December 2008 - Summertime and the children are easy......

[sybsie]

Ha ha ha ha....we wish!

Here's to a lovely relaxing summer and cheery new thread for us all.

Oh Indith what a day!! Fingers crossed you get to keep the posh hoover!!

Camping was brilliant, we certainly needed a new car to get everything in! The kids absolutely loved it and they slept really well. DS1 had a huge strop about getting wet feet while crossing the stepping stones but apart from that it was a lovely weekend. We are now planning to buy our own big tent so we can go whenever we want.

delivery man came back and swapped it. Still have a shiny new hoover though.

Did everyone know that wattage of hoovers will be limited to something stupidly low by the EU come September? almost worth buying a spare just in case.

Glad you enjoyed camping kayz. It is lovely.

Back to school haircuts done this afternoon including me. ds2 kept complaining his hair was annoying him so we took the plunge and cut it .

Hello all from a hot & humid balcony in Spain! We have been up since 4am & DS couldn't bear it any longer so he's snuggled up and DD is out with DH!! The girl never tires. They'd best be back soon though or I'll be asleep and they have no key to get back in.

The limitations on Hoover wattage is ridiculous!! Fecking EU rules...

Hello!

Lost you for a minute. Am on my way to work but hoping for a gentle day and a quick catch up this afternoon. Hope all are well

Why on earth would they need to limit wattage? have there been an inordinately high amount of suction related accidents?

Well finally we get a nice day for a bit of beach. We spent the morning coaxing the boys to ignore the bright circle in the sky which was drilling into their eyes and smile for the camera. DH took the day off work and we got a nice photographer to take some pictures of us at our local beach & dunes area. DH thought it would be good if we all wore white tops & jeans. I have no white shirts & my jeans are knackered so I ran out an hour before the photographer came and bought a white top & new jeans. I was hoping for some lovely playful fun family photos. DS1 got the hump because the sun was always in his eyes and just would not do anything he was asked. All my boys found the sunlight too much. They are always like that, I don't understand I thought they're eyes had an evolutionary advantage against sunlight? Anyhoo we still managed to get some nice family photos though not quite what I was hoping for.

Glad you're having some nice weather, go DD with her late night spanish wanderings. I bet she is loving some daddy time.

oops that last post was for Deids.

I read that hoover eu thing today. I can't imagine why they're interested. My friends dad returned a Dyson recently because the suction was too powerful. Why choose a Dyson in the first place?! Very odd.

It has been lovely here. We've got new outdoor table and chairs (sale bargain) so hopefully we'll get the chance to use them before autumn.

Hello Deids, enjoy Spain!

Vag That sounds lovely, apart from the sun bit. Great idea to be out with a photographer rather than just studio shots.

Vag, those pics sound fab. I will look forward yo seeing them on fb. Have you a date yet for returning to aus? Can you knock in a trip to UK first?

Hons, we have a Miele cat and dog which is fab. I don't wield it every often though. My house is always a bit dusty. With 2 girls with v long hair, they produce more than the cat!

Our last lazy day here. Swimming lessons, then uniform, then park then I'm off to the Matisse exhibition with Dh. It ends in a week so it was now or never. I've missed so much by thinking I've got months and then it is sold out for the end. Fortunately Dh is a member of Tate so we can come and go any time.

Feeling seriously lardy. School hols bad for exercise. I am 45 in 3 weeks. Better shape up, in every sense!

My new bosch has a rotating brush in the head that slides out for cleaning. No more sitting for hours with scissors trying to remove mine and dd's hair from the brush.

dcs driving me mad. ds2 in major hitting and throwing phase.

holidays not been good to me either. certainly not after hellish uni block. Can't fit into a lot of clothes and got mistaken for being pg as I've got such a pot belly. time to get back into routine.

I have just had contraceptive injection in my arse cheek. am hoping it doesn't have side effects as am stuck with it for 12 weeks. why won't DH just have the snip and be done. am seriously considering refusing to take any further contraceptive methods and see what he does about it. am just not willing to risk another baby!!!!

anyone else just about ready for the holidays to end??? I've loved them, but am suddenly feeling worn out.

urgh beans I feel your pain. dh took blinking ages to come round to it even though he knew full hormonal methods and me don't mix AND we already have one condom and map failure baby. In the end it was a rather tense pregnancy scare that made him go. You can't force them though can you, just got to wait until it finally sinks into their heads that it really is the best option.

I just reread one of my last posts. I apologise for the use of a 'they're' instead of 'their'. Not sure why that happened.

Syb's the boys and I will be coming over to the UK around the 20th October and staying until the 3rd November. I think we will mostly be in London esp the second week. Then we fly out to the US for a month weeks then home to Australia finally in early December. I haven't booked the flights yet but have found some brilliant flights to LA with Rubes lovely airline. DH wants to wait until he gets the actual letter confirming his appointment, which should be Monday. Plus we need to clear some space on our credit card. I think we will catch the ferry to the UK. It is easier with our bags and I love the boat. Will be my last overnight ferry for a while.

Would love to have a catch up if we can, I think one of the weeks will be UK school holidays.

Where will you get the ferry to Vag?

supposed to be having a sleep in but not got back to sleep yet since ds2 woke up because they are being bloody noisy.

almost looking forward to the quiet, peaceful sleep post night shift next week.

funny you should ask Ind. At the moment I'm not sure. I am thinking we might spend the first week having a little tour of the UK seeing friends and touristy places. It is the country of their birth but poor DS2 never remembers much of it because he still so young. So the option is either go to London via Harwich and hire a car in London or into Hull & hire a one way car there and slowly drive around & down to London. If we went to Hull I would possibly go up to Edinburgh. It was our 2nd home when DS1was small because DH did a lot of work with R B S so we used to go up with him about 1 week in the month. I love that city. So short answer after that ramble is I don't know haha. Either way I would hopefully be up north or towards the north so we could try to sort out a northern meet up

My parents are in Hull so if you go there I'll do my best to go see them and track you down! Otherwise if you are going up to Edinburgh then you'll be driving by us anyway so plenty of scope for it. Take the boys to Beamish for some living history!

I am not far from Hull and ZJ is a bit closer. So if you come into hull I would love to see you before you go.

Holy moly. Just been trampolining with older DDs. I am dripping sweat. and wow, it is not the same after 3 fanny births. I didn't feel the urge to wee, but everything was a lot danglier than in my youth.

Vag, keep us updated on your travels in UK. I, too, would love to see you.

just made a massive fish pie for friends who are coming to stay. the mashed potato was a bit lumpy, sadly. all that effort and I bodge at last minute. bum.

am in process of getting DH to agree to a surface do up of the kitchen with tiles replaced, units painted, walls and ceiling painted, new sink, a new pane of glass in back door etc. total cost would be £5k. quite a sum, but given I wanted it totally redone as it is terribly dated, it's a reduction of £15k from my previous quotes!!!! it hasn't been done up since the house was built in 1986, so it's a fantastic space, but just really grotty decor. am I being spoilt? I don't think so... probably!!!

Beans your kitchen is the same age as me! I think it deserves being done up!

Yes trampolining is just not the same is it. I have no leaking issues at all but still feel like I'm about to turn inside out on a trampoline .

beans dh is contemplating a new kitchen we have yet to get quotes. I am now quite scared looking at yours! No idea how old ours is. fecking ancient I expect like most things in this house.

Oh and fish pie sounds yum, lumps are nice, totally smooth mash is a little baby food like for me. We never have fish pie due to ds1 not liking potatoes and ds2 not having dairy but I love it. Sometimes I buy it as a ready meal for work.

So I was at the park with the dcs this afternoon. Mine plus a friend playing perfectly normally and this old bloke walks by and says rather loudly to himself "I'll be glad when they are all back at school, they make far too much noise". Honestly! Grumpy sod.

I replied to this last night but must have forgotten to press send. What I said was...Grumpy old sad sack. And also, there are always complaints that kids have no respect, well why should respect an old bugger like that who has no respect for them. I hope you set DS2 on them.

I got into the special needs course I wanted woohoo. So excited. I've enjoyed the other course but I think this one will suit me. It is a great uni too. It is an external course, but I will live just up the road from the campus so can use all the oncampus facilities, library etc. I can change to on campus if I want. So happy.

Boys are back for the new year in their shiny new school. Looks lovely & because it is across the road we get to use the new play ground

Grumpy old men, eh? They really are dreadful. If you can't say something kind....

Well done on your course, Vag. Great news. When does it start?

Am off to get school bits and bobs today. Wish me luck.