knackered!

So, 4 days at work this week 9-5 and I am absolutely shattered. It seems every man and his dog wanted to see me this week! Still a nice long weekend to look forward to lets hope the weather improves.

I have an assignment to be finished for my Open University masters in Education course and i am so lacking the energy to do that - only a week left to do it - help!

Have been enjoying watching the olympics the last couple weeks, I still feel an immense sense of pride when I see that Union jack being raised and the national anthem being played. The kids do not seem to have the same sense of pride in the union jack and the national anthem, I don't know "when i was a young un........"
Think happy sunny thoughts for the weekend :D

Shopping

So today was shopping for school day. Shoes - always a trial, Alex was her usual fussy self and ended up trying at least 15 different pairs on before finding one she was happy with the poor fitter must have been at her wits end. Sam was much easier, first shoe shop found a pair - fantastic.
Trousers next, found some nice black ones fairly cheap for Sam, the trouble is I am a sucker for clothes and sam found a very nice blouse (not school related) and Alex found a very nice coat (in the sale I might add). Me being the soft touch agreed to buy them for them - not such a cheap couple of pairs of trousers after all!
Stuart ordered himself another pair of glasses after losing his in the lake (hahahha) and we went to an all you can eat chinese buffet while waiting for them to be ready.
We have also decided on a date for our trip to Florida next year - 15th August so we went into a couple travel agents to get some quotes - I am so excited already how can I wait 12 months!
Stuart then decided to buy sam a new phone as hers is the same as the one he lost in the lake (hahah again) and he likes it more than she does. So off they trotted to carphone warehouse and sam is the proud owner of a samsung phone that slides up (apparantly the feature she most wanted).
After 2 weeks off it's back to work for me tomorrow, still have to earn a crust.

Sleepover

So last night Sam had a sleepover, she had 5 friends over who all arrived about 430pm. Not sure how but Sam insisted they would all be able to sleep in the living room so I left them to it. They were watching DVDs most of the evening and I know they were watching a scary one at one point due to the screams that kept emanating up the stairs.
I went down at 11pm and asked them to be quiet as i was going to bed, that was the last I heard from them although apparently they did not go to sleep until after 3 am!

While this was going on Stuart decided to go fishing for some peace and quiet and relaxation. He left about 5 and returned home just after 10pm absolutely soaked. Apparently he had fallen in the lake, while it was funny and I laughed he does appear to have lost his designer glasses and his phone looks beyond repair.

Alton Towers

So on Monday we set off for a few days away intending to have a day at Alton Towers. We left about lunchtime and made a stop on the way at http://www.hamertonzoopark.com/. I particularly loved the meerkats who are always so cute. I also saw something I have never seen before a wallaby with a baby in its pouch. Check out those claws!! I bet that hurts!

We arrived at our travelodge just off the M6 and decided to head off to the cinema, we watched the dark knight. Good film but i must confess to being bored for about the last 30 mins. as were the girls.

Tuesday was Alton Towers day http://www.altontowers.com/pages/theme-park, we woke up to rain, after a quick discussion it was decided we would still go as we could not guarentee the weather on Wednesday and as we were returning home Wednesday it would be a shorter day. So after a quick breakfast at the little chef next to the travelodge we headed out for a 30 min drive to Alton Towers. When we arrived it was raining but not too badly.

Throughout the day we had periodic rain showers some very heavy some not soo bad, we all got very very wet despite raincoats. Sam, Stuart and our niece Maddy all headed straight for oblivian which is basically a huge vertical drop straight into the ground. Made me feel sick just looking at it. This followed with rides on Air, Nemesis, Corkscrew, Rita racer (o-100 in 2.5 secs!), and too many more to mention. even Alex went on most of them (I chickened out of most of the rides !)

Despite being absolutely soaked we had lots of fun and left at 1830 ish having done everything we wanted to.







We were absolutely shattered after our day out (and wet) so we returned to the travelodge for a hot shower and headed out to a chinese restaurant. We were all in bed and asleep by 10pm!

Wednesday we returned home arriving at 3pm.

Car Boot sale

So last week I promised the girls we could do a car boot sale this weekend as long as the weather was OK. Despite a very late night the previous night I set my alarm for 0630. I looked out the window and it looked pretty bleak to me, black clouds and the ground was soaking.
I went back to bed then poked Stuart to confirm for me that the weather was too grotty to go, he said it looks like it will brighten up "I would go for it". Muttering under my breath i got up and started to load the car up. I woke the kids up and just as we were about to leave the house at 0715 it started to rain! I said no way we are going if it is raining much to Samantha's disgust and irritation - huh why was i woken at 700 on a Sunday if we aren't going blah blah

An hour later the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky! Typical!!! so we piled into the car and arrived at 0830, very late to start selling at a car boot sale but we still had a good spot.

The kids were having a competition to see who got the most money although they had agreed to divide everything equally at the end of the day. We left at 1200 with only 1 box of stuff remaining out of the 7 big boxes we had - result!

The winners were
me - £28.65
Alex £27.50
Sam £13.50

Despite a bit of gloating by Alex they were both happy when I said they could have my money between them too, they had £34 ish each - not a bad mornings work. To top it off I got sunburned.

Rain!

Last night was eventful, a thunder storm started about 2300 that was so close it was making the front door rattle. The thunderstorm carried on and was still carrying on when at 130 all the power went off, a quick glance outside showed that the whole street was in darkness. Of Course Alex woke up and was scared meaning we had to rummage around downstairs for candles and torches. Fortunately Stuarts phone has quite a powerful torch on it.
We found some large candles and put them on the windowsill in the hallway to cast at least a bit of light for alex. She wanted one in her bedroom but with the cats wandering about we felt it was too risky.
I phoned the electricity helpline to be told it should be fixed by 0430, told Alex this and went back to sleep. Next thing I know Alex wakes me up to inform me it is 430 and the power isn't back on yet! was I happy to be woken up?!!! At least the street lights were on now so I woke Stuart (who was even happier than me !) and it seems when the power went out our main switch had tripped so we flipped the switch and power was restored. Alex went back to bed happy and finally woke up at 11 am. Of course poor Stuart still had to be up at 0630 to catch his train.

So I have a week away from work and what do we get? Rain and more rain! The kids are going crazy being stuck indoors, they have done swimming seen everything worth seeing at the cinema, rented DVDs what shall we do!!!
In desperation I looked at the internet and found a little craft place called Crafty Coffee Stop where the kids will be able to make and paint - hopefully Sam won't find it too beneath her. So that is where we are off to any minute :)

Wow where has that year gone

Ok Ok so its been a year nearly!!

So what has happened over the last 11 months, well Samantha finished her first year at high school with an excellent report and seeming to have enjoyed it.

At 12 years old she is now taller than me at 5 foot 5, and has a bigger shoe size than me - no more pinching her shoes for me!

Alex is now 10 and will be going in to her last year at primary school in September.

No proper holidays for us this year we are saving for a big trip next year to Florida! although we are heading up to Alton Towers next week for a couple of days.

We had a bit of a splurge earlier in the year on gadgets - new LCD huge Tv, Playstation 3, DVD player, cinema surround sound system. We also spent a load of time redecorating the hall stairs and landing and carpeting the living room. Still at least it looks nice now :)

I make a promise to myself to update this at least weekly.

Tata for now

Tracey