Saturday

The Easter holidays have started and we're looking forward to a couple of fairly relaxing weeks. Today I took Faith home to Beckenham and Mum, Dad and Emily came with me. Iain and Louise are getting themselves sorted out ready for the move at the end of April. They had sorted through all their books and DVDs and asked if we'd like to come and see if there was anything we wanted before they open them to other people or take what remains to a charity shop.

Mum and Dad found some books to keep them going and we picked up a few DVDs to watch during the holidays. It was worth the trip up to Beckenham. Faith will be coming back tomorrow to spend the first week of the holidays with us.

While we were there I tried to get a few pictures of Emily.

She has to be in the mood to have her photo taken and when she starts looking at me like this, it's about time to stop!

Have a good weekend
xx

Sunset & babies

Last night after dinner I noticed this sunset through the kitchen window.


Ok, I know it's not showing up that well but the sun was just this orange ball against the darkening sky. It was lovely!!!


I went to Caffe Nero's for a coffee with Sarah this morning. We sat chatting quite happily but couldn't believe it when we next looked at our watches and it was 11.45am! We'd been there since 8.45am! Guess you realise that not a lot else got done this morning!


I had already asked Theresa if she was going to be in today so I ended up having to phone again and say I'd be a bit later than planned. Tyler was full of cold and not a very happy little man. He had been fed and was tired so I took a turn at holding him and he managed to get half an hours sleep before he woke up again all snuffly. Poor little boy, I hope he feels better soon.

Theresa was telling me he goes for his next check up at the eye clinic on Monday. I can't believe he'll be 10 weeks old already, doesn't the time fly by.

Shannon has updated her blog with photos of Finton and family. If you'd like to see them go to www.monkeyoranges.blogspot.com

Have a good evening

xx

PS Hugh went for an interview today and will hear back in a few days. Fingers crossed that something may come of this one.

Spring

This is why we like spring! Emily went outside to jump on the trampoline yesterday afternoon and I sat outside and took some photos. The trampoline was probably one of the best buys we ever made. It gets used almost daily during the warmer months and whenever Emily can get out there during the colder months.

Now, about diets, why is it that whenever I decide to go on a diet I end up putting on weight; willpower flies out the window and anything remotely "bad" is what I want to eat!! I am trying to be good at the moment but I find it so difficult. Summer will be here before we know it though so I have to make the effort. Wish me luck!

I got a few photos of Finton yesterday, sent through by Pat (Shannon's mum). Here are a couple of them.

With big brother, Owen
With Mum and Dad

Till tomorrow, have a good evening.

xx

First braai of the year

As I said yesterday, beautiful weather and it's continued through to today. When Claire got home from College last night she asked if we had any charcoal as she just fancied a braai (barbeque). As luck would have it we did have enough and, because I'd just been shopping, I was able to make a salad and we had bread rolls and everything we needed. It was such a nice change and gave us a taste of summer (before the rain comes back again!)

My dinner! The salad was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole meal.

Emily has been off school yesterday and today while we waited for results back from the doctor. Fortunately these came through tonight and were clear! Back to school tomorrow! She did take the opportunity, while at home, to practice playing her violin and gave us a "mini recital"

Well done and keep up the practicing Emily!
More tomorrow - have a good night everyone

xx

It's a dogs life....

Today we are having beautiful weather. It's even fairly warm!! You know the old saying It's a dog's life! Well, I think Wallace thinks so too ...

Making the most of the sunshine - might as well have a snooze!

Did I hear something? My eyes are too heavy to open!

I'll just watch - too relaxed to run around.
Cloud on the other hand had plenty of energy and didn't want to sit still for a photo

and Charlie wondered which dog he could attack next

A couple of photos of the garden - just because I could! Have to make the most of the sunshine while we have it.

I love it when the sun comes out again and it begins to feel like Spring. Unfortunately, I thought that about two weeks ago and then we had snow again! I'm not going to take anything for granted this time but will just enjoy it each day it comes. Here's to many more sunny days.

Enjoy the rest of your day

xx

PS To those of you who have asked about leaving a comment on the blog, I have changed the settings on the comment page and you can now click on Other and leave your name and comment. Look forward to hearing from you!!

Back again

Where does the time go! Missed two days and hadn't taken any photos on those days either. Basically just did housework and helped out at Emily's school. Trying to stay caught up but it's never ending.

On a brighter note, we were very excited to learn today that we have a new nephew. Finton Michael Brett Stevenson was born last night in Vancouver. Congratulations to Shannon, Ryan and Owen on the new arrival.

Isn't he so cute!! How I wish we lived closer and were able to go and visit. It's at times like this that you feel the distance. Please keep us posted with lots of photos and let us know more details when you get the chance. Ryan tells us that Finton made his arrival 17 minutes after they got to the hospital. That's quick!!!

Had a quieter relaxing day yesterday. Emily and I watched the Dancing on Ice Champion of Champions and Pride and Prejucice. I had never seen the latter before and did enjoy it.

Clocks moved forward this morning and it'll take some getting used to. The idea of getting up at "5 o'clock" tomorrow (winter time) doesn't appeal.

Playing with my camera today while talking to Dad about it, I took these shots. They're not for any special reason - purely that Claire was standing in front of me while I was playing around. I wasn't very happy with the shots of Caroline and Stephen in the previous post and Dad also felt they weren't as sharp as they might have been. I can see I need to play with my camera a lot more to get the images I would like to get.

Enough ramblings for now. Have a good evening

Take care
xx

A visit

Today we had a visit from Caroline and Stephen. Caroline and I went to High School together but lost touch for a while when Jon and I moved to the UK. We've been in email contact again for a few years but this is the first time in 18 years that we've met up.

Caroline and Stephen met at Christmas and it just so happens he lives in Redhill. How weird is that - after not seeing each other for so many years she meets someone who lives about 20 minutes from us. Just before they left they told me their exciting news .... they got engaged last night!! Congratulations Caroline and Stephen, I hope you'll be very happy together.

It was lovely to get a chance to catch up with some of the details from our lives and to remember some of the things we used to get up to when we were younger ;o)

Who knows, we may get to see a bit more of each other over the coming months. Isn't it a small world!

Have a good evening

xx

Grateful and spoilt

Emily answered a call from Mum while I was driving to school this morning. Mum asked her to ask me to ring back when I got home. I rang back while I was walking back to the car once Emily had gone in to school. Mum said Dad wanted to know if I could go round to their house because he wanted to ask me a question about his camera (ours are very similar), so I said I'd go straight from school. When I got there Mum and Dad gave me this ....

a new lens for my camera!! There wasn't really a question to be asked! I'm told it's an early birthday present and a thank you for running them around. I, being a true Jeffrey/Stevenson, burst into tears because it was so totally unexpected. What a wonderful present - I am extremely grateful. Thank you Mum and Dad, I really appreciate it!

I haven't had much chance to play with it yet but I did take these photos to give you an idea of how much it will zoom in.

Before (I did crop slightly because the study is a mess again.) After. Sitting in the same position and zooming in.

When we got back from the school pick up, I was telling Emily why Grandma had phoned and she posed for this shot. She hadn't even had time to take her coat and school bag off!

Thank you once again

xxxx

More snow .... and ironing!

We've had more snow/sleet today and it was really chilly outside. The tops of my ears were freezing by the time I walked Emily up the road to school and then back to my car.

I had made up my mind that today was the day that I had to tackle this ....

It might not look too bad in this photo but there were two baskets like this. Anyway, I set up in front of the TV and settled in for a morning of ironing. I was right, I stopped for a break at 12.30pm and then got back to it until it was time to pick Emily up from school. I like to see this ..
and this ...

at the end of it all. One job to tick off the To Do list!

Not much else happened so until tomorrow, have a good evening.

xx

A new week ...

We gained a couple of extra "children" for dinner last night. I managed to get one photo before they refused to co-operate.

Claire, Chris, Emily, Faith and Hugh

Well, they said snow on Monday and they were right!!! Woke up this morning to a sprinkling of snow on the ground and cars. It didn't settle for long so it was just as well I took a couple of photos before it melted.

I had good intentions of doing all my ironing after shopping at Sainsburys this morning but ... it didn't happen. I went into Emily's room to vacuum up some fish food that had been spilt and then ended up cleaning out the hamster cage and finally tidied up the rest of her room too. That was the morning gone and ironing was forgotten.

After lunch I made a start on dinner before taking Chris to the station to get his train up to London. I then went to pick up Emily after Street Dance only to find out I had been supposed to go to a Parent's Consultation with her teacher. We waited for a short while and Mrs Rispin was able to slot me in when a parent didn't turn up. Emily is doing really well and Mrs Rispin had nothing but good to say about her. That's the way we like it =o)

Enjoy the rest of your day

xx

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day in the UK so to any Mums reading this blog, I hope you had a happy Mothers Day and that you have been spoilt in some way. We had a fairly quiet morning and then had Mum and Dad, Iain, Louise, Max and Faith round for afternoon tea and cake (supplied by Iain and Louise). Nice to have a little family get together again, it feels like it's been a while.

The three Mums
Mum

Louise

me

Faith, Dad and Emily

Jon

Today was also Claire and Chris's 1 year anniversary. Claire had made a small scrapbook for Chris with photos taken from throughout the year. They were looking at the scrapbook when I took this photo.

Chris was due to go back to Blackpool this afternoon and because trains weren't running from East Grinstead we took him to Crawley to catch one from Three Bridges. Unfortunately, when we got there we were told that the train had been cancelled and the next one which had been supposed to go to East Croydon and then on to Victoria was going to London Bridge. Chris ended up missing his coach and will now have an extra night with us before travelling home tomorrow afternoon. Claire is a very happy girl today, very different to how she was on the way to the station earlier =o)

Enjoy the rest of your day

xx