started packing! The whole house looks like a bomb has hit it - there is not one tidy room - but instead of tidying or finishing off the Christmas decorating I decided to add to the chaos by emptying some cupboards and filling some boxes. No, we don't have a moving date yet, probably the new year but I'm getting excited!
Now I'm sitting glued to the computer after another busy day but must get off and get on with something useful!
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
New home!
We have chosen our new home! It's about 600m (as the crow flies) from our current house. It's currently empty so we have no chain really, just our buyers and us which hopefully will make things less complicated. It's quite a significant jump in price and size but we wouldn't really ever have to move unless we really wanted to. It's strange to think that this could be the home we stay in forever. Apart from the house I grew up in (my parents have lived there ever since they were married...), I lived in 14 different houses between the age of 18-25 until we finally moved here. Even living here, although it has been our home and I love it, we always knew we would move on to something bigger in the not too distant future so it is hard to think that this could be it!
Finally I see light at the end of the tunnel when I say 'I'll do (insert blank) when we move to our new house'!
Finally I see light at the end of the tunnel when I say 'I'll do (insert blank) when we move to our new house'!
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Result!
WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm soooooooo pleased. We had 2 couples come and look last week on Wednesday and Thursday then the 2nd couple came back on Friday with parents in tow which is always a good sign. I could hear them saying things like 'oooh the dining area looks much more spacious than on the photos' so we were pretty hopeful. Then on Monday they made us a decent offer so we accepted! It was my birthday on Sunday -I was pretty spoilt - and what better present than this? They had looked at the house 2 doors down which was £18,000 more than ours, couldn't afford it, saw ours and snapped it up! No more tidying! Ok, I will tidy really... just not as perfectly... Ben has declared that he is never mowing the lawn again so I tried to declare that I was never washing the kitchen floor again but I'm not sure that is sensible or actually hygienic........
I got all emotional after I rang the estate agents to accept the offer and then when I told the neighbours. I'll probably be a snivelling wreck come moving day which brings me nicely onto our next problem - choosing which house to move to out of a limited number of options. Option 1:The cheaper 4 bedroom house which has smallish bedrooms and small weird shape garden but a decent amount of downstairs space but not alot of light. Option 2: pay quite a bit more for a much bigger garden, bigger bedrooms, bigger bathroom and alright size downstairs with good light but going to have houses built next to it and behind. Options: limited.
I'm soooooooo pleased. We had 2 couples come and look last week on Wednesday and Thursday then the 2nd couple came back on Friday with parents in tow which is always a good sign. I could hear them saying things like 'oooh the dining area looks much more spacious than on the photos' so we were pretty hopeful. Then on Monday they made us a decent offer so we accepted! It was my birthday on Sunday -I was pretty spoilt - and what better present than this? They had looked at the house 2 doors down which was £18,000 more than ours, couldn't afford it, saw ours and snapped it up! No more tidying! Ok, I will tidy really... just not as perfectly... Ben has declared that he is never mowing the lawn again so I tried to declare that I was never washing the kitchen floor again but I'm not sure that is sensible or actually hygienic........
I got all emotional after I rang the estate agents to accept the offer and then when I told the neighbours. I'll probably be a snivelling wreck come moving day which brings me nicely onto our next problem - choosing which house to move to out of a limited number of options. Option 1:The cheaper 4 bedroom house which has smallish bedrooms and small weird shape garden but a decent amount of downstairs space but not alot of light. Option 2: pay quite a bit more for a much bigger garden, bigger bedrooms, bigger bathroom and alright size downstairs with good light but going to have houses built next to it and behind. Options: limited.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
School Blues
Esther is having a bit of a hard time at the moment. She's been crying, more like sobbing actually, every night and every morning about going to school. She cries at school because she wants her mummy. When I pick her up she's fine but I don't really know what to do about it. I think it's really just the free time like lunch and play time that she starts to feel sad. I know exactly how she must be feeling because I can remember feeling exactly like that at infants school myself, don't that say that parents attributes are exacerbated in the kids? I can't remember how I got over it so I'm not really sure how to help her. She thinks it's not fair that Eliza gets to stay at home so I remind her that when she was 2 she stayed at home too. (Eliza started preschool a couple of weeks ago just for one morning a week and loves it, don't think I blogged about that one... second child syndrome)
After about 2 hours of crying about it this evening I said we had to make a plan. It's not that she doesn't like school, she just misses me and feels that when she gets home there is hardly any time to spend together. So this was our deal: Esther tries to stop crying and feeling sad and I or Ben will come and have lunch with her once every other week at school (the school encourages parents and even siblings to come for lunch sometimes with the children) and after school (this requires a bit more organisation on my part...) we'll have dinner asap so there is more time to relax and spend time together before bed.
Any one got any ideas?
After about 2 hours of crying about it this evening I said we had to make a plan. It's not that she doesn't like school, she just misses me and feels that when she gets home there is hardly any time to spend together. So this was our deal: Esther tries to stop crying and feeling sad and I or Ben will come and have lunch with her once every other week at school (the school encourages parents and even siblings to come for lunch sometimes with the children) and after school (this requires a bit more organisation on my part...) we'll have dinner asap so there is more time to relax and spend time together before bed.
Any one got any ideas?
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Growing up
Esther came home from school yesterday with her first reading book with words in it. At her school they use the Oxford Reading Tree which starts with some books about a family - Mum, Dad, Chip, Biff, Kipper and Floppy the dog. The only words in the book were the character names and the word 'and' but she can read the whole thing and is very proud and excited to be starting to learn to read. She is also getting into the zac the rat books on starfall.com. It's good to see her enthusiastic about learning.
She has also been asking for a couple of weeks now if she can learn the piano. I'm not sure how me teaching her will go and I think she may be a little young but we'll give it a go.
She has also been asking for a couple of weeks now if she can learn the piano. I'm not sure how me teaching her will go and I think she may be a little young but we'll give it a go.Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Best Buddy
At the end of the last school year the older children at the school started popping into the preschool every now and again to mix with and help the kids that were going to start school. The school has a buddy system where each child in reception class has a buddy from year 6. I can't remember if I've mentioned this whole set up previously so sorry if I'm repeating myself. Esther's buddie is called Cassie and she is just brilliant. Apart from the things that all buddies do she has completely gone the extra mile to befriend Esther and help her settle in. She waited by the gates for Esther to arrive just about every day, plays with her at lunch time, sent her an ecard for her birthday along with bringing a gift for her to school. She came to tell me she was worried because Esther would cry for me at lunch time and she was concerned because she didn't know what to do. Esther tells me about some of the fun things they do together and she laughs about them! I'm so thankful that Cassie takes such good care of Esther and couldn't ask for a better buddy for her!
Halloween
For Halloween this year I couldn't bring myself to buy some tacky dress-up from Tesco for £10 a pop for the girls so I talked them round to choosing something from their extensive collection of dressing up clothes and treated them to a new 50p wand each! I didn't get a good picture of Esther, she was a princess witch, yes there is such a thing! She had this dress on with a witches hat and wand. When I took the picture she had already been to a 'little spooks tea party' at our neighbours house and couldn't seem to keep the lollipop our of her mouth long enough for me to take a decent picture!
Eliza dressed up as 'dinderella' of course! Her favourite and I think it suits her so well.
Alice wore an outfit picked out by the girls and amazingly kept the tiara on all night!
Love this little cutie!
On the Saturday before Halloween it was the church trunk or treat activity and Halloween Carnival. Ben was at his brother Sam's stag weekend so I took the girls, we got there late but made it through all the carnival activities and Eliza won the dress up for her age category - she was so pleased, Esther felt it was a win for the team and didn't mind not winning hers. The trunk or treat was a hit with the girls - who wouldn't enjoy collecting free sweets from the boot of 20 cars?! As soon as we had been round we jumped in the car and headed home as it was well past the girls bedtime.
Eliza dressed up as 'dinderella' of course! Her favourite and I think it suits her so well.
Alice wore an outfit picked out by the girls and amazingly kept the tiara on all night!
Love this little cutie!
On the Saturday before Halloween it was the church trunk or treat activity and Halloween Carnival. Ben was at his brother Sam's stag weekend so I took the girls, we got there late but made it through all the carnival activities and Eliza won the dress up for her age category - she was so pleased, Esther felt it was a win for the team and didn't mind not winning hers. The trunk or treat was a hit with the girls - who wouldn't enjoy collecting free sweets from the boot of 20 cars?! As soon as we had been round we jumped in the car and headed home as it was well past the girls bedtime.Dissappointingly we didn't get our pumpkins carved out in time for Halloween and they are still sitting outside the front door uncarved (minus the one I used to make pumpkin soup for dinner today...) We are planning on carving them ready for my parents arriving at the weekend but I'm not sure if it really will happen... Our evenings are just so busy this week (and last week). Luckily the girls didn't think anything of not going out treak or treating on the Sunday since we had had the trunk or treat the night before. We went out to an open house on Sunday afternoon for someone from church who flew out today to be a missionary in Australia so by the time we got back we'd missed most of the trick or treaters - now we also have about 50 lollipops which must leave the house soon or I will eat them as I have no self control. We didn't even get any Halloween decorations out as we had a house viewing on the 30th. Turns out he put an offer in on the house 4 doors down who had just reduced its price and had no forward chain. Boo hoo. The good thing is our house has stayed pretty tidy and it's been 4 days since the viewing!
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