The summer sunSHINEY is here!

[NormaSknockers]

Welcome, welcome one & all to our 8356th thread if your name's not down then come in anyway!

If you're wanting to lose weight, improve your diet or chat about absolutely anything from feta cheese to boobaloobas you're in good company, just dive in & get chatting.

Oh and, beware the penguins!

OMG forgot to add for Vinny's date! I'm so sorry, what a disappointment that must have been.

I am exhausted, if I ever say I am getting the paddling pools out for the boys, will you please remind me of how I feel now?
It is just a sludge fest out there now.
They turned the slide into a water slide and to be honest it looked fab.
Not sure how good it was from a Health and Safety point of view, but I just carried on making my kebabs in the kitchen and dreamt of Pimms (yeah yeah, have changed my mind).

Bella, you would scream at the mess they make!!!

Aw Mittz I would love a pond. My first house had one with frogs in and I used to catch the tadpoles in a fishing net. Could sit there for hours.
I was 24 yrs old but I was living alone miles away from friends and family.

We get dragonflies Lizzy, The whole thing is mesmerising. I lie and satre into it just watching life on a completely different level. It is very grounding..

God what a dick, just got to the 'get them out of my face' bit. Jeez run Vin.

Watched 'He's just not that into you' the other night (did I already share that, can't remember?) anyway, not my usual cup of tea but really enjoyed it and it was soooo true in places.

SAF - Think its different in different places, round here all parents go to all parties (usually BOTH parents too). There's only 12 in class so everyone knows each other quite well and use as chance to supervise. Dc are now 5 so prob too young to leave anyway. My nephew though, also 5, all parents at those parties leave. I couldn't cope with leavers because dd's parties are always at play type places so there's no way I'd want responsibility for 11 other kids, I couldn't do it. House parties I think they would leave them maybe? Who knows, parties are a bloody minefield

Right-oh, I have to go out now and do a bit of tutoring- this radical reduction in drinking has meant I have felt far more human today than I usually do on a Sunday, so it shouldn't be too hard to crank my brain into gear. Hopefully I will be coming home to a nice barbie in the back yard. See you all tonight

except it is rather off putting when the fish are frisky. poor critters round here wouldnt stand a chance. ds is a devil with his net. And someone got him a pond dipping kit for his brithday, I had to ask if it was an invitation to pond dip. Needles to say i got a look.

Lizzy, pimms has been earnt enjoy. And agree Bella would if she could see the mess round here. I reckon it will take a few hours to discover the bath tub later. It is going to be truely gross considering what ds is like. Tea will be in the garden, so that i can avoid him coming in before bedtime. Needless to say escaping out didnt happen.

Alice, you ok? Are you fed up of resting yet?

BoF - can I just say it is nice to have you back - so refreshing. >

Lizzy, I really thought you wrote "Mitz, I would love a PROD" (what's that all about I wondered?) then I had another read

DS2 is feral as well you know and one of the muckiest boys around these parts...

Parents garden has brook at bottom, I used to play in it for hours, happy days.

I'm currently suffering from house/garden envy. Was at brother's house all day yesterday at niece's bday party. There garden is about 80ft wide by 100ft long. They have a massive TP toys fort and swing and slide and hammock thingy plus a 14ft trampoline and still 'acres' of room. Its all mature trees and shrubs all round so totally private and beautiful. The cars on the drive when we got there yesterday were Jag, Audi A5, BMW X5, Porsche Carrera, Volvo XC90 and then there was my Mazda 2 . All the women were thin. And none of them work. And all of them have cleaners. (All my prejudices coming out now!!)

The house is massive and has a play room, 5 bedrooms, 2 ensuites, 1 jack and jill, another bathroom and a downstairs loo.

Argh!!!!!!! Sorry just incredibly jealous that they can just put kids in back garden or can put all toys in massive playroom and have a lovely tidy house. They've got 2 electric cars, DD loved them but they'd have nowhere to go in our garden.

fluffy - we dont have any grass here. paths and raise flower beds, with a small barked area for ds' climbing frame. doesnt seem to stop ds though we do have to go to the park for him to practise his football. or just get him to practise at his dad's.

Big gardens are lovely though, but can take a lot to time to look after properally. Would love to have a garden to look after.

Fluffy, I always feel like when I go to my friend's house, it is massive and lovely and they are wadded. To be honest I am not overly keen on a lot of her new friends, they are shallow and a bit dim but born into/married money and are a bit "Cheshire set". I have worked out who has had botox and I know a few have had lipo

Our garden is OK, but not massive ( or even big) by any stretch of the imagination. And it is now Shrek's swamp.

Hey ho.

I feel quite envious of a few of my friends and their land and beautiful houses, but i do love our little house. We went to see friends last sunday and their house is HUGE, but only 5 rooms are liveable in, heating isn't great and constant work is costing a fortune. A cleaner would be great atm.......

And yes, i am bored of resting. But i get so tired and sore from doing the basic things that it makes me grumpy and so it goes on. Went to Waitrose this morning and it may not have been ideal from a physical pov, but it was great for the mind (think Breakfast at Tiffany's, but Waitrose instead) We are going to the horses shortly, i have a fold up chair and can sit and supervise see the horses Each day at a time, every week makes a huge difference etc.....

DH is making homemade burgers this evening, so good bit of iron there, and will have lots of lovely healthy salad stuff in it too

I must admit I don't think I'd swap with any of the set of his friends. All the wives seem very surrendered wife. The husbands all do stuff in the city, and the deal seems to be that the wives get cleaners/nannies/don't work/gym memberships BUT the husbands talk to them like pieces of dirt. And they seem to have to stay a size 8 and immaculate, they can't all be that way naturally can they?

Also whereas DP is constantly playing with our dcs and any others who were there,none of their husbands moved. Wives got them beers (!) and ran round after children, Hs just sort of st, drank and talked. Bloody weird. Hope DP gets no ideas

I'm afraid I prefer earning my own cash. Obviously if i get the cleaner/house/garden/stay at home AND still get everything done for me I'll consider it

I agree Fluff, but those women work very hard for what they have. They can't be happy, just being a 'thing' the same as the cars, house etc. There is a lot to lose if their H's aren't happy. Much better to be scruffy and loved

plus i am too opinionated to be surrendered.

Also are the kids allowed to be ferral? cos to me that is the most important part of childhood. being allowed to be ferral!

Just hoping we can avoid ticks this summers, or hospital stays maybe tree climbing in the forest would be tempting fate

at getting Bella to put her killer heals on again to get DH to deal with the Ants!

Vin I'm still shuckling at 'stick them in my handbag' And to think you shaved yourself to within an inch of your life for that wasok!

at Fluffy trying to think of ways to bump her brother off, trips him on the stairs?

I guess the things with houses is though that whilst you're envious of someone else's there's always someone who's envious of yours too. I like our house but I don't love it, I go round some of my friends & think 'oh I wish my house was/looked like this' but then on the other hand I have 2 friends who wish they had mine so maybe even if we had our 'dream home' we'd still be envious of someone else's IYKWIM?

Norma - stop being sensible and get back to helping me bump the bugger off. If I bump him/sil/niece and nephew AND sil's brother off I get the whole £2m to myself. If sil's brother still alive I only get the £1m. AIBU to be envisaging aeroplane crashes as we speak (feels shame as truly loves family, but seriously I think I love £1m )

Another 'Is This Weird?' from the house of fluff for you... DP counted yesterday and he said within first 10 mins I'd had 5 insults/criticisms off my parents, only ones I even noticed were 'why is she wearing that?' re dd2, 'WATCH HER EYES!!!!' as I put screamcream on dd2 (NOT in her eyes I hasten to add!).

Then just before we left I was merrily eating a second mini meringue from the buffet, so my dad comes over and says 'That's your 3rd fatso! On a diet I see!!' and THEN grabs my upper arm to illustrate how fat I am. Is this normal??

Oi SAF, get back here and tell me you're not plotting my doom after I laughed at your dad cutting your back lawn

saf - when my brother/sil/niece/nephew came up to dds last but one birthday party, the car had a blow out on the motorway, narrowly avoided death, very shook up etc.

Am ashamed to say I did have a few days minutes fantasing about what I was going to spend the £1m on. That's really bad isn't it?????

its coffin dodgers SAF not 'grave'

I think i am going to pop. someone remind me next time i am talking about making pizza for tea that it is NOT a good idea and I will eat far too much. I feel like i could sleep for a week. ds is again ferral. good job know can care that he is running about the garden in boxers having taken his wet shorts off earlier. Although the butter wouldnt melt look he has on his face right now means i am going to have to go find out what he has been up to

Is it bedtime yet?

Fluffy, that sort of talk ain't normal - not in my family anyway...

ULQ - I am tired too.

Me and DS are comparing muscles! .. I love that boy!!

Fluffy, there is patches of that but we can be very openly hostile. Two of us cant be in the same room for 5 mins without world war errupting! Right now one is over heating, one is watching tv, one is stomping heavy bags about and complaining about lack of help to move. Would love to help but I have a medical note, but that seems to have been forgotten and the pizza has done little to tame the beast. Crumble neither.

Not like that Fluffy but my Dad makes negative comments about women and what they are 'like' all the time. And if you respond he gets this smarmy weird look on his face as if to say 'there you go proving me right'. I love him in some ways but he is odd.

When I went to Uni to study art (15 1/2 yrs ago) he told me he would never discuss art with me again.. and hasn't. He mentioned the fact that I paint for the first time last week, and when I gave him a painting for his birthday, he said.. 'hmmm.. a painting, and put it to one side'. I worshipped him in the way that daughters do but he has done a lot to mess with my head.