Animals and Arachnids

We met up with Liz and the girls at Trotters Animal park on Tuesday.

We got to the pay desk to find the soft play area was closed :-(

Shame because it is nice to have a break in there for some indoor play and  - as was the case on a wet and windy Tuesday - a warm up. A very nice surprise when we paid to find that this month they had a children go free offer on - that more than made up for it :-))

Started off with a cuppa and for the youngest member of the party..... a marshmallow mountain :-)

We had a lovely time and El ended up having an impromptu overnight stay with us.

The giddy factor was HIGH!!!! They hadn't seen each other for a couple of weeks.

Milly hadn't slept well the night before and had been up early and you would have thought she had had a drink!

Milly made cookies all by herself - a first she was very proud of even if she didn't like the finished product - didn't stop her having a couple though :-) We enjoyed them.

I left them at 12 and went to bed. I rarely get to sleep til I hear them come up though. I think I was in a half sleep when I heard them come up and shortly afterwards felt Al get up. A while later I heard what sounded like crying in the hallway so I rushed up to see what the matter was. Milly was hyperventilating and El was comforting her.

 A rather large spider had decided to join them in the bedroom :-(

I couldn't see a thing - no glasses on - and had to balance on the bed and a ledge and use the spider catcher whilst reaching over the bookcase high on the wall. Precarious position and a delicate operation to maneuver the spider catcher around to shut the sliding bit without dropping the spider. I am not a fan of them either.

I managed it though and then the girls told me that they had had to wake Alan shortly before as there had been another one. They thought he might have lied about finding it putting it out of the window and this was the same spider. I said I didn't think he would do that because he knows how scared she is. Now was not the time for discussion though as by now it was about 4am and I was very keen for them to get back into bed so I could do the same :-)

A quiet morning although El was awake at about 10 and that meant Milly had to be too :-)

We met up with Liz and Catharine mid afternoon at a halfway point to hand back El :-)

Whilst waiting in the car park for Liz to arrive...... giddyness took over again.

Coffee, scones and chat before saying our goodbyes.

A flying visit to Aldi and a quick stop at my Sisters <3 on the way home.

Milly interogated Alan about the spider when we got in and believes he did find one and that it was just a busy night for spiders in her room :-( She is on a blowup bed in our room til we can clear everything out of her room, hoover, dust and put it all back in again. She might just be able to go back in then.

After tea Milly had a bath with lavender oil in and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. I thought I wouldn't be long after her but aching/restless legs are not conducive to comfort so I am taking the opportunity to catch up here :-)

Milly came back down after a couple of hours as she had woke and couldn't get back to sleep. She was peckish so asked if we could do pancakes together. 11 o'clock!! I wasn't keen initially it has to be said however it didn't take long at all and I am happy to facilitate her growing independance in the cooking department - even at odd hours :-)



Growth spurts, duvet days, struggles and beach therapy :-)

Milly has shot up! I swear she put on an inch overnight. She came down the other morning and had to do a double take - she is 5'7" now just 2" shorter than me. That would explain the past few weeks of constant eating and inability to stay full for longer than an hour :-)

The flip side to all that growth is a period of hibernation and out of sync body clock.

 For quite some time her pattern has been to be asleep around 12pm (ish ) and waking around 11am ( ish ) give or take an hour or so either side. 

Over the last week to ten days she has been unable to sleep at night and consequently unable to wake any time before noon.

Initially I was ok with that but as it lengthened into a week I began to wobble - especially as it was 4 or 5 in the morning she was awake til even though she was in bed well before that. She had asked to be woken at certain times each morning but would then fall back to sleep. I made her breakfast and would call her down and she would come down grumpy and inevitably we would end up grumpy with each other through the day. She didn't want to go anywhere or do anything.
 One morning when she fell back to sleep again I felt myself getting very angry. Instead of doing or saying something I might regret I sat and tried to understand where the anger ( fear ) was coming from. I knew my reaction was so much more about me and where my head was at that moment - a lot going on at the moment  - stressy head on ;-))
Having been here before and working through it I found it much easier to process and came out of it very quickly.
I decided to accept where we were and not continue to worry and try to change it.

The next morning I went to wake her at the time she had asked me to. I woke her gently and asked if she wanted me to start breakfast. She asked me to wait half an hour then start it. I did that and then instead of asking her to come down I took it up to her.
She stayed in bed all day - daydreaming and watching friends DVDs.
Throughout the day I took her snacks and lunch and left her to it. She got up late afternoon, had a shower, brushed her teeth etc and got dressed and came down very chipper:-)
Over the next few days our time together - quality rather than quantity :-)) was harmonious.

One evening we sat cuddling and ( I can't remember how it came up in the conversation or the exact words ) her duvet days were mentioned and I said something along the lines of  how glad I was that she was able to enjoy the time to cocoon and how I had been worried for a while about her lack of motivation but had become more relaxed about it.
She said, yes she had noticed and it had made her happy :-)

She had requested a walk on the beach and so we set off one windy and rainy day to get some beach therapy:-)

We didn't stay too long - just long enough to blow the cobwebs away.

It is a magical place, the Sea, I never fail to feel better after a visit - whatever the weather.

Sherlock, Shakespeare and Skins

Waiting for Sherlock to start.

Re -watching the first series on DVD with Milly, having a cuppa and a giant, chewy, cookie fresh from the oven :-) We ate enough of the brownies we were perfecting and decided to move on to practice cookies :-)

The last few days were spent away with friends. Milly swam and ice skated and had a great time. I was well looked after by Liz's Mum, who has very generously invited me to stay with her when Milly is with El.

I was tired today but I wanted to get the spare room done to make things easier and - as I need Alan's help - today was the day:)

  We managed to move bags out to get the pasting table up and then re - organise the bags back in the room and set up boxes on the table to sort all the ebay items into. 10 things sold over the last couple of days and so I packed them all up for posting tomorrow.

Milly had a much needed lazy start to the day :-) Amy came round for a while. When Milly got back from walking her home we all set off  to walk with Beauty in the late afternoon sun. A lovely frosty walk finalising plans for Milly's birthday and some ideas for things to do this week.

Milly loves the TV series Skins and has been re - watching the box set she has. She is very excited as

the new series is back on soon. She has shown an interest in Romeo and Juliet after memorising part of scene 2 that she saw in one of the episodes. As we talked about it I asked if she wanted to see a play and she said yes and she also wanted the book so that is in hand.

 Shakespeare for Kidz is performing at The Sands in Feb which is perfect timing :-)

As we were coming through Carlisle on our way home yesterday she saw an advert for the Little black dress Exhibition at Tullie house and asked if we could go to see it. That is on the cards for the end of this week.

Not too sure what else the week holds for us but we will just take it as it comes :-)



Ebay....

Over the last week I have made the ebay selling into a very streamlined process:-) I just can't help it organisation is my middle name - I can't not organise  - it just happens ;-)) When you have little energy anything that makes things easier is a huge advantage and over the years I have become adept at making things easy:-)

 I washed a pile of things one day then Mum, Alan and I ironed them the next.

 I then spent a few days taking photos and recording the details of each item and postage costs on paper before putting them in a clean plastic bag. These in turn go in a large cardboard box and I now have a head start on items ready to list.

I list a few each morning - after a bit of a break whilst I had to go about increasing the amount I can list each month - and check messages etc on and off during the day. I parcel items each evening and try to post each day. I have posted off about 12 items so far. I have literally hundreds of things to sell and it is a time consuming process - especially if you have messages to answer etc.

Over time this week I have refined things so I have a box ready with all the things I need. I have my camera and lead, with spare batteries. A white table cover to use as a back drop. Sender labels printed and cut ready to stick on parcels. Pens, pencils and tape measure. Thank you notes created, printed and cut to size ready to go. sellotape and brown tape -  Mum has just rung today to say Lidl have a parcel tape dispenser and 2 rolls of tape for £3.49 so I asked her to get me one and that will save time too. I have a file to keep all the invoices in with proof of postage stapled on. I have a hole punch and stapler in the box with spare staples ready. I am going to make up a spread sheet to keep track of all the sales, fees and profit.

I am away for a few days and when I get back I will wash and iron a few items at a time to add to the box of items ready to list. I also need to sort out the spare room and get a pasting table in there and keep all the bags of things ready to be washed under it and the boxes of things ready to go in there too. I can set the table up to be able to take pictures and parcel things up so I have everything in one place. Then we can get the dining room table back in action :-)

 By doing this it should just fit into my day to day life and I can do it in easy stages without it taking over.

 .

Monsters, Migraines and Madness :-)

Monster high passion is still high and tonight we spent ages searching eBay for Barbie dresses. There are outfits for sale for the monsters but they are in short supply - well the styles Milly likes are! She has very definite ideas about what she likes :-) I had a brainwave and started to search for Barbie outfits - with the idea we could buy some and see if they fit or that we could adapt them - and when I found some I thought she would like I called her through which led to us searching for quite some time and morphed into other searches as it usually does :-)

I am going to look for some used Barbie furniture next. She has the beds now that handily turn into a jewelry case and a mirror  but it would be nice to add to them.

Today started early when I woke at 4.00 with a Migraine. I had got some pills from the Dr last night but had left them downstairs and I just couldn't be bothered to get up for them and kept thinking if I could just get back to sleep it would ease off. I knew Alan would have got up for me had I asked but knowing he would be up for work in a couple of hours I didn't want to disturb him.

Needless to say it didn't shift and just got worse. I got up at 7.30 and took a pill and at 9.30 when it hadn't gone I decided I would have to cancel Milly's dental appointment as I knew I wouldn't be able to drive even though it wasn't til later in the day.

I had intended to go back to bed but a plumber ( who was due to call later in the evening ) called to ask if he could call round as he was in the area. It has been so difficult to get anyone out to price up this job that I said yes and had 10 mins to get dressed.

After he left - having given me a cost but not ( in my opinion ) a satisfactory way to do the job -  I spent the rest of the day on the sofa and after having another pill later in the day the Migraine started to lift slightly. Alan came home and together we cooked some oven chips, egg and beans for tea - not exactly gourmet food but with some bread and butter and a cuppa it hit the spot :-)

Alan and Milly have played Dominoes and connect four tonight for ages. Last night we all sat down to play go fish and Alan was in a giddy mood and decided to cheat ( he did it for a laugh ) - on a normal night Milly might have found this funny - I actually did find it amusing when we got to the end of the game and we were left with odd cards ( that shouldn't happen in go fish! ) and he was giggling uncontrollably. However Milly was not at all amused ( tired and emotional at the mo)  and she stormed off saying she was never going to play games again!!

They quickly made up and Alan promised to play like a grown up tonight and stuck to his word :-)

I am still sat here when I really should have gone to bed hours ago - I find the pills make me very agitated and unsettled. Going to go in a bath now and hope that will help me settle.

Nighty night xxx