May 07: The one where we celebrate LG&T's completed family

[NimChimpsky]

Morning all.

Especially LG&T and India.

I will be requiring lengthy cuddles.

I shall be singing Hush Little Baby for the duration.

Gin what has happened?

Not something with exp?

Come to me Jam if you like.But where a thick jumper.The town power went out last night at 11.30 and we are freezing, brr.Our heating works off the leccy so no good.I have had to put the oven on, gas thank god, to warm the kitchen up.

Oh Scoot! What a PITA.

I've just had my feedback from that job I went for. I think I can categorically say I should not have gone to the NKOTB concert the night before my interview and come in at 3am.

Oh LG&T that does not sound good

Oh dear MrsJoe.....

I hope the power comes back on for you Scoot. Thank god you have a gas cooker.

Oh dear LG&T.

Scoot - how horrible being cold! We have snow again although not so bad as last week.

well I didn't even get an interview for the Barnardos job - interviews were yesterday and today. The emailed application went to Birmingham and as I hadn't hear anything earlier this week I put a copy through the door of the local office! They rang and said thank you very much but I had missed the deadline. I did say I had sent it to the HR department on time but I didnt' push it. I presume I must not have been what they were looking for.

All hopes pinned on the school job now. Closing for that was on Wednesday, interviews a week on Tuesday but as school is shut next week they would have to shortlist by today I should think. Probably won't get an interview again. My sister had a clericial position advertised at their school and got 110 applicants!

You sound tired Jam - all here (except me so far) have colds so not good nights!

DD2 wouldn't go to her Dads last Friday - got into her PJs when she got home, into the top bunk and wouldn't come out (said she was ill)! I beg of you! We have had a nice letter from him and his new wife saying things like they don't want to force the girls to go to them and understand it is nothing we are saying or doing but don't want the girls to resent them in the long run for making them go and suggesting they cut contact to 24 hours every other week - Friday night to Saturday after tea (rather than Friday night to Sunday morning). DP and I think the DDs should "man up" and just get on with it - any ideas?

Sky how old are your DD's again? I would say have a chat with them get them involved in what they want.

Uploaded some photos of a smiley Lachlan.

They are so gorgeous. I want one. Immediately.

i can lend you one

Sorry about the job Sky.Keeping it all crossed for the other one..
Why dont the DD's want to go?Have they said?

He's gorgeous Jam

Has anyone heard from Gin?Am worried.

Power restored.But only after we had been forced to the garden centre to get warm in the cafe.We encountered the Alpha Mum of our group there.She looked at me slightly askance and I wondered why till I realised my hair was full of cake (courtesy of L having her regular Friday meltdown 10 mins before).She on the other hand was groomed and gorgeous as ever.I feel like a slattern at the moment.I am going to write to This Morning and beg them to give me a makeover.

Off to bed now.Am knackered.Have our appointment with the Vicar tomorrow at 10.Romantic.Then I am going to make my final carpet decision.(Not that it matters.Obviously it will be down for 5 minutes then Mae will come in and destroy it in some way.Its inevitable.Can you tell I am still seething about the wallpaper?)

Jam - they are 12 and 8 and if I asked them what they wanted to do they wouldn't go at all!

I don't think they feel comfortable there really although there is nothing specific. As far as I can tell xh and his new wife are nice to them without being over the top. They apparently live in a bit of a show house and the girls aren't allowed in the living room without them, got to go to bed 10 mins early for putting hand on window - that sort of stuff.

Hope you all have a nice weekend (and you have a good time with the RC priest scoot!)

Sky how about you let them miss it for a few wks but suggest to Dad that instead of staying over he takes them out for some fun trips and then maybe they will sort of get reaquainted with each other.

Nothing from LG&T AM, TYG do you have her number?

Had a text from Gin to say kids going to their dads for half term so will update/catch up whilst they are away

Hope she is ok..

Happy Valentines day all..

Christening lesson hilarious.Lets just say I was the only agnostic in the room and the only person with any sort of life outside of possibly being a lay person, or aspiring to be a lay person.(cept DH but even he goes quite pious in the prescence of a priest)Im note sure my views on the fictional scenario he gave us to debate about a family divided about wether to get their chld baptised were entirely the ones he hoped for.

I have picked a carpet.It comes in 11 days.11 days of shag pile left.Does anyone want a piece.I may sell it off like Wembley turf at a £5 er a metre

Oh bloody nora I have a possibly drunk child DP's can of larger was in the lounge 5 mins later Archie has poured the lot over the sofa and his breath smells like a brewery. He has since gone a bit bonkers not necessarily unusual have sent him to bed.

I expect he will sleep like a log

He couldnt have drunk that much surely?If it makes you feel any better Im fairly sure that Mae ate some goat poo yesterday..

honestly we were pondering going and getting him a kebab best get the berrocca out for the morning.

How's A today JAM? Sorehead? We went to a Halloween party and a child there was drinking from any cup he could find and we think he had a good few gulps of someones white wine - whoops.

Scoot your Christening session sounded fun! How exciting to be getting rid of the shag pile - WOO HOO

Still feeling like a bag of poo but am 25% of the way through it today reaching 10weeks! Woo double figures.

I think i have the CenterParcs bug! I am going to Longleat for the weekend at the end of March with some mums from nursery. We couldnt stretch to the 4 bed executive this time but do have the 2 storey 3 bed. Will kill me having to share a room with both of them.... I did manage to get a villa very close to the pool so thats a bonus

MrsJoe have a fab time at CP this week. I hope M enjoys himself

Jam, tis the Scot in you, next thing you know it will be battered Mars Bars and deep fried pizza.

I hope the dc went off to their dad's house ok LG&T after their upset. Fingers crossed it wasn't too serious.

Flamin Nora Scoot, it sounds (almost) like living in a developing country (but with garden centres). Did the power come back quite quickly? Lol at the Christening Admin. I do remember three cringe-worthy sessions, we even had a dvd we had to watch before our next grilling meeting. I confess to being like your dh, I feel like I am back at school again or something. I will take your shag pile, all of it, quite happily. It really can't be worse than some awful pub type carpet we have going up the stairs. We live in Africa fgs, noone has carpet in Africa, only lovely polished wood floor and parquet.

Sky I too have heard nothing about the job, sometimes they don't even let you know. Tsk tsk, these HR people are just so rude sometimes. As for dd, well at her age I too used to hate being shoved off to my dads for the weekend, but we had no choice. I didn't resent him per se, but more the moving about. I just felt sort of temporary when I was at his. I second the suggestion of asking him to do more day sessions, perhaps suggest a compromise, instead of staying every time she goes, she can stay every second time, as long as she goes happily. Would it turn into a big battle like that?

MrsJB, I have been thinking about your family a lot recently. I hope dn has had a good weekend. Sometimes I look at dd who is the same age, and it makes me feel quite teary and sad thinking about your niece.

April so glad to hear you are feeling a bit livelier. It must be the relief of knowing it's not twins.

We are just back from a wonderful weekend safari, at a park about 4 hours away. We stayed in the park warden's former house with a waterhole right in the garden. At night the waterhole is surrounded by elephants and it was utterly fascinating to watch 4 different herds of elephants drinking and socialising 100m away from you! Quite an experience. Though the drive back on horrendous roads rather spoils the effect. Dh is away on business until Tues and then is away on a boy's safari to Ethiopia for 10 days. I beg of you.

Power took about 10 hours or so to come back on.But my friend who lives up the hill still hasnt got hers, hence she is around here with her dh and two kids in tow and all four kids are going in the bath together in a min.I think there will be lots of splashing.
We are having a no power party with the champers dh and I didnt drink yesterday (because he elected to act like an arse instead so I left him to it and went to bed after a bit of MNing on my tod-lovely Valentines day here )

Safari sounds lovely..For our part we have just spent 2 rainy and cold hours in the park at Theobalds house feeding the ducks.It was lovely actually against all the odds.To be honest if there had been a tornado we would have gone out as the kids were being demonic and we had to get out of the house.As it was we managed in light drizzle.Not quite as adventurous but never mind

woo woo!10 weeks already!!I cant believe it AM!

I have been and bought a new light fitting today..to replace the hideous 70's glass panel and brass effort (with matching wall sconces!) currently in situ.I spent rather more than I have admitted to DH in Laura Ashley and have got a lovely modern chandelier type one.I am quite excited about putting it up!Our carpet wouldnt be caught in a pub Master..its too hideous even for that, (and the pile is so deep it would simply act like a sponge for all the spilt beer and end up squelchy) .I am going to try to take a pic of it and put on my profile in a bit, so it is kept for posterity..

Must go my oven is dinging..we are having a roast after the kids bath..Bugger I meant to do some spinach and hide it in the broccoli so the kids would eat it and have forgotten..

eek 10hrs without power! Hope your roast is nice. We had roast beef for our dinner and it was delish. Cant beat a good roast, even though ours was a cheat dinner (roast in a tin from m&s, par cooked roasts and parsnips).

TMAM your safari sounds amazing, would love to do something like that. The kids must be in their element.

Going to pass out on sofa watching Dancing on Ice now.

It was quite nice but buggered up the taters by boiling them too long before putting them to roast, so they'd gone a but mushy.Put it down to too much fizz

When DP went in to get A up this morning he was lying in bed with his taggies over his face.

TMAM what a fantastic sounding weekend.

AM sorry you are still feeling pants.

Scoot sounds like a fun day and mushy roast potatoes are delish.

Blx. I think I left my two travel cots at Center Parcs. I remember packing them up, but can't find them at home and don't remember if I put them in the car or unloaded them into the house.

AM/ PJ - Do you remember our villa number?

Hi everyone. If you want a safari you can always come to see my little monkeys jumping and climbing about in my house. It feels more like zoo than a home anyway.

Am 37 weeks today, and have had enough. These next few weeks are going to go by sooo slowly.

Morning all

I remember that feeling MKG. Hang in there.

Oh no TYG! Lets hope they have them in lost property.

All quiet here at the mo. We went family swimming yesterday - the swimming went well with C and L loving it BUT the organising everything we needed to take, getting there, getting in and out, dryed etc took it out of me. I was knackered after. Went to Pizza Hut for tea though which was nice and both boys behaved brilliantly so it was a nice meal.

Looking forward to a half term of slobbing about and not doing much