My two are all grown up! Happy Birthday Sarah and Daniel xx

A special day today but really do not know where those 18 years have gone and in some ways I feel quite sad.  My children are all grown up and can now vote, go into a pub and buy a drink and be seen as an adult in society.  They will still remain my children though no matter how old they are.  Love them to bits.

I was up early this morning and had sorted their pressies out for them when they came downstairs.  Always have to make sure they have the same or at least equal value in their pressies.  And then I waited........ and waited.

I even decided to go around the garden and take some photos of the remaining flowers whilst I was waiting, a bit wet out there but even so it was fine for a few shots and will be good to look back on and see what was growing.

Whilst waiting for them to appear the Argos man came with a delivery and then came the lady from Tesco with our food shopping.  All of a sudden Daniel appeared......now that did surprise me as I really thought it would be Sarah who would appear first but no it was Daniel........   We waited for Sarah to appear as they have always liked to open their pressies together.

Finally they were both together and a fun time was had trying on their new watches

And of course if you get a tin of celebrations you just have to sort them into layers don't you?

Once the pressies had been opened, the money counted up, their thoughts turned to food and of course, Sarah would have to have her bacon and mushroom sarnie for her birthday breakfast.  Daniel said he wasn't too hungry but still managed a bacon sarnie too.

Looks like a good day out there now, think it may be time to go and locate my hedgehog house amongst the leaves and would it be too cruel to see if my darling son would like to finish painting the fence on this fine morning?

Another week nearly over.....Autumn is here

Why does it seem that holiday weeks go so much quicker than regular weeks when you have to work?  Is it because you are enjoying yourself and are relaxed, nobody around you causing additional stress, no one asking you to reach impossible targets, no one nagging you asking you why you haven't got things done?  Or perhaps that is just my place of work at the moment.  Never mind, going to enjoy the last few days.  At least I feel that I have managed to do a number of the jobs on my list

• tidy the garden
• writing assessments
• paint the fence ( or get someone else to help to do it)
• meet friends for coffee
• sort out maths planning
• sort out pictures and hang
• birthday shopping
• garden centre visit

Of course when you go off to the garden centre you just have to come back with a little pressie for yourself don't you.  Meet Mr Owl and his friend, cyclamen.

Yesterday was pretty miserable out there, it rained, it rained heavily, I got slightly wet but went shopping nonetheless as had to get one or two bits for some birthdays that are fast approaching us.  Need to go back again today and do another few bits as some stupid person....yes that's me, bought a present that had already been purchased....... hmmmm never mind.  Will fly up to Crawley first thing this morning and sort that one out and then into Horsham, get Daniel's hair cut finally - we seem to have found a barber with an Xbox, not sure that is a good thing or not....  First of all had better go and get madam her bacon sarnie for brekkie and get her out of bed.

Daniel might just get the rest of the fence painted today if the rain holds off. He made a good start on Weds but really would not have been able to do anything yesterday.  It is looking good now though and will look better when it is all sorted out there.  Need to go and repot some of the bulbs I put in the other day and the squirrels have relocated!  Need to make sure the weather stays dry for about an hour or so just to get some of the jobs completed.

Breakfast has now been served to madam who is still dozing but she will be up and moving shortly as she has been very good getting up in the mornings.  I am sure, however that she will be wanting a bit of a lie in over the weekend.  I think she deserves it.

Anyway taxi duty will need to be underway in a while so better make a move, get showered and dressed for duties to begin.

Phew half term and I made it!

At last half term is here and I have just about lasted.  Life has been a roller coaster in school and you should know how much I hate roller coasters!  If I hear that word beginning with an "O" one more time............  Fed up and think I want out, although I love my class and have had a great start to the year with them, my own contentment and happiness has to come first now.  Perhaps 2014 will be a new beginning in job satisfaction!

However back to happier thoughts.  This coming week sees my two babies becoming adults.  Where oh where has that time gone?  I feel a little nostalgic and in someways sad that they have grown up.  I, am however very proud of them and love them dearly.  They are two lovely young people even if I say so myself.  Sarah is having a good week at a local equine vet, seems to be really enjoying herself coming home with stories of donkeys with bad teeth and horses and ponies as well as puppy sitting, bad driving.  She is having a great time and I admire her for giving up her half term and working through it whilst her brother is sitting at home on the x box...... little does he realise that he is on fence painting duty today......

Mum was with us at the weekend to celebrate a little early with the children and to go shopping for some gifts.  We went out for a lovely meal on the Saturday evening and then had dinner at home on the Sunday.  On our travels we manage to rescue two dogs running amok on the A24, they had escaped from their garden and their owner was out searching for them.  Sarah sprang out of our car, called the dogs and they both came running over to her and hopped into the car.  Thankfully both animals had collars with a telephone number and dogs and owners were soon reunited with grateful thanks.  I do love a happy ending.

Thankfully there was no real damage in the storm the other night apart from the lost of a buddleia that had grown a bit too large.  Need to get out and sort that one out soon.  Yesterday managed to clear the front drive of an abundance of acorns and leaves....yes I know there will be more but might as well clear the ones already there.  Have decided to have a hedgehog hide down there in a sheltered part under all the leaves and bits and pieces.  Then came back to the back garden only to discover a beautiful rose still blooming and the most gorgeous perfume - one that I have been searching for for years.  An old neighbour of mine had one beautiful rose in her garden and for years I have searched for a deep red rose with this divine scent, and there it was right under my nose.  I know this is the right house, every thing just feels right and homely and little things like this just top it off.

Also had a lovely visit with a friend and a trip to a local garden centre for a cuppa and a cake which was a good way to spend a Tuesday morning.  Today I had better get down to some school work, pressie wrapping and a bit more gardening.  Think that is the agenda for today, after I have dropped off my daughter back to the vet again and got my son out of bed....... he really needs a hair cut.

Dog Sitting and an Inspection

What a lovely weekend we have had.  After a tiring few days away on the school residential trip I came home on Friday to our furry visitor, Pixie.  She was coming to stay for the weekend as Julie had her son's wedding on the Saturday.  Sarah was very pleased as she loves Pixie, taking her for walks and generally just fussing over her.  Pixie arrived on Friday evening with her bowls, her food and her crate ( hmm she had other ideas on this one).  She is such a pretty little dog and has a lovely nature as well.

Well we all settled down for the evening forgetting that Daniel was out at Cadets.  Now that was interesting when he came home as Pixie was very very wary of him and even uttered a little grumbling growl as she backed off.

Well all was well the next morning as Daniel was no longer in his uniform but just lolled around in his dressing gown.  Off he went to Cadets again whilst Sarah and I decided to take Pix out for a lovely walk in St Leonards Forest.  We hadn't been there before so I was a little wary of getting a little lost but we were fine and found our way around the place.  Beautiful countryside as well as a little wild in places.

 

  

We all had a great walk even when it started to rain a little but that didn't matter.

Pixie came home settled down with whoever was sitting down and chilled for the rest of the day until Sarah and I took her for another walk later that evening.  She came back and flopped.  Although she had stayed in her crate on the Friday night, she had whined a fair bit so Sarah took pity on her and let her sleep on her bedroom floor for the night.  She slept soundly until I go up this morning at 5.30 - well the maths planning was calling.

Today was Daniel's annual inspection so he set off for Squadron at 8.30 this morning with a packed lunch and his taxi awaiting.  We didn't have to be there until 1 this afternoon.  Another day where we were grateful that the weather wasn't too bad as it was all outside.  Daniel was carrying the banner and doing the bugling when the flag was brought down this evening.  He did so with dignity and respect and it was great to see.

   

Very proud of him and he even made friends with Pixie before he went.

Completed

I completed my task for today, have managed to get rid of all my boxes except the ones with some photographs in and even managed to sort out the filing cabinet and move it from one to the other.  Tomorrow is another day and I am hoping that all my bits and pieces will be collected from other freecyclers and the clutter can go out of the house. 

 Martin managed to build Daniels wardrobes, hopefully he will do Sarahs tomorrow and we will be on the way to getting sorted.  Daniels room looks tidier than it has since he moved in.  All it needs now is a bit of a hoover and it is done.  At some point we can redecorate it but not just yet.

I really should go and eat something now as feeling slightly peckish.

My task for today

My task is to get rid of the final boxes from our move.  I am determined that they will be sorted and gone......  Anything we don't need will be going on freecycle, if I can get it to work..... it has been playing up since I moved and I cannot seem to get logged into the new area.   At last this morning, I did it.......  So my priorities for today are

• to get children off on their biology field trip and time is approaching to kick them out.
• get these boxes sorted.
• get a cuppa
• do some shopping
• fill in guarantee cards for new items and send them off.
• send out new address letters to friends and relatives.
• literacy and maths planning
• relax

Apart from that the day is my own.  Looks pretty miserable out there as well so may well stay in as much as possible.

Missing in Action...................so much activity, now exhausted

Yes I went missing, thanks to moving house on our return from our wonderful holiday and thanks to BT not doing what they said they would do when they said they would do it but doing the opposite and causing us more problems than needed.  The first engineer that came to connect us, managed to fuse the box without knowing so we waited another week for another engineer and the threat of a £99 charge to sort out the first engineer's work.  Sadly that engineer was not allowed to flick a switch and put on the broadband as yet another engineer had been booked for the Monday to "flick the switch"....... slightly frustrating but we are now back and I will hopefully resume some service over the next few days.

  

However just to put some piccies on a few photos of our new home, not sorted entirely yet but we are getting there.