What to do with a spare room

My last news about my little Beautiful B (in 'Why, hello there!' ) was that she asked for a car for her birthday and was more likely to get money towards driving lessons.  Well now that has changed.

Next week I get a break away from my child.  Having had a difficult few months she decided to go on holiday.  To Corfu. With her boyfriend. It will be June and therefore just short of boiling but now she is older I should try not to worry about her ability to realise she might need a stronger sun lotion.  

Long gone are the days where I can decide to just book myself a holiday; in fact I had about 6 months of being able to decide that before I decided to do the grown up thing and move in with my boyfriend, buy a house and have a family.  Beautiful B should use that ability to it's full advantage.  

I love my little Beautiful B to bits and wouldn't change her for the world but it would have been nice to be able to do that for a while longer than I did.  But then we all want to grow up so fast when we are kids, don't we?

Despite being able to see the advantages of being able to spend the money (and obviously save a bit) before she settles down she and Ry are thinking about moving in together at the beginning of next year.  I am not worried about their relationship because they are so strong and will have been together for 3 years by then but I think they are going to be shocked at the bills to pay.  But...it didn't stop me and if I have learned anything it is that kids don't listen and then you get to 40 and find yourself saying to your mum 'you were right' because you had done exactly the same thing.  That is young love for you.....

So, I will be childless except when she comes round asking for money, or to play with the dogs, or to have her tea cooked.  And I will have a spare room.  Now what to do with it.  I found myself thinking about this yesterday when I was day-dreaming.

Obviously I need a room that guests can sleep in; no more having to go home overnight Rachel but as that will not be overly often I thought it might be nice to get a fold up bed - one of them in a big comfy couch.  I could put a TV in there and take myself upstairs to watch TV and leave the TV downstairs for Hubby and his sport.  I could remove the TV from our bedroom because he lives up there at this time of year (I am almost sure there are only 2 hours in every 24 when sport is not on.....).

I could put the games station up there and the computer (though that would necessitate a new wireless computer) and it could become a games room - well it would if I didn't put my office up there which would make sense as it is in the dining room at the moment.

And the extra wardrobe space....let's not forget about that as my 12.5foot wardrobes which are from floor to ceiling are just not enough!  And the additional storage I had built into the back, lets not forget about that! I could have shelves put in that roll out so that I could choose much easier which pair of shoes to wear.....

mmmmmmm, in reality none of that is going to happen because this year's funds are already ear-marked so the most that can happen is the office moves upstairs, the rocking chair also and so it will become my readiing room while we save for a guest couch/bed.

Ooooookkkkk, so I disappeared on my lunch and spent a bit of time on pinterest looking for spare room ideas and so far:

It's a small room so putting the bed away is tempting.....

See the nice comfy couch?!  I can see myself curled up watching Criminal Minds

Would need a comfier chair.....

But then I got carried away and thought about the space under our stairs which currently has my lounge chair in it.  The room is big enough to section that off and here would go a lovely little snuggly office.















And then I saw this!!!!!

Two different positions to lie down 

Now I have an attic space that houses nothing except an empty obsolete water tank, a spare suitcase and about 20 boxes of Christmas decorations.  So this would be ideal!  The Christmas decorations could be stored in the space under the eaves and voila - my own home cinema! 

And so you see, this is obviously what parents start dreaming about when children are thinking of flying the nest......not that I won't miss her; it will be much quieter for a start because the child needs hearing aids if her TV volume is anything to go by - of course I will, so maybe what I am doing is distracting myself.....

Can't quite put my finger on it

This last week or two I have been feeling somewhat strange, stranger than normal.  Kind of 'meh' some days and others, and more so lately, I feel as though something heavy is sat on my chest. I know this is anxiety and as I am already on two different medications that should help it, one of which is a by-product of medication diagnosed for something else they don't seem to be working so well.  Maybe I should stop taking all of my medications, every one of them and see if they are causing 'meh'....

 

'Meh' would be a good name for the diagnosis of a condition.  After all, more and more people are saying they feel 'meh', more so on facebook as that is a Smiley Face icon description.  If it was the name of a condition you could respond to a question asking you how you are by say 'I'm okay, just feeling a bit Meh today' and they will have no idea if you are referring to the condition or just feeling meh.

 

There is precedent for this kind of thing because it already work in general converstion.  People say they are going to kill someone when they have no intention of doing so or you hear 'I could murder a pint' when referring to the desire to drink alcohol and you cannot physically murder a pint of anything really can you?

 

You hear people say 'I have work coming out of my ears' or 'I have work up to my eyeballs.'  Neither of which is true.  It's physically impossible to have work coming out of your ears although the mental picture I have of it at the moment is quite amusing but lets face it, it would really hurt in reality and would not be funny at all.  

 

As for work up to my eyeballs; rarely seen although 20 years ago my place of work supplied 'pigeon racks'.  Essentially a set of 5 document holders held up on metal legs that was placed on your desk at work.  The files and paperwork were placed in the document holders so it was constantly in your eyeline.  A dual purpose in my mind; you cannot see anyone else's face to talk too and the pressure of the work constantly in front of your face provided the incentive to get it done.  We aren't tortured to that extent now, after all, ingenious people such as myself learnt to bend downwards and have a conversation with the person on the opposite desk through the legs of the rack.  Good riddance to the pigeon holders I say; bending down could have caused back injuries......

 

How about someone saying 'He is doing my head in'....?  That is more likely than the ability to murder a pint, after all it is physically possible for someone to do your head in by bashing you over the head with a baseball bat.  Unlikely though as many of us do not wish to spend the rest of our lives sharing a 6x10 space with another person.

 

I am conscious that many of my readers (see how I say that like there are lots when there are very few if any...) will have never heard these references, even those in other parts of the UK, as they may be regional in nature so forgive me as I am just rambling after all.

 

On another note; today is the 24th March and we woke up this morning to a frozen car!  Now what is that all about?  Does Jack Frost not know that spring is here and he should be hibernating?!  It is no wonder my dogs are trying to wrap themselves in tiny tiny balls of fluff.  The fire is roaring as my feet are freezing but it has a habit of blowing out on it's own lately. I will know when it does as my feet will start to freeze up rather than thaw. 

 

One of the problems with working at home out of your front room is that it is easy to get distracted as the world goes by.  So far this morning I have deduced that someone's drains are blocked and someone is having some work completed on their roof.

 

The problem with feeling 'meh' is that I do not have any energy or desire to do any work (it is my non-working day so I am not slacking as such) but I have to find the energy as I need to spend most of the day preparing evidence for my end of year report.  I am not one to sell myself; I go to work, do it as well as I can and then come home.  The need to have to use flowery language and buzz words to show what I do for the year is just 'not me' and I hate it.  Besides always having a good result in my end of year reports I wish I could opt out.  The need to get this work done is very important yet I cannot find the desire to do it at all.  I just want to put my PJs back on and snuggle up in bed with a good book and snooze as needed!

 

So far I have distracted myself with a stupid programme, an hour on a computer game and the blog.  I have wasted 3 hours and what for.  Just because I am feeling 'meh'.  Well, I had better get a 'shift on' and do it. 

 

What I learned this week tomorrow folks and I will try to make it more upbeat than my last 2 paragraphs!

 

It all started with the best of intentions

Now, that one person who reads this blog regularly probably has an idea what I am going to say and not just because she is one of the cleverest people I know.

 

Yesterday was my first day back on anti-inflammatories...which reminds me I haven't taken them yet today; hold on.

 

Okay, done now followed with a shot of tramadol.  Anyhoo, I was going to take them but then A rang up and I am trying to make the house semi-presentable for her non-planned arrival this afternoon and bearing in mind that most of my time is spent updating this blog because I am going to do that pain or not as I can do little else and I need something to stop me going mental.....

 

Where was I?  Oh yes, semi-presentable because I cannot do a whole lot so having already decided to put some washing on because surely Hubby cannot complain that is too much for my hands (and lets not tell him about me updating this blog as he will despair...) I tidied the dogs toys away and dusted the TV - why oh why do flatscreen TVs collect so much dust and whose idea was it to make the surround and stand a shiny black colour!?  Obviously not a woman obsessed with cleaning.

 

This mornings intention was to get up early (which actually happened, 7am is my usual late but currently my early thanks to a lack of iron) and it was a good job I did get up early or Beautiful B would have been late for work (thank you for the thank you text my darling honey bunch, it was very much appreciated) and do a few hours of accounting.

As it turns out I play computer games, as some of you know, and being a little bit OCDish.  Therefore, I like to finish a game and it annoys me if I am near the end of the game.  So, I thought I would spend an hour clearing one game which I did but it took me 2 hours. 

 

On top of that....if you are slightly OCDish do not download games called Virtual Families or Virtual Families 2, both of which I downloaded at the same time and I now have 2 generations of families, both of which are based around my family and in one Beautiful B and her hubby Ry have sent their son off to college and she is about to pass away as she is 61 years old.

 

They do not like doing what I tell them and as they earn little money to start off with I have to get them to be workaholics but then the wife needs to have babies otherwise how do you continue to generations?  Of course, you cannot buy all the upgrades without lots of money and in Virtual Families 2 it is worse as you can only get house renovations and purchases certain goods for the house as you move along generations.  Unlike the Facebook games you don't have to spend any money other than what you use to buy the game but being a bit OCDish I am a bit addicted to clearing it.

 

So as you can tell, accounts haven't been started yet....Oops

If you are interested, I use a website called Big Fish Games and you join up and instead of a game costing you £19.99 or similar you pay just under £6 a month for PC games (not sure what it is US currency) and you get a game credit each month.  A game can be bought with one game credit and if you want to buy more during the month they all cost that reduced amount of money.  A bargain in my opinion.  What's more, if you buy 6 games in a month you get a game free.

 

Of course, this works out a cheap way of buying games if you play a lot of games, not so much if you wouldn't buy one a month.  However, the website has different genre of games, action, arcade, hidden object, time management, etc.   Definitely worth a look.

 

The website caters for PC, MAC, iPhone/Pad, instant, community and online games so if you play on any of those platforms you may want to take a quick peek.

 

I just want to state here that I have not been asked to plug this company in any way, nor am I receiving anything for mentioning it on my site.  I just think it is an excellent site for people that want to find a way of getting out of doing accounts or housework......

 

 

Are they painted yet?

9.09am - No!  Not started but in my defence I had to catch up on the regular blogs I read and I can't really play my music in the garden at this time of the morning.  Ignoring the neighbours potential disagreement with being woken to P!nk f'ing and j'fing from my back garden Beautiful B will stomp downstairs in a bad mood and refuse to get my ice-lollies all day as she lounges in the sun.

 

A load of washing has been done though and the bins are out for the dustmen already!

 

9.29am - How is it possible to have your mobile phone in your hand one minute and for it to magic itself somewhere else without your knowledge.  The phone fairy has obviously been visiting.

 

10am - Having brought in the now empty recycling bins, found my iPhone because the phone fairy has placed it back in front of the computer I have been at all morning, and put another load of washing on I have deemed it late enough for noise to be made; ensuring the neighbours are aware of that by placing all the bottles and cans in the recycling bin not so quietly so let the music and painting commence. 

 

Alas, Beautiful B has woken up and I have discovered is out for the entire day so I will have to take regular breaks to get my own beverages and ice-lollies....

 

12.40pm - 4 and 1/2 panels done and that is only the wood protector; me thinks this is going to take 4 days to do all 12 panels and painting the concrete posts etc.  Using the small part of my brain that stores common sense (and I do mean miniscule) I spent 30 minutes taping down numerous empty rubbish bags to protect the much loved indian stone paving - shame I forgot that if you splash paint everywhere you can stand in it and those rubbish bags mean nothing when you have closed the door on common sense and walked off the rubbish bags before removing shoes....it's okay, I will hide that bit under the BBQ.

 

1.30pm - Returned to painting after a lunch of a can of pepsi max, 2 levels on a computer game and an email to Hubby so he could prepare himself for only a 1/4 painted garden when he returns home.  You never know, it may prompt him to make tea when he has cycled home in 25 degrees of heat.....

 

2.55pm - the concrete pillars etc are painted on the 4 panels completed so far.  They are looking pretty good if I say so myself and to make things better the sun is shining so surely I must be burning more calories?!  No, bugger!  Ah well, another can of Pepsi Max with 2 nectarines as chasers.  Some texting back and forth hinting at Hubby helping when he gets home. 

 

The hinting did not work in the slightest - not sulking at all, no I am not.

 

4.20pm - a short break to take Fredster to the vet as his limp is getting worse despite him not whining in pain.  He is having difficulty reversing and turning, the first of which you wouldn't expect much in a dog but then he is as strange as his owner.

 

5pm - £50 later, an injection, anti-inflammatories and a potential arthritis diagnosis and Fredster is re-named Sir Limp-a-lot.  Back to the fences until Hubby cooks tea; otherwise known as Hubby orders it and it is delivered.

 

6pm - 2 pieces of garlic bread and half a chicken kebab and salad later and I am about to go back to painting.  Being a stupid individual I want to finish the painting on the other side of the upper patio (1 fence panel and 4 concrete posts and bottoms to do) before I finish....despite realising that it is in fact Wednesday and not Thursday as I have thought all day and I have a whole additional day to finish the whole garden before I insist on having 2 full days of no work and no accounts!

 

Fredster update:  He is at least wagging his tail and moving around more now.  No more walking 3 steps and collapsing and pretending that the temperature is getting to him or going upstairs and deciding it is easier to stay led on mummy's bed than suffer the weight bearing pain of coming downstairs.  Still limping, especially on reversing (you really would think that they would learn to a) lie downstairs and b) not reverse wouldn't you?) but then it should take 2-3 days for him to stop limping.

 

7.30pm - Diet Coke (urgh!) Pepsi Max break. for 20 seconds

 

8.30pm - Half the fence panels and concrete posts and panels finished.  Rest to finish tomorrow.  Nice and cool but alas the light is fading in the sky if not in my motivation.  Now to half hour of cleaning the kitchen and a bit of housework, shower and then either TV or a good vampire book. 

 

I do live such an exciting life.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday is a day of rest

Okay, so following on from my post about what I do on a normal Saturday, here is what I do on a normal Sunday.  Sunday is a day of less work and more fun but I wouldn't necessarily say it was a complete day of rest so here is a typical Sunday:

• Woke up at silly o'clock because my body is incapable of a lie-in
• Did a blog post while Hubby snoozed upstairs
• Had a bit of a play on a different computer game than Saturday, ensuring I get a gold score on every level because I am far to OCDish for my own good
• Put the drying up away and cleaned up the kitchen as Beautiful B brought far too many pots downstairs
• Ate some toast, made lovingly by Hubby
• Watched two episodes of The Chase with Hubby
• Spent an hour with Mum and Dad and got told off for getting Dad a Fathers Day present
• Dropped Hubby off at home and went to pick up the replacement Vax Steamer and bought Emilia some clothes as I couldn't resist the top because it had a giraffe on it.  I'm also going to buy her a Hello Kitty bed too - .  Her Build a Bear Hello Kitty does not have her own bed adn little Emilia covets the bed every time she goes into the shop.  If I can't spoil my God-daugther then something is seriously wrong with the world. 
• Nipped to Tesco to buy Beautiful B some shopping and some lunch
• Had lunch with Hubby, watched another episode of The Chase
• Helped Hubby cover the garden furniture up to protect it from the rain and swept the garden
• Had a bit more of a play, replaying 3 levels until I got gold
• Updated this blog post
• Picked up Beautiful B from work and took her to her dad's grave so she could say hello on Father's Day
• Plucked eyebrows while in the car waiting for Beautiful B at the grave
• Played a different computer game for 2 levels; no gold scores on this one but I insisted on finding the 3 hidden shells before I finished the level
• Fed the fluff bags because I can't steam floors if they have chewed my feet off in hunger
• Swept the ground floor
• Put the new Vax Steamer together
• You will be glad to hear that it works wonders on a marble hearth
• It also works wonders on a white tile kitchen floor!  I am one very happy woman and all is right with the world at this precise moment....because I am sad
• Made tea
• Washed the pots up
• Ate tea and then washed the second load of pots up
• Watched two episodes of perception
• Washed the final round of pots and pans
• Played a level on a computer game; failed miserably
• Polished the furniture downstairs
• Sorted the post and filing
• Sat down to some good TV watching in bed with the fluff bags while Hubby watches the US Open golf

As you can see nowhere near as busy as yesterday!   And this post isn't in the slightest bit amusing so if you think some of my others are I apologise.....

Five Things Friday - Procrastination - Update

So Monday has arrived and at least I have remembered to update how I did.  Two words - EPIC FAIL!!

Do some social club accounts

I did some, not a lot, some which is a failure in my book.  It didn't help that whilst I was taking a break and playing a computer game which frequently distract me Beautiful B came for a chat and then when R arrived he joined her.  This gave me even more reason to carry on playing while catching up with the kids.

Lessons learned: Don't have a break, don't play computer games until finished and shoo Beautiful B out of the room when working.

Clean the bedroom carpet

Yay, I did this and it looks great!

Power wash the Indian stone paving in the garden

It snowed and with more threats of snow it would have seemed pointless.  Hubby looked at me like I had lost all of my 2 brain cells when I suggested doing it between snow flurries. 

Sunday, truthfully could have done it as the snow was almost gone but we were out visiting parents and catching up with Hubby's brother G over a gut busting meal out.  Having returned home too fat and full to move it didn't even enter my head until now - doh!

Sort out drawer in various cupboards and the wardrobes

Biggest failure of all - didn't even attempt this though in my defense I did think of it about 10 times over the weekend.  Which begs the question; surely I could have done at least one drawer in the time it took me to think about it.

Clear some of the Sky Planner (equivalent of TIVO for our USA friends)

I did get some of this done and definitely not as much as I usually do.  I was at 50% by the end of Friday night and over the weekend I am back down to 45% and still have some of last weeks to catch up on.  I will be hugely behind at the end of this week as every evening has to be dedicated to clearing accounts!

All in all I did 2 and a tiny bit off my list and yes I did add 14 things to the list but did clear 10 of those off.

I am officially a procrastinator even at procrastinating!  I am going to have to train myself to stop it!  Seriously, it's ridiculous.

Five Things Friday - Procrastination

As a procrastinator I am going to list 5 things that I am going to do this weekend and then return to it on Monday with an update as to how I did!

Do some social club accounts

One of them is straight forward enough.  I rather enjoy doing them.  The other annoys me no end.  You know that saying ‘I have ??,000 nerves and you are annoying every single one of them’?  I could attribute that to them; no so much the accounting, that is easy enough it’s the lack of co-operation when it comes to associated paperwork and audit requirements.  Anyhoo, I am going to get some of it done – I need to see my dining room table at least sometime this month.

Clean the bedroom carpet

After all, the steamer did such a great job of the stairs I can only imagine what a great colour the bedroom carpet is going to be.  Sad I know.

Power wash the Indian stone paving in the garden

I have 4 dogs, I don’t think I need to say anymore.

Sort out drawer in various cupboards and the wardrobes

I have put the brand new kindle somewhere safe – well, I did 2 months ago; I just don’t know where safe is.  I may not find it but at least some order will be restored in the drawers and will calm the OCD side of my nature down.

Clear some of the Sky Planner (equivalent of TIVO for our USA friends)

I watch copious amounts of mysteries, thrillers, criminal type programmes as well as anything vampire, werewolf, supernatural related.  As you can imagine I record copious amounts; after all, I rarely get time to watch it all seen as I ‘cannot sit still for more than 30 minutes and relax’ (paraphrasing lol).  Having 2 sky boxes, one of which is mostly recording 2 channels at a time, the memory capacity is reducing drastically.

Let’s see how much I can clear in-between household jobs.

These 5 things will clear off 3 of the things on my to do list but you can guarantee that I will have added another 10 things to that list before the end of the weekend.

I’ll update on Monday for all of you people that read the blog – none on a regular basis lol.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Christmas - where it went wrong

Christmas and New Year were wonderful this year for the most part.  In other parts my scattiness and lack of attention to detail got in the way and so did the baby fluffer Abi!

Hubby and I house sat for my brother and his fiance this Christmas.  They took off for a helicopter ride above the Grand Canyon among other things for his 40th birthday.  I offered to look after their 2 dogs rather than see them in kennels - all before asking Hubby if it was okay.  The immediate "oooh, it is okay with you isn't it darling?" followed with 3-4 reasons why it was such a good idea rattled forth along with his laughter. 

We stayed in their house which gave Beautiful B and the BF, R a week on their own house sitting and dog caring at our house.

It took me almost a week to work out how to use their tumble dryer and I think I have shrunk an XXL polo shirt to a medium at best...

Getting spooked about the blinds being open when it is dark in the back garden and anyone could be looking in at me....after scaling a 10 foot brick wall.....meant shutting them and not checking whether the cord is sat underneath a glass ornament.  Quickly realised when it smashed.  Ebay is a wonderful thing even if the replacement did not arrive before my brother returned.

Getting told off by my brother and his fiance for ordering another one.  His reaction "I didn't like it anyway." Her reaction "It already had a crack in it honey." Not including the telling off for ordering a replacement.

Beautiful B and BF, R spending an evening with us and his car being a bit worse for wear when he tried to get out of the tight spot on the driveway that he was so impressed getting into on arrival.

The lack of a huge amount of cleaning in my house when I returned.  Oh yes, the floors were swept and mopped but Beautiful B either didn't realise or didn't care that I would see the state of the kitchen and the stairs; the latter of which looked like Fredster fluff had shred all of his hair on there on the last week.

And last but not least, lets not forget Abi - who having already chewed 3 holes in 3 different parts of a new leather suite decided to have a go at tinsel.  Bright blue tinsel all over the house on the day we returned.  Not content with that she went after the tree decoration hooks yesterday, taking the bag upstairs and scattering them all over the stairs and landing.  Something tells me she is fed up with her own chewy toys.

So all told, not much went wrong.  I am still trying to find the energy to get the house as clean as when I left it but procrastination keeps getting in the way.

KIV - this was written on 8th Jan, the day I made the resolution to stop procrastinating so in theory the house might be tidier now as long as I managed to get a huge chunk of the accounts done with time left over before getting on the train to go to an accountants conference today.

Procrastination

I am lazy or that is the conclusion I have come to.  Accounts were supposed to be done over the Christmas holidays and they weren't, then they were supposed to have been done yesterday and today and they still haven't...and that isn't counting the last 6 months I have been putting them off.

Instead I find a way to fill my days with nothing; yesterday I took all the Christmas decorations down while playing an on line game and watching a film or two.  Over Christmas I read 3 books and did some cross-stitch.

So a decision has been made!  I will be deleting all games that I play - surely if I cannot be tempted by them I might get more done?

I get annoyed with myself when I find myself wondering what I have done in the past 4 hours besides watch a bit of TV, read, cuddle the dogs and periodically clean parts of the house.

Others tell me I do too much - a full time job and a part time job as well as being Treasurer for 2 small clubs doesn't leave a lot of downtime and the downtime I would normally have is filled with jobs that need doing.  So something has to give.

It can't be the jobs - after all, the second job is paying for a holiday this year so I will start small and delete the games and I will get to the accounts as soon as I have finished these posts. 

You see, this is why the posts are periodic!  I get distracted and do other things and I never seem to put them or order of priority either...

How I managed to get where I have in my full time job I will never ever know.

A trip to London tomorrow puts me behind at work so there is a lot of catching up to do.  I guess this decision could be considered to be my New Year's resolution - no procrastination!

I will keep you posted!
 

I'm Back.......

....as the drunken father in Independance Day said to the nasty aliens.....

So, I've been back at work nearly 4 days now and I am still alive and kicking.  Not exactly running at full steam - no-one thought to mention that coming back to work after a 12 week hiatus makes you tired.

My new office is beginning to take shape - I have taken it upon myself to order a white board and a magnetic one at that - oooeeeerrrr; which promptly initiated a call back asking why I wanted a magnetic white board - eeerrrmmm because I do!  It was obviously a man that asked that question because any woman would have worked out that the usage was doubled when magnetic.  After all, not only can I scribble inane rambling thoughts all over it but I can stick things to it with magnetic thingymajigs.  After explaining, the dual usage meant I was not asking for a pin board the caller seemed happy enough.

Oh and Damon's headshot is looking very cute staring at me with those sultry eyes from my notice board all day long.

Now I just need some potted plants.....

All Gone......Nearly

Now, I can't be on long because I am doing that pesky procastinating thing and should really be making work lunches and getting ready for work.  However, quick update......all the puppies are sold.  Why I ever got anxious about them not being sold within a day is beyond me....maybe I just needed something to worry about!  As per.....

Anyhoo, the last two to be sold:  Meet grey collar - now called Joey - Why I ask you was little Joey sold last when he is so adorably cute?  Probably because this photo was only taken on the 4th May - when that when up on the web he was sold within a day.

And now meet: no collar - now Max:  Again, who can resist.  Though I think it had more to do with him playing like a nutter when he was being viewed and then wising up and snuggling up as close to the woman who bought him as he could while Joey continued to run around like a froot loop.

5 are going to their new homes on the 22nd May - each will leave with a little piece of my heart.

Joey stays with us until the 4th of June.  Now you just know that him and Abi are going to tag team us for two weeks, don't ya?

Meet Abi:  Not the best photo but one of the cutest.  Now she barks for attention, ALL THE TIME.......  She is into everything so you just know that I am going to find things chewed.  She is inquisitive so you just know I am going to be following her around for the first few weeks of her life to limit the mischief......but she has the same temprement as her mum so it was a given really wasn't it.

Yes, I will give them a piece of my heart to take away with them.  I'll think of them often and I have more pictures of them than anything else (trying getting Beautiful B to stand still long enough to get lots of pictures - nightmare).  So why do it?  There's a theory.  Being big on reflective thoughts I think I was made for it.  I don't make money in the long term because I refuse to breed my babies every year, nor do I sell them when they get to 8 years old, so it ends up costing us over their lifetimes. But.......

.....seeing the joy on peoples faces, especially the young ones, when they first choose a puppy and then come to take them home makes giving that little piece of my heart away worthwhile.  Knowing they will be loved and will fetch more joy to those who buy the puppy than they gave me for 8 short weeks is the best feeling in the world. 

I'm in the wrong job!  Accounting gives satisfaction.  Knowing that I am helping lay accounts, some very important ones, and that I am learning something new every day gives me a bit of a kick.  But to be able to bring happiness to others every day, or even once a week, would make my life more complete......

So, I'm on a mission, to clear some large bills over the next 5 or 6 years and then given the opportunity I may just switch careers.  Life is too short to not do something that you feel you were made to do.

Beautiful B, however, is one of the lucky few.  She knows, she just knows that she was made to be a nurse.  Moreover, I knew she was made to be a nurse and waited and waited until the day she came to me and told me that was what she wanted to do.  I can see the joy in her eyes when she is caring for others. She is one of the most empathetic people I know and I hope that she gets to reach for and meet her dreams because, I'll tell you something, she will make the lifes of those she nurses back to health, happy and she will care for them with love and empathy - she will give more of herself than a lot of others and for that, her life will feel more complete than ever.

She is my sunshine, my reason for breathing and although I may question some of the decisions I have made on her behalf in the past, some of them have helped shape her into the person she is today and she makes me feel incredibly proud to be called her mum. 

Wow, now that post went somewhere I wasn't expecting......

TTFN peeps.

Procrastinator or Not?

I can be extremely organised, I can, I promise. Especially when it comes to cleaning which I freely admit I can be a little obsessive about but that would be a future blog.

Todays musings over my inability to concentrate centres around the fact that I am less than a week away from my final exams in accountancy yet I find myself sat in a hotel room randomly conversing with friends on Facebook and reading some of my favourite blogs. Does that make me a procrastinator?

Before you wonder if I have rushed into that question without thinking it through properly let me break my day down for you:

1 Got up at ridiculous o'clock to make Hubby his lunch only to discover that he was in fact travelling to a meeting today and did not need his lunch. Therefore, he will be having it for his dinner. 

2 Calmed Beautiful B down after she had a minor meltdown about her first exam today - to be expected, she is my daughter after all so it is in her genes to put herself under too much pressure, she can't help herself.  At this point, I must ensure that you are fully aware that I was definitely going to get to the hotel and spend 6 hours completing intensive study and research for the forthcoming exams.

3 Packed the family off to work and school like the perfect domestic goddess that I am.  Had a shower then sat down for an hour to clear some of the recorded TV programmes (I assume it is the same as TIVO in the USA) to ensure that there is sufficient room to record the many programmes that must be recorded whilst I am in the hotel (and classes) studying furiously.  3 hours later got up again.  Received a phone call and sold my daughters best qualities to a job recruiter who obviously thought Beautiful B was wonderful after reading her job applications and who can blame her?

4 Packed and showered in record time while the fluffers flitted between staring forlornly at me and rummaging around in said luggage looking for goodies.

5 Travelled to the hotel, let Hubby know I had not crashed the car into a random motorway barrier on the way, had the minibar emptied to avoid dangerous levels of alcohol consumption and filled it with goodies that the fluffers had been prevented from stealing, unpacking in record time.

6 Spoke to Beautiful B who rang to relay that exam went better than she expected and to thank me for my confidence boosting speech this morning.  Was extremely happy with her and myself and much more relaxed about her ability to cope under such pressure.

7 Promptly went shopping for one thing, came back an hour later with 3 bags of things that I most certainly did need, thank you very much!


8 Spoke to Hubby who kindly informed me that while I was busy studying like a mad woman for exams which are a week away (!) my god daughter was learning to walk and I was missing it.  How nice of him. He did make it up to me, however, by telling me that she was wearing the giraffe dress that I bought her (being as obsessed as I am with all things giraffe, baby E has giraffe clothes, toys and books in a bid to ensure that she will always know who buys her all things giraffe) and that she looked beautiful. 

9 Read the archive for January 2008 for one of my favourite blogs Queen B - having only just discovered the joy of blogs I am furiously catching up whilst being well aware that this ideally should wait until the 11th of June when I will have an abundance of time on my hands (cleaning permitting).

10 Researched how to set up a blog - yes I know I should be researching High Quality Regulation in preparation for my exam but......

11 Set up a blog.

Now, does that sound like procrastination to you?  I think so.  So if that is the case, why do I not procrastinate when I feel the need to clean?  And why on earth do I find cleaning relaxing?  It is at times like this I wonder if I would fare better living in the USA where it is normal to discuss these things with a therapist.

As I told Hubby yesterday when he innocently said "Why are you totally incapable of sitting down and relaxing?  You have studied all weekend (honestly, I did) and today you clean the car for 3 hours." I was relaxing.  I was much happier and calmer when I could drive in a nice clean car to pick him up.  I was that relaxed I wasn't even upset when he got in the car and didn't notice I had laboured long and hard over it.