Thursday 31 January 2008

Frazzled brain.......

It's all go here in the Windy household, sometimes I think my mind will explode.

In 19 days time my son, the 10 year old, takes his first school trip, 3 days and 2 nights away from home to an activity centre. From the day and hour he found out about this trip - at the tender age of 6, he has maintained 'I'm not going!' The only house, other than his own, that he will stay comfortably at is my mothers. So last February came and it was time to book up to go. We had discussed the lead up to the trip last year, his very good friend M was going, M is autistic and he was going, he had done a practise dinner at our house, food provided by his mother, but cooked by me and on the table for 5.30pm sharp to avoid meltdown. M went and loved it, even though coke was not on the menu, he went armed with his last bottle of coke for the bus journey. This obviously played on my sons mind and he said he would think about going, he appreciated how hard it was for M to go and not have his mum's food, his double quilt on his single bed, his coke, his exact diet - 5 fish fingers, 2 chicken nuggers and McCain homes fries at 5.30pm. I did not pressure or force my son's decision, although I did point out that if he didn't go , he would have to stay at school and when everyone came back, he would at that point wish he had gone, a little gentle persuasion, I thought.

We started then having practise sleepovers, we started more frequent sleepovers at Granny's, then his friend in the next street and finally at M's house, although M's brother is my son's 'best friend' they come as a pair, being so close in age.

There was a discussion in school about the trip and a brochure home. He had turned a corner and he was going. I explained it was ok to go and know that he will miss his mum , dad, sister and most of all the cat, but it will only be a few days and he would have a great time and it will all be over to quickly. He is now excited about going, they have decided who's sleeping where and he has read the brochure over and over, I have discussed his case, clothes, shoes and anything else that it on the strict list of thing to take, everything must be named, even down to the pants, oh no sorry 'boxers' for this trip, aparently it's not cool to wear pants when you're 10! They wear old clothes as everything gets muddy and wasted, I will have to buy him new pyjama's as he's taken such a stretch. My little 10 year old. He has turned out to be a confident, charming, funny, handsome young boy and I'll miss him sooooo much.


He has already decided he doesn't think he will do York next year, in P7, as it's for 5 days and 4 nights! We will start the gentle persuasion on his return. My 8 year old daughter has already decided she will not be going on any of the trips either, but I have another year before I need start working on her. So I have hit mild panic over my son being in the capable hands of other adults for 3 days, a situation totally out of my control and I don't like it! But being the mature adult that I am, I know he will have a great time and I can worry once he is away and not bother with the worry until then.

Today the kitten, my little Angel has been at the vet to be spayed, I left her there at 8.55am and felt sick to the pit of my stomach, will she ever fogive me, putting her through such an ordeal?

Yesterday I booked the hubby's 40th birthday party for August and have started arranging the buffet in my head.

Tomorrow I am taking my daughter to look at communion dresses, the buffet was planned in my head early January. Hubby's buffet will just be an extension I think.

And on top of all this I have been arranging dates, train tickets, senior citizen railcard, what to wear, what to take and the picnic for the train which I recently planned in my head, for my trip to London at the end of the month.

My poor brain is frazzled, why I find it impossible to think of one thing at a time, God only knows.

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Help me out!

It seems to me that I am missing a very important business opportunity in providing parents and guardians of small children what they need.

I check http://www.statcounter.com/ on a regular basis to see who's checking me out. I have spotted this for a long time and did touch on it before, but now, with your help, I am contemplating taking action.

Apart from visitors from other people blogs, visitors find me through Google searches, the most common Google searches keep popping up, there are 3 in particular;

how to cook a whole chicken
sexual disappointment
plain clothing/baby clothes

Let me assure you the missed opportunity that parents/guardians require is not how to cook a whole chicken nor sexual disappointment, those may feature in your life, but they are not my missed business opportunity, might I suggest following the instructions on the packaging to cook your chicken, unless of course you have killed it yourself and perhaps a good book to enhance your sex life. So by deduction 'plain clothing' is the one.

Now for anyone who has just joined me, I have an embroidery company, I run it from an industrial unit and to summarise I sell school clothing, corporate clothing and have an eBay shop. Being that embroidery usually gets done on plain clothing, I have suppliers who sell such garments. It seems clear to me that I have the tools to bring plain clothing to the world via eBay and do I? well no. But I am putting this into plan.

So what I need from you, my fellow bloggers and parents of children who may require, or at one stage may have required plain clothing, is to let me know what you found difficult to get;

perhaps a specific garment
or a specific colour

The range of plain clothing I can bring to the world are, for example;

Baby t-shirts, including organic
Baby polo shirts
Baby long sleeved tops
Baby layered long sleeved tops
Baby micro fleece
Baby hooded sweatshirt
Baby hat, including organic
Baby skip cap

These garments range from 0/3 months and right through into toddler and young children. Plain clothing goes right through the ages even into adult but I thought I would start with the younger range.

This, for me, is a bit of market research and I appreciate your assistance, rant to me, tell me about the time you couldn't get...........regardless of what age. If you want/wanted plain clothing and couldn't get it then I want to know.

Another question. Do you buy on EBay? What do you buy? Even if it's not clothing, let me know.

I often read other posts and can't think of anything to say so don't comment, but I want to know you're reading so let me know you're there, leave me a comment, even a Hi.

I look forward to reading you. xx

Friday 25 January 2008

DON'T QUIT

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
and you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit, rest if you
must but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twist and turns, as
everyone of us sometimes learns, and many a
failure turns about when she might have won
had she stuck it out; Don't give up though the
pace seems slow - You may succeed with
another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out-The
silver tint of the clouds of doubt, and you
never can tell how close you are,
it may be near when it seems so far;
so stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worse that you must
not quit.

A little poem I have hanging in the shop to remind me running your own business is worth it.

Monday 21 January 2008

London bound

I am taking a trip, a trip with my mother, we are going to London for the weekend. My mother is so worried about me going on this trip, so worried about the fact I am leaving my children and my kitten with my husband, I fear she will not enjoy the trip for worrying!

My mum's friend, of some 40+ years has moved to London, I have no idea what area of London, simply because I can't remember. Both her girls have lived there for many years and she and her man friend decided they would move, her man friend has 2 sons, both living in England, so why not take the bull by the horns and move there too. Simple, move and be closer to your family, not so simple when your man friend turns round after the decision has been made and plans put into place and he decides 'he's not going' no reason, no discussion, end of. So what do you do, well she did it, she went and she went alone. Got herself a nice little retirement flat and moved, Glasgow to London. Of course it wasn't that simple but the long and short of it is she's gone. She is so desperate for my mum to go and see the flat and the area and really just reassure her she hasn't made a big mistake. 'How can moving to be nearer her 2 daughters and 2 grandchildren, by one daughter, be a mistake' I assure my mother.

It has been about 18 years since my mother has flown, that was her last holiday abroad, and apart from some holidays with my gran before she was ill, my mother hasn't had a holiday. It is difficult, I would love to have her with us, but we rarely get time as a family unit and she makes such a fuss, are you warm enough, are you to hot, OMG watch what you are doing! it drives the hubby mental and I don't need the added stress to be honest. Most of her close friends have partners/husbands and of course they go on holiday with them. It is not easy being 60+ and on your own. She has never had another relationship since my dad.

December 2005 after a day with me and the kids, mum drove home and called me in a terrible state asking for the NHS 24 number, my immediate thought was she had been mugged, beaten, assaulted, 'I fell and bumped my head and I've got a big lump' she told me. The hubby was on night shift, I bundled my sleeping daughter in her pyjamas and coat and my son quickly re clothed himself as I secured the house and we went straight over, a 25 minute journey which seemed to last for hours, I called NHS 24 on the way, hands free, of course and asked someone to call her and keep her talking until I got there, I was frightened she became unconscious. It turned out she had slipped on sheet ice, banged her head and knocked herself out, on waking tried to scramble to her feet and banged her head again, then realising she had hurt herself and was on the ground and her head was sore and she was dizzy, banged her head for a third time. We took her to casualty, I called the hubby who came to take the children away as casualty on a Saturday night is not always pleasant, they said she was ok but would only release her if she had someone stay with her and keep an eye on her. She came to stay with us for a few days, not only had she hurt her head but it had shattered her confidence and given her a huge and I mean huge black eye and the whole right side of her face was black and blue. Two years on and she still experiences 'sensations' in her head and the weather seems to affect it. As a result of this she is afraid to fly because of the cabin pressure which may affect her head and once your up there, there's not exactly a lot you can do 'STOP I need off!' So flying to London is not an option, driving herself is not an option, going on the bus is an option, she would feel ok going on the bus herself, but it takes a long time to get there so train seems the best option, but she didn't show willing.

'I'll come with you the first time, if you want' I said 'it'll let you see the journey and if you feel ok for the next time'

'Would you? I'll pay' she said with a big grin

'Sorted' you don't need to offer that twice.

We are now coordinating the details, a date that suits me, my mum's friend and the accommodation within the flats, they have a twin room for relatives/friends to use for the very nice price of £15 per night. We are hoping to go the last weekend in February. We won't have long there but it's really for the sole purpose of the train journey. We will arrive, all being well, on the Friday at dinner time, have all day Saturday and leave about 3pm on the Sunday.

Mum made me clear it with the hubby first to see that he was OK with watching the kids, it will involve him taking the weekend off work, he seemed quietly pleased as he made eyes at my daughter, who smiled back, knowing she will be able to wrap her daddy round her little finger and they won't have a proper cooked meal for 3 nights or any sort of routine and the hubby will manage fine because there will only be looking after children and of course the cat involved, there won't be any washing, housework or ironing done and I will return to him saying looking after children is a doddle. mmmmmm

So do I run myself ragged and make sure there is a uniform left ready for the Monday morning, instruct the children what to wear over the weekend or do I leave it and let them get on with it. To my surprise I may find that all the years of nagging may have paid off and he might polish the school shoes on the Sunday night and iron the uniforms. Every Sunday we go through the same infuriating conversation. I normally iron on a Sunday night because the TV is quite good, give me good TV and an ironing board and I'm fit to go. Ironing complete and out come the shoes and the polish, cue infuriating conversation;

'if you'd said I would have polished the shoes' he says

'but I always polish the shoes on a Sunday night' I say with gritted teeth, I do polish them during the week, but they get an extra good polish on a Sunday

'do you want me to do them?' he says

'no, it's OK' I say, because I'm not doing anything else so I might as well sit here and be a martyr and do them myself, like I do everything else in this bloody house, my inside voice rants.

And you see I know I am to blame, because all I have to say is 'can you polish the shoes' but no I want him to use his initiative and go and get the shoes all by himself, or the hoover or the bleach or whatever else looks like it needs doing, I don't even mind cleaning if he even thought about tidying. MEN!

So anyway, didn't mean to rant, I obviously get my knickers in a twist about the state of my house on my return, whereas my mother is genuinely concerned that the hubby will manage with the children and that they might miss me and I might miss them. I will miss them, but I will not be devastated, they have been away with the hubby before, to his sister's up north, I think they went Friday to Monday and had a great time. When I worked in the evenings from the kids were babies, the hubby had his own routine and could manage to bathe, feed and put them to bed and even wash the dishes.

I am going to have me time, I am going to download my favourite music on my phone and hope that my mother doesn't want to have a conversation all the way to London, I'm going to hopefully manage to take one of the kids DS's and do brain training and sudoku myself silly and most of all, relax. Although now that I think about it, my mother is the type of person when we go to McDonald's she sits and looks at her meal and doesn't know where to start, I lay out the napkin, open the box, put the chips in the lid, gathering the rubbish into on happy meal box as I go, open the tea, pass the milk, everyone sorted, get my jacket off and my mother is still faffing about wondering where to put her coat, gloves, scarf, handbag and umbrella.

Ok, maybe not relax, but a bit of time away from the children.

Wednesday 16 January 2008

Sad and empty

30th August 2001 was a night that I will never forget, a night that I will keep with me deep in my heart forever and the very reason for this journey.

I have always felt watched from the inside of my front door, a strange feeling, going to the bathroom downstairs in the middle of the night has me racing back up the stairs, the thought of someone at my back, watching me. It doesn't happen now, but then we've had the upstairs toilet put in, so I rarely go downstairs in the middle of the night.

Michelle and I were going to Janet's house for the evening, we were having a little ladies get together, Janet's sister was home from Australia, she would be the evening's entertainment. I had worked with Janet in the hotel where I meet the hubby and Michelle was her best friend. The hotel had a popular lounge with live singers on Friday and Saturday and a disco on a Thursday night, it was the in place to be, it had a long bar which remained 'heaving' all night at the weekend. Michelle's husband came to work in the pub and worked on the door as a 'bouncer' with my future hubby and they soon became best friends, Michelle then joined the work force and became bar staff like the rest of us. The pub was the centre of our world, we worked there, socialised there, meet friends and boyfriends there. We had all since left the pub and had young children. Our other friend and co-worker Evelyn had decided not to come along that evening as it was her daughters first birthday the next day and she was having a party, she did not trust herself not to get carried away with the night and be suffering the next day.

Armed with a half bottle of vodka and a bottle of lemonade, those were the days when I could handle my drink, we got a taxi to Janet's house, there was a nice comfortable amount of people already there, her sister Linda from Australia, her other sister Joan, incidentally she had also worked in the pub and a few neighbours. We got our drinks and joined the others, Janet had made a lovely buffet.

I sat back and listened to the conversations in the room, taking everybody in, one neighbour in particular, Lorraine, had the strangest hairstyle I was totally drawn to her, I felt as though I couldn't look her in the eyes as I was so obsessed by her hair. The evening was a good laugh, Linda had left quite early as she was going home the next day so Joan had left with her. I was quite comfortable with the people in the room, we were all laughing and talking and at that, right out of the blue Lorraine said 'what age are your kids?' she was abrupt and I was taken aback 'eh 5 and nearly 2' I said. She kept looking at me and looking away, a bit like the eagle eyed Action Man figure. Between the hair, the abruptness and the rapid eye movement this confirmed, to me, she was in fact a weirdo! Michelle was very familiar with her, laughing and joking and I found this a bit strange, I was confused, who was this strange women? I was further confused when they started talking about church, Michelle was brought up a Roman Catholic and is my daughter's Godmother but she did not agree with many of the Catholic ways and certainly didn't go to church unless it was a special occasion, a fine role model as a Godmother, I know, but she would look after my children well. It then became quite worryingly clear, it was LORRAINE, the penny dropped. I knew Lorraine, Michelle had spoken about her often, it hadn't clicked when we were introduced. As a child, Michelle was surrounded by animals, they were, however, not real live animals, she knows now they were spirit animals. This obviously freaked her mother out and she was continually told not to be ridiculous, as with many children she got older and blocked these spirits out, realising only she could see them. After her mother passed, her younger sister wanted to go to the spiritualist church so Janet introduced them to Lorraine, who has 'the power,' she can communicate with the spirit world. She had been plagued with spirits all her life who wanted to communicate with her. Michelle had gone to school with Lorraine and as a young child Lorraine continually carried rosary beads and prayed, as she got older she learned to control the spirits and switch on and off. Realising it was LORRAINE, I said, 'I didn't realise it was you, Michelle has told me all about you' while I panicked thinking I hope she wasn't able to read my mind about the hair thing and that was why she was so abrupt. We chatted about the whole spirit thing, how, why, where, when, she told us that her middle son also has 'the gift' and she worries about him, she can help him deal with it, but would that be too much, should she encourage him or should she leave him to discover and ask questions for himself, he is aware of what is going on with his mother. The conversation was fascinating, she was not strange at all, well! Michelle and her sister had gone to the spiritualist church with Lorraine and while seated Michelle had seen a small white Scottie dog walk into the church and sit down at a ladies feet, watching this happen and realising that it was a church and dogs are not commonly allowed in the church freaked her out ever so slightly but she was keen to stay. Since her son C had been able to talk he had talked openly to John, John Brannan, this was Michelle's brother, who had died in infancy, we were all sure this would pass but he was still doing it when he went to school. He sat in my living room one day 'oh Hi John' he said, 'is that John in' I asked 'yes' he said, looking at me as if I was stupid, as if, there he's right there, silly me! Lorraine offered to talk to C and help Michelle, 'you know you can communicate with your mother, if you want to' Lorraine said 'I'll help you when your ready' Michelle decided she didn't want to deal with this conversation and so it was changed. It was only us left, Michelle, myself, Janet and Lorraine, I had worked my way through almost all of the half bottle of Vodka, house measures! Lorraine was still occasionally looking at me and again she said 'are you ok with this?' 'I love it' I said 'I'm fascinated' 'good' she said. I left for the toilet and returned to a silent room. 'What!' Michelle said 'it's ok, she'll be fine' 'What! what is it?' I said. 'Well you see there's a man here for you and he's been here all night, waiting patiently, he's waited a long time to speak to you' Lorraine said. Immediately with a nervous laugh I asked if it was my dad or my papa, you see I had been told by a fortune teller that my dad was happy in spirit world and he would never appear again. 'It's your dad,' she said nodding suggesting I knew that already. I was overcome with emotion and burst into tears, Vodka fuelled tears. I asked her if that was who she had been looking at all night and why she asked about the kids, she needed verification that she had the right person. She told me he had followed me out to the hall as I had gone to the toilet and that he liked the hall, although I knew that already.

'Can I come and sit next to you' she said
'Yes' I sobbed
'Would you mind if I chant, it helps open up the channels' she sat on the arm of the chair next to me with her arm around my right shoulder and the other hand resting on my left shoulder and began to chant, now at this point I thought, even in my distressed state, if I didn't know this girl and I had paid money to see her (not that she accepts money, she sees this as her calling, to pass messages where required) I would have been overcome with laughter, the chanting was unusual to say the least, but I continued to cry, I looked at the girls as I thought they might have been in laughter, but no, they were deadly serious they obviously knew how good she was.
She told me all about my dad, he had an affliction, something he was born with, he had no control over it, luckily I had not been born with an affliction. She told me he had loved my mother, there would never have been another woman, he could not see passed my mother, but the affliction was too much. 'Can you feel the love?' she asked, I felt nothing, she had her hand on my back, 'I wish you could feel it, it's so intense' 'I can't feel anything' I cried. I wanted so much to feel it, something, anything, a glimmer of my dad, the dad I had when I was young, the one before alcohol had got a complete grip off, but nothing. I was totally unaware of the fact that anyone else was in the room with us now, I wailed. 'He's here now, talk to him, tell him what you have to say' said urged. And what did I say, nothing, I was lost for words, caught up in the emotion, sobbing like a 2 year old and realising this was all a bit strange, I felt a bit stupid, I looked at her, knowing she wanted me so much to feel what she felt. Her closing sentence at that point was 'write him a letter, a letter about how you feel, not about what he put your mum through but about you, leave it lying about and he will heal you, Ok,' I nodded, two things about this sentence struck me, 1. if considering a letter I would have automatically started with what my mum had been through, so that was important to have that pointed out that this should be about me and secondly and most disturbingly 'and he will heal you' now until this point I had not realised I was in need of healing, she suggested lighting candles and gazing into a mirror and he would come to me, this freaked me out, I was not quite ready to deal with this. But I did say I would write the letter, so here we are 6.5 years later and this is what this whole journey has been about, getting to the stage where I can write this letter. Up until now I have been unable to deal with the emotional upset of facing it and this blog has helped me to do this and of course the support of my fellow bloggers. She also said to me 'don't tell your mum about this evening, your dad will heal her in his own way and she will know' I never have spoken to my mother about this as I thought by now he may have come forth to her and she would have mentioned it, but perhaps when I write the letter, he will step forward and make himself known.

I cried all the way home in the taxi, I woke the hubby up and cried to him for hours and of course he thinks all that stuff is 'shite' The next day at the 1 year olds party, I turned up with a bright red scabby nose and half shut eyes. I was amazed but sad, in effect she made me grieve, I thank her for bringing him to me or perhaps I should thank him for bringing her to me. But I look upon that night with affection, love and memory but also call it among my friends who were there as 'the night that devastated my life' I still feel like that now, I have felt deep sadness and emptiness ever since, but then I suppose that is how you feel when you loose someone. God that's it, that's what I feel grief, I have just this minute realised this must be the way people feel. 6.5 years later and I'm getting it, the realisation is happening, God I'm so slow, I always new I would write the letter but there has never been the right moment and now that time has come. I have thought about it often, but end up in tears and put it off. I had thought about the fact that instead of leaving it lying about the house that I might go and put it on his grave, which I think I've been to twice and maybe finally I can move on.

I took my daughter to the toilet in the middle of the night, she must have been about 2, as I crouched before her she looked past me 'who's that man?' she said 'what man?' I asked 'that man standing at the front door' she said 'that'll be my dad' I said confidently. For a long time after 'that night' I experienced feelings especially when I was standing at the kitchen sink, looking out to the garden, I would feel as if someone was blowing on my neck, it freaked me and I asked him to stop and one night I woke up to see a very bright light, like a star, about head height, it lasted a good few seconds and it was gone, I squinted through sleepy eyes to try and work out what it was. All gone, nothing since, perhaps I wasn't very open to his signs, perhaps because I asked him to stop, maybe he got fed up waiting for the letter. Who knows.

Sunday 13 January 2008

17th May

The journey jumps from 1991 to 2001 so rather than detail 10 years of my life I thought I would put the important points in bullet points;
  • meet the hubby Oct 1991
  • got job in General Accident Nov 1993 just until I found something else
  • bought a one bedroom flat together March 1995
  • got engaged 17th May 1995, my 23rd birthday
  • got married 17th May 1996, my 24th birthday
  • went into labour 17th May 1997 @ 6am, my 25th birthday and 1st wedding anniversary, felt compelled to tell every nurse who entered.
  • 1.08am 18th May 1997 bouncing baby boy finally entered the world, 12 days late
  • 1st maternity leave, General Accident becomes CGU, I return part-time evenings, until I find something else
  • July 1998 move to 3 bedroom house
  • 3.30am 1 Dec 1999 waters break and labour begins, get to hosp at 6am and beautiful baby girl arrives at 7.27am, 1 day early, didn't even get to the labour suite or get all my clothes off, delivered in the room they examine you in. I am proud to say no stitches for either birth.
  • Best friend delivered my Godson 7 weeks and 6 days later, she was not so fortunate on the stitches side. And I had told her it was a doddle only hours after having number 2, omitted to tell her it took me 11 months to get over number 1!!
  • 2nd maternity leave and CGU becomes Norwich Union, return part-time evenings, just until I find something else you understand
  • Hogmany 2001, best friend stays over as her hubby was working, trying to settle a 4 and a half year old, a 2 year old and a 23 month old godson in the early hours of the morning after several drinks took it's toll as my 2 year old refused to stay in any bed and I annoyingly shouted, don't have any more children, my best friend was already in that club and hadn't breathed a word, sat all night pouring her own drinks making us think she was drinking. She forgave me and I forgave her for not dealing with the children in her soberer state! Bouncing baby girl born 19 Sept 2002. Undamaged by the comments of her Aunty.
  • Finally left Norwich Union after 4 years full time and 7 years part-time

Doesn't sound much when you put it in bullet points, but it fills in the 10 year gap.

We like the 17th May, my daughter always feels left out in May as she has to wait until Dec for cards. This year is her first Holy Communion, in our area the Communions are always in June, but this year the date set is........Sat 17th May, would you believe it! We will be over run with cards this year.

Tuesday 8 January 2008

ME ME ME

As I haven't had a holiday from work since June, well apart from the 2 days during the October week I decided I would have 2 whole weeks off at Christmas. My justification being the suppliers are closed and I needed a break. The hubby was also off for 2 week, this was strange, he has never had 2 weeks off to stay about the house, he only takes 2 weeks off to go abroad and we've only been abroad twice in 10 years, but he is now salary paid and therefore still gets paid when he is off, this is also strange. Monthly pay is even stranger, I was always monthly paid, things were easy, I got a monthly wage and all the main bills came out of my bank account and then we lifted hubby's weekly wages and bought shopping and take aways etc. etc. We have been married for nearly 12 years and still haven't got around to arranging a joint bank account.

We had a very nice Christmas Day, the kids got up at 8am, my kids are great, when I was young I was up every hour from 1 am and my mum would give in and we would get up and be knackered all day. The kids slept all night and my daughter got up at 7.50 am and said she better stay in bed with us until 8 because Santa has the whole world to deal with, but he's always been by 8am (years of listening to me) at 8.01 am she decided to go and get her dressing gown and her brother, at that her brother opened his bedroom door and she was back in bed with us as quick as a flash, she obviously thought Santa might still be about!! We opened the gifts, had breakfast and I went to visit Granny, who unfortunately had no idea it was Christmas. Mum came for dinner and stayed the night, it was all very pleasant, we played Uno Extreme for a looooong time. We had delivered all our presents to my in-laws on Christmas Eve which meant Boxing Day could be a pyjama day. We went to visit my mother-in-law on the 27th, I had bought both my mum and MIL lovely Marks and Spencers pyjamas, one size 14 and one size 18, exact same pyjama's and of course you can guess what happened, my mum opened her pyjamas to exclaim 'size 18' whoops, I quickly called my MIL to explain and swapped them over on the 27th and came home via Currys with a 37" TV which the hubby has been promising to buy himself for a long time. Nice.

On hogmany we went to my best friends house, again it was a pleasant evening spend with my friend, her husband and their 2 children, my friends sister and her boyfriend, their mum and dad and a friend who was on a trial separation from his wife and in need of some good company. My friends 7 year old son was sleeping on the couch for 10.45 and missed the whole party. We celebrated the bells, I went mad and had 3 Smirnoff Ice before midnight and spent the rest of the night with tea. Shortly after the bells my friend's, sister's, boyfriend, did you get that, lets call him Ian, brought out his Wii, which they had brought from Wigan with them, on the train and he was delighted to know that my daughter had brought her DS Lite charger as his DS Lite had run out of power, now let me set the picture, he's 29, she's 38 and they have no children, this was obvious when they set up the Wii and my son being 10 and a half said 'Can I go first?' and he was told 'No Children allowed' Ha Ha Ha I laughed as I said 'You can't bring out a Wii with 3 non sleeping children and not let them play' My son was on top form it was great, he was slagging the adults, beating the adults and enjoying the company, he obviously felt totally comfortable as he commentated on the games and made us laugh. A second child fell asleep at about 2.3o leaving my 2 still standing. But at 4.30 am I called a halt and decided I should be somewhat responsible and take my children to bed. That was a bit of a performance, we were sleeping in the front sitting room which has a lovely big comfy corner sofa, which the children sleep on and a blow up double air bed for us which fitted perfectly between the sofa and the TV unit, only problem was the hubby didn't fit, after all the kerfuffle of getting the kids sorted, one in a sleeping bag, the other with her quilt and teddy, the hubby crawled onto the bed and lay down, his head jammed against the TV unit and his feet touching the sofa, leaving his knees in mid air, I just fitted, so a reshuffle it was, my son was taken out of the sleeping bag and given the quilt and hubby took the sleeping bag as it was lighter and me and my daughter snuggled up together in the air bed. New years Day is a repeat of Christmas Day, mum came, had dinner and then stayed over, we played Uno Extreme again, and that was it a another New Year. I decided not to make any New Years Resolutions this year, mainly because I never stick to them, so thought sod it, I'll fumble through with out them. We spent the evening of the 2nd Jan at my MIL where my nephew brought out his Wii, much to the delight of the children.

The rest of my holiday was spent staying up late and lying in late it was great, I am however grateful to be back to the routine of school and work.

I did make one decision at the turn of the New Year, I always text and email all friends at New Year, the ones I am close to and the ones I haven't spoken to for a while, just to keep in touch, this year I thought I would see how many contacted me, I spend time being obliging and friendly, but I have decided this year to concentrate on the people I want to spend time with. I have to say the response was poor. So bugger it, this year it's ME ME ME.

Sunday 6 January 2008

She's like the wind - take 2

So that there is no confusion my web address for this blog remains the same, however I have changed my name. If you are kind enough to have a link to me on your blog can you please amend my name to 'she's like the wind' no need to change anything else.

I'll be back to catch up with everyone soon.

Thursday 3 January 2008

She's like the wind

I am changing my identity, namely due to the fact my mum wants to start blogging, and I thought 'self employed mum' might be a bit obvious so I have changed to 'She's like the wind' from my favourite song from the film Dirty Dancing. There is some information on here that I do not wish to share with my mother.

I will be back blogging soon, I am having a well earned rest at the moment.

Happy New Year and all the best for 2008.

xx