A most un-Chrismassy Christmas

It was never going to be the most Christmassy Christmas ever with the back of the house being renovated!  At least carpets went down in the back bedrooms on 23rd December!  I flipped my wig on Christmas Eve after discovering a load of mould in the wardrobes that Him Indoors didn't seem to think was a problem.  There is a bit of an on-going mould problem due to all the moisture that was coming out of the plaster-there can't be that much more to come and there are only a few spots here and there where it's obvious that the plaster is still drying out.

Went to mother-in-law's for the big day itself.  I think that possibly due to at least four of the ten assembled family members being completely knackered due to different reasons it was a bit of a damp squib if you ask me.  The meal was lovely but there was no lively chat or banter, no arguing over who wanted to watch what on T.V. etc.etc.  At some point before we arrived someone had put the telly on some obscure music video channel I'd never heard of which proceeded to show the same music videos about every half an hour!

Looking forward to 2012-Toddler starts pre-school in a couple of weeks time and hopefully work on the house will progress.

Happy New Year one and All.

Up to speed

Just a quick update from the homefront and my progress into the blogosphere.

* I'm thrity weeks preggers on Tuesday.  Trying to keep the gestational diabeties under control and deal with the dysfunctional pelvis.

* The kitchen extension and refurbs of the two back bedrooms are nearly finished.  We haven't even picked out a kitchen yet or worked out if we can afford one!  Him indoors will be laying the floor, fitting the kichen and doing the tiling and painting.  Should be done this time next year then.  The house is still in quite a bit of chaos so our Christmas decorations consist of one string of fairylights and one little Father Christmas hanging under the mantlepiece and our potted Christmas tree from last year with a string of fairylights on the front porch.  The lights I got for that are great actually.  I used lights4fun.co.uk and bought a string of outdoor fairylights on a 6 hour timer.  So easy to use, just one click to turn them on when the light is fading and that's it until the next day.

* Toddler has not been well.  At least she hasn't had to be hopitalised like to of her friends with high temperatures and needing blood tests.

As for my first tentative steps into the blogosphere-I'm going to read somemore blogs and look at sites like Britmums and Tots 100 to see what they're all about.  Also got to learn how to add photos to the blog and add a little profile picture.

Toddler's induction to pre-school

This afternoon was Toddler's induction to pre-school.  She hadn't taken a nap (induction was between 1:30 and 2:30pm), and I thought we were going to be in for a rough ride.  Him indoors (HID) came with us as he hadn't seen the setting before and was curious to know where Toddler was going to be spending three afternoons a week.  I was ready for crying, screaming and "I don't like it!" as I thought Toddler was in a mood having not slept yet.  I should have had more faith!  Toddler went with the teacher (we were instructed to stay in the room but stay seated on the periphery) and had a great time spending an hour doing the sorts of activities the other children were engaged in.

I can only hope that when I come to leave her for real in a month or so she'll be as easy-going.  We'll see.

Things that are getting my goat at the moment.

As mentioned in the 'About Me' section this blog does come under the 'Blogging for therapy' umbrella and, as such will, from time to time include posts regarding things that are peeing me off somewhat.

Here are the recents:

Kids on scooters:  Is this just me?  Am I the only person in the world who thinks it's really dangerous to let primary aged (let alone any aged) children zoom down the pavements on scooters having been picked up from school?  I'm sure they're more than capable of zooming around in straight lines and stopping by my worry is, should they have to take evasive action, would they manage?  As a pavement user and a car user I bet I know who'd get the blame if a child rolled into the road and got injured or worse.  I actually saw a kid riding his scooter up and down the aisles of Sainsbury's the other day!

Grown men riding bicycles on pavements:  Come on guys, if you don't have the balls to ride on the road then don't bother.

Elderly people just walking across the road whenever they feel like it:  Is this just in the villages in my area or is it a wider phemomenon?  Have the clocks going back caused some sort of cataclismic shift in the thinking of the elderly?  I saw an elderly couple today where the man thought he'd just run across two lanes of by-pass traffic!  On completion and (only just) safely on the other side he started laughing and smiling at the lady he was with who had sensibly waiting for the lights to change.

View from a coffee shop window

On the rare days I'm in our local town and Toddler is asleep I like to go and have a coffee and a quick bite in one of the coffee shops.  I nearly always get a comfy sofa seat by the window and it plays the kind of jazz I like.

On a recent trip out I was quite surprised by the number of school aged children I saw out with (I'm assuming) their parent/s.  If a child is off sick surely the last thing they should be doing is walking around a cold high street (one with a scooter in tow).

Another strange sight-an elderly man in full army fatigues, backpack and boots.  Where was he going?

I don't know what I'm doing!

Like most things in my life I like to do a fair bit of research before embarking on any sort of encounter and blogging is no different.  I've had a look at a good few blogs now and have bookmarked the ones I like to read.  Having been inspired by those blogs and the fact that the netmums bloggers website is well designed and easy to use I thought I'd give the blogging thing a go.  Now I realise I have no clue when it comes to the actual design of the blog pages.  I know what I want to write about but considering my interaction with computers amounts to checking e-mail and looking at the CBeebies website with my toddler it is clear that I am woefully lacking in computery know-how.  Oh dear.  It can only get better.