Is it me.............
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Peace
Yeeeah! The in-laws have gone. Despite it now meaning that I can't just pop to the shops and leave child/ children with them, I still prefer the peace and quiet. It is lovely to have the house back - even with the noisy children. To be able to come down in my PJs and not worry who sees my bra-less state. Not to have to wipe down the kitchen surfaces from tea stains AGAIN, or put the old tea bags into the bin AGAIN. We don't drink tea much in this house so when the in-laws are here, the brown stains tell their own stories. What must the linings of their stomachs look like after 40 years + of tea consumption - I know what my stainless steel sink looks like after just a couple of weeks! And is it something about being 60 + that makes you think you are doing people a favour by not using plates? Make a piece of toast, just spread your butter / marmelade on it whilst it is on said kitchen counter (no chopping board / plate in sight). It is almost as though you are leaving a nice meal behind for ants - a few buttered crumbs and a mouthful of tea ....  It also doesn't help much that we have a blue kitchen floor. Yes it is unique but no I wouldn't do it again. It was a cross between an idea I once saw on Changing Rooms (a few years ago they literally played it in a loop the whole day on BBC America) and an idea I saw in a decorating magazine. When you have just washed it (it's painted wood) it looks brilliant, but after about 10 minutes with the kids and a bit of food splashed about it looks dodgy to say the least. Also the in laws like to 'just rinse out' their tea mugs and put them back in the cupboard. Fine if they are wearing a pair of specs and they can see the dirt they are 'washing off' but more often than not they are in blind as a bat mode and then there are tea rims in the mugs in the cupboard. I really must get out more - it shouldn't drive me so mad. Their last day here (of 17) FIL actually said 'Should I put this in the dishwasher then?' So he did know we had one after all..... I laughed last week as I went in to school to help out a bit in Paddy's classroom - they are studying the rain forest and I was helping to cut out bits for making Macaws. Well if I hadn't just left one here... MIL is deaf in one ear. She doesn't like people to know she is deaf, so she doesn't like to wear her hearing aid in case people see it. I mean screaming "Eh?" constantly in loud Irish tones would NEVER give the game away would it? But it does make a bloody good impression of an obnoxious bird... 
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3.10.06 13:05
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Fall
I LOVE this time of year. This past week has seen most of the leaves tumble down. Walking in the garden gives the crunching sound of soles - crisp in the bed of fallen leaves. The kids love to roll in them and make big leaf piles to jump in. It works well until someone jumps too hard on somebody else and then it is back to the usual moans and squabbles. When we lived in California, autumn didn't really register. The palm trees didn't help the lack of season feel at all. Then Connecticut came into its own. Whilst the other 50 weeks of the year there were rather bland there were always 2 weeks in Fall (Autumn) that were beautiful - really impressive. People would drive from all over the US to see the change in seasons. Here in Colorado Autumn can be misleading. Maybe I am getting older (if I start flower arranging too give me a good slap) but I have noticed the leaves change more this year than any other before. I point them out - the most beautiul trees - on the way to school and my two eldest children give a quick glance and almost role their eyes. It must be official - I have become the old mother!!!! So the trees have been gorgeous. We are spoiled as we have a few massive trees in our garden which give us a good selection of colour ( and will also cost a fortune to clear up after). The days can start cool but by afternoon sometimes we again have temperatures in the 80s. Yesterday I took Rory for a stroll around the neigbourhood in his pram - admiring the leaves, the trees themselves etc. It should have been a crisp autumnal feel but instead I had my flip flops on and was beginning to regret that I was wearing jeans as it was so warm! The key to the day is layers - start with more and strip off during the day. Hope the kids remember to collect said discarded layers before they return home. So now at 8.10am the day looks and feels as it should - still cool, but not cold- but who knows where we'll be by this afternoon. They say the turning point is by Halloween which before say Oct 28th I have found hard to believe but I must say, it has been the case the past 2 years. We shall see. But it really is beautiful. (My mother in law couldn't believe that we still have so many flowers on the clematis (?) given the month). I now know the thing on the fence is called Clematis !?
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8.10.06 15:13
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The papers
There are some things that we still miss after 10 years away from UK. There are silly things like the British run up to Christmas, the dry sense of humour, naff Saturday night tv. The food we miss - well that has gone down over the years. Now when people come to visit we ask them to bring just a few supplies: Walkers crisps. Branston Pickle - shamefully Yorkshire Pudding mix, Birds custard powder. We have found a few outlets over here that sell UK goods - and once you get over their ridiculous prices you know you can always pick things up there - and suddenly you no longer miss them as much as you once did. But the UK papers - most of them you can read on line, but it is just not the same. Hubby was in UK last week for work and he brought back the Sunday Times. Even though it was a good 5 days late when it got here, it was still something special - I sat and read articles that I am sure I never would have read if the paper arrived through the letterbox every Sunday. It was painstakingly read and enjoyed. But you know, when we go back to UK it is amazing how blase you can then become about the papers, fish and chips, sausage rolles, M&S food....... We miss it. But I think the fact that it is so rare is the thing that makes us miss it and therefore enjoy it that much more. Does that make sense?
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12.10.06 14:48
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sleep
Or rather lack of it. I am really quite strict about when my kids go to bed. Friends have children who they basically let stay up FOREVER. When they come and stay with us, their older child (9) seems to think she can deal with adult conversation but it restricts what you can discuss, watch on TV and drives us INSANE. Yes, their girl also sleeps in too but it doesn't compensate for your lack of an adult evening in our eyes. But each to their own. I always aim to get ours in bed around 7 and by 7.45 we can usually have us time. Yes, they get up early in the morning but for school etc we need them up before 7am anyhow. Maybe it is a decision of when you want your time to yourself - at night when you can then do something or in the morning when you can sleep.
Well recently we have had an issue with Mac (just 3). If he hasn't slept during the day then he falls asleep in maybe 10 minutes but if he has slept in the day it's a different story. When he started at pre-school I mentioned his sleep to the teacher and asked that they don't let him sleep more than an hour. Well this Monday he had slept for over 2 hours, so unsurprisingly perhaps come 10.30 pm he was still pottering around his room, with his older brother asleep in there.... And the next day he was very very ratty as he was over tired. His gymnastics class was just beyond him and we left early.
There could be an argument that he obviously needs a nap if he is falling asleep. But you know what, I COULD nap every day - but do I need one. I could eat chocolate every day until it made me sick and you could therefore say that I need to eat it....
So next pre-school I mentioned it again and she says she woke him up after an hour. I know she woke him up but I am not sure about the times. Yesterday (Thu) we were at the zoo and he walked a lot so he was quite tired. I expected him to sleep on the way home (he didn't).. but later in the day in the car he was really trying to nod off and I was really trying to keep him awake which is no easy job at all... Tops he maybe slept 5 minutes.
Last night it was after 9pm before he was asleep. Hubby was cross to say the least. This annoys me SOOOO much (I am not annoyed with Mac - it's just a phase). He doesn't see him much during the day to see how he has a routine. Short of not picking the others up in the car there is not much I can do about this right now. So Mac finally slept but had a restless night. He came through at 4am this morning and was tossing and turning in our room and in turn hubby was very cross. Yes I know he has an important interview today but this is probably not going to sway the will of a 3 year old. I think it was his 'God, I need to sleep, some of us have a job and we can't take a nap during the day' comment that pissed me off. I wish I could nap during the day. And my no job status, well I probably need to be awake quite well for driving at least 2 hours a day with the kids in the car, and generally keeping them safe and healthy throughout the day. But let's not forget, I HAVE NO JOB. Does this make me a Lady of Leisure?
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13.10.06 12:11
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Friends Reunited?
So I was one of the people who joined this website quite early on. I was thrilled to read what some old school friends/enemies were up to. I was fascinated by it. Never understood those who joined and put no information on their link. None. So they want a way to be contacted but want to share nothing. What are they hiding? Do they think if they write that they now live in Spain they will have people e-mailing for freebie holidays? I get the e-mails saying 'new people have joined' and occasionally look them up. For me it still says 'just had a baby boy!' even though he is 9 months old. Sometimes there are new names and I try and recollect the image that I have of the person - I transport myself back to the common room in the 80s with cool/dodgy music on the record player (RECORD PLAYER!!?) depending on which group got there first. And I try and work out which 'group' this name belonged to. The ultra- arty group in the middle - always reading and going to the pub when they shouldn't have been. The black-adder crowd (a lot of whom did history), the trendy Next attired kids, the lower 6th who just seemed to sit and lap up anything the Upper 6th threw to them...... Anyhow this past week I saw a name of a friend I lost contact with. She went on to Oxford, I was an Oxford reject (gladly so - I was pushed into the Oxbridge exams by a teacher - it was so not the place for me). I always wondered what became of her with a glorious future - she was so very very bright but like me had an 'awkward' family situation at home. Maybe that was why we got on - we could swap horror stories of life at home and the other one wasn't as shocked as a normal teenager - it was actually quite a relief having someone on the same wavelength. Well we e-mailed back and forth, including photos. Then we even spoke on the phone. This was quite bizarre. She read Philosphy at Oxford and as in the old days I felt slightly in awe and slightly scared I would seem quite simple in return.. but it was LOVELY to catch up and talk about parenting (she too is a SAHM) the worries, the loneliness etc. She still has a lot of family issues but she is one stepped removed. I still have family issues but I am a very long way away (thank Goodness). But it has obviously affected us so much in our family lives and also it makes us question everything an awful lot more....... It was a fascinating reality check on how I am doing all things given. When people know my circumstances I normally hear 'but you're so well grounded...' which is maybe true (ish) but talking to my friend who had a similarly dysfunctional family was very reassuring. I hope we keep in touch via the old e-mail.
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16.10.06 06:19
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Films
Not sure if I mentioned this before.... went to the movies last week and saw a very good film 'Little Miss Sunshine.' Not sure if it is released yet in UK but I would describe it as a dark comedy - which makes you think a bit afterwards..... any more description could put you off but really, go and see it if you can. I laughed out loud (and i never do normally). Steve Carell (sp?) was brilliant. Incidentally I read all the other girls in the final scenes (and their moms) were real kids competing not actors (scary).
Tonight I went to the movies again (hubby is going to be travelling a lot soon - bit of a last chance for a while) and saw 'Keeping Mum' which was just ok. It was probably quite good except there were some annoying people in the cinema crowd. One woman with a shrieking laugh who found things funny that really were just so so. And another man with a booming chortle who got the joke about 5 minutes after it happened.
Looking forward to seeing 'The Queen' - sounds very good I think. The trailers/previews showed the News report from back in 1997 annoucing 'Diana, Princess of Wales has been killed in a car crash' and just hearing the announcement again brought shivers..... Incidentally, couldn't tell you where I heard the news when Princess Margaret or the Queen Mum died - was that because their deaths were more expected or because I had no interest in them (sounds harsh but you know what I mean).
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16.10.06 06:19
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Obsession
OK so I have quite an obsession. Any guesses as to which it is? All of these are either my 'obsessions' or belong to someone I know.
Any guesses?
1. I have all episodes of 'Friends' on DVD
2. I have not thrown away any pair of shoes in the last 10 years
3. I recycle EVERYTHING and have 4 different recycling containers.
4. I buy every new shampoo/conditioner the shop carries.
5. I buy perfumes and go off them almost instantly.
6. I buy too many cards/ writing paper for every occasion and file it according to subject
7. I buy lots of recipe books which I never use.
8. I need at least one box of tissues per room and it has to be color coordinated.
9. I cannot ever leave dishes in the sink even if it makes us late leaving the house.
10. I have to put toilet cleaner in the loo before I go to bed
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17.10.06 10:24
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