D'y ever wonder why its ALWAYS this time of night when we start a new thread!!

[shabbapinkfrog]

Still searching the shag pile for my Faliraki flip flops!!!

Thank you Shabs...............feeling very low........xx

Oh Trips - that is really sad, and, no, he was not "only a cat", he was a member of your family. Did your neice have an epidural, as sometime a sligh leak of CSF from the site can cause problems such as you are describing, hope she is well and home with her DH and babe soon. Hope your kids are ok, and that you have a wonderful time with Ruby and co tonight.
Hi Shabs-math! I truly hate math, I have to do it, but never got to grips with the advanced stuff, I leave that to DH. I even went to classes when boys were at primary to learn how to help them with "new" math!
Chops - We really wanted to go to America next year too, but its not going to happen, what with finances and my operation. We put the heating on for 3 hrs on Saturday as it was so cold, resisted having it on since then.
We are off to Chessington tonight, we were going to go up and back in one day as I have the free tickets, and didnt think we could afford to stay ovenight, but I went on line to look at cost of late booking, more in hope than expecting to find anything, and as I was looking at a £89 family room in the Chessington Premier, it suddenly dropped to £49 including breakfast for the 4 of us! I booked it straight away, so we are travelling up at about 6 this evening, and coming back tomorrow. (I did think about trying to sneak into London for the meet Trips, but dont think DH and kids would be too happy!)

Oh Bubby - I had an epidural with my twins.....epidurals, in my opinion, are the work of the bloody devil. I remember having hallucinations in the middle of the night the day the twins were born, and being told 'dont worry its probably because of the epidural I felt more ill after I had my babies than before. I never had a migraine before I was pregnant with the twins either.

Every single thing I put on my birth plan with them was ignored and the total opposite happened. it was a horrible time - both emotionally and physically x

Tom has a temperature of 38 - a runny ear , has lost his voice and has a headache - that must be what last nights meltdown was all about......just opened his bedroom window because his room stinks of 'ill teenage boy' Dosed him up with paracetamol and he just drank about a pint of fresh orange juice - then went back to sleep!!

Feeling drained emotionally. Very confused, the lady who saw the cat came her today and saw a pic of Ollie. She says she isn`t sure its the same cat, this one is more fluffy, he had short fur. The gardener who cannot seem to be traced took the cat to a vet to be scanned for a chip, none was found so she took the cat home and buried it. I have phoned every vet and no-one has had a dead cat brought in. So bloody awful not knowing. Need to get my puffy eyes sorted before I meet the mighty Rubester tomorrow!

Trips make sure you give the mighty Rubester a massive hug from me please. Make sure you pack your Faliraki tassels xxx

Thanks Shabs...........wish you were with us xx
I won`t be back here until Mon, 2 whole nights away:)

Wish I was as well - will be there with you in spirit LOL xxx

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy my friend. Life is too short to waste a great opportunity like this. Make sure you grab Rubester, donkey scrub her and give her a massive snog from me please xx

Morning girls xx

Hi woken up with a headache and feeling dizzy. Desp upset about Ollie so am ot in a min posting pictures:(
Right better pack my glad rags for the shin dig!
Back Mon, have a lovely w/end:)

Trips- hope you had a nice time last night, so sorry about Ollie. Wish I could have been with you and Rubes last night.
Back from our day at Chessington, because I had my stick, and had rented a mobility buggy, they gave us a fast pass for the rides! M&J ecstatic as they didnt have to queue Only thing is I will NEVER share a room with 2 kids again, very little sleep last night, be glad to get in own bed tonight.

LOL - she is lovely - verrrrrrrrrrrrry tall and very lovely xx

Back to reality, M kicking off because I wont send an email to his english teacher explaining why he hasnt done homework given on Thursday, I told them both to do all homework before we went away, and they both swore they had done it, he has also had all of today to get it done, and he now says he doesnt understand what he has to do, because he hasnt written it in his planner properly, and refuses to ring one of his class mates to find out. I am now an "unfeeling cow who wouldnt care if he jumped off a bridge" because I have said that if I send the email, I will put exactly the above, and not tell lies to cover his lazyness! It was always J who wouldnt do homework before, and now it has swapped over, J gets on with it, M gives every excuse under the sun not to do it
Oh-and DH is angry at me because M is kicking off and disturbing him, and thats all my fault as well becaus I am deliberatly antagonising M.
Honest opinion girlies, should I send an email just to keep the peace, or stick to my guns that they are responsible for sorting out their own homework, and if they havent done it, they should take the consequences, even if it means a shouting, sulking, missile throwing pre-teen?

Morning girls xx

Bubby - I think you should stick to your guns - Im too soft with Tom and sometimes give in.....it teaches him nothing at all. x

Morning girls.

Hope you had a good weekend, trips and rubes! And hope Olly has returned.

Bubby, I'd stick to your guns too. I have so many similar problems with dd and if I gave her an inch she'd just take a mile next time. She went out after school every day last week, telling me she was going to work at the weekend. Fri she was moaning she had a huge amount of homework, sat she went out again. So sunday she missed out on a planned cinema trip to do the work.

Shabs, is tom any better now?

Chops - he is a massive bag of snot (his words not mine) LOL.

We are struggling so much with his Maths work. He 'fast tracked' his Maths last year but now they are doing advanced Maths GCSE he is struggling with most of the stuff they are teaching. The revision books we have dont have the subjects in that he is doing. I then realised we need the next books in the series - the AS level books. He has been doing 'surds' this weekend - to be honest, it may as well be written in Russian because I dont have a clue how to help him. We ended up googling the subject and trying to sort it from there....so we could do the 50 (yes bloody 50) sums his teacher gave him. Its NOT as hard as we thought but for hours he struggled. Am looking forward to June next year when his GCSE's are done and he is free from his High school.

aww poor tom, it sounds like a nightmare. I've not even heard of surds neither!

What does he plan to do after June?

surds (or turds as we lovingly call them) are all to do with square roots - multipling and dividing them. No, dont ask, they are confusing squiggles on a piece of paper!!

He hopes to go to college to do their design and graphics course. He wants to eventually design video games. College do a great course involving programming, graphics, design etc etc. THEN if he does well there and still wants to design games our newly opened Bolton Uni do the most amazing 3 year course. The course involves programming, graphics, photography, design, advertising - it sounds amazing. He has great dreams and hopes.

He is also been promised 6 months work at the hotel we go to in Rhodes. The year he is 18 they want him to go and work the season. The elderly man who actually owns the hotel sat and talked to him about it in August. I think that would be brilliant for him and give him loads of confidence.

it all sounds amazing! Except for the turds

He should def do the hotel thing, the only thing I would be a little bit worried about is will he want to come back after? Speaking from experience, it can be really hard to face going back to education after working. I lasted 6 months at uni after a year out working. Not sure I would want to leave the sunshine neither!

You know what Chops? I just want him to get his GCSE's and then his A levels at College. IF he does go and work at the Venezia and decides he wants to stay then good luck to him and I will back him all the way. Life is so short...so very short....he needs to be doing something that will put a bit of cash in his pocket and make him smile from ear to ear. All I want for my sons is for them to be happy, to be decent people and to have a fiver left in their pocket the day before they get paid.

Tom was asked to help out in the Music department at school - they were having an open night to show year 7's what the school is like. He said to the teacher 'I cant, Im sorry but I cant - my Gran has got Alzhaimers and I dont know how long I will have with her....because up to now she still knows me. Gran and Grandad pick me up and we go to their house on a Thursday. Sorry but my Gran is more important than school.' THATS the kind of thing that matters to me. xx

Hi Chops - they never learn, do they.
Shabbs - your Tom sounds a wonderful boy- any tips on where I am going wrong??
I did stick to my guns, and, you know what, a miracle occured! The A4 info sheet about the homework "suddenly" appeared in his text book, so he did it last night, finishing about 9pm!
However, it was my fault this morning the car had a flat tyre and I couldnt give them a lift to the bus stop on my way to work (for which I was going to be late anyway), and they would get soaked! My suggestion they wear their coats was met with that withering look that all pre-teen and teenagers have perfected

aww that's lovely.

tbh, I've got the same sort of thing going on with dd. She really isn't academic at all, but I want her to at least get her GCSEs, and then she wants to travel, she is thinking of au pairing in America then coming back to work in childcare.

I just wish she would at least work a bit to at least get her GCSEs! I think it is so hard cos they start them so young, when really they should still be chilling a bit. At 12 I was out all the time, with my friends, socialising, barely any homework. But dd has already started French GCSE, and her french is diabolical, so she is going to really struggle. Once she starts struggling with something she jsut wants to bury her head in the sand and hope it goes away - hence the skiving a couple of weeks ago.

It's frustrating cos I do want to help her, but she just ignores the problem until it escalates out of all proportion. She jsut isn't ready for GCSEs yet!