Hospital

OK, so on Tuesday at about 5pm I got a pain all over my tummy, I thought it was nothing, maybe eaten too much rubbish so decided to just sleep on it. When I went to bed at around 9:30 it had moved from my tummy to the lower right of my abdomen, right where your appendix is, I wasn't too worried, I could still move freely and jump so I just went to sleep.

I expected it to be gone in the morning, but it wasn't. It wasn't any more painful either so I just got ready and went to work. At about 11:30 though my boss said I should go to A&E as it might be bad, so I went home and rang 111, they told me to go to my GP, or if I couldn't get in to go to A&E. As my GP couldn't get in for 3 hours DW dropped me off at the hospital (I didn't want her to stay as KK would only have gotten really bored). The nurse saw me and gave me a paracetamol and a co-codamol. I went back into the waiting room and after a while started to feel dizzy and my arms went REALLY tingly, so the receptionist sent me to see the nurse again. I was ok by then, but she gave me a drink and it wasn't long after that I went in to see the doctor. He did various tests on my tummy, and fitted a peripheral cannula(?) which I hated.

I was then sent off to the surgery ward, where they did more tests, took blood, poked up my bum, and told me not to eat or drink (which was nice as I'd not eaten since 10am). A second doctor came around later one and I was expecting him to say I could go home, but he wanted me to stay in over night ... sigh, at least he said I could eat until 3am, so my poor belly got something :o)

My uncle came to visit and brought some supplies (books, phone charger, etc.) at about 8:30 and we chatted until 9. After that I went to sleep only to be woken up at 1am to be moved to another ward, this is when I noticed the pain had virtually gone away, which gave me some hope! I then slept on & off until about 7am when a doctor came around to check on me, I told her that the pain had gone, and she told me that another doctor will be round in an hour to check, and if all was OK I could go home. About 3 hours later the doctor turned up, and did some more poking and said he was happy for me to go home and rest, but if any symptoms show up to go to my GP immediately.

I feel absolute fine now, still got a bit of pain if you poke hard enough, but *nothing* like Tues/yesterday, and it's much easier to rest at home than in a hospital! Thank-you all for your concern, hugs, prayers, thoughts, messages, and help, it's been an ... interesting couple of days, and I'm so glad it didn't end in surgery! :o)

The Conclusion

So, I'm still wearing the bump now, eight days in, and I'm not sure if I want to take it off. It's kind of comfy, and I think I will miss it when it's gone. I enjoy it. But all good things must come to an end.

Today's been a big pain. The washing machine wiggle & wobbled it's way forward during the night and managed to stop the utility room door from opening. I managed to shove a spade under the door and push the washing machine back out the way of the door, but really hurt my foot in the process by kicking the handle wrongly. A great start to our nice relaxing Saturday, sigh.

The bump's really taught me to appreciate how tough it can be to be pregnant, you don't realise how much you rely on  being able to bend at your waist. I will not miss the uncomfortable nights, the awkward angles you have to use to put on socks and tie shoe laces. I will miss the "company" that the bump provides, I always had something to cuddle, if you know what I mean. I imagine for a woman who can feel the baby move and grow inside, that feeling must be a million times stronger.

If I were to do this experiment again (and I would, willingly) I would change a few things. Firstly, I'd make sure the bump was a much better fit on my body, the bump I have is loose at both the top and the bottom, which looks weird if you wear the wrong clothes. I'd also make it heavier, so that my balance would be off, and doing routine things like walking would be more tiring, making the whole experience more realistic. The challenges were a good idea, and I'd definitely include those again, maybe adding a few more (I never did try getting in & out of the bath). Lastly I'd try to find a way to make the bump move so that I could get simulated kicks at random times, having the bump is really easy when you know it's just going to stay where you put it and not bother you while you're driving, or trying to eat.

So to sum up, I've had a good time. I've had some tough times, and some fun ones, but I imagine being pregnant is much more better then pretending!

Day Seven

Today I took the boys to school, walking really isn't an issue as the bump hardly weighs anything (which I think is a shame really) and with my coat done up nobody can tell. After that we went out to get some shopping (I drove again), which wasn't really that hard, except for getting stuff out of the trolley, that required an interesting angle!

For lunch we went to Pizza Hut and I just about fitted inside a booth with the bit of effort. This is the only public place that I've really walked around with the bump on show that people could see me in, no one asked any questions, which I was a bit disappointed about, they must have just thought I was fat I guess.

From there we went back to the garden centre we visited yesterday to finish looking around, and then home to pick the boys up. Me & TJ played on Animal Crossing and Go Vacation! on the Wii, and DW's friend popped round with her kids and had a natter. A nice chilled afternoon.

KK woke up about 2:30hrs after going to bed having been sick, so we manned the battle stations and I changed and bathed her while DW sorted out the bed. It's funny how you can forget about a big lump on your belly when an emergency crops up. Our tea got burnt, but hey, that's life with kids.

Day Six

Today we were on the ball and after dropping the boys off at school we drove 40 miles to go visit various friends.

First up were a couple whom we used to live across the road from before we moved here who have just had a baby, so we stopped by their house and had a coffee, chat and cuddle. They had no idea about the experiment, so that was fun when I walked in, although the first comment was "it suits you", I think is a complement. I took it as one anyway!

For dinner we met up with DW's sister and her husband who commented it was, "very nice" and "looks good", and after looking at their new house when to pick up one of my best friends to have a drink at Starbucks. He said, "it's nice, it's beautiful" and wouldn't stop rubbing it and cooing over. Ha.

When we got home DW's friend had picked up the boys from school and was at our house looking after our and her kids. She liked the bump and suggested that I try getting in and out of the bath to see what that's like, she used to have to get out on all-fours, so I'm tempted to add that to my challenge list.

Speaking of the challenges... I've done most of them, and they weren't as difficult as I thought they would be, and I imagine that's because the bump is made of foam and thus does not weight anything and so doesn't throw off my balance or anything like that. I've still got to change the bunk beds, and maybe shave my legs, but I'd need a LOT of razors to do that!!

Day Five

Today me, DW & KK went around a local nature park for a walk, we only meant to go for a little one, but took a wrong turn and ended up walking for three miles, lol!! We had lunch in their café and looked round the little gift shop buying a nice relaxation CD to add to our ever-growing collection! It was an absolutely lovely morning, and it was fantastic to spend time with my girls. So calm and relaxed.

After that we went to a garden centre to look at their Christmas stuff as they had a good show and KK really likes to see the trees, snowmen and whatnot. That was really nice too, just a slow stroll around looking at all the things we can't afford :o) A lovely afternoon.

Driving is one of the most annoying things to do with the bump, DW's made me drive all the time so I get to experience that almost every day, getting out is a piece of cake, getting in ... PITA. Underwear is still a pain too, especially socks, and tying shoe laces ... ha ha, no, not fun.

In the evening we just relaxed downstairs and watched some TV. DW cuddled up to me, and after a while commented, "You are very comfortable", which was a big win as she's not really liked this who experiment. I think she's warming to it, slowly, and she might actually be on-board by the time it all finished on Saturday! Hee hee.

Day Four

This morning started off great, I could finally wear my maternity dungarees that I bought ages ago and not look quite so stupid, dungarees are so cool. I spent the morning catching up with Facebook, Reddit, and other websites that I normally check at work (shhh!) and played a quick game on the computer too. We were going to go for a walk, but it was too cold and we didn't think it would be that enjoyable, so we stayed in.

After dinner we went in to town, DW insisted that I keep my coat zipped up so that nobody could see the bump, which was fun, my coat barely fitted with the zip up! We didn't spend long in town, just got a few bits (I bought Pop 'n' Twin Bee, a SNES game that I thought me & WB would enjoy playing together) and had to get back in time to pick the boys up from school.

Oh one fun thing I've found is that I can rest stuff on the bump, cups, plates, TV remotes, when you're chilling on the sofa, it's kind of a handy little shelf!

Day Three

Tonight was the best nights sleep so far, only woke up a handful of times, and felt really rested in the morning. I'm struggling to get out of bed, but that's no big surprise!

DW spends Monday at Sure Start taking minutes for a meeting and in the afternoon is on a course, so I looked after KK for the day rather than have her put in crèche. We played with the dolls in the morning, watched one of the Tinkerbell films (fairy rescue I think it was), had some dinner whilst watching TMNT (her choice) then in the afternoon we did some colouring and watched a bit of Up under a blanket!

With DW out of the house for the day I took it upon myself to take over the role of housewife to see how that would fair. I started of easy - hoovering. At least I thought it would be the easy choice; Our Dyson is surprisingly heavy when it wants to be! Dragging it round the floor, lugging it up the stairs, using the hose to reach the corners of the ceiling to reach the cobwebs really took it out of me. Next up was the bathrooms, something I was dreading, but actually turned out to be quite easy, the only challenge was getting up after kneeling to clean the toilets. Lastly I did the washing, that wasn't very fun, kneeling to get it all out of the washer, then standing to put it on the clothes horse to dry, then squatting to get more off the floor, then up then down, then up ... you get the idea!!

When the boys got home from school we went out to a friends house to see some fireworks. This time I went out in public and didn't hide my bump, it was dark and I didn't notice anyone give me weird looks, but I'm sure there must have been some!

When we got home I put the little ones to bed, which I'm getting used to doing now with the bump. It wasn't long before we were going up to bed and to face one of my challenges: cutting & painting my toe nails. It was a paain. I've painted my toe nails a few times before, but with a bump in the way, it's just really hard to do a good job, your arms are stretched, shaking, you can't see what you're doing, paint is going on your skin, it's a mess. See for yourself ...

Day Two

So I found a way to sleep - half on my side and half on back which works well with a memory foam mattress, let you body "melt" a hole in to the mattress and then use it to store you bump in. DW said that this was the same method she used when pregnant to get comfy, except we had a spring mattress back then, so it wasn't quite so easy. She also mentioned that in the night when she rolled over to give me night-time cuddles she couldn't get her arm over nicely as the bump was in the way.

I never thought that this would be as much an experiment for her as for me, she's seeing pregnancy from the male perspective - not being able to get close, or snuggle up in bed all the things us men have to live without for a few months. The kids are enjoying it, poking my bump and using it as a pillow when the mood takes them. DW's also said that we should go to the cinema as that is a really hard place to get comfy, and being pregnant doesn't make it any easier, so a day out with the bump on may be on the cards, which could be fun.

We had a Sunday Dinner today, which is really out of the ordinary for us, all five sat round the table and I found that eating at the table is no easier than on the sofa. But I did find that sitting on a spinning computer chair makes a big difference when you're trying to get a fork of food into your mouth and not onto your big bump - a tip there for the ladies!

This afternoon I sat and played Solitaire with TJ on the bed, and found something else that is uncomfortable to do, didn't matter how I sat, but my back just hurt. Really starting to feel for you ladies who have to put up with this for more than just a week!

In the evening I bathed the little ones, which wasn't as bad as I was expecting, not easy, a strain (on my arms and back), but not hard. After that I braved going out to Tesco with WB hiding the bump in my coat to buy tortilla wraps for tea. Tea went well, easiest by far as it was a create you own wrapathon. I played on the computer for a bit (didn't really have any effect on that, just couldn't get quite as close to the desk), and then went to bed!

Day One

Well, I now understand why it's so hard to get a good nights sleep while pregnant, you just cannot get comfy! I woke up quite a few times in the night, and struggled to find a good way to lay. On my back hurt, on my side was awkward, and on my stomach was impossible (obviously). Eight more nights of this will be ... interesting.

Getting dressed was fun, putting underwear on with a bump in the way is not easy, especially the socks; you just cannot get the right angle!! Shaving was a different challenge to anything the laides have to face, but once I got in to the rhythm it all went smoothly.

We spent most of the day playing Lego, or rather, looking through a huge unsorted pile of bricks to find a few peices for one model. My back's never hurt so much, sat on the floor all day not being able to move easily, having to move from sat, to laid, to sat, to al-fours, to anyother angle I could handle! By 9pm I was pooped and ready for bed to be honest!

We had a take-away for tea, I had pizza and it's crazy how hard it is to get food into your mouth while trying to sit comfortably and watch a little bit of TV. The bump just gets in the way of everything, DW asked me to make drinks and I just had to wiggle and wobble off the sofa and then waddle over to the fridge to get the Vimto.

I'm only a day in, and this bump has made such a big change to my life!

It starts

Nervous, and a little bit excited. Here we go ...

The Experiment

So, after work today I'm starting a week-long experiment to see what it's like to be pregnant.

Yes, I'm a man, a Dad, and my wife's been pregnant three times, and I want to know what I was missing out on. Of course it wont be exactly real, I wont have morning sickness, I wont get swollen angles, and I wont get mood swings, and I wont get to feel a wonderful growing baby wiggle around in side of me. But I will get to find out just how hard it is to tie up shoe laces, reach for the pasta on top of the cupboard and sleep with a huge six-month baby belly getting in the way.

I've prepared - I got the bump back in August (a wedding anniversary present would you believe?) and I've been wearing it for a few evenings here and there, even tried sleeping with it on a few times to get myself ready for the big week.

It's going to be hard, not full-on pregnancy hard, but still tough I reckon. I shall try to keep you posted in my trials and tribulations, and I've set my self a few challenges to complete during the week (I'll try to get DW to take photos and post them here). Those challenges are:

1. Driving and getting in/out of the car
2. Carrying heavy boxes up/down stairs and out to the garage
3. Long walk with a toddler
4. Bath the kids
5. Changing and making bunk beds
6. Cut & paint my toe nails
7. Shave my legs ... maybe!

It should be fun, wish me luck!

C-W Day

Well, KK is now officially older than WB was when I went on that blind date with DW, how times flies.

The past few weekends months have been really busy, and I'll do my best to remember everything that's happened...


The boys have had their summer holiday, and the first with DW being able to drive, it was just a shame that the car was broken for a huge chunk of the holidays, and the money we'd set aside for trips and such had to go on car repairs. The dealer is refusing the pay us back for these repairs (even though we can prove the problems existed at the point of sale) so we're taking it to court - wish us luck! Otherwise the holidays were fun, we got the paddling pool out on a few days, and managed to do a few days out here and there.

The Olympics kicked off at the end of July and they were fun to watch (no, really!) and we got into the spirit of the whole thing watching sports we'd never even heard of and cheering on Team GB. We did really well coming third in the medal table and winning loads of goal medals!! The Paralmpics were really fascinating to watch too, it's incredible what some of these people do with no legs, arm, or whatever. It just goes to show that no matter what life throws at you, you can still do anything!

We went (on the train) to the National Railway Museum in York at the end of July with our friend Polly and her little one, that was a really good day out, and WB got so much in to trains that he begged for a Hornby set for his birthday, haha! TJ loved it, and KK too, such a good day out.

Our cat, Charlie (did I tell you we got a new cat after Lilly ran away to live with the cat lady?), had a nasty accident in August and cut his leg wide open, there was talk of him losing the leg, but fortunately after many many weeks of vet visits and magic it's all healed up nicely now.

At the end of August a good friend of ours (one of my Best Men, and KK's Godfather) did a 72-hour stay-awake-athon to raise awareness of Charcot Marie Tooth Disease. We donated some pennies and watching him on the webcam running around the garden in a monkey suit, singing, chatting and doing various goofy things for money.

DW's best friend (and TJ's Godmother) had a baby in September on the same day as WB's birthday! Kathryn they called her and she's happy & healthy. Luckily we were in town the weekend after and could go and have cuddles!

TJ started Reception in September, and has been invited to sooo many birthday parties! He must be popular I guess :o) He seems to be enjoying it, but it's hard on him and he get very tired by 5-6 o'clock making homework a hard thing to do some nights. he likes doing his letters though, tracing over them, and them freestyling. All fun!

KK's been cleared by the doctor for her milk intolerance and signed on to the dietitian who has said to carry on using goats milk, and go back in six months to talk about slowly re-introducing cows milk - let's hope she grows out of it and can enjoy chocolate with the rest of us in the years to come!! I've also gotten the all-clear from my vasectomy, so no more kiddies for us, which is good news.

I went to listen to the last night of the proms and a local theatre organised by my uncle. Listened to the last ever Chris Moyles Breakfast Show on Radio 1. Took WB to Pleasure Island in Cleethorpes for a birthday treat. Looked around two secondary schools to see what's good. Did some collecting for The Salvation Army. DW took the kids to Blackpool for a week. I went down to London to visit some friends (Go Ape!). We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. And I went to see the SA General speak.

Right, well, that bring you up-to-date I think! Phew!



The only thing on the horizon is my sister-in-law's wedding on Saturday, so that should be a fun weekend away and hopefully me & DW will get some time off from parenting, maybe have some chips on the sea front (ahhh, memories! Something KK & TJ will never really know ...)

So until next time, see you next time! x

Hey kids

Hello my little ones. You've grown up so fast, it's hard to remember you as little babies any more.

WB, you're a very clever and strong willed young man, keep that strength and it will guide you in times of hardship. I'm so glad I met you and your Mum, you made my life what it is today, and without you I don't think that I could have achieved all of the wonderful things that I have.

TJ, you may feel like you're the forgotten one but don't, you're not. I love you very much and you can never escape the fact that you were my first born. Keep smiling and your love and warmth will glow into those around you, you will make a difference in this world.

KK, my little princess. You know exactly what you want, and if people get in your way then they will regret it! Be kind to others though, don't burn bridges, and keep moving forward. Remember to enjoy yourself, and be childish now and then, it's fun to have fun.

I taught you all to talk, I taught you how to love, and I taught you how to live. Keep the happy memories of me alive, remember the fun things we used to do, and the sad moments too. Our history defines us and I will always be part of your life, and you mine.

I love you all.

New car!

So we finally bought a new car, and best of all, it's red!

Now, I don't know much about cars, all I know is it has seven full-sized seats, two sliding doors, a reasonable sided boot, and it drinks petrol. It cost more than I was really happy to pay for, but it works and it's nice and big! We're going to get it serviced this week, and hopefully find that it's in good working order - fingers crossed :o)

In other news: nothing! Ha! It's been pretty quiet around here lately and I honestly can't think of anything to report to you wonderful people reading this. So, I shall leave you with fuzzy feeling about our new car, and bid you adieu!

Toodles x

Payday

Life is good today! It's pay day, we got our PPI refund, and I'm wearing my new dungarees! All is good :o)

KK's chicken pox has all but gone, and TJ is showing no signs of catching them, which means we can go to York soon, yay! Trains are cool!

We did the sensible thing with the PPI money, and paid off debt (£6,500!) so our plan to save up enough money to buy a house in 2016 starts today, so wish us luck!

Nothing much else to report, other than I got some awesome dungarees off eBay and I love them very much. Make me look like Mario when I've got a red T-shirt on, but shush :oP

That's all for now, home time for me, toodles! x

30th Birthday Update #1 & The Pox

Hola!

I've had a good start to my ten things list! My parents bought me a saxophone for my birthday, woo! I was surprised how well I could remember how to play it too, really impressed with myself :o)

We've also got a 4-year plan to buying a house. We should be totally debt-free and have about £10,000 saved-up as a deposit by the beginning of 2016, so the plan is to buy a house in that year! Yay!

In other news, KK caught Chicken Pox last Tuesday, TJ still hasn't had it, despite being exposed multiple times! (WB had them years ago.) It's been a bit of a crazy week, with her being upset, and not sleeping (I was up at 1am last night shushing her back to sleep), still it's one childhood infection down :o)

TJ's birthday tomorrow, should be fun!

TTYS! x

Happy birthday

... to me! Thirty today, and that means I'm half-way to sixty ... hmmmm ...

So, anyway, for a while now I've been thinking about ten things I can do in the next decade before I hit the big four-oh, and this is what I came up with (in no particular order):

1. Skydive
2. Give blood
3. Buy a house
4. Go scuba diving
5. Read the Bible in it’s entirety
6. Go back to Walt Disney World
7. Do a sponsored run for charity
8. Re-buy a, and re-learn to play the saxophone 2-June-2012
9. Visit a foreign country that I've never been to before
10. Have a pamper day out with my wife, including at least two treatments

Wish me luck!

PS. 11. Buy Half-Life 3

Pi Pi Raspberry Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

I know what I'll be doing this weekend, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :o)

I've joined twitter!

Hopefully if I tweet every day or so it will help me to remember what I need to write in my blog ... maybe :o)

Reminders don't work

OK, so my plan to do this once a week failed, and the reminder in my phone didn't help. Darn.

Anyway, so a few weeks ago it was KKs second birthday, it was a really nice time, despite the bad weather. Family came up to visit, and we had a lovely day ... lovely weekend in fact, not mad, not stressy, just fun and enjoyed by all!

TJ got into the Primary school we wanted him to go to (the same one WB goes to), which was good news after DW was scared he'd end up at a bad one.

We had a few friends and DW's sister-in-law come to visit us over a series of days earlier in May, and that was really nice, and fun.

We have still be looking at cars, but nothing's really taken the spark away from the Touran, we just need some money to buy one, ha! Yes, hmm, speaking of money, it's extremely tight this month, we're really having to scrimp to buy food, but it's our own doing after over-spending by ~£500 on pay day weekend and having to raid what little savings we have to make ends meet.

On a lighter note, me & DW are going to see Westlife this weekend, and although we can't afford a fancy night out, it'll be nice to get away from routine and do something fun! :o)

PS. To follow-up on the dare DW had for me: she dared me to go to work in my PJs! Which I did a few weeks ago, it was funny, heehee :o)

La de da

Well well well, look who's here. How dare you show your face in these parts after so long?

Yes yes yes, I've been ... lazy, to be honest. Lots has happened, and I'll do my best to recall as much as I can.

DW quit her job after one shift, something I supported as she really didn't like it, and didn't want to work in a horrible place coming home stressed and just feeling crap. She's much happier at home now, but the dreams of buying a car have slowed down somewhat. I'm hoping that we get some PPI money back from one of my loans, so if that does come through then we can use that to buy something. Speaking of which we (well, I) test-drove the Seat Alhambra, Ford C-Max and VW Touran. Enjoyed them all, but I think the Touran was the best, not by much, and I'd be happy to own any of them. I want to have a look at the Hyundi Santa Fe, and we've got plenty of time to look around, so that might be interesting.

In March I had two medical procedures done - a vasectomy and an endoscopy. BY FAR the endoscopy was the worst of the two - heck, it's possibly the worse experience I've ever had to go through in my entire life so far, it was horrific and I hope I never have to go through it ever again. The vasectomy was fine, it's all healed up and whatnot now too which is great.

I also went with my uncle to see the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra play in March, which was the first live orchestra I've ever seen, and WOW it was a fun night, the music was phenomenal, and when the last movement was played I didn't want it to end!!

April's been a pretty uneventful month, Easter came and went without incident, the boys have enjoyed their time off school, and DW even took all the kids to the seaside for a few days, which left me home alone for one evening, nothing I couldn't handle :o)

One of my close friends announced yesterday that he's going to move to Australia, he's got three kids who will all miss him (as will I!) but I do think he could really use a fresh start away from so many bad things that have happened, and he's got friends out there so it wouldn't be totally alien to him. Another couple of friends I know are most likely going to split up soon, again for the better in my opinion, they're not happy with each other (while on a break, they both slept with someone else) and I just think need to move on (even though they have two kids together) and do something that will make themselves happy.

One last thing I want to say, DW and I played truth or dare a while back, and she's still got a dare to spring on me. She asked on Facebook what that dare should be and got some ... interesting replies. Hopefully by next week (as I've put a reminder in my phone to blog weekly!) she'll have dared me to do something, and we can all have a good giggle about it on here :o)

So until next week, adiós!

Cars

Today we went looking at cars!

We parked up and walked to Vauxhall, Toyota, VW & Ford to have a look at their 7-seater cars. Vauxhall's Zafira was the worth with it's stupid folding seats, Toyota's Verso was nice, VW's Touran was the best, and had lots of gadgets, and Ford had three offerings: Galaxy (which both me & DW disliked), S-Max which had annoying back seats, and the C-Max which was surprisingly good!

We have a lot to think about, and with DW's new job, it's looking like we will be able to afford a new set of wheels soon!

Valentine's

Today DW thought we were going to a car boot sale, hohoho, she was soo wrong :o)

Instead I took her on a drive, and gave her four sealed envelopes with clues in as to where we were going. The first simply said:

"We are not going to a car boot sale, a market, or anything like that.
Sorry.

And no, I’m not going to tell you where we are going, so don’t ask."

The second contained a map of where we were going:

The third clue was an acronym: "SquareEars can catnap", with the clue of "4, 4, 6, 5".

The final one contained a photo of where we were going, and this was the one which gave it away for her:

There was a fifth envelope, which contained our booking details for Aqua Sana at Center Parcs!

She guessed where we were going about 5-10 minutes away, so she had a little bit of time to get excited. We arrived at about 9:30 and after getting changed we received a nice drink and cake before going into the spa, and went for a little swim to get started. We went into all of the various rooms, and tried out all of the facilities, including sitting outside in the freezing cold huddled under blankets! It was fantastic. After a lovely lunch at 1:40 we went back into the spa and enjoyed it a little bit more, I even fell asleep in one of the relaxation rooms, heehee!

At around 4 o'clock we left the spa, dumped our bags in the car and walked into the village where we did a bit of shopping, booked a table for dinner, and sat in the bowling alley drinking hot chocolates with all the trimmings. DW took the opportunity to update Facebook, and I checked in on Google+, sad I know :oP

We had a quick peek in the swim shop, then went into the pool to have a go on the slide & whatnot. The jungle river was really busy, a constant stream of people were going down and it was just madness! After a little bit of swimming in the "quiet" pool we sunk into the jacuzzi and stayed there for half an hour :o)

We dumped the swimming bags in the car, and had a game of pool in Jardin des Sports before going back down to the village at 9-ish to have a tasty dinner at Hucks. By 10:30 it was time to go home, neither of us wanted to leave, but we'd had a BRILLIANT day, just wanted it to last longer!

DW got a new job!

Woooooo yeah!!!

She's got a job working as a waitress in a local pub-restaurant! She doesn't start until the 22nd, but yay, great news!!!!!!!!

Missed a month

Oops.

Had a few rubbish weeks, don't know if it was January blues or what, but it wasn't a happy month until the last about 5-7 days, but February's looking good!

We got our Wii fixed (it was making a grinding noise when you put a disc in) by Nintendo for FREE, which was AWESOME. Car needs to go in for it's MOT next week, I hope it passes first time ... I know it needs a new bulb, but otherwise it's OK afaik! Work's going OK, bosses are still being stupid, but I don't think that's ever going to change - and I should count my blessings, I get to post on here during work hours and play games during lunch, so it's not all bad. Church is going well, I'm singing a solo on Sunday which I'm nervous about, but it should be alright I think.

Sorry it's a bit of a messy post, but I wanted to post something before that gaps start getting too big and I forget what we've been up to!

Oh yeah, a guy from church is being WB's supply teacher today, so that should be funny! WB is getting really confused about religion, and I don't think he'll ever be a Christian, which is a shame, but it's his choice, and you never really know what's the right path until you die, and by then it's too late. TJ's being a right pain in the bum, really hitting the defiant stage which is annoying DW. KK is learning new words all the time "choo choo", "more", and some others I can't remember. DW is actively looking for work (we've given in CVs to a few local hotels and pubs) and has been looking round nursery's a crèche's for KK, they're quite expensive for what they are, and we're thinking either a child-minder might be better (they seem to be cheaper) or working in a nursery so we can get free child care.

Well, this post has turned from a quickie in to quite a long one, and I don't really think I've scratched the surface for what's gone on recently. I have to move on though, so I shall be back soon ... I hope!

Take care x