Oh the rain.....

I'm taking this personally now, rain and more rain, every single day. The boys, seem to be enjoying a week long video revival, they raided the boxes of old movies in the workshop and are happily vegging out and working their way through them, one. after. the. other. I grateful for that because other options are few and far between, rainy day soft play areas are always so overcrowded and miserable as every other mother in the area heads there for some relief from the trapped inside feeling.
Crafts are difficult because Sophie has the dining room, so we have no table or space.
We are on a pretty tight budget lately, money has gone down, bills gone up, same story for everyone so I hate to complain ( although I do, because it's my JOB) We do have exciting things planned and so I am squirrelling away every spare penny, not hard to do when it's for a splendid treat.
Boston, in 8 weeks, oh my. Actually, shall whisper this I'm not scared about the flight yet, amazing that is! In fact I find myself terrifically excited about the whole thing, apart from leavening H for a whole week with the boys, I hope he can get through it by telling himself that it is his turn next, when I get home he has just a few weeks until he goes to L.A to stay with his dad for a week, taking Seth too. I am more nervous about them going away than about my own flights.
Oh, the thought of shopping and hotels and waking up to go out with Cathy and Soph, meeting up with Sara, Di, Colleen, Jamie, laughing and eating, having my bed made for me everyday. Heaven. A whole WEEK. We are going to New York for a day, splendid.
Cathy did invite us to stay with her, which is so kind, I declined though because I adore her and women need their space, a place to escape and break wind, we need to enjoy that lovely feeling of relaxing and then looking forward to meeting up again the next day, I love to shut the door and flop into bed knowing I can snore and grunt, wake up and paddle about ( And Sophie sleeps though anything, I can share a room with her and put the lights on, she won't wake up until you yell "BREAKFAST!" in her face) Also, when going on a Holiday it is of the utmost importance to feel as though the world is catering to your needs, that heaven;y part of stying in a hotel when you can get up, take a shower, dump your towels on the floor, leave your bed unmade and when you come back again MAGIC!! All tidy and fresh...oh that's one of the best parts and I suspect, if I stayed at Cathy's and waited for that to happen, she might not like me quite the same way.
When you stay at someone's home, to me, it is important to make sure that your hosts are left in no doubt that you are grateful to them for having you, my mum always taught me that you take a gift, you pay your way, you help out and when you leave, you leave your hosts feeling as though you brought more than you took away.
I am nothing if polite and obedient to my mother, so I am staying in a hotel, that way I can be lazy and inconsiderate. Honesty is the best policy, I think I refused Cathy's generous invitation by saying something like " stay at your house? ARE YOU KIDDING? If I do that, I will have to say things like " can I help?" and will have to make my own bed and talk to people after 9pm.....I adore you, can you call the hotel for me please?"
I love that I can say that to her and she doesn't, even for a second take offence, in fact, truth be told I bet she even breathed out a sigh of relief because she is like me in that she loves her own space.
Staying for a week will mean that we can take our time to decide where to go and what to do, we can have a truly splendid time.
Just as exciting is the fact that Cathy, Brian, Matthew and Jenn are all coming HERE..yes to England!! I am so beyond excited about that and every time Sophie and I go out she will say
"we HAVE to bring them HERE" I think we need 3 months to show them everything, we will meet them at the airport, stay in London a day or two to do touristy things and then come back here to eat cream teas, drive tiny roads, see Castles and then weep at Jordan and Mel's wedding.

What a lovely day that will be, the wedding is at Torre Abbey, in the Spanish Barn, they are having a Hog roast and a bar, a disco and a day to remember indeed. Having my friends there too will mean the world to me. How exciting to be able to be the hostess and spoil my friends for a change, I can barely wait.

When I am in Boston, I shall be stocking up on Halloween stuff for our annual party, this year we are planning on hiring a hall, last year in this little house was a nightmare, if we hire a hall we can let them run riot and not have to tear our hair out! I am excited to find costumes and loads of goodies to bring back with us. The outlets will be waiting for us, what's a trip to Boston without going to the outlets? Ahhhh, heaven indeed.

I won't need to stock up so much on all the basics, like Parmesan cheese etc because H can do that when he goes...all fun for me then!

Thankyou blog for taking me away from this rainy and bleak day, that took me to 30 minutes of piddling excitement. 8 weeks to go. Hoorah.