Shopaholic Teacher!

Ever have one of those days where you just feel like running away? Well, I've been having one of those days for the last few days! Grumpy, sick and otherwise children are no fun to deal with!
Besides that exciting bit of news, I don't really have much else to report so I'll keep it brief.
I still managed to complete my layout for the week - quite an accomplishment under the present circumstances!
The picture didn't come out too clearly - bad light. And in case anyone is wondering: the blocks in the middle are meant to be slightly "out of place"!
Last but not least - I am very proud to announce that I have created another "shopaholic teacher" and her name is Madison. Yesterday, I found her pointing at the tv with a pencil telling the "pretend children" to listen. Ross wasn't very impressed as he was trying to play his wii. I had to laugh!
She also seems to enjoy my favourite pastime - shopping! Everyday we get in the car she wants to know if we're going to the shops. Yesterday we went to buy Paul some work shoes and we had to drag Maddy out of there kicking and screaming because she couldn't have the slippers, wellies and trainers she had picked. I like her style but Daddy was not impressed! I might try that the next time Paul says I can't buy something!

Half term, bad service and move progress!!!

Hmmmm! Where shall I begin?
Is it just me or is customer service a thing of the past? I know I'm sounding like an old lady but we've had some rather serious customer service offences in the past few weeks. I will spare you all the boring details but you would think that in this day and age of "recession" everywhere you turn, that companies would try a little harder to keep their customers happy! 1st it was Toys R Us and then Ebookers and now Opodo!! There we go - named and shamed! If you'd like to hear the long version I will be more than happy to regail you with my horror stories.
Ok, rant over. This week is half term so school's out. A week off is just perfect as you don't have to get up and ready in the mornings but its also not quite long enough for me to go mad and bankrupt keeping the children entertained all week. My children, however, have better social lives than me and have 3 play dates organised already! The bonus is that I get to tag along and drink coffee and chat while they play. Ever wondered what "moms" chat about while their kids play? I'll tell you next week!
Challenge news: another successful week for both Kerry and I. I was a bit slower this week and only finished my layout this afternoon. Cutting it a bit fine! I did, however, have another craft activity that needed completing last week as well. Maddy had a home task from school - she had to make a weather mobile! Not sure why they call it a kids home task as its actually a "lets see what your mom can do" task. I think the teachers just do it to get some fresh, new ideas! Anyway, we had a joint effort in our family with Maddy and Ross painting and mom putting it all together with a few finishing touches. I had a sneaky peek at the other ones hanging up in her class and "ours" was definitely the BEST!
Gethin, not to be outdone, has some rather sweet achievements of his own! He can wave and do the actions to his favourite song - Clap Handies. The actions being clapping and raising his hands for "so BIG". Its too cute and I will attempt to capture it on camera tomorrow!
Move progress: The tickets are really and truly booked! They were booked and then unbooked a few weeks ago, thanks to bad service from Ebookers. On Sunday we found a more suitable and trustworthy travel website and they are now officially booked. We will be leaving British shores on the 3rd of September and be arriving on warm, sunny Australian shores the next day. Paul thought he was being very romantic when he informed me that we would be spending our 10th Wedding Anniversary in transit for 7 hours in Hong Kong Int. Airport! At first, I couldn't see the romance in this gesture until I looked on the airport website and discovered all the lovely shops and restaurants they have there. So while he runs after our 3 lovely children for 7 hours I'll be shopping up a storm - very romantic!! I can't wait.

DONE!!!!!

I did it!! I finished my 1st layout for the scrapbooking challenge. Please see proof above. It didn't quite turn out how I imagined but nonetheless it is complete and the more I look at it the more I like it. Kerry finished hers as well - in fact she managed a double layout - so there will be no fines or punishments. Let week 2 begin!

Its still snowing at our house. I'm quite fed up of this white stuff now. On Friday the school I was meant to be working at was open but Ross' school was closed so I had to cancel my day. 3 children, all day at the childminder = a little less than my whole days wage. In other words, no point in working!

A friend, from our church in Newcastle, has a nephew who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after birth. This poor little baby, who is only 8 months old has now been given a month to live. It really makes me sad to read about such things. I really feel blessed to have 3 happy and healthy children. Is it really that bad if they spill on the carpet you just vacuumed or don't want to eat their last pea?
I think not! Every time I feel myself losing patience I think of poor little Declan whose parents have only been allowed 9 precious months with him. My heart really does go out to those parents and I pray they treasure every precious memory of Declan. Here's his website if you'd like to take a peek.
http://www.statmedical.co.za/all-hands-on-dec/gallery.asp
Treasure those you love the most because you just never know what the future holds!

Snow much fun!!!

The UK has come to a stop!!! And all because of some pretty little white stuff!
SNOW!
London had the worst of it on Monday and then it seemed to move across to us on Tuesday. Most of the schools in South Wales were closed for the day so it wasn't all bad. Plus Paul had to come home from work early as we do live "out in the sticks" and the roads don't all get gritted up here.
The kids had such fun in the garden. Our back garden is quite steep so they were sliding down it on the sandpit lid. Paul and I had a few turns as well. The more they slid the smoother the path became and the faster they went. Even little Gethin had a turn - once on his own and then with Daddy! They crashed at the bottom but Paul saved him. Lucky he's a good goalkeeper!
The bad side of the snow is that my Tesco delivery of a months groceries didn't arrive on Monday night and still hasn't arrived. We've just about run out of food but they've promised it'll be here tomorrow! Fingers crossed as we've got more snow predicted for tomorrow and Friday!

Countdown and challenge!!!!

For those of you who don't know, this year we will be making a big MOVE! Our last and final destination will be Australia. We're extremely excited about our big move and so, whenever Paul and I are excited about something we have a countdown calendar!!! Sweet!!!! In exactly 215 days we will be leaving on a jet plane and we know we won't be back again. We're slowly but surely starting to prepare for our big move so I'll keep you updated on our progress.

My friend, Kerry and I have decided upon a scrapbooking challenge in the hopes of actually "doing" more layouts. The challenge is to complete one layout a week. Not hard you might think - hah! By the end of each Monday we need to produce evidence of our layout. I will be posting my evidence on here where I will keep track of the whole challenge. If we don't manage to produce a layout there are certain penalties which will then apply. No chocolate for a week plus a fine of scrapbooking stash! I think its going to be fun and just hope I can keep up past week 1. The challenge starts in the week coming so watch out for evidence on Monday, 9 February.

Last bit of news - Gethin has a tooth! I think he's been trying to tell me for a few days now as he keeps waking up at 4 in the morning. I'm not really in the mood to chat at that time of the morning so we only discovered it yesterday afternoon. A far more reasonable time!

Photos: Some more random pictures from December.

Work and toilet troubles!

Between work and kids and doctor's appointments for kids, I don't seem to get much time to do anything these days.
Work has been quite consistent for me since school started in Jan. I've been working at the primary school in the next village which is really convenient for me. Its just 2 mins from my house which means more time to get ready in the morning - a very good thing for all family members concerned!
Last week, I had 2 days of work at the "school from hell". Once I'd finished there I had a new appreciation for my own children! Boy, I have never seen kids with such serious behaviour problems in my life! It was quite scary to see how bad some kids really are. Out of a class of about 30, 4 of them were unteachable. They would or could not even sit down for 1 minute without some disruption or disturbance. You really had to be there to understand what they were really like.
We've been having some rather serious toilet issues with our beloved Ross for a very long time. I finally succumbed to my own (sometimes torturous) toilet training scheme and took him to the doctor. Something I should have done ages ago!
He's prescribed medicine for him which is working brilliantly. I never thought I'd get excited about my child going to the loo but I really am!! Too much information I know!
I'm just hoping that when its Madison's turn to be potty trained in the next few months that I'll do a better job. Fingers crossed.
Our little baby, Gethin is growing up so fast. I can't believe he's 9 months old already. He's sitting quite nicely now, which I know is no great feat since he's already 9 months old BUT if you had a big sister like Maddy you would know that its amazing that he's even sitting at all. As soon as I put him on the floor she makes a beeline for him and within seconds she's pushed him over! I can't wait for him to be a bit bigger and give her a good thump for all her misdemeanors!
Lastly, before I go. In case you're wondering, the photos above are from our holiday at Centerparcs.

Back to the real world!!!!

Goodness me, its been ages since I last wrote! Time just flies when you're having fun. I can't believe that as we speak my parents are on a plane back to SA! It feels like just yesterday I was picking them up from the station.
We've had a lovely time over the last 3 weeks. We've celebrated Christmas, New Year, 2 Birthdays and Gethin's dedication plus had a week away at CentreParcs. The children have really loved having their Grandparents around, as have Paul and I. All the extra help definitely lightens our load!
Ross really enjoyed Christmas this year and was really excited when he finally woke up on Christmas morning. He got a Nintendo wii as his main present and we've had some good laughs playing it with him. Madison, on the other hand, was none too impressed with the whole event and spent the first part of Christmas day crying. She didn't want to open her presents and spent the rest of the day clinging to me. A bit too much for her!
Gethin was not well all Christmas week and had to be taken to the out of hours doc at the hospital on boxing day! Poor boy! He had a throat infection leading to the ears. He was much better once the antibiotics kicked in and was back to his usual happy self again!
We've had the coldest weather ever this year with the temps not getting much higher than 0 degrees! Although I'm not the greatest fan of cold weather I do prefer it to wind and rain so I can't really complain.
We had a lovely week away at CentreParcs. The place really is impressive set in a huge forest location! Our woodland lodge was tucked away in the trees and the kids were so excited in the morning with all the squirrels, rabbits and birds hopping around right in front of the sliding doors. We went on lovely wintery walks (no cars allowed in the park), rode the land train, took the kids swimming, played tenpin and much much more!! It was so cold the huge lake there froze - something I've never seen before!! I'll try and put some of the many photos up of the extremely cold weather we've had over the next few weeks.