June 08 - 42 days til Christmas, and Deb is coming home!!

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

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Bugger that sounds awful, I really don't know what to say. Like Amber says maybe Christmas will give you time away from horridness (and r&r for your DP too - but that's hard on you as well obv). Glad you're back tho.

14th Jan - excellent day to be born. (Actually, if I'm honest, it's not really - nobody wants to celebrate on 14th Jan, it's the lowest point in January I swear!)

Bugger sorry you've had such a tough time, lots of hugs and I'm glad you're back.

Bugger, so sorry to hear you've been having such a difficult time. Sending virtual hugs your way. (it's WhatWouldLeoDo aka DGIT)

Nice to see you Bugger, so sorry for your losses. Life has a nasty habit of throwing things at us all at once and for a while it seems as if all you can see is sadness. Big hugs and hope a restful Christmas will help you recharge, you must be exhausted.

Bugger so sorry to hear your sad news. It must be very hard to come to terms with. Be gentle to yourself, it will take time.

Not sure how up to date you are/aren't? I had my baby at the start of November, a boy, William. All going well.

I think I must be going mad but I am having really serious cravings for chalk!! What does it mean?

Bugger, so sorry to hear your news, take care of yourself

Chalk - not that weird, is it? I think it's one of the unusual but common cravings? That and coal?

Chalk - might that mean you could do with a bit more calcium?

Amber - I'm living on gaviscon tablets and they taste just like chalk, may satisfy your craving. (Penguin here BTW). The opposite of craving here, I haven't been able to go near meat for about a month having been a committed carnivore my whole life! (Being veggie not good here, no veggie burgers or sausages anywhere, I'm making my own).

Bugger - What an awful time for you. I hope that spending time with family over xmas helps in some way.

Dewin - Mid Jan pretty good in NZ. Everything shuts down for most of Jan to enjoy the sun, much like Paris or New York does in August, so might have to send DS2 to NZ for his bday if/when we come back to Europe. Or just go snowboarding!

Spider - Just checked on FB for new photos and there aren't any there. {stern look]. . I missed the name chat, is there any history/meaning behind Serlo? It's a great name.

Oh and what's the deal with the emoticon?

Bugger so sorry to hear your news. It is so distressing to suffer one loss, two must be really awful for you.

Amber I would think it is a calcium thing too (I popped cubes of cheese like a drug through one of my pregnancies ) I would try that before you actually start licking chalk! It is a really common craving though I think so I doubt it is anything to worry about.

It is so cold here this morning. One of those incredibly frosty mornings when the frost is visible in the air itself. I went into the conservatory to check the back doors were locked last night and my breath was frosting in there it was so cold! I was a bit concerned by that given we have a radiator and washing machines pipes in there and immediately turned the heating back on.

Amber, my first response to the chalk questions was 'it probably means you're pregnant ', but I see everyone else has got in with the pregnancy craving chat already.

After a weekend's respite from the snow, it's back with a vengeance today . We managed to get the car out of our estate this weekend so got food and a christmas tree and my sister was still able to come and visit so managed to have a lovely weekend. Looking at the path we'd cleared yesterday though, we seem to have had about 4 inches this morning with no sign of any let up.

No buses are coming around my area at the moment - so many cars are parked so far out from the pavement on the main road because of snow drifts etc, there isn't enough room for buses to pass each other on the road, so they've diverted miles away. Last week it took us about 2 hours to get to work/nursery when the buses were still running around here - heaven knows how long it will take this week!

Spider we're making cards today too! Whenever we've done anything like that in the past S usually disappears after about 2 minutes (when it's taken me about 20 minutes to dig out all the stuff). He was quite good today though.

S helped decorate the tree for the first time yesterday, which was loads of fun. He didn't mind me following him round and moving the decorations either . Neenz I think you said on fb that you put the twins in their highchairs because they kept running around the tree - I've got a friend with 3 kids and they have one beautifully decorated (by the grown ups) tree in their living room and another tree in the playroom that they let the kids loose on. Maybe an idea for you next year if you've got the space for a second small tree. Some tinsel, gaudy baubles, and some flashing lights and they'd likely have a whale of a time!

Right, Thomas the tank engine is finished so tea break over! Sorry, quite self-indulgent post .

Hi eeny (Penguin) what's with the name or is that a clue to the sproggin? I have been eating Gaviscon tablets but they've made them extra creamy and not so chalky. What I need is old fashioned Rennie but I don't think preggo ladies are allowed. I have looked on t'internet and it's called Pica. Can mean short of calcium or iron. Mark thinks I've gone mad as I am also craving chemical smells like Finish dishwasher tablets .

What does everyone think about X Factor? I read that they usually do just the public vote to get into the final but this year decided to do the judges vote. Funny that eh? I think Cher would've gone. Can't stand her but not too keen on Mrs Shouty either. Also don't they normally only have 3 in the final?

Ironic, Amber, because chemical smells make me puke at the moment! Do a search on mumsnet as well - there are people on here who actually ate sticks of chalk!!

X-factor - like HardandSleazy I have a bit of a problem in caring for any of them. I reckon one direction might win it, but I also thought Cher would go if it was the public vote - she is so annoying, and she sang out of tune and chose her final song badly as well (choral singer here...!) But they were all raving about Mary Byrne but I found her to be shouty and dull, a one-trick pony. (But, Dannii and Cheryl were always sooooo patronising: 'you look so lovely tonight' i.e. code for 'you're an old fat woman but you've made a bit of an effort with make up and stuff and it's not too bad'. And the whole 'real woman' business.)
I think Rebecca is really dull, and has a nasty tone to her voice at times, Cher is awful, Matt is also dull, and one direction are so young I could be their mother so I object on that basis.

Sorry got all passionate there about x-factor!

I'm the same on xfactor Dewin - I'm not actually fussed who wins. Everyone who I thought would be in the final was though. I don't mind Rebecca and Matt, have the same mother ishoos about One Direction, and swing between liking Cher and thinking she's really annoying.

I thought Mary's second song on Saturday night really killed her off (not that she had any chance of winning). No doubt she'll have an album of covers out at some point for sale in Tesco.

I'm looking forward to the final though - but only because we're going to friends to stay for the night, who happen to be really good fun, so we'll no doubt have a very entertaining and opinionated evening.

Amber I think they might have had 4 in the final last year, but can't quite remember.

You're OK with Rennies Amber, my pg friend was praising them to the skies last week so I checked for you www.rennie.co.uk/pregnancy/. Better than actual chalk anyway surely!

Arseholes!!I have pepto bismol and Gaviscon but no rennies - will put the on my shopping list now - hurrah!!!! It was Olly, Joe and Stacey in the final last year. 4 in the semis with Danyl Johnson.

You're right Amber, there were only 3. Maybe because there was more contestants this year? Not sure how many double evictions they did.

Well the rumours are they changed the format so they could have all 4 in this year (as there are 4 good ones)

mincepie no more snow here over the weekend and the council just spent the day with diggers and dumptrucks removing all the snow from the village streets - it was impressive with the amounts but still, I've never heard of snow actually being moved! Our streets were down to narrow single lanes but still, seems odd when we're supposed to be dealing with cutbacks...

Crikey that is impressive Abdn! I wish someone would come and shift ours.

Any Corrie fans on the thread? Am just watching the build up to the big explosion!

Thanks for all the messages.

Spider, congratulations, how lovely. I'm sorry I'm so behind on new baby/pregnancy chat, so congratulations to anyone else I've missed.

Nightmare day here today, got to nursery and work fine this morning - roads good for driving, but it was rough walking, but still ok. And then the snow came down and kept on coming. Nursery rang to say they were closing, so I headed off, to find all public transport was suspended, so I walked, took almost 2 hours. I knew my car was stuck, so called DP who kept trying all the roads to get to us for several hours. Sheltered with B in a cafe, brilliant and v sympathetic staff, and B was pretty good all considered. DP finally made it about 10 mins before the cafe closed, and it took over an hour and a half and a v scary drive before we got home.

Abdn, that is impressive. The ploughs and gritters just couldn't go anywhere here today cos the roads were blocked with abandoned and broken down cars, buses, jack knifed lorries, etc.

KeepCalm etc, glad you've got your tree. Ours is in the loft - artificial this year, can't be arsed with the needles.

bugger we didn't have any new snow today - I guess this was them trying to stay on top of it in case we get more snow (we really were running out of places to put it) but isn't it supposed to be 7 degrees on the weekend? (and my DH is in the back garden flooding the in-progress ice rink with the garden hose - he's going to be gutted if it melts before we skate on it).

Crumbs, I have a friend who's been stuck on the M8 since 3.30