...Did I fall asleep?...

...for a little while.

Soooooo...it's been a while, hasn't it?

It's strange - for the first few weeks, it was very odd that I wasn't writing every day. Now I don't know how I had the time to do it all! It's probably a good thing I stopped though, as I am very boring and am running very short on storage space for all the pictures I was taking! Am currently working on that though.

So. What's been happening since I last blogged in January? I honestly can't really remember!

This may be a looooooong post. Soz.

In January I had a mass clear out in my loft. I thought I had a LOT of stuff up there but it turns out it was just a right mess and whilst I was able to throw a lot away, the space is a darned sight better than it was!

 So. Much. Stuff.

It is always a good idea to sort through the stuff though. As you never know when you'll find those long lost wasp nests that you were keeping for a rainy day.

Yup, was real happy to find those. Luckily, Daddy Hartley helped me sort them out and they were empty. Phew! Now it's tidier, they will hopefully not come back...wishful thinking, I know!

What else have we done?

Well, it's not all been fun. Paul was off work with depression for a couple of months, which was horrible. One of the worst times in our lives, in fact. He's over it now, with the odd off day and was very lucky to work for a company who couldn't do enough to help and support him.  It has been a struggle but with the aid of CBT treatment and a Mindfulness course, his outlook on everything has changed and he has come out stronger and more awesome.

While he was bad, we didn't really do a lot, to be fair. We did go to Wales for a long weekend with the intention of climbing Mount Snowdon, however Paul did his back in the day before so we got the train 3/4s of the way up. Couldn't get to the top, sadly, as it was still snowy. Which means we'll have to go back again! It would have been the perfect day to climb, the weather was lovely but alas, it was not meant to be.

This is the train, by the way.

Shameless selfies!

This was the view from our room in the guest house. That is Snowdon (apparently) right there. How lovely is that?!

That was in March, I believe. We've not made it back yet. One day!

Hmmm, what else?!

Barney got a collar and tie and he lived up to his name sake from HIMYM!

Maia turned 9 and carried on being a mama's girl, of course

We ate a lot, drank a fair bit, went to the cinema a couple of times and planned some home decoration that we've been meaning to do for YEARS! Literally!

Our bedroom was the first room we decorated when we got the house back in 2008. We haven't touched it since. Except to peel off paper which I can't confirm was ever stuck to the wall properly! It was on when we moved in but had been bubbling and hanging off for as long as I can remember.

We chose our colours, got the equipment and got on with clearing the room of all the crap that generally seems to accumulate in a room that never changes!

So we had all good intentions. Strip the room of all the paper and clean down the walls then get a base coat on the plaster, then the next day we can start painting.

Yeah...slight set back on that one...

This was lurking behind the wallpaper!

Yep - I screamed. Out loud. It scared the wotsits out of me so can you blame me?!

Just so you get an idea of scale:

It's rather large. Just for comparison, Paul is 6'3".

We can't just paint over it though. I mean, that would be cruel to the future occupants of our house! So we made the decision that the wall needs a layer of wallpaper putting over it to save that moment of fear for someone else as well.

But that would need to wait for the next day. Until then, the wardrobe would have to go in front of the face so I could sleep in there!

Paul's Dad came over and helped us wallpaper. He made the decision that he'd wallpaper all the walls for us, which is fine. It did mean it would take a little longer to get everything done, but if it all looks good then it's worth the wait.

Wallpaper done - time for colour!

 Yep - a lovely shade of cream called 'Galadriel' graces the wall.

Very nice!

Then for a feature wall, we went for a brave choice called 'Sail the Seas'.

I was a little scared of the colour...but went with it...

And I really like it!

Then gloss which really made it work!

Next came carpet! We had horrible plain floorboards which were scratched and uneven before, and it was my new year resolution to get carpet before winter comes. I DID IT!

 Before...

 After!

Yes, we have new sockets as well! Isn't it purrrrrrrty! We got the best underlay that we could and it's so plush! Love it!

Then we had to furnish the room!

 Drawers, wardrobes, everything.

We did end up putting doors on it!

One of these days, I'll take the 'after' pictures of the room. We finished in June and I've not done that. Oops.

What else has happened...

We went on holiday and I only took pictures of french kitties (see my instagram account for those pics!).

Paul's friend John married his lady love Becky in July!

Photo courtesy of Becky's facebook page and is not mine. Thank you whomever took this photo!

My very good friend Chris and his wife had their first child, a little girl! She's totes adorbs and tiny and stuff!

Photo taken by me on Chris's camera and therefore even though it's my artistic skill, it's technically stolen from Chris's Facebook page. Hope that's shiny, pal?!

My friend Stevie married his lovely lady Danni at the end of September!

Photo taken by my friend Karina Fullwood and borrowed from her Facebook page.

And last weekend, my friend Lee tied the knot with the beautiful Bernadette!

Photo taken by Lee's friend Abby and taken from Lee's Facebook page.

 (I really need to take more/better photos at events. Mine were all shaky - hence the borrowing of other people's pictures)

What else...

...

Hmmm...


...


Oh yeah...


...


Paul and I started work on what could possibly be our greatest ever creation!

Yup. So this is happening! I'm not just eating all the pies! This picture was taken back in June.

This one in August at 13 weeks!

And this one today at 20 weeks!

Our little Puddin' is happy and healthy and waves it's foot at all of you blog readers who still have me on your feed!

We haven't really advertised my little situation. There are many reasons for it, some silly and some sentimental, but mostly because we wanted to make sure that everything is ok and healthy as far as they can tell and it is! Yay!

So, blog readers, you gorgeous lot, this is our little secret, k?! Because it's fun to know things that other people don't, dontcha think?!

I have been ridiculously ill with morning sickness and whilst I wasn't so bad I ended up in hospital, the nausea started around week 5 and got worse and worse and worse. Week 16 is when it started to ebb and I'm mostly ok now, despite a few days a week with me feeling (and sometimes actually being) sick. There are things I can't eat or drink because it reminds me of my morning sickness. I hope that goes away soon. I don't miss drinking alcohol one bit (that is the only positive I have from my morning sickness!) and am a big fan of Victorian Lemonade. The slightly sour cloudy stuff. MMMMM. No other cravings as such. As yet. Is that disappointing?

I have some ideas for blog posts for further down the line before the end of Feb when Puddin' is due, so hopefully I won't be so much of a stranger for the next 20 weeks.

20 weeks. Crikey.

Here's me, this morning, full of cold and caked in make up to hide the greyscale (eczema) which is slowly taking over my face.

Iccle bump! I still just look fat to myself when I look down so I'm trying to embrace the bump as it's only going to get bigger! EEK!

And to end the post with images far prettier, here are my fur babies, who have NO idea what's going to hit them in 20 weeks time!

Catch you on the flip side, folks!

Oh, and all name suggestions are more than welcome. We are stumped for a male name! The cooler and more literary the better! :)

You're all great.

7th September 2014 - Year One = Done! :)

It's our First Wedding Anniversary today! WHOOP! We survived the first year! I think that's a pretty amazing achievement if you ask me! :)

We went for breakfast before we started our day. It was ok. Not the massive plate of breakfast that Paul is used to, but that probably just means that it was normal person portion size!

We then got ready and headed our into the countryside! Big day of fun ahead!

First (and technically only) stop: Cheddar Gorge! Beautiful countryside and lots to do! Starting with Gough's Cave, which had an audio commentary. Not like the retro old days of a cassette walkman, this was a digital phone-like prong!

We got the full story and it was very interesting! The caves themselves were visually stunning! Nature is weird!

It's weird walking through as some of it sort of looks a bit fake! Like you're walking on a movie set of a cave, as it's all shiny and looks plastic. It's just wet! So cool though!

From there, we went to meet Cheddar Man! Ok, not really, as he's just a skeleton, but it was a museum of Prehistory. It was quite interesting, although learning about cannibalism is a little icky!

These are recreations of mammoth tusks. Taller than Paul. Scary.

Then there was the bit that gave me nightmares. Or would if I hadn't been merry when I went to bed...

Sorry if this haunts you too...but seriously, is there any need?! Reading the visitors' book at the end of the museum seems to suggest that I'm not the only one who thought this!

From there we had a look in a few shops and headed down to the next cave, Cox's Cave. This was far smaller and just something to look at really.

Through the cave is a game thing, what was billed as a 'Lord of the Rings' type mission. Sounds right up my street, no?

Yeah, it sucked. Got to be honest. Just walk through a bit of cave, listen to some story line which was pretty much a direct rip-off from Lord of the Rings, just with a few tiny alterations to the name and then into a cavern with a dragon and all you had to do was touch the crystal.

I'm sure kids would enjoy it. Adults in their 30s who weren't merry...not so much!

From there we headed straight up 'Jacob's Ladder' which were 274 steps uphill through a forest. On the way up there were little signs explaining the evolution of the planet as we know it. Including the dinosaurs. We were most amused by this one in particular.

He looks a little miffed, no? "Oh drat!"

At the top of the steps there is a watchtower to give 360 degree views over Cheddar and surrounding area. Where I stood to take a few pictures amused me!

Only I would stand somewhere that reminds me of home!

Fantastic views.

We walked for a while, pausing to admire the beauty of the surrounding area...and to take an anniversary selfie!

We had a really nice walk and felt that we were walking forever but as it was pretty, we didn't mind too much...we were just a little thirsty!

Some goats. Because.

We eventually got back to the village and decided to find a good local pub in which to have a drink and a bite to eat. Cheddar is actually really pretty, not just quaint and full of tourists!

Lovely!

We had a massive ploughmans' lunch (which I didn't take a picture of as we were so famished!) and a couple of ciders while we decided what we wanted to do with the rest of the day. We also celebrated the moment (ish) that we had been married a year. We guestimated about 2:30pm but as neither of us can remember exactly how late I was, we can't be certain!

We headed out to some more shops and looked around a cheese shop, sampling loads of different cheeses, which were amazing! Naturally we had to buy some as gifts for people!

Instead of taking an open-top bus tour around the area, we decided to head back to Burnham.

Our lovely B&B had got us some prosecco so we sat out on their back patio, played some music and enjoyed some sunshine! It was lovely!

Through that glass door ahead was the indoor heated swimming pool! We could have used it but didn't have time! Maybe next time, should we go again! :)

I also logged into Facebook on Paul's iPad (my phone was charging in our room and I had forgotten it all day!) and Facebook even wished us a happy anniversary!

Ah, memories!

I had also been trying to use up one last remnant from our wedding which seem to be lasting forever!

I still had 3 of these bad boys to finish off! We've been snapping pictures for AGES on these! Still have about 12 to be developed as they weren't finished. Plus they're expensive to develop! Especially when there is no guarantee that every picture will come out.

It started to get a bit chilly, so we headed back up to our room, fizz in hand, to relax and prepare for our evening's excursion! When we got in, we discovered that the owners of the B&B had left us a little something!

Aw! so nice of them! We decided not to drink it tonight though. Don't want to waste tomorrow with a sore head!

As it's Sunday, a lot of the town was shut. The nicest restaurant we could find that was open was a curry house! It was very highly rated on Trip Advisor, so we decided to go for it! We like curry and were planning on going there tomorrow, so why not tonight?!

It was fairly quiet in the curry house. We had some poppadoms to start and then our main courses arrived.

I had the Chandni Burnham on Sea Special...which was (needs to load menu to remember exactly!) lamb tikka, chicken tikka and tandoori chicken in a 'special' sauce. So when it arrived I was a little surprised!

It hadn't mentioned an omelette on the menu! Still, it was a nice addition!

Paul had something that I can't remember the name of which was labelled hot. It wasn't hot. I could have eaten it no problem. Shame really. My boy does like his hot curry!

Food was very good though and the biggest surprise was that we both ate pretty much all of it! That never happens! I normally wimp out but it was so delicious that it all was eaten!

Paul even had room for pudding! He ordered a hazelnut bomb (I think it was called - it's not listed on any menu!) and was a little bit surprised with what he got!

Tiny bomb! Thankfully, they had given us two spoons so I could help him eat that mountain of pudding! :)

We had a quick drink before heading back to the B&B. We were both shattered! The sea air is clearly getting to us! Nothing to do with the alcohol at all. No, sir!

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2013 & 2013 (Aw! Memories!)