Poor Neglected Blog!!!

I've been a bad blogger lol. I can't even blame being h*llishly busy either!! I've been h*llishly procrastinating as usual though!! I've made lists of the things I need to do, and I will get them done (at the last possible minute, but shhhhh don't tell everyone lol).

When I got back from Ethiopia it was the day that the Easter school hols started, so I was thrown right back in at the deep end. Well not sooo deep end, as LMS was still here and helped me out loads :-)

During the hols, we had various happenings lol. Drama Teen turned FIFTEEN!!! Oh my goodness!!! I can't believe its been FIFTEEN years since she was born a tiny gorgeous little baby. And she has grown into a lovely, talented and beautiful young lady, I am an extremely lucky Mum :-) Belated happy birthday, love you more than words can say :-) She had the customary "sleepover" party for her birthday. Although I put "sleepover" in quotes as there wasn't much sleeping involved - pizza eating, film watching, chatting and staying up all night party, would be a much more honest description!! It was funny watching all the zombies queue up for the bathroom the next morning lol.

I also had a birthday recently and I've decided that as I turned forty already, that birthdays now start going backwards - so I am now celebrating my THIRTY NINTH birthday (again lol). Me, Mr Messy, LMS and our friends Post Lady and her husband all went out for a meal in a lovely Stately Hall, that serves home cooked organic food - yum yum :-) We had a great time and the food was delicious, but I have a sneaky feeling that Mr Messy was killing two birds with one stone, and was scoping out the place as a potential business partner lol.
Since the Easter hols LMS has been back to University, come home and gone back to University again!! She is a little sweetie and came home to see me for my birthday, and then couldn't resist staying for the weekend too :-) During the hols before she returned to Uni, me and her went down to London so that she could attend her appointment at the American Embassy, to get her work Visa for her Disney stint this Summer. I got the easy part, I sat in a nearby cafe relaxing and reading a book, while she attended the appointment. The sole purpose of my accompanying her was to look after her mobile phone while she was in the Embassy, as NO electronic devices are permitted whatsoever!!! NO mobiles, NO iPods, NO nothing!!! The appointment consisted of multiple fingerprintings (as if they would change from one hour to the next?!?!), multiple checking of the documents she was required to bring (again why checked so many times??), nearly four hours in the Embassy and a two minute "chat" with the Immigration Officer!!! THEN she had to pay to have her own passport sent back to her!!! Which has now arrived safely back, duly stamped with her Visa - well stickered to be exact lol. It has put me off taking Little Prince and New Child to visit her while she is working in Disney World too!! As New Child wouldn't be a UK citizen until after readoption over here, and that can't happen until New Child has lived with us for at least 6 months, then I'd have to go through that whole rigamarole with New Child!!! Not sure its worth it for a holiday, even in Disney World!!! Which is saying a LOT coming from me - the biggest Disney Nut around!!! Once I'd gone over to the Embassy building to meet LMS, I had to laugh at her worries that she wouldn't be able to find the place - it was SOOOO obviously American lol - the flag, the giant eagle etc!!!
Me and Little Prince spent quite a lot of time together, including going to see Monsters Vs Aliens, which he LOVED. The story line was very simple and straightforward, and he had no problem understanding it. Our last visit to the cinema was to see Bolt and the mixture of real life and film action in that film had him as confused as Bolt was lol. He did tend to treat it as a variation on the pantomime we saw at Christmas, and talked through a lot of it, not too much shouting out thankfully!! But he was no better or worse than most of the other kids in the cinema which I was grateful for, perhaps because I'd deliberately chosen an afternoon show time, where it was bound to be full of other kids!!
I have also become best friends with Ebay!! I now have two black bin liners stuffed full of clothes for our New Child!! LMS seems to think that I'm trying to build a disposable wardrobe, but I don't know what she means!! I do have to admit to not being terribly practical either - over 50 outfits, but only ONE bib!!! I think I've got a smidgen over excited!!!
This week's plan is to tackle decorating New Child's bedroom, the bedroom that was until recently Little Prince's. There is nothing wrong with the decor, and it is suitable for New Child too, but I think that it would help Little Prince feel that his new sibling wasn't taking over "his" bedroom if it was redecorated and looking completely different!! And on top of that I'm all excited and want to redecorate specifically for New Child, just like we did for Little Prince. Although the way UK domestic adoption works, we didn't want to tempt fate and redecorate his room too early in the process and ended up doing it in about 10 days, whilst also coping with the emotional upheaval of visiting him at his foster carer's house!! SO giving myself over three weeks to get the decorating done seems quite a luxury!!! Fingers crossed I haven't left it too late to get started!!

Mr Messy is on a break between contracts, and is using the time to market his new photography business much more widely. And has begun to forge links with the local bespoke wedding cake shop, the local image consultant (that I visited to be made over) and a local organic cafe, who have agreed to display his work :-) We have also visited a Wedding Fayre to get ideas for Mr Messy to start exhibiting at Fayres himself. Although the one we visited was mostly made up of photographers, but none of them seemed to do the "lifestyle" images he does and (I know I'm biased!!) none of them seemed as good as he is. He has also joined a local Networking group, and after chatting to another photographer in the group has found that he is probably one of the first lifestyle photographers in the area! Which could make his business stand out and become a market leader or could mean there is no call for his style of photography and it will all fall flat!! Everyone keep your fingers crossed its the former!!! And here are a few of his images that I've stolen from his website lol (NO they are not of my family).

I think he is hugely talented, and once he gets his name out there he will do very well - its just working out HOW to get his name out there that we're still working on lol.