Is it me.............
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Grown up
Took Bee to horse riding last night. When she is tacking up there are lots of older girls around helping - 16, 15 year olds. After her lesson Bee said : "They said 'Don't forget the little ones' when I was in the arena".
This means they were maybe talking about Santa or sex. Bee doesn't consider herself a 'little one' as she is 8 - that's why she was put out.
She still sort of believes in Santa - well she questioned it and then hubby said 'Well if you want to hedge your bets - but he won't deliver if her thinks you don't believe'. So she wrote a letter - just in case - sealed and a picture drawn over the seal. There is a place here you can send your stamped 'replies from Santa' and they then postmark it 'North Pole.' So we opened Bee's letter and a lot of the stuff in there she had not even mentioned to us (maybe that is the test). But I know by next year she will not believe (peer pressure at school). She's growin' up fast!!
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1.12.06 14:38
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Grammys
We have a posh do to go to tomorrow night. Hubby's associates. Not from present job but a maybe future job. So need to make a good impression. I am always anxious at things like this - maybe as I don't go out enough for this to be just another event.
The invite said 'Evening at the WHERE WE LIVE hotspot.' 'Party like the Grammys' which means dress code as that. I googled for inspiration on what to wear. Seems like long gowns or cocktail dresses go. Mmmm. Men seemed to wear tuxedo (MUST remember to pick up hubby's suit from cleaners ) or even velvet attire and lots of 'bling.' Think hubby will be going for the former.
I only know a few people going - I have only met 3 of the couples. They are rich. Seriously rich (as in family private plane rich). Can you tell I am already uncomfortable - and that is before I even get into my fancy high heels.
I am wearing a dress I wore for a Christmas party 2 years ago. I bought a new coat and accessories though. I bought nice shoes with a diamante strap and open toes. Then it snowed. This week. A lot. And it is hovering around freezing. During the day.
I went to get some 'no toe seam' stockings - they were OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. A girl behind the counter is also going to this do. Apparently. With a blind date. She didn't seem fazed on bit. But she is 6 ft 2 and drop dead gorgeous - could be a model. She told me what she was wearing - full length halter neck gown etc etc. Mmmmm. She said the party planner is the best in our city and quite a fashionista. Oh shit. Must remember not to have any of my labels showing.
I am fake tanning as I type which could be a huge disaster. I smell it and it's not a great smell.
There are some positive points.... I have a good babysitter lined up. I fit in the dress. I have no spots! I found a gorgeous necklace on sale.
Wish me luck.........
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1.12.06 20:11
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Shower
I think I blogged before about my friend who is having baby number 3 (her last) and has quite an elaborate baby shower list. Well I went to Babies R US this week and found the print out of her registry list. It made me broody to see the cute baby stuff again. Some of the list was quite expensive. I presume it would only be family members going to buy the 300 pounds travel system. But why would you need a 180 pounds electric breast pump for number 3 (your last) when you are not going back to work? Or if you needed it, wouldn't you hire it for that short period of time or buy it yourself? I am going to go and now wrap the blankets and pillow I bought for her.
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4.12.06 15:32
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The do
So the fancy do came and went. It was ok. We had more snow so it was very cold and icy which is not great when you are walking in high heels (and not used to them). We picked up hubby's friends and their house is more like a castle - big electric gates - buzz for entry type deal (but no number there which is not good if it is your first time visiting).
Despite my crisis of what to wear there was a huge array of outfits. The wilder 'grammy' type were men who wore velvet coats and fancy hats, even a punk spikey hair do guy - who was with a woman who looked like she belonged at a highland fling - with her very traditional dress. It was a huge mixtrue of ladies wear. From full on ball gowns to skirt and tops you could have also worn to the office. It was ok.
There was a 'red carpet' on arrival - the valet took the car and you were filmed walking (trying not to fall on the ice) towards the carpet. They were also stopping people to film them reading famous rock lyrics which they then showed during a 'presentation' after the dinner. It was supposed to be funny with people reading these things seriously: 'Should I stay or should I go now?'
The food was pretty naff. The main course was fish (we think) - the lights were lowered at this stage - almost as though the chef knew he had messed it up and was hopnig for the best. There were some strange looking squares of grey on the plate which no one could work out.....
People were quite friendly. It is the first year we've been to one of these big dos so a lot of people made us welcome. The drunk guy next to me was lecturing me how I should join the wives' chapter of this orgnaisation - I said I had little time with 4 young children but he still went on. I am surprised he didn't say Rory shouldn't get more involved at 10 months.
One woman (I had never met before) was telling me how she had 3 kids. Had planned on 2 but then her hubby had got home from a drunken weekend in Vegas. I don't think the woman was drunk as she told me this.....Later met the husband, who was actually quite nice.
We don't drink so it was interesting seeing lots of drunken dancing on the floor - espeically knowing what some of these people do for a living. There is one man I will never look at in the same way. If any of you have ever seen Elaine from 'Seinfeld' so her whacky dance you will know what I mean.
Just glad its over really.
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5.12.06 20:35
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baby shower over and out
So had the baby shower. It was quite impressive with lots of snacks etc. Met a few of the mums from Kindergarten (Paddy's class). They were not happy as a new girl has just joined the class bringing the numbers up to 29 which they think is too large.
We were told to fill out envelopes with names and addresses - to make it easier for the mum to be to write thank you notes. Also they were going to be put in a basket and one pulled out for a prize.
The only game (could be useful for GPmum's friend's shower) was 4 baby food jars (full) with their labels pulled off and you had to write down what you thought they foods were: Peas. Squash. Apricots. Mixed veggies. I didn't win. There were fancy prizes for the 3 who did.
Then came the opening of the pressies. She got a lot of what was on her list. Someone (not family) had spring the 130 quid on her bassinet! Mine was something on the list at least. Some others had just bought anything - so already by the time I left (she was still opeing pressies after an hr) she had 2 mobiles...... Some people had also bought sex specific outfits. Just because. She doesn't know if it is boy or girl. But these people had still bought cute pink outfits and matching shoes and then cute blue outfit and matching teddies. Came out thinking some people had more money than sense - but also some of it was just to look good whilst on show with the other mums.....
It certainly wasn't a sit down with a glass of wine with a few gifts on the side. It was a full blown 'I'm the centre and this is my list I am ticking off.' Maybe I just have the wrong attitude - but I doubt many of the people there will play a big part in the baby's life. Maybe I just don't get the Americanessof the event. I wonder what would have happened had you turned up with no gift.
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5.12.06 20:45
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Moving
GPmum is going through a move. It is really difficult to read and not write something on it. Maybe if she reads this she will at least smile.
We have moved 6 times in 10 years. Now that we are out of the woods for a while I can sort of smile about them.
When we moved over from UK we hardly had any stuff. The packers who arrived asked us where we were moving to.... we told them (it wasn't necessary information for their part) and they said 'Oh, that's why they've sent us then - we've packed a house for America before.' They didn't use proper packing boxes. They used smallish boxes which had 'Christmas hamper' stamped on them and pictures of turkey and all the trimmings. We were moving in June. I asked about the boxes. They said, "Oh these aren't bad. We sometimes have to pack whole houses in Tampax boxes." I remember (in 96) we also had to sign a waiver that if the ship started having problems at sea (our shipment was part filling a container going on a ship) then they had our permission to throw things overboard. This was I think an exception to our insurance coverage......
Our next move in USA was only about 20 miles between old to new place. So we tried to do a lot ourselves. Except I had had Bee about 2 weeks before this. We had a few days to do the move. It started off with hubby being completely impractical and only wanting to take over 'nice things' to the new place - like new lamps and pictures etc. It ended up with us borrowing someones' people carrier, removing as many seats as possible and squashing things in with our feet to make more room.
Next move was from West Coast to East coast of USA. Packers had been, hubby had already gone to E Coast and me and Bee were left for load up day. The man arrived. Knocked on the door very red in the face. "You live on a hill!" he huffed and puffed."Nobody SAID you lived on a hill." He wasn't happy. He had workers who were threatening to walk out because we were on said hill. He wouldn't let them break for a tea break (I ended up driving to get them some lunch). By 8pm I was ready to leave and the furniture was all out - but most of it on the footpath as basically we were load 3 on his truck and there wans't enough room but he didn't want to call base and report this as it would mean he would lose a lot of the profits. I made some calls and another smaller truck arrived. He was very cross at me. Furious in fact. I thought we may never even see the furniture again!
Next move was again local - about 20 miles - again, just a few weeks after we'd had a baby - Paddy this time. I packed most of the stuff into boxes (that way I should know where it all was). Very gruff moving crew this time. One was very strong but I think he may have had issues. There was something really heavy (leather sofa bed) they were umming and ahhing about and this guy said 'Me do it. Tony do it' and started doing all these muscle showing moves whilst the others tried to calm him down. We were doing quite well until half way during the day when I realised they had packed Bee's car seat and when I said I needed it off the truck they were telling me that Mad Tony could just hold her on his lap.... needless to say I didn't go for that. They got us moved in and they are supposed to reassemble any of the furniture that they have taken apart - except they had lost some part to our bed - they promised they would come back the next day - they didn't. They came back 3 days later and the guy who put it back together was apologising for being late - he had just been to a wake as his uncle had been shot dead the week before. Somehow my bed seemed quite irrelevant to that.
Oh this was the move where we had owned the house prior to moving in and had some repairs done. Painters had been in to paint. The only thing we had in the house was a new huge tv video/dvd combo we'd bought and taken straight there. The night before the move I was in new place with baby Paddy, cleaning - the phone rang and went dead. We left. The next day hubby went over and saw the tv was gone. Basically we think painters had waited until I was gone then used their key to go in and nick the tv. So moving day I was talking to policemen, painters (who were 'just finishing off') and telling mover which rooms to put things into.
This was also the house where I needed the breast pump about 3am and was looking through last few boxes in garage whilst in lots of pain......
Next move was again to another state. Movers seemed good. Packed up. Husband wife team. They took hubby's sports car - his pride and joy - was also going on the truck. We got to new state. So did they. They had quoted us something like 10 000 for the move. When they arrived they said weights were heavier than they had thought - so it was actually 17 000 needed there and then before they started unloading. We refused. So did they. For 3 days. The furniture sat there, locked away. in the end hubby's company paid more than we'd agreed but not the 17 000. They unloaded most of it and they were supposed to come back the next day to unpack. They didn't show up and when we got hold of them they said 'As far as we're concerned you didn't pay full whack so you can unpack yourselves.' They were already on their way back to East Coast. They also damaged hubby's car badly - blamed bad suspension in car (not true). We sued them in court and won. That one nearly gave me a nervous breakdwon.
Moving here - the guy was ok. By this stage I was SURPRISINGLY cynical......But he asked me directions to our major major city which worried me. When they were carrying things in this end I kept asking him to stay on the drop cloths (we had new white carpets) and he was cross at that. Also he said he didn't know if he would have time to put things back together... I said I had thought he was responsible for what he had taken apart.... strangely enough the only things he didn't have time to put back together were things he had broken - and he knew very well he had. A children's playhouse - Mac's cot...... I was really cross about that.
I pulled rank when speaking to the moving co-ordinator who was quite unhelpful 'just fill in the forms - it can take up to 3 months' she said...... So I remnded her it was a shame for her company who had the firm's moving contract. "What do you mean?" she asked. "Well I am not happy with this move," I said, "And I would hate anyone else to have to have these hassles" I added, "And my hubby is the President of the company." Things were fixed or replaced in 2 days.
Maybe GPmum should not read any of this after all..........
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5.12.06 21:15
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Science
i was really bad at science at school. When we were there it was complusory to do at least one science. I opted for Human Biology as the teacher was nice (pathetic reason I know but when you're 13....) and also I thought 'how difficult can it be?' Well it was more difficult than I thought as it seems I have no scientific side of my brain. The whole class (primarily girls) saw it as a bit of a doss. I remember listening for sex, teeth and genes. I scraped a C. That was good compared to most.
Anyhow, Bee (aged 8) had instructions to do a Science experiment at home and display it all on a board 4 ft x 3 ft. Thank goodness for ideas from Google! We settled on a comparison of M&Ms and Skittles - to see which gave themost colour residue on blotting paper (came under the elementary chemistry section!). It was actually fun to do and quite easy to display. Bee did well with it. I am not sure if it got graded but they took them into school this week and had to explain their efforts to the class.
She came home telling me about other people's experiements. Apparently Matther had done an experiment with mice bought from the pet shop. He bought 4, and each one drank something different; Coke, Diet coke, water and apple juice. The 2 coke mice died and and the water mouse drank so much it couldn't move. Don't think I found out about the apple juice mouse - I was too flabbergasted by then. Also she pointed out that afterwards Matthew took them all back to the pet shop.
I thought this was maybe a bit inappropriate for an 8 year old's science experiment but maybe I just need to toughen up. It was also amazing that when I said 'What? That's awful!' to Bee (wouldn't normally comment in a negative way - but I was really amazed!) and she replied 'mum, it's not cruel, it's SCIENCE!' This from a kid who wouldn't kill a spider in the summer as it is 'God's creature' and doesn't like to eat meat if she thinks to hard about where it has come from......
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6.12.06 15:55
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