London in the Snow (by sarah)

It was still snowing this morning and things are set to continue - I was panicked as Jean is in the office with us and I had work plus college planned for today but as it turns out college is now closed becuase of the snow.

Dad was going to come over and help out with Jean so that I could get some work done but all the trains he needs are closed :/

The local shop here had its deliveries this morning but are pretty much sold out of things like milk as no one can get to a super market.

Still me and Jean have had a pleasant day.

She slept in and then played in the bedroom for most of the morning, we read Aladine (which apparently every one else could hear including all of the funny voices I was doing for each character!), she then had a bath and a story that I have written her called Baa Baa Blue Sheep - she actually joins in with this one which is something I haven't seen with any other story yet. Then we had some food - pesto with pasta which is one of her favourites.

It was then time to go outside and play. Of course not having planned this we have no snow boots, gloves, hats etc... so we had to do Daddy sock glubs - both me and Jean sported these lovely fashion accessories.

Unfortunatly this did leave daddy with no thick socks to wear whilst helping build a baby snow man or snow jean and in the consequent snowball fight he and Jean had.

He went back in to work and me and Jean made a giant snowball. I only stopped as my back was starting to hurt.

We then turned it into a Daddy snowman.

We considered making snow angles but decided it was too cold and wet - Jean annouced it would make her bumbum cold wet.

Instead we wrote JEAN in the snow with foot prints and Jean played snow football lots.

It started snowing again so we went in for hot chocolate and watched a film together. We then went for a walk to take pictures and get Jean a treat piece of cake for having to be quiet in the office and becuase she has a bloody noise from falling over at the weekend and becuase she is missing home and wanted to play in the snow with Barbara - I was thinking about this too, thinking about the sledge and stuff - but never mind.

On route we found icicles on the traffic lights

Here are some other photos we took on our walk - I tried to get Jean to pose for a lovely Narnia shot but she got scared of the slippery slop and worried about a dog eating the snow!

Jean vetoed all the cafes on the way up the road saying she wanted different cake shops and then vetoed them all on the way back down the hill until we got back to the origonal one I had suggested which she decided was acceptable.

They didn't didn't have any chocolate cake left only apple pie - Jean was dispondant until she tasted the apple pie which she shared with me. The cafe hadn't recieved its dialy order and so was out of quiet a few things.

It was then I heared that all the buses were stopped too.

Here are some of the arty shots we took:

By the time mummy and Tigger had 'ice-skated' home, the trains home to Gloucestershire were turning around at Reading and me and Al discuessed weather to attempt the roads - the roads around here are under a blanket of snow until you reach the A1 and checking out possible routes home we decided it was safest to stay here again. Barbara informed us that if we did come home not to drive into our valley but to park in the village and walk down.

My main concern is that there is no heating on in the house and the cats are outside - I left a message asking Barbara to turn a heater on downstairs and rescue my seedlings from the window sills and let the cats in.

Jean got very excited about the snow - there are more pictures but I feel that this post is getting a bit picture heavey so will do another post!

It’s Snowing, they’re Cooking, Others are Moving and We’re Stuck (by sarah)

We appear to be stranded in London, the van which is being used by a friend to move the contents of his flat to a smaller flat is still not back with us plus it is snowing.

Snowing and Al is tired.

My Scouts also had their Ready Steady Cook today which they won! Wish I could have been there to see it:/

Well done Scouts!

Mum’s Treatment (by sarah)

We came down to London this weekend, Jean was very excited as she was going to stay at Nanny and Ferfers and see aunty Michelle - Uncle David had been staying with us for the week so he wasn't quiet as exciting but would do none the less.

Mum's in the middle of her second lot of radiotherapy and its dragging on abit though she looks alot better on this lot than she did last time.

They have just given her the results of all the lumph node disections and though it was in some of them it has apparently not got out into the rest of he body and her life is no longer in danger - is what they say.

They have also assured us that the other lot of lumps are not cancer but as they have told us this twice already and twice already it has turned out to be cancer I'm not happy.

She gets weekends off of the treatment and so is looking forward to spending lots of time with Jean though mostly this seems to involve them both laying on mums bed watching films (Mum hates children films though this fact seems forgotten at the moment.)

The radiotherapy will end soon and then we will have to see where things go from there - hopefully on the up.

Dad's stomach problems are still continueing and he had to have a Barium enima. They have given him an appointement for July to discuess the results so we are assuming its nothing life threatening though it is happering his life quiet serverly and I'm sure that it will be affecting his over all health.

They haven't even really interviened were the symptoms are concerned.

I am relieved as I assume this means its not bowl cancer but why wait so long to tell us what it is?

Barbara sent mum some lovely snow drops from along the drive that Jeans is all excited about giving to Nanny and Nanny is very pleased with.

I’m Peter Pan! (by sarah)

Jean's been pretending to be Peter Pan alot! But now she has been alloting roles to the rest of us.

Daddy is Wendy

Mummy is Haptain Cook = Captain Hook

Barbara is Mr Smeeze = Mr Smee

Ferfer = Granddad is Lost Boy

Nanny is Ah... Croc...o...dile (said with dispondancy)

Unlce David is Tinkerbell (A 5ft10 and a half, 16 stone (don't say 16 its 15 and half I fluctuate), male Tinkerbell)

We were all in fits of laughter.

Jean typing (by alaric)

Jean had fun in nursery yesturday. They're doing a Chinese new year theme, so she was talking excitedly about "Chinese New Ear" all the way home and breaking the nice little hat she'd made.

Sarah had to go to a meeting, so Jean and I had the evening to ourselves. Since I'm often away in London, I wanted to make a treat of this for Jean, so I cooked her pasta (her favourite) and we watched some film together, but then she said she wanted to type on my laptop, so we gave it a go.

I asked her to choose words, then I showed her the letters to spell them out. I was glad to see that she naturally pressed the keys properly, rather than holding them down as many people do. She got quite into this, especially when I started feeding her typings to the speech synthesiser. I turned on caps lock after a while so the on-screen letters would look the same as the ones on the keys. She tried a few nonsense words of her own as well as ones I spelt out for her, too. Here's what she typed:

mummy
jean
orange
CATS
SO3Y7LZG33XV7BNKZ
DINOSAUR
HELLO
JEAN
7NL.
G.XZJOPV
GF.N