Lie in… or not.

Tags

cheek, children, Daddy, lazy, lie in, Lies, sleep

Today Jay had the day off and I headed out to work in the morning. I dragged myself out of bed at 7.15 and left him sleeping with our youngest daughter snuggled up beside him.

I had only been downstairs about fifteen minutes when Bart appeared in the kitchen.
“Hi Mummy” she chirped.
“Hi Sweetie.  I thought you were having a lie in with Daddy”
“I was.  But I wanted to see what you were doing”
“I am chopping vegetables for the guinea pigs and then I am going to work”
“What’s for breakfast?”
“I don’t know, Daddy is in charge of your breakfast today. Now off you go, back up to bed for a lie down” And off she trots.

Five minutes later AJ skipped in.
“Morning Mum” she sings
“Morning AJ”
“What are you doing?”
“Chopping vegetables for the guinea pigs”
“Oh. Can I help?”
“Not at the moment. I am trying to get this done before I go to work”
“Oh. Are you making breakfast?”
“No, Daddy will do it when he gets up”
“I am going to go see Daddy” And she disappeared back upstairs.

Ten minutes later both girls reappeared in the kitchen and sat at the table.
“I told you Daddy was making breakfast.” I said
“He is getting up now” AJ replied.

A few minutes later Jay strolled into the kitchen fully dressed.
“What are you doing up? I thought you were having a lie in.”
“The girls told me you had sent them up to say you were going to work and I had to get my lazy butt out of bed. So here I am”
“What? I said no such thing!”

“What’s for breakfast?” Bart asked innocently as she and AJ sat grinning at each other.

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Spinning Faster.

Tags

busy, crazy, Landrover, school trips, sports night

I knew this week was going to be a bit crazy with the normal school and playgroup runs, swimming lessons and working two jobs. But on top of that I’ve also had to go to the nearest town (which is 17 miles away) and buy AJ new trainers as hers had fallen apart (her feet were hanging out of them), a primary one induction garden party, Bart’s playgroup trip, AJ’s sports night and a trip to the dentist to have a crown fitted. I also managed a coffee morning with pals, lunch with my Mother-in-law and heading to meet another friend, while picking up hay for the guinea pigs.

Yesterday afternoon I did catch a five-minute snooze between getting back from the playgroup trip and collecting AJ from the school bus. I put my head on the kitchen table and was shooting up z’s in seconds.

This evening Jay and I high-fived as he got in from work and I left for my job. When I pulled up in the village where I work and got out of the car, I spotted a pair of ears in the back. There sat Willow, our old collie dog. She had been asleep in the boot of the Landrover and only woken up when I turned the engine off. I called Jay, who had the girls in the bath, and made arrangement for him to come into town with the kids in their pj’s and pick her up.

I got into work, put my coat away, clocked in and headed to reception to find out what tables had been booked for that evening.

Only to discover I had the wrong bloody night!

Yep, I am supposed to be working Friday and Saturday not Thursday!

I clocked back out again, grabbed my coat and bag, called Jay to say not to bother coming to get Willow and headed home.

I have now sent Jay out to get fish and chips. Damned if I am cooking!

Waltzer

Tags

busy, spring, time

What is happening to this year? It seems to be gathering pace and spinning faster and faster. At the moment I feel as if I am on a waltzer that won’t stop and I am getting a little queasy.

Summer term at school always seems to be crazy, but this year time is flying.

The fact that I started a new job maybe adding to the madness. After weeks of no work (and no money!) I found a new job in a different hotel which had me hitting the ground running. It’s great. I am loving the fast pace and friendliness of it all. But boy, am I shattered when I get home!

Spring has finally come to the Highlands… kind of. On Thursday some of the snow gates were shut on the high grounds as the roads were impassable. Saturday was so warm we were in shorts and t-shirts. The weather has gone crazy here. But we are making the most of the sunny days and have even managed a couple of walks on the beach. Admittedly only the dog paddled in the North Sea, far too cold for human toes.

So anyway, I am really hoping things start to slow down soon, just so I have time to sit and write. But with summer holidays only a hop skip and jump away and so much to fit in between now and then, I won’t hold my breath.

I think this ride is going to carry on spinning for a while longer!

Time to sit down.

Tags

Christmas, concert, guinea pig, Hogmanay, jingle bells, Pantomime, Reindeer, Santa

As you can imagine, Christmas with two energetic little girls is crazy. The noise levels in our house rose by a number of decibel and the excitement levels were off the chart.

We did rounds of school trips, parties and concerts with both AJ and Bart making us very proud parents. AJ learnt lots of new songs to take part in her concert and Bart learnt three in just over a week. But to be honest, if I hear ‘Jingle Bells’ one more time before next December I may end up running for the hills.AJ’s school went on a trip to the pantomime (oh yes they did!) thankfully parents didn’t have to attend that one.

Bart’s playgroup trip was to visit some reindeer. Both Jay and I went along too on a very cold and wet morning.

The children got to feed the animals which was a very mucky business with lots of slobber left on little hands.

Afterwards we headed to the local cafe for fish and chips.

Christmas Eve finally arrived. “Santa” was very disappointed to find AJ had substituted this years nip of whisky for a glass of milk instead. So when it came time to get the snack ready a large cookie appeared on the plate as compensation.

Christmas morning started after eight with the opening of stockings. AJ managed to stuff at least half a dozen chocolate coins in her mouth before I called a halt to the feast. (Mean Mummy).

The girls main present was guinea pig boxes. Large wooden carry cases for them to take their pets to shows. In these days when kids want all the new expensive electrical gadgets, it was lovely to see my two getting so excited over gifts their Daddy and I had worked on. (Jay stripped the original paint and redid them. We added stencil flowers and fairy’s, then I put their names on.)

Grandma knitted them new jumpers and she and Granddad bought outfits for both girls.

Christmas day was spent with my in-laws. Lauren cooked a wonderful lunch and we all had a great family day.

The last couple of days I have been back at work. Hogmanay is a big deal here in Scotland and the hotel where I work has a three-day “house party”. The last day of December I worked all day, came home and made supper then collapsed in the armchair. Snuggled under a blanket I fell asleep until James woke me about five minutes to midnight. As the old year passed and the new one started I was kissing my girls goodnight before falling into bed.

Tonight I am heading into work again for my last shift before the hotels winter shutdown.

Next week the girls go back to school and playgroup, so hopefully I will find time to sit down.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2013 brings love and happiness to you all.

xxx

Hands

Tags

bruises, cuts, Fathers, hands, memories

After supper this evening we were all sat around the table and AJ started inspecting Jay’s hands. Jay is a plant mechanic so they are pretty bashed and work roughened. As AJ pointed to each cut and bruise her Daddy explained how he got them. Putting her soft pale hands in his, AJ’s looked so small and new.

Jay told us how as a little boy he was fascinated by his own Dad’s hands. How rough and callused they were from work. How his own hands were so small and new against them. And now, his own grown up hands so like his Dad’s, remind him of that time.

I wonder what the future holds for our little girls hands.

So Tired

Tags

busy, coffee morning, dancing, party, swimming, Tired

Up at six, bed at one,
Where the hell has my day gone?
Five hours sleep is not enough,
But the whole day is full of stuff.

Swimming, dancing, events for school,
Taxi-ing kids like a crazy fool.
Breakfast, lunches, dinner too
Trying to cook something new.

Working two jobs,
No make that three.
Being Mum is work, you see.
Waitressing, pouring pints, serving dinner,
With all this work shouldn’t I be thinner?
Invoice, estimate, tree report
Dreaming of a spa resort.

Cards and presents we must bring
Seems party season’s in full swing.
Three attended this week alone,
The girls have fun, so I shouldn’t moan.

Baking for playgroup coffee morning
I may doze off, here’s your warning.
Ironing pile taller than me
That’s not difficult at five foot three (and three-quarters!)

Another trip to the vet,
This hamsters putting me in debt.
Remember to clean out the rabbits
A few more weeks and they can cohabit

Today I have the evening free,
Going to spend some time on me.
Banish my husband to his shed
I’m going to star shape across the bed.

The writings on the wall.

Tags

Chelsea, Chelsea Football Club, cleaning, writing

Last night I headed out to work leaving James to do bedtime with the girls. It was a busy night in the hotel. admittedly there were only thirteen guests for dinner, but with only two of us doing the bar, orders, waitressing, coffee (tea, cappuccino, espresso, macchiato) and KP I was pretty shattered by the time I dragged myself in the house at the back of 11.30.

I texted Jay that I was on my way home and was greeted by a hot cup of tea. (What a sweetheart.) After removing my coat and shoes I asked the question I always do when I get home.

“Did the girls go to bed ok?”

“They went to bed fine” Jay replied “But…”

Uh oh.

“I went up half an hour later to check on them,” he continued “Bart was fast asleep, but AJ was sat up in bed with the name CHELSEA written in foot high letters on the wall behind her headboard.”

She what….?

“I have to admit, she spelt it correctly and the writing was neat”

Was this really a proud Daddy moment?!

“I kept my cool, bought her downstairs and we filled a bowl with soapy water, I then got her to clean it all off before she was allowed to go to sleep. By the time she was near the end she was holding her right arm up with her left hand because it was aching, but I would not let her lie down until it was all gone.  She did make a really good job of it.”

Come on, another proud Daddy moment? Talk about putting a positive spin on it.

But why did she write Chelsea on the wall?  I have it down to two choices.

1: Chelsea Football Club had won some big game this weekend and AJ might have caught a mention of it on the TV. But then we are not football followers in our house and we spent most of the weekend outdoors, so that one is not likely.

2: AJ has a friend called Chelsea who lives in another town, but we have all admired pictures on Facebook of her proudly displaying new gaps in her teeth. AJ is quite envious of those gaps and is desperate for a visit from the tooth fairy.

Whichever one it is the walls are now clean… until the next time.

Going for gold.

Tags

medal. chocolate, Olympics

Britain has gone Olympic crazy. There is patriotic red, white and blue in most stores, union flags at the supermarket checkout. Everyone and his brother has a sponsorship advert from fast food to fabric softener. I have seen bags, shoes, hats, trousers, t-shirts and socks all in the British colours or supporting the official logo. We live hundreds of miles from the new London stadium but it seems our little corner of Scotland has been well and truly caught up in the excitement. So it was no surprise when Jay came home the other day with two chocolate gold medals. (Two… two? Hello, there are three chocolate loving females in this house. Where is mine dammit?!)

On Friday’s I usually see AJ on to the school bus, wait half hour until I can run Bart into playgroup, do a quick kiss and dash out the door and head to my job working  for a tree surgeon. No, I am not a chainsaw wielding, tree climbing lumberjack. I am an invoice raising, estimate generating, report typing, book-keeping administrative assistant.

This Friday is different. The local schools have a couple of “In Service” days. Basically the teachers have training courses to attend, so the schools shut down and the kids stay home.  So I have to take AJ and Bart with me to work. We have just spent a good twenty minutes choosing which toys we are taking with us. Lectures advice has been given on good behaviour while Mummy is working and the bribe reward has been displayed in all its chocolatey foil wrapped glory.

So with visions of giant gold medals in their heads and threats of “don’t fight, don’t argue, play nicely, behave” ringing in their ears, we are heading out.

Pants On Fire!

Tags

Dory, Finding Nemo, Lies, Memory, Shed, Sneaky

Jay is telling quite a few little lies this morning. You see he starts a weeks holiday today, but he has some jobs he needs to do in his shed and if the girls know he is in there they want to “help”. There are some jobs they can help with and he is quite happy for them to put on their little overalls and follow him out. But today is not the case.  So he is pretending to go to work.

He has gotten up, put on his work clothes and had breakfast with the girls as usual – good job they can’t tell the time properly yet as he is an hour and a half later than normal.

He went into the bathroom and had a shave – why he did this I have no idea. He doesn’t usually shave when going to work on a Saturday.

He made a big deal about the fact the microwave in the canteen is temporarily broken – this is because there is a piece of last nights steak pie left over and he would usually take it with him for his break.

He plugged in the cable from the house to the shed so he can have electricity – when quizzed about this by Bart, he said he had a car battery on charge.

He reminded me to keep the curtain shut on the only window which faces the direction of his shed – ha! Like I open curtains anyway… only joking… kinda…

He made himself a flask of hot water – again when quizzed he explained he might be on building sites repairing machines, so not near a kettle to make a cup of tea.

He told me he would be locking the front door – the door and one window face across the track to where his van is parked. The window is in the laundry room, so the girls are unlikely to go in there and with the front door locked they won’t see out that way.

He kissed the girls goodbye – for authenticity.

Off he went “to work” – Liar liar, pants on fire!

Our AJ has an amazing memory. She recalls things from months, sometimes years ago. So now Jay is going to have to remember this mornings sneakiness or he will get caught out.

Jay has a terrible memory. (Think Dory in Finding Nemo.) He can’t remember what he did yesterday, let alone a week or a month ago. Yep, Jay is going to get caught out!

His Mother?!

Tags

Growing Old

We had rather a good-looking guest stay at the hotel where I work the other night. A young man in his early twenties with floppy, dirty blonde hair, (a bit like Prince William before he started loosing his) a tan that you know he got from either a slope or a beach… no bottled products here thank you very much and one of those deep voices with a ‘proper’ English accent. Very Hugh Grant-ish from Four Weddings. Even my friend and work mate for the evening was a bit smitten.

Later than evening I was telling my husband about this chap and said jokingly

“Ha ha… I am old enough to be his mother.”

Hold on a damn minute, I am old enough to be his mother! When the hell did that happen?

Jay and I married young. I was just twenty and he was two days shy of his twenty-first birthday on our wedding day. Our intention was to have our family while we were still in our early twenties, in fact if our first pregnancy had not miscarried we would have a car driving teenager in the house now. (Gulp.)

With miscarriages and failed fertility treatments we were married nineteen years before we became parents with our adopted our girls.  I guess in that time because we were not involved with the many stages and milestones of children, the years slipped by without us really clocking them and now I find both my twenties and thirties have ticked away. Not that I regret any of it and wish to turn back time. Every step we have taken has led us here to this stunning part of Scotland and our two beautiful girls.

But still, old enough to be his mother? It is a bit of a shock.