Are You Ready For Santa?

The tree is up, Santa snacks are laid out, Christmas Eve traditional pyjamas are on, a Portable North Pole Message has been received and a very excited little boy is tucked up in bed.

With less than 24 hours to spare I finally managed to complete the last of my Christmas knitting projects.

Now I just need to find some new projects to get on the needles. I think my next thing to master is knitting on circular or double pointed needles.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and that any snow and illness doesn’t disrupt things too much.

I will see you all in a few days, probably a few pounds heavier too.

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So So Tired

It doesn’t seem to matter what time I go to bed, what time I get up or what I spend my day doing. I can have an early night, do very little in the day and go to bed early and yet I am still tired.

I am tired of just being tired. I am also tired of feeling light headed and faint at the simplest of tasks. Just when I think I have figured out what is causing it, it comes back again at the least likely opportunity just to disprove my theory.

I never realised doing the food shopping or cleaning the floors could be so difficult.

My days are spent dreaming of an afternoon nap.

I don’t get to spend my evenings snuggling with Mr C, instead I am busy reading, knitting or just generally keeping busy because I know if I sit still for just 5 minutes I will end up asleep for the rest of the night.

It also seems (according to Mr C) that tiredness, pregnancy or both makes me grumpy.


You would think that being so tired would guarantee me a decent nights sleep? Wrong! My only saving grace is my relaxation MP3’s from Tums 2 Mums. Mr C’s latest role appears to be disconnecting me from my ipod before he goes to sleep.

I don’t seem to be able to see an end in sight any time soon.  It has been this way for months. Now that I am pregnant it seems that pregnancy is blamed for virtually all ailments. My weekly attendances with the GP even before I became pregnant seem to have no influence at all. I suspect things wont change once I have had the baby either and that I will be told that I am a new mum with a baby of X weeks so I am bound to feel like this.

Is life just tiring in general or can I long for a day when this feeling will pass?

Photo Credit

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Our Top 5 Recommendations For Christmas Toys

After being lucky enough to take part in the Toys R Us Toyologist programme I thought I would make a short list of our 5 favourite toys.

With only 1 weekend left before Christmas and only a few days before the Christmas postal dates here are our recommendations.  - many of which we have been and bought for gifts for our own friends and family.

In no particular order our recommendations are; (click on the links to read our reviews)

Pass the Bomb Junior

Sticky Mosaics

Fisher Price Trio

Leapfrog Leapster Explorer

 

Hot Wheels Force 5 Battle Blast

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Dear Santa

I hope I have made it onto the nice list. I have been a good girl all year, I have hardly sworn, my road rage is on the decrease and I have only used your name for bribery purposes on a handful of occurrences.

I know your sleigh will be full of presents for the little ones so hopefully you will find my requests are not too materialistic and will not weigh down the sleigh too much.

You would make my year if you could bring me;

1.     An assurance that my heap of a car will last until April so that I can make it into work until my maternity leave starts.

2.    If you could arrange for any snow and ice to have a temporary leave of absence until say after April when I will no longer have to worry about getting into work then this would easy my worry greatly.

3.    I cant remember the last time Mr C and I managed to get a night away together without Snaffles. Given the ever expanding size of my stomach getting away together is going to be even less likely. If you would take us somewhere on your sleigh for a babymoon for the night we would be eternally grateful.

4.    Could you leave extra nice gifts for the schools admissions board and let them know it was from us. Hopefully they will repay the gesture and put Snaffles down for our first choice of schools. I would rather not have to be filling in appeal forms whilst in labour.

5.     If you could continue to make the Snaffles household an illness free household this winter then this would make life significantly easier all round.

I will leave you an Couplands butter brandy mince pie out in anticipation of your fulfilment of the above.

If you are struggling to get through the naughty and nice list then I can assure you that the owner of the car garage I recently visited should most certainly be on the naughty list.

Yours Gratefully

Snaffles Mummy

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Somtimes There Is Only One Response

What do you think these people all have in common?

Mr C, Snaffles, Mum, Colleague, Supervisor, Head of Department, RAC, Car Garage?

These are all the people who have had me crying on them this week.

The main cause of which being my car. I broke down on Tuesday morning, having left home at 7:30am it was gone 12 noon before I was back in a warm building again.

It seems the bad weather, travelling, broken car, thought of the cost of repairs and pressure I have put on myself to get into work have all taken the toll on me resulting in more tears than I can remember for a long time.

It doesn’t seem to matter what anyone says to me my response at the minute appears to be to cry. This is very strange for me. I cant remember the last time I cried before this week. Its just not my usual reaction. I am normally able to be calm and collected, think things through and make sensible decisions.

For some reason this is completely beyond me at the minute. I am blaming my hormones, that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it.

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WIll The Bump Remain Lemon?

In under 4 hours time we will get to see our little baba for the second time. I cant believe it is 20 week scan time already.

Its not quite the day I had in mind for my 20 week scan. I certainly never thought we would be snowed in, rationing food and hiking to the scan with Snaffles on a sledge.

I am cant wait to get to see our little baby dancing around in there again. A little fizzy pop should assist with that (mean mummy!)

Just a few more hours to wait, just a few more hours to resist the urge and temptation to find out the sex.

From before we even got pregnant we had decided that we would not find out the sex this time.  We knew with Snaffles and wanted a little surprise this time. We are both in agreement that this will be our last child (contrary to the predictions of several psychics!) regardless of its sex and given how long it has taken us to get here we are more than happy with what ever surprise comes our way.

From the very first moment we found out we had finally managed to conceived our much longed for second child we have been strong and adamant that this bump will be a surprise. The weeks have passed and the decision has remained.

However, the closer it has got to the scan date, curiosity has been creeping in. The urge to find out became even stronger when Mr C confessed that he too was having the same scan date curiosity.

Somehow, when it was just a thought in my head it was very easy to distract myself and forget about it. However, once it had been spoken out loud the temptation was all the stronger.

For the time being our strength has remained. I just need to avoid Mr C mentioning it again in the next few hours and pray that the sonographer doesn’t ask us if we want to know.

It would be nice to knit in something other than whites and creams though!

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Is The Snow Turning People Crazy?

We have snow for at most a week or two each year, usually it’s a few centimetres and turned into slush within hours.

This is the most in terms of both length and quantity of snow that I have ever seen whilst living in the UK. Yes it is annoying, yes it disrupts your usual easy life but it is far from the end of the world. One way or another people and life finds a way of coping and we carry on.

It seems that this is not the case for everyone though. I think the snow has made some people stir crazy.

Mr C almost 3 hours last night to get home, our coastal town was completely separated from any neighbouring towns. There are only 3 routes in or out of the town, all 3 of these were either officially closed by the police or blocked by earlier accidents. Cars were either pushed back into our cul de sac or abandoned close by.

It was blatantly obvious that these cars would not be moving for a few days. Yet as the evening wore on we witnessed people trying to go back out, people skidding between cars and trying to dig themselves out.

Things were no different this morning. Once van (incidentally the same van who tried and gave up last night) again attempted to leave the cul de sac. He managed to get as far as the exit/entrance to the cul de sac before getting totally stuck, no amount of pushing, revving or digging managed to free him. His van was eventually abandoned, blocking us off even further. Another man has been out there in fits and bursts all day trying to get out. 

What really tipped me over the edge was an argument I had out in the cold with a gentleman who does even actually live in our cul de sac (his sister apparently lives here). He has taken it upon himself to try and dig a path out of the cul de sac.

Now, I appreciate his kind thoughts, his time and is commitment. However, what I don’t appreciate is how in clearing said path he feels it appropriate to deposit the cleared snow around the edge of the cul de sac, including in front of everyone’s drives. There are 12 houses here, 9 of which have at least 1, if not 2 cars on their drive. So, now, instead of 1 foot of snow blocking each car there is 2,3 maybe even 4 foot blocking them in. Not only this but there are at least 3 other roads and a distance of around 1.5 miles until the next nearest main road. Is he planning on digging all that way?

It didn’t matter how I explained that we were all grateful etc but explained about the drive situation and the further roads we would have to pass he could still not see my point. I am apparently lazy and to bothered about staying warm, watching TV and playing computer games. I apparently have no sense of community spirit and do not care about others who may need to get into work for the money or people such as the elderly who may be relying on these people to care for them.

He may have had kind sentiments behind his actions but his words were tarnished with expletives as he tried to make his point heard. I tried to suggest that if he was so determined to carry on them perhaps he should deposit the snow on our front gardens but again this fell on deaf ears.

I know each situation is different and in some locations there may be no option but we live in town. We can reach a bus stop, main road or shop via foot over a distance of around 1.5 miles.

I am interested on other peoples thoughts. Should we all pull together and dig a path to civilisation or like me are you happy to stay safe and warm and wait for safer conditions?

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