Skip to main content

Sunshine!

Woo hoo - we've had some sunshine and more is predicted for this week! After what feels like weeks of rain it was so nice yesterday to be able to throw open the doors in the kitchen and welcome the sun in. This weekend has been manic. We had friends round on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, I had a yoga morning yesterday and it was Izzy's birthday party #1 today. In between this I was trying to at least establish what's been happening in the garden under all that water, and Glenn was trying to do a few bits as well - we've basically not stopped.


Izzy's party was  a chance for her and 3 of her friends (this time the 4-square crew) to go to Go Ape in Southampton. The forecast was for rain (again!) but in fact it held off literally until the moment they finished and then the heavens opened. We had lunch under a shelter and came home for a couple of hours of playing, Birthdays are definitely getting more civilised! Once again Abi found the course much more of a challenge than Izzy, but marginally less so in reality than Izzy's friend Krishna who was shaking from top to toe and at one point I thought she might fall off with fear. She managed to conquer it though with brilliant coaching from Glenn on the ground who talked her through the whole lot. Who knew that Mr Grumpy 'I don't see why I need to come' would turn into the star of the day?! Without his support and guidance I really don't think she'd have managed to get round and I was so proud of him for being so great and her for sticking with it. All that fear for the 10 second thrill of the zip line at the end - sums up the human psyche I guess!


This evening we dropped everyone back at respective homes and came home to slump in a heap after so much socialising this weekend. Abi drifted off to the dog bed to cuddle the dogs and watch You-Tube, Izzy and I to the kitchen table to draw and paint (her on paper, me on glass) and Glenn to his iPad for whatever it is he watches... domestic calm restored!


Abi has had a wonderful week at Angie's and we finally managed to sort her phone out for when she is away. Turns out we had the settings incorrectly set up and it was using any available credit of data before using the Wi-Fi (why would that be something you would want to do?!?). This meant the reason she didn't have any credit was because she'd used it all before even leaving the house! Once we had this sorted and had paid another £20 it lasted her all week - doh! As ever she came home buzzing, desperate for her own horse (and field), filthy and starving - clearly a good week then! She spent an hour today on various property websites searching for properties for us to buy. When we walked the dogs this evening I spent the whole walk trying to explain to her the magnitude of upping our mortgage by 50% so she can have a couple of areas, a ménage and stables - it's just not going to happen!!


So, back to work and back to school for the kids on Wednesday. I have to do half a day tomorrow (from home, not too bad) and then it's Manchester / London / Reading / Home and the weekend again - no wonder the weeks pass so quickly! Scarily its just 5 weeks to go now and Kerrie gets married - eek!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more

All about Izzy

This weekend has mainly been about Izzy, mostly because Abi has been off riding again and so we've hardly seen her. This has its pros and cons - on the one hand Izzy gets lots of attention and the choice of what to do. On the other she misses Abi and when big sister arrives home we have the inevitable few hours of resettling which seems to involve tears as a matter of course. I did have a moment of despair this evening when I looked across to the table just before Sunday dinner - normally a happy time - to see both of them, heads on arms, holding back tears. Luckily a bit of food and a game of 20 questions to share what everybody had enjoyed about their weekend and we kind of managed to get back on track by dessert. When asked what she wanted to do, Izzy immediately shouted "Jo Jo" so my task was to sort out a visit with Jo, the boys and Ellie. No matter how much time passes they still love to see each other and the first task is always the same. Edward and Izzy have t...
Post a Comment
Read more