Thanks Again Nana!

I posted last week that I was doing my major assignment on a poem by Rob's late Nana. Well, it was posted on Tuesday and I got it back today...86%! Woohooo! Thank you so much Nana for giving me great material to work with.

Although I have to get over 70% now on my exam paper in October to get a 2:1, as far as assignments go I have one left and now only need 20% to still get a 2:1 on the coursework part. Phew, pressure off a tad now.

Pic-Er-Nic #1 - well it almost went to plan...

Finally, we have a bit of decent weather here! After weeks of damp and dismal grey skies, the sun is shining and the forecast is good! Good job we had a couple of pic-er-nics planned to take advantage of the sunshine!

However, if there's one thing that's as unreliable as the weather, it's my children! We set off this morning to meet Mandy and the kids for a picnic at Temple Newsam. TN is the perfect place to go on a sunny day (as the carpark proved!). We got there, set up and had our little picnic, Xander wolfed his juice down (3 cartons of the stuff) but he made the potty every time (yes, I did carry a potty with me!).

Molly did a bit of people watching ("Mum, why does Auntie Lou have a potty in her bag?!")

Emily and Ella caught up and then went for a run around the field:

Then it was off to the farm to of course, see the piggies!


And the 'chickens' that Xan was so desperate to see (sssshhh, don't let on!):

And a rather odd looking cockerel:

We then went to have a look at how they made flour in the old days in a little mill. 'Oooh, that flour smells a bit crappy' says Mandy. Er, nope, that would be my son! So, off me and Xander went to find a loo, which to be fair wasn't too far away, but by the time we got there...oh...my...god!

I used to measure Xander's nappies in number of wipes used. The worst we've ever had has been a 10 wiper...up til today! Xander smashed all records with a 25 wiper! Er Xander darling, I think it may be home time.

So, apologies to Mandy but a farm full of kids and one nasty tummy ain't a good mix. So, we came home, Xander falls asleep so I lay him on the sofa, my poor boy. And when he wakes up...wolfs down his tea and runs round the house like a maniac for 2 hours! How do they do that?!

I'm just hoping he's better tomorrow for pic-er-nic #2 (and if I have enough wipes left! :P)

This Week I Will Be Mainly...

A new little featurette for a Monday blog post. In an aim to be super organised and look to the future, I'm going to be setting myself little goals every week to try and help me cram it all in!

So, first up is this week, my goal is to get this finished:

I'm halfway through the last in the Twilight series and I'm so excited. It's at that stage where anything could happen! I'm also on a bit of a deadline as I borrowed the books from Marie, who I'm seeing on Friday, and would like to give her them all back (Marie can read a book in an hour so I'm sure she is not quite sure why it's taken me since May!).

Also this week I will be having another shot at this:

We have a new recruit too so hopefully I won't feel so uncoordinated on my own!

This week I also have a super top secret crafty project to finish. Started it last night and so looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

This week I am also hoping to at least make a dent in the jeans quilt (that was started, ahem, at Xmas!).

This week we also have playdates with Mandy and the girls, then on Friday this motley-looking crue (there's the rock chick coming out!) are getting together:

However, as it's been 2 1/2 years since we've all been together, there is now the addition of this little miss:

3 mums, 7 kids? The odds ain't looking good for any form of sanity to be left by the weekend! Luckily I have a day of scrapping on Saturday to ease my frayed nerves!

And if that isn't enough, I'm debating a little trip to The Deep on Sunday! Sitting down? Sleeping? Over-rated if you ask me! ;)

I Think Elton Got It Wrong

Elton John sang 'Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word' but I have to disagree, I think Goodbye is the hardest word.

I'm very blessed when it comes to friends, I have many good friends and I am constantly grateful for that. My friends are very important to me which is why today is so hard. My close friend (and neighbour and fellow scrapper) is moving today. Not only is she moving house she is moving country, back to South Africa!

We've not known her and her hubby Marc too long, they only moved in 3 years ago, but when it comes to friendship it is definately quality and not quantity that counts. Lauren was the one who looked after my kids when I had the emergency op, was straight up here arguing with doctors on the phone when I had the pneumonia. We've had lots of lovely scrapping dates, she's brought me wonderful scrapping goodies from her travels and we've had some lovely evenings with a cheeky bottle (or 4) of red with her and Marc!

Then last year they added this little cutie to their family, who Auntie Lou absolutely adores:

But, Lauren misses her family back in SA so much (and I don't blame her, I've met them and they're wonderful!) so they're moving back there. The house is packed up and the furniture is setting sail on a ship, so today Lauren, Marc and Abi are heading down to spend some time with Marc's parents before they fly out. Which means the dreaded 'G' word for us.

Rob's taken the kids to his mum's today (assignment deadline looming so Clare's having Em for a few days, thanks MIL!) so we went down to L&M's this morning so he and the kids could say good bye. I took my camera so we could get some parting shots. Abi and Lauren having fun in the empty house:


Rob and Marc having a manly goodbye - ie talking about boilers and stop cocks!

Me and my lovely friend:

Emily gives the girls a hug goodbye:

And Xander and Marc have a manly hug:

And finally, Lauren and I with our offspring. Although they now won't grow up together I hope they all keep intouch over the years.

So, I still have to go and wave them off and I can already feel the tears building up. However, we've already started pricing up flights to SA next summer and they will be back visiting to see Marc's parents, so I'm determined it's only good bye for now!

Good luck Lauren, Marc and Abi and thank you for being truely wonderful friends!

Chop Chop!

Em and I had a little hairdresser's trip yesterday. Although she had lovely long hair:

It was getting really hard to control as it got very tangled (and she always got food in it somehow!). So it was agreed that once she'd been a bridesmaid we would get it cut. So yesterday we went to the hairdressers and she loved it, felt very grown up having her hair washed, cut and blow dried (oh and straighteners and shine spray!) and here's the result, a nice new sleek shiny do for Em:

And, in a complete turnaround for me, I scrapped the pictures on the same day (OK, still have Em's baby pics to be scrapped!):

So hopefully, we'll have less hairbrushing arguments now every morning!

Do I Need A DNA Test?!

There's never been any denying my kids' parenatge, all I ever hear is 'oh, don't they look like Rob'. Grrrr, yeah 'cause he did all the work!

However, there now seems to be some suspicion that about 3 1/2 years ago I went chasing round after boy bands! I thought I'd kept this quiet until those pesky tabloids got involved.

Here's Xander on holiday with us:

And here he being papped on holiday with his alleged real dad, Mark Owen from Take That:

Wonder if I can get him to come and take over for the school holidays, maybe he can do the potty training!

Jelly Belly!

There are some things you just get stuck with in life, mine is my belly! In my early twenties I would spend hours in the gym trying to get a nice flat washboard stomach, but even when I was down to a size 8, it still looked like blamange!

So, 15 years, 4 dress sizes and 2 kids later it ain't going to happen now is it?!

So, to embrace it! I'm very limited what exercise I can do these days; scaffolding holding up your main artery and scarred lungs sort of rule out marathons (yeah, coz I'd have done one before!). I tend to stick to walking and my Wii Fit but with lots of my friends joining gyms and taking up running (you know who you are!) I felt a little left out that I didn't have a 'thing'. Until the lovely Uma came into my life that is!

Uma's my scrapbooking crop buddy and she's in to lots of alternative exercises. She put up on our crop thread a couple of weeks ago that she was going to a local belly dancing class, if anyone would like to join her? Oooh me thinks, I quite fancy that! Anyway, our schedules didn't match up then but last night I headed into the city and met up with her and did my first ever class! It was fab!

Wanna see a picture:

Hmm yes, well that does sum up my elegance a bit but I gave it a good go and the instructor said I did well for a first timer and do you know what? I'm going to go again!

So yay for embracing your wobbly bits! Finally I've found something that is more atuned to us jelly belly girls!