Her name was LOLA, she was a Snow Girl!!

Well as you can imagine, the best laid plans were totally sideswiped by the massive snow dump we had in the South of England here yesterday…… I am still here and should be in Glasgow visiting my ill mother and poor exhausted father. However the thought of driving 400 miles in those conditions yesterday or today don’t fill me with a lot of joy! I am so glad we made the decision to stay put.

Last night my friend Jacqueline and her husband Paul arrived with their son and two dogs after a marathon nine and a half hour car journey from just up the road in Bedfordshire! I knew they were making a journey to Watford yesterday and I casually suggested they might want to drop in here afterwards and have dinner and stay the night. So they shoved the dogs in the car with everyone else and we are all jolly glad they did. When they finally arrive last night after their journey they were exhausted and starving!!  Just in time for the Strictly Come Dancing Final……(can’t believe Pamela Stevenson didn’t win…..) and some dinner that had been sitting in the Hostess Trolley (yes I do own one of them, and they are the best thing ever, so don’t knock it till you’ve tried it as they say) for a couple of hours……

Why do we always lose the plot in the UK when the weather gets bad? It happens every year and we always get caught out?  Well at least it’s the holidays and I don’t have to wrestle the kids into weather appropriate clothing for the walk to school tomorrow. Fliss was really upset yesterday when I told her she couldn’t go out and make a snowman in her Tinkerbell costume and clippy cloppy sandals….. Seriously, you should have seen her. She agreed to make a concession by putting a t-shirt on underneath the Tinkerbell outfit at one point and I was getting so annoyed that we were getting danger close to me actually letting leave the house like that, just to see her face as she ran back into the house after about 30 seconds when she realised just how blooming cold it was!!!!!!!!

When she eventually did leave the house, the snow was so deep that it was coming in over the top of her wellies and she stood in the middle of the street and screamed her head off while I was frantically trying to scrape enormous clods of snow from Lola who resembled a small Yeti and was having difficulty moving as the frozen snow had rendered her little legs useless!!!!!!

After that I went back into the house and opened a bottle of wine………….

Testing Testing………

This is one of the funniest things……. Andy has been saying for years that we  should own a lap top and I have resisted, resisted, resisted and now here I am, on my delicious new red laptop, testing out the photo thingy bobbery and really wishing I’d bought one sooner!!!

This is Fliss on her 4th birthday trying out her Minnie ears!!! I have a daughter who is bizarrely addicted to the whole Disney phenomenon where my eldest daughter Cecilie, was never really interested. I might have been that whilst poor wee Cecilie was going through these formative years, we lived in Germany and Cyprus (yes Cyprus, and you know who you are!!) and only had two tv channels with the BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Services) system and has therefore been ridiculously deprived……..poor baby!

My darling husband has just asked me how my day was and I’ve just been keeping him abreast of the days events, you know how it goes…….. fight with kids to get them into clothes, clean breakfast from clothes, fight with children to make them brush hair and teeth, school run with insane dog who wants to chase squirrels but keeps strangling herself on her lead, forgetting handmade bloody Christmas presents for the teacher and teaching assistant and having to go home for them as 6 year old is heart-broken and won’t accept them arriving at home time…….. aaaaaaaaagh!!!

However one thing I didn’t expect today was my H & M experience when the twenty-something father in front of me in the queue decided to give me and the woman behind me the biggest (and hairiest) flash of builders bum I’ve ever had the misfortune to see………… I actually felt a bit violated………..I didn’t know where to look!!!!!!!!!! And I’m pretty broad-minded let me tell you….. and not averse to the odd flash of attractive male flesh!!

I’m fine now, I find that “a glass of wine solves everything”!!!!!!!!

Cloudy with a Chance of Rolling Pin!

Last year's Christmas Beach view!!

Well, I thought I'd never actualy get the time or the inclination to add to this blog ever again last week. What a horrible week. I was under the "Black Cloud" last week (some of you ladies will understand what I'm referring to....) and I just hated everybody!!!! The kids came in for some serious verbal sparring and  I had the overwhelming desire to bludgeon my hubbie with a rolling pin!

The the weekend came and it improved somewhat.......well sort of. It was actually quite good fun but involved lots of drinking and partying and staying up late in general........ it's not quite so easy at my age I'm afraid!! There was some rolling pin action, but it was only for rolling out the pastry for the mince pies!

On Saturday my friend Jacqueline came with her family for an overnight and we got the raclette grill out which was fun. We hadn't done raclette since Germany  but it's such a sociable way to eat and it's such an easy way to entertain - just get your guests to cook their own dinner!!!  What a winner!! The only problem with Raclette though is the amount of wine you absent-mindedly consume whilst chatting and cooking your dinner!!!

We took the kids to the Christingle service at church on Sunday and it was beautiful.....and it's always amusing to watch the little kids trying to hold their Christingles and not set anyone alight!!!  Bless.  Afterwards we all went back to my neighbours house for Gluwein and curry and it was a lovely way to finish off the weekend................. that and the results show for Strictly Come Dancing which I'm actually quite addicted to. I have no idea who'll win, but I do like Matt from Countryfile. He's very easy on the eye!!!

Today I sewed Christmas stockings and baked cupcakes for Cecilie's Christmas party. It felt very festive and the kids loved it! We personalised some of them with the embroidery machine and Cecilie sewed a little one for the Classroom Bear with his name on it! His name  is Fuzz and the kids take it in turns to take him home for the night and photograph him doing stuff at their houses and they all have to write in the diary about what he did. I used to dread it as I always ended up doing it myself, however Cecilie does it all herself now and it's comical, so I don't mind now when Fuzz appears in her schoolbag!!!

We are supposed to be driving North on Saturday to see my mum in Glasgow but we will have to watch this space as far as the weather is concerned. It's supposed to snow etc..... At least the black cloud over me this week will just be snow or rain!!!!

Country Living

Just hanging out with the ponies!

We had such a lovely time with our friends in Gloucestershire a few weeks ago. Caroline and Jon have just moved back from Cyprus after FOUR years of living out there with the Army and they have moved back into their lovely farmhouse at Baden Hill Farm. I keep wanting to call in Boden Hill Farm right enough...... can't think why.
One of their daughters Maddie (in the photos with my two) was Cecilie's bestest friend at school in Episkopi so it was lovely to see them all playing again together. They have four kids so it was utter chaos as you can imagine. Despite that the grown ups found time for quaffing wine and lots of catching up on all of the gossip!! Andy used to belong to Jon's Regiment so they know some of the same personalities which is always interesting!!

Hair Raising Stuff!!

Andy's comedy facial hair!

Well the hubbie went back to work at the beginning of the week. Mixed emotions about that one all round I guess. He'd got used to being at home and I'd got used to having him despite the fact that he was refusing to shave off the ridiculous Village People moustache that he'd cultivated during 6 weeks of not having to shave. So that was the only good thing about him going back to work, the clean shaven look that I fell in love with!!!  That and not having to look busy while the kids are at school!! 

However as ever the best laid plans are fatally flawed. As Andy was putting his dark combats back on for the first time in months, Felicity was coughing like a seal and is currently at home under my feet with a chest infection dressed as Minnie Mouse. Seriously, you can't make this sort of thing up you know! I got her an appointment with the doctor at our Med Centre and she gave her an anti-biotic that turned her into that child from the Exorcist..... well the vomiting parts anyway. She spat the first lot out at me as it was truly vile and when I did eventually get her to swallow the next lot, it didn't even touch her oesophagus but she was projectile vomiting the contents of her stomach up over my new velvet sofa........... Nice.......

So between the vomiting kids and the incontinent Cyprus Poodle, it's all go in this house right now! And this is the week I've given up wine for two weeks while I attempt to shift some of the Cyprus/post Cyprus weight I've managed to allow to attach itself to my middle!!!!!  The weather here is just not as attractive for running in I'm afraid......... I have to wear too many layers of clothing for a start and getting all that Lycra stuff on is a work out in itself! By the time I've negotiated my way into the sports bra I'm shattered!!!!

All I want to do is get the sewing machine out and make stuff. What?? Dunno, I'll think of something.  I feel a quilt project coming on................. and possibly a Gin and Tonic!

Mary Poppins - NOT!!

Is anyone else like me and loves babysitting for friends with a wicked hangover???  No, thought not. I was caught on the hop this morning after a session with my neighbours last night. My neighbours Sarah & Jon were a lifeline to sanity when Andy was away for a variety of reasons. Jon is a very hospitable host when it comes to pouring wine though and quite frankly it's not always a good thing!!!! 

After having what was advertised as "a couple of drinks" we went to bed completely trollied and I woke up feeling decidedly ropey this morning. Not a problem,  I was thinking, I'll just stay in my jim-jams while Andy goes to school with Cecilie,  and Fliss and I will have a snuggle on my bed while she watches the "12 Dancing Princesses".  (that's a Barbie DVD and no reference to any BBC programme on a Saturday evening )

Hah!!  Not to be!! My neighbour Sarah (wife of fiendish wine pourer) had forgotten about her dental appountment this morning and her son had woken up with an abcess in his mouth so could I take Phoebe while they went to the Dentist. (Phoebe is their delicious 6 month old baby who is always a pleasure to look after) So much for my cunning Barbie-watching-snooze-plan...........

To crown it all though I ended up with another friend's two young ones while she went the Post Office to post a power drill (as you do) so you can imagine how I was feeling when they left. Sarah took Fliss to school for me at lunchtime though and I was in my scratcher before you could say "12 Dancing Princesses"!!!!!!!

Having just undertaken a sort of sleep training plan with my two Cherubs, all sleep is very precious to me! While Andy was away, for the sake of my sanity, I got into the VERY BAD habit of letting them sleep in our bed with me whenever they came in during the night. So it was a bit of a shock for Andy after an emotional home-coming to be told by Cecilie that he would have to sleep in the spare room from now on as there was no room in the marital bed for him!!!  We soon put her right, but it's been quite hard work as she's very tenacious!!!  So they are both banned from during the night snuggle time now, which is kind of sad, but you try sleeping with a three year old's toes up your nose!

Countdown to Christmas

Having practically given up on my blog recently I decided to start a new one with a different theme, well not quite different, just colder! Yes the UK weather has started to kick in and the kids are extremely confused at the amount of clothing I insist they wear before they are allowed to venture out of the house in the morning! It's been over two years since I donned a scarf and hat and quite frankly I could have managed a bit longer!!!

Fliss told me the other day that she missed our old house, it was so much sunnier! She isn't wrong there. I'd forgotten how the cold rain clings to your clothes and permeates every part of your body! I've even had to buy (shock horror!) long running tights!! I suppose running in this weather has some advantages.....not having to run with a Camelbak strapped to your back is one of them.....actually....that's the only one I can think of. I loved running in the Cyprus climate. You got used to the heat and worked round it. Running later in the day, and wearing tons of sunblock was hardly too arduous in the grand scheme of things. 

Andy has been home from Afghanistan for almost a month now and whilst it's lovely to have him back, don't get me wrong, it was quite nice not having to worry about the ironing pile and the state of the kids' bedrooms. However for some reason he has come back with a bit of OCD regarding all of this and because he spent every waking hour on tour doing tons of stuff, he appears to want to be in the same state or perpetual motion back home. He's got ants in his pants most of the time! And it's driving me NUTS!!!!! (Obviously I'm not really a Stepford Wife!!)

I'm still selling cards, well sort of, but the sewing has taken a back seat recently which I am planning to rectify as soon as I can!!!!  Miss it so much and it's really very nice to be sewing during the winter months when it's really grubby outside!!

Am quite excited about celebrating Christmas here in UK with the girls. As my mum is still very ill, I've arranged to celebrate Christmas here with another Christian family on the patch. It will be chaos, but hopefully lots of fun!!!!  Bring on the Wii!!!!!!!!