Bank Holiday Weekend

Andy has been off since Thursday , i'm still on my lasts weeks holday and the weather has shone. We go to friends every sunday on the August Bank Holiday for the anual B.B.Q, It's the same group of people, the pool comes out, the drink is plentifull,and everyone has to bring some sort of dish of food. Mine is the garlic bread i have to do this every year much to everyones delight ( i make a pretty mean one). I have also to make several coffee cakes to be delivered and this year i added my fruit pie. When i took the dogs out at 7am i came accross the blackberry bush. So bag in hand i picked Blackberries, I had plums, pears and apples so we had a megga pie.
A great deal was drunk, the sun shone for the first time in 2 yrs, the kids got thrown in the pool with several of the adults, those that did not go in the pool got watered down if they wanted or not.

BBQ Pics

It's a dog's life

Tyson deciding that he didn't want his bed anymore and the chair was soooooo much better.


Ok mum so what is your problem, although i do need a bigger chair.


Bruno deciding to get in on the act, ok so i'm the smallest ,but i need the settee.

Baking and the flicks

Today is a very quick update for our household as i'm on my way to dog training.......Yesterday it chucked it down with rain, Steph had a sleepover so she and Jayde decided they wanted to do some baking. Very bad move. the first mixture coffee cake and coffee and walnut cake mix fell from the worktop, splattered all up the cuboards, the window , over the dogs, on the floor in a guey mass and over me. Andy had just walked in from work said something that i can't blog and walked back out.......
We eventually made a chocolate cake , chocolate cookies


and big chocolate muffins,Baking is so much easier when you do it by yourself, but the mishaps with the kids was just so much fun.


Today we had some buy one get one free cinema tickets so we took Jamie his friend Ryan , Steph and Jayde to the flicks. Andy and I watched the wedding crashers (great film)




Jamie and Ryan saw The dukes of hazard and the girls went and watched The perfect man.It was even better when they gave us another 4x buy one get one free tickets to use another day. So i can see another flick trip coming on.......

New Lounge

This is how the Lounge looks now after all our hard work

New Lounge

Typical Weather

So typical of the weather to change , the moment i have caught up with all my jobs and spend time with the kids , it rains, boy did it rain today , the kids have only just managed to go out now at 7pm . With a quick downing of their tea, scooters and roller blades at the ready they disappear outside.
Me, i have a quiet moment to come and blog, we spent the afternoon visiting one of my oldest friends Christine , we have known each other since the age of eleven, had the kids about the same time and still live fairly close to one another. Having a friend like her is great it doesn't matter how long it takes for us to get together or the kids , it just like it was the day before. I feel very privillaged to have a friend like her.
We talked about the kids and how fast they are growng up, us getting older, the great things you can talk about over coffee and chockie muffins. The girls getting Boyfriends and are we ready for that, the lads on what they wanted to do when they left school, the two1/2 hours we were there went far to quickly, still we are hoping for another coffee on Friday.

Bowling

Daniel is going home today, so i took the kids bowling, they had some other friends go to.I had to go and see my friend Wendy so i paid for the kids to do 2 games each, loaded them up with drinks and goodies to keep them going. I then left Jamie with an extra £10 just incase they were still hungry.
When i went to pick them up 2hrs later, drinks all gone, goodies all gone and no change from the £10. |They then all came home and ate a big roast dinner, they had obviously worked up quite an appetite.
We are now just waiting for Daniels parents to arrive , so they have made a run for it to get a last play on the roller blades and scooter before going. He lives in Kent so it's a bit hard to wonder when he will be next down.

Jennifers Birthday

Use the link to see the photos from Jennifers 18th Birthday party.

Birthday Bash

We just loved the penguins

See all the photos from Marwell here

Marwell

Daniel and Steph up in the tree tops

My big wonderfull tiger

Stephanie and Daniel at Marwell

A trip to Marwell

Today i took Daniel and Stephanie to the local zoological park, the weather turned out great as you can see from the photos we had a great time. I have loved going here from my childhood and it was the first time i got to see a tiger, I have loved them ever since. It was as though they new we were coming and i got some wonderfull photos of them, the 2 cubs that were born last October even graced us with their presence.
After leaving there i took the kids to our Rugby Club to meet up with Andy and Jamie and Stephanie showed Daniel all around by the river and our new clubhouse.

Finished

The lounge is now finished and looks wonderfull , the furniture has been put in it's place , the curtains are now finished and all up. I have spent the day spring cleaning the house which is now immaculate. I haven't properly cleaned since we started decorating and was so satisfying to see my house now nice and clean and tidy again.
Stephanie's friend Daniel is now on his way to stay for the weekend so Andy and i have ordered a Chinese . We deserve it after all the hard work we have done. So i'm now going to sit down and start my holiday........

New Furniture

Yipeeeee my new furniture is arriving tommorow, we thought it was going to take a good 4wks but the furniture company rang today and they can deliver . The only problem being is we are short of one of the cd cabinets so we will have to wait a bit longer for that.
I can't wait and i will post photos of the lounge after it arrives. We have chosen an Indian Oak which has wrought iron lattice work at the front. We have had M.F.I since we got married and i wanted some kind of wood that was solid, now the kids are so much older i can basically have the lounge for Andy and I, (well exept for the dogs)
Stephanie's friend Daniel also arrives tommorow for the weekend from Kent , so hopefully after i spring clean the house and get the rest of the curtains up i shall be able to take next week off to do my holiday thing that so far has not happened yet..........l

Pressure Washer

At the weekend i treated myself or should i say i treated Andy and i to a pressure washer. So todays jobs were just as hectic as today. I moved Steph's trampoline of my decking, pressure washed that down , did the same with the fence and part of the patio. WOW i can't believe how cool this thing is , i had great fun exept for Bruno keep trying to attack it.
I have now re-painted the fence and the decking and even cleaned the windows in the kitchen so you can at least see out of them, i cleane all the garden furniture, what i lot i have accomplished over these last couple of days.
So with it now being 9pm i am going to quite happily sit down and relax........

Busy Busy Busy

I am not having a very relaxing start to my holiday so far. Yesterday i had 3 trips to the tip, i have not organised myself very well and started to sort out the attic . A very bad move,i then started to paint the trunking to cover the cables in the lounge followed by pressing the curtains and hanging the first part of them. I then put all the extra bits from the lounge that we are keeping up the attic. I cleared up the garden that has been a junk yard for the last couple of weeks. The saving grace was Jamie went to his mates for the day and Stephanie went for a sleepover at Jaydes.
I eventually stopped at 9am after Andy had been playing with my blog, trying to get that set out for me with the help of Len.
So with today i got up with Andy and decided i would help out with the ironing, Gathered up from all parts of the house we had 3 weeks worth, I decided this was a definate dvd moment and got stuck in , several hours later it was accomplished , another trip to the tip, a tidy up all round, the garden fence now half re painted ,the trunking with another coat of paint.Another trip to B&Q to get some stain to re-do the kitchen table, Which Andy and i stripped tonight and got the first coat of stain on
I will now sit down and watch Silent Witness. But i feel i have achieved a great deal so far although i will be glad when my holiday actually starts and we get all the jobs done.

Jamie looks the part

Jamie spent wednesday, thursday and friday at Martin Johnsons rugby camp, He had a great time learning new skills and had several of the England team coaching them. He got to hold the world cup and had his photo taken with Martin Johnson and several of the lads from the club.
If you go onto hubby's site there is a cracking photo of jamie in full flight dodging his oponents.

Birthday Bash

It was our friends daughters 18th party last night. We had all clubbed together to get her a day at thruxton going up in a stunt plane with an x red arrow pilot. Jennifer loved the present and we had a really great party. Poor Stephanie got a bit tipsy< will gave her a bit of punch with loads of lemonade in it , but as the evening wore on she decided to help herself, we had a very gigly girl at the end of the night.
Stephanie had left her sandles in the hall last night and when coming down the stairs Bruno had quite happily been munching on them throughout the night, so they had to go in the bin this morning . Hopefully she will remember soon that he only likes her shoes and will put them away where they are meant to go.
Andy and i have had a lazy day today we have been to the tip. I did the dogs and then we have just veged on the setee in my nice calming lounge, we have a few jobs to do tommorow with yes you guessed it another trip to B&q, a roast dinner then a catnap in the afternoon. The best thing yet i am now officially on my hols for the next 2 weeks. YIPEEEEEEE.........

Radiator

I have decided i am far to knackered to blog today exept to say i have now done the 2nd coat on the radiator, The floor has lost it's appeal to be done at the moment, and there is such a pile of ironing we think it may just hit the ceiling given half the chance.
So as you may have guessed the decorating is now taking a bit of a back burner, we need a break desperately, so to renew ourselves to get the last few bits done before the guests arrive on the 19th.
Now i think i shall give up for the day and watch silent witness.

more staining

With another trip to B&Q this morning we have now got all brass victorian switches ,sockets and the beeding for the laminate flooring. I think i should have bought shares in that place for the obscene amount i have spent in this last couple of weeks.
The lounge is now definately starting to take shape and with any luck Andy and i can take next weekend off. We have an 18th birthday to go to and some friends of our are also singing in their group on the Saturday. We have decided to go as Andy used to sing with them and we haven't been to see them in ages.
The sling on my arm is now off and most of the swelling has gone down, Tyson is now back in my good books , so i took both of the dogs and walked them down to the shore tonight for a swim.
So much for another weekend off relaxing and it's back to work tommorow, no peace for the wicked as my mum would say...............

Wall panals

I hate wood, I hate painting wood, Ihate my knees hurting after painting panals of wood.
You may have guessed it but i have done nothing exept paint 195 wood panels that go round the bottom half of my lounge. Andy has gunned them all in for me today and i have had to stain them all. Not once but twice and if anyone thinks i am doing a third coat they can go and get stuffed.
So my agenda tommorow, staining the dado rail to go on top of the panals, 2 coats of course then i can finally say that i am just about done. It will be down to Andy then to lay the flooring I'm glad i can't do that as i don't think my old knees could take it.
At least now if i get this all done i can spend my 2 weeks off on the 15th with the kids much to their delight.

My hand hurts

The decorating is going well all the painting is now done, i am ready to put the panneling on the walls and then i can varnish that. The new furniture is ordered, the curtains are being made and then Andy can lay my new laminate flooring. It is a ridged flooring at a huge disgusting price just so the dogs will not slip on it. Then we will be done....
So to the hand hurting, we were at dog class last night and after Tyson doing an exersise extremely well i let him have a play, he jumped up missing his toy and got my hand. It decided to swell up at some kind of elephant size and so it was a trip to the hospital this morning . I had great trouble trying to hold a pen and so there i sat in casualty, X-rays , but luckily nothing was broken, they decided i have got a bad case of soft tissue damage and have to keep my right hand elevated. So with my arm now in a sling which is extreamly annoying being right handed i am not a happy bunny. I have to wait 48hrs to see if the swelling goes down, and if not it's back to the docs on Monday morning...........r

Geting there

MY good hubby has now finished the kitchen floor and i must admit he has done a wonderfull job... Thanks sweatheart.
Me i have been in the lounge , the walls ,ceiling and the coving are now done. It may sound a bit of a project to you but i have been known to have a good eye for colours, I have done the ceiling a very pale creamy beige, the coving is terracotta, the 2 long walls are a very pale peach and the 2 short walls are a deeper shade of peach. I have only to go halfway down as we are wood panneling the bottom half. It is a sad and tedious job and i am now having to do it after i finish work, so this is the first time i have managed to sit at the computer.
I have the last 2 coats to do on the long walls tommorow and then i have promised Steph she can help me do the skirting boards. Andy wants to try and start laying the flooring at the weekend.
So just to end if i break another nail before we have to go to an 18th birtday party on the 12th i shall happily scream.......