Sunshine

I'm on half term, which means I have a week off work. Hurrah!
My husband unfortunately doesn't get the week off, but he was off yesterday as it was may bank holiday. We had a lovely long weekend and lots of time in the sun enjoying ourselves. We've been to the park, and to Forty Hall, had a bbq, spent time with both our families, and watched some telly.

For the rest of the week I'm planning to spend some time catching up with some friends, and generally chilling out and not thinking about work. Lovely.

New post

on my other blog. It's more related to weight and shape and stuff like that, so I posted it over there, but go take a look if you want to.

'Evaluating the boundaries'

or 'what do i blog for?'

It feels like I'm not really putting much content into my posts at the moment. I guess one of the main reasons behind that is that I'm mentally creating new boundaries about what is appropriate to blog. I'm newly married, I'm having a baby in October. Those things aren't a secret, but some of the day to day stuff is. Or if not a secret, more that it's personal, that it's not just about me, I live with someone else. More and more of my normal day to day stories are likely to include that person, and I don't want to push the boundaries of what to share and what to keep personal.

I want to keep blogging. I blog for lots of reasons. I blog because sometimes I just want to write. I blog to share news and information with friends - people I know in person, and friends that I've made online. I blog because blogging has become a part of my life. But, I don't want blogging to be my life. I don't want my blog to get in the way of my relationship with my husband. I don't want blogging to be something that pushes people I love away because they can't trust me to not write certain things about them.

So, while I try to figure out where the balance is, my posts may be a little shorter and less full than they might have been in the past. But one thing I know for sure is that for the moment, I will keep blogging.

We didn't win

or rather the UK didn't win, but they did a lot better than last years entry, and came fifth, I believe.

Anyway, all of that is hardly the point. The most important thing is that we got together, some of us dressed up, we had yummy food, and lots and lots of fun. Life is good :)

Tomorrow I've got my 20 week scan. M is coming too, and I'm very excited.

Saturday night

is party time.

The time for girls to get together, eat yummy food, dress up in funny costumes, watch Eurovision and celebrate my birthday. (My husband is taking himself elsewhere for the evening!)

I'm really looking forward to it.

I downloaded firefox

Finally I can open multiple tabs at once and chat on facebook. How could life be better? (You don't have to answer that!)

Sunday

We've had lots of people over for lunch today, and now our fridge and cupboards are full of yumminess! We had a 'bring and share' and I cooked chili con carne and rice. Everyone brought lots of food, so there were lots of leftovers.

I'm sleepy now, but things are pretty much tidied up, so we can just chill for the rest of the day.

Girls just wanna have fun

I had fun on the farm. Of course I've been sneezing and streaming ever since, and my eczema got a bit worse too, but I think it was worth it.

This afternoon I've been baking fairy cakes, cooking chili con carne, and singing along to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack at the top of my voice. What funner way to spend an afternoon?

I really need to get back into the habit of taking photos. And once I've got back into that habit I need to sort out with my hubby how to get photos off my camera and onto this computer, and then I'll be able to start posting them again. It feels ages since I posted any pictures (although I guess it's just ages since I posted anything much!)

Bits and pieces

I'm going to a farm tomorrow. I'm very excited. Actually, it's a school trip with one of the classes I work with, but I'm probably just as excited, if not more excited than the kids!
For a start, it's a trip. To a farm. How could that not be exciting?
Secondly, it means that we get a day out of the school building and the normal routine. That's the second one of those we've had this week (including bank holiday Monday)
Thirdly, well, I may have run out of reasons, but I think the ones I've already stated were good ones.

Tomorrow I'll probably see pigs, but that thought didn't stop me enjoying the yummy roast pork that my hubby cooked me for dinner. (Yes, he cooks. And cleans. No, you can't have him, he's mine)

This weekend we're having lots of people from church over for lunch (well, it's a bring and share type thing,but based at and around our flat). I've been counting the plates and cutlery to see if we have anywhere near enough. I think I may ask a friend to bring some of hers over. We have some more plates and other exciting things arriving tomorrow, because our wedding gifts from our John Lewis list will be arriving. should be fun unpacking and finding homes for it all. We've spent the last month saying "well, there's one on the list so it's not really worth buying another one" and surviving with what we've got, such as our really tiny frying pan (Thanks Lousie for giving it to us, it's been used pretty much daily ever since!)

I failed to think of a proper title for this post

The thing about not blogging for a month is working out what to write once one does start blogging again. Do I attempt to summarise the last however long since I last posted, or just pretend that there wasn't a gap, and begin with something random, as if nothing else had happened.

I guess the answer is to do a little bit of both. Since I last posted a proper post I got married (I know I've posted a couple of things since, but they don't really count). In fact, today is our one month anniversary. The wedding day itself was amazing - I felt everything a bride should feel! And I'm enjoying settling in to married life :)

I'm 18 weeks pregnant today. I haven't felt the baby kick yet, but I reckon I will any day now. I've got another scan at 20 weeks (on my birthday, what a great present!) but we've decided not to find out the sex of the baby, but to wait for him/her to be born.

I'm celebrating my birthday this year by having some friends over to watch the Eurovision Song Contest on the 16th May. It's all set to be a really fun, if rather mad evening.

I am now married

life is good.
We're working on setting up internet in our new place.
Hopefully I'll be back around properly soon.

I'm getting maried in the morning

ding dong the bells are gonna chime

You know that whole

getting married in May thing.
Well that's now April. Very soon in April, actually.
So I may not be around much at all in the next couple of weeks.

I'll be here when I can

but I'm spending a lot of time sleeping!
Back with more soon, I hope.

I miss blogging

I miss sharing the deep things and the silly things, the small insignificant things, and the huge ones.
Several huge things have happened in the last month or two, and lots of little ones too. In a way I don't really know how to begin talking about them.
Maybe I should just drop the bombshells, and then get on with blogging!
I have a new job, working one-to-one with two children (one in the mornings, the other in the afternoons), I'm pregnant, I'm engaged, and we're planning to get married in May. How's that for news?!

A bit busy living life

to blog it.
Back soon.

science

Yesterday, while looking after the kiddos, we'd had two science lessons before 9.15am.

The first was biology. We came down the steps of the flat and found a dead mouse lying on the bottom but one step. Little Flower wasn't particularly bothered by it, she glanced at it, and then moved on. Little One, however, was transfixed. First of all he thought it was sleeping. He poked it with his foot, and rigor mortis had obviously set in, because the whole thing moved. Once he realised it was dead, he got quite upset. I had to make him move away from the mouse and walk up the road towards nursery.

We talked about why it was lying there, and how it might have died. I said that it was most likely that one of the cats that live nearby had caught it and left it there. When he heard that he was most indignant. "We need some big dogs to kill the big cats that killed the poor little mouse" was his response. I think it was one of his first real experiences with death, and I'm sure it won't be his last. By the time we came home from nursery the mouse was gone. I think a cat must have moved it, as I certainly hadn't, nor had the downstairs neighbour. Little One seemed to have forgotten about it by the time he got home, so hopefully I handled it ok, and haven't scarred him for life!

The second science lesson of the day was physics. After leaving Little One at nursery, Little Flower and I walked back down the hill. All of a sudden she got really excited and shouted "BIN LORRY". Now you must understand, seeing the bin lorry is a highlight of her day! We couldn't see the lorry, but we could certainly hear it. "Debbie! BIN LORRY!" she said a few times, but then suddenly started crying. "Bin Lorry gone. GONE!" she said, and she was right. The sound was getting quieter - I could tell that the big lorry was going up into the estate, and that we wouldn't see it, but I was impressed that she could tell that too. So there you have it, the science of sounds, and how they change depending on their difference in location, relative to the listener.

(You may be happy to know that later on the bin lorry came back to our side of the estate and Little Flower was able to shout BIN LORRY! to her hearts content, and to wave at it through the window)

This weekend

I am off to Bognor Regis for a church weekend away. I am very much looking forward to it.
I'll see you Monday!

Is it wrong

to pretend that you wrote a blog post yesterday, so that when you write the second post in the same day, it works out even?!
Well, it's my blog, so I can do what I want. Teehee :)

Yes, DebbieBoo has a boyfriend. I'm sure she'll tell you about him sometime! (And with all the links I've been making to her blog recently, maybe she'll actually find time to write something on it sometime soon...!)

Last night I got to play pool. It was great fun. I've never been very good at that sort of thing, although I'm happy to do it for a laugh. I was playing with someone who's pretty good, and was able to learn quite a lot, so that by the end I was able to feel like the cue and balls were behaving like I wanted them to (at least some of the time, anyway!). I look forward to playing again soon, although my right thumb joint hurts a bit - I think that's to do with holding the cue, but hey, it was worth it.

Today I am hyper. Earlier today I was feeling a bit lacking in motivation, but it was probably more the fact that I was still waking up. I know I had some weird dreams last night. I don't remember what they were, just that they were weird! Anyway, I started listening to a couple of songs from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack (Elephant Love Medley & Come What May) which are the sort of songs I can't help but sing along to, and it made me hyper. After all, they're the type of song that I can't help but sing along to at the top of my voice, complete with arms flung out for emphasis. Combine that with the treadmill, and it's a whole body workout!

M1 Fiasco continued

I arrived in Luton on the A6, and it all seemed pretty clear. I congratulated myself on making it that far, and decided that maybe this time around it'd be easy to get home. I was feeling a bit peckish, so I pulled over to a row of shops on the outskirts of the town and picked up something to eat. I forgot to buy anything to drink, but figured I'd just stop a bit further in to Luton.

But then, somehow it all went wrong. I was carefully following signs towards the M1. I got into Luton itself and it was all flyovers and seemed pretty grungy and not a very nice place to be. I decided I didn't really need to stop anywhere, I could just wait until I stopped at some services on the M1, or at worst, until I got home.

Suddenly, the signs stopped being so regular, and roadworks started appearing. There was a big sign with a whole bunch of information on that we passed pretty quickly. It said that there were diversions to get to the M1. Ok, I thought, and I followed the diversion signs. After travelling all over Luton (possibly twice), and out to the airport, and back again, I found myself on a road with a pretty bumpy surface. There kept being signs up telling me that speed cameras were in force, but never any signs to tell me what the speed limit was. I stuck to 30, given the state of the road, and that I was trying to follow the somewhat irregular diversion signs.

Then the was a 'End of Diversion' sign, and we were spat out onto a roundabout. I actually went around it at least twice, trying to get my bearings. I found I had the following options; M1 North, or a dark unappealing road to Harpenden. I couldn't even take the road I'd come on, because it didn't seem to exist going back in the other direction. Since I definitely didn't want to go North on the M1, I decided I was off to Harpenden!

It was a dark, winding, country road, and not particularly pleasant to drive along. I found myself following an AA patrol van, and I considered flashing my lights and indicating to try to get them to pull over and help me work out exactly where I was, but decided that given that it was pitch black outside, and I was in the middle of nowhere, I should just continue driving until I came to civilisation again!

I eventually reached Harpenden. I was getting really thirsty by now, and I realised I needed to stop and look at the map, so I pulled into a petrol station and stopped. I looked at the map, and also rang home to tell them I was lost, but that I thought I'd be ok. They reminded me that my cousin Emma lives in Harpenden, and told me her address, so that if I happened to spot that road I could call in and see her. I went in to the petrol station, got myself a drink and queued up to buy it. I said to the guy behind the counter that I was trying to get to London and had lost the M1. I asked if I continued on this road whether I'd be heading in the right direction. (I could see on the map that if I went towards St Albans that would be the right way. The man behind the counter looked at me although I'd escaped from the nearest loony bin (after all, I guess not many people wander in there saying they've lost the M1, and could he please direct them towards London, but not even mention the M1 whatsoever, or else!). He agreed that yes, I should just continue along that road.

As I continued that way I spotted the road my cousin lives in, and decided to take a quick detour. After finding somewhere to park, I knocked on her door. There was no answer, so I got her number from my parents and tried to call her. There was no answer, so I left a rather convoluted message on her answer phone and headed on my way again. (She texted me later that night to let me know she'd been out at the student bar, and hadn't taken her phone with her. If I'm ever in that area again I'll try to visit again, since I know now where she is. I can't say I ever want to be in that area again though!)

I got back in my car and headed on my way. I knew that I had to head towards St Albans, and I did. I was doing ok until I got there, and there were no useful signs. I was cold and tired and slightly overemotional. I was literally about to burst into tears when I saw a sign towards the M25 (the big motorway that goes round London). I think I may actually have clapped or waved my arms or shouted or something (much to the amusement of the people on the pavement outside - since I was sat in a traffic queue at the time!). Once I found that sign the drive home was pretty simple.

Well, kinda. I stopped off in Enfield because I was feeling really in need of a hug, and I knew that a group of folk from church were meeting a a pub there. I stopped in the car park and tried to give them a call, except neither of the girls I tried to call were answering. I went into the pub to try to find them, but they weren't there. That was the last straw. I headed home, feeling a fairly unhappy bunny, arriving there 3 1/2 hours after I left Bedford. But once I got home I took out my feelings about the M1 on my blog and on facebook, and that helped a lot.