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

Monday 21st October

So much for trying to get here every day!  Never mind I am here now.  It has been another grey day of pouring rain.  The good news is that it has been reasonably warm for the time of year.

I have spent the day doing the usual housework and then some computer and sewing time. The best bit of the day was doing my first Google hangout with my Merikan friends Cindy and Phyllis.

Isn't technology amazing?  I can remember the days when only the very poshest of people had a phone in their home. I remember the excitement when my parents first had theirs installed. It was 1978, I was 18 years old. I got married not long after and we had our own phone and it seemed so decadent. Now of course everyone has a phone in their pocket and we are always contactable.

It was so nice to see Cindy and Phyllis and to have a chat.  The Hangout thingy is a bit like Skype except I didn't seem to be able to make the picture full screen which was a shame. Maybe, I was missing a trick.

Hopefully 2014 will be the year we all meet in person.  Wouldn't that be fantastic.

I mentioned to Cindy and Phyllis that while Coralie was in Merika recently we looked after the boys. One afternoon, their grandad took them out to give me some free time. He took them to the digger graveyard. They absolutely loved it but I'm not sure that it is really the best playground for little ones!!

Thought I would show you some photos.

That's it for today.  Will do my best to be back soon.

Friday

Friday, the end of the week. Just realised we are exactly half way through March. That means spring really should be here soon.  Today it is supposed to be raining.  Right now it just looks grey and cold.  I like Fridays, Simon is home at 4pm and the weekend starts.

I haven't got up yet.  It is 7.30am and I am just drinking my coffee. I thought maybe if I write a few words now I will have a blog. Haven't got much to say though.

Who has heard of Sound Cloud?  I just found it.  I was reading a book review and it said to "click here" to hear an extract on Sound Cloud. It has some good stuff I think but limitations too. I haven't really explored it.  I am currently listening to Smooth Jazz.  It is quite nice.

I am hoping for a sewing day today. I haven't much housework to do. When Simon gets home we are going to Gyll's house with the trailer to load up the car with stuff for the market tomorrow.  Gyll is the owner of the dog rescue. Do you remember that once a month they have a stall on Peterborough market, selling donated goods?  It is tomorrow.  We will get there about 7.30am, Simon will go once we are unloaded but I will be working on the stall until about 2pm.  I actually really enjoy it but I am not looking forward to the cold.

Random bits:

A photo for you........... Evan. He was going to a party and requested smart clothes and gelled up hair! he is 4.  He does look cute though!

If your children call you Mother instead of Mum does it mean you have been especially annoying?  Coralie called me Mother on her Facebook page.

Simon had a pre Ofsted inspection yesterday and was graded "Outstanding"  so he is feeling pleased with  himself.

I went to a Women's Institute (WI)  meeting on Wednesday night.  Max and Gyll were the guest speakers and they asked if I would like to go along. I was very interested as I have considered joining the WI.  They have a group in my village and I had intended to join when we moved here.  I thought it would be a way to make friends.  I am glad now that I didn't join.  I don't think it is really me.  I had this idea that they do lots of fun stuff, like cooking and sewing and crafts.  Well they may well do all of that but not on their meet up evening.

This was a small group, only 12 women and they were all very elderly which wouldn't be a problem for me.  They start by singing Jerusalem, all the way through.  I have to say that they sung it beautifully, but they wouldn't have wanted to hear me joining in!  That was followed by a long tedious period where all kinds of admin was dealt with.  It was really boring.  Can't be doing with that.

Then Gyll and Max spoke about the dog rescue which was interesting. I think I would enjoy most of their guest speakers.  Next month they have someone coming from the VA to talk about the art deco period.  That sounds good.   This WI was in a village quite a long way from here and my own village one may well be different but none the less, I think this has shown me that I am not ready for WI just yet.   Oh and they don't serve coffee only tea, that is no good!

Besides, I don't have enough time as it is and I have made friends amongst the doggie crowd.

I am however ready for my breakfast, so I guess it is time to get up and shower.

MIA again

I have just looked back at my blog and it appears that I have been missing in action again for well over 2 weeks.  Time flies when you are having fun!  Time flies when you are busy too but I have had some fun along the way.    So where to begin with my update?  You know me, I won't possibly be able to remember the whole 2 weeks.

I guess Jackson is a good starting point as my last blog was about him being back in the NICU.  He is now 5 weeks old.  Incredible.  Of course he wasn't even due to be born for another 5 weeks yet.  He is doing really, really well now.  He was moved out of NICU last week on to SCBU.  He is now out of his incubator and just in a "hot cot" which they are turning down day by day.  He only has 2 wires now, a heart monitor and a temperature  monitor.  He still has his feeding tube although he does now have a sucking reflex and is beginning to feed from Mummy.  It is slow progress as he finds it hard to suck and breath at the same time. He weighs 4lbs now. All his test results are now fine. The heart specialist is pleased with him.

Here are the latest photos of our little guy.

These next 2 were just taken yesterday.

Last week was the school half term break in Lincolnshire.  As always it was really busy.  Simon spent one complete day moving cars around.  His truck has gone to someone to do some work that for some reason he can't do. His dragster is now residing in the garage. We had dentist appointments, several meals out, a day in Lincoln,  an evening out with staff from the old Walton school, a trip to Stevenage to collect my Dad, then to Stamford station to collect Saskia. We had a day in Leicester at the fabric shop, lots of kennel visits and we saw lots of the grandchildren. It was busy.

Alfie had a day at the vets for more scans and X-rays.The good news is that his very large bladder stone has broken down into much small pieces and they were able to get some of them out. He has been given more tablets which should hasten the process. The bad news was his arthritis is looking pretty bad. More bad news was received in a letter........our insurance will not cover the cost of his very, very expensive prescription food.

I am sure I have missed stuff out.  I don't seem to have any photos though.  How about one of Alfie the evening he got back from the Vet.  He is still very drugged up.

Here is a  recent one of my 2 gorgeous boys.

Photo blatantly stolen from Coralie's Facebook page!

We had a good few days with my Dad. He saw 4 of his great grandchildren and he enjoyed that. He came and had a cup of tea at the dog rescue kennels and he got to see Jenson the Dalmatian.  He took a walk down to our village church and lit a candle for my Mum.  That seems to have become a regular thing when he visits here.  I'm not sure why as he doesn't do that anywhere else. On Sunday we took him to Leicester to the Fabric Guild.  He has wanted to go for ages. He is really into his sewing now.  He has made me 4 tote bags for the fund raiser for the doggies and also this table runner for me.  He has made a good job of it.

The Fabric Guild was disappointing.  They had a sale on, which was good but they had less than a quarter of the stock that they would normally have.  Also I thought they closed at 2pm and they close at 1pm so we only had about 40 minutes there.  It was a good job that we had combined it with taking Saskia home otherwise it would have been very annoying.  My Dad still thought it was a fantastic place and I still managed to spend lots of money!

We had some good news on Sunday evening.  My niece Carly has just had her first baby.  A little girl named Annabelle Iris. Both are doing well.  My Dad was so thrilled.  He especially liked that she has Iris in her name as that was Mum's name.  He can't wait to see her.  He now has 6 great grandchildren, 3 boys and 3 girls. She is my sisters first grandchild so they are all very excited.

Simon took my Dad home yesterday and he is now back at school so peace and quiet is here again.  I will probably be spending the next few days getting the house back to normal.  It deteriorates rapidly when Simon is on holiday!  I get out of my routine.

Today, I have washing, ironing, cleaning etc, etc. Hopefully I will find some sewing time too.  I have done lots of sewing the last few weeks and will do a show and tell soon.  Right now, I am having a coffee  before hoovering my bedroom.  Our lovely cuddle arm chair is being delivered this morning.

Well my coffee is finished so I suppose it is time to move myself into gear.

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!

Look who has started "Big" school.

Just had to take a few minutes to share this.  I can't believe that he is at school already.  Seems like yesterday that he was born.

Yes, Evan started school this week.  He is only 4 but we are talking "Big" school here.  That is proper, full time school.  He is going to the same school that his Mummy and his aunties and uncle went too.  LOL.  Some of the teachers are the same!

Doesn't he look so grown up and handsome?  I so hope he does ok , makes lots of new friends and enjoys his school years.

Jilly