G is for Grandchildren

Day 8 of the A-Z Challenge and it is "G" for Grandchildren.

Grandchildren are the best thing ever!  I can't begin to tell you of the excitment when you learn that one is on the way; or the joy when the little bundle finally arrives. 

We are lucky.  We have 6 Grandchildren so far and I am sure there will be more. We have 2 Granddaughters and 4 Grandsons.  They are all very differnt and all an absolute delight.  I could say so much but I would need to write a book so instead I shall just post some photos!  

 Ellie Grace

 Evan Reuben

 Flynn Spencer

 Jessica Madison

 Jackson George

 Shafiq Morra Usman

Dad with his 6 Great Grandchidren.  L- R Evan, Flynn, Jessica, Jackson, Annabelle and Ellie.

As you can see the first 5 photos are all taken with their Great Grandad Alf.  This is for 2 reasons, some of my children aren't too keen on putting photos of the children online, so I have gone for baby photo's and secondly, I wanted to show just how much these children meant to my Dad, their Great Grandad.  He adored them all and they him.  It is so lovely that my 4 eldest had very strong bonds with him and saw him regularly and have great memories. 

It is a great sadness that for little Jackson and Annabelle (my sisters grandaughter) they will not remember.  The biggest sadness of all was that he never got to meet little Morra who he was so excited about.   Of course he now has 2 more, Scarlett and Joshua who are my sisters grandchildren. 

The 6th photo shows Morra with his Grandad.

Jilly

Blessings - Shafiq Morra Usman Abdullahi

Phew, just managed to make it here. That's 3 days in a row. Simon has finished now for the Easter holidays. He will be at home for 18 days so it is a good long break for him.

We have had a relatively lazy day. This morning we were sorting out Tallulah ready for next week. Simon had to change a fuse which had blown on our last trip and stopped the heating working. It took a bit of figuring out. I gave her a thorough vacuum to make sure she is spick and span for her next adventure. I also loaded in some new food supplies and got all Beanie's food sorted and stored.

With that job done, I set about doing some online banking whilst Simon got our potatoes planted. We already have onions and garlic in that have overwintered. We just ordered some seed today. This year we would like to grow some of our bedding and basket flowers from seed.

This afternoon we paid a visit to the kennels to drop off a load of stuff for the market tomorrow. We are not able to go this month as it is Morra's 1^st birthday party tomorrow.

Speaking of Morra gets me back to my theme of blessings. Morra is Saskia's little one. All our grandchildren are wonderful blessings and all very special. Morra came to us at a time of great sadness and he bought such joy and happiness with him. He was born just 4 days after we lost my Dad.

The day Dad died, I travelled with Verity and Jackson to Saskia in Leicester. Because she was so close to giving birth she was not able to be with us at the hospital. We could not tell her that her Granddad had gone over the phone, so we had to go to her. I will always remember that journey and Saskia's reaction. We were all so upset that Dad never got to meet little Morra. Every time I visited him in those last weeks, the first thing he asked was “how is Saskia doing”?

Morra was born on the 23^rd of March. He should have been born at home and Saskia had Coralie there with her but in the event, due to his heart beat dropping very low, she was swiftly moved to the hospital and he came shortly after. What a gift he was too. I can't tell you how much he raised our spirits. It was good to have something to smile about even though my every thought at that point was tinged with sorrow. I would have given anything for Dad to have been able to see him. I am sure that Dad knew that he was at the funeral service with everyone else despite being just a few days old.

He was quite a small baby but grew rapidly. We think that Mummy’s milk was gold top! Now at a year old he is about average, although on the tall side. His Daddy is tall. It's hard to say who he looks like but in the most recent photos, I can see the Sansum in him.

I can't believe he is already a year old. I have no idea where that year went to. He is walking now and I am looking forward to seeing that tomorrow. I have seen videos and he was nearly there last time we saw him.

His party is tomorrow and all the family will be there except Sam, Lisa and the girls as they are currently in France. I am so looking forward to it. I love the occasions when we are all together. To have a large and close knit family is another blessing. Doesn't mean they don’t get on my nerves sometimes! LOL.

Here are some photo's from Morra's first year.

 

 I love this one of Ellie.  It was the first time they met.  The eldest and the youngest!

 

 Three of my four boys.

 

I will post some photos from his party after tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Jilly

Photo 365 - 6

Well things should have been getting back to normal today as Simon is back to school and Christmas and New Year are behind us.  However the children do not return to school until tomorrow so today I had my 2 best girlies.

As you can see some drawing was in order for part of the time.  They did "thank yous" so we got through  a fair number of envelopes!  They are such good girlies.

Tomorrow I really will be back to normal.   A post Christmas MEGA tidy and clean up is the order of the day!

Jenson

It has been another full on day for us today.  This weekend is turning out to be really good.  We had our lovely visit to Cambridge yesterday and the good news about Jackson.

Today we went to the dog rescue kennels.  I wanted to go over the sponsorship stuff with Gyll and Simon was going to go in and sit with Jensen.  He is the cruelty case Dalmatian.  When we arrived there were some  people there who had come to see Marlo a lurcher with a view to adoption.  That went quite well.  

Once they had gone Jim told us the good news that he had decided that morning to get Jenson out of his kennel.  We were so thrilled.  After some discussion it was decided that we would get him out again and have him in the office for a while.  He obviously recognised Simon who has been working with him the last few weeks.  We had him out for around 2 hours in total and he was very good.  Very relaxed and showing signs of trust and confidence.

It was the best news and we were both so thrilled to see this progress in him.  They are trying to arrange a vets appointment for Tuesday which is Simon's day off next week.  He needs checking over as he seemed to be holding his left back leg up quite a lot and we also observed quite a pronounced curve in his spine.  If all goes well on Tuesday they may neuter him at the same time which at least would get all the unpleasant vet stuff out of the way in one go,.

I can't tell you how thrilled Simon and I were to see him out if his kennel and making progress.  This is the good part of the volunteer work that we do.  That said he still has a long road ahead of him.

Once home we had a quick bite of lunch and then Simon went to the barn with Sam to bring yet more stuff home. I spent a few hours making some felt brooches which I have listed already in my Fabrilushus shop and EBAY.   When Simon got back he had Sam and Ellie with him so I had an hour or so chatting to Ellie.  She is the most gorgeous girlie and very clever with it.  Can you tell that I am proud?  She was telling me all about her latest cousin.  Her Mummy's sister just had a baby boy yesterday called Riley.  Ellie is actually quite disappointed that it is another boy!  She now has 4 cousins and they are all boys,  Evan, Flynn, Jackson and now Riley.  All boys!

Since they left I have had a nice relaxing bath with a glass of the red stuff.  Always a good end to the weekend!  I didn't even have to cook as Simon did that. He did a bacon gougere which was lovely.  it is a dish we used to do a long time ago when the children were younger.  Haven't had it in ages.     It was as good as it looks.

We are now sitting in front of the fire so we are nice and warm and cosy.  I have another glass of the red stuff and Simon  has a cider.  The dogs are curled up next to us and we are just generally relaxing.  All in a all we have enjoyed a great weekend and for that I am truly thankful.

Mrs Mop

Mrs Mop.  That is what I am today. My poor Alfie is still not making any improvement. He is happy enough in himself and doesn't seem to have pain.  He did do a slightly bigger wee first thing this morning but since then it is just a dribble. Unfortunately he is constantly dribbling.  I have mostly kept him in the kitchen and utility room which makes him unhappy although I am here with him.  Any thought of going up in my sewing room has been out of the question.

I have been mopping the floor every half an hour and the mop is permanently in bleach. I have washed several lots of his bedding because when he goes to sleep he constantly leaks. I have got some incontinence pads from when Rosie was poorly just before she passed away.  Last night Alfie tore it up!  In the rest of the house plastic sheeting is the order of the day!  On the sofa last night we had a plastic water proof mattress cover with his blanket on top and then the incontinence pad just so he could sit with his Dad as he likes to do in the evening.

The vet is concerned as the antibiotics should be working by now.  She thinks there could be an underlying cause that we are missing so he is going in tomorrow for scans.  They will have to sedate him as he is a big baby.  He will be there all day.  Simon will take him in on his way to work and pick him up at 3pm. I will have a day of worry.

In the meantime I have been researching doggie nappies (diapers) online as I am worried that this could be ongoing.  You can get disposable ones and also fabric, washable ones that have liner pads.  Some people say they use normal baby nappies with a hole cut in for the tail.  I have phoned Simon to ask him  to get some on the way home.  It may well afford a temporary solution.

The only other thing that I have done today is to go with Lisa and Jess to Ellie's school nativity and carol concert. It was held in the big abbey church in Bourne.  I have never been in there before.  It is really big and quite impressive.  I might go and have a look round another time. Th children were lovely. I really enjoyed it.  Ellie had the role of a star and a very good one she was to.  In fact the only one.......THE ONE!  You know the one that guides the wise men.  She stood in the pulpit in her star costume the whole time.   Jessie enjoyed it too and tried to join in with the singing. She is just so cute.

I am still hoping that I might be able to go to Evans first school nativity but as it is held in the school hall they only allow 2 people per child and Coralie is hoping that John will get time of work to go with her.  We'll see.

Got to go now, Alfie needs to go out.

22nd October

It has been a grotty horrid start to the week here in my little corner of the world.  We woke up to fog and rain.  It has remained grey and cold but thankfully the rain stopped around about lunch time which has enabled Simon to get on and fix the guttering on the garage.

I have had a sort of slow day.  A bit of normal housework, a bit of sewing, a few phone calls, a bit of blogging.  I don't actually feel too great.  Probably just tired.

The washing machine is yelling out that it has a blocked filter again but I know it hasn't.  It keeps on doing this.  I hope it isn't about to go totally up the creek.  Simon said he would look at it at lunch time.  It is 6.30pm now and I am still waiting.  That is the trouble with him working on the wretched garage, nothing that I need doing gets done. One of the towel rails in the bathroom fell off the wall on Thursday and I am still waiting for him to screw it back.  Yes, I  am sure I could do it myself  if I could locate the necessary tools in the garage but frankly why have a husband and DIY?  That is mans work!

As there is not a lot to report today I thought I would post a few photos for you.  My friend Pam said she missed seeing the little ones so here you are Pam.

Evan, Ellie and Flynn out for a walk.

Miss Ellie.  This was in September when she was a bridesmaid at her Mummy's sisters wedding.

Miss Jessica.  Flower girl at the same wedding.

Now how about some of Saskia?  As well as working as a learning support in a school, teaching various dance disciplines and zumba she is also once again performing.  She is part of a group of 4 known as Apsara.  They perform mostly Eastern and Latin dance.

Saskia, for those of you that don't know is the one with the red hair, front right.  I still find it odd to see her with red hair!

These were back stage at the Curve theatre, Leicester. She is the one in green.

Back in the summer Saskia took part in the Race for life in aid of Breast cancer care.  She is the small one in the middle in the grey vest..

This is a photo of Coralie and the boys taken in the summer.

Guess that is it for now. Lots to do!