished from the house!) and enjoying the sun peeking through the clouds. Remembering Nan saying that all those times when I was little brought tears to my eyes today. I can't believe it's been nearly a year since she died. All the things she's missed with the children, she just adored them. I'm so sad that she hasn't seen what a little madam Isobel has turned into. A year ago, Isobel could speak, but nothing like she does now. She still calls out "Nanny Farm!" whenever we see someone with a walking stick, thinking it's her. I don't want her to ever forget.

I've got the hump today, I'd best calm down before Pete comes home for lunch or we'll end up having a row. We need to pay another £50 rent as we didn't quite have enough last week. I don't get paid until next Monday, and Pete is off to Poland on his football tour on Thursday. I said this morning he'd have to give me £20 out of his tour money, and I'd take £30 out of the food money, and he went mad. So it's OK for us to go without food, as long as he has enough for his tour? This happens every year, he swans off no matter how skint we are and leaves me to it with three kids and no money.
Then, a council tax letter just dropped through the door, and because we are a week behind with our monthly payment, we will now have to pay the outstanding £800 or go to court. I didn't realise, Pete does the bills, and usually very well I might add, but obviously not this month. I'm so annoyed, I'm going to have to sacrifice the ring I want(again, as this was the first thing to be scratched off the list last week before my Mum gave us some money, and was re-instated), but he'll still get his bloody £100 spending money for Poland. Boo! I've scrubbed the carpets with some stain remover stuff this morning, trying to take out my stress on something inanimate.

Head full of clouds

I haven't got much to say today, my head feels like it's full of fluffy clouds and not much else. We went out on Friday night, stayed up far too late, and now I'm suffering and feel like I need to just give up the fight. Blah. I should feel more human by tomorrow.
I don't know how I managed it after the heavy night, but I went shopping on Sunday and got the rest of our holiday clothes. I bought our luggage too, so now we can start packing! We have 56 days to go, I can't wait. In 56 days I'll be looking at this;

I still have far too much to organise though. This week I must get Isobel's passport, stamps for the invites and contact the DJ.

Some more of my wild flowers are in bloom today, I'm so pleased with them. I planted some at the cemetery too so I need to nip up there to see if they've survived the heat we had in April.





Also, my Dwarf French Beans are flowering, now what do I do? I never intended to grow beans, to be honest they scare me. They were on offer in the garden centre, 12 plants for £2.99, so I thought I'd give them a go. Do they need feeding with anything? How long do the beans take? Help!

Musical Monday#12

This is one of my favourite songs on my MP3 player, I listen to it nearly every day, whenever I'm walking somewhere, as it puts me in such a good mood. The Sundays were a late 80's/early 90's band, not very well known, but have quite a big underground following. The singer, Harriet Wheeler, has such a pure tone to her voice, I love it!

The Sundays ~ Here's where the story ends

End of another week

I’ve been shopping like a loon on Ebay this week, courtesy of my mother. She’s given us some money for the wedding, so we’ve been buying our holiday clothes. I bought Isobel this Next dress for £3. Bargain!



I spoke to my Dad the other night for the first time since February; we haven’t seen him since Christmas. They are coming over next Sunday, so that’ll be nice. The actually owe us all a birthday present. Ryan’s, Taylor’s, Isobel’s and my birthday have passed by since we last saw them. We only see them two to three times a year
We are off out clubbing tonight, I haven’t been since March and poor Pete hasn’t been out since December. Ryan is desperate to go shopping on Saturday but there is no way we’ll be getting up to take him, he’ll have to go alone. I think he’s getting his ear pierced tomorrow too. I think it looks naff on boys, but he’s almost 14 so is more than old enough to stick metal spikes through his body. Good luck to him, he’s paying for it himself anyway. I can’t talk as I had my first tattoo at 16.


I'm dead chuffed in the garden, as my cornflowers that I've grown myself from seed(out of a cereal box!, have grown to gargantuan proportions and flowered this week. They are one of my favourite flowers, just look at that shade of blue!

Musical Monday #11

I loved this song when it came out, but this band dissapeared into oblivion soon afterwards, like most of them do. It reminds me of sunny days, like the ones I'm hoping we get more of soon!


The Bluetones - Slight Return

Back to school...

Well, the kids are back to school tomorrow. back to the mad rush in the mornings and the piles and piles of ironing...boo!

We went to a family fun day at Southchurch Hall today. All the way there in the car we were talking about what food we were going to have, and how hungry we were. We arrived and stampeded to the hall desperate for munch, so imagine our disappointment when all they had was a refreshment table with kitkats and crisps. We turned straight back around and marched 20 minutes to the seafront and found the nearest cafe! It was lovely, I even pushed the boat out and had apple pie and ice cream(first time in 6 months!).
On the way back we walked past Pete's old flat on the seafront. He lived here when we met, he lived with me during the week and we used to stay here at weekends.

Back at the hall, the kids got their faces painted, it was Isobel's first time so I wasn't sure if she'd sit still. Then they watched a Punch & Judy show, I'd forgotten how violent it was! Taylor liked it, of course.



Afterwards we rushed round to my Mums for a BBQ(saved me cooking dinner). She bought the kids clothes for the wedding online for me, which was a relief, less for us to worry about!

Sunny Saturday

I started making the invites last night and stupidly stayed up until 2am making them, even though I knew we had to be up at seven this morning. Taylor had his first ever football tournament this morning, which started at 9am in Hockley. Now, I'll preface this by saying that football isn't really Taylor's best sport. He plays for a not very good team with a manager who has no idea what he is doing. He loves it though, and its all about the fun so we encourage him, but we don't ever expect him to get anywhere with it. Cricket on the other hand, he is absolutely astounding for his age. He's split the stumps with his fast bowl a few times! Ryan has the football talent in this house.
Anyway, the manager keeps playing Taylor in defence, at the back, just because he's tall and awkward for the strikers to get past. This isn't the right place for him at all, he constantly tries to run forward and not mark the goal, so its disastrous really. They had four matches to play today, the first was rubbish, but for the second the manager moved him forward into midfield and he just shone. He was amazing! Honestly, if he plays like that every week he'll do well. He was made Captain of the side, and although they didn't do very well as a team compared to the other more experienced sides, it was definitely Taylor's day. People kept coming up to us commenting on how good he'd been, and the manager has finally seen just how much better he is in a different position.
Pete took us out for a pub lunch afterwards in Rayleigh, which was yummy. Isobel was a pain, wouldn't eat her food and she moaned and moaned today. I had to go into work at 2pm and I was glad to escape for a few hours! We had an exhibition/open day type thing today at the centre. I couldn't believe how many people turned up, it was packed. I got home at about 5pm and fell straight to sleep...lightweight!