Some stitching finishes

Here's a couple of stitching finishes. The snowman banner is from Rico Designs and was my last finish of 2006. The wedding sampler is a Michael Powell design and was my first finish of 2007.

For new readers of my blog, I'm taking part in the 50 project challenge where I have to complete 50 craft projects from my current stash before I am allowed to buy any more. These two are finishes 9 and 10 and I completed number 11 yesterday but don't have a picture as yet.

New Year, New Start

So Happy New Year. Better late than never I guess :)

I'm not really big on New Year's resolutions but I have two goals for 2007 which are:

1. Stop talking and get acting on weight loss. I'm more determined than ever and have lost 3lb in the last week which is great. I've pretty much totally cut out soft drinks and am drinking much more water, I'm having an actimel a day which is really making a difference and no chocolate, crisps, biscuits or cake.

2. Spend less money. Given we want to move house and have another baby we need to curb our spending big time so I'm taking control of the finances and really counting pennies.

As well as those I shall be sticking to my 50 Project Stash challenge and extending that to cover papercraft stash and books as those are my only other expenditures really.

I'm also going to try and read more. My goal is 20 books this year which I'm ashamed to say is realistic for my current lifestyle. Ashamed because I'm more than capable of reading 20 books in a month (and have done so on many occasions) but given Lia, work, housework and other hobbies I'm putting 20 as a goal and any more as a bonus.

Junk clearance is also still large on the agenda. We did so well last year and I'm much better at moving things on once I've finished with them than I was. This year I'm hoping it's clothes that get more organised as I've got lots of hardly worn stuff in smaller sizes so as I lose weight, old clothes will go and I've got a new wardrobe ready and waiting.

Picture organisation. I want to make two scrapbooks - one of our wedding and one of Lia's first year so I will be making a start on those too.

I also want us to get away a couple of times just the three of us. A long weekend break somewhere in England and a long weekend somewhere in Europe (other than Greece). Given my SIL will be getting married (again) sometime this year we will be in Greece for a couple of weeks at some point but I'm not going to Greece more than once this year.

So what does 2007 hold for the Family V? Well, it's another baby boom year with the first one already having made an entrance on 6th January and five more being due between now and July. One of those babies will make me an Aunt for the first time at the end of March (DH's Sis) and one will make me a Great Aunt at the beginning of July!!! An Aunt and a Great Aunt in the same year!

The thing is that my half sister is 24 years older than me so my neice who is pregnant is only three years younger than me. Even spookier my Sis and DH's Mum were born two months apart, they both had daughters within a month of each other and now those daughters are due to give birth within three months of each other. Isn't it weird how these things come about?

Work wise I will be learning many more skills this year which can only be a good thing. It also means I will be using my brain much more which again, can only be a good thing. I tend to coast a lot at work as much is boring and repetitive so it'll be good to have something to focus on.

I would also like to think that we'll be at least trying to make baby 2 by the end of the year and also will have moved house. I won't be overly disappointed if that's not the case but I am determined that both of those will happen before the end of 2008 if we decide to put them off for a while.

So that's the start of 2007 for me. I'll be putting more links into my sidebar as I'll be keeping track of the books I read as well as my Cross Stitch projects and, as always there'll be plenty of news about Lia (who is doing really well at the moment which is great)

New Year, New Look

Okay, I'm playing so I may still tweak a bit but I fancied a bit of a change...

BTW I seem to have lost my stats counter so I'm off to hunt for it now.

Four fights and a wedding...

...otherwise known as 'My Greek Holidays Part One'.

So we managed to get out of England on the day that not many other people were so successful. For the non-English readers this was because fog pretty much closed Heathrow Airport for several days, the first of which was the Wednesday we left for Greece. I still have no idea why our flight was one of the lucky ones but given that around 50,000 people were not so lucky as over 300 flights were cancelled that day I thank whichever deity that was watching over us. We were however 2 hours delayed so we arrived in Athens at 3.15am local time - bleary eyed but relieved to have survived a four hour flight with an 18 month old that did not sleep at all!

We had stuffed our luggage to capacity with food, toys, gifts and clothing so had arranged that the first morning we were there we would go to a supermarket to pick up nappies, toiletries, baby milk etc. We duly set off with FIL as our taxi service to a large supermarket on one of the busiest roads in Athens. FIL insisted on carrying Lia around the store, a task that also involved feeding her from the shelves, encouraging her to throw fruit on the floor and buying her a toy that she picked up because she cried when it was taken away from her. Because FIL was paying for the toy he went to a different check out than us and then DH had to go and get some fruit weighed so I was busy packing the shopping. Once DH had returned and we had paid I was walking away from the check outs when Lia called me. I turned to find her alone on a display pallet near the automatic doors next to piles of electric heaters and wood that were taller than her. FIL was absolutely nowhere to be seen.

Yes, that's right, he had PUT MY CHILD DOWN IN A BUSY SUPERMARKET ENTRANCE NEXT TO THE AUTOMATIC DOORS THAT OPENED ON A HUGELY BUSY ROAD AND HAD WALKED AWAY FROM HER!!!!!

If I live till I'm 150 I'll never get over the fear I felt when I realised what he'd done. DH told him off but said 'my father's a bit absent minded'. Absent minded? Okay, forgetting to pick her up from school is absent minded, putting her down and walking away from her is irresponsible, stupid and so far away from 'a bit absent minded' it's not true.

Needless to say, I've been a bit more jumpy about her whereabouts than normal.

So, fight number one. This was between DH and myself on Christmas Eve because I refused to go out that evening anywhere that wasn't walking distance from the appartment. There were two reasons for this, one I wasn't feeling great as I'd had an infection in the run up to flying to Greece (at one point medical advice was not to fly and I was taking 17 pills a day to fight the symptoms of dizziness and sickness) and two, Lia had not been sleeping well as she was teething. Basically DH's sister had said we should have dinner together that evening and I said fine as long as we were close by so I could get back quickly and without ruining anyone else's evening.

This shouldn't have been a problem as there are numerous places to eat but DH hadn't bothered to sort anything so when his sis called it ended up with us not being able to agree anything and not going out at all. This all happened when DH and I were in a taxi so we arrived in downtown Athens with me in tears and him shouting that he was 'ashamed' to tell his sister that I was unwell again and couldn't go out. Apparently he has to use this excuse all the time and it bothers him so when I asked him the last time he had to use it he said 'I don't remember but I'll ask my sister as she remembers every time'. I told him to go stick his head back up his butt and if she had any issue with me she should open her mouth and tell me, not him. After about an hour of this I told him I'd fly home with Lia and he could spend the rest of the trip doing whatever the hell he liked without being ashamed of me.

The end of it was him saying that he was in the wrong because he couldn't cope with sorting out and booking a restaurant. It was an argument about nothing really but it gave plenty of Greeks some entertainment as it was conducted in public...

SIL is blooming at six months pregnant. Unfortunately my hopes of her baby being called Achilles so we don't have to use the name have been dashed as it will be Leftaris after the other Grandfather. Still I amused myself by telling SIL that I intend to call the child Lefty and that 'Lefty the Greek' sounds like he should be running an East End gang. DH's grandmother says she will call the baby Teari (as in tear paper) but SIL doesn't like that either - Leftaris is the shortened version of Eleftharios so Leftaris it will be apparently. Poor child.

The second argument was on Boxing Day between MIL and SIL. I have no idea what it was about but it woke Lia and also provided a wonderful atmosphere for the evening's meal out as the pair of them were sulking big time.

Argument three was the next day between MIL and FIL as she found out that he had two mobile phones. Of course, there is only one reason why a man would have two mobile phones and that is 100% the reason why my FIL has them. Obviously many of you will feel that MIL is justified in shouting at him and normally I'd be totally on the side of the person being cheated on but I'd challenge anybody to be married to my MIL and not look for a bit of light relief on the side.

As for the wedding. SIL got married in white between Christmas and New Year as, if they aren't married, the baby is officially illegitimate and the father has to fill in some legal papers to acknowledge he was the sperm donor. It is possible to arrange a church wedding in double quick time and get the whole thing over with in one go (I know because DH's cousin did it in October as her baby is due just after SIL's) but no, SIL has to have two weddings (date of number 2 still to be arranged) so we all get dressed up (I show how important I'm taking the whole situation by wearing exactly the same outfit to her wedding as I did to my own) and drive for half an hour to the mayor's office for a ceremony that lasted about 30 seconds. Honestly, I turned to pick up Lia and everyone started applauding because they were married.

For me the only interesting part of the whole thing was that the groom wore jeans just as he had done to my wedding and Lia's christening so at least it proves that was nothing personal, he just has no idea of what is acceptable dress.

So finally the fourth argument. I'm afraid to say that I started this one just this morning as I was sitting inside while FIL and DH's Grandmother took Lia onto the balcony. I have no issue with this, what I do have an issue with is the pair of them standing around and encouraging her to throw all the fruit on the floor. I stormed out, picked her up and shouted at them at which point DH came out and I explained that I found it hard to believe that two adults could honestly consider that this was acceptable behaviour. Apparently I expect too much from them to think they might now how to bring up children...

In other news, Lia now has 16 teeth, is shaking hands with people when she meets them, is saying daddy quite distinctly (instead of Dadda), occasionally managing Mummy, can moo like a cow, meow like a cat and roar like a lion (okay a very small cute lion but a lion nonetheless) and is coming out with new words all the time - 'oh dear' and 'oh no' being the favourites. She's also dancing an awful lot and we have some great video footage.

That's all for now, I'm on dial up and my time is limited. Thankfully we're home on the 4th and life can settle back down to what we laughingly call normality. I'll update you with the fun parts of the trip then.

Normal Service is now resumed...

Okay, I'm over my irritated period now. At least I think I am.

I would like to say that, other than B from work and Anthea Turner, none of the comments I made in my last post were directed at anyone in particular. If anyone who reads this blog now thinks that I'm secretly irritated by them please don't. If someone irritates me I'm not good at hiding it and I don't bother interacting with them IRL or on the www.

So, what's new with me? Well we had our first official 'accident that involves at trip to casualty' yesterday. Lia was having a bit of a strop, threw her head back and smacked it square on the corner of a shelf. There was blood and everything! It was an almighty bang that scared the life out of me and DH. It's not a huge cut and she's fine but we spent 3 hours at the hospital waiting to get her checked out. They put some glue over the cut and we have orders not to get it wet for five days.

Thankfully, apart from a huge bump, she's fine with it and back at nursery today. I did think about keeping her home but she has way more fun at nursery and I'm completely out of holiday days so would have to take unpaid leave. I am jumping every time the phone rings though.

Our trip plans are coming along nicely. We have a huge pile of food to take with us - I'm pretty sure one whole suitcase will be full just with that. I'm also obsessing about the size of hand luggage as normally we're the family that everyone hates and have about 8 bags to take on board. Obviously with the new regulations we can't so I've bought a huge bag for all of Lia's stuff for the flight - it is pretty much the maximum size we're allowed and now we're going to get a second one for DH. Plus my slightly smaller hand luggage, three suitcases and a car seat, we'll be a real sight! At least we don't have a pushchair this trip as we left one in Greece last time.

Today I got my hands on the Christmas Radio Times which has all the TV listings for the two weeks we're away so I'm listing all the things I want to tape. Thank god I don't watch soap operas or we'd have no chance. We've got a DVD recorder which gives us around 40 hours of space so I should be ok LOL

Typically the one thing I REALLY want to see is on Sky which we don't have. It's the adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and I am a huge TP fan (have been right from his first discworld novel back in 1983). Still, it'll be released on DVD next year and I'll buy it then anyway so I can wait.

We're having a massive clean up this week as I'm determined to have the house in order before we leave. We'll be getting back around 11.00pm and I know things will just be dumped on the floor for me to organise the next day when DH is safely back at work so I want the mess that is there now gone so I only have one lot to deal with.

We're braving a trip to IKEA this weekend as we need to get a TV stand for the TV we'll be buying in the January sales. We sold our huge 32" widescreen TV this weekend in preparation and will be getting a flat-screen as a replacement. I'm letting DH do all the organising as to what we're getting because frankly all I care about is being able to watch CSI and Casualty. Whether or not there is a tiny amount of pixillation doesn't even register on my 'give a shit' register LOL.

We'll also be buying Lia her first proper bed as she needs to learn how to sleep in a 'grown up bed' now she's too big for travel cots and will have to use a proper bed if we go anywhere.

Despite all my organisation I still haven't written my christmas cards or wrapped any gifts. I have set aside wednesday evening to do that as DH is on his work's christmas party so I'll have the evening free. Also Lia has her christmas party on Thursday and I have to take a present for Santa to give her at that. I won't be able to join her as I'm in an all day meeting and I'm sure I'll be the only Mum not there but I think she'll forgive me.

Irritations

I think I'm officially turning into a Grumpy Old Woman. At the very least I'm well on my way to Tog-dom

I don't normally post about work. Not because anybody there knows I have a blog but because generally, I try to forget about it when I'm not there. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do (web design and development) but there is one particular person in the team that I work with that annoys me so much that I could spend all my time ranting about her which would pretty soon lead to you all going away and reading a less boring and ranting blog.

However as this post is about things that irritate me and she (B) is totally top of my list I can't not mention her. For a start she's thick. Really thick. When I was seven months pregnant and explaining to someone that I hadn't put any weight on which obviously meant that I was losing weight as the baby gained it B said (I kid you not) 'how do you know that, do they weigh you and the baby separately?'

You think that's bad? What about the time when I was talking about twin girls one of whom was white and one of whom was black B asked if they were identical...

And it's not just her stupidity that annoys me she has the attention span of a flea, she's nosey, she's lazy and she has a mental age of about 12. Oh and if anyone picks on her she cries. I absolutely have no time for her but because she behaves like a child (she's 28) people baby her and if I complain to our Manager I'm the one that gets told to modify my behaviour because B is delicate.

Delicate my arse. She's a manipulative cow that irritates all of us but only I bother complaining (the rest are blokes so they just suffer in silence). Thankfully things could be coming to a head as someone else has finally made a complaint so watch this space, I may be cheering soon. Or at the very least ranting again because nothing is done..

Now I've got that off my chest, how about some other things that irritate me. Rudeness for a start. General bad manners, especially in children. Leaving the TV on when you have guests. Not sitting down at a table to eat a meal. Littering. Reality TV. Political Correctness. The amount of stupidity that I see posted on Bulletin Boards and the Web in general. People who moan on and on and on about something yet do nothing positive to change things. My MIL and SIL. People who have children but treat them as a total nuisance. Anthea Turner.

And that's just what immediately springs to mind.

But I was thinking about all this irritation the other day and wondering if it's healthy for me to get so stressed about these things. Don't get me wrong, I don't spend all day, every day in an irritated state but when confronted with certain situations I do get irrationally worked up about them.

Take for example my SIL's impending nuptuals. DH told me that a Civil Wedding Service will definitely be happening between Christmas and New Year (with a full BFGW in June) and that Lia will be dressed up in something flouncy for the occasion. My instant reaction was irritation - I don't want my daughter dressed up in a hideous creation just as a photo opportunity for a start and are they actually going to ask my permission or just go ahead? DH and I then had what is best described as a minor spat and even my mother (who is usually on my side) told me to chill out and let them get on with it as it won't be costing me anything.

So I'm left wondering if I really should just grin and bear it but I know that I'll be glowering for most of the day (which will look great in the pictures I'm sure) because it's wrong as far as I'm concerned.

And while I'm at this justifying lark why does Anthea Turner annoy me so much when I've never met her, am never likely to and certainly don't watch any programme she might have running on TV (BTW how can you be a Perfect Housewife when you've stolen someone else's husband?)

See, irrational.

I'm probably ruining all your illusions about me being such an easy going lovely person now (HA HA) but in my opinion we should stop being namby-pamby about things and start telling the truth. I mean if B was told to buck her ideas up and start behaving like a grown up seven other people would have a better working day, stress levels would go down and I'd have one less irritation to deal with.

See I'd definitely be no good working for the Samaritans, my advice would consist of 'get over it and buck your ideas up'. LOL

But I should also add that I do realise that others are not always as capable of getting on with things as I am, that others have problems that are not easy to solve, that others can have medical conditions that don't help situations they are in and that others are free to make choices that I may see as wrong but they are prepared to live with. I'm not insensitive, in fact I have been told on numeous occasions that I'm a pretty good listener and I will go to the ends of the earth and back for a friend in need.

It's the ones who have so much to be thankful for yet moan and complain and whine that irritate the hell out of me...

Christmas is Coming...

...and I'm ready for it!

Not only have I completed my Christmas shopping I also spent the weekend making Christmas puddings which are distributed to various members of the family. All I have to do now is write my Christmas cards (most of which were bought in the January sales this year) and I'm done!

I know that's probably made several of you out there decide you hate me but in my defense we're off to Greece a few days before Christmas so will be having an early Christmas with my family before we go. Add to that the whole packing issue and you'll understand why I want to try and be organised.

Gift wise it has been relatively simple this year because as of last year I agreed with a lot of my family that we wouldn't exchange presents any more - now they just give something to Lia. It makes way more sense than scrabbling around trying to come up with ideas of things we'd like or things to buy others and Christmas really is Lia's time now, not ours.

My real problem this time of year is DH as his birthday is Boxing Day so I'm constantly being asked what people can get him and he's not the easiest of subjects (what man is?) Still, even he is all sorted now so I can relax a while before the panic of packing. Obviously we're not taking all the gifts with us - thank goodness Lia is still small enough to not understand Christmas and won't be disappointed at leaving all her presents behind (especially the tricycle from Grandma and Grandad).

We finally discovered the source of Lia's 'illness'. Now she'll let us look in her mouth she has four new teeth! Four all at once, no wonder she was under the weather. She's got a cough at the moment but apart from vaguely being disturbed at night she's not showing any real discomfort. I seem to have the same thing but I've pretty much totally lost my voice with it - I feel absolutely fine but I'm croaking like an old crone much to everyone's amusement!

A Newsy Kind of Post

Apologies for the gap in service but Lia's been a bit under the weather. I'm not sure what it is - a tummy bug or teeth but she's had a very upset stomach for the last few days and has been off her food.

Thankfully she's on the mend now and back at nursery (I'm jumping every time the phone rings in case it's them to say she's worse) and I am back to normal at work. I don't mind being at home with her (of course) but if one or both of us is ill the pair of us get very bored and snippy very quickly. She's been a tad pathetic for the last few days, lying around or asking for hugs which is very strange for my independent little thing and never a good sign. Not eating is also a HUGE deal as normally getting her to stop is the difficult part but she did eat a bit last night (hence the return to nursery) and will probably feel better being distracted by all the activity there.

It's nice not to be doing the nappies either...

In other news my quest against laziness is having mixed results. I've not been much better with cleaning but I have done some more stash-reorganisation (filed all my magazine designs, freebies and working copies) and have also made a small 'brag book' of Lia pictures for my Mum's christmas. I just have to make three more of the things for the Greeks - Aunt, Grandmother and Great Grandmother.

I'm also proudly able to claim that I have pretty much finished my Christmas shopping!!! I only have one person left to buy for and I've put a call in to a friend for assistance with that so I don't have to do much except pay her for her efforts and wait for the postman (as long as she agrees to it of course). I'm getting one of my stitchings framed for my Step-Dad so took four more to be done as well so this coming Saturday I should be the proud owner of five framed pieces (the first I've had done professionally) which is another tick in the 'getting round to it' box.

In other news DH heard today that he has finally been released from any and all military obligations in Greece. The back story to it all is that he never did his military service - he'd put it off to study and was due to go back to Greece after he completed his Master's Degree here in 1998. The plan was scuppered because we met on the course and he elected to stay for a bit longer (nine years and counting) so eventually he was court martialled in his absence and it's all been dragging on for years.

The rules about military service in Greece change all the time and the latest is that if you live permanently in another country and have done with seven or more years full employment there you are exempt from the service. It was a bit of a pain proving it (they required every payslip for seven years plus p60s and letters from employers) but it's done now and we don't have to worry about him not being allowed to leave Greece when we go back (previously they could arrest him at the airport and throw him into military prison!)

So that's great, it's a huge worry gone for us and his family. Because it involved the courts his sister has been representing him (she's a lawyer) and of course now she's having a baby that's a bit difficult. Talking of the imminent arrival she's had her mid-way scan, all is fine and it's a boy! That's good for Lia I think as there'll be less comparing along the way and she'll still be the princess of the family.

There's no news on name choices yet but I'm still holding out for Achilles to be included somewhere as that's my FIL's name and DH has been insisting that if we have a boy he'll be named after his Grandfather! I insist that it will be the middle name only, over my dead body will my child be called Achilles (I'd have to give up work and home school for a start. LOL) so if SIL uses the name I'll be totally off the hook. Fingers and toes are all crossed.

So that's us for now I think. I made the brave move to the beta version of the new blogger so if anything goes wrong with my blog it's not my fault...

After a good start...

I haven't been that great at getting over my laziness I'm afraid. Still, I have good hopes for the next couple of weeks as I want to really clean through the house, get rid of some more junk and get all the Christmas gifts sorted and organised.

I have also created a new blog to keep track of my Stitching Stash and my 50 Project Challenge (where I don't buy and stash until completing 50 of my current projects). At the moment it's just a list of my stash and WIPs but I will put in my project list and WIP pictures soon.

So here's the link Challenge Joyus and I'm going to include it in my side bar too.

In other news Lia's been heard saying Mama on more than one occasion so I'm claiming status as second official word...

Happy Halloween!

Here's my little devil all dressed up for a party at nursery today.

I'm not one for dressing her up but I have to admit she's totally cute (okay I am biased LOL)

Ooooooooooooh, get me!

Two posts in one day, I may have to go and lie down...

This is just to say that there are now three albums on my picassa site as I've done the christening and party ones as well!

A Good Start

See, two posts in two days how good am I!

In fact, better than posting I've managed to be less lazy already. I sewed up the hole in the side of my trousers last night and am have created my first online photo album in Picassa!

The album can be seen here and consists of the photos from our Wedding and the reception afterwards. I'm now working on getting the photos from the Christening done for the second album and there will be a third album for the photos from the formal reception after the christening.

Once they are done I'll probably put some pics of Lia up in an album and also create an album for my 50 Projects Stitching Challenge. See, I'm on a roll now, I just have to keep going with it.

Lazy

I've come to the conclusion that I am seriously lazy.

I've been scanning round the blogs I read and got quite miffed with one blogger who hasn't posted since 10th October. Quite miffed that is until I realised I haven't posted since that same date too.

Then I received an email from a friend saying that they haven't seen any wedding or christening pics.

Then I received an email from my Mum saying that I hadn't forwarded her an email as I had promised to do over a week ago.

So I was thinking about this. Okay, it takes a bit of time to write a blog entry but to forward an email? Especially when I'm in and out of my email account several times a day. So then I started thinking about other aspects of my life which has led me to the general conclusion that I'm lazy. Bordering on Extremely Lazy.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not lazy enough that the house is a total tip, we're all in skanky clothing and we eat TV dinners but lazy in the sense that I do just enough to fool myself into thinking I'm not lazy.

We do cook most nights but we do give in INCREDIBLY easily to the lure of the take-away. I do the washing and ironing once a week but I'm lazy enough to not have sewn a button back on a shirt (it's the bottom one so does it really matter?) or a small rip in the side of a pair of trousers. I clean up enough that nothing nasty is growing in the house and there's no icky smells but I know a less lazy person would do more.

The truth is that I am more interested in settling down with my stitching or a good book than doing less 'interesting' things. I know that I need some me time and that it's good to have hobbies but maybe I should give over a little time to other activities as well.

I've been telling myself that I'll sort out all the wedding and christening pics, put some in an online album, some in a scrapbook and burn some to disks to send to a few people. It's five months since the BFGC and that's still not happened.

I also have to edit all the films we have of Lia and put those onto disks for us (safer storage) and the grandparents. I also have plans for some mini-scrapbook type things as Christmas presents but so far have been too lazy to do anything about any of that.

Then there's losing weight. I know I have to. I've even managed to lose a bit without trying too hard (the 24 hr D&V bug I had last week helped) but I'm too darned lazy to put any effort into it.

And that's just for starters.

So, I'm determined to change my ways. It may take some time but I'm hoping I'm bloody-minded enough to stick to my guns as it can only be of benefit to me, especially the weight loss.

I've struck up a mini-challenge with a Catsized friend to each lose half a stone by christmas, I'm aiming to have an online album set up by the end of this week with at least some of the BFGC pics in and this weekend as we've got no plans I shall do some papercrafting.

Watch this space...

First School Photo

So I make a resolution to keep the blog more often then get struck down with an infection that keeps me away from the computer for nearly two weeks. Then our router dies and stops me accessing the net from home. Someone, somewhere is making this difficult for me!

But I'm back, fully healthy and determined to stay that way if at all possible.

Life chez Family V has been ticking along nicely. We've just had an interesting weekend of molar teething which did involve several episodes where Lia would fling herself on the floor and scream blue murder for no apparent reason and two nights of really broken sleep.

However, the teeth are through now so we can just look forward to the next time. We are half way - 10 teeth have arrived - but as most of the rest are molars I'm sure we're in for a few more upsets.

Talking wise she's connected the word Dada and DH's presence a few times but, if I'm really truthful I'm not 100% convinced yet that she's really saying Daddy and meaning it but we're obviously very close.

We had a really fun weekend (apart from the teeth) as we went to Carter's Steam Fair on Saturday afternoon, it's smaller than I expected but worth a visit, Lia had her first ride on a carousel and both DH and I won cuddly toys for her (him at the archery stand and me by picking a winning duck!) Sunday morning we went to a local park and let Lia run around to her heart's content - she was up and down into the bandstand, up hills, up onto walls (with Daddy) and generally making herself laugh just by having space and freedom to run without holding a parental hand. It was a really sunny morning and the park was almost empty which meant we could relax and let her have fun without being too worried about losing her in a crowd.

She's now 16 months old and has just had her first 'school' photo taken at nursery. I wasn't going to bother getting a copy (we have A LOT of pics of her) but they are so cute I couldn't resist. We got the smallest pack possible - one 8x10 and four 6x4 - and it was still £16! Still, we get to keep the big one, my parents get one small and the other three small go to Greece. The best thing is that in this electronic age I can share it with everyone else too so here it is:

In other news I've taken up the '50 Project Challenge' which is that I will complete 50 Cross Stitch projects from my stash before buying any more. I've already completed 1 but I reckon it'll take me at least 5 years to complete all 50 so I've made one exception in that after 25 completed projects I'm allowed a one off purchase of stash as a half-way treat.

I've also decided I need to revisit my 101 things list as I'm woefully behind keeping up with it so I will probably revise the list slightly in order to have a chance to complete it.

That's all really, I hope that I will get more regular updates here now as several people have emailed to check where I am which is great as it's nice to know my ramblings are being read!

And they think this is right?

It's not often I'm moved to complete and total anger and disbelief at a news story but this one has taken my breath away.

Some mothers have decided that because they feel that the school their children attend is not giving the children the food they want they will take orders and buy junk food for them and pass it through the school fence!!!!

What kind of a person thinks this is an acceptable undertaking?

Firstly, if you don't like the policies the school your children attend have be it for food, discipline, whatever, MOVE YOUR CHILDREN TO ANOTHER SCHOOL.

Secondly, and much more importantly, what gives you the right to feed other people's children? Seriously, explain that to me. If my child was attending that school and I was giving my child lunch money for the meal the school provided then why would you think it okay to take that money from my child and buy her a burger?

If I was a parent at that school I can tell you for nothing that the mothers doing this would all be sporting black eyes right now. I really hope the school and the police are doing something about this because to me it's criminal that they can get away with it.

I believe children have rights, I believe that they have opinions but I also believe that they need discipline and a guiding hand. Of course a child is going to prefer a burger over a salad but that doesn't mean they should have it. It doesn't mean it's good for them. And responsible parents everywhere know that.

These irresponsible women should not be allowed within 100 metres of the school or of other people's children. If they want to teach their own kids this lesson then that's fine, their kids are their responsibility (although I'm also incensed enough about this I think Social Services should be called) but I'd like a few minutes in their company so they can attempt to explain to me how they justify their actions.

And just think, if I'm this mad about it now, how mad would I be if my child actually attended the school...

I am still here

Honest I am. It's just that I'm very uninspired at the moment and working on a PC all day means I'm not that interested in working on one in the evenings which has the knock on effect that I don't edit pics and the like to put up here.

However, I'm here now which is the main thing. Life chez the V's is ticking along nicely, Lia is running around chatting constantly in her own little language which hopefully will soon morph into something we can understand. We've had a few ups and downs just recently with her sleeping (crying unless one of us was in the room or waking several times a night) but we're back to normal at the moment.

Bank Holiday weekend we had my Godson to stay with his parents and had a lovely time. After initial shyness he and Lia played well together (although she has some way to go with the whole sharing concept) and it's nice for me to see how Lia will develop over the next few months as he's nine months older than her so I can see the milestones ahead.

On the sunday we spent the day in Portsmouth with some friends and thoroughly enjoyed the Kite Festival they had on the seafront. The only down side of the day was that Lia was totally freaked out by the larger kites and so we had to try and keep her looking away from them - quite hard when there are hundreds of the things flying around, but thankfully with her being so small her focus is lower than they were flying for the most part.

This weekend just gone we went to the Reading and Wokingham County Show which is five mins from where we live. We'd never been before and had a great time looking around and seeing the animals. Lia had a blast with all the dogs that were around and fell head over heels for a baby donkey. She didn't like the cows though as they mooed way too loudly for her liking...

In other news DH's sis is pregnant. This is a total shock to everyone and there's a rush to get her and her bloke married asap. Unlike here in the UK unwed mothers are a big no-no in Greece so instead of the big white wedding that was being planned for next spring there'll be a small registry office event in November attended by close family and friends and a shotgun.

All in all I'm being quietly amused by the situation in Greece as it all seems a bit ironic after everything that I went through. Sis-in-law is engaged (and was before the pregnancy) but as they've only been together just about a year and he still lives with his parents there's a bit of a to-do occurring. Not only do they have to find somewhere to live, they have to battle two sets of parents who both have strong opinions about things, they have to come to terms with a baby that neither is really ready for and they have to totally re-adjust their lives.

I know that DH and I were thrown sideways when I got pregnant but at least we lived together, had seven years of a solid relationship behind us and could ignore well meaning but totally mad relatives.

So, as I said I'm enjoying all the high drama and, as she's only seven weeks pregnant, there's plenty more to come.

Here are some pics from yesterday - the cutest baby donkey ever and Lia making friends with it and a Shetland Pony.

A Picture Post

A lot later than promised, but here they are, some pics of Lia

Totally Cheeky



Looking for Trouble...



On the Phone (it's actually the TV remote)



Breakfast with Daddy (yes he does look that dopey in the mornings!)



I can walk!



Really I can



See

A Lia Update

So Lia's 14 months old today. I've been very remiss when it comes to posting updates about her (in fact very remiss about posting updates about anything just lately) but I blame the heat as it's been too darned hot in England to do anything just lately.

Anyway, back to Lia. She finally took some independent steps last weekend. She's been walking for a couple of months but only holding someones hand or pushing her little trolley as she's a bit nervous about letting go. DH has been busy telling her she's 'chicken-shit' and I've been busy telling him how much parts of him are going to hurt if that's her first word...

She discovered the stairs a while ago and can scale them in about a nanosecond so we're having to be extra vigilant with the stairgate. She gets to climb them when she has to be upstairs but they are really steep with a wooden floor at the bottom so I'd prefer her not to fall down them.

She made her first phone call at the weekend too. She got hold of DH's mobile and called my Mum. We saw her chatting with the phone to her ear (she does that with any phone) but hadn't realised she'd dialled till my Mum called us on the other line to say that we should maybe check what Lia was doing.

She's still a really good kid. She gets herself to sleep and when she wakes up she sits and chats to the cat she has in her cot with her till one of us goes to get her up. She eats absolutely anything (she helped her Grandad eat some very strong, garlicy salami at the weekend) as long as it's possible for her. She's still only got 8 teeth so she has problems if she has to chew something tough.

Just recently she seems to have had a growth spurt (upwards not outwards) but she's still pretty much average size for her age which is good.

She's mastered her shape sorter puzzles and is getting the hang of the baby jigsaws she has. Also she loves books, although mainly just turning pages rather than looking at the words but I guess she's a little small to be doing that just yet. LOL.

I think that's all really. She's such a happy little thing and is very patient when being dragged here, there and everywhere and meeting new people. The whole world is funny as far as she's concerned and everyone is a potential playmate.

Here's a pic from bathtime last night. I'll take a few more this week and post some at the weekend.

Virtual Friends

Well I don't know about the rest of you out there in internet-land but I had a terrific weekend.

I belong to a small online community of UK stitchers which is a subset of the large online stitching community. I met these people online and I met them purely because I cross stitch and when I took up the hobby I was looking for some help and advice. What I got was much, much more than that and more than I ever expected.

We talk pretty much every day on the internet and we laugh with each other, support each other and generally keep each other sane (or as DH would have it, insane). Not only that I've learnt more about cross stitch than I would have ever imagined existed, I've been baptised into the world of hand-dyed fabric, flosses, beading, speciality stitches, etc and I'm well on my way to having more projects than I can complete in a lifetime.

This virtual friendship became a reality a couple of years ago when I went to a GTG in Swindon. I'll admit I was a little apprehensive and DH kept nagging that he should go just in case they turned out to be a bunch of loonies. Well, I left DH at home and they did turn out to be a bunch of loonies but the good thing was, I fit right in!

So this weekend I escaped normal life to head to Kitty's for the latest of these GTG's which involved spending the day with 15 other stitchers, an evening at the pub, overnight at a B&B and shopping at Wye Needlecraft in Bakewell on the Sunday.

It was the first time I've been away on my own since Lia was born and apart from a few twinges I coped just fine without her (and she without me I should add). It's impossible to put down in words the fun we had just looking at what other people had stitched or are stitching and going through each other's stash collections. Only other stitchers will truly understand how much fun that can be (and why my wish list has more than doubled in 48 hours LOL).

But what really makes it special is that there's 35 active members in our online community with an age range of around 40 years. That age range coupled with a range of life experiences and lifestyles means that if we passed each other on the street we wouldn't look twice at each other. But because we've connected virtually and all have a friendship that we're prepared to extend in reality I've got a group of friends that have become one of the first places I turn if I need to talk.

I'm not getting mushy, a lot of them will be reading this, but I know that a large part of what is fun in my life stems from that community and I'm pretty sure every one of them can say the same thing. So roll on 19th August which is the next GTG date and may there be plenty more to come.

Catch Up Post

MMR

Lia had her MMR last Thursday. There was never any issue in our house about this, both DH and I agreed she should have it which made life simple. Apart from screaming blue murder when the needle went in she was absolutely fine, she settled down very quickly and had a nice afternoon nap when I got her home.

I know there's loads of debate on this subject but in my opinion children should be vaccinated against these diseases. Sure, if you're worried about the triple jab then get single jabs if that makes you feel better. What is totally irresponsible is not getting the jabs at all. I read the other day that there's a borough of London where the take up of the MMR is 18%!!!! That's atrocious. When there is an outbreak of measles (which I believe there will be as there have been small outbreaks recently) those 82% of parents will probably live to regret their choices.

101 Things

Personal
1. Get married - yep
3. Lose 50lbs - another 2 gone
5. Write a letter to a friend once a month - several letters written this month (mainly to show off the headed notepaper we got as a wedding gift LOL)
11. Have my hair dyed professionally - yep, for the wedding
19. Get a birthday book and not forget anyone's birthday for a year - still going strong
20. Tell someone I love them at least once a day - still going strong
21. Throw a party - we had two in Greece!
48. Organise and quantify my stitching stash - I've made a start
69. Go for a half an hour walk at least three times a week - this has fallen by the wayside a bit but I'm starting again this week
87. Throw at least one item of junk out a week (or donate it to charity) - still going strong
92. Recycle more - still going strong
93. Clean up the back garden - we've made a great start, now we just need to do a bit of painting

So I'm doing okay really, again, better than I thought I had but I need to start paying attention to the things I want to do monthly or weekly.

Lia

She's doing fine. Nine teeth now and almost walking. She does keep us guessing though, I've been convinced she'll be walking alone 'any minute' for the last three months but she's still not quite there. Still, it won't be long I'm sure.

Thankfully she seems to have inherited a Greek tolerance for the heat as it doesn't seem to bother her at all and thankfully she's been sleeping just fine during the current heatwave. She did have a bad patch where she would cry unless someone stroked her back till she fell asleep but I put that down to her having a stinky cold and a tooth coming. That lasted about two and a half weeks and was hell (we're so spoilt with her being so good normally) but now she's back to just being put in her cot and getting herself to sleep.

A Weekend for Me

I'm off on my own this weekend to a stitching GTG in Derbyshire. Kitty is opening up her house to a bunch of us (how brave she is) and DH and Lia were originally going to come with me but I've persuaded him that all three of us will have a better time if he stays home with her and I go on my own.

So, a day of stitching and gossiping and admiring stash and completed pieces followed by a night in a double bed all by myself followed by a morning visit to a stitching shop. What more can a girl ask for!!!