We're going potty!

Its been a long time, I know! Things were a bit hectic in the last 2 weeks of school. Paul's parents were looking after the kids so I worked everyday. Goodness, I was exhausted and, Maddy and Gethin were extremely clingy after all that work. Poor Gethin, every time I left the room he thought I was going to leave him again.
In between all that I did the first carboot sale. Its quite an experience I tell you. The minute you park your car you get bombarded by people asking for mobiles and jewellery! I was sure the one lady was going to unpack the car for me. Strange people shop at carboot sales. Anyway, it was worth the effort as I made about £70. Not too bad!
The scrapbooking challenge took a break for that "busy" week and since both Kerry and I didn't manage a lo we called it quits with no fines! Nice when you can make up the rules as you go along!!!

BUT we're back on track this week with our layouts. I've just had a nice little parcel from the USA so I'm quite keen to get scrapping this week.
On the weekend my friend Tanya came to visit from Nottingham. We had a lovely day on Friday with shopping in the morning and then dinner and the theatre in the evening! Paul has done a lot of babysitting lately and seems to manage quite fine - think I may take advantage more often!
Its Easter holidays for the next 2 weeks so I've decided now would be a good time to potty train Maddy since I can stay home and its getting a bit warmer. We're on day 2 now and so far so good. She seems to be quite willing and we've only had a few accidents! Fingers crossed I'll do a better job with her than I did with poor Ross!
I will keep you posted on our progress!
That's all folks - I'm off to have a cup of tea and relax!
xxx

Happy Mother's Day to me

What I nice weekend I've just had. I've been dropping hints for weeks now to my darling husband, in anticipation of the "big event". Needless to say, he still left it to the last minute and come Saturday there was no sign of any goodies or treats. At least he admitted his negligence and we came to an agreement which was very much to my liking! I got to go shopping all by myself on Saturday without any children in tow!!!!! Yes, that's right, NO CHILDREN!!!!!!! YAY!!! It was blissful to stroll around and not have to bribe, placate, scream or shout! And what did I buy you ask? Some lovely new clothes for ME!
On the "real" Mother's Day I was treated to a lie in with a nice cup of coffee (I'm working them up to breakfast in bed)! Ross and Maddy had made lovely cards for me at school which are far better than any shop bought ones. I just have to share my son's beautiful message in his card - I'm so proud of his handwriting! Silly - I know but that's the "teacher" mom in me coming out!

We went to church where the children sang songs for the Mothers with Sunday School. Maddy made her first stage appearance complete with her Peppa pig backpack. I spent the whole time waiting for her to fall off the stage as she teetered precariously close to the edge! After Church we went to Paul's sister for coffee and cake and then it was home for a nice relaxing afternoon and a steak dinner!!
All in all a very nice weekend! No time for Internet as I'm having too much fun doing other stuff.

Gethin has suddenly changed from a quiet, relaxed baby to a noisy, loud, wriggly worm. He wants to see everything, touch everything and go wherever he pleases. I'm not looking forward to the journey to Oz as I'm sure he's going to be all over the place!
That's all folks!
xxx

Busy busy!

Is it just me or are the weeks just flying by? We're half way through March already!
Challenge Internet is still going well after a week. The longer it goes on for, the less I actually miss "surfing the web" and when I do go online I'm bored after half an hour. So its all good.
Paul's parents have made a surprise visit to the UK which is very handy as they've offered to look after the children while I work.
We've had a busy weekend and haven't been home much so its a good thing that I managed 2 layouts last week as I haven't done any scrapping this week. The photo on this layout is from the photo shoot we had done of the kids while we were on holiday in January. We've got 6 different shots of them and they're so lovely. I can't wait to get them framed but that will have to wait until Australia so in the mean time I've settled for scrapping just one.
Its extremely late and I have to work tomorrow so I'll be off to get my "beauty sleep". I'm sporting a bit of a black eye at the moment, courtesy of Gethin. He flicked his head back so hard onto my cheek bone that I now have a big black bruise under my eye. So I need all the beauty sleep I can get! Goodnight and have a good week. xxx

New challenge!!!

I think its Lent right now and people are meant to give up something precious. Which brings me to my new challenge!!
I seem to spend an awful lot of unnecessary time on the internet lately. I try and keep it to a minimum when the children are around but it doesn't always work out that way - 5 minutes becomes 10 which becomes 15 and so on and so on ....
I think you could safely say I'm an internet addict! Bad girl!
Somedays (when I'm home with the kids) the internet is my only sanity as I can chat with my mom or my friend, Kerry. It would be no good to restrict myself to a couple of minutes a day as I know it would be futile so I'm "going for broke"!!
This is the rule!
No going on the computer before 8pm unless all children are at school or sleeping.
There's no chance all my children will be at school together for a very long time and it would be a miracle if all 3 children took a nap at the same time! So, I will probably only be around in the evenings after 8pm or on a Wednesday and Friday morning when Maddy and Ross have school and Gethin takes a nap!
I feel a bit like an addict and when I started yesterday, I had some serious withdrawal symptoms - thinking every few minutes "I'll just go and check that online". Bad habits are hard to break!
Today was a bit easier as Paul was home and we went out for a nice, long lunch to Swansea.
I'm hoping this will mean my house is cleaner and I spend more quality time with the children. Somehow I doubt the house will be cleaner but I will make a big effort on the latter statement.

The original challenge is still going well as you can see. I'm not sure if Kerry has done hers as I'm not allowed on the computer in the day but I think she has as her status on MSN said "scrapping".

Not much "big move" news to report. The next few months are going to be pretty busy for us with lots of exciting activities coming up. Paul is finishing off his last season as a professional footballer so we're hoping to make his last home game a memorable one. I'm hoping a few friends will join the children and I at the game with a small celebration dinner out afterwards.
Then it will be Gethin and Ross' birthdays. I promised Ross a big party this year as it will be his last one in Wales with his friends from school. Gethin is going to party crash and celebrate his 1st birthday with his big brother. A joint party will make things a lot easier for Mom.

Thats all folks! I have to work tomorrow and Tuesday so I'll be signing off now.
xxx
PS. I just noticed that the time on here says it was posted at 14:51. I can assure you that it is actually 22:40 and I have not already broken "The Rule".

Not much happening!

I don't have too much to report this week, but someone complained so I thought I'd better write a few lines!!
We now have exactly 6 months to go until we move!!!! Scary stuff! Can't really do much about packing or sorting as we still need our things for the next few months. In the mean time, I'm busy decluttering and plan to do the 1st carboot sale at the end of this month. Then, in late July, we'll start selling off the big stuff and I'll do another carboot sale then. By the end of August we should be sleeping on mattresses on the floor! Whatever stuff we can't sell will be burned in the back garden - we're planning on a big bonfire farewell party. All are welcome!!!

Challenge news - another week done! Hooray! Kerry has suggested we up the anti and start doing 2 layouts a week. I'm still thinking about that idea!
I really like how this weeks layout turned out - I hope you do, Mom!!

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.