Highs Lows and Broken Toes!!

Our photographs finally arrived on Friday and my lovely Ethiopian friend came round after school and wrote labels for them all in Amharic. This isn't strictly necessary as UK dossiers are translated in Ethiopia, but I thought that as I had my friend ready and able (and desperate to help somehow) to do this that it showed a little respect for Ethiopian culture. Plus it helped my friend feel needed and got us chatting about how she could help our future little one learn about their shared birth culture and country.

So first thing on Saturday morning I got all the documents together and sent Special Delivery to our Notary. Unfortunately we are still missing one vital piece of paper, but the Notary has advised that we get what we can to him so that he can start working on that and hopefully (fingers crossed) the missing document will be available soon and we can complete our dossier. I have just heard from someone in the UK who's papers have been at the DCSF for about a month, that their papers have now been sent to their Notary. And that the Notary may be able to send the papers to Ethiopia themselves, and not have to go back via DCSF (which can slow things down considerably). This would be amazing if it turns out to be true - although as with most of what the DCSF say, I'm currently taking it with a HUGE grain of salt! I'll be trying to contact them myself tomorrow, just to check that they have safely received our dossier from our Local Authority, and see if they will say what the next steps are! Wish me luck, I'll need it as they are notoriously uncommunicative and unco-operative!!

On Saturday we took Little Prince to the local Clarks shop to have his school shoes and trainers checked to make sure they still fit. Luckily they do :-) We also bought him some new PE pumps as his last PE kit was stolen from school!! This is despite every single item being labelled with his name!! I'd already had to purchase a new PE bag and PE t-shirt in the school colours from the school office. Whilst complaining about the fact that his previous kit 'disappeared' from school!!

On Sunday me, Little Prince and Mr Messy went to a large baby shop to check out my shortlisted buggies. Unfortunately the shop was only able to show us one of the models (Confort Bebe Loola Up) as they aren't trained to show the Bugaboo range!! We are planning to go to an even bigger branch to see the Bugaboo Chameleon and Bee models, but they will have to be pretty spectacular to persuade me to buy one as I have fallen in love with the Loola Up :-) In cream and chocolate (what else lol) colourway - gorgeous, sturdy, folds up smallish (we both have big car boots) and seems to tick all the boxes of what I'm looking for in a baby buggy. Later that day Mr Messy left on his way to the next part in his photography business training, they are covering Sales and Marketing this time. I was very upset that he was going and decided to take the children out for tea rather than cook, and to cheer myself up. One of Drama Teen's friends had come over so we went to the restaurant on the way to dropping him off at home. We had to leave pretty early as we HAD to be back in time for I'm a Celebrity - my favourite trash tv show lol.

This morning I was tired, very very tired. I hate it when Mr Messy is away and never sleep very well, and I'd stayed up till 2.30am reading to try and tire myself out!! I decided this had been a VERY stupid thing to do when I had to drag myself out of bed this morning lol. Everything was going well, I'd got the kids up and out of bed and was just going downstairs to start making everyone's breakfasts, when things went downhill - literally!! I slipped on the stairs, and bumped down most of them on my bum!! When I stopped at them bottom and tried to stand up I realised I had hurt my foot too!! I felt sick and woozy and in considerable pain and had to go and lie down on the sofa and instruct Drama Teen to get Little Prince's breakfast - which she did, thank you so much Drama Teen.

I lay there for a while and my foot/toe wasn't getting any better and in fact seemed to be getting worse! After a few gentle pokes at my toes I came to the conclusion that I had probably broken my little toe!! I got Drama Teen to get me some painkillers which eventually helped a little and gritted my teeth and managed to get Little Prince ready for school. Trying to get my boots on to go up to school proved impossible, I had to wear one boot and my soft indoor slipper on my sore foot, and even that was agony! My car is automatic so I didn't need to use my injured left foot to drive (thank goodness) and managed to get Little Prince to school and park right outside the gate and let him run inside himself. I was in total agony and cried all the way home!!

I'd not been home long when my friend Post Lady arrived to see how I was, I'd texted her earlier to ask if she could run me up to Casualty once she'd finished her morning deliveries. She insisted on taking me straight to the village GP's surgery where I was seen almost immediately by the doctor. He poked and prodded my whole foot and all my toes, which made me cry with pain. He said that my toe could either be badly bruised or broken, and that the treatment was the same regardless of which it was! He advised trying to strap my toe to its neighbour and to keep taking painkillers, although he did say that wearing two pairs of socks would help to hold my toe still while it was still too painful to strap up.

So I've spent the rest of the day on the sofa reading with my foot up! So far it hasn't helped and I'm still in agony!! When Mr Messy is home I'm going to get him to get me some extra strong Ibuprofen, hopefully that will help a bit more!! I've had to cancel or postpone all sorts of appointments and I'm starting to panic about Christmas!! Fingers crossed that my toe (well toes as another one has turned black and blue too!) is only badly bruised and that I'll recover quickly!!

Post Lady was a star and brought Little Prince home from school for me, and was very apologetic that she would be at work tomorrow and wouldn't be able to drop him off!! I'm sure I can manage that, the same way I did today - take him late and drop him at the door so that I don't have to get out of the car, apart from opening the door and unstrapping his seat belt for him.

Drama Teen has been a complete star too, she has been so helpful and caring and her and Little Prince have renamed themselves Team Helper Outerers (they were Team Chaos!). She got herself to her guitar lesson this evening with no whinging (normally she moans and groans about having to walk there in the dark or bad weather). I got myself and Little Prince in the car to pick her up, and then go to the little shop in the next village to get some basic foods in to last until our online grocery order arrives. None of my shoes, slippers or even my super loose wellies were wearable so I had to drive with a plastic bag on my foot - good job I didn't get out of the car lol.

We have just got back home again and Drama Teen and Little Prince put all the shopping away, with no arguing or falling out :-) And now Drama Teen is putting Little Prince to bed for me, and when she gets downstairs she said she would make me something to eat. She is a little star :-)

Even though LMS is away at university she is also trying her best to help out, and even offered to drive home to come and help me out. She has never driven that far before and although I've declined the offer, I really appreciate the fact that she made it. You are another little star LMS :-)