Getting Out Of Hibernation!

Every year is the same, near the end of summer I promise myself I wont go into hibernation and that I'll still go out in the winter but come the start of winter hibernation sneaks up on me! Getting out of hibernation is hard too but I'm getting there! last week I went to the cinemas in clydebank with E & J which was great because it was saver tuesday all tickets were just £3.95! we saw 'Gullivers Travels' the only disappointing bit was mcmonagles chippy was closed for refurbishment so we had to find somewhere else to eat. during our day out last week E mentioned the tall ship and We agreed to do that this week so that's what we did today!

It was quite an adventure just getting there since neither E or I knew how to get there, but surprisingly after asking a few people for help, we made it without any problems!

As we stepped on board we noticed a school group was in so we ran fast and far! we hid below deck where there was plenty of space to run..

...and explore!

As we went even lower to the deck beneath the water, Teo continued to explore, climbing up stairs which were sectioned off.

The School Group was beginning to come down now so we decided to go back to the upper deck. There was plenty to explore up there, first a little peek out the window..

and isn't this an interesting seat?

Move! I want a turn!

This is great!

Now Teo's turn!

Then they found a bell to ring!

Joy tried with all her might!

But she couldn't get it to work.

Then with a little help from J...

She managed at last!

After exploring most of the upper deck they sat down for a rest

Until they heard a Strange sound.. then they climbed up onto the side to see a hellicopter Taking off, it was very exciting to watch! later we heard a similar sound and saw one landing too! but sadly while we were watching the helicopters E and I got told off for allowing our children to climb up on the sides, didn't we realize how dangerous that was?

We went through a door on the upper deck and found ourselves in the kitchen! Teo was delighted!

and Finally, after all that exploring a nap was definitely needed!

They had such a great time exploring the tall ship but poor Donald was rather hungry and desperate to get off the ship and have something to eat. But as we got off the ship we noticed a game to play and Donald had to wait a while longer for some food.

After something to eat the kids were all in a much better mood and ready to play some more! they found some clothes to dress up in!

I bought them a notebook and crayon from the gift shop for the journey home and Donald drew pictures about his day.

The Journey home was very quiet!

I'm now looking forward to another day out, I think it's safe to say I'm no longer in hibernation!

Blocks of fun.

Today was a fun day, but it didn't start off that way. I had convinced myself that I was going to get up early and walk to church today since William was at work. But I haven't walked to church in several weeks since William has had holidays from work and driven us the past few weeks. I set my alarm for 8am that would give us 2 hours to get ready and out the door but it didn't go to plan. I dismissed my alarm and went back to sleep, sleeping until after 9, there was no chance of making it so I decided to re-arrange Joy & Teo's bedroom instead. It was madness! furniture and Toys everywhere, I could barely move! it took alot of time but I got there in the end!

By the time I had finished, it was time to go to my father in-laws but I hadn't even got dressed! absolute madness. But, we got there!

we brought Teos blocks out to my father in-laws and I spelt my name with them.

It was REALLY difficult to make my last name!

My Niece made her name with the blocks but when she went to take a picture...

Teo started knocking it down! The little terror knocked the whole thing down!

How devastating! Afterwards, He sat down and began stacking some blocks.

While he did that, his cousin managed to reconstruct her name and take a photo of it!

We went out a walk and Teo went for a nap.

While the little terror slept we were safe to create the ultimate masterpiece!

What a Block of Fun today has been!

Party Animals

Today was my nephews birthday party and they live quite far away, so we made arrangements with my brother-in law that they could take Donald and Joy, and we would take their 2 oldest in the car so they wouldnt have to spend as much on bus fares to get to the party.

we arrived at their house at 12:30 and they were getting the 2 o clock bus so we had some time to pass. Teo was napping so I helped my 12 year old niece with a 1000 piece puzzle she was working on and my 10 year old niece gave joy a makeover.

Oh, she was very pretty but I had spent a great deal of time brushing her hair myself earlier.

before the makeover she looked like this

at 2 o clock we set off on a very quiet journey to the birthday party. we arrived a bit too early so went for a walk. as we were heading to the party venue after our walk I got a phonecall asking how to get to the party venue from the bus stop, I asked where exactly they were and she described the location, I looked around. 'I can see you!' I shouted. 'where? I cant see you' came the reply. eventually she spotted us but we were seperated by a fence so I told her to keep going in the direction she was heading and I ran around some buildings to where there was a bridge and found them, we headed to the venue together. Teo wasted no time and went straight for the bouncy castle.

Donald opted for the soft play toys and built a little town with his cousin

I didn't see much of Joy, she was everywhere and nowhere all at once!

I had to keep taking Teo on the bigger bouncy castle (with help from his cousins). It was fun, but exhausting!

I was relieved when it was time to take the kids through to the next room to eat. They all got happy meals!

after eating, they played pass the parcel, and musical bumps, Donald won musical bumps and said 'I knew I could win one of them!' I'm actually proud of him for not crying when he lost the first game.

They each took home a party bag. we walked them all over to the bus stop then headed back to the car for another quiet journey home. back at my brother in laws house they opened their party bags, except Teo, poor we soul was exhausted and fell asleep in the car!

We let him sleep on the couch while we had a cup of tea and the kids all played. Inside their party bags was animal masks and they had lots of fun playing with them!

then again, so did I! (when, I got home that is.)

I helped my 12 year old niece with the 1000 piece puzzle some more while the kids played and Teo slept but then someone had to drag me away from it so we could go to morrisons before it closed.

It was a fun day and at the end of it all we were all just party animals. literally.

Bed Time

well there was no really good reason for Teo to come out of his cot, he wasn't climbing out of it, then again he wasn't sleeping in it for to climb out of it either. every night for as long as I can remember I would put him to sleep, place him in his cot, and a few hours later he would awaken and I would take him into my bed. so there wasn't much point of having the cot in the first place! also, he's a kicker. He would kick daddy constantly until daddy left the bed and it was just me and him left, so a bed for Teo seemed like the best way to go. I ordered him a bed and mattress for £99 and it came with a free memory foam pillow too. I also ordered him a 4.5 tog duvet from TJ Hughes. the bed arrived yesterday and William and I built it together, with some help from the kids of course! Teo was playing with some of the parts and I said 'Teo's Bed' he shook his head and went into the hall where I had put his cot, and he pointed to his cot. Bless, he knew his cot was his bed! The bed I ordered turned out to be a pretty good bed, it's frame was huge and it had wooden slabs which are much better than the flimsy metal ones Donald and Joys beds have. As soon as it was built he climbed up, and learned why there are no more monkeys jumping on the bed pretty quickly. William went to disassemble Teo's cot and Teo gave a helping hand

While the men worked on that Joy put all Teo's cuddlies on his bed!

I thought it was quite cute!

That night we put Donald and Joy to bed as normal, though Joy really wanted to sleep in Teos bed! then, once they were asleep I took Teo to his bed and got him to sleep. Later that night, he woke as usual, actually I think it was the falling out of bed that woke him (yes, I'm a terrible mother putting a baby in a big bed so young without any bed rails but if I put the rail on it's exactly the same as a cot and he would bump into the sides and wake up) needless to say, there was no sides to bump into but he had a bump nevertheless and woke up. I climbed in beside him, comforted him the only way I know how and he went back to sleep and I slept beside him. I had a hard time keeping warm, the 4.5 tog duvet was so light, there was no weight in it to keep it in one place, it just kept slipping off the bed, and it didn't help that we forgot to turn the heat on! the memory foam pillow smelled horrible too so it wasnt a great night for me, but daddy had a great night sleep with our king size bed to himself! when I woke in the morning I jumped back into my king size bed for some warmth! I hope eventually he'll sleep right through without me but in the mean time atleast daddy doesnt have to go to the couch (although it may work in my favour if Teo and I take the king size and send daddy to the new bed.. just a thought!)

Trust Me.

Normally we would take our nieces and nephews birthday presents to Williams dad's for them to collect when we are all out but our nephews birthday present didn't arrive until the day after we all went to his dads so on his birthday we decided to deliver it ourselves. William says 'phone them make sure they are home' 'no point' i say 'its a school night, they'll be home' so we didn't phone and we drove to glasgow. we arrived and it looked as though nobody was home but there was a light on so we piled out of the car and rang the bell. nope, nobody home. I tried phoning his mothers mobile to see where they were, straight to voicemail. I phoned my niece to get his sisters mobile number. we drove to a nearby burger king, got Teo some juice as he had alot of chocolate on the drive up and I thought he might be thirsty, I had an icecream and they were all happy playing in the play area. I tried the number my niece gave me, straight to voicemail again. William phoned his sister to ask for the dad's mobile number. It rang, which was progress but no answer. we sat at burger king trying to plan our next move and the phone rang, I hoped it would be them returning our call but it was williams sister, she said her son mentioned they might be taking him to the cinema as it's his birthday. we decided to drive over to the cinema, not exactly sure what we would do when we got there but on the way I tried the house phone again. 'hello?'
'hey! are you home? oh, stupid question, of course you're home Its your house phone! how long have you been home?'
'5 minutes'
'we've brought the weans present up, we'll be there shortly'
5 minutes later we arrived, and we managed to give him his present. we stayed for a cup of tea and the kids were all very hyper. It was very late by the time we got home that night.
the moral of the story is:

Don't trust Aileen. 'no point' she says. 'they'll be home' she says. 'it's a school night' she says

New Beginnings

Last night I dreamt that people kept asking me how far along I was and implying that I was pregnant evantually I wondered if I could be and I took one of those tests that tells you how far along you are. it said 4 months, so I told my husband and he was very unhappy and accused me of cheating reminding me he had a vasectomy, I reminded him that he had not been to the doctor to have it confirmed it had worked and that I have been nothing but faithful. it was a pretty intense dream. I woke up thinking I have to tell my mom I'm 4 months pregnant then I realized no I don't, it was only a dream!

I'm hoping this dream symbolizes new beginnings because we have been viewing property to rent. yesterday the one we viewed was too small but we have a viewing today and we walked around the outside of the property yesterday for a quick nosey and without even seeing the inside I'm already in love with it. I am probably setting myself up for disappointment but I hope this is the one. Okay, I'll be honest It's pretty shabby looking, there isn't even double glazing or anything, but I can actually see the potential in it, and I've never been able to see the potential in anything before! there is lots of space for the kids to play outside and a park near by! There I go getting all excited again!

even if this isn't the one, hopefully we will find it soon because I can't stand living where I am anymore and I'm looking forward to new beginnings.

Sleepover

I mentioned in my previous post that The childrens cousins spent the night, I guess I got ahead of myself by not posting about the sleepover first because it's definitely something I'd like to look back on and remember!

They arrived about 7 o clock and we let them play for a while then I made some chocolate chip cookies (betty crocker) Donald had told me that when they spend the night at their cousins they always get chocolate chip cookies for a snack at bedtime. I made the cookies and fresh out the oven put them on a plate and placed it in the middle of the table. I gave them each a glass of milk and told them to help themselves to cookies. The female cousin said 'I don't like that it's horrible' we said 'you haven't tried it' she took a tiny nibble and said 'that's horrible' oh well more for me! every one else enjoyed the lovely soft warm cookies! Later we let them make tortilla snowflakes like we had done during advent and they thoroughly enjoyed making them but again the female cousin said 'i dont like that it's horrible' again we told her 'you havent tried it' another tiny nibble and the reply came 'that's horrible' atleast she drank her milk that was something. everyone else enjoyed the snowflakes. Into Pjamas, Teeth Brushed, and time for a DVD 'Dinosaur' the female cousin said 'I don't like that dvd' I said 'you haven't seen it' then she replied 'but i know I don't like it because it's about dinosaurs and I don't like dinosaurs' then I told her 'But it has monkeys in it.. everybody likes monkeys!' The DVD started and they all lay in the beds watching it. Joy fell asleep first but at midnight I could still hear Donald giggling away.

In the morning I woke about 8:30 and they were all already awake. we let them pick what they wanted for breakfast out of crunchy nut, curiously cinnamon, and rice krispies. the boys took curiously cinnamon and the girls chose rice krispies. They ate their breakfast, got dressed, brushed their teeth and we decided to take them on a nice refreshing walk!

Before we left the house the female cousin declared she didn't want to go to the nature trail because it was boring. everyone else was up for it though! Once we were on the nature trail they were all having so much fun she forgot she didn't want to go!

They saw lots of icicles along our walk! Brrr!

Teo enjoyed walking down the wooden steps

But he must have tired himself out because as we were approaching the end he began to cry, I was carrying him but he kept crying until I cradled him in my arms and then he was nearly sleeping but my arms were getting sore and I had to shift him and he began crying again.

Donald and the female cousin both slipped on some ice at the same time, Donald got up and carried on but the female cousin hurt her back and started to cry. we comforted her but she cried for a while. eventually she stopped and then I almost slipped, Joy was walking in front of me and William was walking beside me, I was carrying Teo. As I felt myself Slip I grabbed Joy's hood and she nearly went down with me but william grabbed my arm and we all stayed upright. I appologized to Joy for grabbing her and nearly taking her down with me but she was okay. Donald had another slip but again just got up and carried on! when we eventually got back to the car we were all freezing and exhausted! everyone had such Rosy cheeks! Teo finally fell asleep and we returned home to enjoy some lunch! we made ham sandwiches and cut them into dinosaur shapes, the female cousin took a little nibble and declared 'thats horrible' so the boys each took one of hers so they had 3 dinosaurs. We made her chicken nuggets and chips for lunch instead and, put smaller portions out for the rest of them just incase, and of course they did take it! they were well fed that day! after lunch the male cousin asked for the dinosaur dvd so I put it on again and he sat and watched it for a while, the female cousin Joined him but the male cousin walked away half way through, the female cousin watched it til the end then Joy put on strawberry shortcake. after the DVD's the blocks came out.

they all had so much fun creating amazing things! it's amazing the power of the imagination, and no matter how old you get you can always enjoy playing with a pile of blocks!

We told their parents we'd have them back for lunchtime but with the time lunch took then the dvds and blocks, lunchtime soon came and went so we told them maybe 3 o clock but they were having so much fun playing that it was even later. We got them home at supper time, not sure exactly what time it was... possibly 5. the male cousin started crying, his mum hugged him and asked what was wrong and he said 'i just didn't want to come home' Joy asked if she could spend the night with them but we told her no as Donald had drama class in the morning. the female cousin was quite glad to be home we could see she was exhausted and she went straight to her nintendo ds. We let the children stay and play for a while and we enjoyed a cup of tea and a chat then we had to drag them home.

We had no problems getting them to bed that night! well except Teo, he fell asleep in the car on the way home so he stayed up a little later than I would have liked but oh well can't have it all can we?

Inventing Games.

I've found myself surprised at how creative my kids can be. Their cousins spent the night the other night and I brought out some blocks for Teo to play with but of course every single one of them crowded round and started building lots of different things.

I went to the bedroom and brought in a box with more blocks in it. One of the kids found a dice in the box and Donald created a game where you each start with the same number of blocks and you take turns to roll the dice, whatever number is on the dice is how many you stack, whoever has stacked all their blocks first wins. I say 'Donald Created' but I'm not sure if there may already be such a game on the market, in my eyes he's created it because I don't know of any such game and I'm darn sure he didn't so in his mind he created it.

Tonight while Teo was in the bath I heard them bickering telling each other to stop cheating, I thought they must be playing Joys Tea Party Board Game but when I peeked in they were sitting on the floor with Teos pots and pans.

 there was 4 pans and one would hide a piece of play food under 1 of the pans and then they would tap the top of the pans 1 at a time with a toy spoon and the other had to say 'stop' when they tapped the pan they thought it was under.

They are so creative and I'm so proud of them!

When Teo came out of his bath he saw them playing their game and assumed they were playing the drums and just had to have a go!



Of course Donald and Joy were sad that they couldn't play their game anymore but they are Teos pans after all! and I am sure they will come up with more fun games!

The most irritating feeling.

I really don't like going to the doctors at all. I don't like medicine and find that if I'm not willing to take medicine going to the doctors is often a waste of my time because all they want to do is give you medicine. I am really strong minded that the human body will cure itself with time.

This morning though I had had enough and phoned the health centre. Busy. waited a few minutes. Busy. I kept trying and eventually got through, I have an appointment for later today. I really just have to know what's wrong with me, wether or not I'll take medicine if it comes to that I don't know.

Monday morning I had woke up feeling like I needed to pee, nothing unusual except when I had finished it didn't feel like I had. that night I googled it, I wasn't in pain or anything it was just that irritating feeling that I needed to pee. UTI came up quite alot but most people mentioned alot of pain and I don't have any pain so I really don't know if it could be that. people suggested drinking lots of water to flush it out so I did and it worked, for about a day, then no matter how much water I drank the feeling remained. thats when I decided I should call the doctor. I was going to yesterday but as william was nightshift the night before I didnt want to wake him to take me if they gave me an early appointment so I suffered another day and waited to phone them til today. Now I'm just sitting around waiting for the time to pass. Hopefully they will have an answer for me, and even better a solution.

After the appointment..

I described my symptoms to the doctor and she nodded knowingly and told me UTI she prescribed some antibiotics and this feeling is just so irritating I just want it gone sooner than later so I took one as soon as I got home. A 5 day course, torture. but, if it gets rid of this feeling then it will be worth it. hope it 'works its magic' soon.

But I HAVE TO do UN and ON and IN!

Joy got a box of alphabet books for her christmas from my gran. Very useful little books, they can also be used as blocks to spell out words, they came with a mat for this very purpose. I've had lots of fun with them, and my resolution this year being to teach Joy to read I thought they would come in handy. I have not been able to get her to sit down and focus so I just sit there on my own creating words with the same endings like at and ar and en and et and so forth. I took them to williams dads yesterday and had great fun sharing them with my nieces.

last night I was up quite late I watched 'enchanted', did some laundry, ate probably too much chocolate then I went to bed. I couldn't get to sleep though. Every time I shut my eyes I just kept seeing the letters, I would run the different combinations through my mind, At, Bat, Cat, Fat, Hat, and so forth. once I finished one set I would move on to another. after hours of this torture I got up got a piece of paper and a pen and started writing them all down hoping when they were all on paper they would be out of my mind then William asked what I was up to I didn't answer, just kept working determined to get them out of my head! He read what I was writing then took it away from me and told me to go to bed. 'BUT I HAVE TO DO UN!' I protested. I lay on the couch, hoping the background noise of TV would silence the letters in my head.
 'ON! I HAVE TO DO ON!'
 'go to sleep.'
I faced away from the tv and shut my eyes.
'IN!'
'go to sleep'
I retreated to my bed again for another attempt at sleep. I breathed heavilly hoping that focussing on my breathing would take the letters away. It worked for a little while then another combination popped into my mind. it was no use. I was going to be so cranky when I woke up in the morning, assuming I would sleep to wake up that is.
at one point I wasn't sure if it was the letters that were the problem or if I was on a sugar rush from all the chocolate I ate earlier that night and the letters were a distraction from sleep.
I don't know how I eventually got to sleep but surprisingly i wasn't cranky at all when I did wake. Donald was in the living room yelling at Joy to pay attention telling her that he will give her easy ones. Bless him he's a good teacher! unfortunately for him, and me, Joy does not want to pay attention at all. While Joy played with her camera, I showed donald a fun game with the books. I put some letters like this:

                                       R              AN                D

                                                        M

I showed him the M next to the AN and said
'the gingerbread MAN'
 then moved the M away and put the R next to the AN
'Ran'
then moved the R away and put the D after the AN
'And'
D away, R back
'Ran'

I thought it was quite fun, and Donald thought it was cool, I hope by doing these fun things even if Joy doesn't take part, if she is nearby she might atleast notice and one day want to. maybe then, I will be able to get the letters out of my head and enjoy a good night sleep.

Best of 2010

I thought that perhaps I should look back on the previous year and remind ourselves of the highs and lows, first lets get the lows out of the way so we can focus on the best of. The lowest points were being refused permission to put up a swing set and the dispute we've had with our downstairs neighbour about our noise level. When I think about it, if these are our lowest points 2010 was a pretty good year.

Now the moment we've all been waiting for the best of 2010 here it is

The year started off slowly, there was my 24th birthday, Me and Williams 6th anniversary, then Donalds birthday in March.

not much happened throughout the rest of march. In april we celebrated Joy's 4th Birthday

In Tummel Valley

in May we met my penpal Zoe for the first and hopefully not the last time!

Then we celebrated Teos first birthday!

the summer of 2010 was fantastic! we spent many days at the beach with friends!

we made some new friends 

and we got invited to a birthday party!

we had a great time at the sunday school picnic!

and we spent many days at the rspb nature reserve!

Near the end of summer we joined some friends at finlaystone

In october we had a little holiday in London and I met my friend Tracy for the first time! and Donald conquered his fear of heights on the london eye!

in November we celebrated thanksgiving

and of course in December we celebrated Jesus' birthday!

There were so many great bits of 2010 I wish I could list them all but these are my favourites, especially meeting my penpals! I hope that 2011 holds many great memories for us it will be hard to top 2010!