Skiing!

I had been wondering about going to the Chill Factore for a bit of a ski for a while, but knew it would be a bit dull on my own. Then I had a brainwave and asked Anna if she fancied coming with me as I knew she was a skier! She did, but sneaky lady 'forgot' to mention that she used to race for her University ski team and wasn't just a holiday type skier like me! Still, although she was clearly much better than me I didn't embarrass myself too much and we had a very good fun 90 minutes whizzing up and down.

Party!

Tonight I went out!!! Sarah and Adrian both turn 40 within 10 days of each other, so they threw a party to celebrate. I had a few G&T's, some buffet, some cake, a natter and a bit of a boogie! Fab!

Snow!

It's been cold for a while now. The first snow we saw was on the 17th December, with a large fall topping it up on the 20th. It has only just returned to normal.

This morning I had to get up at 4:30 to get a plane at 6:00 to Schiphol. This is the sight that greeted me...


I made it to the airport just after 5:00, and as it wasn't snowing they were hoping to clear the runway at 6:00. By the time I was through security (around 5:45 - it was a very long queue!) it had started snowing and the message had changed to 'Next Information at 7'. But 6:30 it changed to 'Next information at 9' and I decided to bail.

It was just gone 7 by the time I'd gone throught he proces of getting off the flight and being escorted back out again. The queue at the ticket desk was long but I waited to rebook my trip. All done by 7:45 I went to find a taxi to take me home. Easier said than done, but I eventually was on the way. I got home just after 8:30, having heard on the radio in the taxi that Tully's school was shut. It didn't stop snowing all day until about 9 at night, with a further 3 or 4 inches landing on top of that shown in the photo above... Nice.

Flowers

The doorbell rang this morning. What a lovely surprise, Mum sent me me these beatiful flowers as a thank you for hosting Christmas!

All sorts

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, but I've not had much to say, and I've been a tad busy what with getting back to work full time, Tully starting school, sorting out house stuff and that week I'm trying to forget when Harry was poorly...

So, where to start in my catch up? I'll go with the order that I instinctively picked above. First off work, I do love my job, but after a crazy travel week (2 days in Frankfurt, a day at home then a LONG day trip to Paris) and I'm seriously wondering if how realistic it is to do my job and have 2 small children. I'm incredibly lucky that Mark is so supportive, but it's not really fair on either him or the kids. I'm potentially looking at 3 (but definitely at least 2) week trips to the US before Christmas so we'll see how I feel after that. Q4 is always a busy travel quarter, so maybe things'll quieten down in the New Year.

In addition, I'm getting a whole load of new responsibilities handed over to me next week and I'm not quite sure how that's going to work. I would normally never pay myself a compliment, but I'm very proud of the work I do and I believe I do it really well. I wonder if by taking on more I'll just end up doing a mediocre job as I'll not have time to do either well, and if there's something I can't abide it's mediocrity...

Anyway, that turned out to be more maudlin than was intended, so on to more positive things. I am still loving the house, other than being a bit worried by how easily the cellar seems to flood! Everything else is FAB though and we are definitely very settled now!

Tully is doing so well at school, I am very proud of her. She has settled in, made new friends, copes admirably when I forget important things like giving her money on the day of the cake sale or something for the harvest festival (note to self to do better!), and is very mature about the fact that she is one of the few reception children to do 5 days of after school club.

Harry also makes me proud as he is always cheerful at being handed over to Lisa or Sarah in the morning, and always gives me a cheeky grin or a wave when I leave. He seems to be one of their favourites too as he is both very laid back and has a cheeky sense of humour.

So mostly life is good, let's just see how work travel pans out...

Getting ready for school

I'm quite proud to be sewing name tags onto Tully's school uniform ready for Wednesday, but suspect the novelty will have worn off next time I have to do it. How old are they before they can do it themselves?

Frog

I got a surprise when I went down to the cellar to do some laundry. There was a frog sat in the middle of the corridor...

New House Update

Things I love:
1) Having more space - great the the kids have their own play / living room.
2) The kitchen - lovely that I can sit Harry and Tully in with me whilst I'm faffing doing jobs.
3) The nieghbours - everyone is really friendly and welcoming.
4) The cellar - a fab dumping ground. Slightly worried by how full it is already.
5) A big fridge - no more shuffling things round to get everything to fit after going shopping.

Things that could be better:
1) Rubbish electric shower - it says 'Power Shower' on it but I've more power in my little finger...
2) Brrr - it's freezing. Not looking forward to winter.
3) There's a frog in the cellar.
4) Teeny tiny drive - definitely not easy to get the car in and out.
5) No cupboard under the stairs - where do I put the hoover? I guess the cellar but it seems an right faff to have to drag it up and down.

New House

Today we moved! Yippee! It wasn't as stressful as I imagined it would be, even with poorly kids getting in the way... I highly recommend getting the movers to do a full pack though! It was definitely worth the very small amount of extra money over a standard move.

Moving!

Well, moving day is nearly here. The packers are coming on Monday and we move on Tuesday. I feel like I ought to have done more to prepare but am living in ignorant bliss that all will just work out ok! Other than packing up a very few valuables (less than 1 box) we've done nothing at all!!!!

My biggest worry is that I fear Harry is coming down with / has swine flu, that Tully is showing signs that she might be poorly in the next day or two. What's the betting that despite paying for childcare for 2 kids Mark and I will be looking after both on Tuesday at the same time as sorting out the move...?

Can you bel-elve it?

Yesterday Mark decided to introduce Tully to Lord of the Rings. I started explaining that it was a made up story, hobbits aren't real, wizards aren't real, elves aren't real etc. She stopped me there and said "Mummy, what do you mean? Of course elves are real. What about Father Christmas' elves?!". Hmmm, good point well made. I did some backtracking...

Tully Logic

Harry has turned into somewhat of a mischief. His favourite thing to aim for in his bedroom is the plug socket that is near the door that has an extension lead in to take power to the clock and bedside lamps for the double bed as there is no nearer power. He has even managed to unplug it before now.

When we are up there I spend most of my time saying 'No Harry' or going over to fetch him back away from it.

Yesterday Tully got all excited. "I know, I know... I've had a BRILLIANT idea! Why don't we play something like that instruction game with him. Instead of saying hotter and colder we can say 'Bad Harry, Naughty Harry' when he crawls towards something he's not allowed, and 'Good Boy Harry' when he crawls away. That way he'll learn..."

Nice idea. I'm so desperate I tried it. It didn't work.

Feeling Redundant

On Sunday morning Tully asked if she could give Harry his morning bottle, so I let her with supervision and other than forgetting occasioally to keep it tipped up she did really well.

Then, yesterday, the phone rang just as I'd brought Harry's dinner through to him in his high chair. Now he's not patient when it comes to food, so when Tully asked if she could feed him I agreed, not really expecting much and mostly to keep him quiet. I had to go through to the kitchen, and the call lasted longer than I thought, so was fearing the worst.

Well, although there was slightly (but only slightly) more mess than when I feed him, she had managed to feed him about 2/3rds of it, and had given him several drinks of water throughout too...

I just need to train her to change nappies, and then I think I can retire! :)

TempleMoor Parents Evening

This evening Mark and I were invited to a parents evening at the school Tully will start in September. It was both interesting and useful, although very hot in the school hall - I dread to think how hot it gets at mid day!!! We heard from the head, the school nurse, and several of the reception staff, each telling us about a different aspect of the school and what life for Tully will be like. We had opportunity to look aroudnt he reception classrooms (they have a double intake) and given lots of information to bring home to peruse.

As we'd ahd to get Alicia in to look after the kids we thought we'd make the most of it, so we went out for a meal afterwards. :)

Getting ready to go out

Tonight for the first time in a while Alicia was coming to babysit and Mark and I were going out with some of the people from work. Mark set off early doors, and I was going to meet them all later after getting the kids to bed.

After Harry was asleep, Tully asked if she could help me get ready. It was actually really sweet and funny all at the same time! First of all we had to decide what I was going to wear. I picked out a few tops and tried them on in turn - she looked at me in the first one, then says "I think this one is a maybe Mummy". A few rejected alternatives later she picks her favourite which wouldn't have been what I'd have chosen but is more than acceptable.

"Now Mummy, we need to do your makeup. We need to put lipstick on your cheeks to make you look pretty"... Hmmmmm... Once my make up was of an acceptable standard for both of us, we move on to jewellery. She picks out some earrings and a necklace, both of which were fine.

Then she says "Wait here Mummy, I'm just going to fetch something from my jewellery box for you to borrow"... This is a little worrying as she only has very rubbish toy jewellery. She comes back with a very big very pink ribbon. "For you hair Mummy"... I try to convince her my hair is fine but she's having none of it! Apparently "you can't just wear a necklace and earrings and expect to be pretty, you have to decorate your hair too".

I can't convince her otherwise so end up walking round the house with a big pink ribbon in looking like a right buffoon! Luckily I remembered to take it out before I set off otherwise I would have got some very funny looks!

Therapist?

Tully sometimes get so frustrated when things don't quite go right. As she was on the point of meltdown because a picture she was drawing didn't come out quite as she'd planned I asked her to draw how she was feeling...


A little alter once she'd calmed down and had done some drawings that she was pleased with I asked her to again draw how she was feeling. I actually find it quite interesting that when she was cross it was just a big messy scrawly scribble, but when she was happy it was a smiley face!

Clean Drive!

Over the weekend a man came round touting for business cleaning drives and sealing them to stop weeds. It was actually quite reasonable and a hideous job to do so we decided to jet him have a go. Here's the drive before:


And here it is after. I'm not entirely convinced that we;ll go 10 years without weeds as he claims, but it looks loads better. My only slight concern is that his industrial jet washer washed out rather more sand than I imagine would be ideal... Ah well, what's the worst that can happen...?

Eurovision 09

Eurovision night is here again! As Russia was hosting this year the evening had a vaguely Russian theme. Instead of the usual giant lasagnes for dinner we had blinis, mushroom stroganoff and vodka! We also had jalapeno poppers and arctic roll but that's neither here nor there!

We had the usual scorecards and drinking game rules, so again many shouts out about winks, key changes, ethnic instruments, wind machines and decorated microphones! Sadly Mandy was being careful as she had to get up VERY early for work the next day, and I'm just a bit of a lightweight so was also being cautious.

My top 2 were Greece and Germany. The groups top ones were those plus Norway so each got a vote. First time we've voted for the winner ever I think. Greece also did OK, but Germany bombed, although most of their points came from the UK who awarded them 7 so it wasn't just us!

I'm looking forward to next year already!

Night Out!

A few of the Mums I've got to know from Tully's friends at nursery decided we deserved an evening out. I had wondered about suggesting one for a while but assumed it was just me with no life and was a bit embarrassed about it!

However, when I finally got round to asking it made me feel much better to discover that none of us have lives, or at least the others put in a good show of pretending not to! We went to Oca for pizza and wine this evening, and I'm hoping it might become something of a regular event.

Northumberland Holiday

I finally managed to get the kids blogs up to date, so have already really more than covered our holiday with those. But, from my point of view, I had a lovely time.

The place we stayed, Village Farm, was really lovely, the accommodation really well set up, and all the facilities were great. Minor observations to the negative, the pool was a little cool, and the climbing frame a bit adventurous. Tully wasn't able to play on it on her own with out help.

One highlights for me was watching Tully go round Warkworth Castle. Mark took her into each area on her own first and told her all about it, and then she insisted on taking me and then her Grandparents and giving us all a lesson! Still, since we've been home she has drawn lots of pictures of castles, including lots of accurate details, so I suppose it can't be a bad thing.

Other highlights were having a treatment in the spa and escaping the family for a while, having a couple of nights out whilst Mum and Dad babysat, seeing how much fun Tully had getting COMPLETELY soaked at Alnwick Garden, going back and reminiscing at Embleton and Low Newton-by-the-Sea and the trip to Whitehouse Farm.

I've already looked to work out when we can go back next year so I think it may become an Evans Tradition...