Thursday, 23 December 2010

He's Home!!!!

Hubby is finally home! Yippeee. The dogs were first to greet him at the door, so he met Ralph straightaway.
We were very pleased to have him home.......Hubby was pleased to be home, even though it was minus his luggage (standard policy for being delayed you know)
There were lots of cuddles going around......
Did I mention I've been to Australia, here is my hat to prove it.
I think Hubby had been in the house about 30 minutes before Radio Oxford were on the phone asking him for an interview.."Well I haven't slept for 3 days" he said, "Okay so can you do an interview 7.00am tomorrow morning" they said. (of course he didn't need a lay in!!)

We have been busy since Hubby's been home, getting all christmassy, We have made crackers for Boxing Day, made Christmas cards, put up some extra lights, been to watch Cinderella at the Playhouse in Oxford, spent a lot of time cuddling the dogs, walking them too, Hubby has been installing his early birthday present, look how chuffed he is with that......

N decided she wanted to try a crystal growing experiment from a kit we bought from the car boot sale earlier in the year.......

Excuse me but aren't those safety specs supposed to be over your eyes?

That's better! After a week we can inspect the experiment to see if we have grown the crystals successfully.

Couldn't resist putting this photo in, its so cute. Hubby seems to be a hit with Ralph, in fact I think Ralph likes him the most!

Sunday, 19 December 2010

all i want for xmas is.....

"All I want for Christmas is my Dad back" were N's words this morning as I told her when she woke up that Dad wasn't coming home today and maybe not tomorrow as he is stuck in Hong Kong.
As much as we curse the snow (and usually I love it, its just its a bit inconvenient at the moment), and we keep cursing it, the dogs are still LOVING IT!

Saturday, 18 December 2010

even more fun in the snow

couldn't resist putting these photo's up, and basically what else is there to do in this weather!!!
I like to call this one.. small dog, big snow
N out in the garden, when will she learn to dress appropriately for the season.
Mum to the rescue, that looks much warmer,

That girl will cartwheel anywhere...

more snow!!!

The dogs had a great time this morning playing in the snow, the only trouble is you keep losing the balls. Ralph's is smaller so we have to keep hunting for it!! I was supposed to meet my friend in Witney this morning at 10.30am. Even with the snow I was trying to carry on as normal ready for tomorrow!!
My car wouldn't start again GRRRRRRRR, the RAC man did say he thought this would happen. I decided to brave it and drive Hubby's new car into town. It started so that was a bonus, but by the time we had got in it looked like a blizzard (fly like a G6!!!) inside, as soon as i cleared off the windows they were filling up again!! Anyway managed to get the car off the driveway but the roads were terrible. I couldn't tell where the pavements started!! It was very slidey and in fear of crashing Hubby's new car I did a full circle of Colwell Drive and slid home!
This is a photo of the cars an hour after I had cleared them off.......
I'm gonna be out there with a hair dryer and a long extension lead tomorrow!!
At least the dogs have the right idea - CUDDLES.

sleep, snow and a xmas party


Well yesterday started off very nicely with a trip to the park. N and I were very impressed with Ralph's fetching abilities, he brought the ball back and dropped it which you don't see Pepper do very often!
When we got home the plan was to go straight to Sainsburys to get food shopping for the xmas party in the afternoon and extra food for Hubby coming home on Sunday.
The only problem was my car wouldn't start. Not a problem - I call RAC. The nice lady on the telephone said "do you have any appointments we should be aware of" (I contemplated making one up) "Um no not really" I said "but I do have a xmas party here later and I need to get to Sainsburys to get the food for it". Apparently this is not classed as an emergency to RAC!!!!
Not to worry 2 hours later RAC came to my rescue! By that time the pressure was on to get around Sainsburys, back and get it prepared before the party started in the afternoon. We managed it and I think N and her friends had a nice time.

The doggies slept much better last night 10.00pm - 5.45am had their breakfast and slept until 8am - RESULT!

When I was up at 5.45am and saw there was not any snow I was very pleased. However 8.00am and everything is white, and its still snowing quite fast.

I just hope, hope, hope everything will be okay for tomorrow. I want to be bringing my hubby home tomorrow evening.

Friday, 17 December 2010

an hour in the life of Pepper and Ralph

One day, Pepper was having a snooze in the dining room, but ralph wanted to play.....

Hey Pepper, WAKE UP! Do you know how to play hide and seek? Pleeaassee can we play? You go and count in the conservatory and I'll hide.......

She will never find me hiding under this tree, genius!!

Okay so she found me, but she will never find me here HA HA HA!

After an hour of hide and seek Pepper and Ralph were tired out....


Thursday, 16 December 2010

The first night

Okay, so maybe I didn't get as much sleep as I was hoping for last night. I suppose it is to be expected, they were like two children at the their first sleepover!! They slept between midnight and 3 am, then between 4.30am and 7.30am, how are they still chasing around!!

Breakfast time, Pepper finished first naturally!!


Wednesday, 15 December 2010

another addition to the family

We have a new dog in the house!! A 6 month old terrier cross called Ralph. He has been here for about 3 and a half hours and they haven't really stopped playing. I can't believe they haven't gone to sleep yet!! When they do finally sleep and will be out all night (I hope!!) he has managed to do all of his 'toilets' outside and they have been drinking water together. How cute!!




Saturday, 11 December 2010

Funtime, and the curry night

Yesterday was Funtime and it was good to meet up with everyone before xmas. I took 4 large bags of books with me and managed to get rid of them all VERY easily!! I think I came back with about 5 books!! N played with friends in the afternoon which gave me time to clean the house and walk the dog before going to collect her, then it was time for the curry night (girls only!!). I'll let the photos tell the story!!







Thursday, 9 December 2010

Sound Of Music, Chinese & Fridge Disaster

Okay, so N & I went to the Sound Of Music yesterday, Pepper went to the dog sitter. I love going to the theatre and N enjoyed it but I was a bit disappointed with how the songs have been changed around. The thunderstorm scene just isn't the same without 'My Favourite Things'. In the evening N stayed over at a friends and I went out for the HE mums xmas meal. It was the first time in 9 years that I have eaten Chinese food, to find a restaurant that serves it gluten free is VERY VERY exciting.
We picked Pepper up from the dog sitter this morning, and this is pretty much how she has stayed all day, she's exhausted from playing so much!
My mum called in to see us at lunchtime and N went off for her piano lesson in the afternoon.
You know when you are preparing dinner in the kitchen and you notice the fridge door is slightly ajar.... well I opened it up and there was a smell of burning in the fridge....... (what do you mean these things don't happen to you!!!!)
This is the cover for the bulb in the fridge, and no its not supposed to have a hole in it. I had wedged my yoghurts up too high,....not shut the door properly.... and the hot bulb burned through the casing. Great.
Tomorrow is our monthly meet up at Funtime in Carterton, and then I have a girls family curry night at mine..mmmmm.

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

minus temperatures

Never really got above freezing today did it??? Everything was so beautiful I just had to photograph it.... take a look at the size of that frost

I was pleased to see the local efforts to start a free school on the front of the Oxford Mail today http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8722603.Mums_plan_county_s_first__free_school_/?ref=mr#commentsList however some of the comments online are truly mean. Some people just can't get by in life without being spiteful to others.

Had an email from Australia to say that they had lost their first competitive game by 18 runs, but M had taken 3 wickets. Well done. 30 degrees out there now.

My package arrived this morning so I'm off to watch Eclipse.


Monday, 6 December 2010

Guinea pigs, decopatch, singstar and circuits

We popped into Countrywide yesterday afternoon to stock up on hay, GP feed, dog food etc etc and noticed that there was only one left of the bed we were going to get the piggies for xmas - so they had an early xmas present.....
I think they like it!! I must say they are just totally adorable, I never thought I would become so attached to guinea pigs. It just warms your heart when they sit on N's lap when we are reading Peter and the Starcatchers and eat out of her hand.

Last night I decided to tick something else off my to do list and watched a dvd that was still in its plastic - no jokes please I took it out of the plastic to watch it. Batman Begins - I actually really enjoyed it and liked the ending very much - didn't see that one coming etc etc, I think I might watch The Dark Knight this evening just to carry the theme on, I don't like Christian Bale but you can't have everything.
This morning N made a start on a canvas that she is decopatching for a xmas present....



After a while my newly organised shelves started working their magic as she was distracted by her electronics kit, and got it out.......



This afternoon, we walked into town to the library, now I know its cold, but N whinged and stomped the whole way there and back and must have stopped about 10 times in both directions. I am such an evil mum aren't I - you would think I was dragging her around while I have the time of my life no..

a) she needed to swap her finished JW books for more JW books and order some JW books just for good measure

b) Pepper needed a walk

So it really wasn't for my benefit at all. She did redeem herself when as we entered the Burwell estate I did a little moan (yes I moan too, perhaps that is where she gets it from) that my arm was killing me carrying the bag of books - and she happily carried it the rest of the way and I didn't hear a peep out of her!??

I had a text from Hubby to say its 27 degrees in Australia and they had won their first match, although I think they were playing against kids!!

We finished off the day with homemade (kind of) pizza, singstar (our 2nd hand ps2 had arrived from ebay, as ours had broken), guinea pig cuddling and a story.

Sunday, 5 December 2010

2 new build a bears and a tidying spell

N came home from her shopping / swimming sleepover with her two new build a bears Illusion and Lexie. I have been hoping she would get that green frog it is so cute.
For those of you without a dog - it doesn't just happen in films, this is what you get when you come home from a walk in melted snow.......
nice.
I started on my bookshelf tidying last night, here is the before photo. After being brave enough to put aside over 100 books I didn't want to keep from this lot, it seemed like a good idea at 11.00pm to take the door off the cupboard and have it all open so the books could spread across the upper shelves.....(my good ideas always come late at night!)

or do they?? This is the after photo, I'm very pleased with it but comparing photos I am not sure it looks tidier.

More to the point it probably won't impress Hubby when he gets home and that is what I was aiming for!!!
So Hubby was delayed a couple of hours leaving Heathrow and therefore missed the connecting flight in Hong Kong, but they only had to wait about 2 hours for the next one. I had a text at 4.30am this morning from him to say they were in Australia and had seen Sydney Opera House, the bridge and Bondi Beach. Another one at 9.45am to say they have had an expensive Chinese meal.
We are really missing him here and N was tearful last night going to bed knowing her Dad wouldn't be back for a long time.

Friday, 3 December 2010

Xmas decorations are up and I didn't cry at the airport....

Wednesday the 1st December was N's last day at the animal course before xmas, and she was learning about sheep and goats. When we got home in the evening we put up the xmas decorations, really it was our only chance to do it all together as a family.
Pepper wasn't feeling in the xmas spirit, even with the xmas tunes on!

Luckily N and her Dad were

Here is N decorating the tree - very nicely too.

On Thursday Hubby was very busy finishing up last minute work stuff in his office, but we did get out to Cafe Rouge for lunch all together. N had her second piano lesson in the afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it, she couldn't wait to tell her Dad when she got home that she was moving up to the second book.

This morning N was picked up for a shopping / swimming sleepover with her friends, which left us at home to do last minute packing. Pepper was off to the dog sitters at lunch time. We had time for one last photo before we left.....

Here is M and Hubby at Thornhill (give it 16 days and they will both be browner, lets face it Hubby's Turkey tan needed topping up!)

Most of the tour party caught a pre-booked airline bus to Heathrow, but there weren't enough seats available for everyone so I had already volunteered to take Hubby to the airport myself, (extra time with him you see) and so we said goodbye to each other outside terminal 3. Now I'm known to cry at everything so I was very proud of myself when I didn't get emotional and told Hubby to go enjoy himself (not too much).


Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Forgot to mention the snowball fight

I won, honest!!

Snow much fun for Pepper

Pepper's first experience of snow happened this morning, and she loved it. She has been racing around in it down the park twice today and keeps wanting to go out in the garden to play in it with her frozen solid toys she has left out there.

N has been re-watching the videos on http://www.bigredhat.com the Oliart on how to draw a face has inspired her again this week, here are just a couple of the ones that she has done.

I was able to collect the pottery from daisyroots today, here is how it turned out... I am very pleased with my 2 xmas decorations!!!

We have been doing lots of guinea pig cuddling and have even managed to bathe Beatrix and Marigold. Marigold has been joining us on N's bed at night to listen to Peter and The Starcatchers (the book we are reading for book club).


N had all her hair cut off this afternoon - WOW!

I have been thinking of lots of things to do after Friday, and my plans for the lonely evenings are;
sewing buttons onto a canvass in an artistic fashion
watching films that I haven't seen in a long time or DVDs that have never made it out of the plastic
sorting through the bookcase in the HE area and (eek) putting some in a bag for Oxfam (gosh now I know where N gets her inability to part with her books from!!)
plus it seems there will be a HE mums xmas meal and someone has VERY kindly offered to have N for the night
So I think I should be able to keep myself busy, plus Eclipse should arrive the 6th or 7th yeah!