Forever Autumn Forever Crepey

[cremolafoam]

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old,
and darker days are drawing near,
the winter winds will be much colder,
now you're not here.
I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky
and one by one they disappear
I wish that I was flying with them,
now you're not here

MrsS sorry about the mile.

Here the hitches war continues. Ds ended up with no lunch because dp moved it from the tidy side of the kitchen to the messy side (where ds wouldn't think to look) for context - you can stand in the kitchen and pivot from the tidy side to the messy.....

We are currently not speak as I may explode - one uncluttered counter does not a tidy house make.

I'll be following your mole removal Mrs S - DS has one to be removed from his arm late October. His arm is so skinny that I think he'll have a huge hole.

Stropps l've finally sat down to read through your posts - I get a quiet time early in the morning between DD2 leaving and everybody else getting up. I'm so glad things are looking up for DD. I have found they have a couple of years of being awful and then metamorphose into semi decent human beings.

I tend to let housework go and have a blitz from time to time. Consequently it is very embarrassing if anybody drops in randomly - unless very good friends.

Rose - am awaiting details of posh lunch.

Today I am getting my tooth operated on so DD has promised to make me jelly. This and the Scottish referendum are the main areas of interest in my life today.

Oh and DD1 is upstairs asleep with boy (not together) who took her to see Tchaikovsky's violin concerto last night. I'm impressed at their level of culture.

Stropps, so pleased to hear that about your DD Fingers crossed the roller coaster bumps are getting smaller!

Hatty I do so hope you are right - we have had over a year of awfulness (on a similar but slightly different scale to Stropps), and I fear the next 8 months will not be good. At least the last 8 weeks have been comparatively good!

Stropps, you are just going to have to step back and let them get on with it. Or not. As long as no one dies (you may have to safe-guard the chooks) then you should shrug your shoulders and make them see that they need to step up. Easier said than done, I know.
And what are you doing with your meds??? If they were for high BP (like mine), you wouldn't dream of stopping them. Do not consider dropping them down!!!!

MrsS, hope the chocolate did the trick - are you consuming too, Herbs?!

Went to see open-air screening of Mandela last night, but it was mobbed, so we went for a drink instead! Thankfully I have a meeting today, so need to rush into work

Hatty, hope your extraction goes well. Your DD sounds very cultured!

BTM - we must be the early morning squad.. Seriously though DD2 has changed completely over a relatively short time and DS is just getting ready to take the plunge into years of being objectionable. DD1 also has a friend who was frightful and has transformed into such a delightful girl that I'm almost suspicious.

Agree with BTM - they are all ostensibly competent and really have to get on with it.

Have conducted yet another Ladyjog, and eaten a virtuously vegan breakfast (don't ask). Must embark on some work. And go to Aldi. And sing tonight. Have to interview celeb cheffy bird for the supermarket mag for which I keep exploiting my lovely friends.

Stropps - great news re DD.

Rudy believe me it's not funny.....

Doing some 'actual teaching' today, to students I'm meeting for the first time. And have to go on the tube. Soiling self.

Then at school we were handed something about 'enrichment hour', which sounds good.

Bloody hell. Don't tell me this school is getting competent.

Wine tonight. Sod temperance.

BD - put some of his stuff on the messy side, to keep 'his' counter tidy, and see how he likes them apples.

Stropps - trying to control the micro stuff that frankly your family should be doing is not helping your anxiety levels, I would imagine. They can get anxious about it for a change.

Herbs, hope it goes well!

Herbs good luck.... and don't look back re the school move - onwards.....

BD, sounds like an explosion might be the way forward.

Herbs, good luck for your first class. And I reckon ds is thinking along the lines of "better the devil you know.." and will probably continue to protest mightily until the change is actually effected and then he'll be fine.

Lalsy, I'm considering a checklist to get dh and dd to focus on what they absolutely have to do. My main concern is a) the dog and chickens do not come to any harm and b) ds also doesn't get in a mess by being forgotten. You may think my priorities are skewed, but at least a reasonably confident and articulate 9 year old boy can make his displeasure known when things go wrong, whereas the animals can't. You may also think, ah, I bet her worries are out of proportion and Mr Stropps will step up to the plate. I can only say, I wish he didn't have form for forgetting/overlooking incredibly important stuff, never mind the micro bits. After all, this is the man who, when the midwife phoned at 5am to tell him his first and only child was due to arrive imminently and he needed to get to the hospital (5 mins away) now, went back to sleep.

Hattie, your stories of vile teens turning into lovely people give us all hope. Ds did some door-slamming the other day and dd shouted "Oi, stop that, that's my job".

Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes, on here and on FB. You are a wonderful bunch and I am so glad to be clasped to your crepey bosom.

I have an unexpected day off today - hurray - so have had coffee with 2 pals, a chat with my mum and now I am going to have some breakfast and settle down for a good catch up

Oh stropps I can't think of any working/studying mother who finds it easy, or makes it look so. Unless she's got a wife of course. You will be able to do it, like the rest of us, by coping well some days and muddling along the rest of the time. And we're here cheering you on. And we all have our emotional crutch...secret eating, happy pills, booze, counselling, shopaholism. You name it.
Congrats to crepeys with improved teens, for getting through if not unscathed, certainly in one piece. And for those still suffering, commiserations. Still reeling from DD calling DH a "douchbag "the other day.
Chaperones, MrsS ? Is the offending mole in an erm....naughty place? Maybe the medical photographic dept is terrified of getting done for downloading illegal photos or something
BD sorry about the messy side of the table war. And commiserations. We suffer from what I call kitchen piles. And everyone likes their own partic one left undisturbed. I could scream for me and you.
herbs stand firm, breathe and enjoy the teaching! All good.
On the subject of enrichment...DS2s comment yesterday by text in the middle of photography..." I'm sooooo bored..." 'Nuff said.
Most enjoyable lunch at a posh Marriott yesterday. Lush dessert in particular. DH is forgiven. That's all you're getting, you crepey voyeurs
There was mutiny at DS2s 6th form meeting last night, when they did an award ceremony for the ones who got 9A or A*s. Awful. The rest of us were trying to piss off home before it began but DS plus a few others got caught sitting near the HT and we couldn't leave. As so many if the non outstanding ( for want of a better term) students weren't there, the non special presentations (Ds included owing to his one B) looked like a pathetic sad little group. They were SO upset. I complained with a very balanced email this morning. I'm proud of it...might copy and paste it in later...and have had a lovely call from the head of the faculty who will talk to Ds personally about his stunning results and they promised they wouldn't do it like that again. Result.

Text from DS2 to say the head of faculty has APOLOGISED to him. How lovely. I am back in love with that school.

Stropps, ooh I get it. MrLalsy turned over and went back to sleep when I staggered upstairs to tell him I was in labour and he needed to get up, call the midwife and despatch dd to a safe place. I couldn't make it up the stairs again for a while, so ended up missing out on gas and air and thinking the postman would have to help. I have yet to forgive and forget that one. As far as routines go, he is around so little in the week that I do understand why - but I know I am the only person who knows who/what/where/why/when usually. ds is much more organised, and streamlines things more than dd, so it has got easier. I find checklists incredibly helpful at times of major kerfuffle, and they do take the personal out of it.

Rose, that is really appalling about school - well done for tackling it. But glad dh earned forgiveness .

MI, I am sharing your pain at the moment, trying to fact-check a piece by an author who won't give me the interviewees' details .

Rose, DD calls us many things. Douchebag would actually cause us to roar with laughter.
And at your afternoon delight
And result on the awful prize-giving. DH's school admin forgot to invite half of the prize-getters so theirs was a disaster! I am glad - I don't like prize-givings.

BD, yes, a bin-jumping-on explosion would be good!

Stropps, that is exactly how I was imagining the priorities should be. Your DH needs to woman-up!

Yes, Stropps, you may find that your DS is the best one to step-up to some responsibilities - my DS is pretty good on that score, despite refusing to wear his school shoes and putting his AirMax on again today

DH was abroad when I went into labour with DD2. I phoned him Tuesday lunchtime to tell him that I was going to the hospital, and he said "I'm really busy at work, I won't be able to make it home until Friday at the absolute earliest." His boss took the phone off him at that point and said "He will be on the first available flight we can get him on; he's missed check in for this afternoon's flight, but we will get him on tomorrow morning's flight come what may."

MI is witness to DH forgetting to collect children from school/be there when they get in...

Rose, no, it was on my finger. And one on my side. Not racy places at all; no undressing needed, just the lifting of a T shirt.

There you go…suitably anonymous…

"Dear HT and Sixth Form Team

Firstly I would like to say that DS has made a great start in the sixth form, has excellent subject teachers and is enjoying this new experience very much. I have not the slightest doubt that my son will continue to have the best opportunities for all achievement at the school and is in skilled and very safe hands at all times.

I was delighted with DSs GCSE results. They were the result of exceptionally hard work on the part of DS, and good teaching and mentoring from the school. I was not however delighted to sit through last night's award ceremony, DS being within the small number who did not receive " The Award For Outstanding Achievement" or an improvement award. On speaking to Ms XX afterwards, I understood that many, many students were not present making it seem as though the 'non outstanding students' (for want of a better term) were in a sad minority. This was especially distressing for DS who feels he was pipped by his one 'B' in very respectable array of A*s and As.

I certainly do not subscribe to the trendy left wing view that there should not be winners. Of course there should, but it may have been kinder in the circumstances to invite only the award winners to the evening. Teenage self esteem is fragile and I now have my work cut out to try to convince DS that his results were still excellent and he should not be down hearted or feel that he is at a disadvantage. I trust staff will help me in this. He feels he has been humiliated in front of his friends.

Please take time to reflect on the above.

With kind regards "

Smug...

That's a corker Rose, nice one (I speak as one who has penned some stinkers in my time).

Rose :)
Good one - lets hope you get a response (unlike my email to ds's new head which has gone signally unanswered.....)

Stropps I get the dog above boy for the reasons you state.

My bin is plastic and I suspect jumping on it would be no-where near as satisfying as Stropps experience....