There's a....

MEGA SALE

on my shop site...follow the link on the right. Many things are half price or less. Pefect for those exchanges and Christmas pressies...it's sneaking up on us, only about 125 shopping days to go!

D-Day!

Today was D-Day...the day the baby was due. Needless to say it's going to be a stubborn little bugger like it's mother. Kate had a midwife appointment this morning at 9am, everything is still fine. Hilary did a membrane sweep (basically - for the unsqueamish - it's an internal where the midwife separates the membranes at the neck of the cervix). She said the head is well down in the pelvis but the wall of the cervix is still quite thick. Kate has another appointment for next Thursday, and if there's still no sign of the baby then Hilary will make an appointment for the following week for Kate to be induced. Of course, Hilary will be on holiday the following week so will end up with a different midwife. I hope she doesn't get Hazel who did her booking in appointment - she's had a sense-of-humour and personality by-pass. What a miserable bitch!

Kate is fed-up now and can't wait to have the baby. Her friend Laura in Nottingham is impatient too. Kate rang her up tonight to let her know what's happening (nothing!) and Laura told her to tell Keely that Auntie Laura isn't happy and she'd better hurry up and get here. LOL. What a head case that girl is.

Craig has done a bit more decorating in Ainsley's bedroom. Dad is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help him to do some more. We need it to be finished by Monday when the social worker is coming up from Leicester to start our assessment.

On the job front, I finally got my CRB check back, only took them 13 weeks. Andrea from Shaw Trust, who is arranging my work placement, rang me yesterday to let me know that I'm starting my placement with Sure Start on Monday 22nd September (which would have been my 24th wedding anniversary if I'd still been married to my first husband). With any luck, after the six weeks, I'll get a job with Sure Start. I do want to go back to work, after all these years, but at the same time, I'll have a new grandchild. Kate wants to go back to work eventually too, so there could be a bit of juggling about if she does go back.

Don't tease little old ladies!

Defense Attorney: Will you please state your age?
Little Old Lady: I am 86 years old.

Defense Attorney: Will you tell us, in your own words, what happened the night of April 1st?

Little Old Lady: There I was, sitting there in my swing on my front porch on a warm spring evening,when a young man comes creeping up on the porch and sat down beside me.

Defense Attorney: Did you know him?
Little Old Lady: No, but he sure was friendly.
Defense Attorney: What happened after he sat down?
Little Old Lady: He started to rub my thigh.
Defense Attorney: Did you stop him?
Little Old Lady: No, I didn't stop him.
Defense Attorney: Why not?
Little Old Lady: It felt good. Nobody had done that since my Albert died some 30 years ago.
Defense Attorney: What happened next?
Little Old Lady: He began to rub my breasts.
Defense Attorney: Did you stop him then?
Little Old Lady: No, I did not stop him.
Defense Attorney: Why not?
Little Old Lady: His rubbing made me feel all alive and excited. I haven't felt that good in years!Defense Attorney: What happened next?

Little Old Lady: Well, by then, I was feeling so 'spicy' that I just laid down and told him 'Take me, young man. Take me now!'

Defense Attorney: Did he take you?
Little Old Lady: Hell, no! He just yelled, 'April Fool!'
And that's when I shot him, the little bastard.

Kate is gutted...LOL!

Kate came round after 9am yesterday for me to take her to her midwife appointment down at the health centre. She wasn't happy as she'd spent ages trying to get into the trousers or jeans that she's been wearing all the time. She'd had to resort to a pair of trackie bottoms, with elasticated waist. PMSL. She's got all the way to 39 weeks in her jeans and normal trousers, and is now gutted that they won't fasten. I told her the baby must have dropped down a bit. Anyway, the baby is fine, Kate's blood pressure and water sample were ok, and the baby's heartbeat was strong and loud, so it looks as if everything is going well still. She has another appointment with the midwife next Wednesday morning, which is her due date, and we'll see how that goes.

New addition to family

We took Ainsley back to Leicester yesterday, in time for a case conference with the social services (she's been in foster care for the last 8 or 9 months), and after a two hour meeting it was decided that she could come back to live with us. The SS have to do background checks on me and Craig, CRB checks, and the social worker needs to come and do a couple of assessments on us - YIKES! I have to tidy up! - but everything should be fine, and then she'll be with us permanently.

There's going to be one mad rush to get her enrolled in a local school, then we have to sort out the GP, dentist and child benefit. We also need to get a replacement birth certificate as her mother has the original and I don't suppose she'd send it up. I'm certainly not asking her.

We also need to start decorating our house again. We're going to do Ainsley's bedroom first so she'll move into the back bedroom out of the way. She's decided on purple.

Say "Cheese!"

Seeing as I had the camera out I took some sneaky shots. The first one is Craig and Kate after a couple of hours decorating. Don't often get a photo of Kate smiling properly.

And this is Ainsley. She's my 14 yr old step-daughter and has been staying here for a couple of weeks. She goes back to Leicester on Monday.

Kid free zone

The kids are finally moved into their new homes. We spent the weekend laying carpets, putting up curtain rails and curtains and moving Dene and his belongings into his new apartment. He was all in by Sunday night. There are still a few things upstairs that belong to him but they can be boxed up and taken over in the car at some point.

On Monday, Dad and Craig finished papering Kate's room and got the carpet put down. We moved her bed over and some of her stuff on Monday night and she's been living there ever since. She's got Ainsley with her to keep her company - she hates sleeping in a house alone. The photos of Kate's room only show one end. There's a single bed at the other end that Ainsley is sleeping in, and when she's gone the cot will be put up in that corner. There should be a wardrobe next to the chest of drawers, but we sort of erm...had a mishap. It was Ainsley's fault (well I'm not gonna blame myself am I!), it fell to bits when we were trying to stand it the right way round as we were putting it together. Consequently it got chucked out of the baby's room window and is currently languishing in bits in the back garden. I'll get Ian to carry the bits of chipboard round to the front over the weekend, then Kate can ring the council bulky rubbish people up to come and take it away.

The rest of this week has been spent finishing off the stairs and landing...

There's no stair/landing carpet yet but the walls are done. The door on the right is the baby's room, and the door straight ahead is Kate's room. All the doors throughout the house still need painting, which Craig is going to do tomorrow.

This is the baby's room. At the minute it's mainly being used for storage. The cot is in here in bits and a spare double bed which is for our house. Eventually. Need a carpet for in here and curtains.

The kitchen is now finished. There's a venetian blind up at the window. The benches need tidying up as we've been using them for just about everything. Her fridge/freezer is coming tomorrow morning (Dene gets his tomorrow too - I'll have to take some pics at his place soon), and there's stuff to hang on the walls but it's basically done.

And the sitting room is done. The carpet is going down on Saturday afternoon. The curtains are up and the papering is done. Maybe I should have taken a photo of the fireplace wall. LOL. You can't really see what the paper looks like on that wall behind the sofa.