moving along slowly ...............

have taken some time in the last few weeks....getting back into routine, enjoying the fantastic autumn we are having and thinking about how to move this blog on ...but life does go on...so we have to keep on ...there have been really hard times when I want to pick up the phone and talk about something that Nelly has done or tell about the fab Halloween party I am organising tomorrow for ....wait for it...47 children ...but I cannot. Nelly and I have spent a few days with my sister this week over half term, sorting things out... visiting and revisiting the house...looking at things, evoking memories...strange little things that my Mum kept ...a diary for at least 47 years, things that my sister and I made when were were kids ...the obligatory photo albums...an autograph book with some lovely line drawings she had when she was twelve that captured my 11 year old niece's attention ....

we sorted and cleared and arranged to pass things onto charities that could really use 8 pyrex bowls, baking trays, cake tins and more china than you would know what to do with ....

We still have lots of things to clear and do but every day it gets easier - we visited the grave and nelly placed a lavendar bag she had taken from Grandma's bedroom on the grave...little reminders everywhere ....

a goodbye.....

...a very sad and hard post to write - it has been sitting in my drafts for a few weeks now, verys sadly and suddenly my mother died on September 13th...she had been undergoing chemo for secondary cancer in the liver after an op to remove a tumour from her small intestine..She had been well, recovered from the op , ans started the chemo in the middle of August. She was well up until a week before she died, when she became very ill. Thnking it was the effects of the chemo - no energy, sickness and diarrohea she was admitted to hospital on Thursday 10th. She was not in pain but jest very sisk and uncomfortable. She was a very brave lady in her sickness and laughed, joked and bossed my sister and I around in the last days! She had the chance to see special people on the Saturday her brother, sister, friends nieces and Rob and Nelly and to see pictures of my sisters children who were at a wedding that day - one as a bridesmaid..IF you can say this her death was a good one..She was not in pain, she was a regular church attendee and her vicar was with us during the final day. We are all missing a very special, warm and chatty person in our lives - our phone bill will be reduced enormously...Her funeral was attended by well over 350 people, the sun came out and we all said our goodbyes and shared happpy memories...

It has taken me a few weeks to compose this post ...Clare and I have each other, Rob and Stuart and between us we have three beautiful girls who knew a wonderful Grandma...She will be missed enormously by us all......

Winning moments

Last weekend was the village flower and produce show we entered a few categories though most of our veg harvest has been and gone. I managed to pull together a respectable looking trug with some potatoes, herb beans, onions shallots a mini beetroot, chillies corn and spinach ! For this I received a hugly commended certificate !! Nelly and I picked some wild flowers (aka weeds from the garden !!) and arranged in a yoghurt pot - for a third prize ! And my last years jar of apple date and ginger picked up a third too ! Hurrah

the delicious carrot cake that took hours to make , sat sadly on its plate prizeless but we demolished it afterwards with lots of tea and coffee !

A good day was had by all and the children ran riot under the tables as the very serious prize winning speeches were made !

Roll on 2010!!!
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Nearing the end of the holidays

So in all I think the sun has shone for about five maybe six days - am I bring generous??!! We are now counting down to back to school nelly was called for her pre school booster injections yesterday these are now her final ones until she is 12 !!! Can you imagine that! She was really Brave taking off her cardigan to offer the nurse her arm ! First one was easy second took a little time ! She got a big sticker and she then looked after me at the opticians! I got a sticker , another trip to the hospital and a £281 bill for new glasses and a years ban from lenses !
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Lack of blog updates !

The holidays are here and we have been doing a lot of weather watching whilst trying to keep the small ones amused during the rain ! There have been bike rides walks in the woods we did resort to a soft play on two occasions when rain was just too miserable !

Nelly and I spent the weekend before last with grandma who taught her how to look through the Argos catalogue!!!!! Gggrrhh and how to turn down pages of things she wants !! Oh no !

Grandma gave nelly some holiday money and we are busy working out what to spend it on I am trying to teach her how to understand what £20 will buy and another doll is not really worth it as she has 4 already ! So far we have bought one of those things that you put in crocs and a packet of Cath Kidston tissues !!she has a tissue obsession going on and is drawn to packets of brightly coloured tissues like a magpie !


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some more festival pics....

Rob looking nervous about his whole camping / festival experience ! he just needed a beer!

charming little touches ...

Gabs on tour with another festival hat

Uncle Johnny....getting in the mood for the festival toilets!

Sean gets his own festival hat!

Nelly waiting to try those loos and boy did she make use of them!

holidays and festival

We did a festival last weekend...our first trip camping and first festival - a great adventure if you like mud, good music , delicious food and



A Fabulous festival hat - for the bargain price of £30...

Nelly and James and the big God brotherly and God Sisterly love in!

Mud Mud and more mud...

We love camping Nelly honest!

Loads for the kids to do - great sticking and gluing....molding and making ...

parties...fetes...christenings....sports days...all in a summer

A traditional Punch and Judy at a local fete....I am amazed that some of the act is still allowed ...throwing babies out of the window and wife beating...!! not very PC!

Nelly gets christened ...looks like her Big Baby came long for the ride!

Making Tipis in the garden

Nelly before her wonderful running victory at sports day

Acting the monkey in the village church at a friend's christening...

summer is definitely here...lots of outdoor events and so far we are having the summer they predicted - albeit a few weekends of rain!

The village fete at the beginning of the month was beset with rain and I still managed to drag around a rather ugly doll and collared people into spending 50p guessing its name...

the following day we had Nelly's christening and the rain came down horizontally! Rob had been weather watching for weeks and had decided to organise a large garden tent and a magician in case of bad weathere but the sun finally came out and the event passed successfully = all very country living with bunting, white tablecloths , flowers from the garden!!! still waiting on perfect pictures from a friend!

Nelly had her first sports day...she ran like a gazelle and won her first running race - then gave up and decided not to particiapte in the sack race and walking with a bean bag on the head! strictly real sportsd for her!

Summer is here

So the sun has been shining quite a lot ! Nelly had her christening at the beginning of june on a really rainy weekend.... for weeks the forecast had been for rain that day and it did rain right up to about half an hour before we got to the church and then the sun came out and shone all afternoon !!


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half term ...the SUN is shining !

Three little monkeys climbing at the castle...

Nelly all loved up with her favourite baby Annabelle!

How moody can you get !

we are packing the winter clithes away and getting out the fake tan,,,. the Bank holiday weekend saw lots of gardening and buying bedding plants with papa when he came to stay...Nelly and I spent part of the half term week with my Mum and sister - we took the train which was so mcu easier than driving solo with a grumpy three year old with attitude! she loved spending time with Grandma and her big girl cousins

If you go down to the woods today

Nelly and I have found some great woods maintained by woodland trust - and often go for walks there on the way back from swimming lessons .... But apparently if you go down there after dark you would be sure of a big surprise !!


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For gods sake

...... " nelly ? What did you just say ??"

...... " for gods sake mummy that is what you say "

...... Ooops time to zip up !
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Our phone bill

A picture of things to come I fear as nelly is really getting to grips with all things phone ! Do you think that you can still buy those locks that parents used when we were kids to stop them racking up a huge phone bill !! Somehow I don't think so .... Oh well better save up now !
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Nelly and her bike...

forgot to mention that Nelly also got a brand new bike instead of a chocolate egg from Papa! She chose the Angelina Ballerina variety! It is pink with tassles and has a basket on the front and seat on the back for baby - needless to say she loves it and it would be the last thing on my wish list but hey! so Easter Sunday we took it out to the village playground for a practise in the carpark ....She loved it.....since then it has started squaking and has been back to the shop twice - She heard me saying for £65 it is really not acceptable and has been repeating it!

lazy lazy me....

Ziggy the Labradoodle out for a walk...Swanage Easter hols

Nelly with James and Finn at mudeford Bay...

Spider orchid .. ( I think )! Swanage

Nelly with her friends playground Souldern Easter Holidays ..

Nelly and the big girls on day out at blenheim palace

scootering at Blenheim ...

no updates for ages then all you get is a photostream.....ooops

Easter ( egg hunts, grandma staying, trips out..) .....Bikes ( Nelly got a new one from her Papa....she loves it , my back hates it ) ,...Blenheim Palace.( sunny days - ice creams, friends, mazes and train trips...) ...bournemouth....( Beach, Boys - James and Finn - Swanage, sandcastles and collecting yet more shells for the collection! )

A BIG REUNION

for the first time this year we attended the Cach reunion - an amazing event with who knows how many families attending from all over the country, that have adopted children from China ...I have just taken on the role of joint co-ordinator ofr our region and thought I ought to attend!

We decided to attend for the day on Saturday when most of the event happens including seminars and lots of activities for the children. Nelly was quite overwhelmed in the first instance, we arrived and had coffee with a family from our small group in oxfordshire and then moved into the main area where there was a Lion Dance . We walked into a sea of faces and there must have been well over 300 families - Nelly was completely awe struck - I think until now she has not really registered that she and her other friends - Nina, Molly Lola Lucille etc are all from China but coming face to face with so many girls and boys of all ages was quite big for her. Especially as she has really started taking on board the whole ' I am adopted ' thing....So we moved carefully through the day - bumping into old friends and seeing people who were in China at the same time as us ...There were lots of things to buy - Chinese artefacts, great bookstall, charity stalls, clothing etc . Once she had spent the morning with Rob in the circus skills and craft rooms she was well away and she had an afternoon of Tumbletots and nail painting ahead of her ! I managed to attend two seminars, one When is the time right to take your daughter back to china - http://www.ocdf.org/tours/ and one by the guy that made Chinese School ....

We got home at about 7 30 and Nelly proclaimed that she wanted to go back to the China place again next week!

school ........................

last week we visited our village school ....they had an open day so potential pupils could go along...Nelly will not be going until Sept 2010 but we thought it would be good to go along and see the Big School, as she calls it , ! (Pictures above are actually taken at Bletchley park in Milton keynes but the pic fits the theme!)

we were very impressed but we have nothing to compare it to but it is only a ten minute walk away and has a good Ofsted ...nelly had a great time, she loved being there and wandering around seeing all the classrooms. At one point Rob had to find her - she was keen to set off with the boys she knew in the reception class on their Nature Walk!

http://www.croughtonallsaints.ik.org/p_Home.ikml

Scoop of the day

With belts tightened. Seeds planted and budgets being squeezed rob allowed himself one bit of shopping today ! He popped out to local market town and found himself pootling around the antique cellar in search of something to store boots and shoes when coming in from the garden .... Instead he came home with this large wooden scoop and with the threat of going back tomorrow to buy a rocking chair ! Well it is fab and dates back to 1900 china looks great in our bathroom PLUS POINTS for negotiating it down to £22 bargain !
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its my party and i'll drive a tractor if I want to .....

Nelly enjoying her cake at her party ...

A more subtle cake on the day ...

balloons anyone...

Getting a new chicken...

So after our difficult day with Hector last Friday I spoke with my good fellow chicken owning friend Sara - she called with sympathy re the demise of Hector and told me she was off to get new ones herdelf as she was now down two chicks...anyway while over collecting Charlie, Lola and Fifi she asked about introducing a new one...and apparently it is best to do it sooner rather than later ...so we will be off to buy Dora tomorrow afternoon! how exciting!

Hector RIP August 2008-February 2009

Two chickens

Sad day in our house yesterday one of the chickens took ill !

Slow to come out in the morning she then clearly had breathing problems so after consultation with fellow chicken owners thought she may have something stuck in her gullet (it happened apparently to a neighbour who after calling out the DEFRA vet with a case of suspected bird flu - she was diagnosed with something lodged in the throat ) so the remedy was cod liver oil to attempt to move said blockage. I substituted cod liver for extra virgin and dosed with a syringe . She moved a bit but we then had to go out for the day. I was fully expecting to find her dead on arrival back home but she had moved about 100 yards into the vegetable patch . After administering some more oil and more gullet massage and about a syringe full of water she coughed a chicken cough and flapped her wings and keeled over . Whether I dealt the final blow we will never know but if we had left her she would have died of dehydration and starvation anyway. All v sad , we then had to explain to nelly all about death she was very upset and went through a whole range of emotions - sadness at the shock, grief at the loss and then curiosity - whether she really understands I am not sure but we have now been there although at great pains to stress that not all ill people / things die the same day .

So here is to hector wherever she may have gone that she carries on laying fab double yokers in her next life !

Hector August 2008 - Feb 2009
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a love of the keyboard!

our delightful long suffering delilah - she puts up with a lot these days in the form of a near three year old carrying her around or poking at her with a fluffy pencil ....she looks contented enough here though!

nelly loves the piano - whenever we go to Rob's father's house she is on there straight away, Rob plays the keyboard with her sometimes and she loves it ...guessing piano needs to come down here soon and the piano lessons started!