Me...1987

I found this picture at my Grandads bungalow and brought it home. Look at those teeth! Thankfully they straightened out on their own a few years after this was taken, but I still had to have a brace at 14 as I had eye teeth like a vampire.

My Grandad was an artist, so we all had a painting each to keep. I just need to frame mine. I had some really strong memories of the little bungalow, and one of them was listening to a vinyl of British bird song with my Grandad in their dining room. I had a good chuckle about it. I mean, who has an LP of bird songs? I mentioned it, my Dad rummaged through a drawer and found it! That will have pride of place in my House and Techno vinyl collection.

The funeral was good, as funerals go. My cousin drove his 4X4 into the back of the hearse, which made everyone laugh. The wake in a local pub was fab, everyone was smiling (the free bar helped), and the food was nice. My Dad told me as we left that I'd been left £500, which will help with the house renovations. I was very shocked, I totally didn't expect that. I was just happy with my painting.

Taylor managed to go to school yesterday, mainly because Pete was able to drop him off. I think doing the walk(hop?) twice in a day is a bit much, but just walking home is fine. He has stayed home today, but will be back in tomorrow. I suppose his attendance will be a bit erratic until the cast comes off. I've been doing some work on Ancient Egyptian mythology and history with the boys today, at their request, which is handy as it's my 'thing'. I have books on it coming out of my ears. We've written our names out in hieroglyphics, and they have some work to do on deities this afternoon. Ryan finally has an appointment at his new school tomorrow, just to fill out paperwork, then he has to sit some entry tests on Friday. I suppose we'd better start thinking about the dreaded school uniform shopping.

It's been a bit of a crazy week this week. We had a man round last night to measure our kitchen, he's coming around again tonight with the quotes for fitting the two we've picked out. Hopefully, it should be done by the first week in April. I can't imagine what it's going to be like, I've lived with this pit of a kitchen for such a long time. It's got to crisis point now, all the drawer fronts and doors fall off, there is mold growing under the sink, the floor tiles are cracking. It's just way past it's sell by date. We have never had a real hob to cook on in this house, so I can't wait to get a new cooker. I didn't expect to be here this long, so I've made do with a small, two ring portable electric hob for 8 years.

My Dad called last night while the builder was here, to tell me that my Grandad has died and his funeral is on Thursday. Talk about short notice. I was rather annoyed he hadn't told me sooner(he actually died 12 days ago), as I'd arranged to do a day trip at work on Thursday. Thankfully my boss is understanding, so I'm able to go. I haven't been able to visit my Grandad for years, because he would get too confused. None of the grandchildren have been able to see him, it would overwhelm him and freak him out. I'm glad he's finally gone, he's been ill with dementia and emphysema for years and years, and he was ready to go. He's been without my Nan for too long, it's been about 14 years since she died suddenly, and he must have missed her terribly all that time.

Catch up

What have we been up to...not much to be honest! Stuck indoors with Taylor really. He's hoping to hobble to school tomorrow, so it'll be nice to get him out of the house. Ryan has been staying in Portsmouth with family for a week, so we went and collected him yesterday, so we are back to a full house now, and back to doing school work tomorrow.

Isobel had to dress up at school on Friday for book week, the childminder Jane dressed her up as Little Bo Peep. She did have a hat and a crook at some point, but here she is in her dress looking cute:


I went out to a cheesy nightclub with the girls last night so am feeling a little worse for wear today. I've just had an afternoon snooze, which was marvellous.

Broken bones

Well, we've had our first incident of broken bones in this house amongst the kids this week. Taylor went to a school friends birthday at an indoor playcentre on Sunday, and bent his foot right back jumping into the ball pit. We thought it might just be a sprain, so for the first three days of the school half term Taylor hopped around with some crutches that we still had from my ankle sprain two years ago. When he still couldn't put weight on it 3 days after the event we sent him for an X-ray, and yes he's broken two metatarsals and is in a cast up to his knee. He has to wear it for 6 weeks, so it looks like I'm homeschooling another child for the foreseeable future!
Taylor went to his Dad's yesterday(finally, only a week after his birthday!), and came back with "Mission Complete: No School!" scrawled on his cast. It did make me chuckle.

Valentines Day

February the 14th is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day, and as my friend Dan sadly lost his Daughter Bethy to CHD, I'd like to just show my support.

Cloverfield

Pete and I went to see Cloverfield at the cinema on Saturday night. After seeing the trailer I just had to go and see it. I'd heard about people getting motion sickness due to the jerky camera work, so was a little nervous as I get mild car sickness if I try to read whilst travelling. I'm fine if I look out of the window though, and I don't think I've ever actually been sick.

Well, the film itself is spectacular, but yes, it made me feel sick. Very, very sick. It is the only movie I've ever considered walking out of, because I actually went green. It is that bad, even for a mild motion sickness sufferer like me. I started to feel icky about 30 minutes in, by 40 minutes in I was praying for the end to come and had to keep closing my eyes, and by the end I'd got used to it and was almost enjoying myself again through the nausea.

I truly did love it, the monster is terrifying, and want to buy it on DVD, but am not sure I can sit through it again. I still feel ill this morning.

Castle

As it was such a nice day yesterday we decided to go for a walk and catch some sunshine straight after go-karting. We went to Hadleigh Castle as we hadn't been for a while. As we drove down the lane we noticed that the old farm there, which is owned by the Salvation Army, were having a religious event of some kind and the whole place was swarming. Not quite the peaceful country walk we intended, but they eventually went back to the temple to do whatever it was they were doing and left us to it. The light was lovely, after months of grey, so I took a lot of photos.













I like this one, these two little trees look like they are kissing. :)

Go Karting

We went Go Karting yesterday, which although it was Taylor's birthday this weekend, the karting was actually Ryan's birthday treat. Taylor had his birthday treat two weeks ago, they went to watch Portsmouth play an FA Cup match. We were secretly interested to see how Taylor did, as his ambition is to be either a pit mechanic or the young boys favourite, a motor sport driver. He had a slower kart than Ryan because of his age, but he could've easily handled the faster one. Ryan span off a lot to start with, but got the hang of it eventually. They both did really well! Taylor is in the blue suit and Ryan in the black.

Happy Birthday Taylor

Taylor is nine years old today. Where has that time gone? This time nine years ago I had a baby son who was just 3 hours old. Having him was one of the hardest things I have ever done, I'm still incredibly proud of myself for making that choice to have him alone, and he's grown into a lovely boy. He's eccentric, inventive and a little bit mad, but we love him.

Brighton

Pete took me away for the weekend to Brighton on Friday night after work. Unfortunately my Mum ruined the surprise, as she loves to do(it isn't the first time), by calling me at work and asking me if we still needed her to have the kids for the weekend. As it turned out, Pete had got our childminder to have all three from Friday to Sunday, so I got home, had a bath and off we went. Normally I have to pack everyones bags, and have the stress of making sure they are all ready, but he'd done it all for me.
We got to the hotel at about 8pm, then went straight out to eat at an Italian restaurant once we'd got changed. When we got back I had a nice suprise as Pete had put rose petals everywhere and bought me a bottle of champagne. My favourite tipple in the world. Romance isn't dead after all!



On the Saturday we went out for a wander and to go shopping, I struggled quite a bit with the walking because of my hips. Painkillers are my friend! I only took a few pictures, my camera is so big it's taking a bit of getting used to. I really do love Brighton, oh how I wish we could move there one day!

Saturday night we went out for an Indian, and were supposed to be going clubbing, but we ended up drinking in a pub until the early hours. I just wasn't up for clubbing at all. I think age is catching up with me, I just couldn't face the aftermath all week this week. On the Sunday we went down to the beach, and I've honestly never seen waves like it, not even in Jamaica in the middle of a category 4 hurricane!




These young lads were all running into the sea in shorts, they didn't stay in for long! While Pete and I were watching them a huge wave came up the beach and soaked both of us up to our knees, we laughed for ages.


This was my shoes afterwards. I took most of the beach home with me.