Housewarming Memories

Putting up the gazebo minutes before a heavy downpour
Sarah running in to tell me that there was a bee in the garden

Dans green socks

Graham pinging his cake all over the floor

The name the Orang-utan challenge, and the winner is *fanfare* ‘Bonsai’, runners up included: ‘Gorgonzola the Terrible, Petey, Malcom and Big Wally’

Introducing Rachel to all the people she used to collect dinner money from at woodside

Another delicious giant Oreo cookie cake!

Rob trying to get the giant jelly baby out of the mould, then forgetting to get him out of the fridge – it was however one of the only things I remembered to take a photo of that day…

Guided tours of the house, running up and down the stairs

No shoes!!

Donna’s amazing chocolate cupcakes

Not having a bottle opener…

Trying to persuade Sarah that there are definitely fish in the pond!!

Fletcher going deaf in one ear

Dad telling mum all about his latest divorce settlement

The mayhem of cooking the pizzas – with supervision by Lucy and charlotte, unfortunately when handing it out by the time I got to Jamie there wasn’t any left…

Me giving up with the cheese and pineapple due to crumbly cheese-rob taking over whilst tutting and giving me dirty looks

The AMAZING asda sausage rolls which were gone in a flash (50 for 99p!!)

Wendy the chatterbox chewing Kathy and Danny’s ears off

Asking if everyone is ok in the garden- then realizing I couldn’t see anyone because it was pitch black

Fairylights with the added surprise of Christmas music

Not realizing I had to switch the solar lights on…

Children’s faces when they entered the room full of Mr Potato Heads

Jenny trying to suppress giggles whenever ‘Wally’ was mentioned

Offering Lucy Ham and Pineapple pizza as the vegetarian option…

Graham giving me gardening tips at 1am in the morning

Kathy looking through Jays clothes to see if he had ironed anything

Trying to persuade Sandra to climb the huge tree at the bottom of the garden

Reassuring Rachel that the frogs would not jump out of the pond and get her

Several people enquiring about the mysterious disappearance of the bonking pigs

Supergnome taking centre stage by the pond

The neighbours enquiring into a dvd boxset exchange

People coming and going all day, but Charlotte & Lucy stayed for the duration and Jenny came round twice

Claire’s one big bottle of beer

Feeling happy and proud to show our friends our house and what we’ve achieved

 

*Drumroll* Before & After

Its like 60 Minute Makeover *cough* 6 Month Makeover... Although we are living here and see it everyday I was really excited to actually see pictures of the house before and pictures now next to each other! Its easy to remember those 'during chaos' photos so here are a few piccies to remind us what it used to be like :o)

Front Room-Before

Front Room-After

The only piece of furniture we kept in the whole house was the window seat/cupboard

Dining Room-Before

Dining Room-After

With door in place of  the window

Kitchen - Before

It seems weird to remember there was a door in the kitchen

Kitchen-After

In fact it's hard to believe this is even the same room...

Main Bedroom - Before

That lovely purple threadbare carpet...

Main Bedroom-After

Bathroom -Before

Mums face says it all...

Bathroom - After

Garden - Before

This is before the rubble attacked the garden but still looks a bit of a state just a little overgrown and weary

Garden - After alot of weeding, some flowers and a bit of love

The Crazy Pave patio which Rob Pressure washed away the dirt so you can actually see the colours in the stone!

Our little house! There are still things to do, there will always be things to do (Jamie has a list as long as his arm) but to me it is done now and we can & are enjoying living in it! Hoorah!



A thoughtful day

As this week of flu and feeling sorry for myself comes to an end, I have had the energy today to faff about with the internet connection and low & behold I have managed to connect.  All I had to do was cellotape the dongal to a mop and point it towards the window, why didn’t I think of that earlier?  So I am back in the land of the living…just.  Next week I am going to start my healthy kick.  I’m going to get better, start my diet and hopefully if I am well enough start a little exercise! The healthy me will emerge.  I think this year has been so completely exhausting that I’ve not really had time to sit down and realize that I am falling apart.  Our week off on holiday at home was lovely but perhaps relaxing for a week and doing pretty much nothing gave my body a bit of a shock after the past 7 months of chaos.  Well its time for calm now, there’s no panic, there’s no deadline, there’s just plenty of time to live so that’s what I intend to do. 

Hopefully we have not seen the last of the summer sun and there is still some to enjoy in the near future, I’ve seen it peeking out today.  A recent surprising discovery I have had is that I enjoy gardening! (Although I must point out that I am still terrified of all creepy crawlies and if near by you will be sure to hear me screech and flap my arms about whilst in the garden)  I hardly ever used to even step out into our garden at my mums house but since the rubble was cleared from the building work, I have really enjoyed getting stuck in and even planted some flowers (a first for me) Although my second discovery was that Jamie is the most unenthusiastic gardener in the world, which was revealed to me at our trip to the gardening centre a few weeks ago…but he does like looking after the pond and the fish so I’ll let him off!  This morning after reluctantly crawling out of bed to face the day, I couldn’t help but smile when I looked out the window and saw that the pink roses in our garden have fully bloomed.  The rain has certainly done the garden some favours, it’s looking very healthy and happy! 

It feels good to write, I feel like I haven’t written anything for ages, and I haven’t read much either.  Annoyingly I left my book at work before I went off sick so I’ve started reading Goodnight Mister Tom again which is my favourite childhood book and makes me want to read everything and anything because it is so beautifully written.  I would love to write a book one day, perhaps I will.