Meet in the middle at the schultuete shop!

[PiratesKnittingTreasure]

Here we are .

Hellooo!

I'm slightly concerned that the thread title draws a lot of attention to itself in Active Convos, but then I don't expect it's busy enough to stay in AC for long .

It does draw attention :o. Aren't they those cones full of sweets that German children get on the first day of school? I was desperate to be German when I was little. I also wanted a satchel

yes they are!

Hello I found you!

Hi Deb, have fun at IKEA today - very !

Have a friend coming over for lunch and then packing to go to Brighton to see my parents. Dad is very ill but going to take him to Bluebell to cheer him up.

LG, have you been yet? The boys will love it .

Oh - am sorry about your dad pirates and deb good luck about ikea trip but I can see how news on Ethan takes time to process.

In hospital so back to post later- great British bake off tonight lag

Hello!

I'm really sorry to hear about your dad Pirates

Good for E on his 4 mile walk Deb - I don't think DS could do that! He gets carted around by car far too much . I'm not surprised you're feeling sad about the DX either. I don't really know much about CP - what will it mean for him in the long term?

at jealousy on Deb's ikea trip Pirate. I'm never out of the place.

Starting to get in an absolutely panic about my report - just about finished lit review, but I don't think I've approached it the right way at all, nor have I included enough stuff. Gulp. Deep breaths.

Will pop back later..

Thanks guys - he's booked in for a 2 hr scan on his heart and lungs this Friday so hopefully we'll know more after that. Although the appt with the consultant to give him his results is not til the end of September .

MSS, not surprised you're struggling with your report - I remain in awe at your ability to study, work and be a mum . Hope you're worrying about nothing though and it will all be over soon x

As for IKEA, despite living in the SE of England I have to travel over an hour to get to an IKEA !! However, planning permission has now been granted to open one at Jct 12 of the M4 - NCT girls' nights out will be sorted after that !

That's a long wait for an appt Pirates - I hope you get some information on Friday.

Don't be in awe of me - I just do most things badly . One way or another I only have a week and a half left and then I'll need to think about how I can spend my weekends and evenings (as opposed to either studying properly or procrastinating while supposed to be studying).

I have an 80s party to look forward to once my report is complete - but no outfit as yet!!!! Any suggestions? Everything I've come across is too short or too sleeveless and fancy dress party or not, my thighs, knees and upper arms are best kept under wraps these days. DH keeps telling me he's thinking about his costume but he hasn't got further than that.

Gig - how's the hospital this week? Any food stories? I hope you're feeling ok.

Yes hope you get info on Friday as the longer the wait the more you worry.

Deb how are you doing? Is room all prepared for German girl? And how are you feeling about Ethan (although agree that his walking sounds excellent)? It must be very hard as we naturally want to protect our kids.

Lag how you doing?

Am in hospital (and as you know was fine before I got here) but when they started to put drugs in on Tuesday , I started a fever. Turns out was another infection on line so gave me drugs for that. Managed to control it well enough so could start chemo yesterday. But the downside was it was very late in day (so didn't finishe til late so I am shattered as little sleep) and whatever they do to me here put my blood levels from normal to anaemic in 24 hours which I hate as means feel yuck as need a transfusoon[angry

Sorry rant there but moral of story is keep out of hospital

The little gigs did come in to visit which was lovely yesterday - they then went to zoo. Baby gig was transfixed by the giraffes as looked like her sophie toy. They are quite funny as baby is definitely startin to get cross with her big sister - tried to pull her hair when big took her Sophie toy to play with.

And secret I hope report is going on and Ikea browsing/80s costume hunting (surely Glenn medeiros could offer some inspirafio) not too distracting

Bah - may be in a few more days while finish antibiotics ( times like this you would welcome the normal trip to boots or gp route). good news is after this they are removing my line which seems to be the problem (bloody irony with everything else and all the potential things I could get its the line that was meant to be convenient that is the issue).

Need your rl posts to distract please.

Oh and some ideas for girls christening (to which you are welcome if you are free - can pm details). It's on a moored boat in central London where will have service then buffet tea/party. So what do I need to do (obviously invites but food, drink ideas and ideas for entertaining kids. Also what type of cake- pirate what did you do for boys naming).

about hospital.

Re christening, will have think when back home but cake was made by a friend both times - gorgeous balloons 1st time and loads of chocolate cupcakes made into a train 2nd time, with DS2's name and date on it.

If £ no object I wld go for something pretty fancy for the girls - 2 sep cakes with their own names but tied together in some way (in fact 2 balloons would work well for that). I'm probably not the best person to ask though - I have the creativity of your average amoeba .

oH gIG WHAT A BUGGER,sorry had caps lock on but decided to leave it like that! I will do my best with rl posts when I can. Lovely cakes on here I like the butterfly sparkle and cheeky monkeys

All manic here, bed nearly built for Lisa, Ethan happy now he has new place for his toys, bit stressed that I haven't done any school work yet, Tristan getting worried about Lisa arrviing, and we've also put an offer in on our house I just sneaked that in there to see if you were concentrating.1st offer refused so we put another in late today and haven't heard back yet. Will let you know, haven't told anyone in RL yet

how exciting Deb, link??

Hello,

Sorry for having been AWOL for a few days, especially Gig as you have been looking for distraction. So sorry that you have another infection. Physically are you over the worst of the infection yet? The Christening plans sound fantastic. So, do I infer from Pirate's comments that you are getting both girls "done" together? I've not been to many Christenings, and the ones I have been to were in churches and not on a boat so I doubt I have very many great ideas. Could the cake combine elements of their names? E.g. The Eiffel Tower with ivy growing up it?

Deb! A house! Do link. . I thought of a veggie meal for Nigel to cook: spicy black bean quesadillas. Everyone in our family likes them even though they are a bit spicy. My father even thought they had meat in them. I could probably photograph the recipe and post on FB if it sounds appealing to you? I'm not surprised that you are feeling sad about Ethan's diagnosis. Are you now permanent at the school? I have lost track of what happened with the other teacher.

Pirate - how was the scan, and how is your Dad? Did you get DS1 to paint with him? Hope you enjoyed the train.

Secret - not long now, keep going. My mum is still fixating on your curtain dilemma. She has called to tell me that you can get track that would bend, but I didn't have the heart to tell her you have decided to go for the straight pole.

I have finally come to the end of a very sociable 3 weeks or so. We have been to or had visits from: both sets of GPs; pirate, Canadian cousins x 10, uni mates and offspring x 10, night out at a pub quiz, plus various play dates with local friends. It has been lovely but I'm not a natural hostess (especially of small people).

As of tonight DH is on holiday for a fortnight . He has been working very hard all week trying to get stuff done but he is still going to have loose ends to tie up this weekend I think. Anyone want to lay bets on howard days before he gets manflu? No plans to get away. I can't find enough of a bargain. Plus the idea of packing makes me shudder.

No painting/drawing LAG . It was a bit flat all round tbh - both parents v depressed and quiet, not much help with the kids so I was run ragged, ready bed wouldn't inflate so I ended up with DS1 kicking me all night long. It was not a successful trip .

However, I feel this is going to be what visiting my parents is like for a while now, certainly until they get a diagnosis, so I will just have to suck it up.

Yay to a staycation and thanks for a lovely lunch. It was so sweet to see how well the boys played together .

Oh and sorry about not texting re: pub quiz, the bed nightmare meant the boys didn't get to be til 8.30pm . Did you win?

Oh pirates that is rubbish.
But yay for stay cation lag and I think man flu will be here before Sunday.

Am stuck in here til Tuesday as have 2 unidentified bugs so want to keep giving me Iv antibiotics/checking. I don't feel unwell and no other signs so bloody sods law. I have spent 3 nights with kids in last 4 weeks....

But loving cakes ideas and mulling them all over- two cakes is a very good plan as hadnt thought of that. And If here til Tuesday will have time to plan.

The only upside is after tomorrow morning I will be allowed out for little trips between meds so can go out to eat , shop or even home (might be a stretch).

Aw, that's lovely of your mum LaG! I still haven't decided what to do. My biggest problem really is that if I don't do the straight across option I can only really have bendy track or a pole with rings (of which I have a horrible one now), which means I need pencil pleat curtains and at a nearly 3m pole that's £££££££. The choice for reasonably priced ready made at that width is limited and dull.

DS is clambering over me so got to go for now!

just a quickie to say we've made an offer on the house we're renting, if we can get it cheap enough it releases money to do something else with.Haven't heard anything today so it wasn't a definite no.

Good luck Deb!

Lisa has arrived and is very nice, we were all nervous before, but Ethan broke the ice getting her to play instruments in his show!! Overnight I have become a Mum of 4 (for 10 months)

That's great news that she seems to be joining the family band. Fingers crossed about house.

Still in hospital but hoping to go home for a visit today .

Sorry to hear that you're still in hospital Gig, and also that I've not been around with any distracting inane posts! Busy writing my report - will hopefully finish it today though still have about 3,000 words to do. Actually, I feel like I've had 3,000 words to do forever, despite writing loads over the weekend . I'm really needing to pad it out, when normally my problem is cutting things to fit the word count, so I'm a bit nervous that it's nowhere near good enough.

On the curtains dilemma (did you ask for mindless distracting posts Gig ), I have now seen plain red curtains at very reasonable price that I could put on the existing pole. Red would go fine, but it's a bit dull. So now do I buy those curtains at £200-300 or go with the straight across option to box in the box/bay window with these curtains I like (but will then have to find blinds too - I could get away without blinds with heavy lined pencil pleat curtains I think). Decisions, decisions.

Glad to hear that Lisa has settled in well Deb. Any news on the house yet? How are the veggie ideas coming along? We're prolific carnivores so not much help on that front, but I did think oven-baked risotto or veggie tarts made with puff pastry and selection of veg.

Any manful LaG? Your few weeks at home sounds fun!

Pirate - sorry about the trip to your parents. Big hugs.

Right, it's 9am - I must make a start!