Happy Family (by alaric)

...from Charlee's Flickr

I was mean to Minni :( (by sarah)

We were on the landing and Minni was sitting next to the changing table which due to showers etc... was not on the bath. Jean used said changing table to stand up and walk over to our little black shadow. Things were going well with Jean making her sudo cat word noises - then Jean tried to stroke/poke/hit Minni, there was a hiss and a snapping of jaws and a crying baby and me acting on mothers instict chasing the cat away!

Poor Minni hadnt even biten Jean but the sudden agressiveness of the cat had been enough to frighten Jean whom the kittens willingly take cuddles from. But I didnt stop to think my instincts told me - something attacking baby - MUST PROTECT.

I feel bad as Minni is so highly strung as it is and nervous - we normal make sure Jean doesnt scare her but didnt realise the furry feline was sitting there.

Still I think I am forgiven for ousting the kittens who are Minnis arch emimies!

Poor Bobble (by sarah)

We came back from writting class which was great - and Jean behaved fantastically - she was soooooo good! But then as Al went to get her out of the van when we arrived home, she prjectile vomited all over the inside of the van 🙁

Jean is now sleeping peacefully after some initial wailing and needing hugging - we however have just finished using the upholstery attatchment on our carpet cleaner as milky vom had sunk right into the seats. We still have to make our dinner and do the rubbish - oh well its only ten past midnight things could be worse.

Geologist Running to erm…. Somewhere? (by sarah)

Ok - some peeps seem a bit confussed as to what is currently the status of me - which probablt means I forgot to blog it!

Ok - well I was told I had to wait this year to restart my MRes completely - so I waited - then about 6 weeks before term starts I get an email saying I need a drs note saying I'm fit enough to go back - this didnt happen - I was informed I was doing to much and against medical advise I asked to do the distance learning modules.

Colleges lake of response to any form of comunication after I said I couldnt get the drs note - means that its nopw too late to start even that 🙁 So where does this leave Sarah?

Cant go to college - already 'doing' to much - supposed to have afternoon naps and concentrate on getting better - this also equals no job - other than the few things I do for Warhead.

I have another problem - in that I go stir crazy when doing - NOTHING!

House work like hoovering still leaves me dizzy so Al has banned me from certain tasks.

I have taken up the Scout thing - but they all know of the medical situation so previsions for a Sarah BAD DAY can be found - this is especially important as without the pregnancy hormone in my system my back has been getting increasingly bad again - though the pelvis is getting better.

Tonight me and Al start an 8 week writting course with free critique of our work - this is important to me as with the enforced lake of activity in my life I now find I have time to writ and draw - something that I thought I would develope as a second career once retired. I have several projects on the go - it is not physically taxing unlike geology! And it keeps my brain working - scouts will keep my interest in the outdoors primed even if I cant do a lot of the things.

I am trying to viwe all this as an opportunity to develope a second career in conjunction or parralle with my first career - when I am ill - I can at least think on ideas and help develope them - the days my hands dont work - I can get Al to writ things down for me - this works we have done it many times before.

I still am a GEOLOGIST - do not fear - that side of me isnt dead but I have always also been the ARTIST and now after a long time of being on the back burner it is its turn.

I can see all the science peeps out there cringing! But never fear - I am trying to writ a series of childrens books that I think you'll all approve of!

So the long and the short of it is - I am not really doing anything 'useful' for the next two yrs but with big changes happening on several levels of our life - including mass change in our business lives I'm not sure we could have afforded for me to be doing the MRes anyway.

One the passing out stops I will see if I can resume my work experience but slowely slowely is the key.

So yeah - I'm currently a useless memeber of society - I am very lucky to have Al is all I'm going to say. If that makes me a scrounger in some peoples eyes then so be it - but please peeps bare in mind that I do work for our company too and am infact a Director - you cant get away with doing nothing for that title!

Sarah sneaks off to find some vaugly dry rock to crawl benieth.

The Curse is Back >:( (by sarah)

SIGH

Yes you guessed it - everything is going wronge again 🙁

First of all the dishwasher broke - bang in the middle of the Foot Path inquiry - meaning there were loads of people to feed - I had volunteered to do the washing up as we have the dishwasher - but it keeps tripping the RCD (Residual Current Dectector) meaning that the not only is it not able to work but as we didnt initially realise - the power was down for a while including fridge and freezers.

We thought this was the bottom of the cursed machine filling up with water again - but two weeks on and its still tripping the RCD and is therefore dangerous 🙁 So this means we've been doing all the washing up by hand - so I hear you all say - I dont have a dishwasher grumble grumble grumble - except that it is harvest time and we have a glut - every time I turn around someone turns up with more windfalls to turn into something so sticky pots and pans and millions of extra bowls and choppign boards need to be washed.

Then we discovered on the third bowl of hot water that our 'boost' on the water heater has packed up meaning that we only have one tank of hot water to run on a day 🙁 So therefore washing up involves boiling kettles and the such like.

The day after the dishwasher broke I changed the water out of the tumble dryer and lo! The red light that tells me the water needs emptying now refuses to go out even though it is now empty 🙁 This has happened before to and was just down to some water pooling near the sensor which I mop up with a tea towl and then it may take 2 or 3 days to dry - not this time - oh no! Just as we start using the new washable nappies for Jean - the tumble dryer brakes - still not working - so thats washing hanging every where in the house making it even damper than it normally is - you know its bad when the condensation runs down the windows.

Then the left indicator on the van has started cutting out when its too wet - so looks like thats wonky cabling that needs fixing. Blower is also dead - and the most awkard one was the rear lights - not good for reversing in our parking space where there is the drop into the stream!

The kittens messed in the stable - we cleaned it up but hadnt realised there was a kitten egg just outside the door which we trod in and then walked all round downstairs before I started accusing all of smelling - this has ment a huge carpet shampoo so the furniture is all in much disaray.

Then poor Als laptop has become tempramental - going to sleep and not waking up with basically no warning. Not to mention the CPW thing and the bank having stuffed up direct debits into my account for my creadit card as my post keeps going walkys - so fines galour - I might have to strangly the next person that tells me that it may affect my creadit rating - when its there flipping fualt!!!!

The creme on the top - is that we may have found a leak in the roof - not sure yet though as its were there is staining from an old leak.