Airport Collections

LMS arrived home fairly early from her party last night, as we had to go to the airport to pick up her American friend who is coming to stay for Christmas. We had time to do some more tidying up and to get Little Prince a snack, drink and toys for the journey. I grabbed the new in car DVD system we bought and asked LMS to sort it out. She isn't very good with technology and it took her nearly half an hour to work everything out!! She finally got the DVD in the player, got the screen attached to the head rest and thought she was all set. It wouldn't turn on!! She had put the power lead in the wrong hole!!! Once we had sorted that out it worked fine lol. Although we were on the Motorway by then and Little Prince kept complaining he couldn't hear it using the headphones. In the end, and after all the trouble LMS had gone to, he decided he wanted to play his GameBoy instead!! Brothers lol.

We were about ten minutes from the airport when LMS checked her emails and found she had one from her friend! He had missed his connecting flight and was going to be about three hours late on the next flight in!! By this time it was too late to turn off and go visit our family over there, so we headed to the airport. Arrivals didn't have much to entertain us!! We visited one of the cafes and had some lunch, Little Prince did some drawing and colouring but was then getting a bit too restless to stay in such close proximity to people's food and drinks!! We went and found somewhere to sit where he had room to run around without annoying or hurting anyone and had to keep him and ourselves amused for the next three hours!!! LMS periodically went to check the arrivals announcement boards and came back bouncing, squeaking and quite pink to tell us that his plane had finally landed EARLY!!! We rushed Little Prince to the loo and then went to find the actual arrivals bit. We waited there for ages, until an annoucement that LMS meeting American Friend should come to the Information Kiosk!! We went over and were told to wait by the courtesy phones for a call!! We had no idea what was going on!!! The phone rang and LMS answered it and was asked lots of questions about her friend's background, where he was from, why he was visiting, who she was, where she was studying, who she lived with and were her parents with her!! All very alarming!!! She calmly and honestly answered all the questions and then very politely asked what the problem was - apparently American Friend hadn't put our address on his landing card (we later found he had packed his note of where we lived in his hold baggage!!). We stood around the Info Kiosk for ages, as LMS had been told to wait there in case they needed to speak to her again. When all of a sudden she saw him finally come through the doors, phew!! What a welcome to England for the poor lad - he's never travelled out of the States before!!!

We paid the horrendous bill for the parking ticket, retreived the car and set off home. The weather alternated between drizzling and chucking it down for most of the trip. American Friend tried his best to stay awake, but kept dozing off - he had been travelling for over 24 hours by then poor lad. We stopped at the Chippie when we were almost home and picked up some fish and chips, that way at least he can have something quick to eat and get straight to bed if he needs to. We did say it would be more sensible to try and stay awake till a reasonable bedtime and to try not to fall asleep.

We managed to get home in time to see Mr Messy for a few minutes before he headed back off to photograph the evening reception. He said the wedding had gone alright so far, and the vicar was an amateur photographer so was very co-operative during the service. Drama Teen had been assisting him all day, but decided she would rather stay at home than help him with the evening photography. Little Prince has really taken to American Friend and insisted he read him his bedtime story, although LMS had to get him ready for bed lol. Little Prince is too excited to sleep and two hours later is still getting up out of bed using every excuse he can come up with for yet another foray down the stairs!! Oh well at least we might get a slight lie in tomorrow morning out of it!!

The girls decided to watch a film with American Friend, although I'm not sure a girlie chick flick is quite his thing lol. He is being a very polite American though and sitting through it with no complaints :-) I've lent him my laptop for the duration of his visit and told him to get in touch with his mother and tell her he is here safe and sound!! He seems quite bemused by this as he lives away from home and sometimes goes for a few weeks without contact with his mother, and can't seem to understand why she would worry that he is travelling so far away from home and over Christmas!!!

Friday

Yesterday was a mad scrabble around getting the house tidy (ish!!). Getting the last minute bits of shopping done AND wrapped!! And we had to get back to Little Prince's school in time to walk over to the Church for the school Christmas service, we barely made it lol. Mr Messy said the village church was wonderfully warm when he was there photographing the fake wedding, but it wasn't then, it was freezing!! I was so glad I'd put my snuggly warm coat on, which I kept on for the whole service! When it had finished we could take Little Prince straight home, but my friend Post Lady invited us all round to her house for a chat, so we went there instead. Well we dropped Little Prince on the way past then went round to school and got the rest of the Christmas cards and teacher's Christmas present out of the boot and delivered those and then went back to Post Lady's house. Little Prince was invited to stay for tea and after a discussion between him and his friend over whether tea would be better there or at our house, he decided to stay. Me and LMS went off to collect the car and go home to let Drama Teen in, as she had a non uniform day at school and had taken a different bag with no door key! We had been home a few minutes when she arrived home, the trouble was she had finished school early and had been at a friends house!! She'd told me she hadn't got her door key, but forgotten to tell me that she finished school an hour early!!! Oh well at least she could go round to her friend's house and knew roughly what time we'd be back from Little Prince's school.

Me and Drama Teen went off for a drive round the village delivering Christmas cards before going to pick Little Prince up. I then helped LMS get fastened into her fancy corset top she was going out in, and waved her off. I tried to get Drama Teen to tidy her room, ready for our guest arriving tomorrow, but didn't get very far. When Mr Messy got home he spent quite a while emptying his office and taking down the shelves etc, although he has hurt his back and couldn't get all the boxes into the attic and they are decorating the landing! He then had to get all his camera gear ready as he is photographing his first wedding tomorrow. He seemed quite chilled about the prospect and I hope it goes well for him.

FANTASTIC NEWS

We heard from our Notary today that our dossier has been picked up by the couriers from the Ethiopian Embassy and will be back in the Notary's offices tomorrow!!! I screamed, laughed and cried when I read his email :-) And sent him an almost incoherent "thank you" email - he has done quite a few international adoption dossiers before, so I'm sure he's used to over emotional prospective parents lol. Well I hope he is anyway :-)

Once our papers are back with him, well his secretary as he is now on his Christmas holidays, they will be sent straight back to the DCSF (UK govt dept) who forward the whole thing to Addis Ababa!!! They are currently taking about three weeks to send dossiers out and with Christmas almost here, it will probably be late January before it is sent out. But we are ALMOST THERE!!!!! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW :-) It was the best news I could have got before Christmas, well apart from actually getting to see photos/info on our new little one of course :-)

Christmas Rush

Well I've been in a frenzy of writing Christmas cards, trying to sort out everything ready for Christmas and delivering various children to their various Christmas activities!! Little Prince has been to the Panto "Oh yes he has!!" with school. He loved it, which is great as we are all going again on Christmas Eve courtesy of our Social Services Dept :-)

Our Builder who has been hard at work on our roof and with the chimneys all week, is within inches of finishing today :-) He is very relieved as our roof is very high and it wasn't a pleasant place to work in the Wintery weather we've been having. He ran out of lead for the flashing for the last foot or so, and once he's done that its finished :-) And as Mr Messy did photographs of him, his wife and daughter he has done us a great price for the work he's done :-) And to top it off his wife is getting all the clothes and toys their daughter has grown out of and is packing them up to give to us for our new little one :-) They are such a sweet couple and their daughter is adorable :-)

While I was writing Christmas cards this afternoon with the girls (Little Prince was back late from school due to the Pantomime) my friend Mad Cat Lady rang. She wanted me to go round right away to see the pictures of their friends wedding IN DISNEY!!!! WOW!! They even had a ride in Cinderella's coach!!! I've tried to persuade Mr Messy that we need to renew our vows there, but I don't think he likes the idea lol :-)

Me and Mr Messy visited the supermarket to get the Christmas food order in. This is in addition to the humongous grocery delivery that arrived earlier today!! But we do have guests this Christmas and we want to show them a proper English Christmas :-)

Who's my clever girl??

LMS!!! She has the results from her interview to work at Walt Disney World next year and they said YES!!!!!!!!! My ears are still ringing from all the screaming and squeaking she was doing!!! I am so proud of her :-) She REALLY TRULY wanted this and worked d*mn hard to make sure she was as prepared as she could be for the interview. She so deserves this and she will have the time of her life :-) She will be there from July 21st to August 28th 2009, which will be mega hot, but she knows and is prepared for that. She has been assigned a role in the Custodial dept, which means she will be outside sweeping up and keeping her area clean all day. But she chose that role as it has the most guest interaction and that is what she wants. I think she will be fantastic, she is polite, conscientious, punctual and will do whatever job she is given to the absolute best of her abilities. She is also bubbly and friendly and will love chatting to the park guests and spreading pixie dust where she can :-)

~*~ WELL DONE LMS WE ARE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU ~*~

Bah Humbug!!!

I've just spent all morning knelt on the floor, using our bed as a table, wrapping Christmas presents!! My knees ache, my back aches, my shoulders ache and I'm rapidly going off Christmas!! I only have a few more to wrap, so once I've got those out of the way I might feel a bit more Christmassy!! But don't count on it!!!

Sunday

Today Mr Messy took Little Prince and LMS out for a cooked English Breakfast, which meant I could laze in bed for a hour or so :-) While they were out I got a phone call from Mr Messy's mum saying she was in hospital with heart troubles and that she was possibly going to have either a stent or a bypass operation. Not the greatest of news just before Christmas, but at least she is in the right place for the doctors to keep an eye on her, especially as she has been feeling ill since early November!

When the breakfasters got back, Mr Messy collected Drama Teen and they went out to scope out the church that they are photographing a wedding at next weekend. Apparently the church is a lovely old building, and is very bright and airy inside which will be perfect for photographing :-) When they got back Mr Messy said there wasn't a queue at the village Father Christmas Grotto, so we got Little Prince ready and took him over there. We let him guess where we were going, and it wasn't until we were almost there that he realised. He was thrilled to see his friend (the who's party he was at yesterday) also there waiting to see Father Christmas. We had a mince pie, played the tombola and waited our turn to go and see the man himself.

When Little Prince went in, he held my hand and told me I had to come too. He stood awestruck as Father Christmas talked to him and even knew where he lived (wonderful advantage of living in a tiny village). He promised to leave a drink and mince pie for Father Christmas and a carrot for Rudolph on Christmas Eve. He was so excited that he got an early present and was thrilled to bits to be allowed to open it when we got home. It was a racing motorbike toy that Little Prince loved.

We got back just in time for another of Little Prince's friends to come to play. They ran around like only two active boys can, played cars, played Mr Potato Head and played on the Wii. They seemed to get along very well with few arguements and falling outs :-) They did, however, both refuse to eat their vegetables with their tea! I cooked tea while Mr Messy took friend home again, and after we had eaten we settled down to watch yet another X-factor type programme. This one was a Peter Kay spoof and was hilarious. However, no one had told Drama Teen that it was a spoof and she thought it was true!! It had ludicrous situations, like a contestant's granny dying at the news he had been voted out, which made the producers change their minds and go and interupt the funeral to drag him back on the show!! Me and LMS were killing ourselves laughing at the sheer absurdity of this, and getting killer looks from Drama Teen, who obviously thought we were being heartless b*tches!! Her reaction when we explained was so funny - she asked if the "contestants" knew it was a spoof!! Life would be so boring with Drama Teen :-)

Saturday

Mr Messy and Drama Teen set off out early this morning, to go and re-try the family lifestyle shoot from last week. One of the family's children wasn't co-operating last week, so they were going to try again and see if they could do any better this time. The child involved still didn't want to have their photo taken and despite a LOT of effort they didn't manage to get a picture of all four family members together. Although they did get some nice shots of the family in different combinations of two or three people.

Me and Little Prince got his friend's birthday present wrapped and her card written. We were just finishing up with this when friend's mum knocked on the door. As one of the other children invited to the party had decided not to go there was room in the car for Little Prince. The arrangements had been that I would take Little Prince in our car, and then sit with him in the cinema. However, my friend (Post Lady) said she was sure they could cope with Little Prince and that he would behave himself. Little Prince wasn't too pleased at the change in plans but got caught up in the enthusiasm and went along with it all. He told me later that he had been scared at first, but that he had had a great time :-) They went to the cinema and then to a pizza place and Little Prince came back full of sugar and high as a kite!! Great for getting him calmed down for bed lol.

LMS was quite confused when she arrived home (safely yeah!) as I was the only person at home! The house soon filled back up again though. Its lovely having my noisy, chaotic family all at home together :-) Remind me I said that when our Christmas guests arrive too lol.

One of Drama Teen's friends came over so that Mr Messy could sort out a new memory card thingie for her GameBoy. We got one for Drama Teen and have downloaded tonnes of games for it, but her friend was having a lot of trouble making hers work. Mr Messy had already guessed what the problem would be, and he was right and it only took him a few minutes to sort the problem out. The other problem was that Drama Teen's GameBoy had disappeared!! It was found under the chaise long in Little Prince's room - despite him promising he hadn't seen or touched it!!

We ordered in pizzas for tea and after Mr Messy had returned friend home we settled down to watch X-Factor Results show. I have no idea how anyone could chose between the acts as they were all brilliant, well apart from the Irish boy with the name I can't spell!!! He was pants and its a true Irish miracle that he got this far in the competition!! The reaction the winner Alexandra when they announced she was the winner was priceless, she screamed, cried and almost collapsed!!!

Friday

I had great plans for Friday, I was going to get on with more wrapping up and blitz loads of it! But!! There's always a but lol. I wrapped some pressies and then realised I was running out of paper, I used up as much of the paper as I could before I was forced to stop! Aaaaargh!! Well at least I've got a few more bits done and I've got another week with the kids in school to get the rest finished. I'm still determined to NOT be wrapping up on Christmas Eve!!

LMS set off from University for her long drive home, she was going to drive to Grandma's and stay overnight (and be spoilt rotten) and drive the rest of the way on Saturday. She has driven to Grandma's before, well to a Fencing Competition in Grandma's town, so she wasn't too worried about that bit of the drive. She hasn't driven from Grandma's to home before though, so I think she was getting a bit worried about that part of the drive.

Almost.....

I manically checked the post again this morning and was THRILLED to get a letter from the Company we need the last document from! Not thrilled for long though!! The letter stated that the document had been produced but had been sent to our adviser, all we got was a letter saying they had done this!!! AAAAAAARGH!!!! I emailed the adviser and asked him if he could possibly fax the document to the Notary, I fully expected him not to be able to do this due to confidentiality issues or something!! Then I went out Christmas shopping, I couldn't stand sitting in and constantly checking my email inbox.

I went to Woolies while I was out, and I can't believe it won't be there for much longer!! It has ALWAYS been there!! I wore Ladybird clothes when I was little, let alone all my kids having worn it!!! While I was waiting in the HUGE queue there was an announcement that staff had found a lost child and could the parent come to the tills. A full FIFTEEN minutes later the unconcerned mother finally showed up!!! The poor little tot couldn't have been more than 18 months/2 years old and had been wrapped round a shop assistant all this time sobbing and shaking with fear. Words fail me.

When I got home I checked my emails and YESYESYESYES the adviser was able to use my email as permission to fax the document straight to our Notary :-) And the Notary had also emailed to say that he should have the dossier finished today and off to the courier to be sent to the FCO either tonight or tomorrow at the latest :-) I cried. I can't believe how stressful this has been, all for ONE PIECE OF PAPER!!! Our Notary is going to try his best to improve on the recently reported 3 week (EEEEK!!!) processing time for the Ethiopian Embassy and is doing his absolute best to conclude his work before he finishes for his Xmas break next Wednesday!!! Everyone keep your fingers crossed :-)

Still NO document!!!

I frantically checked the post this morning and our missing document STILL hasn't arrived!! This is getting ridiculous!! It was supposed to be in the post on Monday. Where is it?!?! I don't think there is any chance whatsoever that our papers will reach Ethiopia before Christmas now :-( And I've just read someone else posting on the UK Ethiopia adoption list that the Ethiopian Embassy is taking three weeks to process paperwork AND that the DCSF are now taking three weeks to post things out to Ethiopia :-( Oh well the excitement and anticipation was nice while it lasted, and compared to how long our wait was getting for our China application this is still super fast :-)

Tuesday

I was so disappointed that the last piece of dossier paperwork didn't arrive in the post this morning :-( I was convinced it was going to arrive!! Oh well, fingers crossed for Wednesday!!
After dropping Little Prince off at school I sped off (well drove very carefully as it was extremely icy) to pick up some more Christmas presents I'd ordered and were now in stock. I did a bit of grocery shopping too while I was out, although I managed to forget most of the urgent bits - that'll teach me to take my list with me!! I foolishly drove back home via the country lanes, which don't get gritted and had to crawl most of the way as it was so slippery. Just outside our village I came across a group of cars trying to help someone who had slid into the ditch at the side of the road - very scary!! Luckily I made it home safely and promised myself I'll always use the main roads in weather like that!!
I had just enough time to hide all my Christmas bits and pieces, before setting off up to school to see Little Prince perform in his Christmas Play. It wasn't a traditional Nativity, it was a story about Father Christmas, the Elves and some Polar Bears! Little Prince was a toy, and dressed up in Drama Teen's old Winnie the Pooh outfit and looked like a gorgeous cuddly bear :-) I arrived quite early and managed to get a front row seat, and was sat right in front of Little Prince's place on the stage :-) I got some great video of him dancing and singing his little heart out :-) He wasn't sat near a teacher and he still managed to sit still and quietly and behaved really well, I am so proud of him :-)

Monday

After getting Drama Teen and Little Prince to school me and LMS went Christmas shopping. I had been dreading it, convinced there would be nowhere to park and everywhere would be crammed full of shoppers - I was wrong :-) We had our pick of car parking spaces, and up to lunchtime the shops were very quiet! Amazing and brilliant!! We managed to get most of the stuff we needed and had time for lunch together before LMS had to get her train back to University. After seeing her safely on her train, I know she is an adult now, but I'm her Mummy and I just have to do it lol, I got a few more bits on the way back to the car and headed off back to our village to pick Little Prince up. I was a few minutes late and the children had already come out, but luckily Little Prince was stood with my friend Post Lady (who knew I'd been out shopping) waiting for me. While he had been waiting he and Post Lady's daughter had decided that she was coming to our house for tea. Luckily we had no plans for the evening so I didn't have to upset them and say no, and Little Prince and Friend had a great time playing on his computer and with his Lego.

After tea we got a phone call from LMS to say she had arrived back at University and was back at her house. Although there had been a mix up and her housemate had come to pick her up, but LMS didn't know this and had got a taxi! She also wanted Mr Messy to talk to her friend when he got home, as her friend is super impressed with LMS's iPhone and wants one herself! LMS was still feeling under the weather and as she has her interview to work at Disney next Summer, this week she decided not to go out and to stay in and keep warm. Very sensible.

We also got an email about the last piece of paperwork we are waiting for that our Notary needs to complete our dossier, and apparently it is now in the post. Our Notary is getting a bit worried about the delay as he would like to complete his work on our dossier before Christmas and he starts his Christmas break next week!!

Christmas Songs

During December I usually put Christmas CDs on in the car, and up till the other day we'd been listening to probably THE worst Xmas CD ever lol. Drama Teen finally remembered to bring some more CDs out to the car and we put one of them on when we went to pick LMS up from the train station. We all enjoyed singing along to the first few songs, and then "Feed the World" came on and as I began singing the first few lines it started to hit me what this song was singing about and the images from Band Aid started playing in my head. This song has a whole new poignancy and meaning now as we are about to send our application to Ethiopia to adopt. The tears started pouring down my face and I couldn't sing any more. Drama Teen noticed and fast forwarded to the next song. I don't think I will ever be able to sing along to that song again.

Lyrics to Feed The World
It's Christmastime,
there's no need to be afraid
At Christmastime,
we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty
we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
at Christmastime
But say a prayer,
pray for the other ones
At Christmastime it's hard,
but when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window,
and it's a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing
is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them
instead of you
And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life (Oooh)
Where nothing ever grows
No rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's Christmastime at all?
Here's to you raise a glass for everyone
Here's to them underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's Christmastime at all?
Feed the world
Feed the world
Feed the world
Let them know it's Christmastime again
Feed the world
Let them know it's Christmastime again

Almost Weddings

Today was hectic to say the least!! Mr Messy set off really early to drop LMS and Drama Teen at LMS's friends, so they could travel to the Clothes Show Live together. He was back for a few minutes before setting off again, to pick up a work colleague who was acting as Bridesmaid for today's "almost wedding." Me and Little Prince stayed home to run round tidying up ready for everyone to arrive. We just about got everything done in time for the first arrivals, the second photographer and his wife, closely followed by the make up artist. The Bride and Groom (well Baby Sis and her Fiance) were next to arrive, and its amazing how much you can wind up your little sister by humming "Here Comes The Bride" every time you look at her! Mwahahaha!! Fiance was suffering from an excess of curry last night, probably not helped by "pre-wedding nerves" and a dislike for having his photo taken! But Little Prince decided playing with Uncle was great, and that seemed to distract him a little. Mr Messy arrived last with the Bridesmaid and then it got erm "interesting"!!!
Little Sis and Bridesmaid went upstairs to get their hair and make up done. While I tried to keep Little Prince occupied and out of the way, not too successfully! Once Little Sister's hair and make up were finished I had to go and help her into her dress and poufy underskirt, the dress had lacing all down the back to fasten it and it took ages to get that all laced and looking just right. Once she was all dressed and had her tiara on, she looked stunning and I was welling up seeing her as a Bride. My Baby Sis is 15 years younger than me and has always felt like one of my babies, and seeing her there dressed in Bridal finery was like seeing one of my own children about to get married. Very touching :-)
Mr Messy and the second photographer then took over and started work, and Little Sis was a trooper doing everything they asked of her. Fiance got changed into his suit and was extremely relieved not to have to wear make up lol!! Mr Messy lent him some cufflinks (Land Rover ones!) and the only tie he could find to go with the shirt Fiance was wearing was a pale grey Mickey Mouse one!! Fiance wasn't very pleased lol. He was then taken outside to pose for some photographs, Mr Messy said it was obvious he wasn't comfortable with the process but he co-operated and tried his best :-) After an hour or so taking photographs around the house, everyone went up to the village church where we had got permission to do some more photography. While they were out me and Little Prince nipped out to the bank as both me and Mr Messy had forgotten to have the cash ready to pay the Make up Artist!

After a few hours they returned VERY VERY cold and tired. Little Sis had borrowed LMS's Uggs and my toasty warm Helly Hansen jacket, but was still frozen with a very red nose! I took her upstairs to help her out of her dress while Mr Messy made warm drinks for everyone, which was much appreciated by all. After a drink and a bite to eat the second photographer and his wife and the Make Up Artist set off on their way home. Little Sis rustled up something for her and Fiance to eat and then they played with Little Prince on the Wii and chatted to me for an hour or so before setting off home too.

We then had an hour of peace and quiet before the family that Mr Messy had photographed last weekend arrived to view their photos. Me and Little Prince kept the family's almost 2 year old daughter amused while her Mum and Dad and Mr Messy looked at the photographs and made the difficult decision of what to order. Little Prince was fabulous with the little girl and showed me a glimpse of how he will be as a big brother - wonderful :-) They eventually ordered 6 canvas prints and have booked Mr Messy again to photograph the little girl soon after her birthday, so that they can order more photos for the grandmothers for Mother's Day.

Once they had gone Little Prince was fit to drop! He had been on the go all day, and probably been even more active than usual and he was asleep within minutes of being tucked up in bed. Me and Mr Messy were both shattered and have spent the evening slumped on the sofas not saying very much lol.

LMS and Drama Teen were dropped off here by their friend, which was a huge relief as neither me nor Mr Messy felt like going out in the cold to pick them up! They spent a few minutes showing us their purchases before we had to send Drama Teen to bed as it was late and she has school in the morning.

LMS is home for a while

Unfortunately she's only here for a very short time, but at least she's here :-) More of her short and sweet visit later, I'll have to write what we did today before I forget! Our builder was here again today to do some more work on the chimneys, he has inspected all three of them and they all have problems!! I also asked him to look at our guttering as the back corner above the lounge has been leaking (well gushing in heavy rain!). The problem turns out to be that the wood that the guttering is supposed to be fastened to, which is then fastened to the wall, has rotted and pulled away from where it should be, which is causing gaps in the guttering. At first it looked like a HUGE job, replace all the guttering (which is the old metal sort that you can't get any more!) but while the builder was fixing the chimney he had a think and decided he could replace the wood, reuse the current guttering once he'd cleaned it and the brackets up and we'd be good for another 12 months or so. I like that sort of thinking just before Christmas!! After all the problems the builder has found with the chimney we had repaired a year or so ago, we have decided that we'd like this builder to renovate our back garden, tumble down cottage rather than the one who did the bodged repairs on the chimney!!

Mr Messy was out photographing again, Drama Teen was supposed to go with him but she stayed up too late playing with her new toy and wasn't ready in time!! So it fell to me to go to the florists and pick up the Bridal bouquet, Bridesmaid's bouquet and Groom's buttonhole. She has made them up in cream roses, with pearl pins in the centre of each one and large deep green leaves around the edges. The buttonhole is a couple of cream roses with smaller deep green leaves, and the stem of the roses is wrapped in green tape with a spiral of small pearl beads around it. Very simple and modern looking, just what Mr Messy wanted :-) The florist had even supplied a box covered in pink paper, which she turned upside down and cut holes in to put the bouquet stems through so that they could be transported in the car safely. I was very impressed :-)

We went straight from the florists to the train station to pick LMS up, she had been visiting a friend at a different university to attend a Winter Ball. Then she is home tonight for tea and to see the village Christmas lights be switched on. Tomorrow her and Drama Teen are going to the Clothes Show Live with a group of LMS's friends and then on Monday she has to return to University :-( She is feeling sad and sorry for herself as she has almost lost her voice and feels quite poorly, big hugs ((((((LMS)))))) She also told us that while waiting to enter the Winter Ball she fainted in the queue!!! I am hoping it isn't anything too serious, as she was prone to fainting when she younger, and she did feel fine once she'd had a drink of sugary lemonade, but I'm still going to worry!!! Little Prince had fallen asleep on the way to the station and was thrilled to wake up and find his LMS sat next to him in the car :-)

Early this evening we all went to the village square to sing Christmas Carols, eat mince pies and watch the Christmas lights be switched on. Some of the Primary School children were dressed as the Nativity characters and others joined with the School choir to sing some of the Carols. Little Prince was NOT happy that he wasn't included in this, but he cheered up when we stood him near the front where he could wave to all his friends and join in with the singing. Once the lights were lit, a special visitor makes a quick stop in the village - and Little Prince was thrilled to see him - Father Christmas :-) Little Prince shoved his way into the queue and I had to go chasing off after him, the children all give Father Christmas their letters and he gives them a chocolate bar each :-)

When we got back to our house, Drama Teen was accompanied by a couple of friends and they took over the lounge and laughed and giggled for most of the evening! We ordered pizzas and had a lovely relaxed evening scoffing pizzas and watching TV. Although LMS's evening wasn't quite as relaxed as she isn't finding her new iPhone as easy to deal with as Mr Messy and Drama Teen found theirs! Hopefully she'll get the hang of it and stop crying and throwing tantrums over it soon!!

You'll never guess what he's gone and done!!

Mr Messy is the biggest kid at Christmas and he loves to completely spoil me and the children. But this year he has risen to new heights of spoiling!! He has upgraded both his and Drama Teen's (and LMS's but I couldn't post that until she'd got it!) mobile contracts to ...... iPhones!!!!! Unfortunately they couldn't be wrapped up for Christmas as they have to be activated within 7 days, and that deactivates the old phones!! So they've been like kids in a sweet shop all evening!!! They've downloaded all sorts of applications and played various different games and Mr Messy has turned his iPhone into a Star Wars Light Sabre!!! He has downloaded something that allows him to wave his phone around and it makes Light Sabre noises!!! And he tries to convince me he is a grown man!!!

Christmas ordered :-)

Last night me and Mr Messy took time out from "I'm a Celebrity" to get internet shopping and I think we have just about caught up on the two weeks I've missed with my poorly toes! I'm not sure my friend Post Lady (she really is the village Post Lady!) will be speaking to me after she's delivered it all!! Sorry Post Lady, big hugs :-) But it feels so FANTASTIC to be almost there with the shopping - just got to get caught up with all the wrapping now!! I don't want to hear any comments Baby Bro and Baby Sis!! And that means you too LMS!!!!

Little Prince is going to be better (and back in school) next week if he likes it or not!! So I'm going to have to get organised (I can hear you all laughing!!! Stop it!!!) and blitz the wrapping too. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it...fingers crossed anyway! I think you'd all better wish me luck lol

I rang Little Prince's school this morning, and got the names of all the children in his class, so this weekend me and him are going to get on with card writing too! I've probably already missed the overseas posting dates (as usual!!) but I'll send them anyway!!

I've still got to do the food shopping, but I'll get that delivered sometime next week I think. We've got an American friend of LMS's staying for two weeks over Christmas and Fraulein is coming back for a few days too (YEAH we've really missed you Fraulein). So I'll have to work out what traditional English grub to serve - well alright I'll get Mr Messy to tell me what he is cooking and then go and buy the stuff lol. I really appreciate Mr Messy at Christmas time, as in our 20 years of being married (and we lived together for a couple of years before that too) I've NEVER cooked a Christmas Dinner :-) And he is a GREAT cook too :-) Isn't he WONDERFUL :-)

What we've been up to

Well last weekend we had an American student guest through the HOST programme, and as it wasW the weekend after Thanksgiving we had a mini Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday evening for him. We had turkey, veg and potatoes, but our English palates drew the line at pumpkin pie!! Our student guest was a lovely young man and Little Prince introduced him to the joys of Mario Kart on the Wii, and Little Prince was thrilled that he soundly beat the student on all the races!! We also introduced Student to our annual trash TV addiction - I'm a Celebrity, which he was seemed quite impressed with even though he hadn't a clue who anyone (except George Takei) was!! I think he prefered X Factor though.

On Sunday after English breakfast, Mr Messy took Student for a walk round the village, accompanied by Drama Teen and Little Prince. It was quite a cold day, so I was glad my injured toes gave me an excuse to escape that walk lol. When they got back Mr Messy and Drama Teen went to do a photoshoot of a couple and their young daughter, which left me and Little Prince to take Student to the station. However, Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived back in time to take him, saving me from having to drive all the way to the station with my sore toes :-)

Mr Messy worked from home on Monday so that we could attend Little Prince's IEP review meeting straight after school. During the morning me and Mr Messy went to the Dry Cleaners to pick up the wedding dress Baby Sis will be wearing at her fake (photoshoot) wedding this weekend. At the IEP meeting the SENCO explained she was very pleased with Little Prince's progress in meeting his IEP targets and he has met all but one of them and one other that he is very very close to meeting. Between us we set him some new targets and discussed being firmer in insisting he uses the classroom aids (specially shaped pencils and writing slope) the OT suggested to assist him to improve his writing skills. Little Prince has been saying he doesn't want to use either the pencils or the writing slope (I think he doesn't want to be so visibly different than his friends) but we have now decided between us that his teacher is going to have to insist that he uses them. I have tried to explain to him that because of his dyspraxia he needs these things to help him and pointed out that he is a lot better at sport than many of his friends, and that they too have individual talents and none of them are good at everything. Hopefully this will help him use the classroom aids without feeling too upset and also preserve his self confidence and self esteem. After the meeting Mr Messy took Little Prince home and I met up with my friends for an evening of shopping :-) They were very kind and didn't make fun of me wearing Crocs and they walked very slowly so that I could keep up :-) Once the shops had shut we all went for a meal at a nearby pub and spent a lovely evening gossiping and chatting :-)

Tuesday night Little Prince spent most of the night awake and crying with earache, he finally got some rest when I brought him into our bed. We paid a visit to the Doctor on Wednesday morning, where he confirmed that Little Prince had a slight ear infection and very congested ears. He prescribed antibiotics and painkilling medicine and sent us on our way. I followed the Doctors advice to alternative Calpol and Ibuprofen and Little Prince was much more comfortable and even managed to fall asleep in the afternoon, which did him the world of good :-) As did having a full night's uninterupted sleep last night, and I'm not complaining about that either!! And spending the day quietly at home was great for me too, as all that shopping with my friends wasn't the greatest idea when my toe isn't fully healed, and I'm paying for it now!!

Today we paid another visit to the Doctor as during the night Little Prince's left ear started bleeding and when he got up this morning there was dried blood all round his ear canal! That totally freaked me out, in my almost 20 years as a Mum that has never happened before to any of my kids!! The Doctor reassured me over the phone and asked me to bring Little Prince in to the surgery to be checked over just to make sure everything was ok with him. She said that the pressure in Little Prince's ear had caused his ear drum to pop and that is what caused the bleeding, and not to worry as it is nature's way of relieving pressure in infected ears. His ears should fully recover in about a month, but if he has any residual hearing problems after that to go back to the surgery and get it checked out. She also said that he shouldn't swim for at least the next two weeks, and to get his ears checked before he does return to his swimming lessons. I think today is the last lesson of this term's swimming lessons, so it isn't such a big deal and Little Prince should be fully recovered by the time lessons start again after Christmas.

Little Prince isn't in as much pain now the pressure in his ear has been relieved, which is fantastic, but he still needs regular doses of painkillers to be comfortable. And he has spent most of the day cuddled up with me on the sofa either watching TV or playing on the Wii, and even though he has done so little he is very tired, which goes to show he is a poorly little lad.