A good romance will win me over every time

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!

 

(I hope you're loving the wellies in lieu of the Jedi boots that I wasn't able to magic up at all!)

And finally, a couple of very cute baby shots. Sorry to bore you, but he is just so adorable!

 

 

 

I could just eat that chubby tummy up!

Now, back to the books....

7 things

So Jo also tagged me a couple of weeks ago and I have been procrastinating over which 7 random facts to share about myself. I suppose if I'd just asked Michael he could easily have furnished me with at least 7! Anyway, prepare to know me better!

1. I was once pictured in our local newspaper doing splits on a gymnastic beam - I think I could have been quite a good gymnast if I'd had any motivation and could have got over my fear of the asymetric bars!

*eta - sadly the splits is no longer part of my repertoir!

2. I have a deep longing to be a dancer! Maybe it's a latent gene left over from the gymnastics days, but if I could find somewhere I could learn all the High School Musical dances I'd be there!

3. I LOVE musicals, particularly the Lloyd Webber variety but I'm also partial to a bit of Blood Brothers, Les Miserables and Hairspray.

4. I haven't a clue about the rules of rugby but will gladly sing 'Ireland, Ireland' quite loudly and then watch a 6 Nations match shouting such advice as "Hoof it up the other end!" I do try to learn the rules from time to time but seriously, there are just too many!

5. I worry unnecessarily about most things in life. Needless to say it's been greatly exacerbated since the arrival of children - I'm sure there's a lesson I'm meant to be learning in here somewhere.

6. One of my favourite ways to spend a quiet 15 minutes is sitting down to the first flick through a new magazine with a cup of tea. The Fat Face or Boden catalogues will do if no new magazines are available!

7. I have lost the ability to enjoy shopping for fun. I would much rather spend my Saturday afternoons with aforesaid magazines or a good book and a steady supply of tea while my boys pester me and inflict all sorts of boy activities on me. Makes for a pretty perfect weekend afternoon in my book.

The whole tagging thing is a great idea in theory if you are popular in the world of blogging or if you are the first one to do the tagging so you can tag all the bloggers you know (like Jo did!) But I am neither of these, and so I tag the lovely Annie and Anna as the only other bloggers I actually know, but I require the following people to leave theirs in the comments - you can't lurk there with no responsibility, you know!

Heather F, Julie W, Auntie E - I eagerly await your responses!

Now I think my post will feel naked if I fail to include any photos so I'm just adding a few from recent sessions that I haven't remembered to post so far.

 

 

 

Lots of photos and a couple of questions

Those of you who know me personally will know that I've been suffering from snow jealousy this past week - tons of the stuff everywhere apart from where I live. It has been upsetting me to the point that the other adult in the house told me to get over it yesterday! Well, it's not my fault - I blame the BBC homepage where my postcode has been promised snow for days on end but to no avail. I might suggest to the Met Office that they need a weather observation point somewhere around Ballyholme to stop this sort of thing happening again in the future. But today, we met my folks for coffee in Craigantlet, about 5 miles from our house, and look what we found!

 

 

Oh, we had snowball fights galore, even getting nanny and grandpa in on the action. In fairness one would have to say it wasn't exactly the powdery dry snow of your average ski holiday, but beggars can't be choosers! At least we had 2 very happy boys with rosy cheeks and now I can do a snow layout too!

It was also the perfect day to sport the fab new wrist warmers - turns out they're very hard to photograph whilst wearing them so it was time for a new self-portrait.

 

And to think I've allowed my wrists to be chilly for the past number of years! Michael says I look like I just stepped off the set of 'Fame' - who cares - that look has always been a winner in my books! And if I had the patience and inclination I could knit a matching pair of legwarmers just to really give him something to mock me for!

This week I also had a date with Patrick. It's getting harder to find time to spend with him on his own that doesn't involve Star Wars characters or a nunchuck. So we headed to our favourite Eden Pottery so that he could make his own bowl for breakfast. It took every ounce of willpower on my part to just let him do it, especially when it came to the paint splodges on the inside! It has a shark, a dolphin, a spider, a wasp, and a dinosaur on it. And he loves it!

 

 

We had a fun afternoon and ate ridiculously gigantic buns and scones far too close to teatime, but I won't tell if you don't!

Finally, my 2 questions. There are no prizes but answers and suggestions will be much appreciated.

Question 1 - what on earth is going on with the moon?

 

When I went out to get the washing from the machine on Thursday night the moon had a weird ring of black and then another ring of light around it. I've never seen this before and thought I'd try to get a picture of it so that people would believe me. To be honest, at the time I thought to myself, 'if this is the second coming, then good, because I've had it for today'! I'm informed it is something, but no one seems to know what - and I can't stand not knowing.

Question 2 - will you call the hair police or shall I?

Sorry, did you say monster truck?

It would be fair to say that the words 'monster truck' pretty much summed up the tiny one's birthday! Let me walk you through the day.

 

The first present opened - 2 monster trucks!

 

Just making sure you believe me!

 

And in action in the monster truck arena - or stadium as Conor likes to call it. Who knew you could have so much fun with monster trucks? Although, in my opinion, the Hot Wheels organisation have a lot of work to do on the parent/ear-friendly aspects of their products!

 

I cannot believe how cute Patrick's card for Conor was. He made it himself with a picture from the new Cbeebies show Chuggington which is already a firm favourite in our house. One to keep, I think.

 

This was the 'fun' blowing out the candles - apparently we now have the same aversion to candles as we do to the fire, hence the hands over the ears. It's a self-protection mechanism!

 

Although once the candles were out he was more than happy to eat the Smarties off the top! The icing is a delightful teal blue which is what you get when you put blue food colouring into butter cream, Who knew!

 

And would you believe it, but the most fun of the day came from a bouncing balloon which I put into the party bags (Patrick insisted!) from the party bag stash! I must remember there are more of those next time we're bored!

 

The fabulous sister took this photo of the 4 of us, although we could do nothing to put a smile on Patrick's face. It seems his smile goes in the same box as the Wii! And that was pretty much our day. Good old fashioned fun with family!

So how was your 2008?

Ours looked like this....

 

Looking at the highlights like this makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! It's an interesting thing to do, look back at 100's of photos from a year and narrow it down to 2 for each month. It seems I only remember the good parts and the fun we had. I know if I looked back through the archives from this blog for the past year I could probably find plenty of things that irritated or angered me, but that's not what has stuck in my memory. Now if only I could carry that piece of knowledge with me during the tantrums and traumas of the incoming year, how sweet life would be!

Christmas came and went in a flurry of wrapping paper, Star Wars, monster trucks, food, mulled wine, family and good friends. I have a ton of photos and may post some later this week, but I may not! I have had the loveliest week of just spending time at home with my family and catching up with friends who were home for the holidays, and the lack of pressure has been a blessing. All too soon a new term will begin, routines will pick up and the daily patter of life will go back to its pre-festive pace, but until then I am allowing myself the pleasure of not having to do anything unless it is necessary or thoroughly enjoyable.

The one other thing I do want to do today is share my 'one little word' for 2009. I went with simplify in 2008 and enjoyed trying to pare life down and focus on the things that are important. I am pretty sure that with the news full of stories about the credit crunch and impending recession that keeping things simple will continue to be part of what we do in the new year. But for me, my word for 2009 is CREATE. It turns out I am in absolute heaven when I am creating something, whether it's a photo montage, scrapbook page, anything Nigella, my long-suffering wrist warmers or doing a jigsaw (don't ask - I think there may be an addiction I have hitherto been unaware of!). And so I am going to make creating a priority for this year. I've also been thinking that there is much else to be created. One might create order, create a new look, create an atmosphere of calm, create the illusion of being the mum I wish I was, or, indeed, create merry hell! I think it could be fun. I am toying with the idea of having a creative angle every couple of week that you might want to play along with, or just observe, but I am wary of setting myself goals that are unrealistic. Think 365 - a photo a day challenge from last year! And with that I shall leave you to get on with a bit more creating myself while Michael indulges his video game addiction at his sister's house for the evening! And with a special Jonathan Creek on BBC1 in just over half an hour, I shall create a little bit of bliss for just me:)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Apologies for lack of blogging, although if you're anything like me, you'll have been too busy so far this Christmas to even be checking the blogs out! Things really do get crazy at this time of year, no matter what my initial plans for chilling out and just enjoying the season were. But no matter, let me regale you with photos and tales of December so far.

It was girls' night at my house a couple of weeks ago, along with crazy secret Santa fun. Now given that this is meant to be a group of Christian girls meeting for some food, lots of laughs and some encouragement in any area of our lives which need it, I'm not sure that anyone who happened upon the secret Santa would have guessed that! There was opening, oohing and aaahing, stealing, goading, shock, realisation that those we hold dear in our hearts are in fact greedy, rough and altogether selfish! Haven't laughed as much in ages. And I totally stole back the fab red string bag I bought as my gift in Avoca! Ha!!

 

 

Patrick and I had a fun afternoon writing his letter to Santa. It is amazing how much his writing has come on since the start of this term. He is obsessed with writing and spelling words. So much fun to watch. He loved writing his letter, starting with the obligatory thank yous for last year's presents, just like mummy had to do, and asking for two things and a surprise. Just like mummy! I can remember so clearly sitting at the bureau in our lounge writing my letters to Santa, following the same pattern every year, and it makes me wonder if the boys will remember the traditions we create.

 

There have been parcels in the post. A couple of weeks ago I received this one from Japan - I ordered it from etsy, and I have to say, rarely have I received such a cool parcel! It came so beautifully wrapped, with some cute little snowman paper bags as well. And check out the Japanese text on the front. I can't say too much more about it, but it won't end up looking like this!

 

There has obviously been the buying, arranging and decorating of the tree and house in general. We've opted for a real tree this year, and I absolutely love it! It is the perfect shape and size and smells just gorgeous. I'm sure I'll be cursing it in another couple of weeks as I sweep the needles up on a frequent basis, but for now, it's perfect. Patrick was allowed to stay up specially to help with the decorations - he was so pleased!

 

 

Yesterday we had a gorgeous morning at our favourite Mountstewart, complete with Santa and woodland trail around the lake. The boys were excited to see Santa, and the setting was perfect. A jolly, friendly Santa in a grand living room beside a giant tree and with a smiling helpful elf. Patrick was on his best behaviour, answering all Santa's questions carefully and taking it all in (even the elastic string on Santa's beard as he later told us it wasn't the real Santa because he wouldn't have a string on his beard! No flies on that boy!) Conor was slightly more interested in the train set under the tree which had some Thomas trains - he hasn't been well and wasn't buying the experience at all! But we got some nice photos, enjoyed a stress-free Santa visit and came away with 2 presents. Both of which we already own! Not the ending we had hoped for and it necessitated an unscheduled trip to Smyth's toy store later in the day, but let's not mention that! The nicest part for me was the trail around the lake afterwards and the obligatory coffee and bun in the coffee shop.

 

 

 

 

And that about sums it up so far. Last night saw our first bout of croup for Patrick this winter - it came out of nothing and makes such a frightening noise for little people. Conor we thought had a tummy bug, but after a late visit to the doctor this evening, it transpires he has tonsilitis. Poor pet. Looks like an exciting winter of fun coming up! But only 2 more days of school for me, so it's all good:)

Cozy

Apart from the fact that it's completely baltic outside, there are many things I love about the chilly weather. There's my knee socks from Fat Face, my lovely velvet neckwarmer which has escorted me to bed for many nights in a row, my 'jedi' jumper and, of course, the fire. On Saturday we lit the gas fire for the first time this winter and it was soooo cozy!

 

 

Undoubtedly there is nothing to beat a real fire, but until the sweep comes this Friday I'm not prepared to take the risk of lighting the fire in the front room!

On another note, a friend popped this little lad out a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Oh, he's almost enough to tip me into broodiness. Almost - but not quite!

A bag

Made by me, for Patrick. And jolly pleased with it I am too! I've had an itch to make a tote bag for ages. Especially since I bought this book and this one. Finally there was an actual need for a bag (I know, I know, you don't ever have to need a bag to have one - and I will be teaching the boys from an early age that you can never have too many. Their wives will love me for that!) I have decided that Patrick needs a bedtime activity bag to keep him amused while I put Conor to bed. Bedtime at the minute is just too long altoghether with trips downstairs for Charlie and Lola and other assorted programmes, so a new ritual will be kicking in at the weekend. And it will kick in in this.

 

And despite all the lovely patterns in the lovely books, I made it up as I went along. I wouldn't say the seam allowances were perfect but Patrick thinks it's great and that's what counts!

Tonight we also enjoyed a fun Hallowe'en party with friends, who graciously hosted and had to deal with the mess afterwards. We had lots of fun food and games and safe play with sparklers where the only person who was injured was me. It's a rather pathetic injury but it hurts like mad! Anyway, the party has helped me make peace with the unnecessary holiday and the boys (or at least Patrick) had a great time, so all is good.

 

 

 

[poor quality photos, I know, but sometimes you have to leave the dslr down and be part of the fun!]

Pumpkins

I'm really not mad about Hallowe'en as a holiday. The cynic in me just sees the ridiculous aisle of costumes and orange plastic pumpkins in Tesco and wants to run screaming in case I get sucked into it all! But there's no denying that for kids there is much to be excited about - dressing up, carving faces into pumpkins, ducking for apples and toffee apples to name but a few. So yesterday I allowed 2 pumpkins to fall into my trolley and today we carved them, with the plastic orange pumpkin carving set I got sucked into in Tesco last year! Although, in fairness for £1.99 it has served us pretty well and looks set to make it into 2009. Speaking as one who doesn't see the need for messy hands, or mess in general, I find the whole process nothing short of disgusting. In fact, today I almost gagged! What is with the stringy yuk inside those things? And although it was Patrick who insisted we go through this ritual, it comes as no surprise that his hands remained clean and faintly smelling of Kandoo (he shares the 'no mess necessary' gene!) Anyhow, 30 minutes of scraping and carving and 3 scented candles to remove the smell from the house later we had these.

 

 

 

Today's other highlight is the mutual love that is being felt from the boys and me towards my new High School Musical 3 soundtrack. Patrick has nicked it for his bedroom and I shall have to pinch it back while he's sleeping later. And there has been much dancing througout the day - maybe I'll be able to vicariously live out my dream to be a dancer through one of the boys! Check out Conor's action - it's much harder to catch Patrick on the camera when he's dancing!

 

 

[nappy purely because the dancing was pre-jammies and we're not ready for night dryness yet. But no accidents today!]

This is what he was dancing to - pretty excited about seeing it for the second time on Saturday!!

Potty training :: Day 3

There was really no need to post yesterday about the numerous pairs of wet pants and trousers, but today........

 

Ta daaahh!!!!!! And not only did we get it in the potty - he actually asked for the potty first and then proudly performed! 3 altogether today and only 2 changes of clothes. We were seriously partying over it all. Phone calls to grandparents included! I fear I may now have had my expectations raised to an unrealistic standard, in the same way that a night of no waking up makes us think he's cracked the sleeping thing too. However, I shall go to bed tonight very proud of our little potty blondie and start afresh tomorrow, with a clean pile of pants, trousers and socks.........just in case!