Work experience

Jamie has been on work experience for the last 2weeks, this is where the school sends the kids out to jobs that they have shown an interest in what career they have chosen. Jamie is tinkling with the idea that he would like to work with electronics , in what field he is not entirely sure, but we are trying to help in whatever way we can.
The school managed to find a placement for him doing maintenance with the local YMCA , so he has spent the last 2weeks doing the following.......
Painting doors, putting up doors,changing lightbulbs, drilled a hole, helped mend a lawnmower, painting again. The great thing about our wonderful systems in life is that because of insurance purposes they cannot do anything until the age of 16yrs.
The darling government has also made it that electrical companies cannot take kids on work experience now because it costs the companies so much in insurance that you just can't get a placement small electrical firms just can't afford it so how are kids meant to try their hand at doing some practical work to see if they like it when our society today just does nothing to help the young choose their careers.
The only chance Jamie will get is after he leaves school and hopefully will get an apprenticeship and college combined , with the hope he has chosen the right career.

Anniversary

Tomorrow is Andy and I wedding Anniversary we will have been married 16years, it seems a lifetime ago, two very young looking people , no wrinkles,no bulges were there should be no bulges, fresh faces ready to start life.
We have had two wonderful children totally different in their own ways, we have had the pets, cats and now two very energetic dogs. We have had our hard times and have been put through several tests , these we have managed to come through with a bit of help from friends and you know who you are.....
Now 16 years on we are a solid unit that goes on , I am sure there will be times in the future that will still put us to the test, but I can happily at this time say "bring it on" and we will get through that. We never seem to have any money, Andy is self employed in the building trade, so come on summer as we need the rain to stop. I work two part-time jobs, it pays for the kids to go on their trips, we both work too hard and look forward to when life will get easier. Our family is a strong unit full of fun and laughter so who could want more.
Roll on tomorrow and look up at the wedding photo of the fresh faced girl who walked down the isle and is still married to the same man.
Happy Anniversary sweetheart XXXxxx

Happy Easter

A Happy Easter to you all,A day where the kids go on an Easter egg hunt, people go to church when they don't usually,everyone eating far too much as they have gone crazy food shopping because it has 2 bank holiday's in one weekend, Kids wondering how many Easter Eggs they will get and who got the biggest.
Families grouping together for the festive lunch , the dads and grandads falling asleep in the chair in the afternoon, the women in the kitchen clearing up all the work they did that morning.
Well not of that for us today a lazy morning and then off to a sevens rugby match this afternoon with kids and dogs, we had our Easter dinner yesterday, a wonderful roast beef with all the trimmings and a scrumptious apple crumble for pudding a stress free day of trying to fit everything in , NO not in this house. The kids have no Easter eggs they have 2 new DVD's..... The chronicles of Narnia and King Kong .NO "mum I feel sick later" a much better solution....
With that I have to go as the kids have just got up wished me a Happy Easter and want to make bacon butties for breakfast. I hope everyone has a good one

Holidays

The kids have been off now for nearly 2 weeks, I have been off this week with Andy and we have been doing the horrible job of cleaning out the attic. We hired a skip which is now overflowing and are boarding the loft out properly never want to lift one of those boards again, I have been and bought the paint to do our bedroom as the new pine bed has arrived, there is no turning back for Andy now. It will be the colours i first chose, he will come round and he will love it when I have finished, he just has to have a little faith in my colours. The rest of the house is looking great so he will go with the flow.
Last Sunday we did a trip to Alton Towers with the rugby club. Lorraine, mike and myself took 34 lads ranging from 14-17 for the day. Andy stayed at home and looked after the dogs and I took Steph, My daughter, the thrill seeker of rides.
Have you ever done a major rollercoaster while in hailstones that were the size of marbles, we did. The weather was fantastic when we got there then through the day we got ......Hailstones.......Snow......Rain......Sun.... Hailstones. What a day, photos of me and steph will be posted later looking like two drowned rats......but a great day was had by all, plus I did all the ride except "air"but we won't go there....

Ache all over

All i can say today is i ache all over after yesterday's caper with Tyson. Thanks Len for the usual supportive comments. I am taking him next week to a friends who has 6 massive long haired German Shepherds. If he decides to have a go i have my old dressage stick at the ready and i will give him an Alpha talk he will not forget. Hopefully i may just get the respect back of my dog.
There is no way after having him for nearly 5yrs that he is suddenly going to loose his respect of me and forget who is the alpha out of the two of us.Roll on next Wednesday for the battle to begin....hopefully by then i won't hurt so much.....

The beast

It was such a beautifully day today Lisa and I decided we would take the dogs down the shore for a paddle, I have had a few problems with Tyson lately , where he has gone for a few other strange dogs, I now carry a muzzle with me for such occasions incase I need to put it on him.
The dogs had a wonderful time chasing the thrown stones in the water, we had just finished and had the dogs on the leads when this guy suddenly appeared with a black Labrador. I shouted to the owner to call his dog as it was starting to come towards us and tysons lead was all wet , plus the grass was very wet where I was standing. Anyway the guy totally ignored me, You can see what's happening here,dog come up to us very erect Tyson feels threatened , I slip , lead goes through hand and tyson has a go. The guy does nothing I'm on the floor and the dogs are fighting,I'm still trying to hold onto Bruno while shouting at Tyson to leave and the stupid guy just stands there.
I eventually get up grab Tyson meanwhile the guy just looks at me and wanders off. The muzzle goes on I have an ALPHA talk with my dog, My neck killing me from where I tried to hold both dogs and falling over. So we get round the corner and low and behold the guy is there again with his dog, me now I'm not to worried at this point as Tysons got his muzzle on, but I again ask the guy to call his dog as again it is coming straight for us. Yep he does nothing, bloody great I try and be a responsible owner and you get some idiots that that just don't care.
I can safely say I'm totally pissed off with my dog and to make matters worse my neck really hurts. So if there are any dog owners out there that have come across the same sort of thing and have any tips as to what I can do , I could really do with help. Tyson is nearly 5yrs old has never been an aggressive dog, he has been used for socializing other dogs because his nature is so good, never instigated fights. So why is he starting to go for strange dogs.....

Dads day out

We have a very happy girl in our house tonight, Steph has spent the day with her Dad. As you are aware Jaime has gone to Wales for the school trip for the part of mountaineering.We don't get him back till 10pm on Monday.
So back to steph, Andy and Jamie were meant to go up to harlequins so as he was away Steph decided to go instead, she has been a few times with us all but has never just been with her Dad. Well needless to say she came home grinning like a Cheshire CAT had some money to spend, she went into the kids part and made a Easter card for me, bought her lunch and sat with her Dad to watch the match... You can't beat the quality time you spend with your kids and boy she was full of it when she got home.....
Me I had a very peaceful day and went Shopping for shoes and boy did I buy some shoes. $ pairs to be exact so roll on the summer when I can wear them.....Definitely a good day for all the kidd's....