Bart Man

I think I might have a tiny bit of understanding why Bart's last crazy owner called him the devil. Now she was craaaazy and really mean to him for 6 years, so I'm not sticking up for her by any means, but he has certain personality traits that drive you nuts.

First of all, he walks or jumps in front of your feet when you leave a room or walk down the basement steps and it really is a small miracle that none of us have fallen. He did it to Craig on Sunday and Craig tripped, put his back out and has been on pain pills ever since.  He also pops up where you least expect him. Last week I left him in the kitchen and I went to do laundry in the basement. When I turned on the light in the laundry room he was sat on the washer looking at me. It nearly gave me a stroke!

But he's such a great cat with a huge personality. He loves us all and is even playing with Ben now. he opens doors, jumps on anything high, loves to be with us. The perfect cat. No cat will ever fill Frank's place in my heart, but Bart's a good one. I hope he's around for a long time.

I just realised that my friend Heather also posted today about her beloved cat, Sanders, who she lost 9 months ago. That's probably what made me subconsciously write about Bart tonight.

Our Bart

Thank goodness it's Friday tomorrow. It was a 4-day week but felt long. I love my job but I'm exhausted. Tonight I put the left-overs from dinner in bowls and then put them back in the plate cupboard.

Loving the Audio Books & Henrietta

I have become a huge fan of audio books.  Since I spend time in my car every day I thought I'd give them a whirl and started getting them from the library.

I started off with Michael Pollan's Second Nature and then The Omnivore's Dilemma. Both are non-fiction. The first is about the history of gardening in America and the second is about American food and where it comes from. Both were fascinating to me as a plant nerd but not sure if my non-nerdy friends would like them. The second one was also somewhat disturbing and talked about processed foods and cattle feed lots and all the terrible stuff you suspect but would rather not know about food production. I can tell you one thing, since I finished the book I ate local grown chicken and it's a million miles different to the bleached, antibiotic-pumped white rubbery crap they sell in supermarkets. It tasted like the chicken I remember from Sunday roasts as a kid! Now Mr. Pollan is a bit of a rogue, a bit of an activist and gets a bit carried away (his science isn't very good sometimes) but they were certainly worth listening to.

My newest one is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. When it first came out and went to the top of the NYT book charts I avoided it because it sounded a bit "heavy" for me, even though I love non-fiction. That's why I thought an audio book might fit me better.
It's a fantastic book! Can't recommend it highly enough. I'm 2 disks in to an 8-disk audio and I sat outside the house for 10 minutes tonight because I didn't want to leave the car. What a story!

So I have two things to relay from the book so far.

First the intro;  medical scientists had been trying for years to get human cells to live and divide and continue (the immortal cell) outside of the human body, so that they could test those cells with vaccines and other medical breakthroughs. All cells died within a short time, but not Henrietta's. So all HeLa cells (named after the first two letters of each of her names) are derived from her. There are currently trillions of her cells around the world,  used for all kinds of medical research. Her cells helped develop the polio vaccine and find treatments for AIDS and cancer. Her cells are the most important cells in the world. Here's the thing - she never gave permission for her cells to be taken and her family never know that HeLa cells derived from her even existed for many years.

The second story is that Henrietta had cervical cancer and I was horrified by the treatments back in 1951. They put radon rods inside her for two days and then gave her a month of radiation, all the while putting lead strips inside her to stop her colon being injured by the rays. Radon and lead? Blimey. Makes you wonder what they will say in 50 years about our current medical practices.

So there you are. If any of you like a good story but don't like to sit and read, maybe an audio book will work better for you. And I definitely recommend this one.

Sock Monkeys!

My friend Sue in England makes amazing sock monkeys. She also knits and does lots of other craft stuff and she plays lots of musical instruments and she's a fabulous singer. She just had that creative gene.  It's amazing to watch, especially when she sings, which she doesn't do too much since she's got kids. 

She was kind enough recently to share her sock monkey making skills with me because I wanted to make them for a craft show at Jack's school. She made me use my sewing machine, that I have had for 5 years and never used (I did learn to sew many years ago at high school but 80% of that is gone). So anyway, I made 7 sock monkeys for the craft show. I sold 4 and gave 3 away to close friends. The early ones were not good and I kept them at home.  Here they are: Camo Tommy, Tutu Tallulah, Pirate Sam, American Sam, Stripey, English George and Spotty....

My very first one during construction  - Now at home with Daniel

Since the auction I've made two for friends for free. Both have daughters that want a tutu monkey.  I loved making them because they are great girls. If anyone else asks for their kid I'll say no  - unless I love your child of course (thinking Katy or Hannah) and then I'll say yes.

One for my friend: Tutu Monkey

I thought I might have an Etsy account or FB page but that would get on my nerves BIG TIME - people wanting me to respond and pestering me. Maybe I'll just make some and do the odd craft fair?
Whatever  I do I'm grateful to my friend Sue for giving me a little craft that I can do. Now I don't feel like such a Neanderthal.

John Southern

I need to start off by wishing my step-mum Sheila a Happy Birthday!  We did try and call but there was no answer.

We had today off work for Veteran's Day. We had planned to do house work and yard work but I got up at 10.45am (gulp, yes really!) and then Craig went back to bed this afternoon. So between us we didn't get much accomplished. We hardly ever do things like that but we were both exhausted, so I'm not going to feel guilty about it.

I did take Danny to a play cafe for a couple of hours. It was so nice to sit down with a coffee and not have to hover over him like all the other mums had to (they had babies and toddlers). I sat and watched him play, ever so gently with babies, and so nice with the other kids. I'm proud of him.

I have really enjoyed seeing pictures of friend's relatives on Facebook today. Many friends had grandparents or great-grandparents that were veterans. It was great to see my friend Lauren's handsome grandad, my best mate Sue's grandad with Winston Churchill (what a picture!), and a friend's grandad who fought in the American Civil War. It's so touching to see them all. I read a picture about a vet in Lytham in England who died and didn't have an relatives and hundreds of people, strangers, showed up to his funeral to pay their respects. That one had me crying like an old fool.

I found a lovely picture of my paternal Grandad in his WW2 uniform but not of my maternal Grandad (must try and get one from mum). I did find this picture though. His name is John Southern and he was the young brother of my great grandma Ada. He died in battle in Belgium during The Great War. He was only 20. The battle (3rd Battle of Ypres) was famous for it's poor leadership and awful weather conditions. The men and horses and military equipment were bogged down in waist high mud and their commanders sent them to their inevitable deaths. It's very sad. He's buried in Belgium. Maybe I'll make it one day. My mum is going next year and Craig's nephew Luke is too. 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war.

Changing Rooms

Last night I deleted the post about my ghost-hunt on Friday by mistake. I'm so fed-up about that because I wanted it documented. So don't be surprised if you see it pop up again re-written and back dated.

Today we were super productive. We sold the loft bed and thank God we did. We hated it! Ever try changing a fitted sheet on a loft bed? Let me enlighten you - you have to climb the ladder and get on the bed and then try to change it while you are sitting on the bed. Ever try to put a sheet on a mattress you're sitting on? Nightmare. As you can imagine I swore a lot!   And I didn't like that I couldn't sit and read Jack a story and the thing was so big it was obnoxious. Yeah we hated it. Good riddance loft bed.

So we now have a twin bed for Jack. Our neighbours Dave & Pam gave us matching twin beds a couple of weeks ago and we went and bought 2 mattress sets today. We need rails for Danny's yet, but here's the new room set-up, complete with the art work I bought at Jack's school last weekend:

I also re-did our room. Previously we had a flowery green theme, but now it's all Brit. I like it a lot. I think it's safe to assume that I'm homesick and need to go home soon.

Thankful Stuff

Today's earlier post is gone. Must have deleted it by accident. oops.

Well I got half of my to-do list done: Craft show & BD Party. Tried to have a nap when I got back at 3 PM but  the kids were too hyper. I had a conversation with a friend tonight who feels like she has no "hope" right now. Thing is, she has an awesome family. So even though we all feel a tad fed-up sometimes we need to keep things in perspective.
I'm: Happy. Tired. Feeling Fat. Suffering PMS. Grateful. Dry. Poor. and Loved
When I look at that list then I think life is good, Because I think the number one thing for a happy life is friends & family.

A Happy Halloween

I think that Halloween is fast becoming one of my favourite holidays. We started on the 19th of October and celebrated it for two weeks. Here's some of the events and pictures from it:

Danny's Pre-school Parade

"Trunk or Treat" at Jack's School

Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treat

Werewolf Craig with our Trunk

Jack & friend in our Trunk

A Trip to Pigeon Roost Farm

Party: Shaun & The Girl in the Garden

Trick or Treat Night  - The Grim Reaper and Grumpy Ninja (what a  picture!)

Zombie Jack

Today & a Troll

Today was a long one, and then a PTA meeting. A couple of people asked me what was wrong and looked genuinely a bit scared for me. They could see I was exhausted but I did the whole upper lip thing and I think I got away with it. I'm fine, but I am very tired if I'm honest. And a bit run-down. I dream of going to a spa for a week on my own. When I win the lottery of course.

And today, on a Facebook forum, I also got called "weak". Craig and I manage a Facebook page where people post events. A troll was on there this morning and was horrible and rude and called me weak. WEAK? I left school at 16, left home at 17, emigrated to another country, and have done 50+ skydives. I'm a lot of things but "weak" isn't one of them.

It sounds like this was a bad day - it wasn't. I had a great day actually. I was just complaining a bit.

Danny: What a Difference a Year Makes

Today we had Daniel's teacher conference. His two teachers looked at us and said "He's amazing. Excelling in academics, social skills and all other areas. We have no concerns at all. Questions?" Blimey. What a difference a year makes.

All afternoon I've been busting with pride, dying to tell someone but everyone at work is at a conference except me. I said something on Facebook and tried not to sound too much like Mrs smug pants but it's hard.  I want this little moment of feeling good about myself and my parenting skills, since most days I question everything about it. I'll probably go to my grave still struggling with the "should I have held Jack back?" thing. He'll be married and 50 years old and I'll still wonder about that. So yeah, feeling good right now.

And when Mrs J said "One of the best things about him is his Independence and the fact that he's happy with who he is and what he's doing. He'll be a leader". Well that just made my week. A year ago that Independence drove me up the bloody wall. Now I'm proud of it. This past 12 months he's grown into an amazing young lad.

Of course last night at the supermarket he was running (he can't walk) and hiding and grabbing and acting like a lunatic as usual, so let's keep things real.  But I'll take today's little parenting boost and store it in a happy place.

2013 Pre-School Picture

The Worst Salesman in Ohio

I am selling Jack's loft bed because I can't change the sheet without cursing like a sailor and I can't sit on his bed and read him a story. He's fed up with it too. Our fabulous neighbours have given us matching twin beds that I can't wait to set up.

I posted the loft bed on a local buy, sell, and trade Facebook site so that I wouldn't have to deal with Craigslist crazies and got some good responses already.  A lady came over to see it tonight so I spent 30 minutes after work tidying the house and doing my best to make it look like we aren't slobs. I also instructed Jack not to talk because he has a habit of talking people's ears off and telling them things he shouldn't (like how much we paid for it, for example).

Just as the doorbell rang Jack went into the bathroom (which is opposite his bedroom) and did a horrendously smelly poo. And then he came into his bedroom and showed the woman where all the scuff marks on the bed were, including a place where there had been a name in marker pen and I'd buffed it out (not too well).

Nice one Jack.

Craft Show & Bommy Night

One day into Nablopomo and I FAILED miserably. Guess I should try a bit harder huh.

Yesterday was such a crazy day though. It was the craft show at Jack's elementary school and I had a table with two other mums. I sold a few sock monkeys and had a good time catching up with friends and neighbours but I was there from 8.30 to 3 and of course got roped into the dismantle at the end. There's about 6 of us on the PTA that do everything, which is good since we all get along great, but also a pain in the bum because we get saddled with all the work at every event. I'm not sure why only 6 of us out of 200 sets of parents are the only ones willing to do stuff. Oh well.

My crafter friends, Erika and Eileen

I made $46 in sales but then bought stuff on the silent auction, including this art work from Jack's 2nd grade class. His hand is the one top middle, with the black finger nails. Mmmm, where to put it?

When I got home about 3.30 I laid on the couch and was a total couch potato while Craig took the boys on a haunted train ride (he had gone hunting in the morning but didn't get a deer).

Last night we all went to Maureen's house for the annual Bonfire Night party with the Brits. That has quickly turned into one of my favourite events of the year. I love my British friends. We did have a few issues with a child there who was encouraged by his mum to fight and punch to get what he wanted. He hit Jack a few times and even walloped him over the head with a garden stake at one point. That was the point that my alter-ego showed up and I put an end to it. I like the mum but I haven't raised my kids to be violent and I don't appreciate it when other parents act like that. I see no reason to tell a child that hitting is okay. None at all. Some parents think that teaching a boy to be a "man" is important I guess.

Today we got to sleep in. Hurrah for fall-back! My goal is to hoover, since I haven't in 2 weeks and my house is a box full of dog hair. And of course there's laundry, dishes, tidying and trying to throw away all the plastic crap and candy the kids got for Halloween without them seeing me do it.