32 posts tagged “family”

It's a bit of a rarity, but at the moment I have all four of my kids in one place. Number Two Son was 16 last Saturday and we decided between us that as he was finished school that we'd get the lot of them together - but we didn't tell the girls about our plan. Therefore, yesterday found us travelling a round trip of approximately 280 miles whilst they were at school. We got stuck in a slow(ish) moving queue for a few miles on the way home which meant we were about 20 minutes later home than we'd hoped, so sitting their brothers outside the school as a surprise was out of the question. We drove to KT's, and discovered that the twins were moments away and Number Two Son, always one for a good surprise, leapt out at the top of the hill and fairly flew down it after them. We pulled into the carport just as they came out, all grins and joking remonstrations about not telling them that their brothers were coming.

KT suggested that we all go to the beach after the girls got home from school today. Number One Son wasn't really happy with the idea of heading out into daylight (he's a moody beastie) but the others were and I gathered up N1S as well and made him go. I have to say, it seemed he was just trying to live up to his reputation as a misery, because once we got him out of the van he was more than happy to muck about with the others.

As soon as he was out of the van, Number Two Son had found a blue plastic 5 litre bottle stuck in the rocks, so he dragged that out and put it on one of the bins to be taken away. He started looking for shells, so I sent them all away to find me some treasure.

Number One Son found a common starfish stranded amongst the groynes. He brought it back for a few photos then took it back to the water. I like this photo as he is almost smiling!

 

Number One Son's biggest find on Number One Daughter's biggest - a motorcyle tyre!

The treasure found for me by the kiddoes.

All four of my kinder. Number One Son was determined not to smile though he did grin every time between shots. I need a faster camera!
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Things I Learnt Today:

I always knew they were agile and fit, but N1S in particular showed just how nimble he was when he bounced along the tops of the groynes. We watched some teens try the same thing two days ago and they were unsure and unbalanced. I think my kids are part monkey.

N1S has a lot of power in his throwing arm. He was throwing stones towards the groynes from near where KT and I were sitting and more often than not he got really close to them - in fact, he even hit them twice. Looking at Google Maps, I am fairly amazed that it seems to be a distance of about 150 feet (about 60 metres). I so wish he had some kind of motivation in his life!

Number Two Son is imminently better at skipping stones than his brother. N1S might have the distance but he can't skip stones half as well as his lil bro.

I admit it. Facebook has become a big part of my life. I'm addicted to certain apps, notably Who Has The Biggest Brain and Herd A Word, though the darned developers of that little beauty are paying feck all attention to the fact that the high scores and longest words of a lot of people aren't updating - I got hopelessnesses for a major score the other day and I have no record of it at all. I hate the developers. If it wasn't for the fact that it's good brain training, I would take it off.

Anyhow, one thing I am enjoying is finding my family and possible family on there. My birth surname is Jakins and there are quite a few of those on there. Some I had already discovered before I discovered Facebook and we'd worked out that some of us are definately related and others just seem to have the family sense of humour (wicked and sarcastic). There are others that I have recently gotten in touch with who have photo albums full of people who look uncannily like my daughters, uncles etc., but as yet, we don't know if we are related because we're kinda stuck at going back along the branches of our respective trees. I've made it my project to try and find out as much about everyone as possible and to see if we are kin.

This has meant, though that I've been negelecting my Vox. Part of that was because I've been at KT's and his computer is just too slow for me and blogging. Part of it is that my neighbourhood is going through another slump. Have you ever noticed how sometimes you will come on to stalk Vox and there are literally pages and pages to get through and yet other times it doesn't move at all. It's disheartening guys!

Part of it has been that I have posted here, but I've kept them as hidden as they aren't finished and to be honest, I don't think some of them will be. I have a list of things on my desktop that I want to blog about - so I am going to have to get on and get typing sometime and share. I've missed catching up and making you all read about toot.

In the meantime, I've started a Vox friends list as well. Some people have the cutest profile pics!

This post is the three portrait style photos I've chosen to enter the quest - and the others I liked from playing at the bottom of the post for reviews. All taken with a point and click camera, so no fancy close ups as it doesn't do much!

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Chosen by H - the twin on the right

Chosen by me - shows Number Two Son in a rare capture - no boss eyes, no sticky up fingers, no smear as he races to beat the camera - I caught this one just right. Also shows KT snuggled against the bracing North Sea wind and H doing homework on the bench!

 

Chosen by KT. On the same day as the above photo, J popped into the van and was doing Dracula impressions. I wanted a pic, but she made a great game out of hiding behind the blanket every time I pressed the button - the kids have learnt it's a slow old camera! This one was her cracking up because it was obviously such a great game! Behind her is the prom through the can window - less that a minute's walk to where the bomb was found yesterday.  

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Another of the shots taken in the garden - J has a thing for sticking out her tongue at the moment and H just pulls the most fantastic faces...

 

I've been trying to get the kids to do death shots for years. We play at dead at home - did you know that when you are dead your tongue always sticks out? And to revive that person, all you have to do is push their tongue back into their mouth and shake them whilst saying 'Wake up! Wake Up!' - works everytime.

 

This lady's pooch was much admored by the two gents. The one bending down got right down level with the dog to give it some good old loving but this was the only pic where you could see the lady's face.

The Sisterly Love shot - in slight sepia style for KT, original for me and black and white for H

 

KT doesn't feel that some of these count as portraits - I disagree. Any opinions?

 

I've been neglectful again, I know it. Part of it is that Number One son is here visiting and so the telly has been snaffled for PS2 gaming and the computer for soppy chats with the girlfriend. The rest is that there isn't much to report lately.

Health update:
I had some blood taken on Friday for a whole range of tests. I was surprised by just how many bottles and tubes the phlebotomist was holding when she jabbed me. I got a message on my phone from someone at the surgery about the results, but she wasn't there when I called back, so I will have to wait for those. I also had a spirometry test that day to check for COPD but that was fine. Still have to make the appointment for an x-ray though - my taxi driver hasn't been feeling well himself recently.

Kids update:
H was chosen to take part in an exercise set at a magistrate court. She was chosen to be magistrate number three, which means lots of note taking and very little talking, so she is ecstatic.

J is really enjoying football again but is insistant that she doesn't want to join the girls team at Felixstowe & Walton. H also refuses to go. This is annoying because we know how much they love playing, and how good they are as team players from the tournaments and previous matches they've played for school. Before we moved here, they trained with F&W all through the summer hols and particiapted in matches and were told that if we ever moved here permanently that they would love to have the girls on the team. However, my wusses will dribble around the butterfly bush and an obstacle course of shoes, but they are too shy to go to even one meeting at F&W, even knowing that they already have friends there. Grrr.

J got a new certificate and badge at swimming - this means she can now go up a level. Well done J! Pity we can't get H to join in with that, although at least she is going swimming after the teaching sessions now.

The girls are going on their annual night hike on Saturday... fingers crossed they don't go so far off course this year!

AJ is mostly happy. [This is good].

S is peachy. [This is great].

Things to do:
I really must get out and get some more red photos - I'm never going to finish my rainbow staring at the same things all the time.

Print out the proof that I have paid Anglian Water the £80 they say they haven't recieved (again) and then send them two copies.

Poke TV Licensing up the backside to get my license sorted.

Find just where the heck I saved my recipe for Blueberry Muffins. AJ made some earlier from a recipe we found online that had great reviews and they were a little too bready for my liking. They taste fruity and are a good texture - I just like my muffins to be a bit more cakey than bready.

That's kinda it. What a boring life I have. How come it zooms by so quickly?!

 

 

AJ called at the weekend and said he needed a break, so without telling the girls, KT and I planned to get him yesterday.

The journey there was pretty uneventful - I only panicked we were going to get wiped out by weaving lorries a few times and we made pretty good time managing the 250 mile round trip just in time to get back as school let out. 

AJ hid behind the seat as N and H came to the van and I knew N thought she'd seen something moving as she kinda looked at the back doors with that quizzical look people get when they aren't quite sure what happened.

The gals sat down and H immediately noticed the bag with the KFC wrappers. As she complained about that, AJ snuck upwards and whispered 'boo'. There was an excellent reaction as both girls burst into hysterical giggles and H gave her bro a huge hug. When J saw him it was a lot of hugging a and some tears - we didn't see him at Christmas and he was missed.

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I've just recieved this text message from H.

Can AJ come and pick up up after school please cause there is this total retard called matthew fee in my form and he crushed crirsps in my hair

I replied with

We'll see. Brothers are not for crushing total retards.

Her reply?

But they can scare him for us.

 

Last year, we are agreed on this, KT and I did not manage to do all the stuff we'd hoped for. Some of it was down to him going through the process of of becoming retired and skint, most of it down to illness. When the booklets for the local theatres came through he was soon trawling through them to see what we should go and see. One of the things he decided on was not to my taste and when we mentioned it to the girls, it wasn't to H's either - J, however, was ecstatic at the chance to go and see this show. Off we popped, leaving grumpy H at home and bought some tickets, which were promptly snapped up by J who refused to be snapped herself...

 

...until I sneakily caught her gurning at me - ha ha!

 

H and I are planning to spend the time they sit watching The Chuckle Brothers doing something more refined, darling.

Show us your favorite photograph.

Girlie Bday

 

Yeah, I know it's 18 months old now and has a toilet block in the background, but I really love how this one came out.

J was stalking around the dining room with a fly swat, chasing late season flies that had wandered in, when she espied a fairly fresh cobweb on the ceiling. As she knocked it down, Dad said

You've taken down Nanny's website

Made me wobble, anyway

KT's mum has worked at her local playgroup for years. During that time she's spent hundreds of extra hours doing free work towards keeping the place running smoothly and raising funds for the group,whilst his dad, who is one of those guys who is pretty much always on the go has kept the grass trim for the kids to play on, done repairs and been a general handyman, all for free. Fairly recently the group got a new chairwoman on the commitee for the group. All the workers got new contracts and were basically told they had to sign them or lose their jobs. Some of the orders on the contract were outrageous, and one, which demanded that they all had to join in on fundraising sessions on their days off or be sacked, was found to be illegal and got scrapped.

Well that was before the Summer hols and over the weeks the old playgroup building was being updated and repaired. There's been quite a stir in the village at the new and improved building it's getting with everyone excited that the group will be as up to date as it is possible to get. This week, they were to start taking all the gear from where they'd been running the group up to the refurbished building. Mum has worked hard towards doing this and on her day off she and Dad were up at the new place all day, fitting the store cupboard out with shelving units and the rest of the area with shelves, coat racks etc., again, totally voluntarily. She spent some extra time packing items that had to be moved. After a full day's work in the playgroup on Friday, she did the rest of the packing and spent a few hours walking between the two buildings, ferrying a lot of the stuff that needed to  be moved, this we were told, was pretty much by herself as two of the people who were supposed to be helping had rushed off to collect their kids after doing nothing more than labelling baskets and deciding where to put them and they stayed away, and the committee members who had come to help sat in a people carrier watching...

Anyhoo, a few more people turned up to help so she decided to take her leave and go home as she'd been working at the playgroup and at moving things for hours and as it was almost all done and with there being more people to help she figured she was due a rest as she was tired. How wrong she was. Everyone got a note through their doors to thank them on their hard work moving things from one building to the other, except for Mum. She got the snottiest note I have ever read, on a torn bit of scrap paper that had the very worst grammar and spelling, accusing her of being lazy and sarcastically thanking her for leaving all the work to everyone else, when in reality she did 90% of the hard work. It also demanded that she go to the new building on Sunday to do the finishing touches, which I gathered was more of the putting things in baskets and choosing where to put the rugs hard work kinda stuff. She didn't go as we'd already made arrangements to have a family lunch but I am looking forward to seeing how things go at their next meeting. She is planning to ask if she really deserved to have a letter like the one she got - I know they'd all notice if she and Dad weren't doing the stuff they do for the group and I am pretty certain they would soon sit up and take notice if he started handing out bills for all the work he does!

These summer hols even the kids were complaining that the weeks seemed to be going on forever, and I think that they are happy to be back to school. We spent a week visiting family back in Northampton, 2 weeks being visited, a weekend being invaded. The girls joined in with a worldwide renewal of their Scouting vows and were featured on a report for our local online tv station and then spent a week at camp in Essex. They were lucky enough to be chosen to go on a visit to the World Scout Jamboree on their 12th birthday and came home utterly exhausted but having had a great day, well, at least until their dad called later and was mean over the phone and the Saturday girl at The Little Icecream Company had a go at J for something she hadn't done. We'd gone in with the intention of buying a whole heap of icecreams and came away with just the one that had already been made after everyone decided to boycott the shop.

We spent a few fun afternoons up on the cliffs having a picnic and playing bat and ball games - I even managed to get some photos of S where he wasn't sticking up one finger!

 

 

 

 

 

Some of my arty farty shots from our last day on the cliffs...

 

I got some fab shots of an old guy flying his kites but managed to lose the whole lot before finding them on my computer instead of KT's - I just can't bring them over as mine is too old to do much. Boooo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to Felixstowe Carnival and enjoyed some fab music - Badness, The Bohemians and Storm in particular were excellent. This was the weekend I got invaded, first by my brother and then by his girlfriend who surprise, surprise, was dumped by her mother on a day trip to the very sea side resort where her bf was stopping with his big sister and then each day found she couldn't go home for yet another excuse. They shoulda just asked in the first place if they could have stopped! 

We (KT, his folks, Del, Bethan, Bethan's friend and meee) got rained on by fireworks on the last night and literally came home with clumps of sulphur (we think it was) and big chunks of thick cardboard stuck in hoods, hair and down the backs of our necks. Still, they were great fireworks!

 

 

Apart from that, I've spent the last few weeks feeling pretty rotten. I've managed to pick up a cold on top of a chest infection and would feel more sorry for myself except KT's picked up a cold and is a reet old misery with it - fingers crossed it's worked it's way through everyone before it gets too much colder.