Dec 08 - The One where they take on the world (school)

[DeidreBarlow]

New thread

Tis all about the homey lovely things or toot as DH says and cake.

Hot chocolate & cake for 'high tea'. It's like a family tradition. Oh I'm getting so excited!!

Oooh kayz, get involved!

Had silver white and blue for the last two years. Thinking more silvery white and perhaps a touch of gold this year undecided as of yet. Do love a bit of garland up the stairs, and maybe some fairly lights. Gotta have a really big wreath on the door and of course the icicles out the front. Love a good garden centre in December too

Loving Strictly!

I have mainly reds & golds, but I love the silvery white too. I like Kayz Silvery pink scheme. We are going away to Austria again this year for chrissie week but I shall still buy a tree for home. I think DH finds this bizzare and a waste of money on the tree but a) Christmas is not just one day & b) we live somewhere we can buy a tree from a specially set up street stall at the end of our street and carry it home, potentially with snow falling around us. Who wouldn't buy a tree in those circumstances.

Had a brilliant night last night dh & a bunch of friends and I saw Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet and his band. Was brilliant, felt 25 again....well except when we started jumping up and down and nearly did a little wee.

Hi Spot.

Oh god vag I nearly spat my wine everywhere! Classic.

Struth that Chrissy tree buying scene is every Aussies dream. How could you not! I'm picturing your dh with a tree on his shoulder walking home in the snow and carol singers outside all the houses as you shuffle home through the snow, perhaps stopping for an adult eggnog on the way. Ooo I do love Christmas in a cold country

Hey there Spot! Lovely to hear from you. Do you like working? And how is your DP doing now he is the stay at home parent? Sorry B needed another operation but good news that his meds are reducing. Do you have time off at half term? We are thinking if a thread meet-up, there is a seperate thread in post-natal somewhere.

I'm not ready to think of Christmas yet Ladies. It's coming too quickly. Straight after Christmas I am back to work and that is a really sad thought: the end of my last maternity leave :-( .

Hi SPOT, Lovely to hear from you. Are you enjoying work?

Argh, I have boobageddon. Constantly feeding baby.

Am off out for lunch with my sad oldest sister and her dreaded husband and son and our family. I wouldn't have asked them but today is a year since Dad died and I couldn't bear the thought of her o her own with her horrid husband, so up they come. Sure will be nice and given she hasn't told me about it, am going to plead ignorance and try to have a jolly time. My other sister is doing Go Ape with her family, so its just us.

Right, got a scramer! Loads of love to you all x

Oh no, what have I done! You weren't chatting about Christmas (which I am totally bah humbug about) and now look what's happened . Best get it out of the system early, maybe...

Thanks to everyone who asked about work. I have to say it's not enormously doing for me because 1) of the subject matter (pensions) and 2) the fact it's a public body and therefore I am crushed by the sheer amount of sign off and bureaucracy involved. I also miss the boys, and the feeling is mutual. And DP is not a natural SAHP, although that said, he does loads of things with the boys that I never would (in a good way!) and is a very good teacher, so it's positive on that front. Also hoping that maybe in a year I could apply to drop a day and have a four day week once DP's wedding photography business rakes off. That's one benefit of the public sector - they're normally quite good at enabling flexible working.

Thinking of you on today's anniversary, Beans, and good luck with the dreaded BIL. Given that you're doing so much feeding, maybe you could plead modesty and spend most of the time with your sister in another room somewhere?

Wel jel of your Spandau treat, Vag. Sorry that old age came brutally hurtling via your waterworks. Talking of that, am booked in on 4 Dec for some leaky lady restructuring. Scared, but v much looking forward to being able to run after the boys without fearing for the state of my undergarments.

Arti, blimey, time has flown since you had little DS. I'm not surprised you're feeling a little blue about it. Are you doing the same hours as before? Meet up sounds good, it it avec or sans small ones?

Hi spot. I can change topic again, but only to despicable atrocious toddler behavior at a posh pub. Nearly throttled her, as well as the staff for awfully long wait for food. She went straight to bed out if the car when we got home at 630pm. Am tired, and fuming

No amount of wine can fix this I might add

First night I've settled DD3 in her cot, not down here with us. Eek. Given she is shit at going to sleep at this time of day, I suspect she'll be down here before too long. Don't want her keeping the other 2 up for too long.

Had a lovely lunch with my sister. Honestly, BIL is such a bore, but I can't help feel sorry for him. He looks so very unwell. Massively red, puffy face and terrible cellulitis. My sister had a funny turn during lunch, which she does quite often, apparently. She just went v quiet and rather grey and I asked her if she was ok and she said she was just having one of her turns. Strange that she's so aware of it. It's like a petit mal. But she was v upbeat generally and said that as well as this being a sad date generally, she can now also remember it as the day she met DD3, and so it will be a special as well as sad. Think that's a lovely way to think of it.

God, I love Strictly.

How was everyone else's weekend?

La la la, I can't even think about Christmas!

Oh Rubes, cross posted. Eek. How horrid for you. Nothing worse. What did she do? X

Oh rubes poor you! Was it worse than DS in the supermarket? Try the . It'll numb the pain a little if nothing else

Beans was thinking of you today.

Thanks Deids. Have been remarkably upbeat, apart from a brief weep while changing DD3's nappy. Just felt sad Dad won't meet her. She's ace. If a bit screamy of an evening. She's downstairs again now!

I can feel 3 spikey hairs poking out of my chin. Need to tweeze.

Crikey Rubes no excuses for being that slow with the food at that time. Poor you, way to ruin a potentially nice family afternoon restaurant people.

Beans that 'turn' your sister had seems quite strange, has she had an ecg lately? I think she needs to see someone to check her heart is ok. Don't want to be alarming, it might be a neuro issue as you suggest but if she is having a colour change it is also quite possibly a heart issue. Is she seeing anyone about it? That was very sweet what she said about the date. How are you feeling about this particular date?

Had a very slow start to the weekend yesterday as dh & I were a bit hungover from Friday evenings shenanigans. Was so much fun to go out to a gig together, we've always loved live music. We did manage to get to the beach after lunch and to an electronics store (the boys are making robots next weekend with DH while I'm in London, he is definitely the fun parent). Electronics stores make me so sleepy.

Today poor ds1 was super busy, he had a gymnastics trial and then we had to drive straight to Amsterdam for a Suzukidag concert. The concert was so cool, the head of suzuki music in NL organised all the different suzuki teachers to bring their students all together and perform enmasse. It was so beautiful, cellos, violins, classical guitars, piano, flutes, even a piano accordion & a recorder. All the kids were amazing and they all loved it too. Such a nice way to experience music.

Urgh entire post lost.
much better until that!! Will summarize
Beans hope you're ok x
Dd tired. Pub cocked up. Disaster in kitchen we think. So yes lack of food a big part of the problem.
Got free drinks tho but kids too far gone by then.
Dh took kids round park while I sat in pub and read (barely) some work stuff. Dd tired after. Massive meltdown over helmet related hair clip lost. Then no food forever. She was a proper cow. Easier to say what she didn't do! But really really tired. And poor thing v v hungry. Asleep by 630.
Must go as am tired after already constructing post that vanished!

Hope all are ok x

Vag, I might suggest an ECG. Especially as Dad had a pacemaker and I've got an ectopic heartbeat, so we do have a history of heart stuff in the family. Thank you. She's seeing a shrink, who I think is doing more harm than good. She is totally wallowing in herself and is SO self-absorbed that its quite shocking. Never asks anyone any questions about themselves and talks constantly about herself.

Rubes, I hope you managed to get to sleep ok, without any more stress. I am doing my first dream feed at the mo, as DD3 wouldn't wake up even after a nappy change and I thought my right boob was going to pop!!! V successful. Am empty! Yay!

Have mentioned ECG to DSis. She is going to talk to her GP about it, which is good.

Hope everyone ok and I haven't broken the thread. Lady, are you out there?

Am here and about to read back and then treat myself to a big fat post I'm really behind, sorry girls. I've just been at pre-school a lot and I'm behind with everything and a bit frazzled. Right, will read back now and make a coffee.

Right! I am going to bore on about myself first I am just really struggling with organising my life and feel like I am not doing anything that well, just a lot of thing badly. I suppose I just get sucked into things. Being chair of the Pre-School is taking up a lot of my time as we are the employers of the staff and also I am changing the entire form of the pre-school because at the moment all committee members have unlimited liability It's a lot of paperwork and it's going to take months. And last week...we had a child escape for the second time. We have a childproof fence (or so we thought) but the child is an amazing climber. More importantly, this child has a lot of developmental issues and has random violent outbursts, so has got to be assessed and I have been doing 1:1 care most days because the staff are saying they can't cope. Actually, I have enjoyed doing the 1:1 (despite feeling very anxious about the poor child in question) but obviously it is v time consuming...

The house is getting on top of me. I just don't feel we ever got straight, there's still so much to be done and I struggle to keep on top of basic housework, largely because it's so cluttered and there's little storage. We were on a country walk yest and DP decided that we would look at the showhome in the new development of houses in our village. I have never in my life lusted over a new house but I did marvel at how everything was set up for comfort and convenience...especially when we returned to our 215yr old crazy house. Must keep battling on. Obviously we have some remortgage money to do some improvements but we are both terrified to spend it as DP's job is so uncertain at the mo.

That all sounds a bit like I am feeling gloomy but I'm not, just a bit overwhelmed.

Beans, that was a very nice thing for your sister to say. I am glad you had a nice time with her - anniversaries are like a foot upon the chest but I think a spot of cheerfulness and a few happy thoughts of the loved one (and gratefulness that we are still here) helps me at least. What a horrid time she is having. That funny turn sounded worrying. I think anyone who has psychotherapy seems to get self absorbed. All you can do is hope it's doing some good...So are you definitely stopping at 3? Have you got that feeling that DD3 is deffo the last?

Still broadly think of going for it this month. Better crack on

How's the exam prep, Rubes? Sorry DD gave you the runaround. Must have been bad if wine could not cheer I am struggling to imagine your DH as a Home and Away fan. Did you ever see the tv version of The Slap? There was a woman who used to be in Home and Away in that, she was excellent actually (although played a really annoying character).

Still loads to say, just going to post this.

Going back a bit - glad you got on ok with your smear - Kayz, I was going to say (but not before you had it) actually I find smears both uncomfortable AND quite often painful. I have no compunction about getting my bits out (although a gorgeous doctor would be offputting) and I always have them when I am supposed to because we are phenomenally lucky to be offered any screening and I always jump on anything offered like a fat kid on a cupcake, but never find them a cinch.

Jam, have your sickies all improved? What a shame. That's amazing that the pooch copped it as well!

Good to see you Spot. Glad things are bobbing along ok, if not perfectly. As for Get-Rich-Quick schemes...sign me up. How is DP finding it? Great that he has set up a photography biz. Sorry about DS2 - so when will you get the results? And will you have to have a lot of time off when you have your op or is it an in-out thing?

Big Christmas fan here. Er...have done a lot of the shopping to spread cost. I love every element of the season and happy to start cranking up the festive juggernaut from Nov onwards, but DP is the reverse so have to rein it in a bit. Our Christmas tree will be big, real and completely batty and not themed, same as every year

Vag, money, and organisation of, is a such a bummer. Your financial affairs sound quite complex and I think you do brilliantly, keeping the show on the road. All will come good in the end when you're back at home and everything is simpler.

How is your au pair shaping up now, Arti? DD2 will settle - the business of starting school, a new baby brother, a new au pair - it's a lot of change for her. They're only little still. DD1 has been having angry outbursts and sometimes she says school is too long. Don't feel too blue about the end of mat leave - your job will absorb you again.

Whoops, must feed poor DD2!

Lovely to hear from you. I know that overwhelmed feeling, but if it helps, it sounds like you are really going to be making a difference in your role as chair. Well done you.

Yes, am DEFINITELY stopping at 3. I think I'm less resentful of the exhaustion as I know it's the last time! And am enjoying spending time with DD3. Just wish I as kinder to the big girls. Am going to turn over a new leaf as they're still only little and they need me to be kind, not grumpy and mean

Arti,meant to ask how the impetigo is? DD1 still has a couple of patches despite the ABs, so we are back to the nurse this pm. Yawn.

Lady, have you got good under bed storage drawers? We bought done from IKEA so we could maximise the capacity to hide things under our beds but still retrieve it easily. I had not realised how involved you were with the pre-school, I just assumed you were on a regular PTA, it sounds like a lot if (presumably unpaid) work. Good that its absorbing though.

The au pair is going ok thanks. She impinges very little on our adult time as she prefers to eat with the kids and either go out at night or Skype friends. She is helpful round the house and friendly although I run out of conversation inspiration as she was born in 19-bloody-94!!! In her mind I'm clearly no different to her mother in term of age or cool credentials. DD1 adores her but DD2 is clearly not relaxed with her yet, she needs to make more effort with DD2 but to be fair it's not easy given how unsettled DD2 is at the mo.

Beans, we got strong oral antibiotics for the impetigo and it worked a dream. We also carefully washed all sheets, towels and clothes to stop re infection. I hope DD1 is ok.

I'm taking DS to my work tomorrow to see the nursery. Waahhhhhhh! I do not want to leave my baby.

hmmm. wish our antibiotics had worked as well.
have just expressed 4 fl oz milk in 7mins. I am in fact a cow. mooooo.

Arti, we have already got under bed storage drawers but thank you, they are good and also I reckon we could fit another under our bed. We are having a carpenter round to put a tiny bit more storage in but I've just found out he can't come until early Dec. Basically, I need to spend more hours tidying and chucking crap out. Unfortunately a lot of it is DPs and now I have another four huge boxes of pre-school stuff. Yes, it's unpaid and a lot of work and responsibility. It's actually rather an albatross but I was asked to do it and basically felt like I should...sigh. They needed someone who wasn't bonkers. Without a committee (or the Chair, Sec and Treasurer anyway) the place would have to close. Literally. And we need it. But I do feel a bit like a mug sometimes.

Gosh, your au pair is so young - although my nephews were born in 1992 and 1996 so I can quite imagine!

Did the girls go in your nursery at work?

It's lovely you are enjoying DD3 so much, Beans.