Buying the first school Uniform.

Well with the move to Stafford on the cards, we have been trying to get Kai a place in a school ready for September, the problem of course is it's now August and the schools are closed for the summer.  I've spoken to the county council in Stafford and they've got him into Tillington Manor.  Having searched on the Web For the school, I'm still none the wiser. 

Because of the move we wanted to get some uniform sorted before hand and Mark had to go find a uniform shop in Stafford just to find out what they wear.  Ok so now we know the jumper has a logo for the school and it's Navy Blue. 

So off I went to Tesco's and bought some plain white polo shirts, and grey trousers (which we were also informed make up the uniform).  Ok as my Mum say's he does look rather like he's wearing his big brothers clothes, but he is only just 4 and  he only has his little legs. 

Whatever I think he looks quite smart, and he was really proud about getting his uniform and lunch box.  Still need to get the jumper, pe kit, reading bag and shoes, but at least we've made a start and he'll have something to wear on his first day.

Oh and of course Alana HAD to get a look in too.

The Blog is resurrected

Well if all goes well we should be ready to complete the sale of our house and move to Stafford in under 2 weeks.  This is a big deal not only because it's now 14months since we put the house on the market, and nearly 9months since Mark moved into the Dr's accommodation at the hospital in Stafford during the week.   But it's the end of our Worcester experience, (Mark and I are gradually making our way back up the country)  I was brought up in Hampshire, moved to London and then Surrey, then over to Worcester, now heading North (of Birmingham, lol)  to Stafford.

Mark knows his way round quite well now, but  the test will come when we get up there and he has to find all new places likes schools, classes, activities etc.  I see me developing a very close relationship with "Sexy Shaun" my SatNav.

I feel, we've been living in a kind of limbo for the last year, with everything on hold, waiting for this move to happen, and now it's almost here I know I'll be gutted about leaving our friends behind.  So I thought I'd try and give my non-work blog a another go, in an attempt at being able to share our new life with you all.  Feel free to leave comments, and I hope you enjoy.

Santander Cards

Sorry for not posting, for the last few months but ill heath, Xmas and then writers block have all got in the way.
However something arrived in the post yesterday that makes me angry.

I have had an Evans account / card for at least 15years - I think, with varying amounts of money owing, at any given time.
Last month I didn't make the min payment (£4) and when my new statement arrived I now owe two months (oh and a late payment fee of £12). I didn't make the payment this month as I was having to juggle some finances to get back within my overdraft, so this will really help, thanks, but not a big problem.
I got a letter, a day or two later from Santander Cards to tell me I missed the payment. However the link on the letter to make payments didn't appear to work either, so I put it to the side, to make a payment in the normal manner later.
Yesterday when I got in from a lovely day out I looked at the post and there was another from Santander Cards! Apparently my card is coming up for expiration soon and because they have a "commitment to ensure they are lending responsibly" they won't be renewing my card, unless I correct the status of the card. So for missing £4, I now owe an extra £12 and am branded as being unable to use credit responsibly!!!!!

In case you don't know we're trying to sell the house and move to Stafford, at which point I will need to go an find some work, so will need to adjust my wardrobe to get some work clothes. Under normal situations I would probably get some using the card. I'm so annoyed I would prefer to pay off my card and close my account. So how many millions do I owe them, that has sent them into this panic that I will bring their company down, I hear you ask!!! Well including the late fee, I owe a grand total of £40.

While I'm all for banks and money lenders finally being responsible for their actions and checking things like this, I do feel that an automatic letter (like this one appears to be, having been sent out to everyone who happens to not be in credit that month) ought to have some sort of limit on it. Santander have only been looking after the cards for a short time and they've wiped out years of contentment with the service with one letter. A little common sense people, especially in the current climate, where things are tough on everyone.

Craft Kits

Kai likes being crafty, in more ways than one. Since he was about 1yrs old he's had a go with aqua draw, crayola pens that only draw on special paper, felt pens, pencils, crayons, stickers, paints, gluing.

We don't have a dinning table just TV tables, so giving him the art stuff is always a big deal, getting everything ready and finding him somewhere to do it. So we like little craft kits that come with everything you need in the pack.

In the past we've made a small picture of a cat looking into a fish bowl and we've done a bigger decoupage type one with a princess and castle, made from foam stickers cut into shapes from Hobby craft.

These kits generally work for me because being controlling Mummy I like all the elements in just the right place. Stickers Kai's used to but gluing is still something relatively new to us at home.

Over the last few days we've been crafty, after Kai wakes from his nap and before Alana stirs we've been busy.

First of all we made a foam reindeer from Hobbycraft. It came in a small pack to make about 6 although Kai's interest wains after 1. He loves the googley eyes like his new fav programme on the BBC in the afternoon Ooglies.

However the draw back to this kit, was that there was nothing to stick them on. I suppose it's so you use you imagination where they go, but the drawback to this is you need to spend more money on the cards, or foam shape you mount it on.

Yesterday we worked on a calendar kit provided by @NEDayCrafts / http://www.nedaycrafts.co.uk/ who I met on twitter.

I cut out all the pieces, and I was very impressed that there was a glue brush and a little plastic bag of pva glue included. Now with hindsight, this should have been when I said over to you Kai, but controlling Mummy lay it out as per the pic for him to see and then handed him each piece in turn, showing him where to put it. He enjoyed himself, I got a very pretty calendar and now I feel guilty for stifling his creativity. Never mind he can always be crafty tomorrow.

When asked which bit he liked best: "I like the sun and all of it". I asked him which kit he preferred doing and he said "the calendar" so perhaps I am being too hard on myself, he still enjoyed himself, and got to spend quality time with Mummy, so it's all good.

What's "UP" at the cinema.

A few months ago Kai and I went to the cinema to see "Ice Age 3" he loved it and considering he's only 3yrs old way remarkably well behaved. So as a treat for him doing so well with his toilet training the last few weeks, I thought we'd go back and see Disney Pixars new film "Up".


Ok perhaps I should have moved when the ads came on and the music was loud enough for Kai to put his hands up to cover his ears and said he wanted to go home before the adverts had even finished.


Before the film started there was a short animated film "Partly Cloudy", which was funny, and Kai even started to relax and enjoy himself. I should have given up while the going was good.


Then came the film itself began. The first few minutes are all about how the main man, Mr Fredrikson met his wife and about their life together. Unfortunately at the end of this section she dies, and me being the soppy thing I am, was sitting there bawling my eyes out. I knew she had to die (ok it's the natural order of things, but) it's also the point of the film, she dies and he goes on the big adventure they'd always planned. So there's me bawling and Kai wearing just the hood of his jacket to try muffling the loud music from the film.


The film progresses and main characters befriend a big bird that looks like a big peacock crossed with a dodo. The baddies capture the bird in a net and take it away with them. Well poor Kai got really upset and started crying / screaming because they caught the bird. I gave him big hugs, whispered reassuringly, not to worry they'd rescue the bird, all the time he's screaming as though I was killing him. In the end I went for the tried and tested method that Mum's have used to stop crying for years, BRIBERY. I offered him a little bit of my coke if he stopped crying, this worked, for a while at least....


In true Disney fashion, the good guys rescue the bird, and all live happily ever after but Kai started to cry / scream again and this time continued while I got his coat on, we left the screen and even leaving the cinema. One of the poor guys who came in to clean the screen said "It wasn't that bad was it?". When I eventually got him calmed down he said he was crying because "they left the bird behind" with its family, and then "because the film ended". Poor little dude got close to starting again everytime we mentioned the film for the rest of the day.

I went to the cinema expecting lots of laughs, and although the film was good, I wouldn't say it's a kids film or for soppy people like me (at least not in public).

Remote Spirit Release~Things That Go Bump in the Night

Having been brought up with a Mum who was spiritualist from around my early teens, I am not unaccustomed to stories of Ghosts or Spirits. I have sat in development circles to develop my own abilities, but I still struggle when it happens on my home ground. Since my eldest was a few weeks old, I’ve been fortunate enough that he has always slept through the night. We always know that there is something the matter if he wakes. In the past he has proven to be sensitive to spirits by being unable to settle in a room that on closer inspection had a spirit entity in that wasn't best pleased to have been discovered. We know that this is what made Kai unable to settle because once the presence had been moved on, Kai went straight to bed without problem and slept through. Every now and again we have weird things happen, or a series of nights when Kai wakes during the night. We've had the microwave turn itself on, lights flashing while we're sitting watching the TV and toys turning themselves on. Enough about the past, the recent events are what I mean to talk about. Last week after warming Alanas’ breakfast milk in the microwave, I went into the lounge to give it to her. I heard the microwave turn itself on in the kitchen, Kai was in the room with me and no-one else was in the house. As I said earlier, we have had this happen before, over a period of a few days the microwave would turn itself on, with no-one in the kitchen or the timer would change with you standing beside it. It hasn't happened though for a good few months. So back to the recent events, I went into the kitchen and opened the door, knowing it couldn't turn itself on, if the door was open. So on my way back in the lounge, I hear the timer increasing as though someone was upping it. We were in a rush to get breakfast eaten ready to go to dance class, so I just unplugged the microwave and left it. In the evening I spoke to my Mum who does Remote Spirit Release and has in the past helped to clear my house of its extra visitors. As she was heading out, she said she would scan the house and get back to me. Remote Spirit Release is helping earth bound spirits, who for whatever reason have failed to pass over. There are a number of programmes on the telly like “Ghost Whisperer” and “Medium” or “Living with the Dead” that show the Medium helping the spirits to cross over by actually being there. Remote spirit release works in the same way, however there is no actual requirement for the medium to be present, they can link into the energy of a building, location or person from anywhere in the world, for more information please check out Elen’s site. That night, I tried in a quiet moment just before bed to visualise my house and see if there was "anybody there", as I was trying to move through the downstairs of my house in my minds eye I saw a series of cartoon scary faces, this to me meant I was either very imaginative (I can be when the need arises) or there was someone or more likely a number of people around. So I decided to leave it to Mum. For a second night in a row Kai woke and came downstairs only an hour after going down. Kai was becoming more and more challenging in his behaviour and the way he spoke to me each day, not his normal self. The worst night we had before it was sorted, Alana could be heard before we went to bed, she'd cry out once, then go back to sleep calling out again a few minutes later. Mark, who rarely remembers his dreams enough to tell me about them, dreamt he'd driven the car off the road into a field then crashed it. I had an ongoing waking dream that was a cross between my art software I’d been using and a game. A new layer in the artwork I was working on kept appearing called ghost (amazing the subtleness of the human subconscious huh.) I got so worked up by this waking dream that when I woke needing to spend a penny I didn’t want to go out in the hall. Kai woke before 5am, got taken back to his room by Daddy, (who says there aren't benefits to not being the favourite parent). He returned within 30mins claiming to want his potty but not wanting actually go on it. Daddy then gave up put Kai in bed with me and went to sleep downstairs. Kai kept trying to talk to me about going down to see his Dad, while I kept trying to get him to go back to sleep. He did at around 6:50 and then the alarm went off at 7am as we had plans for the day. So a very tired, disturbed bunch of people got up for the day. We went out for a while and had a late lunch when we returned about 2pm. Mark made himself a microwave burger and didn’t unplug it. True to form the microwave turned itself on again. I spoke to my Mum and she said she'd been through the house; there had been a number of entities there. One spirit had been reluctant to leave, but she felt she'd managed to help a lot of spirits pass over (head into to the light). I asked when she'd worked on the house and she said during the morning so I told her about the microwave. She told me about the spirit who'd been reluctant to leave and that it has been quite draining on her, but when she felt better she would try the house again. A few hours later I got a call back, saying she'd cleared the house again, there had been a ghost, who'd been so reluctant to leave, and a couple who he'd been intimidating into not crossing over too. I plugged in the microwave and since that last call not once has it turned itself on again of it’s own accord. Since then we've all slept better, no electrical disturbances, Kai's behaviour has settled down a bit and almost back to his normal self. To the sceptics out there they could say it was a fault with the microwave (that suddenly happened to correct itself once a scan and clearing had been carried out). The dreams were because we’d been talking about “ghosts” in the house. I know that individually these things don’t seem to indicate a problem or a ghost in the traditional sense, but to me I know how they tend to try and attract my attention. So if you’re experiencing anything a little unusual, that you can’t find a “rational” explanation for, be open to investigating the possibility of a supernatural cause. The presence of a ghost / entity may be identified by certain symptoms: • Change in a person’s behaviour or mood • Thoughts that don’t feel like your own. • Unusual smells in a room • Sudden change in temperature/atmosphere in a room • The feeling of being watched • Child or animal’s dislike of a certain room • Disturbed sleep, waking up feeling tired • Light bulbs blow frequently, lights flashing on and off, or electrical equipment malfunctions • Objects that move on their own or go missing, or go bump in the night. I know what I believe in and it works for me and my family. If you don’t believe in ghosts and an afterlife then you can ignore this blog and have a good laugh at my expense, but if you are experiencing similar things or just want to talk about your beliefs, feel free to contact me or even better speak to an expert. So “who you gonna call??? Ghostbusters!”

A morning in A & E

Well it's not quite been the morning I planned. We were going to the Safari park but I guess little Alana had plans of her own.
It all started on Thursday night, when Alana started to sound a little hoarse and got a barking cough. She seemed OK in herself and slept well as usual through the night. Then on Friday although still a little croaky, she was OK. We went off to our normal Jo Jingles class and it was then I realised she had developed a temperature. The temp settled with Calpol, but during the afternoon her breathing got noisier, although she still well in herself. She was eating and drinking normally, just breathing noisily.

This morning Kai snuck into our room early, and between telling him to lay down and go back to sleep and trying to listen out for Alana, she decided to wake early too, but now she seemed to be struggling to catch her breath. We decided it was best to get her checked out. Mark tried to contact our GP to get the out of office number, but even though it should have been an answer machine at that time in the morning it just kept giving him the engaged tone. He even drove round to the surgery just to see the sign giving the same number.

In the mean time I had run the bath and was in the bathroom with Kai and Alana. Trying to explain to a three year old why he needed to play on the floor and not get in the bath, all the time trying to get Alana near to the steam but not in the position where if she suddenly threw herself around, she would touch the hot water.
Mark came back and we decided to just take her up to A&E, quickly throwing drinks and breakfast on move food for the kids into the change bag. We are lucky that we only live around the corner, so it didn't take us long.
I got us registered and got told to wait in the children's waiting area. After being triaged and made to feel silly by my little madam her oxygen saturation level was 100%, but she was still breathing noisily.The Dr eventually got to us (a couple of more urgent cases had come through the door first), he examined her in the waiting room, and the two cubicles were in use. He then walked off, no explanation, or anything.
The nurse appeared a short time later with some steroid in s syringe and a nebuliser. Now for those that don't know I was a children's nurse until about 7yrs ago, which at that moment in time felt a lifetime away. The nurse assumed I understood what was going on and what I was doing. The nebuliser helped ease her noise a bit and made my little girl suddenly very energetic, she was ready to go playing back in the waiting room.
We sat around a little longer, until the Dr came back, asked after her and decided she could go home. Now going by the fact it's Sept I presume that the Dr was from the latest intake of Dr's (SHO's). So I hope for the sake of his future parents he learns to explain what is going on, or at least knows to get the nurses more involved in his care.
I'm fortunate enough to have my medical experience, so I know they were treating Alana for croup, but if it had been anybody else???

So the lesson for today is when dealing with a client, another Mummy or anyone, explain everything, never assume and although it's useful to know someone’s background and past experience, it is the experience of the now that is most important. Do they understand what is going on, don't assume...

We are now home, had lunch and a nice quiet three hour nap, she looks so much brighter and happier, still a little noisy, but not as much as before. She got to take another dose of steroids tonight and hopefully that'll help settle her.

Kai, did get to see his animals as Mark took him to the safari park this afternoon anyway. But because of the sudden burst of summer, we're currently experiencing so did a lot of other people. Which meant they were stuck in the car for quite a lot of the afternoon, oopps at least he's now having his turn on the rides he loves so much.