It's Official!

We're now tenants in a three bedroom house. With a huge garden. And permission to decorate. And to do pretty much what we like to the garden.

We met our housing officer this morning, she's most defintly a get done type person. We had no heat/hot water till last night as british gas make the landlord phone to get it sorted (we're switching from them asap!) but she got them to come out and get it fixed. And she'll have us teh ability to plumb in the washing machine by next weds as well (they seem to have filled in the hole to the over flow pipe so the waste water has no where to go)

The girls room is ALMOST finished being painted a lighter blue. Bumps room IS now yellow- it took three coats to get the pink covered! We'll do the other rooms as and when we can. Next task.... unpack and place everything!

Excellent Customer Service!

All too often we hear the bad about companies. This time, I have the good.

Virgin Media... I phoned them asking to switch us off at the current property and how soon could they get us back on at the new.. and were there any deals they could do as technically we'd be new customers (a year or 18mos back they took over telewest who were our suppliers)

Saturday they're switching us OFF here AND getting us set up at the new property. I'll need to re-set my paperless billing. And for 6mos we get both evening and weekend UK landline calls free. (reverts to weekends only after that)

NPower... I phoned this morning at 9 to get the electricity switched back on at the new property. MIL and I pulled up to the electricians outside at about 10.15! We have electricity now!

and i want to tell you about a great website i found too... iammoving a place to tell everyone necessary about your move! and they'll help you find the best deals on gas/electricity/phone/tv/internet as well!

i'm hoping to get as good a response from british gas tomorrow when i call to get the gas back on... it's cold in that house once the sun isn't glaring through the windows!

New House Pics.

Back garden from bumps room. Look how LONG it is! It's very bumpy though!

Back garden from by the house. Sian wants to get a football out there!

Front garden (and clive locking up after we'd painted the first coat on bumps room and he'd laid most the flooring in the kids room)

Back (dining room)

Front (sitting) room.

Bumps room from window (it's NOT going to stay this colour!!!)

Bumps room from door

What will be the girls room from the corner.. just to give an idea of the colour. They've chosen a lighter blue. There should be room for their toys up there as well as their beds!

Our room from the window corner. Wow. We might be able to have some storage this time! No more clothes in a box for me!!!

Bathroom... it's small but better than the current one. It has a BATH!!! Can't wait to get the gas on and in that!

Belly Painting Pics

Beth and the Belly (Sian was there too, but Clive's a lousy photographer!!)

Kissing the bump.

Heh. They're moving us further and further!

Away from my parents that is! All the while we bid on locata on properties near my parents as I'm my dad's carer (when I can get there at the moment!) Today, we saw our new home... for the next who knows how long! And it's another 3miles away! So NOW i'm a good 6-7 miles from them if they need me to come over at a drop of a hat. Only one bus, but a good 30mins on that one bus!

The House... (bad pics to follow!)

Has a HUGE back garden, that needs flattening!! But there's room out there that if we can get permission to play with it? Vege patch, Kids area AND a washing line. with space between the three! And there's a concreted bit just outside the kitchen door that even in winter the girlies could go out to play if it's not to wet. I didn't get pics of the front garden, but it has a couple of pretty purplish flowers in it and a grassy patch. and a drive for the car (so, just DH's work bus to find a parking spot for then!!)

Downstairs we have two reception rooms. The slightly smaller (front) one will be the sitting room. With the TV and Wii in it. Oh and the sofa! (and maybe some bookshelves!!!) The rear (larger) one will house the computer (finally out of my bedroom!), dining table, tumble dryer (possibly- later about that) and homeschool stuff. And a small kitchen. That is much better laid out than our current one. We do need to buy a cooker however.

Upstairs.. Small bathroom (couldn't swing a cat!) but bigger than what we have now- it has a BATH!!!! Small double bedroom (ours) at the front, large double bedroom at the back (girlies) which is currently a kind of dark blue. The girls chose a paler shade for us to paint it tomorrow- and we need to lay flooring in there. And "Orlando" who is now most DEFINATELY not allowed to come this week! has the box room, which is currently barbie pink, but will after some hard work become pineapple yellow!

The Costs....

laminate flooring for kids room (and underlay) £160, Paint for both rear bedrooms (and rollers/trays) £60, new cooker (and fitting) around the £200 mark, new tumble dryer as ours has just burnt out... i don't want to know! Maybe we can deal again. Nappies and all. I'm hoping that it just felt it ahd been worked too hard!

having a room for the baby that can house it's changing table and cot (moses basket for now) PRICELESS!

OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!!!

If you've read this blog from the begining you'll know about all the trials and tribulations we have with trying to find housing in our area. And that the lease on our current property was up back in JULY.

We got a phone call yesterday morning asking if we could be at the temporary accommodation office this week to sign for a new (temporary, but hey!) property. Good job I was sitting down or I may have fallen! So, this morning in just a couple of hours we'll be finding out where our new THREE BEDROOM!!!! house is. I have a week to go before this baby is due to make an appearance, so I'm really REALLY hoping that it stays put while we move stuff from house to house.

Luckily my In Laws are both retired and can come and help us to pack, I have a super freind who's having the kids all day Wed-Fri and Beth's Godfather can help us out with a van after work and saturday pm/sunday all day. And one of the health team is coming to help as well after re-arranging her schedule for me (taht's how much she loves me and the kids!!)

So, we go this morning, sign paperwork, find out where we're going, how the council will help (they said they'll help with the removal), hopefully pick up keys and maybe start moving some bits later. WE HAVE TO BE OUT OF HERE BY NEXT MONDAY!!!!!!!!

Car...

Holy Moly! £180 for two car keys. And then ANOTHER £60 when they arrive to have them programmed into the car?! It's daylight bloody robbery. But it will make life a little easier as at the moment we're having to lock/unlock the car manually wich means remembering to leave the passenger door open when you get out.

curses on you woman!!

you'll know who you are when i say dunelm mill we went to get a shower curtain and some pillows. we came out £50 poorer! why a shower curtain? it's cheaper than anything else to protect the floor while i give birth! we also have some new bed linen and the girls got new cutlery.

Baby Show....



new nappies (bitti d'lish) modeled by the girls. funny how i was looking for fleece liners for the new one and this happened!! i have to say even stuffed to the brim for over night use (only time the girls wear nappies now) they're very trim. I also had a look at the bum genius as i've heard good things about them, but i'm not a velcro person so didn't buy one to try (and these two cost only £5 more than one BG would have!)

Clive is now a member of the first ever sausage club Sian tried the wild boar and apple yesterday and said it was deeelicious. So they had sausages for dinner when we got home. For his money he gets 10lbs of sausages delivered to the door twice a year. we split the membership with mum though as she and dad go through the bangers too. I have to say i was most impressed iwth how well these hold together when cooking. and they don't smell like the ones you get in tescos!!

Baby update..

well, as much as. it's still in there baking nicely thanks! We bought "lando" a coat and baby grow from pumpkin patch. The coat is grey with a hippo embroidered on one pocket and the baby grow is white iwth a hippo. And s/he has an infant carrier now as it's too awkward to strap sian into her booster seat iwth the convertible in there.

trish is away again. so an appearance is not allowed to be made this week LOL. we have plans anyway. (sign class, car keys, high school musical 3) come on oct 28th and i'll win my own birth pool!!

Beth's Birthday Pictures.

Birthday Cake!!

We took over this table!!

with most the kids

Uncle Stevie is the best uncle 2 years in a row. he found a giant makka pakka!!!

opening sian's present

opening mama and daddy's present

upsy daisy bed!!

night garden counter, neat.

Kew Gardens

Random Geese. Like babies with no nappies, they do their business EVERYWHERE!

Daddy and Boo messing around

Sian-a-banana (ask her!) playing hide and seek in the trees

Eww... sticky!

making the venus fly trap work

Tree Listening. Yes, really!

More Tree Listening (they creak!)

How does it work?

Well this one you hit!

A wooden snail.

We went to Kew Gardens a few weeks ago. The girls went into climbers and creepers (where there were far too many people, and not nearly enough supervision) and had fun with the inside and out exhibits. We tried to find the giant badger sett and tree top walk but neither was findable so we jsut had a walk! And if you get the chance to listen to a tree, they creak. Lots.

Owwww! I want my body back!

I know it will happen. I'm just whinging cause "Lando" isn't due for a few more weeks. Ideally s/he will come when Clive has half term (so sometime between Oct 18-26th!) but the EDD is the week AFTER that and we all know kids come when *THEY* want to LOL

Onto the whinge.

I hurt. But mostly at night. I sleep maybe for 30mins at a time. and during that I toss and turn trying to get comfortable. I can't (waaah) It happens during the day too, but usually if i Sit/Stand/Walk too long. At least during the day It's easy to change positions. Come the morning, actually, it doesn't even take that long. Once I've been in bed an hour moving is agony. And getting up to go to the bathroom? I look like an old lady hobbling along as my left hip is complaining if I put any weight on it. It takes a good hour of "owching" to get going. and that's with plenty of stopping as well.

And I hope that the

painful, stop and breathe through them braxton hicks twinges are actually DOING something to help my labour along! I won't have a nursling this time as Beth gave her Mummy Milk up a few months ago when it dried up to switch to colostrum. Sian, of course I told at 4 she was a big girl and didn't need Mummy Milk any more. They still both love my boobies... ask Beth why and she'll tell you "cause they are soooo delicious" and then says "when lando's here theres one for me and one for him" so funny. can't wait to have a baby attached to me again!

Okay, I'm almost

un-achey enough to go and make pancakes with teh girls. They've had toast as a "snack" and now we're making pancakes for a real breakfast LOL. I think they're hungry! They helped me with a roast last night. Although we did cheat and buy ready to roast potatoes LOL. We're doing roast chicken together for Christmas dinner this year.

She's a BIG girl now!

My baby girl turned THREE yesterday! How on earth did THAT happen ;o) We had a lovely, normal day. The only thing of note was we took over a rather LARGE chunk of the local mcdonalds for lunch LOL. I think there must have been around 20 of us there hehe. Well, if they'd have let us use the party room we wouldn't have clogged up the store for an hour would we?! Other than that, all Boo wanted to do was go to soft play and stay and play like we normally do on a thursday.

I think her favourite presents were her Giant Makka Pakka from her Uncle Stevie. And the Upsy Daisy Bed from Mama and Daddy. She wouldn't go to bed till I'd put her Stephanie (lazytown) PJs on though LOL. And she has a very cute top that I'm putting on her tomorrow! Sian got her an "in the night garden" abacus (2 rows of beads, 1 of ITNG characters and 1 of the ten pontipines) other than that she got lots of arty crafty stuff, some undies and an alarm clock... not sure we'll use that LOL. thegirls are very good at crawling into my bed around 5.30am for snuggles!

I did get photo's, but they're still on the camera (really must get them off that, it needs to go in for repair as the flash doesn't work) I will share them as soon as they're on the computer though.

We're good to go!

Trish came round today with my homebirth pack (yay!) and we're now good to go (cause i started writing this some time ago LOL) BP was fine, babe is head down- and i swear it's all legs! I got an unexpected peek at it last week. HR still there and wriggly LOL. urine clear. i need another anti-d which i've arranged to have at the end of the week.

I need to buy a car seat and some water proof sheeting (read shower curtains!) and see if i can still borrow a freinds birthing pool (please, i've been trying for a water birth for years!)

the cloth nappies and all the baby clothes we have are at mums now. just need to bring the moses basket over. and after that we pack for me and the girlies. hopefully that will give me enough room to at least have space in our bedroom to create room for baby-kins!

now i just need to hold on to my temper a wee while longer and then when this one arrives get down to housing to add them to the list (entitling us to a bigger property) meanwhile i need to try and get hold of our housing officer about a hole in the roof and to see what on earth is going on with the lease (that they told us they weren't renewing and was up almost 4 months ago)

next excitement... beth's birthday!! new post with pics to follow after the big event LOL

well, i never

intended to go down the work book route for sian and beth, but they chose for themselve (and this was what i wanted for them) sian quite happily will do 3-5pages at a time each for fun and a gold star. then she tells me she's tired LOL. well, 20mins hard work will do that to you sweetie pie!

every 5 gold stars she earns, sian gets a cat sticker (the character in her workbooks is called "curly cat") and so far i think she's earned at least 2 cats in each book! today she learned wich direction words go in (left to right) and the book had matching games for her to do.

lap books

i'm stealing another idea and modifying it for my two. we're going to be making "favourite things" lap books. i've already created the templates. now to fill them in. i think they'll enjoy that. we can colour, draw, stick and take pictures for it!

Sian is coming on in leaps and bounds with her BSL lessons. This week she asked her GrannyJan to take her and spent the 30minute lesson translating what her teacher was saying for her granny! I've been told her signing is often better than some fo the adults! (proud mama moment!)

35week musings....

Why is it high street stores don't think the larger lady gets pregnant? New Look does a lovely range of clothes for a larger lady (16-24), yet their maternity range stops at an 18, Mamas & Papas and Mothercare both specialist stores, only go up to an 18- and that's if you can FIND any 18's!! Blooming Marvellous only goes to a 16. Evans, THE store for the larger lady? Doesn't even DO maternity clothes... hello, you're missing a HUGE gap in the market here! And we don't want "granny" clothes either!

32wks 5days

I have been so slack at updating haven't I? Orlando was still head down 3wks ago.. Urine clean, BP fine, HR still in the "boys" range mostly- except when s/he was moving around.

Trish said to call at teh first twinge of back ache and she'll come over and put her feet up LOL. Told her that basically I just want to get on with giving birth, let the girls come and go as they and I please, Sian/Beth to tell me what it is, Nurse immeadiatly and delay cutting the cord.

On my part, if the little stinker turns breech at this late stage, I will still get to attempt a vaginal delivery, just have to do it at the hospital. If I go into labour in the next 2wks.. again, hospital. And there were the reasons for transferring, but they were things that you'd want to transfer for.. retained placenta, hemmorage.

Oh, she said she'd see me in 2-3weeks... that was 3wks ago LOL. I better call and remind her taht we have a date! And I need another anti-d too

Baby Sitting....

I have a fussy eater and a fussy baby in my care tonight. Along with my two of course. The baby fell asleep in my arms after crying a while, and is now enjoying a biscuit LOL. And the big girl probably thinks i'm the meanest person in the world as dinner was "mash"(cottage) pie not her staple beans on toast!

Gymnastics

Sian and Beth tried gymnastics today. Beth was a bit slow to get started but then didn't want to leave LOL. She doesn't want to go back though, she tells me she didn't enjoy it! Sian got hit by one of the children in her class, but such is her make up that she just dissolved in inconsolable tears and wouldn't say why she was crying. A quick cuddle and she went back and really enjoyed herself. She says she wants to go back... I'll ask again Monday or Tuesday!

How do you make Sian happy?

Tell her she has some cloth nappies for night time again! She sleeps soooo soundly that I can't see her night training any time soon. The big problem we have is there are only THREE nappies in her size, guess I'd better find some more then! On a tangent... the 3yo we had over the other night was in a disposable and OMG it STUNK!!! So glad that we're going straight to cloth with the next one!!

Customs Charge

I got to mums teh other day to be greeted with a customs charge for a packet of what i THINK is cloth nappy bits for "Orlando" Not amused as it's costing me £12... I'll be passing that charge onto the retailer, would have been cheaper to just pay full shipping! I also received from one of the girls on my DD forum THE softest winnie the pooh baby blanket in green (remember, it's a suprise) and a wtp vest as well. and a gorgeous card. must take pics of them to share.

How much does it cost...

to get my oldest child in clothes that FIT her skinny body and cute butt? £100 in Next. But her trousers now FIT and she no longer has a "builders bum" even the jeans i grabbed for her in mothercare fell off her while she was running for the bus. poor kid was showing her undies to the world! Trouble is if you put a belt on she can't get to the loo on her own. She has some cute new clothes though and looks every bit her age now instead of younger.. it's taken almost 5yrs to get there!!

My Kids are braver than me!

Sian and Beth had their first ever visit to the dentist today. They were ever so good.

Sian wanted to know how many teeth she had/should have so the dentist counted them for her. She has 20, and they're all perfect. We didn't get them cleaned though as she doesn't like "buzzy" toothbrushes. There are a lot of noises she doesn't like when i think about it. Last time we saw Trish she covered her ears while we were looking for Orlando's heart beat (Sian got the place right though!)

Beth wasn't so keen on the moving chair, but she opened her mouth wide (like Peppa Pig) and let the dentist count her teeth too. She pretty much as 20- one on of them is only partially through. They are perfect too. I did find it strange that i was asked if a child who is almost three (eek!) still had a bottle. and asked even when i said she'd stopped nursing only a couple months ago. i'm to lazy for bottles!

Randomness from Longleat

Waiting in the queue to enter the safari park

Daddy held a tarantula

Hippo's bite yanno... and this one looked HUNGRY!!

There's an odd looking giraffe in there LOL

Sian, Beth and Daddy hold a snake. I think the snake weighed as much as Beth LOL. (well, not really!)

Longleat.

Hanging off the car in front.

Monkeys like the higher vehicles!

Mama with her babies. I didn't manage to get the one of a mama monkey nursing though :o(

Cheeky Monkey! We waited ages for one to jump on the car. It jumped on and ran over the top then jumped off!

Just being a nosey monkey.

I think the monkeys were the favourite for us at the safari park. We almost burnt our clutch out though waiting for one to jump on the car. They're quick little so n so's! We had two jump on and run over then off. I think WW3 may have broken out had they not as the girls were desperate for them to come to us LOL.

Spray Park, Staines

It's safer to explore with Mama


Ready, Set, GO!!!!

Oooh I can shoot you!

It's not that bad Bethy!

Come on in, the water's lovely!

It's taken her months!

But finally Beth can sign "Aeroplane" without any assistance from Mama to get the right fingers. We decided to do some random sign practice while walking home from town today and that was one that we did- I guess living so close to the airport helps LOL. I'd just randomly ask one of them a sign and both would usually do it. I wonder if Sian would be up to taking her BSL exam next year... the way she's going I'd say ability wise she'll be FINE!

We took a bus to town today. No pushchair (eek!). Went to the bank to lend my sister yet more money. Not sure how this happens. LOL. Then after that the girls went on the roundabout as they had been ever so good. We bought cakes and sausage rolls and drinks for "elevenses" and then walked up to find a dentist for a freind. The earliest we could get her in was next Weds. and at that she has a 2wk shorter wait than most new patients! Sian and Beth are going too. Sian was all upset because the dentist couldn't see her today.

After that we walked back up to town for lunch and then meandered home. Finding random letters carved into walls on the way! Sian trys to tell me she doesn't know them LOL. But she does. I managed NOT to get frustrated with her. A BIIIIIG step for me, and an important one in the grand scheme of things.

As we got to our gate Grannyjan and Grandad pulled up to take us bowling for the first time in ages. I got some pics- but not downloaded them yet! and the girls managed EIGHT frames between them before deciding they wanted ice cream instead. *note to self, it will take at least 30mins in future to help grandad with his splint/shoes*

and just a normal veg in front of the telly with tea and then bed tonight. and that's our day LOL.