DIARY - 9th April to 15th April 2012

This week has been about three things…
1. Having no clue what I have done with my time,
2. Finding that the house has more toys in it than anything else,
3. Turning 90, him not me.

So Monday was Bank Holiday and spent still visiting in Stafford and then travelling home. But as for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I can not recall a thing. It is almost like those days did not exist but they had to have… because while I might be quite fanciful, the world just isn’t.

I remember going to my slimming class, but let us not talk about that. I remember finding out that I am once again moving offices, and I feel a rant coming on every time I think about it. And I remember watching The Vampire Diaries… so some things occurred if not that overly exciting. Sorry Ian Somerhalder, Matthew Davis outshone you this week.

Following Katharine’s birthday, our house is littered with toys. They have found their way into every room, are under foot, hidden in handbags and are so obtrusive in their sounds, size and silliness that I feel like I will get buried under the lot and never be found again. She will have to wait until next year before she gets anything else! And then it will be a single book which she can sit and read quietly.

Friday was my Step-Granddad’s 90th birthday party. It was held at the local YMCA which was always going to be entertaining. The drinks didn’t cost a fortune, the buffet was delicious and music, which was clearly aimed at my folks generation, was toe tapping. I even got Katharine on the dance floor for a boogie. I can’t wait until she is old enough to really take a turn with me. We will be swinging and grooving the night away.

The weekend has been full of vegetating, eating too much food and trying to shake off the melancholy. I think it has been a week of post Easter Holiday blues. But I need to get my moxi back as it is now only nine sleeps until I see NKOTB live in Manchester!!!!

My advice for next week… get your head in the game folks, we only live once!

DIARY - 2nd April to 8th April 2012

This week has been about three things…
1. Freak snow storms that ruin all our Wednesday plans,
2. A first milestone birthday for the littlest member of our family,
3. Trying to stick to a diet when all around me cake mix lurks.

This week I only worked two days and one of those was spend brainstorming. It’s strange but even though I have only been back at work three months I really need a break to recharge my batteries. Not that my busy week allowed that, sigh, ha ha.

I reaffirmed this week that I can’t bake. I think I wittered about my cakes earlier in the week (Tuesday)… they had holes in the middle and tasted like egg. I am so glad that I decided to have a trial run as I was able to seek advice from my super cake making friends and thus adjust my recipe accordingly. When I made my second trial on Wednesday afternoon it turned out so well that I thought, ha!, and iced it up as the real thing. It turned out amazing! I felt so proud, have a look at yesterday’s post and see for yourself. :)

Another thing about Wednesday, other than my cake prowess, is we had six inches of snow! It was the strangest thing. The week before we had temperatures that encouraged the pale peacocking youths to walk about topless and mid this week… blizzards! Me and my mother had planned a morning of shopping but that was out. And as my car was in the garage later that day it meant I spent a bit of time stomping through the village in my snow boots. By six o’clock almost all of it had melted away and we didn’t see a return of it as the storm headed south. Phew.

Friday was the big birthday. I really can’t believe that my baby is ONE already. She is even walking now (when she can be bothered) and that feels like a huge achievement. We had lots of party food, a whole stack of presents for her to open and of course the cake. It was a great day. I don’t think she really understood what it was all about but she loved all the attention anyway.

And today is Sunday and I am typing this diary in the car as we travel down to the in law’s second of the country for continued birthday celebrations and some Easter fun. I cant wait for them all to see how much Katharine has grown and developed since they saw her in January.

And that is my week. Busy but a good busy if you know what I mean? :)

My advice for next week… if you have a electric cake mixer, just use it!

Musings - Snapshot of a Birthday...

As expected, ha ha, here are some of the many photographs taken yesterday on Katharine's Birthday.

 

 

 

As you can probably tell, we had a fantastic day! :) xx

Snippet - Old? Me? How did that happen...

Today I turned 31. I feel slightly blindsided by it. I mean 31!

When I turned 30 it didn't seem too bad, it was the lid on the twenties sure but it wasn't screwed down tight, I could still peep back if I needed to. I was still so close to being 29 that for at least half the year my decisions made as a twenty something carried over. I could still grasp at the straws of my just after youth years.

31 feels strangely like I have tightened that lid, put it in a box, taped it up and posted it off to the archive storage facility that holds my energy and unwrinkled forehead. I swear when I woke up this morning my varicose veins were bigger, my boobs a little more relaxed and I am convinced there was something wrong with the bathroom mirror as that haggard old witch staring back can't possibly be me.

I groan louder too when I get up... oh dear.

But I think the thing that is getting to me most is that another year has passed where I have slacked through my life. Sure I had a baby, that's a huge non slacking thing to do, but I am no closer to getting done all the things I want to get done.

Am I going to wake up tomorrow and open nicely decorated 40 cards and realise that I have blinked through another decade?

I hope not.

Let's hope that the thirties are the new twenties... I will not get old! I am determined...

I might age, but I refuse to get old! :) xx

Diary - August 13th to 19th 2010

Diary – 13th to 19th August

This week has been about three things…
1. Phasing myself back into work with half days and afternoon naps,
2. Watching more and more of The OC and loving it,
3. Realising that my good intentions of reading my library books have failed.

Friday afternoon involved a wee shopping trip to Huddersfield to try and get some birthday ideas. I failed but I did manage to find a new handbag after months of haphazardly looking. It’s not green but its ugly enough to keep me entertained and interested. I might see if someone wants to wrap it up for my birthday then at least the idea of the shopping trip wasn’t a complete bust. In the evening I met up with the husband and the parents and we went to the Toby Carvery to stuff our faces with a roast dinner and ice cream pudding. Delicious.

We decided on Sunday morning to go and take a look at the Fertility Centre in Manchester. It was only thirty or so miles away and didn’t take much longer to get to than the Leeds Hospital did. It looks lovely, a white stately building and after doing a bit of research it seems like the place to go if you want to get pregnant. It’s going to cost us thousands of pounds though but hopefully it will work and we will have a little monster this time next year. October is going to be our next session… fingers crossed.

On the way back from Manchester we called into the near by shopping centre to have a look for some birthday ideas, after my failed attempt on Friday. This ‘Trafford Centre’ is huge, the eating area is designed like a big cruise ship with loads of restaurants and cafés around the edge of it. We had a lovely lunch then wandered around the shops but I felt that there were way too many posh clothes shops and not enough fun stuff. Kieran got the new Iphone 4 though so he was happy, ha ha.

Tuesday morning saw me back at work, though only for one department so I was able to finish at lunch time and have the afternoon at home. We decided to bake, did the Mother and I. We ended up with forty eight buns and one cake. I posted pictures on the day so scroll down to have a look. I would love to be good at cooking or baking but I fear I just don’t have the imagination or taste buds for it.

On my last afternoon off I popped into see my friend and her little boy George. He is growing really quick and is the spitting image of both of his parents. We played on the rug, talked to Harry the Rabbit, laughed at the hot tub and had a lovely cup of tea. I should really go and visit them more often… it’s just so hard. :(

Rohan also had her fur cut this week. When we went to pick her up we could hear her barking away from the front of the shop. They had put her in a dog cage while she waited for us to arrive and she didn’t like it. Poor love; she does look gorgeous though, more like a little girl dog with her trimmed ears and beard.

Next week… I have no plans but to try and not let a full working week get to me.

Diary - August 6th to 12th 2010

Diary – 6th to 12th August

This week has been about three things…
1. Discovering that having faith in medicine is naïve indeed,
2. Finally purchasing Kieran something for his birthday,
3. Enjoying a routine all week that did not involve going to work!

Whoop whoop! A week off work and boy didn’t Friday drag like hell. Isn’t that always the case? The holiday whooshes by at warp speed yet the days before hand seem to take forever to be over with? I was determined this week to do very little and I managed to do just that, so I apologise now as this diary is not going to be particularly stimulating.

Saturday I wandered around the town centre with Kieran. We went to the pub for lunch which was lovely, then we tried every jewellers we could find to see if they would be able to fix his watches. Yes he has more than one that is broken; I just don’t know what he does with them, ha ha. We also looked at various Netbooks but I am still undecided on if this is what I want for my birthday. The laptop I have works fine and still has a lot of life left in it but I do like the idea of something much smaller to take in the car, to the library, to the coffee shop… but would it be a waste of money? Aren’t I all about the questions today! :) We also stopped off at Millets were I got three pairs of little trainer shoes for £15. What a bargain, I might put photos on here if I can make them look all artfully shoe-like.

After the rest of the weekend was spent being lazy and gluttonous it was time for me and the, ever roped in, Mother to decorate my bathroom. We are a dab hand at hanging the wallpaper meaning we had it finished in just over three hours. I have posted photos so you will have to view them. It doesn’t look much different, the wallpaper is a little more blue but it just doesn’t look as tired now. I must admit that refreshing the house is also making me feel refreshed and that can’t be a bad thing, right?

Tuesday saw our follow up appointment at Assisted Conception, the first since our failed IVF attempt. The results they had informed us that there was no attempt by the embryos to implant. It wasn’t surprising really when the gynaecologist discovered that the two put back in were very poor quality. It’s infuriating! Why didn’t Leeds just leave it and not bother with the implantation? Why present us with false hope and be stupid enough to potentially develop an abnormal foetus? Now, I will love any child I have but it just seems irresponsible to start a life that might not even make it through a pregnancy. Dr HM was not impressed either and we got the distinct impression that Manchester is their preferred Infertility Centre. I am so torn! We definitely want a second go but… do I move clinics?

While I have been on holiday I have had a little spare time to watch some television. I came across The OC Season 1 whilst I was trawling through the TV on Demand that Virgin has to offer. I haven’t watched this show since, at least, 2004! So I started watching and I think I love it even more the second time around. Ben McKenzie is delicious in his brooding and good old Adam Brody is fabulous as the ‘comic relief’. After a quick Google I learnt that there are four seasons… I will have to see about collecting the box sets just to get my fill of angst and tangled love triangles. Oh to live in that pool house. :)

All other hours this week have flown by, I really can not account for them but they haven’t been spent at a desk so I really don’t care. I am relaxed and de-stressed, at last.

Next week… I really need to decide what I want for my birthday.

Question: 19

What does one purchase their husband for his 30th birthday?

Diary - March 19th to 25th 2010

Diary -19th to 25th March

This week has been about three things…

1. Congratulations and celebrations do da do do da do.
2. More congratulations for something entirely different.
3. Gods and Monsters - you can not be serious???

So there were celebrations a plenty. Friday involved banners and balloons in the garden followed by an evening of Italian at Julio’s. Don’t you just love it when the guy who serves you at the bar has a broad Yorkshire accent but by the time he reaches your table to take your food order his accent is thicker than Brando’s in Part 2.

Saturday was odd bits of Salad and Trifle at the Grandparents with way more balloons than the garden has seen the day before. Family came and went, cousins bickered, the dog barked, my uncle complained – the usual really.

Then Sunday we travelled to The Sportsman Inn for an entertaining carvery, a cute chef (yeah I know I shouldn’t have noticed that!) and a sparkler in my Father’s pudding. Actually it was more like a firework so it was a good job he had chosen the cheesecake to keep it upright… I fear the consequences of a sloshing fruit salad.

Towards the end of the week my husband got a job. After being redundant and unemployed for over a year it was a great boost to both his sanity and our financial situation. Now all we need is a lottery win to pay off the debts and a new routine to make sure we get up on time and keep the pooch happy. He will be designing, like before, only this time for a lovely local company with a boss called Ernst. I have pledged to provide lunch but am insulted that he STILL refuses to take to work the Robot lunchbox I got him. I guess I will just have to remain the one with quirk in our household… until we have kids who I fear will be just as barmy as I.

Bit of a slow week really after the weekend of parties. We put a plan together for the Funeral, I got stressed at work, my best friend came over for tea and several nights I couldn’t sleep. But none of that is blog worthy so I will do better next week. Although I will be detailing funeral business so I am not likely to be overly jolly then either.

Alas. March is not my favourite month at all!

Oooh just remembered… my sister in law wants the four of us (details later) to have a joint birthday party in September for our 30ths. Gods and monster themed… yeah my eyebrow hit my hairline too.

Next week… I will be contending with the In Laws.

Photo - The 60th Cake

This is my father both young and old... loving the specs Pop! :) x