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Friday 25 May 2007

Busy, busy, busy!

You may have noticed a scarcity of new posts lately. I'm afraid I'm rather snowed under with the house move and all manner of associated stress at the moment, so I don't really have time for blogging. Our solicitors have turned out to be complete cowboys and we are on the brink of losing our buyers as a result. If we can salvage the situation, we are likely to be moving out the week after next, though we will probably have to put our things into storage for a while rather than move straight into the beautiful house we are buying. We have now decided to get professional packers in, which is an incredible relief for me. However, I am single handedly trying to declutter the house and sort out a garage full of goodness knows what whilst trying to run a home and look after an energetic toddler and demanding baby. Suffice to say, there isn't much time left for my blog! I will try and post where I can, but I'm afraid it won't be as regularly as usual. I'll let you all know what happens with our house "situation".

Monday 14 May 2007

The fun continues...

Packing with Podlings continues to provide me with blog material! We have a sideboard in our dining room with three lockable doors. I always keep the doors locked as they can be pulled open by little hands, but I have always kept the key in one of the locks. You can see what's coming can't you! I went to start packing the sideboard this evening, only to discover that little fingers have magicked away the only key. I have absolutely no idea when this might have happened as I haven't been in the sideboard for at least a couple of weeks (I keep all my hobby materials in it and I haven't had much time for hobbies lately), so the key could be anywhere . I now have a full-to-the-brim sideboard to pack, with absolutely no way of opening the doors. Fantastic!

Friday 11 May 2007

Packing with Podlings

It became apparent today just how hard it is going to be to pack up our house whilst looking after two children under three! I have been getting stressed about packing up since we accepted the offer on our house, but have made little progress in actually doing anything about it. I didn't want to be tripping over boxes for a couple of months. However, things finally seem to be moving along, so I thought the time had come to start de-cluttering and packing. Packing the house on my own is quite intimidating. We have a four bedroom house with A LOT of stuff in it! However, I've made some progress in the last couple of days. I already have two bags of clothes and two boxes of books to give to charity and I've hardly starting sorting out.

Today I started packing up the office. The Podlings were safely playing in Lily's room, right opposite the room I was working in...or so I thought. I was halfway through my second box of books when Tom came running in to me holding the carafe I keep by my side of the bed. 'All gone!' he exclaimed, handing it to me. Well, it was full when I left it! I ran into my bedroom and, yes, the little darling had emptied an entire carafe of water all over my bedroom carpet. At least it was just water and, thankfully, he completely missed the pile of books by the side of the bed, but it's going to take a day or two to dry! I've learnt my lesson! Next time I will shut all the doors except those to their bedrooms! It's the only way I'm going to manage packing with my two little helpers in tow!

Thursday 10 May 2007

Four wonderful years


Today is my wedding anniversary. Eight years ago, Mark and I met at University. We were in the same research group when we were studying for our PhDs. We 'got together' the following year and were engaged 18 months later. Four years ago, I promised to love, honour and obey my husband and I've never found a promise so easy to keep. Sadly, we can't be together on our anniversary this year, so I thought I'd tell you all a bit about my husband in honour of the occasion. Here are just a few of the reasons why it is so easy to be married to Mark (in no particular order):


  • He is the kindest, most generous and selfless person you could ever hope to meet. He will do anything for anybody.

  • He works every hour God sends to provide for his family, so that we can have a nice house and I can stay at home with the children.

  • He's a great dad.

  • If he has work to do at home, he will stay up with me until I go to bed and then work until the wee small hours of the morning, just so he can spend time with me.

  • He buys me flowers all the time, just because I like them.

  • He is the cleverest person I've ever met, so he is always interesting to talk to. He can confidently be referred to on just about any subject, but he never makes you feel stupid for not knowing something.

  • He will get up at four in the morning and drive 300 miles to work, just so he can spend an extra night with me.

  • He tells me I'm attractive, even though I don't always believe him!

  • He knows me better than anyone else in the world, and he still loves me!

I could go on and on, but I won't. Suffice to say I'm married to one of those Good Men that are supposed to be so hard to find and I consider myself very lucky. The last four years have been the best of my life and it only gets better from here.


I love you dear!


Wednesday 9 May 2007

Wanted Poster

This is a picture of Miss Elizabeth P, also known as Lily Lightfingers, on her getaway pony. On the way back from the doctor's this morning I popped into the newsagent for a couple of things. I had just paid for them and was heading out the door when I noticed Lily merrily waving a card with a purple flower on it at anyone who cared to watch. She must have fancied the picture and swiped it when I wasn't looking! Thankfully, I noticed before we left the shop. I just sheepishly handed the card to the lady behind the till with an apologetic 'I'm afraid my baby must have taken this from one of your shelves'. I think she found it quite funny! Lily, suffice to say, was completely unashamed of her crime. At least she didn't have the cheek to complain when I took the card away from her though!

(Her grandad was not an accomplice, he just happens to be in the photo!)

Thursday 3 May 2007

I'll lick the spoon...

After loading the dirty tea things into the dishwasher this evening, I was momentarily distracted and returned to find Lily unloading the dishwasher. Well, I say unloading, she actually stopped when she found a spoon with yoghurt on it. I'm telling you, this child will find food anywhere!

One small step for a man...


After he had cut the lawn, Dad managed to get Lily to walk the entire width of the decking holding on to her ride-on truck for support. She was so proud! She had a huge grin on her face and was chuckling to herself the entire time.

Tigers in the grass


Mum and dad came round for a visit yesterday and Dad offered to cut our back lawn while he was here. The grass was reaching epic proportions and you ran the risk of stepping on a tiger every time you walked in the garden. It was a beautiful day, so the Podlings were out in the garden 'helping'. Tom mostly helped by pulling the cable out of the socket at regular intervals, so the mower kept cutting out. Lily took a more relaxed approach and just watched Grandad doing all the hard work! Sounds like the sensible option to me! Dad did a grand job on the lawn and it looks a lot better. Don't know where the tigers will live now though