A HUGE post Just for you Whatshername's Mum :-)

Since I last blogged, there have been four birthday's in the family!! Drama Teen turned that magical age that "drives" you mad lol. She didn't seem that impressed with her present of driving lessons though, and still hasn't filled in her provisional driving license form! She had a daytime party with her friends, so I had to take the littlies to OUR shop out of the way. Luckily when we returned home the house was still in one piece :-) Thank you for that Drama Teen and friends :-)

The next birthday was mine :-) At Christmas I had dropped HUGE hints that I would love a Kindle like Drama Teen's for my birthday. However, with money being so tight I thought I wouldn't get one. So I was thrilled and delighted to open a present containing my very own Kindle and case :-) Mr Messy had even searched around for a different style case to the one he uses, as he'd noticed that whenever I borrow his Kindle I take it out of the case. His case has a tab that fastens at the top part of the screen, to hold the Kindle in place and it just bugs me for some reason. So I've got a case that you just pop your Kindle in and out of, which is perfect for me. And very thoughtful of Mr Messy to notice :-)

Then it was Mrs LMS's birthday, and she also got a Kindle, can you tell we all like to read in our house?? I know Mrs LMS was upset that she and Mr LMS weren't together, but fingers crossed this will be the last of their birthday's that they are forced to spend apart. She is being very brave about her separation from Mr LMS, and I am so proud of her strength and determination to get through this immensely difficult time in their lives. Keep going Mrs LMS, every day is a day closer to you both being together and properly starting your married life.

And all of these presents were made possible because Mr Messy got a new contract YEAH :-) The downside to this is that the contract is just outside London, and Mr Messy now spends most of his week down there :-( He does try to spend as much time as he can working from home, but obviously has to spend some time in the office, which both he and I hate. We all miss having him around, especially Little Prince and Princess Lollipop who are really struggling with missing their Daddy. Mrs LMS has also got a job now too YEAH, which means that me and Princess Lollipop are back to managing OUR shop. The problem with this is that my car broke down, very expensively broke down! It has been in the local garage for, what seems likes ages, waiting for us to save up for the new part! I HATE HATE HATE being without my car!! Rural buses s*ck!!! Seriously they do!!! I can only open OUR shop between open 9.30am till 2.30pm due to the bus timing and my need to be back home to pick Little Prince from school, and I daren't miss either bus or I'm totally stuck!!! I do have enough time to indulge Princess Lollipop in her lastest favourite activity - riding her bike!! A friend gave us her daughter's old trike with parent handle, and Princess Lollipop LOVES it, probably because its pink and has streamers from the handlebars :-) She insists on riding her bike up to school, and refuses point blank to go in her buggy!!

We've had a drama or two since my last blog too! The scariest one was on the day of the Royal Wedding, when me and the littlies were relaxing on the sofa after an exciting day. I suddenly heard "crunch" from Little Prince - he'd bitten his drinking glass!! It had a proper bite out of it!! I wasn't 100% sure that he hadn't swallowed a piece, especially as he kept complaining of a pain in a specific place on his neck, after talking to our GP's out of hours service, I resigned myself to having to go to A&E. Guess what, my car was broken and Mr Messy was out photographing a wedding (not THAT one!!). So I had to ring my lovely friend Mad Cat Lady, and drag her out of bed to run me and the littlies to the hospital. I felt absolutely awful doing it as she was supposed to be getting up at 3am the next morning to travel to an Antiques Fair with her husband. We spent hours and hours at A&E, Little Prince was thoroughly examined and had two x-rays, but thankfully nothing showed up. We finally got home at 1am!!! The next day I gave Mad Cat Lady a bunch of flowers and some chocolates to say thank you, she admitted that in the end she stayed at home and didn't go to the Antiques Fair, I don't blame her!! I just hope her husband is still speaking to me!

We've just had a lovely weekend away. Me and my brother and sisters, planned and organised a surprise weekend away for our Mum's 70th birthday. We hired a Youth Hostel just for ourselves, in the middle of very hilly countryside. Due to my car still being broken, I had to hire a car for the weekend, and I spent the whole of Friday running round in it getting errands done. I was supposed to pick Drama Teen from college and set off straight from there at 4pm. However, I was that far behind in getting ready she had to get the bus home (it takes an hour!) and then we still didn't set off till 5.30pm!! After a very long journey, we finally arrived on the home stretch in pitch dark, which was very worrying as the directions to the Hostel had strongly advised arriving in daylight, due to the steepness of the approach road!! We did pretty well climbing the hill (on a one track twisty, turny country lane) until we hit the steepest bit and the engine started screaming, and the wheels started slipping and we started to slide backwards!! I tried to put on the brakes and they just made horrible noises and we were still slipping backwards!! As calmly as I could I got Drama Teen to ring Mr Messy (she didn't have any of her Aunts or Uncles mobile numbers in programmed in her phone!!) and get him to let those already at the Hostel know and see if they could help! It seemed an extremely long time before we saw three torch lights careering towards us at speed. It was Little Bro, Little Sis's Husband N and eldest son, Cousin B running down the hill. By now Little Prince was hysterical, and we got Cousin B to take him and Drama Teen straight up to the Hostel. Then Little Bro and N got our suitcase out of the boot, we woke up Princess Lollipop (who was definitely not happy) and started up the hill. We had to abandon the hire car where it was, as despite a heroic pushing effort we couldn't get it to move! Princess Lollipop complained all the way up the hill in Uncle N's arms, that the dark was scary, she didn't like the dark trees and owls were scary!! Little Bro gave me a huge hug and encouraged me all the way up, what felt like a vertical climb!!! When I finally got to the Hostel, I found a much calmer Little Prince in the arms of his Grandma, thank you so much to Cousin B and Grandma for taking car of my scared little man. I was told to sit down, brought a drink and was taken care of until I calmed down too - thank you so much everyone.

The next morning Mr Messy and Mrs LMS arrived, they managed to get up the hill. Baby Sis, her partner D and their baby arrived next, and complained that they got stuck part way up the hill when they came across a farmer using his Landrover to pull a stuck car off the side of the road. Sorrryyyy lol. Once we were all finally safely at the Hostel we all decided that we weren't going anywhere until it was time to go home!! The children had a fantastic time running around the enclosed garden most of the morning and afternoon. Little Sis and her Husband N are Scout Leaders and brought their HUGE Scout trailer with them stuffed with supplies - including a barbeque. So Saturday evening we had a lovely al fresco meal. Baby Bro and his partner A had prepared homemade burger and sausage mixes and various sorts of marinaded chicken they were delicious. Little Prince was impressed that they had used North African spices in the mixes :-) Later in the evening Little Sis and N produced a HUGE cake for Mum and we all sang Happy Birthday to her and took loads of photos.

I have to be honest and say that I wasn't sure how this weekend would go, I haven't been on holiday with my brother and sisters in a veeeeeeery long time, and when we did go away as children we invariably fought!! However, I think it went really well, Mum was completely surprised and seemed to really enjoy being surrounded by all her children and grandchildren. I think Dad was a bit overwhelmed by the noise and chaos, and the fact that he didn't have an escape route, but he seemed to enjoy himself too :-) We somehow, made a weekend with 11 adults, 2 teenagers, 4 children (including 2 with special needs), 1 toddler and 2 babies work!! And we didn't argue - well done us :-)

A very very happy 70th birthday to the very special lady who is the ever patient Mum to the four of us, Grandma to our combined ten children and very much loved by us all
xxxxx

On the way home Drama Teen insisted on riding in the car with her Dad, so Mrs LMS was volunteered to come with me and the littlies. We stopped at a service station for a break, and who should walk in after us but Little Bro, his partner A and Mum and Dad (who they were taking home)!! Mum must have been completely paranoid by then and wondered if we'd arranged this too lol. It was lovely to see them again for a while, before we all piled back into our respective cars and set off home.

We also stopped at an Outlet Shopping Centre on the way home to get both littlies some new shoes, as they've shot up recently. Little Prince chose school shoes with flashing lights in the soles, and Princess Lollipop was very impressed to get "parkul shoes on" (sparkle shoes) - trainers with sequins and flowers with centres that light up :-) Once we were finally home we eventually got the littlies in bed, and slept soundly in our own beds - I love coming home to my own bed after being away :-) We were woken up very early by Mrs LMS who said that Little Prince had been up for hours with an earache and she couldn't deal with him any longer. The poor lad was roaring and screaming in pain, he wanted me to rip his ear off so he could get some sleep :-( It took a lot of doing but I got him calmed down eventually, although every few minutes he would writhe around and shout out in pain still. The Practice Nurse confirmed later that morning that he did have a significant ear infection and thankfully he's much better now after a few days of antibiotics. He has "odd" pain reactions and hadn't mentioned his ear hurting at all prior to this, it seems not to bother him until he is in absolute agony :-( Alternating between Calpol and Ibuprofen seemed to keep the pain under control for him, I just wish there was some way of him telling us before the pain gets so acute.

Mr Messy worked from home on Monday, so he was able to work in OUR shop, but he set off for London first thing this morning. So I had to take both littlies on the bus to OUR shop, it was a very long day!! Little Prince was irritable because he was in pain, but Princess Lollipop was a complete pain!! She would not stop hitting and pinching Little Prince, and had quite a few temper tantrums where she screamed and threw things across the room!! I have started to sit her down away from whatever "caused" the tantrum and stand with my back to her for a few moments, I then ask her to say sorry for screaming or throwing or hurting, the response the first few times is invariably "NO" but eventually she will apologise and goes off to play again nicely - until the next time!! She definitely takes being a "terrible two" VERY seriously!!!