4th January 2014 - Spring Clean-athon

3rd January 2014 - Cool. Cool cool cool.

Actual real life Friday! And another productive day from me!

Paul had to be out early this morning to head over to Manchester for a meeting, so I lazed in bed for as long as I could. That's my small Friday treat to myself.

Today is a special day, as it's the return of 'Community' to the screen! We love it, and so it's an occasion to celebrate! I left the celebrating to Paul, who took his birthday present from Chris to the Manchester office with him!

Terrible blurry pic. I blame still being half asleep!

 It's Troy and Abed in the Morning mug!! Anyone who watches Community will get it. Paul loves it! :)

It was just A and I in the office again today, and we had a busy and productive day once again! I got a lot of my work done and only have a little bit to get on with next week! SCORE!

I had my tunes on once again and had to stop myself singing outloud once again. This is no fun!

A let me go about 10 minutes early, so I headed home and waiting for Paul who was on a commuter train home. So I watched some more 'The Good Wife' and ate chocolate. Because I'm a lazy rebel.

When Paul came home, we had dinner (lamb meatballs), watched both episodes of Community (worth it for Abed's Nic Cage impression alone!) and some more The Good Wife. At least Paul enjoys it too!

We drank peppermint tea and went to bed.

Day 2 without alcohol. :)

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JULY

- Was told my sister-in-law is pregnant...but wasn't allowed to say anything for AGES! Going to be an Auntie in February!

- Paul learnt to iron!

- Wedding Fayre at our wedding venue!

- Left cats at the cattery :(

- Went on holiday to Nice/Villefranche sur Mer!

- Visited Monte Carlo 

- Hot hot hot summer!

- Cleaned out the yard

- Did our seating plan

- Organised our wedding ceremony with the registrar

- Royal baby was born (nowt to do with me, but part of the history, innit?)

- Started on wedding place cards

- Pre-wedding photoshoot

AUGUST

- Bad back
- The twins' third birthday
- Wedding food tasting
- Maia adoption anniversary! 7 years!
- HEN DO!
- Final dress fitting
- Ben & Claire got married!
- Confirmation Paul got his new job! :) :) :)
- Happy 50th, Pam!
- Made seating chart
- Made table names
- Tested wedding beers
- First Fizz Friday!
- Made Order of the Day

SEPTEMBER

- Stalked the wedding weather forecasts
- Finished wedding menu & table decorations
- Wedding jewellery arrived
- Made Bathroom baskets
- Barney broke his scratching post
- Got my nails done!
- Bought wellies (something blue)
- Delivered everything to the wedding venue 2 days before the wedding!
- Last minute wedding drop-outs (and last minute stand-ins! - Thanks, T!)
- Got to wedding hotel and had a few 'surprises'!
- GOT MARRIED!!! :) :) :) :) :)
- Post-wedding curry
- Picked up all the left-over wedding bumpf from the venue
- MINIMOON!
- Back to work as a Mrs.
- Started watching Downton Abbey
- Barney suited up!
- Company car was delivered
- Disappointing pizza
- Paul started his new job!
- Barniversary! 3 years!
- Gift list delivery
- Got our official pictures!


Films watched this quarter:

- Crazy Stupid Love
- Friends With Benefits
- The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (again)
- The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (again)
- Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus
- The Notebook
- One for the Money
- Shaun of the Dead
- What's Your Number?

Wow. Not so many this quarter. Stupid wedding getting in the way!

PREVIOUS POSTS

2012
2013

2nd January 2014 - Back to work...for some...

Sooooo many people complaining on my facebook timeline about going back to work today. SOME OF US DIDN'T LEAVE!

Line Manager A was back in after pretty much 2 weeks off, and was in a good mood. Which was surprising!

My small pleasure for today:

I got to change the date stamp to 2014. I got to see it plain before it got covered in ink! THAT'S A MOMENT RIGHT THERE!

Nothing of any interest happened to be honest. I had my tunes on in the office but couldn't sing out loud, which is very painful to me. Did about 250% of my day's units so I'd say I was productive! Wanted to get as much done as I could before the typing machine that is T comes back and gives me even more work to do!

We stopped at the supermarket on the way home to get a few bits and then came home for dinner. We decided to finish off the bolognaise from Tuesday night.

Twas delish.

Then, while Paul did some work, I watched more of The Good Wife. We went to bed at a reasonable hour, for a change, which doesn't make for an interesting story I guess!

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APRIL

- First (of many) trips to Hobbycraft & Ikea for wedding stuff
- Training for new work regime
- Started watching Revolution and Defiance
- Another new bannister
- Breakfast Club
- Mum bought her wedding outfit
- Got my engagement ring back & our wedding rings
- Sue & Rick's wedding
- My 30th Birthday

MAY

- Started #PhotoFitChallenge as part of #FitTeam13
- Enjoyed the sunshine
- Final Sookie Stackhouse book came out
- Trekked home for the dentist
- Katie (best woman) came to visit
- Hair accessory for the wedding bought and delivered
- Started making invitations & RSVP cards
- Cake Toppers arrived
- Bought wedding shoes
- My fish 'B0utros B0utros' died :(
- First (and only) run of a 5km from start to finish

JUNE

- Finalised our flowers at the florist
- Bought Paul's wedding suit
- Lucy sent me a Barney-pot!
- Made our wedding invitations
- Burnt my thumb on the glue gun
- J bought me an ice cream
- Paul's Dad gave us exterior plumbing
- Family reunion on Father's Day
- Sent our wedding invitations
- Bought S's mini-maid dress
- Paul went for a big job interview and got it!
- First wedding dress fitting
- Compiled our gift list
- Second Cousin's Christening
- LEGO GANDALF!


Movies watched this Quarter:

- 10 Things I Hate About You
- The Avengers
- Black Swan
- Cabin in the Woods
- Casino Royale
- Evil Dead
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 & 2
- The Hobbit
- I Know What You Did Last Summer
- Live and Let Die
- Much Ado About Nothing
- One Day
- The Tempest
- Zombieland

(crikey!)

PREVIOUS POSTS

2012
2013

1st Jan 2014 - Because I can!

Happy New Year again!

Well, it's a new year. Why not pop another post in! I've still got this damn blogging bug!

We had a nice lie in this morning, because it's the first day in a new year and we should start as we mean to go on!

Paul decided that a good breakfast was necessary. Well, who am I to argue?!

And as it's the first day of a new year, why not have a little celebrate, as I feel better this morning than I did yesterday, we had some more of the fizz, but in a Bucks Fizz variety!

As last night we sort of recreated our first New Year's Eve together, we recreated our first New Years Day together!

Although slightly different, as I did the cooking all those years ago, but we did sit and eat whilst watching the first season of Heroes!

Yes, that has a Christmas 2007 sticker on it! It's THAT OLD!

Paul had to go to the football so I was left all by myself. So I settled into the sofa and decided to start a new TV series - The Good Wife.

I quite enjoyed it! So I stuck with it, occasionally getting up to see what the cats were up to etc!

Barney was busy being me! So cute!

Maia was being cute and chasing after my hairband. Very sweet.

I might have got through an ep or two...or seven!

Paul came back, quite late, and we had a very late chicken sandwich before going to bed.


So I thought I might do a few little highlight packages of last year. Because I just can't let got!

SO!

Let's give this a shot, shall we?

JANUARY:

- I restarted this blog!
- We started wedding planning and we built our wedding website
- The first Best Man backed out!
- First rave cleanathon
- I went wedding dress shopping a few times!
- It snowed. A lot.
- I had to beg for a payrise and won!
- My friends Chris and Ceri got engaged!

FEBRUARY

- Maia turned 7! SEVEN YEARS OLD!
- Paul's Dad built us a bannister rail and in turn we got a Henry Hoover!
- I ordered my wedding dress and our wedding flowers!
- Saw the string quartet that we had booked for our wedding live for the first time!
- Booked the hotel we would be staying at our wedding weekend!
- Bought our adult bridesmaid dresses!

MARCH

- I had my wedding hair and make up trial
- Paul lost his job :(
- Picked our wedding cheese cake
- Our bridesmaid dresses arrived
- Bought our wedding rings
- We designed our wedding invitations
- I learnt origami
- Sue's french-themed hen weekend
- Painted the shower room
- Developed Costochondritis
- We had an epic Easter dinner and heard sad news about our wedding photographer.

Oh, and from looking through my blog posts, I thought I'd do this list:

Movies Watched in 2013

- The A Team
- Almost Famous
- Big Fish
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban
- The Hunger Games 1
- The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
- The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
- The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
- Skyfall
- Taken
- The Time Traveller's Wife

This list is not exhausting but the ones that I blogged about. That's quite a lot for 3 months.

Stay tuned for Part 2...at some stage...


PREVIOUS POSTS

2012 (1) & 2012 (2)
2013

31/12/2013 - New Year's Eve

I didn't have the best night's sleep, much to my dislike! I was having strange dreams, as I do. This time I was dreaming about buying other houses up our street and them all being bigger than ours. One even had a jacuzzi in both bedrooms! I don't know why I'm dreaming these things. Probably because I want a bigger house!

I did manage to doze a little, which was good, but it meant I really didn't want to get up when the alarm went off. So I didn't. I waited until 7:30am to get up! That's VERY late for me!

Back into work again, and once again alone. The business park was even quieter today than yesterday!

The postman came before 9:30am which is unheard of, and I had got most of my work done that I needed to do by midday, but had to stay in the office, which is a bit mean. I put my iPod on and sang loudly (I admit it today) because the office next door weren't in!

I left at about 2pm, and it was probably the safest time to leave before it got dark for the same reasons as yesterday.

When I got home, I did a bit of tidying up but decided to vegetate a little and be lazy because it's the last day of the year and why change the habit of the rest of the year!

Barney came for a play. I'd love to say it was a cuddle, but he was being feisty and very cute!

My stomach still isn't right but I was determined that I would enjoy New Years Eve if I could. So instead of starting on the wine/beer/fizz as most people do on this most celebrated of days, I had a different drink to tide me over.

Mmmm. Health salts. Aka soap water. I am not a fan. But I drank them because they should help. I think they did. I felt ok for a while afterwards!

Paul alternated between cooking and SimCity-ing while I was being lazy and doing some simming myself! Plus keeping up with people's rather poetic statuses on Facebook. I have been known to do the whole 'sum up the year in a status' thing before but couldn't be bothered this year. Mostly because I've found writing this blog very cathartic so have already waxed lyrical.

I don't know. Maybe I'll do a sum up post tomorrow. We'll see.

Anyway, dinner took AGES! I was really looking forward to eating something tasty and delicious! Which is a sign I'm getting better, right?

Soon enough (at like, 9:15pm!) dinner was served!

Spaghetti Bolognaise with parmesan and a glass of white wine...which I had been nursing for a few hours, but didn't want to drink as I had barely eaten anything all day and didn't think that would be a good idea.

A little history for you - the first New Years that Paul and I were together, all 6 years ago, he came over to my old house and made me Spaghetti Bolognaise! We drank a LOT of wine that night, and didn't end up eating it until about midnight! So eating it at 9pm was actually early in the grand scheme of things!

I enjoyed it very much but couldn't finish it. Joys of not eating a lot for nearly a week - appetite is suppressed!

We watched some comedy stuff on TV and a bit of Gary Barlow's New Year's show, then switched over to Jools Holland! It's a little bit of a tradition! It's a shame it's not live, but it has some very talented musicians on it and so it's all good!

That's how we saw in midnight! We did have some fizz, but it wasn't going down too well and so I'd finished my glass by midnight! So we chinked peppermint tea cups instead! ROCK AND ROLL! We're so old now!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I watched tv for a little bit longer (it had the chap from The Kinks on it...and I love The Kinks!) but was losing my battle with sleep so I left Paul downstairs and came to bed. I had a play with Barney and fell asleep well before 1am!

Oh, and for the record as I have been asked at least 3 times in the past 48 hours or so: Definitely. Not. Pregnant.

:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope you all have had a fantastic 2013 and here's to an awesome 2014!

Cheers from my husband and I! :)

Cxx

30/12/2013 - Silence is golden

Back to work this morning. Waaaa.

Double waaa, as I really didn't sleep well. I woke a few times feeling queasy during the night, and was woken a few times by stomping Barnacles, as ever. At least he's happy to see me at that time in the morning!

I was also woken up at some stage by the baby that lives next door banging something against our shared wall...and all I could hear was it's mother laughing at him. Yeah. I'll get my revenge one day, lady. I might get Barney to stomp on the wall (although not sure how I can feasibly do that) and see how they like it! YEAH! That'll show 'em!

It was like the morning after a zombie apocalypse or something. It was silent on the business park where our office is!

I don't really mind being alone, but it was weird, I have to be honest. There used to be an emergency GP office next to ours so there would always be a few people and cars but now they've gone and there was just nobody about!

I had a productive morning, doing bits and bobs with the radio on loud to keep me company. I might have been singing 80s songs at the top of my lungs, but you can't prove it was me...

I wasn't feeling too bad at work either! I was a bit worried after feeling so naff all yesterday, but if I had needed to be sick, at least I wouldn't have had to run out on my boss or anything!

I left the office just after 2pm, as agreed with A before he finished for Christmas half-way through December. Mostly for safety reasons. I don't really fancy walking through a dark deserted carpark on my own in the rain where there's no-one to hear you scream. Not that I would be able to scream after singing 'Club Tropicana' at full blast earlier on...allegedly...

I got in and felt very sleepy. I had good intentions of tidying up and doing some washing etc, but they failed as soon as I sat on the sofa and Barney joined me.

Yes, I bribed him into cuddling me by putting a bed on the sofa. I bought that bed for Maia when I first got her, and she rarely used it. Barney loves it!

This is when I managed to catch Maia on video doing the strangest thing!

We bought Kong the other week, as a treat for Barney while he was feeling poorly but Maia took more of a shine to it.

I am assured that it's normal, however having only seen Maia do this in the last few weeks it's a big surprise! Bear in mind I've had her for over 7 years!

Mummy still beats Kong for a cuddle though. Damn right I do! :)

Paul came home and I was still vegetating on the sofa. I was just exhausted, after barely eating for a couple of days. I also had a headache, which I am blaming on the same.

I had some of the leftovers pie which Paul had made, as I didn't feel sick and needed to eat something. I washed it down with water and kept my fingers crossed it would cure me!

I was still feeling ok at around 8pm ish, except for the tiredness, so I took myself off to bed.

Determined not to be disturbed by Bouncing Barnacles or Banging Babies, I took precautions.

Attractive eye mask and ear plugs selfie. Oh yes. I am sleeping tonight!

Paul came to bed just after 10. I woke up realising I still had a headache and felt a little sick again. Urgh. THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!

29/12/2013 - Feeling sorry for myself.

I'm still poorly sick.

Had a bad night's sleep as my stomach was like a cement mixer and I couldn't get comfortable at all. Now I'm sure that some of it is from the massive meals that we had for our dinner, but as that was Tuesday and Wednesday and it's now Sunday, there must be something else going on here.

Nausea is not fun.

Needless to say, the best place for me was bed, so that's where I stayed all day. I rarely got up at all. I'd usually make a joke about how lazy I am, but as I couldn't get comfortable in bed so was fidgeting a LOT, I don't think I'd have been comfortable anywhere else in the house!

How like my father I am sometimes! He gets stomach bugs by just looking at something the wrong way.

I sat and played sims for a while, like I do, cuddled with Maia for a while, like I do, and read some of The Hobbit. Because it's been a while!

Paul played on SimCity for a while, because if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! He realised he needed to pop to the shops to get a few more bits and bobs so headed out after we lost a few hours immersed in our various pixelated games!

He was nice and came back with some medicine for me.

Gently relieves? More like tastes so much like soap that a few hours later I throw up again?!

It probably wasn't helped by the fact that I went down to speak to Paul and I saw him cooking our 'leftovers pie' which I was so excited about. Because who doesn't love turkey, ham and leek pie?

I have a big sad face right now.

It's not like the smell of it could affect me at all, because I can't smell! It really was just the sight of the food that made me go! Stupid poorly stomach.

Oh, while I remember, check out Paul's Christmas present from his mum!

Bright red shiny frying pan! :)

I gave up and went back to bed. Paul was kind enough to do any eating downstairs, and he brought me a slice of bread to keep me going and to see if I could keep it down. I could! Success! There's only so far that water can get you!

I was starting to flag, after the bad sleep, so sat and stared at 'Honest Movie Trailers' on YouTube. If you haven't seen them then I urge you do. They really do make me giggle. Not as much as the 'Bad Lip-synching' ones but they do amuse!

I then gave up, shut the laptop down and tried to get some sleep. Fingers crossed for me...

Nope. After an hour, I was retching again. It's going to be a long night...

28/12/2013 - I'm the worst Mummy in the world.

I was so sick during the night. Yes, again.

I don't think it was the wine or the gin or the beer, as I didn't have that much. There was something that wasn't working out for me all day and the gin suppressed it for a while, but it came back with a vengeance at around 2am.

So I came back to the bedroom after about half an hour feeling as though I might be able to get some more sleep and noticed that there was FINALLY some room for me on the mattress! SCORE! So I clambered in and settled down to go to sleep. Paul decided (in his sleep) that he wanted a cuddle and slammed his arm onto my stomach. WONDERFUL.

I managed to shake myself free and got some more sleep until just after 5 when Barney decided that he wanted to play in a plastic bag that I had missed when preparing myself for sleep. Damn cat. I moved it and he decided to stomp (yes, on my stomach) and then come for a cuddle too. Maia came and sat on my legs and I finally felt ok.

I got back to sleep and woke up just after 9, parched. So I got up to make a brew and had a chat with Paul's Mum for a while before Paul got up.

The cats sat with me and watched the birds, then a little friend came for a visit.

 I know you can't really see very well but there's a little robin next to the bird feeder pole!

I love robins and if you believe in reincarnation, then my maternal grandmother would absolutely have come back as a robin! So it's always nice to see them over the festive period to remind us that she is still with us somehow.

The cats were chattering away at it, so I told then unless they were being nice and friendly to leave the birdy alone!

While Paul cooked breakfast (and I hid in the bedroom as I really didn't fancy breakfast and Paul's Dad was being...odd...) I packed up our bits and bobs while trying to be stealthy so as not to alert Maia. If she got even so much as a hint as to what I was up to, she would be under the Christmas tree and not coming out for love nor money!

We managed to do it! Luckily for us, the sun was shining outside so instead of huddling under the Christmas tree next to the radiator, she was sunning herself in the window! I picked her up and gave her a cuddle. She purred loud. Until she saw Paul appear with her box and she tried to get away! AW! I feel so bad taking her from her favourite place.

We had to pull Barney down from on top of the wardrobes (no easy feat!), pack up the car and get on our merry way. Maia was NOT. HAPPY. And she vocalised this on plenty more than one occasion on the 45 minute drive home!

We got in and started unpacking. I had the crazy notion of tidying the living room. My enthusiasm did not last long and I begrudgingly finished the job. I do like it when it's clean and tidy but it's a pain in the backside to do! Especially when your little helpers decide to knock things onto the floor when you've moved them out the way to sort later on. Urgh.

I gave up and decided to watch tv for a bit. There really was nothing on, and now all the reality tv (Strictly and X Factor) have finished, there really is just drudge on to fill the gap. We put on a fan-made documentary about Firefly/Serenity (which was interesting, and also made us feel like we weren't the biggest nerds in the world, which is nice! No offence to any of them though. Fair play for your passion and you're welcome to join with #Whedonsday any time you like!) and then were still stuck for something to watch for the rest of the evening.

We decided on Tucker & Dale vs Evil. We didn't really know what to expect. It was fun!

Very predictable, but fun!

Then, stuck for ways to fill time before Match of the Day for Paul, we watched some Russell Brand stand up from 2009. It was quite funny actually! I am surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I don't mind Russell Brand at all, but that did amuse me! Especially when reading out some of the offensive emails he had received!

Then it was time for Match of the Day. I managed for a while but then felt it was time to retire to bed after a cup of peppermint tea.

We made the bed and I got into OUR comfy bed with my amazing pillow and a purring Maia. Happy place.

27/12/2013 - Extra Day Off!

Much needed lie in this morning. Barney was stomping a LOT and I think he tried to break my shoulder at one point! Little beep!

Paul got up first to watch some of yesterday's football again. I lingered in bed. Because I could! Joys of taking today off work. It doesn't make sense to me that today wasn't just cancelled for our work as it was for so many others. Paul's office decided to close. Why couldn't ours?

Luckily, T was able to go in to work, as she's off on holiday from tomorrow, so I could be lazy for another day!

I got up and tried to catch up with Christmas blogging. Guys, the last two posts have taken me AGES to write! I don't know why! Just so much to say I guess! Typical that there are posts with so few words with them and now I'm getting to the final straight of my self-set challenge, I have loads to talk about!

We had breakfast, and then Paul remembered he had some mail to drop off, so I went with him to get some fresh air. Talk about fresh - it's bloomin' windy outside! To the extent that we decided not to go home today, but wait until tomorrow when the weather is supposedly a little less apocalyptic!

This made Barney very happy indeed!

It's hard being a Barney. He does so love this house! We've had him running around like a maniac!

Once the decision was made to stay at Paul's parents' for another day, we relocated for the afternoon. I carried on working but decided that laying on the night firm brick-like mattress was the best place to type!

Maia, inevitably, decided that Mummy being comfortable means that she will be comfortable, so of all the amazingly cozy places she could curl up, she chose my legs!

Happy puss!

Paul made us a light lunch from leftovers: posh cheese on toast, using up the remains of the posh bread and some of the cheeseboard. Of course, I spilt ketchup on myself, because I'm a classy bird.

I decided that I would give Paul's Mum a copy of our wedding video, as recorded by my brother, but as the folder was 3.5gb (!) it wouldn't fit on her memory stick which held our wedding pictures. Typical! So I had to copy the files a few at a time over onto her pc. It took literally an hour. And after all that stress, we decided to head to the local pub (where Paul worked as a younger man) for a couple of drinks.

My half pint was not going down well. Paul had polished off a whole pint before I had got even half way through. I had been feeling queasy all afternoon and that wasn't helping.

We decided to switch to gin and tonic because tonic water sounds like medicine. It worked! I didn't feel sick any more! It's a miracle!

We reviewed the year while we were in the pub and set ourselves little goals for next. Not resolutions as such, but things that we wish to achieve. That's important.

We got back to uber cuteness from Maia.

 That's a happy girl! I got better ones on Paul's Mum's camera, but I didn't take a copy! I think she was trying to guilt me into not making her go home tomorrow! Soz, kitty! That's not the way it works!

Barney, not content with all the attention Maia was getting decided to try to 'cute up' himself.

Not quite, Beep, but the joy of that chair is that it makes Barney look all cute and small! Not like the giant beast he is in real life!

Maia wins this round!

Time to christen Paul's Christmas present from me with a nice gin and tonic before dinner.

The glasses were nice but they do feel very fragile! We'll not use them as every day glasses but they are nice!

Paul made all of us steak for dinner. As that house is the loudest house in the world, I hid in the dining room and picked one of the few channels that is on the tv in there to watch. It was a G0rd0n Ram$ay cooking show where he was cooking with his family. That'll do. We even left it on over dinner!

One by one people left me to my own devices, and I watched the beginning of Shawshank Redemption. Yes, we only watched it the other day, but we missed the beginning! So I watched up to where we saw the other night, then joined Paul's Mum to watch some of Bridget Jones's Diary, before heading to bed.

But I couldn't go to bed because there was a Paul sprawled across the whole mattress leaving no room for me.

Floor it is then! It's a good job it's good for my back!