Madness

My apologies for the late posts, we are having MAJOR trouble with our cable modem box and have only had internet access at certain points throughout the day and for limited periods!

It really has been a complete nightmare, and our cable TV has followed suit over the last couple of days. Daddy got so bored without TV that he started watching the children's DVDs. I've been going crazy having to faff with the cable modem every single day.

To say i'm 'fed up' with it all would be a huge understatement.

And the so-called Customer Support department have been no help. Having made a total of 7 calls to them, 3 of my calls were still unanswered after over 30 minutes of waiting on hold each time. It's so aggravating, but luckily a technician came today and replaced the cable box with a brand new one - well, it's working so far...

J.R Brings Home The Bat Trousers...

Today J.R came home from pre-school wearing pirate trousers!

A member of the pre-school staff noticed she was still wearing them just as she was walking out the door... and since she insisted on keeping the 'bat trousers'* on, they told me we could bring them back tomorrow.

*J.R is having a hard time accepting that Halloween is over. Bless her.

She loves everything about it, the spooky costumes are her favourite, she loves the elaborate witches dresses and manages to find something spooky in everything. She named the trousers bat trousers because the black colour and jagged edges remind her of bat wings.

Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

A sneaky way to get a little something, even after i've told her she's not having a snack:

J.R (whispers) "Mummy i've got a secret! Come here it's in the kitchen....it's a treat! Come on lets get it!"

Storms & Flooding Hit UK

On the bank of the Thames/Pangbourne.

Heavy rain storms and high winds hit Britain this week as forecasters warned that flooding would spread across the country. The Environment Agency has flood warnings in place for the Midlands and north England and Wales and the Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for north west England and south west Scotland. The official Floodline service received more than 7000 calls over the past 24 hours, all from concerned people wanting to know if there was a warning in place for their area.

Meanwhile, it's all over the news that Cumbria (in the north of England) has been affected most so far. Rain is still falling on land that is already saturated in water and it's not flowing away. A total of 21 schools have been forced to close due to flooding.

But the rain is expected to ease off the area very soon as it moves into south east England - where we are. And although the rain continues to fall for most of the day, we are lucky enough so far to have no warnings in force for our area.

Daddy Does Dinner...Kinda

Ok, so this was supposed to be fish fingers, chips and peas.

Simple right? Apparently not.

Daddy oven baked the fish fingers fine, it was when he tried to use the microwave that things started going wrong.

First of all he tried to cook the peas in the microwave using a jug of water (just like I always do). He cooked them for 10 mins on medium high then removed them, presuming they were done. Then he remembered he had a bowl of chips left over from lunch, so he tried to reheat them in the microwave, but for too long, something went BANG - and the most horrible burnt metal smell engulfed my entire kitchen. You could smell it upstairs.

Slightly worried now I thought i'd better go check up on him, just in case he needs me. When I got downstairs I found the kitchen door closed.

So I opened it to find Daddy standing in the middle of my kitchen, both windows open wide, desperately trying to fan the smoke outside with a tea towel.

The microwave door was also open wide, and the horrible smell was coming from inside. Needless to say I asked him what happened!

So in the end, the peas were undercooked, still hard inside and the chips were ruined. So Daddy decided to play it safe with bread and butter and a nice salad instead...

Yummay!

The Weather Is Terrible

What's going on? So much strong wind and heavy rain...

It feels like some sort of hurricane season, and we don't even have a hurricane season!

We've been given an storm warning this week and I feel sorry for those who live on the coasts, 'cos according to the weather reports it's gonna get a hell of a lot worse. I'll keep you posted.

I Confess...

J.R and I sat up til almost 11 o'clock last night watching a very interesting documentary on a certain undercover healthcare scandal that took place a couple of years ago...

Oh, alright. I was trying desperately to bore the child to sleep because she WOULD NOT GIVE UP.

It was just one of those days when she was going 90 mph with no signs of stopping, and i'd run out of ideas.

Can you blame me?

Didn't I Say I H8 Health Visitors?

So my appointment is 9.30am at the doctors surgery, I leave and drop J.R off at the school five minutes early just to be on time. And I check in and wait in the waiting room until....9:45.

What's going on?

I ask a receptionist where my HV is. "Oh she left a few minutes ago..." came the reply. You what!? "Lemme go and see if I can catch her." She says.

So I sit myself back down in the waiting room. Still waiting.

Only to be told they couldn't catch her as she'd already driven off in her car.

Another member of the team apologises on her behalf and asks if i'd like to make another appointment, I decline politely and head home grumbling after half an hour of waiting.

Stupid woman. She made this appointment herself, I watched her write it in her diary for crying out loud!

Midday: Phone rings, a familiar voice - and sounding rather sheepish.

Yep you guessed it, it's the disappearing Health Visitor.

Literally the first thing she says, "Are you very mad at me?"

Turns out, DESPITE writing Appointment in her diary, she mistook it for a Home Visit. And her excuse?

"Most mothers are too lazy to leave the house and travel to the surgery with their babies so they say: Oh can you come to me instead? So I automatically went to yours." Then she asks if I want to make another appointment with her!

"No thanks, i'm alright." I said. She sounded gutted - but that's her own fault.

Remember, Remember, The 5th Of November...

It's Guy Faukes Night - also known as Bonfire Night here in the UK.

And although you'll hear fireworks going off every night this week, nothing really compares to the noise on the day itself - the 5th. From 5pm onwards, you can hear fireworks pretty much every couple of minutes round here.

Initial reaction to fireworks next door.

This year our next door neighbours are having a bonfire. Granted, they're actually burning the wood from their daughter's old wendy house to save them taking it to the dump, but it's a good idea nonetheless. We're not big on Bonfire Night in this house, I personally think the girls are too young to appreciate fireworks in their own back garden and Daddy and I just aren't bothered about them!

But this year, the girls have their very FIRST sparklers.

Daddy stayed close to help hold and dispose of the sparklers when they burnt down.

I only bought a pack of 10 gold sparklers, not sure how the girls (especially E.M) would react.

But I had a feeling J.R would enjoy them- Look at her go!

They loved them, and were practically fighting over the last one - even if i'd bought twice as many there still wouldn't have been enough!

Thought Bubble Thursday

♫ MRS Cellophane, Mrs Cellophane, Should've Been My Name... ♫

Ok, so these girls are really trying my patience this week.

The best way to describe it?

It's as if i'm INVISIBLE.

Everything I ask them, tell them, even the conversation I try to make as we walk down the street goes unnoticed.

And I just look like some crazy woman talking to myself because obviously neither of my children like me.

Although it's more J.R who has mastered the ability to ignore me.

E.M just keeps smiling and telling me NO.

I'm actually so stressed that i've had a migraine all day, and I don't get headaches. I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in taking painkillers for a measly little headache, but my god, today my head feels as if it's going to cave in on itself.

And I cannot ask anything normally - Oh no, I have to shout and scream just to get, and then keep their attention. I feel like the little kid. Even if I am face to face with J.R, down at her level, she will still turn her head away from me and not look at me at all. And when she does - she smiles a little smile and opens her eyes wide at me in the most annoying and sarcastic way ever....argh!

And she's started playing up at the school again, but at hometime.

It's not that she doesn't want to leave, more she doesn't want to leave with me. When the staff call her name she doesn't acknowledge it and when they tell her that Mummy's here, she goes into a fit of tears and refuses to come to the gate. In fact, this is the third day I have had to physically take her out of school myself since she will not go with me. And it makes me feel terrible.

I mean it looks bad as it is, in front of the other parents, when I approach her to carry her out she cowers and begs "No Mummy, no!" almost as if i'm going to hit her!!

I think it looks awful and I can't imagine how I must look to everyone else.

But i've told a HV of my trouble with J.R this week and how it's getting me down, and she's made me an appointment for a chat, see if we can find a way round this unruly behaviour.

In the meantime, i'm done ranting...sorry it was so long, and thanks for caring enough to read it!

First Day Back At Pre-School

I asked J.R if she missed it, apparently she did.

She's been out of school for three weeks in total, due to sickness and the school holiday - you know it's been too long when you can't remember where you put their uniform...

Rabbit Rabbit

Pick up the girls after lunch. But to us it's still first thing in the morning - we pulled a lazy one and woke up at like 11 O'clock. Having stayed up 'til some crazy time in the morning in a spontaneous movie-fest! Quality time, it was such a good laugh.

Still feel absolutely shattered though.

Having those naughty girls back at home today is gonna be a tough one for me.

But what's new there? It is sunday after all.