Lambs in January

Just at home with the family, having a quiet moment when the TV gets turned on and shrieking comes from the TV room. Come Dine With Me has gone to Made In Chelsea! Binky, Mark, Spencer and Caggie are cooking it up posh style. Great January TV. Teen Chick is beside herself with joy.


So I have been nicely busy since the beginning of November. I worked everyday with my girlfriend at her farm, selling Christmas trees, making and decorating fresh wreaths and garlands and even decorating the odd house for clients. Through it all, we had the Internet business to run and houses and families to run as well. Seven days a week for nearly seven weeks is exhausting but fun. It is Christmas after all and I never tire of Christmas tunes. But by the 22nd of December, I was beat. The friends and family started to arrive and we kept very busy right up until New Years Eve. I love having a house full of friends and or  family, especially during the holidays. All went well. 


New Years Eve was celebrated at a friend's house with our chicks and about 80 other parents and children(teens). Safe, fun and close to home. I didn't make any resolutions because I hate to disappoint myself but I know this year will be full of trials. Some for me and some for my chicks. 


Today was one of the first trials, literally.  The family spent the day up in Birmingham at Moseley Rugby Club with the teen boy. He was selected to represent the South East  in rugby trials for The Lambs (an English Independent Schools U18 team). He was very nervous over the last few days but he performed brilliantly on the pitch. 80 boys working their stuff off for 26 places. It was a great day out and we were so proud of him. If he doesn't make it any further then todays trials, so be it. It was a great achievement to get this far. He is asleep now and so has missed The Chelsea lot dinning together. Shame.


I love the start of a new year. Full of new things and ideas. Us lucky lambs.

Sad

I have the saddest boy ever. I actually have never seen him this sad in all of his 17 years. His dad and I had to tell him that he couldn't go on his rugby tour to Australia  at the beginning of August because of his shoulder. He hasn't broken,snapped or torn anything but he has actually sprained it and the inflammation is quite severe all around the ball and socket joint. 


Well, boy heard, 'nothing broken' from the doctor and then totally zoned out while he was sitting three feet away! I could see his mind wondering off to Brisbane, his un-yet shaved head glistening in the Oz sunshine, rugby ball in hand. Meanwhile, doctor went on to say all the stuff that moms actually listen too. So when I said, 'and contact sports?' and ,'not for 6-8 weeks' popped out, still boy was far far away. I actually had to push his leg to bring him back to earth.


So mean mean mom and dad had to sit the boy down and explain that Australia was too far to go to sit on a bench with your mates if you couldn't actually play. His coach was kind enough to call and have a chat with him as well and reassured him that providing he was fit and able,ie did his exercises and didn't slog out on the couch for the rest of the summer, he would still be starting at pre season at the end of August. 


Physio man on Monday night confirmed that the shoulder will need weeks of non contact sport healing. Boy would have cried if he had let himself. He basically hasn't spoken more then six words to us since and has this permanent frown like pout on his face. 


It breaks my heart. I hate to see the children disappointed and this is a whopper. 

Rainbows and MRI's

I have a girlfriend who just turned 50 and is having a birthday party this weekend to celebrate. Her parties are never like normal dinner parties. They usually involve drinks with umbrellas, small, colourful marquees and food with a twist. 


This weekends theme is rainbows! 
Guess what I bought the girl that has everything????


The 2 liter jar holds a lot of jelly beans. I did not count them but they took a long time to get from their little bags to this jar, I can tell you.


I'm really looking forwards to a fun, colourful evening.


I feel like having a bit of fun, I've had a weird week.


Boy finished school today. Speech day involved a lot of sitting and clapping as 35 minutes of names where read out, nearly one at a time, for prizes awarded to the gifted, creative and honored. I clapped for them and my rings where swollen on to my fingers by the time we sat down to lunch. There was actually a very nice speech given by a guest speaker but I think he only had about 9 minutes to give it by the time prize giving was finished.


I'm pleased the boy is finished. He needs a break,he has had a bad couple of weeks. To be on your best behavior 24/7, ignoring a verbal bully everyday, is exhausting. Fortunately he has had some other issues on his mind to distract him. 


He had a fall on the hockey a couple of months go and hurt his shoulder. We thought it would just heal and went to a physio to speed things along. The physio saw him a few times with no results so he refereed us to a shoulder specialist.


That has now resulted in me spending hours on the phone over the last week trying to organize doctors appointments and a MRI scan on his shoulder. He has to have some dye shot into the shoulder first and that takes a special appointment and it is all a major hassle as we are under a bit of a time frame.


He is due to fly out to Australia at the end of the month for a 3 week rugby tour and he can't lift his arm over his head. I can't get my head around spending £3000 on a tour if he won't make it off the bench! 


Small bit of stress on the family side of all this because MRI keeps getting the date changed and the shoulder doctor has a crazy  schedule and if it turns out that the boy can't go to Australia, we really needed to know all this last week, not next week so we can get our money back and make some other plans!


He loves his rugby as much as his hockey and the tour is a huge deal. We want him to go but not with an injury. His coach has been wonderful about all this and has been helping us anyway he can. He used to play with the London Wasp's, and  has some good contacts. But really until the doctor sees what is in his shoulder, we don't know anything and can't make any decisions. 


So really all I can do this weekend is go to a party dressed in my most colourful dress and have fun.

I always thought it amusing that when The Rooster was a grain trader, he went to wheat conventions. Then he was a rice buyer and went to rice conventions. I have been to both of these types of events and they do really exist. This week I have done the convention, it was just a day trip but I was at The British Christmas Tree Growers convention. Yes, there really is such a thing. The wreath in the picture is not a Christmas tree but  something I threw together to enter for the best wreath competition. The winner's wreath was surrounded with bunches of holly and I just don't go there. Prickly, poky, mean stuff. I think even the winner didn't really make it himself, as he had 'staff', I am the staff and make all the wreaths hands on. 


It was an interesting day out anyway. We were up in Suffolk for the day and the weather was annoyingly cold but sunny, a heavy frost that morning over parts of the UK was good for the xmas trees, it makes them greener say the farmers. I just can't believe how chilly it is already and it isn't even November yet. I tried to have a few chats with some Christmas tree growers but one was from deepest Scotland and the other from deepest Norfolk. I couldn't really understand either of them but they seemed happy chatting away to each other, no worries. Not being a tree grower myself, only associated to a seller of one, I didn't have to pay attention to the chats about pesticides and vermin. Really I was only along as I knew the farmer hosting the event and I make a pretty wreath. Well, some people think so but not the tree people there that day. Farmer friend won best tree and gets to pick one of his larger ones to take down to Downing Street. Impressive. I wouldn't mind putting a wreath on number 10.


The rest of the week was a bit full on too. 


At puppy class, which seems to not be going that great, I have been struggling with collar work. Cadi thinks her collar is the devil and runs away and hides her head when she sees me with it. So I make her wear it more regularly to try to combat the fear. It's really sweet, chocolate brown with pale pink spots, I'd love a scarf like it. She just rolls around the carpets trying to get the thing off. It's exhausting. Puppy teacher says we have to get over this devil stage. Maybe I'll knit a scarf to match Cadi's collar and see if that helps.


I didn't see much of my boy Rooster until the end of the week at his rugby festival at school. Perfect day for that. Pissed down with rain while we were all still in bed then the sun came out for breakfast. There wasn't a clean boy on the pitch at the end of the day as under all that long grass on the field was mud! Thank goodness the first team kit doesn't come home to be washed as coach protects it like a new born! My machine cringes when the boy Rooster comes home with training kit anyway. I am constantly cleaning mud blobs,small stones and grass wads out of the filter. 


I was running a bake sale during the rugby but luckily the sale was right in front of pitch number 1 where boy was bruising and battering other boys and himself.
The sale is to raise some extra funds for a rugby tour this summer for the boys. They are off to Australia and it isn't cheep! A few cakes aren't going to cut it but we moms have to start somewhere. Boys are useless at raising money but very good at spending it. 


The chick had an easier week until I made her clean her room yesterday. It's half term now and there was six weeks worth of crap scattered around the place that really needed the attention of a bin bag. I stood outside her door with the vacuum cleaner at the ready until I could see the floor. You would have thought I was asking her to climb Everest or something with the fuss that she made. She has an 'on suite' and I started there. When I could see the bathroom floor, I congratulated her, "Well done, that wasn't so hard was it?" Silly me, when I pushed the door all the way open, I saw that she had literally chucked everything that was on the bathroom floor into the bathtub! Well, wait until she wants a shower in the morning, because I wasn't going to clean up that mess. The bathroom floor has never been cleaner though.


That goes for the rest of the house too. 


Actually,just the carpets. I had to pop into B&Q yesterday for light bulbs and came out with a Rug Devil carpet cleaner instead! Chicks think I am honestly, the saddest mother in town as I then spent Five hours steam cleaning every carpet in the house! The house smells great and carpets are springy and new like. I didn't even mind when Cadi peed on the front hall way carpet in fear of the machine, as I just steamed it all up! It doesn't have to go back until Tuesday so I am sure that I can get the sofas and a few chairs done by then. My arms were killing me from lugging the damn thing in only one direction but it's worth the pain. Rooster had to put the burgers on the grill last night as I couldn't lift my right arm, but what's the saying?- no pain, no gain- 


I must remember to pick up the light bulbs when I return the carpet cleaner on Tuesday. House getting a bit dark and I want to see nice clean carpets.