It's the end...for now

I've spent some time reviewing this blog, with the intention of publishing it. I've enjoyed writing it, I've enjoyed reading back over it, and most importantly it has been a lifesaver in keeping my sanity at times. It has been fantastic to have a record of our family's last four years, our move to Hastings, managing on one salary, our ups and our downs and our everyday life.

We're happily settled now, we have a lovely, albeit naughty dog Lily. Both children are settled in school and we've found a good community and great friends around us. M is in a new job as a Deputy Head, working hard to change a local school around and I'm exploring voluntary work options whilst staying primarily as a housewife. I'm now proud of staying at home and looking after the family, I've come to terms with this as a feminist and remain largely happy with my roles.

Who knows what will come next for us? But I do know if we stick together as a family we'll do alright, and have a few adventures on the way.

Bev

I'm the world's worst employer....

Because the staff never turn up....still waiting for the scaffolders, and in turn the builders. Keep thinking of suitable punishments - outing the rubbish company, not recommending them, keeping half the money until they are finished, letting the dog take sips of their tea and so on.

Off to visit a couple of dog kennels this morning, part of the deal in getting a dog was knowing we'd have to put her in kennels sometimes. Very anxious about it, almost feel like I won't like any of them but am trying to stay positive. Largely because we'll have to put her in one on Friday for our Big Trip to...wait for it....Disneyland Paris. Children are, understandably very excited about it all. At the moment I'm just worried about all the logistics but am sure will do like the advert and get up early when we are there.

In other exciting family news, Lily dog has a bit of an eye infection (bit yucky), J's continuing to struggle to learn to read, Ol's reading very well but writing is a bit more casual.

Chimney don't fall down yet...

So we're having our chimney taken down, and re-built as it is lopsided. Been a bit of a back burner worry for the last four years, particularly as it is on the side of the house that gets the sea storms first.

It's one of those annoying jobs though that need two sets of tradespeople - the roofer, and the scaffolders. As they seem to be friends, or at least work together frequently I assumed it would all go smoothly. Not the case. The scaffolders turned up at lunchtime yesterday, built a bit, had a cup of tea, then had to 'get on with something else' at two. I bumped in to them in town at three in bhs, so goodness knows what they were up to. Knicker shopping?

Then the roofer was supposed to come today, but we've put him off until Thursday as the scaffolding is nowhere near the roof yet. But he now says he might be busy until Monday (how does that work?).

And to cap it all it is raining today, the scaffolders were not due until lunchtime again (something to do with vans and strikes that I didn't understand). But I bet rain stops play again. Although they might squeeze in a cup of tea. Sadly I didn't offer biscuits yesterday, this may be the root of the problem.

Eurovision of course....

Ah, so Austria are our friends too. Surprised about Austria to be honest...but not about the others. Perhaps next year we could do some specific promotional work in the former Eastern block, plus perhaps do some positive discrimination and have a singer originally from there who could garner a bit of home support. Come on UK!

Evil Spike of Doom

So -lovely weekend mostly, spent the morning yesterday at a car boot sale. Lily dog is a bit unsure about the delights of car booting, think she gets a bit overwhelmed by the number of people and smells there. She spent a fair bit of time trying to hide under random cars which was a bit pitiful.

Then after a quick dash around Asda (not keen on their cheese and onion rolls as picnic food) just time to put together a lunch and head off to the East Hill for a friend's birthday picnic. Had a lovely hour or two, children climbing trees, dads playing rounders, me sitting on a camping chair I bought with me (very pleased with that decision) and just chilling out. Then Ollie ran across a bit of the barbecue area, and right over a massive spike. It went through his shoe and sock and up in to his foot. Luckily it wasn't stuck in, so to speak but there was an awful lot of blood for one small ish boy.

So we went straight off to A&E, fortunately despite the chairs being totally full up, the wait was only two hours. Two hours of waiting in a small room crowded with other (sick) people not perfect with two primary aged children who don't have 'DS's or are not allowed to 'play on your phone'. There was an even smaller children's room, with very nice murals on the walls. But sadly with only two toys, one of which was nailed down to a table. Do intend to ask the hospital if they need local people to donate toys and books, or if perhaps they have been removed due to risk of germs or something. Books and magazines definitely would have been most welcome.

Then Ol saw a lovely nurse practitioner who cleaned his foot (he was very brave), commented on seeing bit of 'white fat' in the cut. Unsure about the meaning of that actually. She told Ol to stay off his foot for at least forty eight hours, and gave him some crutches. Which he got the hang of very quickly. I was very impressed with her ability to procure the right size crutches immediately from a side room, have a feeling in London/big cities it would not be that simple.

So here we are - Ollie incapable of doing just about anything on his own, other than reading, watching telly and playing Wii (of course doing school work should be on that list). Not sure how he will be able to cope with school in a day or so when he is supposed to go back as he can't even go to the loo on his own. Maybe the magical quick healing power of the young will work though and his foot will get better speedily.

And even better, a friend of ours dug the spike put from the ground to save it for Ol.

The Wonderment of Drinking Pimms

Yesterday afternoon I figured I couldn't feel much worse if I had a lovely glass of Pimms filled with strawberries and cucumber. And you know what? It actually had magical restorical powers
that made me feel a little better last night. Well enough to eat cake at least and watch telly.

Then this morning I woke up at the unholy hour of seven a.m. or something from a dream free sleep and felt just marvellous. Ready to tackle the day, and year in that order. So after a bit of loafing about in pyjamas it is off to a Certain Department Store to return some trousers that inconsiderately broke on Lovely M, to the garden centre for grass seed and maybe something for the window boxes, to walk the dog, and to list all J's branded baby dolls on e-bay as she says she is too big for them and now needs big girl toys. Although, to be honest on that one, none of us are entirely sure what big girls toys are.

Day - bring it on!

It's Easter Sunday

...and the children weirdly still believe in the Easter Bunny despite us doing nothing to encourage them. Some years ago the Easter Bunny visited a friends' house
and had sprinkled eggs all over their garden. Ol remains convinced he saw an egg come from the sky, therefore the Easter Bunny flies (or is God?).

This year their eggs, from friends and families, plus an extra one they hadn't seen (from us) were on their desks in their rooms. They are convinced the Easter bunny put them there and gave them an extra one.

And as for me, I've been really ill - some sort of confusing fever, head hurting to move, aching joints illness for the last two days. Sort of better now but still a bit confused - mostly due to vast number of dreams I had last night I think.

Lily's better today...

thank goodness, almost a complete total recovery. Wagging tail, naughty behaviour, curiosity up, and jumping about. Very pleased with the Power of Antibiotics. And in other news we have managed to take down the two garden fence panels, that were falling down anyway. Sounds simple, but was actually made challenging by all the ivy and trees growing in to the fence. So much pulling and pushing was required that we were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day and able to do no more than eat a Chinese takeaway and watch celebrity Total Wipeout. Which says something.

It's the first day of the Easter holidays...

And Lily the dog seems a bit ill, she's shaky and more cuddly than usual. Plus, she only ate a tiny bit of her breakfast. Hope it is nothing serious. As for the rest of the family, well J's teacher's gave her a really long maths workbook for the holidays. Not sure if it was just given to her, as a special homework or to all the children. Regardless, she is delighted, did some last night (fortunately we had some teachers over for dinner so they helped her) and she is doing more this morning. Only annoying thing is it needs quite a lot of support from a grown up, i.e. me and I like to just sit and have a quiet coffee in the morning before starting on 'counting in tens' and 'teen numbers'. Ol is glued to a rerun of The Gladiators on the telly, he spends most of his telly time watching Challenge, which is all old gameshows. Not sure what this means, personally I prefer Sam and Mark or Ant and Dec, or any of the other inane presenters on the children's channels. And as for lovely Mat, he went on a Teachers Night Out yesterday, goodness knows how many of them invading the Old Town. Did warn them off the Black Market, and suggested the lovely Hastings Arms. But since Mat was in Very Late last night and is still in bed (unheard of for him at the late time of quarter to nine) I haven't found out what they were up to.

I like to organise things so much I do it in my sleep

So at the weekend, we spent most of Sunday re-organising our house. Two chairs in the living room had to go because they were getting a little old and tatty, one leg was going, oh and the dog finished them off. So we shifted furniture about, threw away old magazines and newspapers - why, oh, why do we collect so many piles of these things all over the place? We even sorted through the toys in the playroom and made a big pile of things to car boot later in the year.

Finally, by the end of the day we had two tidy and organised rooms, with furniture shifted about and lots of cushions plumped up (important this, as they could have saved me later). Then after watching the fantastic 'Promise' all about Israel/Palestine we went to bed. Except I apparently dreamed of organisation so much I got up again. Whilst asleep. And managed to move our really heavy chest of drawers in to the middle of the room. I kind of remember thinking, that it was a really hard job and dangerous (as we're in the attic with steep stairs and there is no wall at the top of the stairs. The next thing I know is I'm in the bathroom with blood all over my nose, and pain. Then in the morning I wake up to by newly 'organised' bedroom and lovely blood splodges all over the chest of drawers.

Yes, what a freak!

Dear Blogger

Please forgive me, for I have sinned, it has been over two weeks since my last blog (confession).

Actually naughty Lily the dog has kept me very busy, that and some random childhood illness', including J's random 'having a wobbly tooth and can't eat' sickness. The dog is settling in to the family, less mouthing, slightly less menacing the children, slightly less chewing forbidden things - well apart from the hole she has chewed in one of our very old second hand chairs.

Lily is lovely though, so friendly to us and strangers and an absolute delight in the evenings. I'm hoping to take her to puppy training classes at the start of March although I have taught her 'Leave it', 'Sit', 'Lay down', 'Down' and 'Come here', she even 'found her ball' for me the other day.

And J is starting to say, ' I just wish we had a trained dog' whilst sobbing slightly less. Slightly.

The PTA

Just back from a meeting of the PTA, which I chair. Somehow the role of organising the school fete's and doing lots of the work for them falls to the chair at this school. Not sure how it has turned out that way as usually one would expect the chair to manage the work to be done but not do it herself! So I'm delighted to say that I asked if anyone would like to take on the role of leading the summer fair, and I had a volunteer. So no spreadsheets for me, no getting anxious about signage, and worrying about the logistics of all the tables and where to put them, let alone how to get enough people to run them. Yay-hey! Just need to make it clear to all it is voluntary, so no haranguing people who don't want to, or can't get involved then can just do the dull agenda' and minutes and bits that I like.

In other news, the dog has taken over chewing the shoe basket as her number one naughty task. And she still does not obey to leave it. Will have to get more treats out as part of training I think. I've been doing my homework, and as well as reading the puppy training book have been watching a very entertaining yet informative programme entitled; 'It's me or the Dog'. Quite posh British woman is the dog trainer and she does it all with treats. Quite small ones too.

Little spotty funny face

We've got a dog; a cross Spaniel and Jack Russell, no please no more comments about what a 'lively untrainable mix' this is, I didn't know OK. She is called Lily, and is really nice sometimes. Other times she runs manically around the house trying to bite ankles, steal shoes to eat, get at the crisps, bark and have wees. When she's nice though, she is very very nice - cuddling up to the whole family, wagging her tail, playing with her toys, saying hello to other dogs and so on.

Lily is 18 weeks old, her first family couldn't manage her, their kitten and year old baby in a flat without a garden. She'd been crate trained there, but I can't bring myself to do that so she's a bit more free range at ours. Hence the need to train her to 'Leave it'. If I'm honest, there are times, when I'm fancying a bit of peace and do wish there was a way to get her to get in her bed for a rest and stay there for more than a minute.

I'm actually thinking having a puppy is harder than an over-active toddler, because (mostly) toddlers don't nip, are not so loud and wear nappies. Lily has settled down slowly since we got her though so do have faith in her ability to be trained. Well I do most of the time.

Off to dog training classes next week. Hoping trainer not too strict with owners as I did read something worrying in puppy book whereby the author said she could tell how well behaved a puppy would turn out to be by looking at the owner's children!