Kaput

My laptop is dead again. We've given up this time and admitted that, perhaps, we will have to spend a little bit of money and have paid for a brand new hard drive. It will be here in a few days and hopefully I will be back on line properly and permently. But things will be sporadic until then.

Remember the filling that took 5 months to get, and then my dentist complianed that I had "waited" too long before coming to see him? Well, it didn't take:-( So I've been in some pain for the last couple of weeks. I went back to see him last week and had my first root canal work. So I'm still in pain<:( But hopefuly it will be improving soon - I have to go back on Monday for the new filling which everyone tells me won't hurt at all. Lets hope it works.

LMD is growing at an amazing rate at the moment - and sleeping incredibly badly. Aggie reckons is growing pains making her whinge all night, but I'm inclined to believe it's bloody mindedness!

However, We have finally got LMB's bedroom redecorated to a proper standard. We're waiting to hear what "compensation" they are intending to offer on top. They suggested the idea, so who are we to argue?

No answer yet on the holiday though. Apart from a rather nice letter from Which! suggesting I contact Haven head office trading standards. I really must chase that up. We've definitely decided to go with Butlins next year, which I hope isn't a mistake! I've already buggered ny real hope of a quiet holiday by not only having my mother-in-law staying with us (as usual), but my mother, sister and niece are coming too! *gulp*

LMB loves school - she's staying for lunch now too which is great. It would've been even greater if I had been able to find the money to pay for them without raiding the kids money boxes this morning:-( I'm feeling a bit more at ease at college this year too - the work (so far) is making sense to me - it's subjects I'm more interested in (mostly) and I'm trying to learn it properly as I'm going along rather than cramming for two weeks before the exams again! I'm umming and ahhing about whether to move jobs. I can make a lot more money in Bristol, but it's an hours commute -and an hour away from the family if/when anything happens. The company I'm with is pretty shit on it's employee care/training/relations but the department I'm in is pretty good on all that. I think I'll probably debate it round in my mind a bit more - thereby making a decision by default!

non-linear history

It's the office junior's 18th birthday on Monday. Our office is quite big on birthday's, and this is a big birthday so we've been gearing up on and off all day.

I feel very old:-0

At college on Wednesday we mentioned old money. I was the only one there who was born pre-decimalisation (apart from the tutor). Many of them didn't even KNOW that decimilisation had occured in the UK.

Also, my colleague had the indecency to show me all her holiday pictures today. She went to Israel and Jordan. To Petra. I've always wanted to go to Petra, and the chances of actually getting there are becomming more remote with each passing day. But I did spend most of a happy year in Isreal and Egypt. When I was 18. I've just looked out all my old photo's.

I remember doing all the things, and all the places, and all the people shown in the photo's. I don't really remember being the person in those pictures.

I don't have anything in common with the person in those pictures.

I have no idea how that person became this person! Surely SOME of our maturation should be conscious? I mean, I can trace each event/decision that resulted in the changes, and many of them were made deliberately after much thought. But I am still a bit unsure how come I started at A, and am now at *fgby+, rather than B, or even Z:-) I wonder who I will be in another 18 years?

Lets do it all again

Everything is starting over here.

I went back to college tonight. I'd forgotten how the tutor rambles on - it's amazing we learn anything really:-) Tonight was all the boring induction stuff, but this years course is mostly much more interesting subjects so I'm quite looking forward to it.

the insurance company called a couple of days ago in response to my letter of compliant. They sent a surveyor round today who was even more disgusted with the shoddy work done that I was! So that mollified me a little, and he agreed that they will have to come back and do the whole thing again. Some time. The insurance company did say they would get it fixed and then discuss compensation though, which will be nice.

Re-enactment season is over now, so it's back to the normal weekend's of kids activities and DIY etc. I'm hoping to get a nice dress made for me when i've bought some more linen, but I can't start the kids until after Xmas as they'll grow too much! But school's back so it's back to the mad rush every morning and keeping track of which child should be where, when. I can't wait for the kids to be old enough to take themselves off to all their activities!

Work has settled down a bit now too. Aggie is still off, but has been getting quite a bit oif stuff sorted out at last, so things are starting to move forward. we now have a nice new boiler, and a whole bunch of hand rails around the house so that he doesn't fall in and out of the front door, stairs and bath/shower. Even the garden is looking acceptable:-) Perhaps we can start inviting the kids friends round to play again soon.

It's all new

Everything is changing at the Aginoth household.

Mstr A is a junior, and seems to have settled in as well as can be expected to hus new class. His teacher is still a bit confused about how one makes him sit still for more than 10 seconds (i can't help - I've asked that if she finds the answer she pass it on to me!), but he is enjoying the harder work and seems happy with his new class mates.

He starts school swimming lessons tomorrow. I feel terribly bad that at age 7, he can barely struggle accross a width (10 metres). I am, after all, a qualified swimming teacher and adore the water myself. But, he is a natural sinker, was terrified of water as a toddler and still dislikes having his face covered (with anything, including water). Plus, I do not have the time to take him regualrly - they won't let me in with all three kids, they won't let Aggie in at all much of the time, and I can't afford the creche (and even when I have done, they won't keep crying babies (what kind of creche is that?!), so struggling across the width front and back is not that awful:-) But 12 lessons from now until Xmas will do him the world of good! At 8 years old he is allowed to go swimming on his own (regardless of ability - how stupid is THAT rule?), and I had promised myself that I would get him safe to do so by then, so this will help him get there.

LMB started school today. She went for three hours this morning. She happily went running in, and wasn't remotely interested when we left, so it seems to have gone pretty well. She could tell me who and what she played with, what her teacher was called, and what she ate, which is more information than I got out of Mstr A in the whole of his first year! Aggie said she was exhausted this afternoon though:-) Although some of that may be from the playing with another little girl at the re-enactment at the weekend - from dawn to dusk, non-stop running, chatting and dancing:-)

Clever Aggie found a fund that will pay for a new boiler for us cos he's a poor cripple;-) So that was fitted today (well, half of it - it will be finished tomorrow). As well as being quite a bit smaller than our previous boiler, this one has the bonus of a) working all the time (the old one tended to break down every couple of weeks during the winter) and b) being much more economical to run and enviromentally friendly, which will save us a bit of money each year. Yay Aggie.

I've had a letter back from both the holiday company and the insurance company saying they have recieved my complaint and are looking into it. Hopefully one will refund us some cash, and the other will redecorate LMB's room:-) well, they will eventually anyway! Which will be good, because Aggie is currently not working and not being paid anything either. Even civil servants run out of sick pay eventually! My £800 per month will not keep a family of 5 going for long:-( Although at least the nursery fees have halved from £205 per week to £135 per week now LMB is at school. (they put the prices up on 1st sept - Bast***s!), which will help. A bit. Not much really, as that is mostly covered by child tax credit, but not totally, so a bit. Whenever I get really pissed off with the gov't, I have to admit that child tax credit was a great concept. Although sometimes I wonder why I put myself through the stress of going to work for a net income of 0. Then again, when I was a SAHM, I wondered why I bothered not going to work and doing stuff with my kids for all the hassle it gained me! i guess the grass is always greener, and I am never satisfied.....

Which is nothing new:-)

When did this happen?

Mstr A starts Junior school today.

I remember starting junior school. i felt so grown up!

Although he is all grown up - reaching my chest and heavy enough to topple me over when he jumps on me!

In this picture, I could place his head in the palm of my hand and his feet would just about rest in the crook of my elbow!

How did that happen?!

bah!

Aggie has got the sickness thing.

Being a) a man and b) Aggie he has to have it far worse than anyone else! He's really ill, so I'm stuck at home with the kids until I get other childcare sorted:-(

Ah well, at least it means I can get everything ready for them to strt school - but I'm not sure what my work will say!

What a weekend

It was LMB's birthday on Friday. So obviously, we were up pretty early, and she was fairly excited! We bought her a little CD player/radio and a couple of CD's. Which she has had on and danced to cnstatntly since. i thought that three CD's full of music would see her through for a while, but I was absolutely bored to tears of Barbie Girl by half way through the weekend and Aggie had to burn off another few CD's for her!

It also means that Cousin G came for the weeken, along with sister S and my mother - who invited herself along with sister S - much to sister S's charign:-) The journey didn't go well! Fortunately, my mother ahd been persuaded to stay in a B&B overnight rather than in the house which meant that we had a couple of hours peace in the evenings and she got a full night's sleep.

Which is more than I managed! LMD chose Friday night to be sick. She couldn't just be ill during the day, or even whe n she went to bed! Oh no, she had to start throwing up at midnight. Just as I had fallen asleep. So up I get, change her, calm her down, strip her bedding, find the febreeze and clean the mattress, turn the mattress, make the bed, settle her back to sleep and fall back into bed. the whole thing takes about an hour. I then lie awake for another 30 minutes listening for her before finally dropping back off to sleep about 2pm. At 2.30, she does it again. I change her, shower her, strip the bed, febreeze the mattress, make the bed, put her back into bed, settle her back to sleep, stay cuddling her for a while, whereupon she throws up once more all over the bed, me and herself. Lovely. clean her, clean me, put the washing on again, give up on her bed, bring her into bed with me. Where I fail to sleep at all for the rest of the night. Fortunately in a way as it means I was able to catch her each time she started cramping again and avoid vomit in our bed!

So Saturday m orning I was not at my best! Sadly that was irelevant as I still had to play hostess (badly) to my sister and niece, and remai civil to my mother, and prpare for LMB's party. We'd invited about a dozen of her friends, and only three had replied - 2 yes's and one no. I even gave out reminders asking them to let me know, but to no avail *sigh* so i ahd no idea if I was catering for 6 or 20! In the end, 3 came along, which with the 4 already here was fine. And the weather stayed dry, if not sunny, so they mostly stayed out in the garden. but it was still hard work - just arranging food, games and care for 7 three and four year olds is exhaisting. the nafterwards my mother decided that we ought to take the kids out for a walk (as they ahdn't had any excersise or fresh air by running around the garden all orning!) and walked us miles around town! I was knackered by the end of the day!

Then another night of broken sleep - LMD was OK, but I woke at every sound or movement:-(

They all left fairly early this morning, so we decided to take the kids off to the new local attraction: Puxton Park. there was a big fuss when it finally got planning permission and was set to open for this summer, then everything went quiet. i had seen somewhere that it had opened on time, but had not seen any advertising/marketing about it since so i was unsure what it would be like. Actually, it was quite nice. only 10 mins drive away for us, it had good parking, was clean, airy and fun for the kids. It's basically a good size soft play/ball park type place, with a few farm animals. Apparently there was spposed to be lots of animals - but then just as it was due to open Foot and Mouth hit the UK. All animal transport was banned, so they decided to postpone. Which is obviously why the marketing never happened too. And why it is still quite cheap to get in. We brought an annual pass - before they put the prices up next month:-) so it will be a good place to take the kids whenever they need somewhere to go!

And now, they're just about going to bed, and I would be delighted to join them - even if it is just 7pm! But perhaps I'll just slob here and watch LOTR on the telly and learn how to use this stupid facebook thing that i've been persuaded to sign up to!