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January 28 Still SittingI'm sitting here, thinking that I really should be washing up, or making sandwiches for when I pick Louis up, or going to the shop.
But I'm still sitting here. Theo is going to need changing in a minute, when he's finished sucking the seat he's parked in.
Jasper is lying on the settee, looking sheep(dog)ish; he doesn't quite know what to do with himself. Whenever we have another dog he pretends he doesn't get on with it, or treats it with great disdain, but when he's on his own he isn't right. And he ate the playdough, and the contents of the bin. Again.
Theo is now making quite disgusting noises, but apparently his seat is quite tasty.
The kids asked yesterday when we are getting a new dog, and can we call it Archy? I like to have more than one dog in the house, but am so much regretting my desicion with Archy that I don't think I could possibly take on another at the moment.
Right, I'm off to sort out the dryer, the washing up, the shopping...or just whatever I get round to! January 26 What Now?So, no Archy.
I left the house this morning safe in the knowledge that I didn't have to use the gas cut-off on the cooker, I could leave any doors and gates open that I wished, and I wouldn't have any extra mess to clear up when I got home.
I returned with Louis at dinner time, Jasper went out, everything was very quiet and somehow just too civilised.
Later on I had to go back out for a couple of hours and returned after picking Hannah up from school.
I was met by an Archy mess. The bin emptied across the kitchen, the cooker had been licked (eewww!) and even the eggshells from dinner had been eaten. I was so cross, but more upset. Was Archy blamed unnecessarily? Had it been Jasper all along? While I considered these latest happenings, Jasper was at it again. This time he had hopped into the kitchen and stolen a bread bag off the side and was busily munching the crust of bread in there.
You know how rotten I felt yesterday letting Archy go? Now I feel even worse, wondering if I really did do the right thing.
So what now? January 25 Bye ArchyI feel rotten. After days of 'should I shouldn't I' with Archy I finally took him back today. I spent half of last night curled up on the settee with him and most of today sobbing my heart out.
Archy, of course, played the part of perfect pet. He attached himself to my leg and followed me everywhere. You know those obedience dogs you see at Crufts? That was Archy.
Over the past few days, every time I decided I couldn't let him go , he went and did something so Archy that each time I was forced to reconsider. Again. He has eaten the brand new pack of baby wipes, emptied my changing bag of all the contents and then dragged it into his corner, tipped the bin over and strewn the contents across the kitchen and of course the little terror is not house trained...
I handed him back to the Sanctuary today in the hope that there is a more suitable home out there for him, somewhere he has company 24/7, and an owner who has time for puppy classes, even though Archy is nearly 3 years old.
I wasn't brave enough to say a proper goodbye to him, so I convinced one of the dog-walkers to take Archy out then made a dash for it.
I hope he will be alright, and the right person for him comes along soon. He is a wonderful dog, but we just weren't ever going to be suited to each other.
January 24 AnnoyedThe dogs were outside all morning, good as gold while I fretted about having to take Archy back.
Then something set them off and both started barking. Which is when someone from next door shouted at them to shut up.
Well, I just flipped. I opened the door and quietly called both dogs in.
Then...
"DON'T YOU DARE TELL MY DOGS TO SHUT UP WHEN YOURS NEVER DOES!".
"My dog..." started the neighbour.
SLAM went my door.
I was furious. Their dog yaps all day long. Yap yap yap yap yap. At us, at my dogs, at my cat. Just for the sheer hell of it.
When someone comes home, the dog finally stops yapping, but then we have to put up with music blaring out, and constant arguments full of foul language.
It was not a good day to start an argument with me, not when I'm about to give up one of my dogs.
Maybe I should come with a health warning... January 21 Never By Halves...So, you know, I don't do things by half. If I'm going to have a bad day, I'm going to make it REALLY bad.
I sorted myself out after the afternoon's catastrophe, explained to the children that Bear was going to the rainbow and Archy was going to find a new home, Immediate tears from Louis, it's always his animals that we lose.
At 5pm we set of to pick the Hubs up from work. The car started to hiccup going up a hill and I had a decision to make. Turn round and head up the other (big) hill to the petrol station, or cross my fingers and hope that it made it up this (slightly less steep) hill to a slightly further away petrol station. Knowing that the car does not like big hills, I, perhaps stupidly, took my chances on the further-away-but-less-steep route.
Hiccup, hiccup, HICCUP COUGH SPLUTTER....
And the engine died. Fortunately I had forseen this and was already as close into the edge as I could get. The power steering and brakes are servo operated so rolling nearer the kerb was not happening unless the engine was running. I put my hazards on and once again considered my options.
THEN... Oh, it just gets better. A police car rolls up. I smile my ditzy blonde smile and explain that the car didn't make it to the petrol station. He asks if I have help on the way and I explain that I don't have my phone. He asks if he can contact anyone for me, and I explain that all my phone numbers are stored on my phone.
Then I think really hard, and come up with what could be the Hub's work number.
The nice Mr Policeman calls the number and gets hold of the Hubs. He asks him to come and rescue me as I am in a rather precarious position, on a large junction, at rush hour. You can just imagine how happy the Hubs was.
Nice Mr Policeman then jumps back in his car and goes ALL the way around the one way system just so he can sit behind me in his (nice, warm) car with his blues on. Honestly, I don't know how no-one crashed, because everyone wanted to gawp at why I was sitting there with police car behind me.
Half an hour later Nice Mr Policeman apologises profusely and zooms off with sirens blaring, in pursuit of some criminal.
5 minutes after that the Hubs turns up to rescue me, by which time I am entirely sick of Old McDonald and his cats, dogs, sheep, cows, ducks, chickens, goats...
It would have been amusing if I hadn't just had the afternoon that I had, as it was I just burst into tears.
Now I have to think about taking Archy back, and I don't want to do it. But I can't keep a dog that isn't suited to our way of life. And he really isn't. January 20 Archy and BearAfter a very busy day today I dashed into the house, let the dogs out and ran upstairs to the loo. There was a terrible commotion outside and the next thing I know Archy has one of the ferrets in his mouth, lifeless.
I can't say for sure whether Archy killed Bear, or if Bear had died of natural causes and Archy just grabbed him out of the hutch, but for me it was the last straw.
I adore Archy, but for five months he has caused me too many problems. He is still not fully housetrained, he steals and eats anything, he yaps and demands attention constantly and I can't do anything more with him. I am devastated to say that I called the kennel manager from Thornberry and asked her to take him back.
She agreed that I had given him every chance and she would try to get him back in tomorrow. He really needs a farm or smallholding where he can release his boundless energy, and roll in muck to his heart's content. I will miss him, but we just don't have the right home for him.
Good-bye Bear, we had you for such a short amount of time but you will be missed.
I will look out for the rainbows, as always,
XXX January 19 TeasingToddler group was quiet this morning, just the three ladies who run it, me and Theo and another lady and her little boy.
We decided that since there were no Littlies interested in painting, we would do it. Remember those tiny chairs from primary school? I'm sure you can imagine a group of adults sitting around a table on those, painting rainclouds!
Anyway, that is pretty much by-the-by. We felt cold and in anticipation of the Littlies being colder than us we called on the caretaker.
Now, he is a lovely man, but will barely look at me anymore since he walked in while I was feeding Theo. He is so easily embarrassed I just can't resist teasing. He came down to check on the underfloor heating and got down on his hands and knees for a better feel. He announced that it was definately on as the floor was warm. I sensed an opportunity...
I slid off my (tiny) chair and got onto the floor too. The caretaker found this highly amusing and woofed at me. Well, that was all I needed wasn't it? Standing up I turned round to the girls.
"See?" I said, "I can get a man to do anything. Not only is he on his hands and knees but he's barking like a dog!".
The poor man turned bright red and beat a hasty retreat. He'll be back for more soon...
January 18 WeekendThere was a lot I wanted to do this weekend, but it never quite happened.
Yesterday I was in quite a lot of pain what with putting Theo onto a bottle. I am still producing vast amounts of milk but it's not going anywhere! As a result I have to sit down regularly and express.
After the Hubs got back from work yesterday afternoon we ddin't have time for much other than a bit of shopping - how thrilling!
This morning the sunshine was lovely, but certainly not warming! I escaped without the children for half an hour to buy a newspaper and have a natter with the ponies. Alfie whickered to me and trotted down the field, while Winston just peeped out from behind a tree and then went back to munching.
This afternoon it was still nice and sunny and I decided to ride Winston, but the second I stepped out the door I changed my mind. Not the cold, I've ridden in worse, but the wind put me off. Winston might be coming up to veteran age, but he is like a colt in the wind. He spooks at every little thing that blows about and jumps at every noise. Definately not worth the risk, and not worth frightening the horse just for the sake of a ride. I really do want to get out though, and now that Theo is on formula milk it means that I can leave him with someone while I go and ride. Might just get rid of this bit of flab I have left over too!
Roll on Spring!
I hope tonight I have a better sleep, I have made up huge amounts of milk and Theo is already snoring away.
January 17 Breaking NewsBREAKING NEWS!
Baby Theo hits the bottle!
After four months of breastfeeding Mummy's body has announced that enough is enough and has demanded that the baby be bottle fed. Mummy is upset that she couldn't do longer but very proud of herself for getting this far.
Baby Theo is also beginning to wean onto baby rice, so Mummy suspects that his nappies are going to be rather interesting.
When asked for comment Baby Theo said "ooooh-oh-ooohhh, he he!".
Wasted YouthA wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age.
Who's with me???
January 15 So Tired...I'm exhausted today. I really wanted to come home from the school run this morning and have a lie down. Unfortunately I had to run back down to where the Hubs works and drop him some stuff off. Made time for a cuppa with a friend though and she came along for the trip.
Then it was back to pick up Louis and organise some dinner and the next thing I know it's nearly time to pick up Hannah.
I still just want to have a lie down but there's no time; children need feeding again and the Hubs needs picking up from work. There's washing up to be done and animals to be fed.
I'll make time later for a nice hot bath and maybe an early night.
January 14 I'm done...Right, thats me done for the day.
Kids are at school, ponies are checked. Washing up done and a load of washing put in. Dry clothes taken out of the dryer and folded and dog brought back. And at some point in between I even managed a cuppa and some breakfast.
So that's it, I'm going on strike now. This afternoon is toddler group, so I have to pick up Louis form nursery at 11.45, feed him and get straight into toddler group. No rest for the wicked!
Now Theo has woken up so i'm going to pop round to Momma's and see if there might be another cuppa in the making!
January 13 First DayLouis trotted into nursery this morning looking like an old pro, hung up his coat and launched into exploring the sandpit. Leaving me wondering what I should do. Should I stay and make sure he's alright? Do I sneak away before he thinks to check where I am? No, I decided to do the right thing instead.
By this time Louis had checked out the water tray and was moving on to play with the dinosaurs.
I asked if he was alright. Yes. Did he mind if Mummy left now? No. Kiss and cuddle and he turned straight back to his toys. It was just about 9am. I had stayed for all of ten minutes. Usually on the first day of nursery pick up time is about half an hour before usual, so the first session isn't too long. I was told to leave him until the end.
I arrived back at nursery at 11.45 to find a smiling, happy little man who can't wait to go back tomorrow. His only complaint? They gave him milk. COW milk (don't know what other kind he was expecting). It wasn't nice. So tomorrow he's going to try water instead.
Now I'm off to take Theo to the doctors, I think it's time for his next inoculation (but I'm not sure because I can't find his health book) and I want him weighing anyway. Will update when I know how much he weighs now. Poor LouisMuuuummmm! Louis' wet himself!
Oh dear. I know what this means. I translate most of Hannah's comments before replying to them. This time, I just make my way upstairs.
Louis is standing in a puddle, and Hannah has cleverly removed herself from the bathroom. I know, somehow, that this is not Louis' fault...
Hannah, why did Louis wet himself?
Because I was taking a long time weeing.
Hannah, when Louis wet himself were you still weeing?
No.
But you were still on the toilet?
Yes.
While Louis was hopping around waiting to use it?
Yes.
Okay, so, Louis needed the toilet but you were sitting on it, not doing anything?
Yes.
Why?
Because I wanted a rest...
Fortunately Louis was halfway through getting ready for bed, so nothing actually got wet, except the bathroom floor.
He was very cross with his Big Sister because Big Boys that go to nursery don't wet themselves.
And he is a Big Boy now, he started nursery this morning! January 11 Here We Go Again...I received an email from Windows Live. With an invitation to upgrade my Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail.
Now, bearing in mind everyone hated the changes made recently on here, I think the Live team are either very brave or very stupid.
But going at it with an open mind I decided to give it a chance. After all, I have figured out how to make the new Spaces work for me, and thought I could probably do the same with this.
The download went without a hitch, the new opening page was okay, and I changed the background to match my Space. Then things started to go wrong.
On my contacts page I used to have a link to News, Hotmail, Spaces and other bits and pieces. Now I have a link to Hotmail. No matter, thinks I, I can get from Hotmail to Spaces using the tabs at the top, and since I always check my mail first it's not an issue.
Is it?
My new Hotmail page turned out not to have the tabs at the top, not to show my toolbars and appeared to be completely seperate from Live Spaces altogether.
Not only that, but the new set up means that I cannot select several emails to delete or junk all in one go.
Or maybe I just havent figured it out yet. Maybe I should go to the help page, but I hate doing that because it never quite seems to answer my questions properly.
Has anyone else downloaded this new version? How are you finding it?
Think I might head over to 'Add or Remove Programmes' and see about going back to the old version! January 10 UFO Hits Wind Turbine?Right, so what do we think about the UFO crashing into the wind turbine?
Surely a race advanced enough to build and pilot a craft through the outer reaches of space should be able to notice a 213ft wind turbine in their path? If they didn't notice it (or someone hit the accelerator instead of the brake) would you not expect to find some bits of damaged spacecraft lying around? Or has Mulder already been round and taken the evidence away for examination?
The official line is that mechanical failure coupled with freezing temperatures caused the 60ft blade to shear off. Locals state that they saw 'a massive ball of light with tentacles going right down to the ground'. Hours before the incident actually happened.
'The Sun' made me laugh. I know, I was only reading it out of desperation. It (obviously) sensationalised the whole thing. UFO HITS WIND TURBINE! Apparently the lights in the sky looked like balls of fire. Has it occurred to anyone that they probably were? When you get mechanical failure on something like this, chances are there's going to be some flames involved.
But it was the photo that really got me. This incident happened at 4am. When it's dark. But the photo, and the inset showing the flash of light, were definately taken around dawn, which would be about four hours later surely? And Jim, if you look closely, I reckon that's a chemtrail in the background...
So, comments please, are we alone in this world, or have intergalactic vandals travelled across space to damage our wind farms?
January 08 Rocco: Part IIWe managed to organise everything for this morning, getting Hannah to school, the Hubs to work then back to the vet's with Rocco. I was supposed to drop him of with the nurse between 8.30 and 9am but he was so much better I opted for waiting to see the vet when he arrived at 9am.
Unfortunately the vet had other people booked in first thing so I had to wait until we could be slotted in at 9.20am. By which time Rocco was trying to chew his way out of the box and Theo had happily filled his nappy and was smelling a bit fresh.
Finally we go tin and the vet agreed that there was no need for the operation to go ahead. We had a nice chat about castrations and speying my jill (female ferret) and I still haven't let on that I probably know more than he does about the creatures! Mind you, he is quite knowledgeable, which is unusual in a vet that more regularly deals with cats and dogs.
I need to decide which one of the males to castrate, and which one to vasectomise or whether I should do what he suggests and get them all done.
£££!!!
Ah well, at least for now things are better and Rocco can start eating properly again. January 07 Just a Typical Day...Right, that's the washing up done. The dishwasher packed up for good sometime before Christmas so I took the bottom rack out and stuck it on the side to use as a draining rack. Works fine, and I don't particularly mind washing up, it's just the problem with the water.The timer on the boiler is broken, so it can be set to 'on' or 'off'. I don't need hot water all the time, it is a waste of money to have the boiler firing up all the time to keep the water hot but running up and down stairs trying to remember to turn the bloomin' thing off is something I don't need. The heating is fine, I can control it from the thermostat in the hallway downstairs, it's just this bit for the washing up. And baths. Thank goodness for electric showers!
Anyway, this means that my kettle is about to collapse from overuse because I am constantly boiling water to pour in the sink! And I've just run out of washing up liquid too.
Ah well, at least things are looking up in the hutch. Rocco had his breakfast and his antibiotics this morning and already the swelling was down. I'm hoping it will go down enough to change the vet's mind about the operation. General anaesthetic on small animals is best avoided if possible.
Now for some inexplicable reason Mehitabel is trying to eat my arm and Theo is laughing at Louis crying. Lou has found his Christmas sack and is devastated that there are no presents in it. Theo seems to think this is hilarious, as he does with most things his siblings get up to.
Right, better have a tidy round before toddler group this afternoon, there's dead lego men all over the room...
 January 06 RoccoOkay, so my Windows Live wotsit won't load up properly, my keyboard went on strike and when I fiddled around at the back of the hard drive to see if it was a loose connection the mouse stopped working too! Off to a great start then.
I have a trip to the vet's tomorrow afternoon, one of the ferrets isn't so good. When I went out to feed them I noticed he looked a bit odd but it wasn't until he turned towards me and I saw his whole face that I realised we have serious trouble.
One side of his face is so swollen his eye hardly opens. This is not totally unexpected; ferrets, and Rocco in particular, are prone to abcesses in the mouth. It can be caused by bit of food sticking in the gums, a bad tooth or sometimes by fighting with the others. I think in this case it is likely to be a bad tooth but as he came to me 'second-hand' I have no idea how old he is or any of his past health details.
I suppose this in itself does not sound too bad, but ferrets don't cope well with infections. I have lost several to this sort of thing before. They have such a high pain threshold that by the time you see something is wrong it is usually too late. Rocco is still eating which is a good sign, but he is underweight so he can't have been eating properly. I have warned the vet that I am bringing a severe case and will be needing high doses of antibiotics!
Hannah was upset when she heard me on the phone, at first she thought it was one of the dogs that was ill but recovered slightly when I told her it was Rocco. The kids don't have much to do with the ferrets but they do realise that a lot of trips to the vet's result in one less animal, because of the foster dogs we have had. I hope Rocco makes it, but at the moment I'm just concentrating on getting him to the vet's tomorrow afternoon. January 05 Normality?Things are heading back for normality. The Hubs has gone to work this morning and tomorrow Hannah is back at school.
Jasper (my dog) is up to his old tricks again, escaping out of the garden. We build the wall up with startling regularity but he's just so boingy! I looked for places where he might be crawling out under the fence but no, it looks like he is jumping the wall. I'm sure he does it just to upset our neighbour. He always comes back through her garden, as she has a hole in her fence at the bottom of her garden, which she strenuously denies.
Archy is doing well, I don't want to tempt fate but his behaviour has really improved. Of course, some of this is because we are learning his little traits and are now able to avoid most situations; him running off when you open the door, him stealing Theo's changing bag because he wants something of mine to sleep with, him turning on the gas rings when he jumps up at the cooker...
I am now waiting for news on my cousin having her baby, due pretty much any time. So excited for her. And my niece, newly pregnant but I am worried for her, she is so tiny and underweight.
As for me, my prophet tells me there will be another child, bad timing again, around Christmas time. Not sure if that's the end of this year or sometime after.
And news from my brother and sister-in-law, but I'm not sure if it's common knowledge so I'll keep schtum on that one for a while.
Thought I had a photo of Jasper boinging but I can't find it at the moment. Must have stored it on a disk when my computer got too full!
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