The final countdown

I am on a count down to Saturday the 17th May, not only is it my 36th birthday and my 12th wedding anniversary, it is also the day my daughter makes her First Holy Communion. The house has now been completely decorated and all that remains is housework.

We decided to get a price to have the back garden completely mono blocked in a desperate attempt to have a maintenance free household, the price was to good to refuse so the work started last Saturday and will be complete this Saturday and Sunday. The wooden, collapsing shed has been removed and we have opted for a plastic, maintenance free, shed, although it is unlikely to be delivered before the communion, so we will leave the bikes etc etc hidden in the neighbours garden for the communion, hidden by our new 5 foot fence. I am going to enjoy myself this summer, the house fresh and the garden mono blocked, the fences painted, only housework will remain. I am going to have the most sociable summer I have had in a long time in my new maintenance free world. I know people love their gardens and spend hours looking after them, if I do have hours to spare I want to sit in the garden or play with my children, I don't want to paint fences and cut grass. The only thing that remains to be attended to in the house is the bathroom, but that is next years work and perhaps making the loft into a room that I can use as an office.

Everything is scheduled, the favours are ordered to be collected on Wednesday, the cake to be collected on Friday, my daughters dress is away to be steamed and I will collect it on Friday. We did a Costco trip last week and bought all the fizzy juice, fruit shoots for the kids, plates and bowls. We were fortunate in that we over bought bottles of spirits for my son's communion and therefore still have many unopened bottles left, well scene my father is no longer with us and we might find the bottles no longer contained alcohol, he will be turning in his grave to know all that alcohol has been there, all this time, untouched, if fact he will be turning in his grave to know that my children are catholics, he never saw that coming! An Asda trip for beer is planned for the weekend. I am going to take the day off work on Friday and do the final Costco trip for food, collect the dress and the cake and all being well the house will be sitting perfect and I can concentrate on preparing the food, and than I woke up.

I do have the slight inconvenience of parents evenings, as our schools main uniform supplier I attend all parents evenings with the uniforms for parents to order ready for August. Parents evening being the 13th and 14th of this month, 6-8pm, along with my own appointments on Tuesday. Needless to say I could really do without it this week, so I will have to be super organised.

We also have my son's birthday on the 18th, have I mentioned before I spent my first wedding anniversary and 25th birthday in labour, the whole day, only for him to make his appearance at 1.08am on the 18th. Midwives were delighted I had waited and the baby had his own birthday, I can assure you I wouldn't have minded sharing the day.

I still need to get something to wear, have you seen the fashion lately, the smocky look is ok if you don't have a permanently bloated tummy, the strappy tops all have triangles to put your boobs in and unfortunately being a FF (boast, boast - NOT) my boobs do not fit in these tops, well they might but it's hardly appropriate for my daughters communion. I will have to get my son a present and a cake, the wee soul said the other day 'I don't mind waiting until the summer to have a sleepover with my friends mum' he's such a considerate boy.

One of these days I will have no plans, no decorating, I will be calm and unstressed, relaxed and enjoying life to the full. But for now adrenaline keeps me going.