The Wonderful World of Me!

So, it's been a while - my apologies - but I've been so bloody busy, if it's not been one thing, it's been another!

From the top then!

Since I've been here I've been out and about or generally busy every single day, (or at least it's seemed like it)!

Christina came down to visit for a day and a night, which I thoroughly enjoyed, (you're more than welcome to come back again gal and bring John too)!
I was happy to discover that she was game for watching a programme on autopsies, real live, (or dead, if you prefer) ones at that, which was totally fascinating. Yes, I am one sick puppy! *L*

The Hubster arrived on July 5th, extremely happy to be home and more than ready to sink into some sort of normality.
We had a BBQ celebration on the Sunday following his arrival with the family which, thankfully, the weather held out for.

The day after his arrival he was left in charge while I accompanied my mum up to Bristol airport to pick up a friend. It was a last minute jobby and mum wanted some company. I said ok, as long as I get to drive! Well, I got my wish as I ended up driving just about all the way there and all the way back.
We spent ages trying to find the airport - I've not come across one so badly marked as that, it almost seemed like an afterthought and I spent most of the time peering at signposts trying to get us there. Bloody nightmare!
That's the last time I follow mum's directions, (mapquest is crap for British directions)!
The weather was crap on the way up there and I had some twat of a lorry driver try to push me out of my lane - I sped up and flipped him the bird - wanker!

Almost every day since Hubs has been back we've gone somewhere - I even let him loose on the road, just to go up to Louie's, (the cafe where I took Christina) and back again.
He's still to find himself a car yet but is happy, for the moment, to be ferried around from place to place.

Well, so much for this being a quiet place! LOL We've had the end of term do for Duchy College, (agricultural) up the road, three nights of African music from the primary school across the way and tonight we enjoyed an evening of music, (rock 'n' roll and the like) from a local band played out in the field behind our house!

This last one is just finishing up now, as I type. The band played a lot of American tunes and even dedicated one, (Sweet Home Alabama) to the Americans in the crowd of which I think there's only one - Hubby! lol We weren't even in the crowd - we've enjoyed it all from the comfort of our back garden. *L*

Just one more thing to add, more for Christina as she got to meet the, then, soon-to-be mum - Blue had her kittens, five of 'em, just over a week ago. Unfortunately, one of them died of asphyxiation but the other four are just fine 'n' dandy. We're hoping to have one of the pretty lil grey ones when it's old enough.

I hope I've remembered all the important bits cos now they're packing the stuff up in the field we're about ready for bed!

Labels: American, BBQ, Bristol, directions, Duchy College, family, friends, home, kittens, Louie's, music, TV

Well, quite a few things have happened since my last post - all good, mind you!

Firstly, we drove up to PA to meet up with some very good friends, who I will miss immensely once we move. Details of that can be found if you click here!

Secondly, the lil man's passport finally arrived yesterday!!!!!! As soon as we got it we got ourselves online and applied for the Hubster's UK visa!!!
Once we'd gotten ourselves presentable we went over to the mall and got Hubster's mugshot done before going over to FedEx and shipping off all the documentation to New York!

We've been in a state of excitement ever since!

Today we sorted out our flights, hotel and hire car and made reservations for three weeks in the UK to activate Hubby's visa and get our new house sorted out!

Unfortunately, chances are that we will have to come back and sort out this house, get it ready to be sold but we're gonna do all that we can before we leave so that we might be able to put it out there sooner!

Did I mention that we were excited?!! *L*

This is gonna be great! Roll on Hubby's visa and our trip to the Motherland! YAY!!!

Labels: car, flights, friends, hotel, house, lil guy, passport, Philadelphia, UK, visa

We had a nice weekend away - almost all the way up to NY to meet up with our friends, Auds & G and baby Gaby, (gorgeous lil thing that she is) and Marls & Stu.

It was great to see them again and the town we met up in was really nice - I liked it!

It was a shame that Christina, John, Joanne and Tony couldn't make it this time as we've always had such a blast with the whole gang there.

The lil man was pretty well-behaved all the time we were sat at the table though he was trying his darndest to dig into whatever Stu was having - maybe his food looked better than mine?!















Lil Gaby didn't think too much of me - whenever I held her she wanted to go back to her mummy! Maybe I exude too much 'I only have boys' gene or something as she was good as gold for Marls.

Still, it was great to finally meet lil Miss Gidget! *L* I hope that Gareth's got himself a big ole stick to beat the boys off with when she gets older!!

Once we were all done there it was off to find our hotel for the night. That was pretty straightforward - it wasn't too far away but we overshot it the first time and, this being NJ, we couldn't make a left turn anywhere to correct our mistake so we had to bugger about locating traffic lights that would make our manouevres possible.
Thankfully that didn't take us too long.

On the downside, we ended up on a floor with a group of females who took delight in regaling each other with tales and cackling like a bunch of witches or pacing along the hallway with the speaker cranked up on a mobile, gassing away! It drove us to complain to the front desk several times which quietened them down temporarily but, according to the Hubster, they were at it again around 2am - no wonder the poor bloke was tired and in a foul mood Sunday morning!

Our trip back home was pretty uneventful. We stopped off at Gunpowder Falls on the way back so Hubs could go take some pics, (the lil guy enjoyed being able to stretch his legs too)!

Me 'n' the lil man wandered off and, in his usual sociable way, he managed to make friends with a 2y/o girl who shared her cookies with him, (very sweet)!
Then he was off and away and wanting to play on the slides there.

Another lil girl, she looked about 4, latched onto us at the slides and whichever slide he sat down at, she was there, wanting to go down too.

Her family weren't very involved in keeping her, or her little brother, entertained - the only interaction her dad had on the slides was putting on some kind of show, proving how strong he was by holding onto the stair rails and lifting himself up and down. I, for one, was not overly impressed!

Labels: friends, Gunpowder Falls, hotel, irritating, lil guy, NJ, NY, parents

...And then we're off to the UK to go house-hunting!!!!

I am sooooooo excited!

I'm excited to be taking the lil guy on a plane again, (and he just loves planes) and to be showing my part of the country to both him and the Hubster!!

He'll finally get to meet my dad, my other two brothers and my bestest mate, (whom I've known for, ohhh, 19 years now - blimey, how'd it get to be that long already)?!!

Best of all, we'll be finding a home together! Fair enough, it'll be someone else's as it'll be a rental but, all the same, this is gonna be sooooooo cool! I've never, ever done this before as previous housing was either my parents', MOD property or housing association.

If I were incontinent I'd have wet meself several times over with all the excitement!!!

Roll on Thursday week... *L*

Labels: england, excited, family, friends, house, plane

Finally found five minutes, (while the lil guy is having his 'bubbles') in which to jot down a few happenings here.

I've been busy in the run-up to our lil gathering of my fave ladies and their respective spouses in Philly, which happened last Saturday, what with getting on with my beading projects, painting an original pot in which to stand our fake lil Christmas tree, (not getting a full-sized one this year for several reasons) making cookies and then getting us all ready for the 'off' on Saturday morning so I've not had much time to put anything down in my blog.

Our Philly meet was, as always, brilliant and well-worth the travel, (which wasn't too bad this time as our directions were so much simpler, plus we knew where we were going anyway)!

It was great to see everyone again and finally to get to meet Gareth, also to get a full turn-out for the occasion. *L*

I'm gonna miss these meets when it's time for us to leave here. Hopefully we'll get in one more before we go though cos I've just got to meet lil Gidget and give her a big hug!!!!

Anyway, we had a wonderful time and the lil guy behaved himself for the most part. He got awfully tired after about four hours of socialising so we had to call it a day then as there was no way he'd conk out with so much going on around him.

I noticed, after I'd put him in his car seat, that one of his shoes was missing which Hubs was most gutted about as, a) they were a brand new pair and, b) he really liked them! So he went about retracing our steps to try and find it and, wouldn't you know, the damn thing was there, underneath the open passenger door, where it had fallen off when I'd swung the lil guy into the car! About ten minutes later, Hubs re-appeared to me rejoicing the fact that the shoe wasn't lost after all! Hoorah!!!

We found our way to our hotel ok, despite the directions which told us to hang a right instead of a left which would've taken us to Atlantic City instead of Cherry Hill and, I would like to say that we got a restful night's sleep before heading home the next day but that wasn't the case! The lil man was in full restless sleep mode - add a strange bed into the mix and that equals sod all shuteye for yours truly!!

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend away! *L*

The drive back home was uneventful enough though Hubs got me thinking when he mentioned a fleeting thought that he'd had one evening while putting the lil guy into bed - another child!

This was something I'd not given much thought to considering that the lil guy is my third child and also that I've not particularly enjoyed much of any of my pregnancies due to the horrible affliction that is known as SPD and all the pain that it entails. Add babies that just refuse to sleep through the night until they are about two and, well, where's the attraction?! lol

Still, as I refuse to get anything permanent done to end my child-bearing capabilities I might well have a re-think on my current stance on having another ankle biter - well, in another three or so years anyway!
At least, by then, we'll be well-established back in the UK and I have such good experiences with the midwifery system that I may be more inclined to entertain the thought of adding to the family...

Well, the lil guy is now asleep so, back to the grindstone or, actually, the crochet hook as I am currently teaching myself how to crochet so I can do some crochet beadwork, (which looks particularly stunning, I might add) - gotta know all these techniques if I want to produce good-looking quality stuff! *L*

Labels: Atlantic City, babies, beads, Cherry Hill, children, crochet, friends, lil guy, midwives, Philadelphia, sleep, travel

...with posting on here recently, (hence yesterday's post just to reassure myself that I am still capable of putting something, anything, on here)!

We actually got downtown yesterday, for the first time in almost three months, to have lunch at ACME and see our friends in the jewellery store.

They invited us to their 'red carpet do' on the evenings of the 2nd and 3rd of next month, which was dead nice of them. Unfortunately, there are two reasons why we won't be there - 1) cos we don't have a babysitter and 2) cos we're up to Philly on the 3rd, (hopefully to make a weekend of it).

So, well, that's that one scuppered!!!

It would've been nice to have gone but, nevermind! Once we move back to the UK I'm sure we'll have more opportunities to go out and have a social life, (something I've not had for about three years)!
The lil guy will be able to go stay with his grandparents for a night or two so we can go out or chill out! YAY!!! *L*

Speaking of the grandparents - my dad emailed me this evening to tell me he'd gotten Hubs a 'toy' on eBay for when we move over. He's only gone and spent £200 on a film camera for him, (Canon EOS 1)!

Great! you may think and, yes, indeed it is but my dad hasn't even met Hubs yet! LOL
Still, they have a lot in common, (and only ***scarily*** 11 years age difference - that's less than is between me 'n' the Hubster) and I know that they're gonna get on like a house on fire!

On the subject of Hubs, well, he was feeling better yesterday - we thought he was over the worst of it and starting to feel like his old self again, (though he woke with a crick in his neck) and then, today, it was the same ole, same ole with that bloody nerve pain giving him grief once more!

He is so thoroughly sick and tired of feeling sick and tired and also sleeping downstairs, (he doesn't find the bunkbed comfortable at all).

I, as much as he, can't wait for him to be better again cos it's wearing me down too.

***sigh***

I just hope this ends soon.

Labels: camera, family, friends, jewellery, red carpet, sick, town, UK

My friend received the groceries this evening, (the poor delivery guy had to haul it all up three flights of stairs to her but apparently did it all in one go)!!!! *L*

She is pleased as punch, particularly as she'd just run out of milk for her lil guy and Pepsi for herself, (had to add some treats for her, she's had a rough time of it since moving to MD).

Bless her! I'm so glad I could do a lil something to help her out and very proud of her other friends, (albeit ones that she's not even met in person) who have taken the time and trouble to get together some other gifts for her and the lil man. They are a wonderful bunch of ladies!

They'll not get to read this blog but they know how much they are treasured for being such warm and wonderful people.

Labels: forums, friends, gift, groceries