Halloween

After the fruitless pumpkin search, we got back home and Drama Teen got ready to go to a Halloween party at a friend's house. She was dressing as a funky black cat! I dropped her off just as her friends were coming out of the house to go Trick or Treating. I couldn't persuade Drama Teen to put a jacket on, so it was quite worrying watching her go off with her mates. Especially as it has turned so cold recently! When I got back home LMS and Little Prince were all dressed in their costumes (a witch and a skeleton respectively) and dived straight into the car and we drove to the other end of the village to meet up with a group of other Mums and kids to take the kids Trick or Treating. We spent an hour wandering round the village knocking on doors and the children all got quite a large selection of sweets and chocolates :-) Then we all piled round to one of the other mother's houses as we were all invited to a Halloween Party. I dropped Little Prince off and went to take LMS back home, as her feet were killing her and her broom was out of petrol :-) As it was optional for the parents to stay at the party or not, I stayed at home with LMS for an hour to see Mr Messy when he came home from work. I left Mr Messy and LMS to sort out tea while I went to pick Little Prince up from the party. The party was still going full swing with the kids engrossed in a party game. So I chatted with my friends and let Little Prince finish playing with his friends :-) I ended up staying for a lot longer than I thought I would and was getting a bit worried about my tea being burnt! I eventually persuaded Little Prince that the party was over and we came home. Where I found that LMS and Mr Messy hadn't even decided what to have for tea, let alone started cooking it!! I was NOT happy and grumped around! I had to get Little Prince to bed before going out (again!) to pick Drama Teen up from her party. When I got there the girls admitted that they hadn't Trick or Treated for that long as it was so cold, and had gone back to the house to play on the Wii lol. Me and Drama Teen were both hungry so we called at the chippie on the way home. After eating we all watched Pirates of the Caribbean together. Well Drama Teen watched some of it, before getting cross with her Dad for batting one of the (real!) cats away from her cat costume. She said he was hitting the cat, he said he was protecting her costume and she spent the rest of the evening in her room. I wish both of them would learn to see the other's point of view a little more and not be so convinced that only they are right!!! Families!!!!!

Bad Bad Mummy

Everyone who knows me will know that I am disorganised! Well this year I've been really really disorganised!! I forgot to buy a pumpkin to carve! Yesterday we went out to buy one, we went everywhere and couldn't find a single one!! Everywhere was sold out!! Drama Teen and Little Prince were NOT happy with me! I'm so sorry kids and I'll be more organised next year PROMISE :-)

Girlie Film Night

As Mr Messy was due to be home late, me and the girls had a girlie film night once we'd settled Little Prince in bed. First we cried and sobbed our way through What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. Drama Teen found some of the imagery hard to interpret, but I think between us we managed to explain most of it, well some of it! Mr Messy arrived home not long after it had finished and he started watching Groundhog Day with us, he gave up and went to bed quite early in the film, leaving us girls to finish watching it without him. There were other moving moments that we all cried through, but enough funny bits in there too, so that we didn't all go to bed depressed!

No more questions from our LA!!

I've spent the afternoon, well most of the day to be honest, checking my emails obsessively! And I've not heard a THING from our Local Authority about our dossier documents! I'm hoping that this means they haven't had any problems, and it doesn't mean that Admin Lady got caught up doing other things and hasn't got round to it! Especially as she isn't in work tomorrow!! I wish they'd let me know and not just leave me in suspense! I can't ring them again tomorrow as I don't want them to think I'm pestering and as Admin Lady is the one dealing with it, there's no point ringing anyway! So everyone keep your fingers crossed that all the documents and letters are now written and compiled into our dossier and that it is sent to the DCSF early next week!!
The kids have spent the day camping in the lounge!! The weather has been wet and extremely cold and they were bored, so I suggested the play tents! I didn't think Drama Teen (our sophisticated 14 year old young lady) would be that interested - but she's had a great day too! They had their lunch as a picnic in the tents, and then later in the afternoon they comandeered all the dining room chairs and a couple of blankets to make a connecting tunnel between the two play tents!! There is a huge (9 year) age gap between Drama Teen and Little Prince but they do (mostly!) get along really well and play together quite a lot, and its so lovely to see :-)
This evening we went to the station to pick up LMS, who is visiting for the weekend from university again. She has come home to go to the hairdressers to have her hair restyled and coloured (from a mousy brown to a dark brown) ready for her Disney Summer Job interview. I don't care why she's here lol, I just love having all my family together :-)

Mr Messy is going to be very late home, so we aren't quite all together yet! He has been out with the people from his office as the boss is leaving today. He's just rung from the station and said he had a great time, talking about work was banned and it was very relaxing to be able to socialise with his work colleagues. He is working very hard at the moment, both at his full time regular job and getting everything in place for his new photography business, so he needs (and deserves) some time to relax and I'm glad he had the chance, even if it was only for an evening :-)

Heard from our LA

Well technically I actually rang them!! I spoke to Admin Lady and she has allocated this afternoon to prepare our paperwork and says to be ready for a stream of questions via email!! So that's our trip to Ikea out the window then! Oh well, we can rearrange our trip to Ikea, getting our Ethiopian dossier paperwork sorted out is much more important! When I spoke to Admin Lady she said that she has been looking round on the internet to try and find a definitive list of what documents are needed, the trouble is there isn't a definitive list! I've said I'll send her the list I've got from the UK yahoo support group and we can take it from there. If the DCSF (UK govt dept) think there is something missing I'm sure they'll inform us! Hopefully they will just request whatever it is that's missing (if there is anything missing, fingers crossed there won't be!) and not return our whole dossier to our LA like last time!!

Yesterday's stuff

Little Prince's friend D from school came round to play yesterday and spent the whole day at our house. Between them they managed to cause chaos and mayhem throughout the whole house, as only little boys can! By time friend D went home we could barely see the lounge floor through the Lego bricks and creations, the Brio train track and the dressing up clothes. They both had a fantastic time and friend D didn't want to go home! As they were playing together so well I got some time to catch up with some emails, and although I'm not completely caught up I'm getting there!!

Another day spent running around!

I got dragged out of bed bright and early by my two legged alarm clock this morning, although I did get an extra ten minutes by suggesting he could finish watching Scooby Doo and THEN I'd get up :-) I then spent the morning getting the tools out of the bathroom and putting the bookcase back in there. And even though the cleaners come today I couldn't leave it in a total mess and had to hoover up, although I will let them do the mopping. Drama Teen and Little Prince had a mad half hour play fighting and winding each other up! Trouble is they were still acting like mini maniacs when Handyman arrived, and I ended up having to shout at them! Handyman has now fixed the remaining jobs in the bathroom, and a few extras that needed doing :-) His next project is to turn the empty space where a boiler used to be into useful shelves. I'm going to get some galvanised steel boxes with lids from Ikea (called Skrin - don't you just love what Ikea calls their stuff??) to put on the shelves, so I need to buy those first, so that Handyman knows what size to make the shelves. I love an excuse to go to Ikea lol.
While Handyman was still working, the cleaners arrived, which immediately set Little Prince off in "manic mode" again! He was trying to smell (ie mess with) all the cleaning fluids and generally making a nuisance of himself! As soon as Handyman had finished I loaded the kids into the car and left the cleaners to finish the job in peace! We went out for lunch at the local tea shop, called at the chemist to buy some more Calpol for Little Prince and then went off to town. We visited our usual supermarket to get some bits and bobs they hadn't been able to deliver yesterday, and to get some supplies in for Halloween. Little Prince has decided he wants to be a scary skellington to go Trick or Treating, and that his Indiana Jones costume is too scratchy to wear again!! The supermarket had almost run out of dressing up costumes so we had to go to a different supermarket, where we were able to buy a skeleton costume :-) Which is a good job, as Little Prince is refusing to be a witch lol.
Our next visit was to the hospital, for Drama Teen's Fracture Clinic appointment. As usual, we had to wait for ages in a boring waiting room with no toys. Luckily I knew this was going to happen and had brought along Little Prince's GameBoy to amuse him. He was just getting to the limits of his patience when we were finally called in. The Doctor examined Drama Teen's finger, and said she has to lie her hand flat on a table and squash her little finger straight. She doesn't want to do this as it hurts, but if she doesn't then it will stiffen up even more and she won't be able to straighten it at all. He has also referred her to the Hand Physiotherapist to get a programme of exercises sorted out. We were given the referral card and told to take it to the Physiotherapy Dept, who then sent us to the Occupational Therapy Dept all of which meant more waiting around for Little Prince, who was waaaaaaay beyond his limits by then! We eventually got the referral card delivered and could get on our way home. The traffic was building up for the rush hour and it took ages to get out of town, we drove past a fast food place and as soon as we got past there Little Prince decided he had wanted to go in! So he whinged for ages about that. As soon as we got home I dosed him up with Calpol and he's been a lot better since, poor lad was probably totally bored and getting more and more uncomfortable. He is also a lot more tired than he normally is, so I'm going to get him an early tea and hopefully settle him down for an early night. Fingers crossed that doesn't mean an even earlier wake up call!!

Bathroom is almost finished!!!

Little Prince had a long nap this afternoon, and I took advantage of this unexpected free time to get the woodwork in the bathroom, sanded, wiped and painted. It took so much longer than I thought, about 4 hours!! There is hardly any woodwork in there, so I have no idea why?!? But at least now it is done :-) The paint is a one coat gloss (well satin as I don't like overly shiny paint) and it looks ok with just one coat. Although I'll have to reserve judgment until tomorrow when I can see it in daylight! Hopefully it will be ok - fingers crossed. If it is ok with just the one coat, then I can get the bookcase put back in there (doesn't everyone have a bookcase in the bathroom lol??) and a quick clean round before the cleaners arrive in the afternoon to do a proper clean! Handyman is due to come round at some point tomorrow morning too, to fix one of the wall lights and replace the mirror. Hopefully everything will be done before the cleaners arrive!!

I had hoped to take the children out somewhere nice in the afternoon, but I'd forgotten about Drama Teen's rearranged Fracture Clinic appointment in the afternoon, so we will probably just nip out for lunch somewhere instead.

I've managed to book LMS into a highly recommended local hairdressers on Saturday, she is having a consulatation with the Creative Stylist (whatever that is?!?!) about a new style and is also booked in to have her hair coloured. Her hair is naturally a lightish brown, and she wants to it to be dark brown. As she has an interview for the Disney Summer job soon (we don't know exactly when) she wants to have her hair professionally done, rather than done by Mr Messy. And at the moment the bathroom is unusable anyway, so she'd have to have it done at a shop lol. Mr Messy is taking her back and fixing her car while he is there, so at least she won't have to battle with the awful Sunday trains!!

You Learn Something New Every Day

And it isn't always nice! I took Little Prince to the Doctor's this morning to have his rash checked out and it turns out he has adult Shingles, which is very rare in a 5 year old! He most probably had chicken pox before he was 9 months old, and as there is no record of this from when he was in foster care then it is likely that he had this when he was with birth family. We have no medical records from when Little Prince was with birth family and it is unlikely he was even registered with a doctor. I have been crying thinking of Little Prince as a tiny baby with itchy horrible chicken pox and no one around him putting his needs first. My poor little lamb. No wonder he sometimes still finds it hard to trust that adults will help him and keep him safe :-(

The doctor says he isn't contagious, unless the rash starts to be open and weeping as it has live chicken pox virus inside. It has been too long since the rash first showed up to give him antiviral medication, so all we can do is keep him dosed up with Calpol and keep the rash dry. The rash should heal up in 7-10 days and after that we will see if he has post viral neuralgia and how severe it is. Hopefully he will fully recover, but if he is still in pain the Doctor said he might have to see someone more specialised to help deal with it. Poor Little Prince :-( Once home I gave him Calpol and we went round to his friend's house, he's supposed to go and play there this morning! I left Little Prince in the car while I explained to friend's mum and asked what she wanted to do. She said let Little Prince come and play for an hour as both boys were so excited about this playdate, but that she was worried that the virus would pass to friend's grandparents (via friend) so didn't feel comfortable letting Little Prince stay any longer. At least he gets to play for a little while.

Sunday

LMS tried on her suit to show Mr Messy and Drama Teen and decided she hated it! She looks gorgeous in it, it really shows off her slim figure, whilst also looking professional and businesslike, but she hates it. She isn't used to wearing formal suits and has decided it is too angular, it is actually a very softly tailored, feminine looking suit and that she hates the boots and the blouse too. This put me in a foul mood, as I had obviously wasted a full day and a fairly large chunk of money on clothes that LMS hates. I told her to leave it all here with the receipts and I would return it, and that she is welcome to go shopping in University Town for an alternative outfit. Then I yelled at everyone else and was generally moody for the rest of the day. I don't suppose my mood was helped by the fact that LMS was returning home that evening either :-(

A couple of LMS's friends arrived to visit her, one of which has only recently passed her driving test and was very pleased with herself for managing to get all the way here without killing herself or anyone else! And she EVEN managed to park her car nicely too :-) Mr Messy decided to take me and Drama Teen out to town shopping, Little Prince decided he wanted to stay at home with the big girls and as they were happy to have him, we let him stay. Just as we were leaving the house, Handyman arrived in his big van to clear all the rubbish from the drive that had been thrown there while he was flooring the loft. I had to get out of Mr Messy's car, move my car to make room for Handyman and ask if he still needed me to help. Luckily (for me!) he had brought a labourer with him so I wasn't needed. I also arranged with him that he would come back here on Tuesday morning to finish fixing the lights in the bathroom, replace the mirror and do a couple of other small jobs. That means I won't be nagging Mr Messy to get the jobs done, so it works out brilliantly.

We finally set off for town, where we bought Drama Teen some hair straightners, even though her hair is totally straight anyway!! She had her hair cut and recoloured (her roots were starting to show) on Saturday while I was out and she isn't that sure of her new, shorter, hairstyle yet. It really suits her and makes her hair seem a lot thicker, but I think its taking her a while to get used to it. We stopped off in a coffee shop for a drink and snack and looked at a few other shops, and I now have a few more ideas for Christmas presents, before heading back home.

We weren't home very long before it was time for me and Little Prince to take LMS to the train station so she could get back to university. Little Prince was sad that his sister was going back again and complained a lot about it. We went to the platform to wave her off, but hadn't realised that Little Prince hadn't brought a coat with him and he was very cold and shivering! I wrapped him up in my coat which cheered him up a little, although he was quite upset at having to watch LMS leave.

When I got home I got Little Prince ready for bed while Mr Messy went to visit our accountant to discuss the business plan for his new photography business, and pick up a cheque to pay the deposit to the Graphic Designers. Apparently the accountant is very impressed with how enthusiastic Mr Messy is about this new business and also how seriously he is taking the setting up of it all. As I still haven't done any food shopping we ended up having yet another chippie tea! I did the grocery shopping online, while Mr Messy and Drama Teen watched X-Factor that we'd recorded. Drama Teen already knew who was kicked out this week, as it had popped up on her MSN, so that spoilt the show for her. So instead she went to her room to watch Hairspray. She has been watching some of the recent reality TV programme, where an ordinary school put on the show and thinks the music is great. We have also had quite a few chats about the messages of the show, and the historical context of when it was set and about segregation laws in the US. It has been a great way to introduce a pretty heavy topic, without it being forced or pushed on her, and she seems to have a good grasp of how the issues could affect both Little Prince and Ethiopia MeiMei.

During the evening we got lots of frantic phone calls from LMS. The train journey was turning into a nightmare for her! There was all sorts of trouble on the lines she was supposed to travel on and it ended up taking her over 7 hours to get back to university :-( She did eventually send us a text to let us know she was back safely, so I could get some sleep and stop worrying about her. I was so relieved to hear she had made it!

Sooooo Busy!

I decided, in my infinite wisdom (ha!!) that I wasn't stressed enough with gathering our Ethiopian dossier together and that I should ADD to that stress by trying to completely redecorate our bathroom less than a week before half term starts!! I have called myself every name under the sun this week - what on EARTH was I thinking?!?! Well anyway that's where I've been all week - in the bathroom lol. I stripped all the icky wallpaper, which wasn't too hard as most of it just fell off in my hands!! Then I filled all the holes, and sanded them as flat as I could. Then I painted it. Well me, Handyman and Drama Teen painted it on Friday. It is now the brightest green I have ever seen - what on EARTH was I thinking?!?! I'm not sure I chose the right colour!!! It looks a bit better now that Mr Messy has got the new lights up, and I presume it will look even better once the mirror is back up! I hope so anyway!!!

And have I had a life outside the bathroom these past few days?? Well a little, yes!!

On Wednesday me and Mr Messy dropped Little Prince off at school and then drove to the Graphic Designers armed with their completed questionnaire about how we see the business's image and our mood boards. We spent a good couple of hours with them and I think they will do a fantastic job of capturing the 'mood' of Mr Messy's future photographic company. On the way home we passed an outlet shopping centre, but I couldn't persuade Mr Messy to stop and check it out!! I threatened to sulk all the way home (over 2 hours!) but even that didn't change his mind. I didn't sulk and we spent the journey chatting about the future business and both of us agreed that it feels a LOT more real now that we have signed the contract with the Graphic Designers! Which makes it a whole lot more scary too!! We aren't playing at this any more, it is really happening!! Eeek!! In the evening me, Mr Messy and Little Prince went shopping to get Mr Messy a smart-casual outfit, ready for the wedding reception he is photographing this weekend. We also stopped off at a pizza place for our tea, as after all the travelling we had done we were both too tired to cook. Little Prince seemed to enjoy the undivided attention from Mummy and Daddy :-)

On Thursday I was stuck in the bathroom all day. I shouted at Handyman I was so fed up, he just laughed at me and said he can see why Mr Messy works long hours!! Cheeky!!! In the early evening Handyman had arranged for a bricklayer to come round and look at our disintegrating chimney bricks, he was here while I was supposed to take Little Prince to his swimming lesson, and Little Prince was cross with me that we had to miss it. However, after talking to the bricklayer it sounds like it was more important to sort the chimney out! There is more to the job than just replaced a few bricks! There always is in this house!! There has been a problem with the flashing for quite some time, which has allowed rain to get in, which is why the bricks had disintegrated. We need the flashing replacing and the chimney stack rebuilding before Winter sets in and the weather gets any worse! We have, apparently been very lucky that the water damage hasn't spread further and affected Drama Teen's bedroom walls, which are directly under that part of the chimney!! The Bricklayer quoted an extremely reasonable price (which includes him purchasing the bricks) and he can start work next weekend :-) Phew crisis averted :-)


On Friday I took Little Prince to his swimming lesson, leaving Handyman and Drama Teen painting. Little Prince's lesson went really well, but then the teacher signalled me to come to the side of the pool. Little Prince had developed a rash on his side. He has been complaining that his side hurt for the past few days, but there has been nothing obvious there. However, now he has come out in a red, spotty rash, he says it is sore but not scratchy. He was happy to carry on swimming and his teacher was happy for him to continue, so he finished his lesson. I checked the rash when I was helping him get changed after the lesson and it was quite prominent and Little Prince complained when I dried him there. Why do kids always come out with this sort of thing on a Friday evening AFTER the doctor's has shut?!?! I'll ring the doctor on Monday morning and get Little Prince checked out. But I've saved the BESTEST news till last - LMS has come home for the weekend :-) She does have an ulterior motive - she wants me to take her shopping for a business suit for her upcoming Disney interview, and of course that means I'll be paying!! But who cares she's home :-) We didn't tell Little Prince she was coming, so he was shocked and thrilled to see the 'present' Daddy brought him when he came home from work :-) Little Prince insisted that LMS take him to bed and read his bedtime story, he really misses her when she is at university.


On Saturday Mr Messy got up early and went to the DIY shop to get some more supplies for finishing the bathroom. When he got back me and LMS went out suit shopping. We went to a huge outlet centre and spent all day there! I thought finding a suit would be easy as LMS is such a tiny size, I thought there would be so few people that size there would be loads of things to chose from on the racks. Unfortunately there were very few things in her size!! Then we found out that the shop didn't have a changing room and there was no way I was buying three different trouser suits just so that she could try them on. We found a mirror in the shop and LMS tried on the jackets to the suits, and there was only one that fitted nicely, so that narrowed it down! We bought that suit and then went off to find a blouse to go under it. That took FOREVER!! All the blouses we found were either quite low cut, or see through - neither of which looks good for a business interview, especially for a company like Disney which insists on a wholesome/natural look. We eventually found one, and set off for home. Then we got a phone call from Drama Teen asking us if we could buy her some ribbon and some hairspray! The ribbon was to use as ankle straps on the shoes she wants to wear to go to the wedding reception as her Dad's photographing assistant and the hairspray was to do her hair!! We thought buying the suit and blouse was difficult, but finding ribbon and hairspray was even harder!! Thankfully we did eventually complete our mission!!


Once we got back home I helped Mr Messy get his camera gear together and helped Drama Teen turn herself into a sophisticated and beautiful young lady, who looked WAY older than 14!! We waved them off and wished them luck, I hope it goes well for them. AFter tea Little Prince wanted me to take him to bed, despite being told it was his last chance for LMS to take him for a while. Once he was settled in we got our laptops out and had a quiet evening listening to music and relaxing on the internet. Mr Messy and Drama Teen didn't get get home until Midnight, they were both extremely tired but happy that they had done a good job photographing the wedding reception.

Tuesday's Tales

I was a little annoyed this morning as our new cleaning company was supposed to arrive at 8.30am, which fits in perfectly as this means that I still have time to take Little Prince to school on his scooter. However, this morning, they didn't arrive until 8.45am which meant we were forced to drive to school to avoid being late. After school I had to drive over to the big village nearby to get some cash out of the bank, ready to pay Handyman who is starting work flooring our loft today. By the time I got back Handyman had arrived and he has spent all day lugging 49 huge sheets of loft flooring upstairs and into the loft! I felt sorry for him and made him some bacon butties for lunch, I think he appreciated the break even more than the food lol. We also chatted about my bathroom decorating plans, and he said he would show me how to do the filling and other preparation jobs before I start slapping on the paint. While we were up there deciding what needed to be done I happened to mention the sink that has been blocked for YEARS. It is a double basin, and Mr Messy has tried all sorts to unblock it and nothing has worked. We think that Drama Teen and Cat Lady's son dropped a lid or something down there when they used to make potions! Anyway when I mentioned the blocked sink to Handyman he took off the decorative cover to the waste pipes and had it unblocked within minutes!! Yeah we have two sinks again, that should make getting ready in the mornings easier as we won't be fighting over one sink :-)

Handyman then went back to hauling the new flooring into the loft. He called me up there after he had enough floor laid (but not fixed yet) to make it safe to walk about. We have a problem with one of the chimneys, some of the bricks have totally disintegrated and there is a dead pigeon in there too!! Urgh!!! I'll have to see if our brickie is up to working again yet, and if he isn't find another one who is willing to do such a small job - its literally only replacing five or six bricks! Why is it that whatever job we do around this house, leads to tonnes more!! That's the problem with living in such an old house I suppose!!

When Little Prince and Drama Teen were home from school I nipped to the Post Office to post some CDs of photographs of Mr Messy's. When I got back Drama Teen was lay on the sofa saying she felt very tired and she fell quite quickly to sleep. As soon as Handyman had finished for the evening I sent her up to bed, she had been feeling ill earlier in the day so its probably best that she gets some proper rest rather than lie scrunched up on the sofa. Little Prince has been playing on the Star Wars game on the Wii and is thrilled with himself that he has managed to finish some of the levels all by himself with no help. He does want LMS to come home and help him though!

Tonight me and Mr Messy have to finish preparing for our meeting with the Graphic Designers (who are going to design Mr Messy's photographic business' logo/graphics/website etc). I have to find photographers websites that appeal to me, and make notes of what I like/don't like about the sites. I also want to get the bathroom wallpaper stripped as much as I can, as Handyman has said he will get the ceiling painted for me tomorrow while he is here. And the kids break up for half term on Friday, so I want it finished (or as near as I can) before the holidays!!

I almost forgot, Drama Teen was supposed to go back to the Fracture Clinic today for a check up. The trouble is Mr Messy took her last time and made her appointment at a time that meant I wouldn't have been able to be there to pick Little Prince up from school. I only realised this morning that everything clashed and it was too late to make alternative arrangements for Little Prince, so in the end I postponed her check up until next week. I negotiated a different time that would work much better with Little Prince's school finishing time, and then realised that both kids are at home on half term anyway lol. Because I'd changed the appointment it meant that Drama Teen would be in school for her PE lesson, but she had left her PE kit at home. That meant another trip to the nearby big village, I think my car will be able to drive there itself soon!!

Monday's Musings

Our Host Student, unusually, stayed another night with us and so she was able to accompany me in taking Little Prince to school. She said it was lovely that parents and children gathered in the playground before school, and thought that the children lining up with their class to go in was great. When she was at Elementary School the children would be dropped off by car at the door, where older children would open the doors and welcome the child to school and wish the dropping off parent a nice day. The younger children would be escorted down the corridors by older children and taken to their classrooms. I definitely prefer our school's version!

After dropping Little Prince at school we had some time at home to watch a little TV, and Host Student introduced me to one of her favourite shows - Scrubs. It was quite funny but I think you need to know the characters better to properly appreciate it. We chatted all the way to the station and it was quite funny to hear how similar Host Student's interests and views are to LMS's :-) After seeing Host Student safely onto her train (its a Mum thing I have to make sure they get their trains safely!) I drove over to the Builder's Merchants to meet Handyman. I wasn't quite sure I was at the right Builder's Merchants so after waiting for ages for Handyman I tried ringing and texting him. He didn't answer! Great!! He has organised the order with a mate (who is giving us a great price) I have very little idea what I'm buying or who this mate is! Luckily Handyman eventually got in touch, to say he was tied up on another job and wouldn't be able to make it over to the Builder's Merchants. He did then ring his mate who came out to the carpark to find me, and take me to the office so that I could pay for whatever it is that Handyman has ordered!

After this I was in the mood for something a bit more girlie!! So I drove to a shopping centre with a couple of houseware shops. I had a great time just looking round, although I did find an African style plaque for the wall. Our Social Worker did point out during our homestudy update that we needed more African and Ethiopian art around the house. I don't just want to buy stuff for the sake of it and am only buying things that I really like, just like the rest of the art work in our house, which is from all over the world. I would also like to buy authentic Ethiopian artwork in Ethiopia, which has the added benefit of supporting the Ethiopian economy while we are there too.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat I headed off home again. I didn't have time to do much more than check out my yahoo groups before going off out again to pick up Little Prince. Me and my friend Post Lady hung around the playground chatting while the kids all played on the play equipment and ran round the field for a while. Then it was back home again to feed Little Prince and get him ready for an early-ish night, so that Drama Teen could babysit him while me and Mr Messy attended Little Prince's parent's evening. We had a late appointment so that Mr Messy had time to get home from work, which worked out perfectly as Little Prince was soundly asleep before we went, which made it a LOT easier for Drama Teen to look after him! She does on occassion look after him while he is awake, but not for extended periods as his behaviour issues and the fact that they argue and fight like cat and dog, makes it very hard work!

Parent's Evening - Little Prince's teacher is thrilled with how he has settled in this school year. He struggled mightily to settle down last year, but this year he has coped so much better. She told us that in maths he is working at a level a year above his age and that in science he has such an inquisitive and enquiring mind and takes everything in. He is making excellent progress in his reading too :-) We discussed his specific difficulties and how she is supporting him and helping him make progress. I told her of my recent conversation with the Occupational Therapist and relayed her comments about how the school was, in her opinion, working with Little Prince fabulously, and that it is perfect for helping him make progress. We talked about how she was working with Little Prince to do his weekly spelling tests verbally, rather than written as the rest of the class do. She said that it is working well like that and she is impressed with his ability to learn his spellings this way. I also confirmed that Little Prince likes the fact that he is doing his spellings just like all his friends, although in a slightly different manner. He hated it when teacher thought it would be better if he didn't do spelling tests, this made Little Prince feel he wasn't good enough to do spellings and was starting to knock his confidence. I'm so glad that school and teacher are able to make these small accomodations to help Little Prince not feel too different to his friends. Me and Mr Messy came away from the parent's evening feeling very proud of our special little man :-) He faces so many obstacles, but he tries hard and is always cheerful and eager to go to school and is making so much progress :-) Well done Little Prince :-)

Out and About

Today we took our Host Student to a local wood, with a visitor's centre and a long woodland walk. Drama Teen again chose to stay at home, although she did have a couple of friends round to visit and wanted to spend time with them.

Little Prince rushed through the visitors centre barely stopping to look at any of the exhibits, I did manage to get him interested in a couple, but that was as much as his attention span could stand. We then wandered round the wood, with Little Prince taking the lead and guarding us all with his wooden sword. Mr Messy managed to get him to pose for quite a few photos, looking fierce and peeping from behind trees, it is quite an achievement to get Little Prince to agree to have his photograph taken, and then an even bigger one to get him to stand still enough to get a good shot!! Little Prince used his sword to defend us from vicious trees and branches, and being Autumn managed to knock quite a few leaves off the trees, which of course made him the winner! About three quarters of the way round the tracks Little Prince's sword broke, while attacking a particularly mean and nasty fence!! Little Prince was upset, but didn't whinge and carry on like I'd expected him to! We explained that we would buy a new one at the visitor centre shop and he was quite happy with that, and even happier when he found a stick to wave around menancingly instead!!

Back at the visitors centre we even managed to persuade Little Prince to let us visit the onsite cafe before going to the shop to chose another sword. I thought it was a bit strange that there were two or three employees stopping going to one part of the cafe, when I noticed a customer lying on the floor. It turns out that someone had fainted or something and was unable to be moved until he either recovered or help arrived. Mr Messy and Host Student had a cream tea (cup of tea and scone with jam and cream), Little Prince had a kids sandwich snack box, and I had a donut and diet coke. After a lovely warm sit down and relax, and after I'd cleaned up Little Prince from his donut (he wants whatever I have, unless its vegetables lol) we went back outside. Mr Messy had thought he'd seen a playground, but after some aimless wandering round he had to admit it must have been a figment of his imagination lol. Little Prince was mollified by us finally going to buy him a new sword, although buying it just before walking through the car park probably wasn't out best parenting decision!! Remarkably we managed to reach our car without incident! We decided to visit a nearby village and look round, the car park was next to the village Church so we explored there. Little Prince was much more interested in the huge pile of leaves in the car park and spent ages jumping, throwing and messing about in the leaves :-) While Mr Messy and Host Student wandered round the churchyard and took photographs. There were many very old gravestones in the churchyard, but they were so weathered that hardly any of the names could be read, which is quite sad really. Hundreds of years ago these were beloved people, who's families wanted them to be remembered in perpetuity and now they are forgotten and what was supposed to be their permanent memorial has worn away. I suppose it just symbolises how transient our lives really are in the grand scheme of things.

On the way home both Little Prince and Host Student fell asleep, so it was a very quiet peaceful journey lol. Host Student is now completing some of her homework, Drama Teen and her friend are watching a movie in her room and Little Prince is playing on the new Star Wars Wii game. Luckily it must be the actual Wii console that stores the scores and stuff, as all the previous data for the games is still available. Which is lucky as Little Prince's game was over half way completed. Host Student has now completed her homework and Little Prince has now comandeered her into playing Star Wars with him. The only problem is that Host Student has never played on games consoles before in her life!! I don't think this is going to go well!!!

Little Prince's Latest Utterings!

Little Prince has been getting curious about different parts of his body, and being the 'right on' modern parent that I'm trying to be, I have taught him the correct names for all his body parts! Apart from calling his penis a wooly, don't ask me I'm just his mum, he uses all the correct names. I was bathing him the other day and when he announced that "Mum testicles are like soap." Trying to keep a straight face and not laugh, I ask "Why's that dear?" Little Prince's answer had me in stitches "When you try to get hold of them they slip out of your fingers, just like soap." "I see, lets wash your hair now dear" I reply. I couldn't really think of anything else to say!!!

Rant Alert!!

Mr Messy brought a catalogue home for "The White Company" mainly for the style of photography featured in its pages. I was having a flick through it, as I like a lot of their linens and accessories and saw some absolutely gorgeous things, that would be perfect for Ethiopia MeiMei's bedroom. However, I will not be buying from this company! The reason?? It seems that their name extends to the models they use in their advertising too. Every single child, apart from one who may have been at least partly Chinese, was white. Every single one!!! I'm going to be writing to the company over the weekend to express my disgust and explain why I won't be buying anything from them. I'm refusing to even put a link to the company in this post, if you want to find them you'll have to google them!

Host Guest

Yesterday our latest Host guest arrived, she is a lovely young lady from America who is currently studying in London. Little Prince was very shy when she first arrived, but now adores her :-) I love the way he is now so used to our temporary guests and no matter where they are from he just chats away to them and tries to get them to play Power Rangers! Even the ones who's English isn't that great and who don't really understand him, he just somehow gets them to do what he wants anyway! He is such a little charmer! And he is growing up (like our older girls have) knowing something about people from many different countries and cultures, and finding out that different means interesting :-)

This morning Mr Messy was wonderful and got up with Little Prince, made breakfast for everyone and allowed me to wallow in bed and catch up on some sleep :-) Its the little things like that, that make you realise how much you appreciate someone. When I was finally up and ready we went out to a local Organic Cafe/Shop. We had a lovely freshly cooked, organic meal and while Mr Messy and Student explored the Produce Shop I supervised Little Prince in the playground. He was so pleased with himself when he managed to walk along the balance beam, partly by himself :-) And when he did need to hold on he only held onto one of my fingers :-) Given his difficulties with co-ordination/motor control this was a HUGE achievement for him and as he says "Mummy's prouds were bursting out all over the place." We then went to visit the Civic Art Gallery, where the exhibit was all about childhood tales and fantasy and Little Prince was intrigued by the different artistic interpretations of this theme. I love the way that at only 5 years old he gets so excited about visiting Art Galleries and Museums :-) Our policy is to let him look at what he wants to see and not to try to slow him down, or push the learning aspect too hard and it seems to be paying off :-)

We then walked to the town centre and wandered round the shops, which was a bit more stressful as Little Prince started every sentence with "Mum, can I have...?" It got very very wearing after half an hour of this constant refrain. I don't know why, but this weekend I'm finding it harder to deal with than usual and needed Mr Messy to step in and take over as much as Little Prince would allow. Which wasn't very much as Little Prince relies heavily on me to keep him regulated and calm, but it gave me the small break that I needed :-) Thank you again Mr Messy :-)

I had a couple of text conversations with LMS who is visiting her friend at a different university this weekend. They are having a great time together, and it is apprently definitely worth the 6 hour train journey! She was also thrilled to hear that we've bought a new copy of Lego Star Wars for the Wii (our old copy just won't load any more for some reason) and I'm sure she and Little Prince will be playing when she is next home.

On the way home we visited the supermarket to stock up on vegetarian food (our Student is vegetarian) for the weekend. Little Prince complained quite a lot that he wasn't allowed to visit the toy aisle, but eventually calmed down after we repeatedly pointed out that we had visited a toy shop while in town and bought him a toy there. We called Drama Teen when we left the supermarket, and I was very proud of her when she told me she'd finished all her homework - well done Drama Teen :-) We all unloaded the car and put the shopping away before flumping down to relax for a while, well as much as you can relax with a mega active five year old running round lol.

Procedure for Ethiopian Adoption

Someone on the UK Ethiopia adoption support group, just posted this fantastic list of the procedure we have to go through to adopt from Ethiopia.

• Homestudy
• Panel
• Dossier to DCSF (UK govt dept that oversees ICA)
• Dossier to Notary
• Dossier to Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• Dossier to Ethiopian Embassy
• Dossier back to Notary
• Dossier back to DCSF
• Contact Orphange UK families deal with
• Dossier sent to MOWA (Ethiopian govt dept that oversees ICA)
• Referral sent from orphanage UK families deal with
• Referral checked and agreed by LA
• Court date set in Ethiopia (families need to be in Ethiopia for this date)
• Court issue Adoption Order
• Apply for Ethiopian Passport
• Apply for British Visa from British Embassy in Ethiopia
• Return to UK
• Inform LA within 14 days you have child in your custody and intend to apply to adopt child
• Post Placement Reports (via LA) at 3, 6 and 12 months (sent to MOWA via DCSF). Thereafter annual reports prepared by family and sent to MOWA
• Once had custody of child for 6 months can formally adopt under UK laws.
• Once adopted child is automatically a UK citizen and can obtain UK Passport.

YESYESYESYESYES!!!!!

I've just had a phone call from Team Leader at our LA, to say that the Agency Decision Maker has today agreed the Panel's decision to approve us to adopt from Ethiopia :-) I was disappointed this morning when we didn't get a letter from our LA saying what the decision was, as they are supposed to notify us within 10 days of Panel. I'd resigned myself to a weekend worrying and wondering, but now I can have a great weekend knowing we are officially approved now :-) Its such a great feeling :-)

More Injections

I took Little Prince back to the Health Clinic today for his Mantoux injection to be checked. He had absolutely no reaction to the Mantoux injection at all, recorded at 0mm. Yet the Doctor still gave him the BCG! I asked why but the doctor didn't really explain and I don't know why Little Prince had to have the BCG!!! He wasn't happy about going back to the clinic, and as soon as he saw the medicine vials on the table he started to fret about them! He kept interrupting and asking what they were for, why was the doctor touching them, why was he mixing them and generally worrying. When it was time for the injection he clung to me and refused to turn around, although I did eventually get him sat as the doctor wanted on my knee. He was very upset and said this one "hurted" and this time Little Prince definitely wanted to follow the doctor's orders and get some chocolate on the way to school. He chose a Kinder Egg and luckily the garage on the way to school had some!!!

I'm not sure how we are going to cope with the lesion left by the BCG! The doctor said not to let Little Prince scratch it or bash it!! That will be almost impossible, unless I tie Little Prince's hands behind his back!!!

More Dossier Prep Completed

Mr Messy is working from home today, as Drama Teen has a Speech Therapy appointment that clashes with Little Prince finishing school. I took the opportunity to drag him to the photographic shop in town to get new Passport Photos done for our Ethiopian dossier. So that's another item ticked off my list :-) And our letter from the bank arrived this morning, so that's yet another item ticked off :-)

While we were there Mr Messy saw a digital photograph frame on offer, and he is currently fiddling with it so that it picks up our photos via Wifi!! Clever huh?! I also finally managed to find a shop selling the photo album sleeves with pockets that I want to use for our "photos showing family life" photos for our Ethiopian dossier. Now all I need to do is get a picture of me and Mr Messy together, that I approve of (that's the difficult bit!!) and a picture of Drama Teen playing her guitar. I already have a picture of Little Prince with Mickey Mouse and a picture of LMS showing off her Fencing Medal and even a photo of all five of us together (a very rare picture!!).

I think that once I've got the prints of the "family life" photos then I have almost finished collecting the documents I can do. I'm still waiting to hear back from Admin Lady at our LA about two letters they have to supply (on top of the homestudy etc), but I don't think she will get back to me until she has got the letter from the Agency Decision Maker (hopefully confirming Panel's recommendation that we are approved to adopt from Ethiopia!). Once she's let me know she's got that letter then I'll be pestering for the rest of the stuff I need from her!! I want to get it all off to the Notary as soon as possible to get the ball rolling!! Impatient or what lol?!?!

Today's Waffling!

I had to get the children up and ready bright and early this morning as today is the day of our Spring Clean! The cleaners were supposed to be here at 8.30am but arrived about 10 minutes late (there had been a Play Mobil emergency - a sword had gone missing lol), I was getting a bit worried as I had to leave to get Little Prince to school! But they managed to get here and unload all their stuff (they bring all their own equipment) in time for me to get Little Prince to school on time. Its individual school photos today, so I had to remind Little Prince's teacher to remove his (logo'd) school jumper before the photographs. I went back home to wait for Handyman to call, he was another one who was running late this morning! I was just about to ring and check that he hadn't tried to come while I was up at school, when he arrived. He has now measure the loft and had a good poke about at the joists and insulation and knows what he has let himself for!! I am meeting him at the builder's merchants on Monday to buy all the boards he will need, but he will be able to load them straight into his big work van as they won't fit in my car! He says he isn't sure how long it will take him, as he has to take out some of the insulation first and then there could be a lot of cutting of the boards etc. I don't care I just want it done!! Now I've decided I want this job doing, I want it done yesterday!!

Once Handyman had been I took myself off out shopping, to get out of the way of the cleaners - I was feeling so guilty sat around doing nothing while they were working so hard cleaning up our mess!! First I went to a large fabric shop, supposedly to look at sewing machines (I want a new one) but they only had a couple and you couldn't try them out. But I did find the gorgeous material froma couple of posts back that I've decided will be perfect for Ethiopia MeiMei's bedroom curtains. I was disappointed that they've had a reshuffle and don't have the huge choice of coloured and patterned voiles that they used to have too, as I would have liked to buy some for when I redecorate the bathroom. There is a rail to hang curtains at the end of the room where the huge corner bath is, and I thought it would be nice to curtain it off and have a long relaxing bubble bath :-)

Then I visited a large craft shop and had two things I needed to buy - a photographic mount cutting ruler and photo album divider holder thingies. Neither of which the shop had!! I did get some other stuff that I hadn't realised I wanted until I saw it lol. Then I went to the DIY shop to look for new curtain tie back thingies and picture hooks. Once again I didn't find what I went in for, but I did buy the paint and new lights that I need to redecorate the bathroom - which I've decided is next weeks job!! I've chosen quite a bright green, but its a big, bright and airy room so it won't be too over powering, hopefully!! I wanted to buy some of the stick on wall art thingies, but they didn't have any in colours that would go with my bright green! I'll have to see how it looks once I've painted it and see if I need to find somewhere else that sells them.

Then I had no choice but to do the boring supermarket shopping. When I got home the cleaners were still hard at work, and were now sorting out our lounge. I had asked them to do that room first when they got downstairs, so that when I got Little Prince from school he could go in there and play without being in their way. I had enough time to get the shopping put away and get some parcels in the post before it was time to pick Little Prince up. When we got back he was very excited about the prospect of a clean/tidy house and went straight upstairs to check out his room :-) Drama Teen says no-one is allowed to touch her mirrored wardrobe doors as they look so great now they are thoroughly clean :-) The whole house looks fabulous :-) I'm very impressed and have booked the cleaners to come weekly now :-)

I had a phone call from our accountant who is sorting out our new Life Insurance Policy, according to the insurers we don't exist!! They can't find us on the electoral register or on the phone records!! We have to get copies of some household bills and our passports to our accountant, to prove that we aren't a figment of his imagination!!

Monday's Stuff

I had to wake Little Prince up this morning! Which was a bit of a shock as he is normally awake well before I am!! Both children got ready for school as normal, but Little Prince didn't go straight to school. He had to go to the local medical centre for a TB test first, due to the fact that on filling a school admission form in I didn't know whether or not birthfamily (back to Grandparents I think) had suffered from TB. I didn't tell him until we had parked the car at the medical centre what was going on!! He seemed quite calm about it and not too worried, until we walked into the doctor's consulting room. He then clung to me and kept saying he was scared, poor lamb. The doctor used to be the school doctor for our area and knew Little Prince's school and teachers so he chatted to him about that for a few minutes to put him at ease. Little Prince cried a little when he had the actual injection, but not too much and he was ok again in seconds. We have to go back later in the week for the doctor to check the injection site and see what the results are. When we were walking back through the waiting room, one of the other children waiting to go in started to cry on seeing Little Prince holding a wad of cotton wool on his arm! We had gone in first, so I think we had the advantage!! The doctor had told Little Prince that I should get him some chocolate, but Little Prince didn't want to stop anywhere for chocolate he was in too much of a hurry to get back to school!! I took him straight back and warned his teacher to try not to let him itch the injection site, she said she would try and get him to keep his long sleeved jumper on and keep him distracted - good luck Miss!!

Drama Teen was supposed to go to the Gym at the local leisure centre (next door to her school) after school, but texted me during the day to say she couldn't be bothered. At least that meant I wouldn't have to be running around picking her up afterwards and that I could get on with tidying and de-cluttering (yes we are STILL doing it!!). I'd spoken to Mr Messy during the day and warned him that we were tidying/de-cluttering when he got home from work and he threatened to stay at work!! I told him it didn't matter what time he came home we were STILL doing the tidying/de-cluttering, so he came home at his normal time lol.

Drama Teen had been chatting to her friend (Mad Cat Lady's younger son) and agreed to sell him one of her old Gamebox Pokemon games. Apparently at 14 they are too old to be seen with Pokemon games at school, so he got his mum to bring him round to collect the game. Little Prince had a crazy hour showing off to Mad Cat Lady and Son, and only calmed down (a little!!) when they agreed to read one of LMS's Star Wars books (big picture book about making of the films) to him. That calmed him down enough that when they left I was able to get him straight in bed no trouble! I then went to the chippie, leaving Mr Messy getting on with the de-cluttering. By the time we went to bed we had got loads done, there is still stuff to do and sort out, but it can wait for another day!!

I decided that as we have so much stuff that we want to keep, and nowhere to keep it without having clutter everywhere that I'm getting in touch with my Handyman to come and floor the loft for us. It is an enormous space and already has a proper loft ladder fitted, and it will solve all our storage problems once we can use it properly. I'm beginning to think I'm nesting!! Either that or I'm trying to annoy Mr Messy so much that he sends me back to Disney to get me out of the way lol.

Sunday's Doings!

I'm doing yet another catch up post!! On Sunday morning me and LMS went to our friend's house, C is a seamstress and I want her to make some new covers for the sofa/sofa bed part of Drama Teen's bed. She has a sort of bunk bed, where the top is a single bed and the bottom part can be either a sofa or a double sofa bed. LMS came along as she wanted Seamstress to shorten a prom dress/ball gown she bought when we went to America this Summer. I've had the material for the new covers for months (and months and months!!) and I keep forgetting to take it round to Seamstress, and whenever I remember to ring her up she is snowed under!! So we agreed that I would bring the stuff round so that it is next in the queue once she has finished her current jobs, and she will just give me a ring once they are done. I also had a word with her husband who is a very talented stained glass artist. I have many of his designs around the house, and the window at the end of our hallway is covered in his fairies. Now we are adopting from Ethiopia, I have asked him to make me some more fairies with black hair and brown skin so that Ethiopia MeiMei has some fairies that look like her :-)

After that our next stop was the tip to drop off all the rubbish we had sorted out the other day. And then I took LMS round to one of her friend's houses as they were having a get together for one of the group's birthdays. She has now realised how difficult it is not having her car here, and is planning to come home in it for the Christmas holidays. She will probably split the long journey into two, by staying over at Grandma's on the way. I am sure she will manage the journey doing it that way :-)

Me and Mr Messy were supposed to be sorting out the dining room, but unfortunately he didn't feel very good, nothing specific wrong just a bit bleugh. I was quite worried about this as he was going to be taking LMS back to University and driving back, which is about a 7-8 hour journey!! In the end I decided that me and Little Prince would come along too, so that I would be able to take over the driving if needed. I left Mr Messy packing a play bag, snack bag and pyjamas and small quilt for Little Prince, while I went to pick LMS up again. Once we were back she had one or two bits to pack up and then we set off. I wish Drama Teen had been able to travel with us too, but she had lots of homework and most of it was due in on Monday so, unfortunately she had to stay at home.

The journey was long and fairly uneventful. At one point LMS was trying to distract Little Prince from something and was pointing out the rural scenery we were driving through. She was told that was "Booooooring! Its just fields and trees and sheep!" We visited Sister in Law and her two kids who live near to LMS's University and it was great to chat and catch up :-) Little Prince was thrilled to play with his cousins.

It was dark when we finally arrived at LMS's house, which made carrying her things up the narrow, steep and slippery path 'interesting'!!! We made it with no injuries though. LMS got teased off her Dad for some of the more risque things she had written on her Bucket List - she didn't tell us about THOSE lol!! All too soon we had to get Little Prince in his pyjamas (it would be after midnight when we got home) wrap him up in his quilt and say goodbye to LMS. It was sad :-( Little Prince kept saying that he didn't like saying goodbye to his sister and that it was making him cry :-( We all miss her a lot.

We got caught in two major traffic jams (on a Sunday night!!!) and it was extremely late when we finally arrived home. We'd kept in touch with Drama Teen all day by phone, and luckily she'd been very sensible and got on with her homework and locked up and gone to bed, so she wasn't too tired for school in the morning.

I Like This!

I was out shopping this morning and saw the perfect curtain material for Ethiopia MeiMei's bedroom :-) It was pale sagey green with little sprigs of pink flowers all over and it will look beautiful in her bedroom, and tone down the marshmallowness that I'm planning!!

More de-cluttering done!!

This morning Mr Messy got up with Little Prince, I was supposed to get up too but fell asleep again! Mr Messy woke me up when it was almost time for him to go out on a photographing trip with his camera club. Drama Teen was also invited on this trip, but said the destination was boring and she didn't want to go. After waking me up Little Prince was obviously in the mood for waking people up and got his sisters up too!! They weren't pleased!! I pottered around sorting things out and tidying up, before having to go for a bath (I much prefer showers) as the shower is still broken! Then I went to the local DIY shop to get a new shower, ours isn't that old but I can't find the receipt so I can't take it back!! Our Handyman called before I got back, but luckily said he could come back later and get the shower fitted :-) He came back soon after lunch and spent ages fiddling to get the new shower in. Its the same make as the old one, but a Mark II model, and had a completely different back plate unfortunately! But luckily after a lot of faffing and drilling and hammering we now have a working shower again :-) He only charged me £20 but it would have been worth double that, just to stop the girls complaining that they couldn't have a shower!!

While all this was going on Mr Messy had returned from his photography trip, and I'd made him start helping me sort out the cr*p in our bedroom. We've been totally ruthless and got rid of loads, my boot is once more stuffed full of things to go to the tip. And I've got two huge bags of things to go to the charity shop on Monday too. And even after all that we STILL have more stuff to sort out!! Where does all this cr*p come from?!?! And why does it all materialise in MY house?!?! Tomorrow's assignment is to sort out the dining room!! I think I'll have to go to the tip first as there's no more room for anything else in my car!!!

Birthday Celebrations

During the week Mr Messy turned the grand OLD age of 50!!! OMG my old man really is OLD!!! With him working away most of the week, me and Little Prince being jet lagged and the upheaval Panel caused we didn't get chance to celebrate. But we made up for that this weekend :-) We went to the same restaurant that we went to for my birthday, with the same group of friends and had a great time again :-) I was a bit more organised than Mr Messy was and got him some helium balloons (saying either "50" or "Birthday Boy" hehe) and got him a cake. I thought about the 'Busty Boobs' cake but settled on a plain white one with 'Happy Birthday' on it lol. It was lovely to see all our friends together again, and they were joking that next time we get together to celebrate it will be when our new little one comes home :-) Its so nice that all our friends are so excited and happy for us too :-)

Little Prince was a total pain the whole meal!! He had wanted to sit next to his girlfriend's big sister (does he prefer the older woman?!), but she felt ill and wanted to sit with her mummy and daddy. He wasn't sat next to me and took full advantage of that!! LMS was sat opposite him and looked like she was going to have a nervous breakdown from before the starters even arrived!! He had been so looking forward to having ribs (which he adores) and talked about it all the way there in the car. He ordered ribs himself from the waiter and was very happy about this, until the main courses arrived and Girlfriend had sausages!! That wasn't fair, he wanted sausages!! When we pointed out that he loved ribs, he claimed to hate them and we were all mean for not telling him that he could have had sausages!! We've told him next time we go there we will let Girlfriend order first and then he can decide what he wants!!! For most of the meal he sat messing about and not touching his food, but just as everyone else was finishing he decided to eat most of his ribs!! Finally!! There was more trouble to come!!! The waiter brought out the cake, with sparklers in and we all sang to Mr Messy!! When he was cutting the cake into pieces Little Prince kept telling Daddy that he wanted the ribbon from round the cake. Trouble is Mr Messy didn't hear him and gave the ribbon to Girlfriend!!!! That was the last straw for Little Prince, he refused point blank to eat any cake (little boy REFUSING cake!! That's grounds for a visit to A&E!!!) and just sat whinging about the ribbon and trying to grab it from Girlfriend. Then Mad Cat Lady's Hubby made him and Girlfriend paper airplanes out of the menus!! Which Little Prince used as a missile to attack the surrounding tables!! Not a good idea really!!! Luckily we had all finished by then so we could get out of there before we were thrown out!!!

Outside we got Mad Cat Lady to take a family photograph of the five of us, and of the three she took there is one where everyone is looking in the right direction, not pulling faces and everyone has their eyes open!! We need this picture for our Ethiopia dossier, and LMS isn't home that often to try again, so I was thrilled we got a usable photo :-) Little Prince continued to be a pain most of the way home, perhaps it was all too much excitement and too much pressure to be good?! When we went for petrol on the journey home, he was asking for sweets!! He got told NO as he wasn't stuffing himself full of sugar after not eating much dinner and just before bedtime!! Once home he played for a few minutes before tidying up (with 'encouragement' from his big sisters) before insisting that LMS take him to bed. He has been telling her all day that he is going to be sad and cry tomorrow, and that she shouldn't go back to university! Oh dear! Tomorrow is going to be a hard day!

Today's Blurb

This morning after me and LMS dropped Little Prince off at school we planned to get straight on with more de-cluttering! But LMS wanted a shower and I wanted to get some emails replied to, so we said we would give ourselves an hour and then start, great plan huh?? I was pottering around getting some things tidied up and putting some of Little Prince's books back on the now fixed (thank you Mr Messy) bookshelves, when I heard a faint "Mum." I asked LMS what she wanted but she didn't reply, so I thought I must have been mistaken, until a dripping wet and grumpy LMS arrived in the hall!! "The shower's making a horrible smell and there's white smoke coming out of it!" Oh boy!!! Being totally non-technical my only solution was to call our handyman and tell LMS to take a bath instead!! Handyman can't get round till tomorrow, but said its probably broken - you think?!?! I'm supposed to be looking for the receipt, as he only fitted it a few months ago!! Hopefully we will just be able to take it back and get a replacement as it shouldn't have broken this quickly!!!

Once LMS was washed and dressed she decided she was hungry and would cook herself some garlic bread, for breakfast?!?! Half way through cooking the oven flashed a bright light and has now gone off completely!!! She has been banned from touching any and all technology throughout the house!!! She's dangerous!!!!

We decided that something was telling us we should get on with the de-cluttering we were putting off and finally got round to it! We tackled mine and Mr Messy's room and I've now remembered why I hate tidying up after him!!! He leaves things lying around for YEARS, and yes I refuse to pick up after him and leave it there!!! We are as childish as each other about this lol. We filled a bin bag with cr*p that he's left lying around!!! And we still haven't finished!!!! But being the dedicated and motivated team that we are, we decided to have a break :-) Back to work in a mo, to try and get some more done before Little Prince gets back from school.

UPDATE: I just thought to ask LMS to try the switched fuse box thingie and see if the oven switch was off on there - and it was, its now back on and working :-) No idea what the problem was!!!! We might still be on chippie for tea!!!

UPDATE: Drama Teen is a twit!! She was just reading my blog and said "oh you've noticed the shower is broken!" Apparently she's known for days and just didn't bother saying anything!!! Aaaargh!!! Why me?!?!?

So much to do so little time!!!

Yesterday was busy, but luckily not eventful!! I got a lot more de-cluttering and tidying and washing and putting away done!! Why do holidays always end like this?! I finally remembered to take Little Prince's friends their presents from our holidays up to school for him to give to them as they came out. We then came home for a while before setting off for his group swimming lesson. During the lesson I tried to get hold of Drama Teen to find out if she had arrived back from her school trip. She was due back at the same time Little Prince started his lesson, but the teachers had said they weren't sure of the arrival time as it depended on traffic. If she did get back during Little Prince's lesson we'd arranged that she would go home with a friend who was also on the trip, and that I'd pick her up after swimming. Trouble is she didn't answer her phone or reply to the text I sent her! Once Little Prince had finished splashing around in the pool (there's a new inexperienced teacher who can't really handle him or the rest of the class so they don't learn much, but he has fun so that's what matters) we got ready and set off to pick up Drama Teen, still not knowing if she was at her friends, still travelling or what! All the way to her friends I tried to ring her, but got no response, I left loads of messages on her voicemail and got crosser and crosser!! Poor Drama Teen!! When I arrived at her friend's house, she was already there, calmly eating an iced lolly!!! Once we were in the car I flipped!! I yelled, told her we might as well throw her phone away as it obviously didn't work and was generally obnoxious. Drama Teen kept apologising but I'd worked myself up too much and just carried on ranting. It was a horrible journey :-( I did eventually calm down and apologise and we are speaking to each other again now, and she still has her phone!!

We set straight off to the train station to pick up LMS who is visiting for the weekend, to celebrate Mr Messy's birthday last week. Little Prince fell fast asleep on the way to the station, and didn't wake up when we arrived. LMS's train was on time and she came over to the car, I think she was about to complain that we didn't go into the station to meet her, but when she saw her snoring brother she realised why lol. She put her bags in the boot and that woke Little Prince up, he was quite confused and not really with it, but obviously thrilled to see his biggest sister :-) We went to McDonald's on the way home and he got a Light Sabre toy, trouble is he seemed to decide that LMS was a bad guy (she was wearing black!!) and practiced his Jedi moves on her!! She quickly confiscated the Light Sabre!!

When we got home Little Prince insisted LMS take him to bed, although the nap earlier meant he wasn't quite ready for sleeping and he was up and down the stairs way too many times before finally falling asleep!!! Drama Teen got on with her homework and was supposed to tidy her room, she didn't do much of the latter!! Me and LMS chatted downstairs while she was on her computer. We stayed up far too late and were both like zombies this morning lol.

Eventful Day!!!

Little Prince was delighted to return to school today :-) He was less happy that lazy mummy decided to drive to school rather than race after him on his scooter, but I'm not quite up to that yet lol. And besides I had to go to the garage to get some air in one of my tyres. The first garage I tried has removed their air-line! The second one's air-line was out of order!! So that was a wasted trip!! I got home in time to get some more washing on, do lots of tidying up (its amazing how much easier it is without Little Prince's 'help'!!!

Late morning the Educational Psychologist arrived for our scheduled meeting to discuss his recent assessments of Little Prince. Basically he didn't tell me anything I didn't already know ie that Little Prince has difficulties with fine motor skills and concentration! He has suggested some strategies for school to use with Little Prince to help him achieve - lots of positive reinforcement, short activities and lots of supervision, which is more or less how we treat him at home. He also went through an Autism/Aspergers Syndrome questionnaire with me and at the end of it concluded that if Little Prince even has this it is on the extremely mild end of the spectrum :-) That was very very reassuring, as out of all the ideas the Paediatrician came up with when we visited him, it was the Autism/Aspergers Syndrome that worried me the most. I don't even know why, its just a condition that scares me, which is very silly of me as I know very little about it! He ended by saying that he will be off work for the next few months (following an operation next week) and that he urgently needs some forms from school, and asked that I chase this up for him. Well actually he said tell Miss that if she doesn't send me the form she can't have my report!!! I told school when I picked Little Prince up and hopefully they will get on with it now!!
After picking Little Prince up and waiting for Drama Teen to arrive home, we set off for the supermarket. Little Prince fell asleep in the car on the way there, and really didn't want to wake up when we arrived! We sat him in the shopping trolley (he is way too big for the child seats) and he eventually agreed to wake up if we let him look at the toy aisle. I warned him we were just looking and not buying, and he was very good about this :-)

After finishing the shopping I took them both to the fast food restaurant, as I had decided to rejoin Weight Watchers tonight and wouldn't have time to cook. It was probably not a good idea to have some fast food myself, but I figured I'd start being good tomorrow lol.

Then on the way home our problems started!! I was in the front of the queue at a large roundabout, and started to slowly pull out when a car came round indicating that he was taking the exit before mine. I had to stop, when he sailed past the exit and carried on past me! Unfortunately the car behind me didn't stop and crunched right into the back of my car!! We were jerked forward with quite a bit of force, despite being in a much bigger 4x4!! After checking that Drama Teen and Little Prince were alright, I got out and checked the other driver was ok - she was. She seemed a bit shaky and very cross!! I explained that about the car indicating and then not turning and she accepted that. She was cross because she was in a hire car, due to someone else doing the same to her earlier in the week!! Her car front grill was broken and there was a huge 'spare wheel' shaped dint in her bonnet! My car, on the other hand was completely unscathed!! Well the impact had knocked some of the dirt off, but no scratches, marks or dints whatsoever!! Yeah for 4x4s :-) The young driver seemed very distracted and rang someone on her mobile! Another driver going past shouted abuse at us both and told us non too politely to move our cars out of the way as we were causing a hold up!! Lovely sympathetic man NOT!!! We moved our cars onto the verge and exchanged details, the young driver asked that if I did discover a problem with my car that I contact her first and she would pay for it, as she would rather not go through her insurance, probably as she'd lose her no claims or something.

We finally got back in our cars and I set off for home again, it was already too late to be able to go to WW and I was feeling a bit shaken up and didn't fancy it by then anyway! I got Drama Teen to try to get in touch with my friend who I was supposed to meet at WW, but her mobile was turned off and she'd already left when Drama Teen tried her at home. We had to go straight round to our accountants house when we got into our village to drop off some forms he needed. Luckily he was in a hurry and didn't keep me for long, and we were off home so that I could relax :-)

Driving down the main village street, I slowed down as their was a horse rider in front of us, and it was a good job I did!! The next minute we heard a bang and a crunch and a motorbike slid across the village hall car park towards us!! If we or the horse rider had been just a few seconds quicker we would have been hit!! I stopped the car and went to see if the rider was ok, as he was just lay very still on the ground!! His friends were surrounding him and asking if he was ok, but he still didn't seem to be moving! He started to move slightly as I got there and I asked if he needed an ambulance or wanted his family contacting, I got told "F*&k off I'm fine." Charming boy!!! So I f'd off back to my car, thoroughly p'd off with his attitude!! I'll ask his mum at school tomorrow how he is!!

Drama Teen and her friend kindly put all our shopping away, as I was feeling very shaky and needed to sit down. When Mr Messy rang up (he is working away this week until Friday) I tried not to tell him, as I didn't want him to worry. But he knew from my voice that something was up, and so I had to tell him. I broke down in tears and got pretty emotional, luckily Drama Teen was able to give me a big hug, which helped a lot :-) Then I got Little Prince ready for bed, luckily he settled down pretty quickly (I wondered if his earlier nap would make him stay awake for ages) and I was able to come downstairs and switch off and relax. My neck and back have started to ache and I'm still feeling shaky, so I've got my fingers crossed that its just due to being scrunched up on a plane, and then being tense and nervous over panel rather than being whiplash! I'll see how I am in the morning!! What a day!!!!

~*~ Big Announcement ~*~

We are overjoyed to announce that we are heading off on a NEW ADVENTURE :-)

Last Christmas me and Mr Messy came to the sad decision that staying in the China adoption programme and possibly waiting for many more years for a referral was not in ours, our children's, or our future little one's best interests. We tried to change to an expedited Special Needs request, but this proved to be impossible. So after much thought and discussions with OASIS (thank you so much J & M & S) we decided to try and change our application to adopt from ETHIOPIA :-) We have been plodding through the mind blowingly slow process to update/redo our homestudy, for which we've been charged an arm and a leg! And yesterday was the culmination of all our efforts, when we attended Approval Panel! I was a shaking bag of jet lagged nerves, while Mr Messy was cool as a cucumber - I think I do the worrying for both of us lol. We had to wait over 3/4 of an hour to go in, and I was getting more and more nervous as the minutes ticked slowly by!! Panel gave us a thorough grilling and although I managed to answer some questions, others just made my mind go blank! Mr Messy and our social worker saved the day by stepping in and providing great answers :-) Our social worker has been a total GEM throughout the process, totally supportive but thoroughly questioning our reasons for this change and forcing us to think through the ramifications for us all. We couldn't have done it without her. And when at the end of Panel she said that she totally supported our application and thought we should be approved to adopt from Ethiopia, I almost cried :-)

We were then sent outside the meeting room to wait. Beforehand I'd not even been able to look at the sandwiches and cakes on offer, but I managed to stuff down all the remaining chocolate rolls!! There weren't that many honest!! We waited for what seemed like HOURS, but was only about 30 minutes!! The Chair came out and said the Panel were recommending that we be approved and I almost broke down!! I couldn't believe it!!! After my stammering, stuttering performance and the long long wait to hear from them, even our social worker was starting to be convinced they were going to say no!!! But they didn't!!!!!!! How cool is that?!?! Anyway she went on to say that they were happy to approve us because we were already experienced adoptive parents, and were also experienced in parenting a child who looks different :-) She did go on to say that Panel would like us to work very hard to keep our future child's connections to Ethiopia and to other Ethiopian adoptees, which we have always intended to do :-)

On the way home I rang LMS, my Mum, friend who was looking after Little Prince and Mad Cat Lady. I intended to ring everyone else once we were home, but fell asleep totally shattered at about 4.30pm and didn't wake up till Mr Messy came to bed!!

I have spent the day slowly emptying our suitcases, washing all the dirty washing and tidying up after leaving my messiest pair home alone for a week!! I'm not complaining though, as they did manage to completely strip, sand and paint our stairs :-) It needs one more coat, but it looks so much nicer than it did before - thank you Mr Messy and Drama Teen :-) I've also been emailing everyone I can think of to let them know our good news :-) And finding out what I need to do next for our Ethiopian dossier, which thankfully isn't half as much as it was for our Chinese application and I should be able to get everything collected by the time our LA issue the Agency Decision Maker's letter. Fingers crossed lol. I've had a fabulous Notary recommended to me, who has done Ethiopian dossiers before and is willing to work with us remotely, as we are at opposite ends of the country :-) I emailed him after office hours and got a reply within minutes saying he would be delighted to work with us, and would get back to me tomorrow with more details :-) Everything seems to be slotting into place and it all feels like its meant to be :-) Even our builder, who was due to start work on our tumble down cottage next month has rung to postpone till next Spring - which means that after Christmas we can start work on the big bedroom reshuffle, so that Ethiopia MeiMei will have a bedroom ready for when she arrives :-)

At the moment I veer from disbelief that it is actually happening, to total panic that it is actually happening, to totally tired and needing to sleep!! Do I dare to dream that we could complete our family next year?? That we could meet our new little one, hug her and hold her as soon as next year?? After the emotion numbing wait we've been in for China, its not sunk in properly yet!!

We're Home

Well its half past one in the morning and I'm wide awake!! So here I am blogging!!

We spent our last few hours in Florida walking up I-Drive and visiting some of the hundreds of souvenir shops. I got Little Prince and his friend at school matching Mickey Mouse t-shirts, it took ages to find two the right size/design - even with the thousands of t-shirts there must have been waiting to be bought!! We saw a Chuck E Cheese, and Little Prince insisted on going in, he'd seen TV adverts for it when we visited America last time and was desperate to go! Trouble is the lady admitting people, spoke very little English and we couldn't understand her explanation of what to do! It was LOUD and very confusing, so much to Little Prince's disgust we just went straight back out again! Instead we had lunch in an all you can eat pizza buffet place. Some guests really got their money's worth, they were stacking their plates high and revisiting the buffet bar numerous times!! At first Little Prince refused to eat anything, but once he saw me and Mad Cat Lady eating he changed his mind. He still has very little appetite and I just hope that it improves once we get home and he's eating familiar food again.

We got back to the hotel in plenty of time to wait for our transfer back to the airport. More than enough time as the transfer coach was late!! Little Prince ran round the lobby with another little boy and had a lot of fun :-) The coach back to the airport was lovely, very modern and comfortable. We sat right behind the driver and Little Prince could see his stash of chocolate milk, and kept asking me to tell the driver he wanted it!! Eventually he fell asleep - Little Prince not the driver!! He wasn't happy to be woken up at the airport and was very grumpy with me. Once our suitcases had been unloaded we went and joined the check in queue, which took forever! There were two queues - ours and the one for passengers who'd paid extra for the Premium package, which includes a faster check in!! Now I know how everyone felt watching us go straight to the front of the queue at Disney with our Guest Assistance Pass!! We were getting quite worried as the check in staff were weighing all bags, including carry ons, and ours were most likely over the weight limits!! However, it all worked out as our checked in bags were under the combined three person weight limit, and the check in girl didn't weigh Little Prince's play bag :-) We went straight through to security and for once me and Mad Cat Lady didn't beep as we passed through the metal detectors - Little Prince did (probably the carabena we use to fasten his blankie to his clothes). The security guards didn't bother searching him and just waved us through!!

We sat around in the lounge for a while, grabbed a bite to eat and let Little Prince run off some energy! I'm sure the other passengers were watching him run round and round and wondering what on earth he'd be like on the plane lol. Once boarding was announced we were all loaded on pretty quickly. Little Prince is definitely Mr Messy's son!! We were passing through the Premium seats and Little Prince was trying to sit down, insisting that these were very nice seats and he wanted to sit there!! Once we passed through to cattle class, he started to try and grab and throw the cushions on the seats and exclaim that these were rubbish and he wouldn't sit here!!! Our seats were almost at the back of the plane, so it was quite 'interesting' getting him to his seat without trashing the plane!! Once we were settled in, one of the stewardesses came and apologised to Mad Cat Lady that her seat's remote control wasn't working (it had been mine on the way out!!). Mad Cat Lady was mad!! She made a fuss, but as the plane was very full they would only be able to move her and she didn't want to leave us, although if they'd offered her a Premium seat I think it would have been a harder choice!! They did give us complimentary drinks and upgrade mine and Little Prince's TV choices for free though, which mollified Mad Cat Lady a little.

I don't like the way the airline (charter) comes round first with a trolley full of snacks you have to buy, before serving the free meal! But it makes good business sense, even if it is hard on the wallet with a hungry child watching familiar snacks trundle past!! None of us enjoyed the meal this time, but with a lot of swapping between ourselves we managed to all eat something! Once the cabin lights were dimmed I got Little Prince to lie down and go to sleep, and he slept for the rest of the journey. Which is more than I can say for most of the kids on the flight!! One child screamed very loudly for over an hour, waking everyone up and the parent's didn't seem to do anything - perhaps they are used to it and can sleep through it?!?! So me and Mad Cat Lady got very little sleep on the journey and were absolutely exhausted by the time we landed!

We landed an hour early and got through Immigration (or is it UK Border Patrol now??) very quickly too. Unfortunately it took forever to unload the luggage from the plane, and we stood around for ages waiting. Little Prince mentioned that his tummy felt hurty, while we were waiting but then seemed to brighten up (notice I said 'seemed'!!!). Once we'd finally got our cases we headed off through Customs, we turned the corner into the Customs corridor and Little Prince threw up EVERYWHERE!!! I managed to get him over to the side and start cleaning him up and calming him down. There were a few choice comments from other passengers as they came into the corridor, but quite a few sympathetic ones from other parent's too. Mad Cat Lady left all her bags and suitcases and ran off to find some help. Once I'd finished cleaning up Little Prince and he seemed ok again, we hung around waiting for Mad Cat Lady. It became obvious she wasn't coming back, so I grabbed all the bags and suitcases somehow and got me and Little Prince through the exit. Mad Cat Lady was there waiting, as she had passed through Customs she wasn't allowed to go back through to help us!! She had argued with the security guard, but she had just had to wait helplessly for us!! Its a good job Little Prince was able to walk or I wouldn't have been able to manage all the bags and would have been completely stuck!!

It was quite a surprise not to see Mr Messy stood waiting for us!! I had been so looking forward to him being there, and he wasn't!!! We had no idea where he was and no way of getting in touch with him, and a sickly Little Prince to deal with - not a great welcome home!! We dragged our suitcases over to the coffee shop and sat there and waited. It seemed like ages, but wasn't really, before a flustered Mr Messy came into sight - and a very welcome sight he was too :-) The traffic on the way to the airport had been horrendous and he had been caught up in it. I was very happy to hand over my very heavy suitcase for him to drag to the car!!

On the way home Little Prince talked non stop about wanting to go to school, asking if Daddy could go straight to school, asking what time he would get to school!! We tried to argue that he wasn't well and it wasn't a good idea, but after a while we just let him chatter!! It didn't take long to get to Mad Cat Lady's house, where we helped her in with her bags, before going home ourselves. It was lovely to arrive home :-) Little Prince headed straight for his toy box and begain emptying it everywhere - checking everything was still there I presume!! I found the photos we'd had printed when we got the Photopass CD and showed them to Mr Messy :-) Then we decided to go out for some nice English breakfast :-) The first place we tried had no bacon, and Mr Messy and Little Prince wanted bacon butties, the next place we thought of doesn't open on Mondays, but the third place was open, had bacon and so we stopped there!!! Little Prince STILL didn't eat very much, about half of his bacon and none of his bread!! He fell asleep in the car on the way home, but woke up when we ladi him on the sofa for a nap.

I then had to run round finding some clothes to wear for a meeting we had planned for early afternoon. Luckily I still fitted into what I'd planned to wear - a close thing after all those American size portions!! We dropped Little Prince off at my friend's house and set off for our meeting. I'll blog about the meeting once I've had chance to tell everyone I need to tell about it!! I rang and spoke to a very sleepy, and quite grumpy LMS on the way to the meeeting, it would have been nicer to actually see her, but talking to her was lovely :-) I've missed her so much. I rang my friend on the way home from the meeting and she said Little Prince had been really good, and played nicely and then fallen asleep!! He was still asleep when we arrived at her house to pick him up, and wasn't very happy that he wouldn't see his friend as he was going home before she got home from school!! As soon as we got home again he snuggled up on my knee and almost went back to sleep! I had a very difficult time keeping him awake for long enough to see Drama Teen when she got home from school. It was lovely seeing her again, I've missed her so much. I couldn't keep Little Prince awake any longer and he was soon deeply asleep, I was feeling extremely tired myself so I put him to bed and went to bed myself! Apparently Little Prince woke up around 7pm had something to eat and went back to bed. I didn't wake up until Mr Messy came to bed, and then couldn't get back to sleep and came downstairs to blog so that I didn't disturb Mr Messy.

Mr Messy has just been downstairs to find out what was going on! Little Prince had woken up sobbing (I didn't even hear him!) about his lost autograph book, and Mr Messy had seen the light on downstairs and come to investigate. He's at work in the morning so has had to go back to bed. I'm wide awake, but know that I've got to sleep or I'll never get up in the morning and I've got to try and get my bodyclock back on UK time again!! So I'm off back to bed to try and get some sleep!!! Night night :-)