One day, we'll laugh about that!

Oh my.......the day went so well today, I was organised and calm and it all came together so beautifully, shopping with Sophie, food all coming together in time, smelled glorious, looked fabulous, no rushing. We even had time for a quick trip to the reclaimation yard where I found, to my absolute delight a 5ft Singing and dancing Santa, still in the box, all wrapped up and working perfectly for a mere £20. Could the day be any better?
Dinner was set for 6pm...at 5.30 our guests called to say that it had all gone to pot and they weren't going to be able to make it, oh bum....H asked if they were sure and said how sad that was but hey! If there was a miracle and they could come, stop by and there's sure to be leftovers!
Oh, see now we're a bit flat and look at all this food and I KNOW! Julie! Call Julie and Berian and they can come and they are family so you can do that "hey the people we really wanted can't come so you'll do...there's food! Now..come NOW!" And they did. And it was good.
We ate and we ate some more and because it is Thanksgiving to hell with the kitchen and YES we WILL pile all that food not eaten in heaps on top of each other and be totally unaware that there are starving people in the world ( although stock and good meat was saved and refrigerated immediately because we have limits) but those roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes that no-one will want anyway, leave them there.
So , phew, stuffed and just getting that snoozy feeling, about 7.30..guess what! Go on!

DING DONG!
Yes, our lovely friends arrived....HOORAY!
Oh HELLO! Oh I am so glad you made it ( shit, shit NOW what, quick, go and find food as if you saved it and .....OH NO!!!)
Then, in the kitchen, whilst doing that stupid jiggedy dancing thing where you almost stand in one spot but your whole body is going in 12 different directions in sheer panic because LOOK....lovely bacon and stuffing rolls in the BIN and potatoes all lovely with dirty dishes ontop....all we had was turkey, ham that wasn't successful when hot was totally unappetising cold ( will make a pie or something but couldn't put it on a plate right then)
Julie came out and was sort of whispering and bending down and whispering again" What will you DO? Um....get some potatoes and make chips ( no oil!) oh mash then, make some mash and there could be some, um ,er........oh what can you DO?) H came out and suggested a sandwich and that's a great idea as we always have beautiful crusty bread...not today, for the first time in probably 2 years or more we had 4 dinner rolls and more turkey. So our guests had 2 dinner rolls, sad little warmed up rolls with turkey. And pie, 3 slices of pie because we HAD pie cherry, apple and pumpkin( and then I learned that lovely man guest has diabetes so he gets a coma as a bonus prize probably right. about. now)
It could only be worse if someone at church at some time has given them my blog link and then they can read all about it and know how horrified I was that they did get here when I so clearly thought they wouldn't. Steve and Norma, I love you.....please come again and I will actually FEED you next time, real food, that is hot and maybe we will even have a real napkin instead of a bit of paper towel. Oh no it really WAS horrible and I know that somewhere I have napkins with turkeys on them and little wheatie things, real thanksgiving ones.
Good pies though and entertainment from 3 little boys on a sugar from cherry pie rush and Santa, who performed beautifully and I can tell you that we can even plug the iPod into Santa and he will sing with mouth moving and head turning, he even jiggles his arms....Isaac had him grooving to Johnny Cash and insists that he dances much better to him that those piddling christmas ditties, he likes to get on down does Santa. Isaac sat with Santa a lot today, he loves him and is very keen that he now go back in his box until it is nearly christmas because ' one of those others are going to BREAK him!'...Elijah ( can you imagine) actually did punch Santa in his fat belly to see what happened and what happened was Isaac told him that he was absolutely going to get a LUMP OF COAL NOW !! and Eli sat in a huddled heap in a corner and wept with remorse because he didn't MEAN it, it just happened and he is so SORRRRRRRRY!
So Santa is safely packed away, with his legs up his jacket and his head in a plastic bag. Phew.
When I am a little unsure if what to do...I talk. I can hear myself talk, my head is yelling at me to SHUT UP NOW! Naturally my mouth never listens to my head and so I talk and talk and just keep bloody talking.
The very best, most splendid part of an evening like this is when it ends, when you say goodbye in that overly cheerful voice and say how you must do it all again and how LOVELY! Then you shut the door and cringe a lot while you get your 'jamas on, while you cleanse your face and clean your teeth and then sit on the sofa next to your lovely husband of 9 years and you don't have to say a word, just hold his lovely hand and snigger every now and then and he knows what you are thinking.
I am so glad I married H, we talked about how freaky those first years were and how this was all so not our idea. I look at H now and I absolutely cannot imagine him joining an online singles site, nothing is futher away from his idea of a good plan! I did it because my mum asked me to, for one month, had a message from H the next day and was married to him within 5 months. We are both amazed that it happened and also laughed about how for at least 2 years we both stuck with it because we knew it was right....not sure why or how but we knew it and knew that it would work.
It really does work, as time goes by, I like him more. I have always loved him but I didn't know him for a long time, the more I know him, the more I like him and I am very happy to be his wife.
I am thankful for many things. Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a gift.

I have had a splendid day today, super, excelled myself in all areas, if I may say so myself.
At first light we packed the car full of boxes and bags and stuff and boxes and also, children and drove the 1. point something mile to the new house, unloaded and we decided that H would stay and work in the garden ( again) Seth would stay with him and I would take the other 2 and just go away, somewhere nice, where boxes and smells and work of any kind would be a distant worry and not in my very grumpy and tired face.
Hoorah, off we go, feeling sort of free and a bit wicked and wasteful, have we really only 5 days to overcome the feeling of doom at leaving lovely posh barn home to reside in house that is now a bit lovely and clean and almost homely but still so filled with memories of how it was? Yes we do but times come upon us when we just have to say Bugger it all and have some fun or something.
Today was most certainly a bugger it day. Bliss.
Glorious sunshine and a couple of quid for lunch and off we set. Trago Mills, there is even a FACEBOOK club supporting Trago mills because I tell you it is lovely there, cheap household stuff and clothes and also a pets corner and eating area and kids rides. Just the job. A mere mile from the Barn and we set off first to see the animals, goats and ducks and pigs and guinea pigs.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone coming towards me with purpose, smiley face and most definitely, deliberately heading my way.....Oh look it's B! Lovely friend from single motherhood days, we were single together and close with my sister too, all 3 getting together with our collective children ( 8 all together) I married H and moved away and heard that B had got married and had another baby. Oh I was so happy to see her! She had a delicious blond haired toddler attached to her by a leash, I mean handy strap, to stop her escaping and being eaten by the goat or trampled by a holiday maker. Oh and she is having another baby, any day I think , she used to be a petite little thing and as so many of us tend to do had gained some weight over the years. Anyway she was pregnant and blooming and .......you know what happened next don't you? You just KNOW I asked her when her baby was due don't you?
Well I didn't, so there! Oh not me, oh no........ I twisted my face into as gleeful an expression as I could muster, eyebrows almost atop of my head, because I was SO genuinely thrilled for her , and then....THEN I put out my hand (and I am normally so untouchy feely, so unlikely to touch anyone if I can help it) but I put out my hand and as I screeched "HOW EXCITING!" as I RUBBED HER BELLY. I did, I really did.
She looked at me and she said... "Ha ha, nothing in there, I am just FAT"
Oh dear sweet powers that be, please open the ground and swallow me up.
I would NEVER, EVER presume anyone is pregnant if it was just a remote possibility, or if there merely a cute little pouch or something but this was honestly and truly so obviously at least a 7 month belly, so clearly full of almost cooked baby that I was compelled to show this lovely girl just how happy I was that she was about to be blessed again. Oh hell.
So, after I had blabbered on about my whole damn life for 30 minutes trying to pretend that I hadn't just done what I had just done ( oh but I really did it, oh dear.....) we went our separate ways and had some lunch and played for an hour or 3.
Back at the new house, H and Seth had worked miracles and things are beginning to look as though we could have a nice outside area any day now.
H has a hat, one that makes me just melt because he looks so fabulous and touching and ....well look



this is how that garden looked before....



and today.....



and we bought one of those metal bins to burn the garden cutting because it would have just been so hard to lug it all to the recycling place.....I hope we won't ruin the whole universe by burning this grass and stuff, we'll take our bottles to the recycling place and make up for it a bit but we are desperate to just get this done!

The front of the house was like this

it gives off such a gloomy feeling, all overgrown and dirty curtains at the windows, weeds, trash and misery.

Now its clean and cleared, still a bit unloved but definitely looking more loved and clean


We got home, weary, aching but brimming with feelings of satisfaction ( and mortification in my case) H had his bath, the 2 littler boys had theirs and when things have been going so well , you sometimes think you might be invincible and able to do things that really, you should never do. Like thinking 2 little boys could play unsupervised in the bath for 10 minutes......which they did, quite happily as it happens.
Oh hell.




And while I am posting so many pictures, here's one for you.



I am beginning to panic. Fortunately, I don't have the time.