3 weeks worth to catch up - part 1

I have a long list of craft stuff I want to share, but I am going to do that in a seperate post as I need to dredge my memory first to get down all the things we have been up to in the last few weeks.

Aside from the big news of our Finley's arrival the other important thing that has happened is that my long term assignment as Children's centre teacher may have come to an end or at the very least my hours will be cut from 4 days to 2.5 days a week. Although I hated the travelling I did enjoy many aspects of the job and the people I worked with are amongst the best. I wont know until September if I still have hours but fingers crossed that I do.

Anyway summer holidays are in full swing now and jobs are not something I am thinking of until term starts. As usual with most teachers, the first week of my summer was spent doing all the house type stuff I have not been able to do while working. The house was unbelievably dirty so a solid week of washing down shelves, sorting out drawers, cutting down overgrown shrubs in the garden, ensued (as well as a couple of visits to see my grandson.)

For the past two weeks Martin has been on his annual summer leave too. We hadnt planned to go away this year as I wanted to stay close for Laura in her early weeks as a new mum, not that there has been any need as she is being a terrific mummy and is coping well.

So we decided on the spur of the moment because the weather was so lovely we starting with a BBQ for our new addition and parents, Of course this meant we had to rush out to find BBQ food and although we had fancied fish, neither Morrisons, Tesco or even Whitstable harbour had any sardines left, so it was back to the old staples of sausages, burgers and chicken.

Finley watches the bbq, one day this will be his job!

Not impressed he takes a while to settle (and a lot of cuddles into the bargin, result for nan!)

There was a whole long list of little jobs that Martin needed to do during his hols, and our first task was a trip to Ikea to buy a cot and other goodies to finish some of these jobs. Martin doesnt mind too much as he gets to have the cheapo Ikea breakfast. We spent a fair amount of money on a new cot and mattress for the nursery, cushions, lights and other bits and pieces. I wasnt impressed that the woman in the fabric department was getting an earbashing as we walked through. Turns out she had been letting the department run down and was not very well stocked up. This meant I could not get the fabric I needed to finish off the conservatory as I needed matching plain stuff to cover the cushions with.

We finished the day off in TGI Friday, stuffing ourselves silly with the two course meal deal. I munched my way through a whole huge rib much to Martin's surprise. We then came home and put the nursery together. Photo's to come when I do my crafting post.

Our next outing inbetween doing jobs on the list was to go out and order new carpets for both the lounge and our bedroom, as both of them were filthy and on the verge of falling to bits. Martin was given the job of measuring up while I searched on the interwebby for best places to go. Sure there was a reasonable choice of shops at Westward Cross for carpet buying, we arrived, only for us to discover Martin had made a mistake in writing down his measurements. I wasnt prepared to run the risk of getting the wrong size of carpet as this could be an expensive mistake. Not only that we could only find one of the shops listed on the www. so we soon returned home to do some remeasuring.

On our second attempt we stopped off to visit Laura and Finley, and to find out where they bought their carpets from. Really fed up with the whole adventure we decided to just look around Hernebay to see what was on offer there. On only our second shop we found just what we wanted, at a price we were willing to spend, and not only that fitting was free. A really lovely man served us, and pretty soon we were all set for new carpets to be laid the following Thursday.

Wayne and Finley

I was a bit concerned that now Wayne's paternaty leave had finished, Laura wasnt getting out and about so we offered to take her and little Finley out with us to buy restocks for my fish pond, the local seagull contingent having taken most of mine for their lunch boxes. Dad had recommended a place near Sandwich so off we set. I have to say Finn wasnt that fussed, sleeping through all the sights, which in a way was a good thing. This fish centre was so run down since the last time we had visited (admittedly when the girls were a lot younger) that I couldnt believe it was the same place. What had been a whole garden of beautifully stocked ponds to wander around and enjoy was now reduced to 3 ponds, one so overgrown you could only see a small part of it, and the other two so green and full of terrapins that it was acutally unpleasant to walk around them. We also saw some lemurs locked int a shed (Martin said they could get out round the other side but I wasnt convinced) and I am sure they really needed reporting for the conditions the animals were being kept. Not only that they didnt have any fish!

Glad to get away we instead drove into Sandwich, parked up the car and took Finley for his first cup of tea and sandwich in a cafe. He was so good, and even though it was feeding time, he didnt make too much of a fuss, and certainly didnt upset any of the other customers.

Finley enjoys his first cafe lunch.

We later sat in the park eating ice cream one handed as Laura finished feeding Finley.

Watching the world go by from the buggy (Sandwich park at 23 days old)