This post, as I compose it, has an almost confessional feel. There would be several reasons for this. Firstly, I must confess to having always been a romantic at heart. It probably all began in my early teenage years with the Sweet Valley High novels that were prolific in our school (it was an all girls school so you had to take the romance where you could find it!) I borrowed them from girls in my class and read 2 or 3 at a time, as the stories of the Wakefield twins took over my life somewhat. This was quickly followed by classic romances, started in school with 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Wuthering Heights', after which it took on a life of its own as I devoured as many as I could get my hands on. Clearly the BBC also has a lot to answer for with its dramatisations of the classics and I would have to confess to owning several of them!

My second confession is that there appears to be a teenager lurking deep within me who is trying very hard to escape at any given opportunity! Evidence for this would be found in my collection of High School Musical dvds and cds. And there is no guilt associated with this. In fact, I am trying to embrace it thoroughly, spurred on by my friends who are having similar experiences!

Which leads me to my final confession. I love Edward Cullen. No two ways about it! And it's all Sheila's fault. There she was, ploughing her way through the Twilight saga over Christmas with me thinking she was crazy, until a copy of it landed in the school library and I thought of Sheila's obsession and decided to give it a read. Well, who knew what I was getting myself into? I am not kidding, these books are seriously addictive! I don't wish to give anything away for those of you who haven't read them, but not since 'Wuthering Heights' have I come over so smitten by words on a page. And I don't care that it's a teen vampire romance. Not even slightly. I read all 4 of the books in a fortnight, mostly over half term. Which meant that all my rules about the Wii went out the window during our break in Bushmills because, frankly, children and husbands otherwise occupied meant important reading time for me! I kid you not, I was sleep deprived because I couldn't put them down. In fact, I'm reading them again (Sheila tells me it's the only way to get it out of my system) and I'm slightly miffed that this post is taking me so long because I have serious reading to be getting on with. So, when Sheila and Lesley came round for some scrapping it seemed only right that I confess on paper for posterity (and to give Michael something else to mock me for). I am loving this layout, particularly the glittery letters inked with red!

And this also explains my not so prolific blogging, or anything else for that matter in the past few weeks. So I'll take the opportunity to share a couple of photos from the past few weeks that I really love. We did have a lovely break at the north coast over half term, even getting to the Giant's Causeway in the sun. And Michael took some lovely photos of me with the boys. I'm always lamenting that there are loads of him with them and none of me. But after these rather lovely shots he won't be getting off so lightly on the camera front in future. Really, I love these pictures, especially since I don't look completely rare!

A skill I failed to mention in my last post was my ability to imagine something in my head and make it appear in the flesh (other than chocolate made real by a trip to the Centra). Patrick had a character day for book week on Friday and wanted to go as Luke Skywalker. He proposed wearing his combats with a white t-shirt, which I thought was rather tenuous, and so I offered to help with a Tesco value fitted sheet turned Jedi robe! For £2.88 and an hour's effort on Thursday night, I was pretty pleased with it. And given that it was worn all day Friday, so was Patrick!