Much fun with the Wii

I had never fancied a Wii, until Alan suggested we might get one for K's birthday in April. We were all talking about it and Dad said, lets get one, it could be fun for us all to have a go at. Fun! I have not laughed so much for ages, the sight of my mum almost crying with laughter as she tries to steer a Mario Kart round the track is amazing. The kids love it, D can play quite happily with K and we can join in too. Saturday night iit was the physical games, driving, tennis, baseball etc. Last night we played pub games; Lawn Darts, Darts, Horseshoes and Shuffleboard. My sister could not get the hang of the under arm games and it was so so funny to watch her face and see her get frustrated.
The kids went to see the Pantomime yesterday with Nanny and Grandad, they thought it was marvellous. Cinderella's coach was a sight to behold. K said it was brilliant, she was a bit upset though, they went to a restaurant with a Wacky Warehouse, they had a meal and were then going to play and K was not allowed as she is too tall. She was gutted apparantly.

Feeling Useless......

For the first time since becoming a mum, I am now surplus to requirement, every Christmas, K has always needed me, either to help her undo a toy, or play something with her or undo things or show her how to do things. However this year, her main present is a Nintendo DS Lite, all of a sudden I am not needed. She is sat quite happily playing with Nintendogz, and is happy as larry. My 9 year old doesn't need me!!!!
On a lighter note, I had a marvellous Christmas dinner, mum has outdone herself, it was lovely. We had a lovely time this morning, D, C and K all woke up about 6.30, much later than the 3.00 it was last year, they opened their stockings with smiles and lots of 'oooh mummy look' and 'wow look at this'.
Queen is on at the moment so of course the TV has been turned on for it, it has been so nice, we turned the TV off at 6.30 last night and have only just turned it on again. Hopefully it will go off again straight afterwards and stay off.
Alan should be here later, I do miss him on Christmas Morning, one day I know we will all be able to open our presents together. Perhaps we will have people to ours for dinner and the day, I would love that!

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas like I am :)

Christmas Eve and its white

Not really, but a girl can dream. So here we are, Christmas Eve and preparation has started. The veg is done and I am now watching a documentary on which religion is the richest. They reckon the Anglican Church has an annual world wide income of 5 billion! That is a huge amount of money, but we have a huge expenditure as well. Anyway, that is far too serious a topic for today.

All the presents have been moved into my room until they come down tonight, heaven only knows where they are all going to go, it doesn't even include the go cart and tractor Mum and Dad have bought for C and D. I am so glad K is now 9, her presents have got progressively smaller through the years. This year she wants a nintendo DS, so no huge boxes for me to find room for.

She should be up soon, she is determined to be helpful today, she wants to do the ironing. Its quite worrying, last time she did it, it took her an hour to do 6 tea towels. This could be a long long day, we have cheese straws to make and she wants to 'put the special white stuff' on the sausage rolls, she was most disappointed to find out it was just milk.

We have the crib service this afternoon at 3, K wants to dress up as an eskimo, Andy will have to try and wind all the costumes the kids wear into the Christmas Story. Tonight is my very favourite service of the year, it is Midnight Mass. There is something very very special about the church at night on Christmas Eve, the candles and the carols, I love it. Communion always seems to start Christmas off for me, that sounds corny but it really does.


Happy Christmas one and all and may God Bless you and yours.

It's Christmas (nearly)

I am such a big kid, I love this time of year. K is getting all excited, we have the family coming over tomorrow and then its the big day. Mum has bought enough food to feed half the village as normal, but somehow we manage to get through it.

I only have a couple of hours left at work as Boss has given us all tomorrow off free, so guess who gets to do all the veg! Have just been to Tesco, its not pretty, bloody chaotic more like. Why people leave their huge shop to the last minute is beyond me.

Well I have a pile of filing about 6ft high to be getting on with. More later :)

Occupational blogs

I find these fascinating, especially the Police blogs, my interest started when my sister bought me Wasting Police Time by PC 'David Copperfield'. I started to read his blog and got hooked. He has now moved to Canada but there are plenty more out there, one of the best I have read is Area Trace No Search. The compassion and humanity this Police Officer shows is truly uplifting, it makes a change to read something good from the police force. This post in particular shows common decency at its best, if you want to cry try this, everyone forgets about the awful things that have to be dealt with, we watch it on TV from the safety and comfort of our sofas. This time of year, just take a second to remember the people who try their bloody hardest to keep us safe despite the stupidity that comes down from above. I for one say thank you.

Check my links on the side for more of the same.,

Zip it!

Last night was our Christmas Party, it was really good, we had an hours instruction on Poledancing then a nice meal. Trust me, the sight of my MD upside down on a pole has to be seen to be believed, I personally am not built for poledancing, more for pole leaning. B was brilliant though, both her and the other two really got the hang of it. We went for a nice meal afterwards and we had all been bought presents, mine was a mask for my mouth that says 'Zip it'. Yeah right, because thats likely!

Monday night was the last night at Guides, it was a sad one because one of my Guides who has been with us for 3 and a half years is leaving us. We will miss her terribly, she is one of those girls who makes it all worth it, she is a joy to be around and is a lovely girl. Hopefully she may find time in the future to come to Rangers, we shall just have to see.

K has her Christmas party today at school and is all excited as she can wear non uniform, I am sure they will have fun and I will hear all the details tonight. She is going to help me wrap the rest of the presents tonight, so heaven help me, there will be sellotape everywhere! She does so love to help, but makes a total mess.

Here I am 9 days on and I still haven't had a cigarette. There is no going back now, I would not be able to face K if I lit up now.

All by myself

Well its Monday morning, foggy damp and bloody horrible. I hate mornings like this, you get up and it is just grey. I am on my own today, T has the day off, I have the music up loud and am working quite steadily, it is nice when she is off, though it gets a bit creepy after about 4 when it is dark and I am round here on my own.
Last night at Guides tonight, I will miss my girls over Christmas, we are doing Christmas crafts, so I will take the iPod and the dock down and we will play cheesy music and sing a lot. No doubt I will have to have a word with one of them to get them to calm down, I swear they get all hyper just sitting making crafts!
Yesterday afternoon, I have never seen so much concentration and delight all at the same time. K has to make a parachute for school, she used a Polly Pocket Doll and Al made the parachute with her, it was very technical, hehehe. The shouts of delight after they had made it and tested it by chucking it down the stairs was brilliant. I do hope she gets a good mark.
It was K's Judo Christmas party last night, Al stayed and we both went with her, she looked lovely in her new white skirt, she is really getting an eye for what suits her. She looked so happy when she was dancing and she was chuffed to bits that she won a dance competition as 'Best Air Guitarist'

Yay its the weekend

Well here we are Saturday lunchtime and I still haven't had a cig. I am sat here chilling and watching Mamma Mia. K has gone shopping with Aunty Emma for her outfit to wear Christmas day, she looked so grown up going off to get the bus. Every so often it hits me that my little girl is growing up so fast. Then in a second she is back to a little girl again, needing reassurance. She is so funny. Al took her to one side this morning to give her some money to buy my Christmas Present. It was all going to be a secret, but she managed to keep it to herself for precisely 30 seconds.

I sat an wrote a load of our Christmas cards this morning, Al was taking the mickey as usual because I love little tiny cards and he calls them gift tags. Only need to write about 20 more and I am done. I love this time of year, church is all festive with the Advent candles and decorations, and then there is the Crib Service, Carol Service and Midnight Mass to look forward to. K is singing in the Carol Concert, she has a couple of lines to do solo and I am doing a reading. They have made me so welcome there, finally I feel at home.

Oh well, Meryl Streep is now belting her song out so I am off.

Interesting afternoon....

Well I have had an interesting afternoon, I have finally signed up to Rants n Raves it is a message board where as far as I can see its no holds barred. I have heard loads about it on TR so I thought I would take a look. Its certainly different. Worth a look but wear asbestos protection.

Snow!

We had snow this morning, it snowed for about 5 minutes. I miss the days of my youth when I loved the snow, now I just see it as a driving hazard. When did I get so old? K gets so excited and loves it, Last year when it snowed late at night all the kids were out in the street, it was great.

The no smoking thing is going well, I am now on my second day and still not craving too badly. K and Al are so proud of me, K keeps giving me hugs and making me coffee, there is no way I can go back now, I couldn't bear the look on her face. She is so loving sometimes, othertimes completely frustrating. I suppose that is parenthood for you.

Tesco Christmas cards

What has happened? This year Tesco's Christmas cards are rubbish! I had to go and buy some extras for my friends at Guiders.co.uk and they are most disappointing. I don’t want Winnie the Pooh or Disney Princess’s, but I do want robins and snowmen and something sparkly. Instead I have had to get ones with pink stockings or baubles, not me at all. Heigh ho I guess it’s the thought that counts. I am proud of myself though, I went to the tobacco counter and only bought the stamps I needed. It still seems weird that Christmas is only 2 weeks away; I am not sure where the year has gone.

Next week is the last night at Guides and Rangers, we are doing some Christmas crafts and will have a nice easy night, we were going to go swimming on 23rd, but the pool is closed, girls are disappointed but we have promised them we will take them after Christmas. I am enrolling 9 Guides next week, I really enjoy doing that and may use the candle thing that was suggested on one of the websites, it seemed really symbolic.

Here we go!

Well, there we go, I am officially a non smoker. I had my last one last night, I have managed to get through my morning routine without one and am now happily sat here sucking a mint. I can see my consumption of Wrigleys Extra going up about 400 fold. I have decided that I am going to go for a walk every lunchtime unless it is raining. I have my Ipod (forgot it today though) so I can bop along to that, maybe I will be able to lose a bit of weight too, that will shut Dr Briley up. Had a good night last night, K had judo and loved it, I never thought she would take to it like she has. She looks so good in her Judogi, it makes her legs look so long though! It is the Christmas party on Sunday and she can't wait, she gets so excited about these things.

Dad finsished my rug last night, it looks good on the floor of my bedroom. I am chuffed to bits with the way the room looks now I have changed it around. Once I get the storage boxes, it will look even better. I just need to remember to make my bed everyday.

This is the start

Well here we go, I have read loads of blogs in my time, so I thought I would write my own.

Well, what to say? This week is a big week for me, I am giving up smoking. I have been on Champix for two weeks and Friday is my quit day, I am now down to under 10 a day, I have only had one so far today and am not missing it too much. It is not the nicotine I am craving, it is the habit really. I sat at the kitchen table this morning, lit one and thought what was the point? I have worked out I will save over £200.00 a month, now that is serious money. This time next year I could have my credit card paid off! It has helped loads that dad has given up. If he can do it, I can. I am so proud of him, he has really turned his life around after his heart attack, he eats better, and has given up the fags. Go dad!

This is strange to me, I am not sure what to write. I am loving reading the TalkRational message board at the moment, some of the things on there really make you think. Some of the members are so clever! When they get into the science stuff or philosophy stuff I get totally lost and feel really daft! The funny threads make me laugh out loud though, it is well worth a look.

I am at work at the moment, I have the Ipod playing some good music, on the message board, we have been confessing our musical guilty secrets, some real blasts from the past there. I had a nostalgic night on Itunes one night and downloaded 'Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs' great song! Last night I downloaded 'Children' by The Mavericks, I used to dance to that back in the day, when I did linedancing (oh the shame). It is still a great song!