Happy families

I'm not quite sure what has happened, but my kids all seem to be nice!

The girls have been playing really well together recently - happily going up to a bedroom to play when asked too! Mstr A hasn't had much of a tantrum for days - and I have even been able to talk him out of his tears reasonably easily. They were all wonderful at the re-enactment at the weekend - playing with bigger and smaller children, being (mostly) polite to the adults and going to bed with reasonably minimal fuss (they still woke at 6am, but you can't have everything in a tent). They each made friends and played well.

Mstr A has been doing really well at school too. We saw his teacher just before half term and she said that he mostly does his work at the allocated time, and has not had to be sent out of the classroom all term. He's had a head teachers award, and been voted lead speaker at the harvest assembly. He says the other children don't play with him at playtime still, but we're working on his understanding of rules - and personal space - still.

LMB doesn't seem to have learned anything whatsoever of academic use at school. But she seems to be having a great time there. She's been invited to two birthday parties, and had a couple of friends come and play. Her best friend is the little sister of one of Mstr A's best friends, which is great:-)

LMD is just the cutest little madam in the world. It's true - it's not just me who thinks so - everyone who meets her says how cute she is, and then she talks at them and they all ask to take her home:-) Although none of them do - even when I offer!

Aggie is settling into life at home - he's done well with the kids for the last week, taking them off to places and doing stuff with them. He's not been so great at understanding that housework still needs to be done, but perhaps he'll learn after I've moaned enough!

The family is just feeling a lot more settled all round really. And the many cuddles we get are fantastic. Having three kids is starting to make more sense at last:-)

feeling better

It's always good to have an argument debate - and you can always guarantee a good response by slagging of that old queen of tarts hearts, lady Diana Spencer, (she wasn't Princess Di, they took that title away from her, along with the right to be called "your highness" when she was divorced - I've always wondered how pissy Charlie got when he heard she'd managed to get herself killed, just after he'd put all that effort into being allowed the divorce, and then painstakingly PR'd himself out of being a shit and her into being a wacko.....He could've just waited a few years and been rid of her easily whilst gaining public sympathy!), and I've managed to get the most comments for ages on my joke post about festivals. feel free to wander down there and villify me for my callousness and heartlessness because I JUST DON'T CARE that she's dead. Still, I didn't much care that she was alive either.

Now the Queen mum - that was a much sadder day. the day she died I was travelling across London to go and identify my baby brother's body. He was 25. He worked for the council and was involved in many large projects that have made 10'000's of peoples lives that little bit better. I can't think of many more revolting ways to "celebrate" the 5th anniversary of his death this year than to invite a bunch of people who did not know him to a party!

Anyway, things are starting to get back on a bot more of an even keel for me now. Nothings really changed, but I'm feeling more like interacting with the world again. Nanny A is back from her holiday, and out of hospital! She ended up there with a serious chest infection just a day after arriving home! We went to see her at hospital at the weekend, and have just got back from checking in on her at home this evening. She's looking much better - there is still a way to go, obviously, but she's on the mend. I've finally started sorting out all my out sports stuff. I'm offering it to Mstr A's school first - if they don't want it I might ebay the lot:-) I've finally booked in for next years college course.

Work is picking up again. Both types - employed work because the system is changing (again) which means it looks like I'm going to get a lot more responsibility a lot quicker that I thought. Which is good, cos I'm not good a keeping my head down and shutting up. I try, but then things happen, and I have an opinion...... Self employed work because I'm an idiot who apparently can not count to three any more - I still have over a year left on my current tutoring qualification, so have been catching up with a few courses and making a bit of money ready for our holiday in August.

Mstr A got invited to a birthday party. That's two this year!

LMB adored "big" school and wants to go again every day:-)

LMD has finally grown her legs a bit and is now out of her 12-18 mth clothes, and into the prettier older stuff - although she is 2 1/2 going on 16 at the moment in attitude!

Generally, things feel like they are moving again. I'm not sure where, but moving is good:-)

I must be doing something right

Work is still going well. I'm downstairs this week (and next week) covering reception as one of the "pool" typists is off on holidays. It's slightly annoying as I have to keep stopping what i'm doing to answer the phone or sort out something boring;-) But otherwise it's not as bad as the upstairs people were making out. Of course, I'm not very good at office politics, so maybe I'm just not noticing it too much. There is a real upstairs / downstairs feel from the people downstairs. still, I think they are right to move towards department secretaries rather than pool typists - I'm starting to be trusted to take the majority of family phone calls and ven actually talk to clients and progress the case on some things - especially when the partner is off in court. The second fee-earner has taken to saying "just write something like ormal" rather than dictating every single word, which is good too - it means I can write in proper English rather than the questionable phrases they use:-)

I've also had permission to go off and do a course. It's just a one day thing aimed at legal sec's (and paralegals), but it's something they have not sent anyone else on, so i've been asked to keep it quiet. I'm quite chuffed that they think it worth spending money on me after only a couple of months.

One of our big clients came in to the office today (big as in big case, not big as in Mr Big!), and made a special point of coming over to thank me for all the times I've spoken to her on the phone. I'm not keen on crying people, and she pretty much always cries, so it was nice to hear I'd handled it OK.

it was a bit upsetting when I left the last post, and I know that at least some of the other secretaries think I'm sciving by leaving early three days a week, so it's nice to have some affirmiation that I'm really quite good at what I do:-) Everyone needs to hear it now and again.