Monday Catch Up

I woke up still cross with Mr Messy so decided to stay at home and not go to OUR shop. Then I discovered today was the day for the planned power cut, in the village while the Electricity Company do some major repairs. So we had no lights, no heating, no TV, no phone and no internet. There was no way I was sitting shivering at home all day, so me and Princess Lollipop went out to get some more Christmas shopping done. We had set off pretty late in the morning, so the car parks were chock a block! After a few drives round I finally snagged a space!! I didn't really have anything specific I was shopping for, I just wanted to see what I could find for stocking fillers. I did want to buy yet another car charger for my phone, for some reason they keep falling apart in the cigarette lighter bit of my car!! My phone was completely flat and I don't like driving around in the middle of nowhere (where we live!) with no way of being able to ring anyone if something happens! I managed to find quite a lot of good stuff for the kids, and presents for Little Prince and Princess Lollipop from Grandma and Grandad. Normally they will buy the children something, but with the weather being like it has been I'm sorting it out this year.

I left town with over an hour left to get to school to pick Little Prince up, and even that wasn't long enough!! The traffic leaving town was dreadful and it took over half an hour to get out, and then I seemed to get stuck behind every slow driver EVER for the rest of the journey!! I was five minutes late picking Little Prince up, and he was so upset :-( The new phone charger didn't work so I couldn't ring Mr Messy to get him, or school to let them know I'd be a few minutes late, so I felt dreadful :-( Little Prince was in a bad mood for most of the evening because of the worry this had caused him :-( We got home and found the power still wasn't back on and wasn't due back on until 5pm, it was already going dark and the thought of sitting shivering in the cold and dark with Little Prince was NOT appealing, so we drove over to OUR shop instead. Little Prince was stressed about me being late, and stressed because we'd changed our routine and not gone home, and stressed because he didn't have a friend come over to play! So taking him to OUR shop wasn't the best solution, but it was the only one I could come up with!! As soon as we got there Drama Teen started to tell Little Prince off for every little thing he did, not helping his mood! I tried to get him to sit quietly and play on the internet, but my computer had lost its connection and Mr Messy was busy editing so didn't have chance to look at it for ages. It was quite a fraught visit to OUR shop and as soon as it got to about 4.45pm I took the littlies off home again. Luckily the power was back on and the house was starting to warm up again. Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived home pretty soon after we did and brought chippie tea for us all, we'd arranged that just in case the power wasn't back on and we couldn't cook!

Another Catch Up Post

Saturday
Mr Messy and Drama Teen were busy at the shop all day, so we didn't see them much at all. In the morning me and the littlies went out to buy a present for Little Prince's friend H's birthday party that afternoon. I foolishly took the back road to the local town, thinking that the snow was clearing and that it would be safe! It was a total nightmare to drive and we slipped and slid our way to town at 20mph the whole way!! We didn't have long to buy the present, and I'd brought paper, sellotape etc to wrap it in the car. Once that was sorted I got the littlies a drive through fast food meal, and we took the longer (but safer) way back home again. I dropped Little Prince off at his friend's house, and they said they would be dropping the children back home after bowling and a meal at around 4pm. I was planning to be at home for the rest of the day, so that was no problem. He ended up being dropped off at nearer 5pm and had had a great time and really enjoyed himself. He had won one of the games of bowling, and this made his day :-) Instead of a party bag the children were given a small selection box (a great idea) and without me saying anything he shared with Princess Lollipop, what a sweetie :-)
When Mr Messy and Drama Teen came home from OUR shop they brought Drama Teen's Boyfriend with them too. He'd got the bus over so that he could spend some time with Drama Teen, they have been missing each other as the weather has meant they haven't been able to see each other much for a while. When it was time to drop Boyfriend off (at the cinema rather than home, which was great as that is much nearer) I took them so that Mr Messy could have a relax after his hectic day in OUR shop. We went down the motorway and had no problems with the roads at all. I made a detour on the way home to try yet a different supermarket to see if they had the item I wanted (a t-shirt for my nephew's birthday) finally we found it YEAH :-) We also found quite a few other bits and bobs for Christmas too :-) Some of which I was actually looking for!! I drove us back towards the motorway, but ended up auto-piloting to my usual route home, and it was ages before I realised my mistake! The roads were mostly clear until we got nearer to home, and the last stretch of back road into the village was horrendous. I didn't even drive at 10mph and was still slipping all over the place! Drama Teen was a complete hero and kept talking to me the whole time, which really helped, although I now have no idea what she had been saying lol. We passed a car upended in the ditch, which Drama Teen had seen but hoped I wouldn't notice - I did and it terrified me! I was so relieved to reach our house and be able to sit down and relax. Horrible horrible journey :-(

Sunday
I had been obsessively checking the weather forecasts and decided that today would be my chance to go and see my sisters new babies :-) FINALLY :-) We got up and were ready well in time, but then I couldn't get the in car DVDs to work - the one journey I really need them ARGH!! Then we got well into our journey and I realised I'd forgotten my niece and nephew's birthday presents and the presents for the new babies, so we had to turn back and pick them up!! I took the motorway the whole way there and there was no problem with snow or ice at all. The problem happened when I missed the junction (I don't normally travel via the motorway) and it took me ages to find a way to get where we were going (whilst also trying not to let the littlies know that we were lost!). We eventually arrived at Little Sis's house, and I was exhausted!! Little Prince played on his Gameboy with his cousins, but Princess Lollipop was glued to my knee for the majority of the visit. I think she was overwhelmed by being in a new(ish) place (we don't get to visit as often as I'd like to), by her cousins wanting to play with her and talk to her and by Mummy holding the new baby!! I ended up holding my new niece, a Tigger toy and Princess Lollipop all on my knee - not easy balancing all of them lol. My new niece is gorgeous and sooo small and was wearing a lovely little Minnie Mouse outfit - which Princess Lollipop was very impressed by, much more than she was impressed by her new cousin lol. Little Prince held baby and was extremely gentle with her - I was impressed by this :-) Well done Little Prince :-)
After that we visited my parent's and Little Prince and Princess Lollipop were very excited at seeing Grandma and Grandad :-) We had lunch there and the littlies had a play, before a friend of Grandma's arrived to deliver a Christmas present to her. We all chatted for a while longer before it was time for us to leave and go and visit my other sister and her new baby!!
Baby Sis's baby arrived 5 weeks early, and has been ill with jaundice and they were only allowed home very recently, so I warned Little Prince that he would have to be very good and try to stay very calm for this visit. He mostly managed! I had thought Little Sis's new baby was small, but Baby Sis's baby is itsy bitsy!! She really is a teeny tiny little dot! Baby Sis is a LOT younger than I am, and she's always felt like one of "my girls" in a lot of ways, LMS agrees and says she feels Auntie Baby Sis is more like a sister to her than an auntie. So it was very moving (and nearly made me cry) seeing my baby with her baby, and she looks so natural at it already even though baby is only 10 days old. Baby Sis's Fiance is (and was always going to be lol) an overprotective and very proud new Daddy, but he was gracious enough to allow both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop to hold his precious new daughter, thank you D, I really appreciated that. It was so funny seeing his soft and gooey side, he normally puts on a very macho front, but we all know he's a pushover really :-) I even got a turn at holding baby, after Daddy had had his turn, he wanted to hold her as her eyes were open :-) We ended up staying longer than I intended and it was already dark when we left! I took the littlies out for something to eat, and that seemed to settle them both down and they slept most of the way home - a much easier journey!! This morning's journey was a constant refrain of "UP Mummy" or "Fix it Mick-Mick" (fix the DVD players) and crying from Princess Lollipop :-( Once again I was exhausted when I got home, I'm not used to driving that far now that Drama Teen doesn't have regular Orthodontic appointments over there any more!!
The trouble is, Mr Messy was very tired too, he's been sleeping on Princess Lollipop's side of our bed and has had 4 nights of disturbed sleep. So we ended up having a huge row and he slept downstairs for part of the night!

Catch Up Time

Well Little Prince being back at school didn't last long, we got a call on Tuesday morning to say that school would be closing at lunchtime and could we collect him from school! No idea why as the majority of the teachers and pupils live locally so can make it into school, the reason given was "Health and Safety"!! So once again Little Prince was at home causing chaos!! We've now found out that he's knocked down some of the new guttering we had replaced not long ago, by throwing things at the icicles up there!! Not only did he knock it down but he's jumped on it and completely trashed it too. And he's knocked out and smashed the low lying drain pipes for the washing machine and shower too!! We've been in touch with the builder who is hoping to get over to us to see what he can do!! All this happened in a corner of the garden that I can't see from the huge patio windows in the lounge, so I didn't know what he'd been up to!! And I suppose most small boys have either tried it or wanted to try it - but he's wee'd in the snow in the garden too!! Twice!! The first time because he wanted to see what would happen (and he is now convinced there is acid in wee as it melted the snow!!) and the second time because he needed the toilet very quick and didn't want to run in the house in his wet wellies and coat and get everywhere wet!! Well that was his excuse and he's sticking to it!!

On Wednesday me and Mr Messy went out in the evening to the supermarket - I HAD to get out of the house, and to be quite honest away from the children!! Although we did have to take Princess Lollipop with us, Drama Teen looked after Little Prince for us. It was lovely to get out and about, but absolutely perishingly cold!!

On Thursday I dragged the children to a different supermarket to see if they had the things I needed! Unfortunately they didn't, but I still managed to spend a fortune!! I've now managed to buy my Christmas cards, I just have to get on with writing them and get them in the post!! I was so organised and doing so well before the snow arrived - I had planned for Mr Messy to take Princess Lollipop to OUR shop for a few mornings so I could get the wrapping up and card writing done and then everything would be more or less sorted!! Well now its so cold at OUR shop, we only have one inefficient storage heater for the whole place that it wouldn't be fair to send Princess Lollipop and besides Little Prince has been here most of the last two weeks too, and he doesn't cope with being in OUR shop at all well!! So as per usual, I'm on the very last second with all my Xmas preps!! Urgh!!!

On Friday, Little Prince's school finally re-opened!! I don't know why they bothered for just the one day lol. But at least it gave me a little bit of peace from the manic-ness that he is consumed by at the moment. The dreaded December attack of madness (that doesn't really calm down until well after his birthday in January) has been even harder this year as he's been at home so much!! I got a few bits and bobs done round the house, but not too much as Princess Lollipop must be missing having everyone around and was very clingy all day!

Thank goodness it looks like the snow is starting to thaw a little bit :-) I can actually see through the sheet of ice to the pavement now!! Although it seems slipperier than ever!!! When we went to collect Little Prince from school this afternoon, Princess Lollipop was objecting (loudly!) at having to walk on the snow "No like it no" (No like it snow) every time she was anywhere near it - even though the pavement outside school was completely cleared and gritted!!

Mr Messy dropped Drama Teen and a few friends off at college this morning as the village buses are still not running. And one of the friend's Mums dropped the girls off this afternoon, she didn't want to drive over to our village so dropped Drama Teen at OUR shop. Once she had arrived she and Mr Messy went to the DIY shop to get some supplies he needed to hang some acrylic samples in OUR shop. He's already hung one, but isn't happy with how safe it is and wanted to get some different hooks to hang it on - it does look pretty spectacular though :-) They ate while they were out, so I put a pizza on for me and the littlies. I didn't get any of it!! Both Little Prince and Princess Lollipop at half a pizza each!! Neither of them are tubby in any way, but they can't half pack away the calories!! I had to settle for a snack later lol.

Monday

Little Prince's school has finally re-opened!! The school had one of the local farmers clear the staff car park so the teachers had somewhere to park. The playground is still thick with snow so all the children were being directed to enter through the car park when Mr Messy dropped Little Prince off this morning.

Drama Teen's college has also re-opened but none of the local buses are running so she still can't get there! So she has gone down to OUR shop with Mr Messy. The local High School hasn't opened up again yet (probably because of the lack of buses) so the girl who was on work experience last week, has also gone to OUR shop to help out. She is either extremely keen, or her parents want a bit of peace lol. They are all sorting out some extra editing from one of the recent photo shoots, the clients saw the photos and loved them but requested some extra editing before ordering.

Me and Princess Lollipop are once again at home :-( Although it is slightly more peaceful and not as fraught with Little Prince being at school!! Mr Messy is calling in at our friend's Designer Children's Boutique at lunchtime to order Princess Lollipop a snowsuit, so once she has that we will be a little more mobile again. Well that always supposes that the buggy will move on all the sheet ice outside!!! I don't think the cleared part of the pavement is wide enough for a buggy, so I'll be slipping and sliding up the roads!!

Sick of Snow!!!

I've got cabin fever!! I'm sick to death of being stuck in the house!! S.I.CK. GO AWAY SNOW!!!!!!!!!

Frozen Friday - more being stuck in the house. School is still closed. More Little Prince playing in the garden, but not as often or for as long! Even he's getting bored with the snow!! Mr Messy and Drama Teen went to OUR shop to get more editing done.

Shivery Saturday - see above!!

Stone cold Sunday - see above!! Mr Messy dropped Drama Teen off in Boyfriend's town, she was pining for him! And needed to get her Christmas shopping done!! Mr Messy needed to get more editing done, he's almost caught up now. When it was time for Mr Messy to pick Drama Teen up, we all went out - wow fresh air!! We travelled down the motorway as the side roads we usually use were full of frozen snow and it was like driving on glass! When we picked her up we went out for tea at McDonalds - even that tastes good when its not in the house lol. The drive home took ages, so it was Little Prince's bedtime when we got there, he wasn't happy about that, or about the prospect of going to school tomorrow! Even though he's been missing his friends! He was up and down and up and down and it was really late before he actually went to sleep! Drama Teen spent the evening in her room doing her homework/chatting on the internet. I went to bed early with Princess Lollipop as I've been feeling under the weather for a few days now.

Thick Snow Thursday!

Me and Mr Messy were woken by a phone call at 7am this morning! It was my Baby Sis letting us know that she'd had the baby 5 weeks early and that she and newest baby niece are doing well. She has to stay in hospital for a couple of days to make sure both she and baby are healthy before they go home. Baby Sis seemed a little shell shocked that everything had happened so quickly - she only finished work earlier this week!! I can't believe that I have another new niece and that the weather is so awful that I can't get to see either of them :-( I have seen photos and both of the new little ones are gorgeous - but I want to get over there and give them a hug and I can't :-( I can't even get out to shop for this newest arrival!!! Argh!!!

Mr Messy had to go to OUR shop today, as his photo editing computer is there not at home any more. As he was getting ready to go it started to snow pretty heavily and I was getting really worried! I made him take his wallet with him so that he could stay over in one of the local Hotels or B&Bs. All this worried Little Prince so much, that when Mr Messy rang to say he'd reached OUR shop safely, Little Prince came running to me with the phone saying "Its Daddy, I think he's stuck." Mr Messy was laughing and said all he'd managed to say was "Little Prince its Daddy can I talk to Mummy?" After talking to Mr Messy and finding out he wasn't stuck, I reassured Little Prince that Daddy was ok and he felt a lot better.

Drama Teen's College had emailed all the students their work and it had to be completed before their next day in College. The message that College was to be closed on Friday too, wasn't sent out till well after the homework message, so Drama Teen had been working away at it, just in case she had to be there tomorrow. This did mean that, even though she had been volunteered by Mr Messy to take Little Prince sledging, she refused to go saying she had to finish her college work. Little Prince was obviously very upset and disappointed about this :-( And as Princess Lollipop refuses to go outside into the "Uh oh snow" and besides she hasn't got a snow suit or warm enough coat/boots to take her out for long enough for Little Prince to go sledging.

Little Prince did console himself by going to play in the garden numerous times! He gets so cold, so quickly that it takes longer to get him in his wellies, coat, gloves and hat, and then back out of them all again, than he actually spends outside!! Oh well, he is loving it :-)

When Princess Lollipop went down for her nap, I got Drama Teen to come down and supervise Little Prince, who I'd allowed to play on my laptop. I took the opportunity to get some jobs done, and have a quick shower. By the time I'd got everything done, Mr Messy was back from OUR shop. He'd left earlier than he'd anticipated as the snow started to come down pretty thickly and he didn't want to be stuck over there. He said he was playing chicken with the weather, but he gave in first lol.

Anyway now he was back to look after Princess Lollipop I got all togged up for the cold and took Little Prince to the other end of our village, behind the village church where there is the only hill around - Castle Hill! The walk there was slow and cold! The pavements had a small cleared path along them, the sides of which were about a foot tall either side! It would have been easier to walk on the road, but with our hats on it wasn't easy to hear cars coming up behind us, and I was worried about being able to get Little Prince out of the way in time! So we trudged our way along the paths, well I trudged and Little Prince hop, skipped, slid and ran lol. We had to walk through the village church yard and it looked so beautiful with its thick blanket of snow. By then we could hear people already on the hill, so Little Prince was going even faster, I could hardly keep up with him!

When we got there, I stood at the bottom with another Mum I know from school, and we watched the madness ensue!! Little Prince found it very difficult to hold his sledge still at the top of the hill and get on it at the same time, and they parted company pretty often!! The first time he managed to stay on the whole way down the hill, he bounced a couple of feet in the air at the bottom where there was a sort of ramp of snow! He landed with a bone crunching thud, stayed still for a few moments then got up triumphantly shouting "I'M ALIVE" and immediately ran back up the hill to try again!! The other Mum kept wincing at how fast Little Prince would throw himself down the slope and how hard he crashed at the bottom, but he'd just bounce back to his feet, declare it "WICKED" and go and do it again!! Soon his friend J and his Dad arrived, and Little Prince got even crazier!! J had a circular disc sledge and it looked a lot easier to manage than Little Prince's ordinary shaped one, so we are going to try and get hold of one for Little Prince too. Although it did seem to travel faster than the regular sledge too, so maybe its not a great idea!! It began to snow again, pretty hard, and also to go dark, so the other Mum and her older son went home, leaving behind her husband and younger son still playing. The Dad eventually persuaded the lad to go down on his own, and he crashed straight into a bush, but tried again and made it all the way down that time.

Once me and J's Dad were stood like two snow covered icicles and could barely feel our feet, we co-ordinated our departure! Telling the boys they had two more turns and that was it! They protested and complained but eventually did as they were told and we set off home. J and his Dad went round the Church Yard, and we went through it, which caused another argument as the boys both wanted to go the same way!! When we got to the Church Lyche Gate Little Prince asked if I would pull him on his sledge, it was suprisingly easier than I thought it would be, perhaps because there is a slight slope downwards at that point?! But even on the flat road surface it was still fairly easy and good exercise for me :-) I agreed to pull him all the way to the village shop and if he walked from there I would buy him a chocolate bar or some crisps. He was easily bribed :-) The shopkeeper was telling me he would have milk and bread delivered in the morning, and that he was getting 100 loaves per day and they were flying off the shelves!!! People are panic buying - although out in the sticks like this it is worrying that we'll get cut off!!

Our walk home took us past the Village Park next, and Little Prince decided to walk inside the park at the other side of the barely visible fence rails!! It was so deep that he was really struggling and kept falling over, so he climbed over the fence and walked on the road with me for a while. When we passed the Village Bus Depot, there was a HUGE pile of snow that had been dug off the Depot's drive and he insisted on climbing to the top to shout that he was King of the World :-)

As we got nearer to our house there was a patch of untouched snow, and Little Prince threw himself in it to make a Snow Angel :-) Which he promptly jumped up and down on to destroy!! Then we saw an amazing sight!! A snow plough on our village High Street!!! Its the first time a plough has come to the village since the snow started!! The local farmers have been doing their best to keep the roads clear with no help from gritters or snow ploughs!!

When we got home I got Drama Teen to run Little Prince a bath, as it was the quickest and easiest way to warm him up! He stayed in for quite a while before coming downstairs again all warm and toasty once more :-) Mr Messy took Princess Lollipop to bed and didn't come back down, I presume he must have fallen asleep. I stayed up to wait for the tumble dryer to finish its cycle so that I could bring the vent pipe in and shut the utility room window. After Little Prince had gone to bed me and Drama Teen watched some episodes of Lie to Me that we had saved and not had time to watch yet. After she went to bed I stayed and watched some more tv and write this blog and have just realised its stupid O'clock and I should get to bed!!!

Worse Snow Wednesday!!!

We knew last night that both Drama Teen's College and Little Prince's School were closed today, but didn't tell Little Prince as we'd never have got him in bed and settled down!! Mr Messy got up with the littlies and gave them their breakfast while I had a blissful, childfree few hours sleep :-) Heavenly :-) Eventually I did have to get up, so that Mr Messy could go out around the village photographing in the snow. He was like a man possessed running round getting himself ready lol, he was so excited :-) Little Prince had already been out to play in the garden before I got up and was raring to go again by the time I got downstairs! He's running out of dry trousers lol, I can't keep up with getting them all dry before he's out getting soaked again!! But as I've said all week, snow like this is so rare here that he's got to make the most of it, and you're only young once :-) He is loving it so much :-)

The road outside our house was impassable this morning!! But after the local farmers had gone up and down it in their tractors a few times it was just about drivable. Mr Messy decided that if he was able to get out of the village he had to go and deliver some images to a client in the same village as OUR shop. I decided to go with him for an adventure in the snow :-) Drama Teen said she would look after the littlies for us while we nipped out. The back of my car was still filled with the Christmas decorations I bought yesterday, so we would deliver those too. The road to the next village was single track only, which was ok as we only met a couple of cars during the drive. The shop Mr Messy had prepared the images for was shut as were most of the other businesses in the village! We drove down to OUR shop and parked in the snow drift outside!! I changed the cushion covers to the new red ones, and put out the bright red sheepskin rug and put the sparkly red throw on the sofa. And put the window decorations out. I had thought I'd bought a lot, but once it was actually in OUR shop, it didn't make much impact!! I need to go and buy some more and get the new Christmas Tree up and decorated, hopefully then it will look better!

Me and Mr Messy decided to call in our friend's cake/coffee shop before setting off home. There wasn't much choice of cakes, as the chocolatier hadn't been able to get to the shop, but the ones that were there were as lovely as always :-) We sat chatting to LMS's Landlord and Landlady from earlier in the year when she lived in her little flat with her Boyfriend. Landlady again said she really hoped that LMS would finish her University course, and YES I am writing this deliberately because I know you read it LMS :-) Every little (bit of pressure lol) helps!! Then we were chatting to a family with their two boys (3yrs and 9 months), they were very cute blonde haired blue eyes boys :-) They had walked here as their part of the village was completely snowed in! Then Mr Messy noticed how run off her feet the one member of staff was (she was the only one who had managed to make it to work!!) and marched off to do the washing up :-) He's a thoughtful sweetie :-) Another customer collected all the dirty cutlery and crockery from round the shop, and I went into the kitchen to dry up. It took quite a while to get through it all, and while we were working the snow started coming down pretty hard. We washed/dried as fast as we could to get it all finished so that we could get home. V at the shop was very grateful and after looking at how bad the weather was getting had decided to close early and get off home. I don't blame her it was looking quite bleak outside!!!

The drive back to our village was pretty hairy!! The snow was coming down thickly, and the wind was blowing the drifts across the road too. Drama Teen rang up to ask where we were, she was relieved that we were on our way home :-) We had to cut the call short as Little Prince was back out in the garden and she'd just seen him wielding a pick axe!!! He actually sets out to do all the stuff that other mischievous boys only dream of!!! I was relieved to see him still all in one piece when we got home :-) We were barely in the house before Drama Teen had disappeared off to her bedroom!! Princess Lollipop wouldn't go for her nap for Drama Teen, so she has been in a foul screamy mood all afternoon!! She stands on her changing box (her stage?!) faces the room and screams and elongated and ear piercing "BAAAAAAAAD" we have no idea where she has got this from as its not something we say to her or anyone else!! But you know when she's REALLY cross when she starts this!!