Annoying Night!!

The BLEEPING cat woke me up last night, crashing about in my Craft Room, I had to go and shoo the annoying feline out of there.  I had just got warm and comfy back in bed, when I heard another crash, followed by a smashing noise!!  What had the BLEEPING thing done now?!?! 

On investigation I found a sheepish looking cat stood in the middle of the smashed remains of my lastest Pinspired Creation, an upcycled vase.  I hadn't even had chance to take a photo of it, before it was destroyed!!  To say I was displeased with the cat was a TOTAL understatement!!!  ARGH!!!

All this to-ing and fro-ing disturbed Princess Lollipop who ended up in bed with me and Mr Messy.  She didn't settle down very well and wriggled and squiggled ALL night!!  Between her and the BLEEPING cat, I didn't feel like I got any sleep :-(  And all too soon the alarm went off, Mr Messy was out at an early morning Networking Meeting and I was on school run duty.  Princess Lollipop was by now completely flat out, so I woke Drama Teen and asked her to relocate to our room, as Princess Lollipop panics and gets very upset if she wakes up on her own.

Me and Little Prince had a leisurely morning getting ready, its always calmer when there's only one littlie to deal with!!  Especially in the mornings before Little Prince has had his medication and is VERY hyped up!  Little Prince loved being able to choose a cooked breakfast (well boiled eggs and soldiers lol) instead of having to get what he was given (toast or cereal normally).  We even managed to get to school early, rather than screeching up to the gates at the last minute!!

I had to run a few errands, and when I'd done that I met up with Mr Messy and we went to a local lighting shop and chose a couple of sparkly chandaliers for the Boudoir Studio in his New Shop.  He moves premises this weekend, and to be honest I'll be glad when he moves, as I've heard nothing else from him apart from where his New Shop is up to, for months now!!  I'm sure he's driving the builders mental too, he visits and checks things out at least 2 or 3 times a day!!  I do agree with him that the New Shop is in a much better location, and has much more usable and useful space, and I can't wait to fluff I mean style the Shop once all the furnishings are in :-)

This  evening I was about to make tea for Little Prince, his friend who was here for a playdate, and Princess Lollipop when I got a panicked phone call from Mr Messy, he'd forgotten a he'd got a shoot bookfor this evening and his camera was at home.  I had to haul the children into the car and race down to OUR Shop to deliver the camera, it was a nerve wracking drive as I hate having to handle Mr Messy's EXTREMELY expensive professional cameras!!  Fortunately I managed to get it safely delivered straight into Mr Messy's hands with no mishaps, phew :-)  The rest of the evening was, thankfully uneventful and boring, just what I needed after the lack of sleep last night!!

Sport's Day

Today was School Sport's Day, despite the dire forecast the rain held off until well after it had finished, even though the grey clouds loomed most of the afternoon. 

Little Prince did very well as usual, as far as I can remember he came 1st in his flat race and in the obstacle race, his team came 2nd in the relay race and he came last in the "bean bag race."  After his hard running afternoon, he then stayed behind for his usual Tuesday Taekwondo Club, and came home with a reminder that he was invited to a TKD Grading this evening!  So after a quick tea and rest, he was back out to the Village Hall to have a training session and then do his Grading Test.  I went to pick him up 2 hours later, and watched him receive his next belt (yellow belt with green tab).  We are so proud of his achievement, especially after such an active day :-)
Princess Lollipop also ran at Sport's Day, her very first one :-)  The Nursery children all run three races - flat race, tennis bat and bean bag (egg and spoon for littlies) and hat and bag race (run put on a hat, run again and pick up a bag, run to the finish).  Princess Lollipop ran fast, but as she started late every time she didn't win - although according to her she "WONNED" her "waces" :-)  She enjoyed it so much she wants to do it again tomorrow :-) 

Well done Little Prince and Princess Lollipop, I'm glad the sun shone on  your efforts and that you both had so much fun :-)

Trying (again!!) to get back in the Blogging Habit

Well its been a while since I last posted and while I've been "away" I've had a fair number of requests from friends and family to get back into Blogging regularly.  So I'm going to give it, yet another go!!  As usual when I restart blogging I'll try and do a little bit of a catch up for everyone, but I'll probably miss loads out as its been so long this time!!
MR MESSY is concentrating full time on his Photography Business, which means he is home so much more, and is doing what he enjoys.  Our Doctor changed Mr Messy's medicines, to see if that would improve his ongoing chest problems.  The new medicine regime helped enormously, although they made him extremely tired.  The improvement in his breathing was almost immediate and very noticeable - I had to poke him during the night to make sure he was still alive, I'd got so used to his noisy breathing and constant coughing that the silence was very unnerving!!
ME - I haven't spent as much time in my new Craft Room as I would like to, but when I do I find it helps me relax and feel so much more like myself.  I love creating things from scratch, or changing something ugly into something new, beautiful and useful :-)  I've been on the higher dose of my medicine for quite a while now and it has helped enormously :-)  I don't feel tired and under the weather all the time, although I still find it hard sometimes (eg school holidays!) I am much more like myself and how I feel I used to be again.
LMS moved back home when the lease on her rented home ended.  I am sure she found it difficult to be back at home, especially under the circumstances!  She didn't complain (well not often!) and settled back into family life as best as she could.  She decided that as the Agency Temping Job she had was coming to an end that she would apply to do something that she had always wanted to do, and as she was once again "young, free and single-ish" she had no reason to stop her.  So she applied and was accepted to work at an American Summer Camp, for under priviliged and special needs children :-)  She has been over there for about a month now, and is having a fantastic time.  And the explanation for the "single-ish" is that she is well and truly over Mr LMS and has a new boyfriend, a lovely young man she met at work :-)
DRAMA TEEN has hardly been seen for months!!  She has been spending her time in her room revising for her A Levels.  She was disappointed with her AS Level results, and has worked very hard revising for both resits of AS Levels she wasn't happy with, and for her A Levels.  I have been very proud of the way she has applied herself and got her head down and worked so hard :-)  We just have to wait until mid August for the results, and I'm sure there will be no disappointment this time :-)
LITTLE PRINCE has continued to excel at school :-)  On the occassions when we forget to give him his medicine in the morning, his class teacher can tell immediately and the difference in his behaviour and concentration level is shockingly evident.  He is slowly coming to terms with the fact that his beloved teacher of the last 4 years is leaving, and the teacher he thought he was moving to is also leaving!  This means that he will have a new (to him and the school) teacher that he hasn't had chance to get to know, and could spell trouble for a while in September while he settles down.  He has also coped very well with meeting his Birth Mum, something he has been asking to do since he was 3 or 4 years old.  The meeting was arranged and supervised by Social Workers, and went very well.  Little Prince said it was THE best day of of his life :-) 
PRINCESS LOLLIPOP started Nursery after Easter and LOVES it.  She complains at weekends when she can't go!  She has also started Swimming Lessons and Dancing Class.  She declared at her first Swimming Lesson that she can do it, but is still happy to go each week.  She has been "outed" as a manipulative little monster though - every time the class had to try putting their faces in the water, she suddenly needed the toilet!!  Once she was found out both me and her teacher tell her she can go to the toilet if she needs to, but she will have to do the face dunking when she gets back - funnily enough she doesn't need to go any more lol.  She also loves her Dancing Class and bounces happily into the lesson each week and says she likes "Tippy Tappy Dancing" bestest because its noisy!!

Saturday's Positive

Seeing LMS's Shingles symptoms finally stop getting worse, and even improve slightly. This illness has hit her hard and I've been worried about her, so its lovely to see her getting better, even if it is painfully slowly :-)

Getting some crafts done, even with the Littlies around :-)

Seeing how happy Princess Lollipop was about her Sticker Chart, and knowing the stickers and rewards at the end of the week (visit to the local National Trust property or Indoor Play Centre depending on the weather) will actually motivate her (sticker charts did nothing for Little Prince) and starting to feel positive that the sleep situation will get better :-)

Having an hour to myself in the evening once everyone else was in bed, to write my blogs an reflect on my day :-)

Saturday :-)

Mr Messy and Drama Teen went to an open day at the University she wants to attend today, they set off really early so I didn't see them before they went. There's no rest for the wicked, I had to get up to OUR Shop to drop off the editing laptop and pay both the Assistants. One Assistant couldn't make it to work, and the I managed to get open the shop minutes too late, to catch the other one! After frantic texts to Mr Messy via Drama Teen (he was driving) I found out that Assistant Two would call back in an hour to pick her wages up, and would come in during next week to do the work she should have done today. I spent a fruitless hour sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting, but eventually she arrived we sorted everything out and I was free to lock up and go :-)

I called round for petrol, and while I was there noticed I still had some huge cardboard boxes in my boot that were left over from when LMS moved back home. So I decided to pop over to the tip and get rid of them while I was out and nearly there anyway. While I was at the tip, I noticed a man getting rid of a small (almost unused!) computer desk and was cheeky enough to ask if I could have it for Little Prince! The man said yes and its now in the boot of my car, waiting for me to find room for it in the house, while we get rid of Little Prince's over large and falling apart desk! As the Northern Saying goes "Them that don't ask, don't get" :-)

When I got home I sorted out the Littlies lunch and medicines and hopefully gave LMS a little break from looking after her siblings - I thought I'd only be out for 20 mins or so when I went to OUR Shop and ended up leaving her for almost two hours, poor thing. She's definitely on the mend with her Shingles, but still very under the weather :-( I got various jobs done and then took my laptop to my Craft Room to print out Princess Lollipop's Sticker Chart, and got distracted! I started sorting out the buttons that arrived in the post this morning and arranging them into glass spice jars that I'm going to put on some mini shelves to store/display. As I decided to sort them by size, it took my ages and poor LMS was left on her own downstairs for a long time again - sorry LMS :-(

When I was downstairs again I was motivated to get on with some more crafting and set about spray painting a tin lunchbox ready to be decorated and made into something new :-) I managed to get it completely painted before I went to bed, and it feels great to be getting on with another project :-)

Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived back from the University Open Day buzzing about how great it all was :-) I'm so glad, as Drama Teen had set her heart on the course, without ever visiting the University or town its situated in! So I'm relieved it lived up to her hopes :-) Drama Teen then had a quick shower, got changed and I took her round to Boyfriend's house. Princess Lollipop came with us as she wanted to meet Boyfriend's dog, a very friendly and well trained border collie. She was VERY impressed with the dog and it probably won't be long before she starts on "Can we have a dog?" like the others already do!! Its not happening, no way, no how!! I have enough with four kids, a husband and two cats, we're not adding a dog to the mix aswell!!!

When we got back Princess Lollipop descended into constant tantruming, and was obviously very tired. I cleared away the dinner plates, set the dishwasher off and came back to the lounge find her falling asleep on Daddy's knee! As she had only fallen asleep moments before I managed to get her awake enough to come upstairs and to fall asleep again in her own Princess Bed - she will be very pleased to get another sticker on her chart tomorrow :-)

During the evening I recovered the seat of my Craft Room chair, which was surprisingly quick and easy to do and looks fantastic, even if I say so myself :-) It makes a real difference to the evenings getting both Littlies in bed at a reasonable time and its definitely spurring me on to keep up the baby steps towards Princess Lollipop sleeping in her own room.

There are still Positives

Despite all the trials and tribulations we are undergoing at the moment, there are still many positives. LMS has found she has an inner strength and maturity that have got her through all the recent stresses she's been under. She has also started to be more like the woman she was becoming before she married Mr LMS, a happy go lucky, sociable, fun and funny young lady :-) I'm glad to have that LMS back :-)

Drama Teen is on the cusp of becoming an adult and forging her own future life. She has set herself goals and is working hard to achieve them. She is looking forward to life at University and gaining the qualifications to start her career in Counselling Psychology. Even though I'm dreading my little girl leaving home, I'm glad Drama Teen is so positive and happy about this next chapter in her life :-)

Little Prince is coming on in leaps and bounds at school, his gains in his writing skills mean that he is catching up to his peers in that area. Despite his severe dyspraxia he has successfully learnt to tie his shoe laces, and he is hugely pleased that he has learnt this before many of his friends at school (and Daniel Radcliffe the actor who played Harry Potter, who also has dyspraxia). He has successfully transitioned from his original Teaching Assistant to a new TA, and is comforted that he will be able to cope with the move to a new teacher in September (his first change of teacher in four years!). I'm glad that Little Prince is making so much progress :-)

Princess Lollipop managed to successfully overcome her total terror of pooing, and was making great progress in learning to manage cleaning herself up afterwards. I'm confident that once we she has got back into the habit of it, after we have got through this illness induced constipation that she will be just as she was before. She is out of her co-sleeping cot, and we are on the way to getting her to sleep all night in her own bed. She is very, very excited to be starting at nursery school after the Easter Holidays, and can't wait to wear her uniform to match Little Prince's :-) She talks about going to "Big School" daily and can't wait :-) I'm glad that Princess Lollipop is getting healthier and growing up so confidently :-)

LMS

LMS worked her little socks off getting everything in her house sorted out and packed up, moved to our house and stored in the attic. I am very proud of the mature and hard working way she coped with all of this. Unfortunately after the stress of Mr LMS walking out on her, having to pack up her hopes and dreams and come to live back at home, must have completely undermined her immune system and she has come down with shingles :-( Which is horribly painful, especially as its on her eyelid, face and head :-( She is managing to joke that she is a pirate, as one eye is almost swollen shut, but is very tired and in a lot of pain. Poor LMS - get well soon darling xxxx