Getting ready for baby Erica

Had fun today getting Mae's baby stuff out for my friend Claire and partner Simon who are coming to stay while we are away. Their little girl Erica was born on the same day as Mae (2 years later) and so when Mae was playing with her old toys I took a pic- see the difference! Crazy! Can you believe it's the same kid!?

Besides Mungo's untimely death it was a great weekend...

Well, Lauren, Chris and Elaine were here so it was fun filled except for those few hours. (So weird without Mungo- I can hear the pitter patter of his feet at night and keep catching sight of him out of the corner of my eye...)

But we took the girls to Dalscone on Saturday and then to Shabellie House (where I will be working) on Sunday- here's a few pics...

Bye Mungo

He's gone. Poor Mungie.

A new place to visit

Wow! My friend and soul sister, Sharon is moving to a great home in Glasgow! And it has three whole bedrooms! If you know Sharon you will realise that she is finally stretching her (home owning) wings. Going from size 3 shoebox (Southampton) to size 9 shoebox (Aberdeen) is still a shoebox after all (hee hee!) But doesn't it look like a great place?
Congrats Sharon and John- I hope you enjoy your new home! I'll send you our preferred menu when we come visit.....
(I hope these links don't disappear when the property is taken off the website..)

Where's Gary, Momma?

Right here in his sleeping bag, baby. (Yum!)

A new member of the family...

No, I am not pregnant. Stupid.
My fave cousin Amanda has been married! To Adam, who is lovely. Here are some pics of them, and my second cousin..? I dunno, Amanda's son, also Adam, who is looking like quite a young man! And of course, the sweet Julia.
Congrats you guys- see you soon!

Your face, my butt

Just wanted an interesting title, this blog has nothing to do with faces or butts.

Sorry.

Well, I am going to LOVE my new job! You know what I spent the afternoon doing? Crafting! Just coming up with ideas and having fun! Of course, I haven't tried this with children yet, it may be totally different come October!

And news of Mungo- he's home, finally, and has heart failure. Great. He's on medication. Greater. I never wanted to be the kind of pet owner who gives their pet medication, but here we are. In for a penny, in for a pound. Or lots of pounds, as Geoff found out today when he picked up Mungo. I will spare those details, but let's put it this way, I need my new job to pay for the fleabag.

Anyway, all is well, we are happy to have him back. Next thing- get home to Canada! Yippee!

I will also post pics of my new workplace in the next week or so- in the meantime, here are a few taken in recent months.

oh Mungo!

Well, yesterday I decided to take Mungo back to the Vets. He's been losing weight for months and when I took him in April she said take him back if you are concerned but he seems okay at the moment.
He's getting skinnier, drinking more and oddly, his ribs look bigger(?). Well, the vet yesterday listened to his chest and said he has fluid on it, could be his lungs or heart, we'll keep him in tonight. What?! Oh Mungo, we didn't even say a proper goodbye (well, he did piss on me when I put him in his box)
The vet called later and said they took 150 mls of fluid off his chest. Maybe that's why his ribs looked bigger...? I shouldn't own a pet!
So last night, the night before I started work (TODAY!) we though Rumpole would be upset. Well, Mae didn't want to go to bed first of all- there was a fireman in her room and she was scared..
Then at 1 am I heard Rumpole doing his glglglglgl!? glglglgllgl?! noise and I thought he was lonely so I called him up to the bed, at which point he deposited a wee dead mouse. The first one since we have moved, thank you. (It used to be carnage in Bristol)
Then he woke up Mae by opening her door at 3 am.
Then Mae walked into my room at 5.30 saying she has heard a noise and wants to watch some TV.
wish me luck for my first day!!!!

Ode to Orchard Lea

Oh, how I miss Mae's old nursery, Orchard Lea!! I am in the process of looking for a place here in Dumfries and none even come close! Mae did so well with Louise, Loulou, Becky and Ian, the staff and keyworkers, as well as all the kids, but the ones here are totally different. The premises are really cramped and out of date, and the one that has a nice building is so...quiet...I dunno. A couple of them I wouldn't put a dog into for more than an hour. There was one that seemed really good, but they won't have a place for her after she is three years old. Should we put her in, just to settle her for a few months and then have to change again?
One more to see on Friday, a recommendation. Maybe this will be the one.

On a brighter note, went to the Border Games on Sunday. Here's some dudes tossing a caber and some pipers.

And representing Dumfries....

This morning we went to the local park, where one of the (many) local churches was putting on a picnic. There was a bouncy castle, face painting, music and all sorts- Mae had a blast and had a bunch of flowers painted on her face.
When we came home she had a nap, at which time Geoff started watching athletics. When Mae woke up she sat with him for a while. When she was watching it she started saying 'I want one of those. I WANT ONE OF THOSE!!!' huh? What? An ATHLETE? A baton? A medal? WHAT!? It took her about 5 minutes of struggling with it until she said 'A SPACE SUIT!!' We cracked up, and I thought, what the hell...and got one of her bathing suits out- so it was an afternoon of athletics in our back garden....

First we had the relay races, with Team Lunatic... she's got the baton (plastic fork)



Coming in for the pass



Going for gold!!

Next event- Father Vaulting

Notice the stepping-in-the-neck technique. Beautifully executed.

And finally

Pummel Horse

My two favourite girls

Pictures courtesy of Chris Mark- these were taken at the funeral last week. They are so different but absolutely de-lovely!

I need a Mental Health Day already!

Wow, negotiating with my new employers is difficult! Trying to arrange a start date (they want me to start just before our visit to Canada)makes me think I have been spoilt having this time off! Don't get me wrong, I am really looking forward to it but I think I am going to have a hard time separating from Mae- especially after seeing two of the 5 nurseries in Dumfries today. I hope they start looking better when I visit more next week or it's no way to the new job!
Anyway, here's a little pic of Shambellie House (I nicked it off their website- do you think they will sue for copyright infringement? What a way to begin!)

Mae, Warrior Princess

Today we headed to Threave Castle, which is about 18 miles away. Mae has been into castles much more since we went to the Robert The Bruce re-enactment at Caerlaverack castle a couple of weekends ago.


Threave is great because you have to take a boat over to the island, which she likes, and it was a nice cool day so we didn't need to worry about finding shade. I can't believe I am saying that, I really don't like such heat anymore! I guess it's just boring as we have to keep Mae inside lots.

Mae didn't like the bottom floor of the castle too much- it is quite cool as the roof is still there, but it is creepy and she said it was 'too weird'. We played outside most of the time, she liked running into the (dry) moat.


It's great living in Dumfries, there is no end of cool things to do. Tomorrow we may go paint pots, or head to the farm, or to the beach...the world is our oyster! Or mussels, which is what we had for dinner last night! They didn't go down well, although it was entertaining to hear Mae tell them she was going to eat them and all their friends!

Tilly Boppy- Lou and the Stobart Spotters

Those of you not from Britain will not get that title, and those you you from Britain are going to think I am so sad.....

Well, I had some of the girls from work in Bristol up at the beginning of July- we had a great time, and one of them, Michelle, had been in Dumfries before. On the way to our house from the airport she said they had stopped in Carlisle, of course, as the Eddie Stobart yard is there. Eddie Stobart is a trucking company. In my ignorance, I asked why in the world would you stop at a truck yard. Then (and to my eternal pain) Mich said that all the Stobart trucks have womens names on them and it is a big thing to be a spotter. I flipped, and screamed, 'Now I'M a Stobart Spotter! DAMN YOU!'

So we went to Nottinham this weekend, and it was a hell of a drive, only to be made slightly better by Stobart spotting. ( I think the first truck was Tilly BETTY- Lou, but this is what I saw and if we ever have a second child and it's a girl, she will almost certainly be called Tilly Boppy- Lou)

But the main reason we went was for Geoff's gran's funeral, which was nice and not too sad. It was good to see Geoff's family and Mae and her cousin Lauren played together. Mae fell in love with Geoff's uncle Arthur- she loves old guys!!
And we stayed at Joy and Helen's, which was tiring but great. Maya, 3, and Jamie, 1 are sweeties. Jamie doesn't like me at all, for some reason, so I am going to have to work on him. Maya and Mae play together really well for their age but it was run run run, scream scream scream most of the time!!

So, now we are back to reality and now I will be focusing on getting ready to go back to work but before that going to Canada! I can't wait to get home!!!

Off to the big town.

Today we are off to Derby in England for Geoff's gran's funeral. She died last week, unexpectedly, which is doubly sad as we had planned a visit mid-August to see her. But it should be alright, and Mae will see her cousin Lauren, so they will keep the event quite light. (I have brought lollipops to keep her quiet, but then she will be probably sitting there saying 'yum YUM!!!' really loudly the whole time! I guess I will just have to let it happen).
And we are staying with out friends Helen and Joy in Nottingham and their two little ones, Maya and Jamie. I am looking forward to that, they are lovely and as Helen and Joy went to university with Geoff there's always amusing anecdotes to listen to.
It's weird, though, I am dreading entering the big wide world again- I have become so used to Dumfries, with 35,000 people max. Bristol had upwards of a million and I would have a panic attack going back there! But Nottingham is great (would have been my second choice of moving anywhere in Britain even though it is the gun crime capital of the UK- feels like home) and we'll be focusing on family so no major outings, thank god. Oh no! I am becoming a bumpkin! I am really looking forward to the Dumfries 'Games' next week (caber tossing and all that) and then there is the Galloway Agricultural Fair in a couple of weeks time, so all hope for me being an urbanite is gone- whoopee!!
Here's a pic of Maya and Mae taken by Joy earlier this year when they visited.

Working mom again!

Great! I have a new job! How exciting! I am now (or soon will be) employed as the Learning and Programmes Assistant at Shambellie House Museum of Costume! It's bittersweet, though, as I have been having so much fun with Mae, but she did well at nursery in Bristol and I think she is missing friends of her own age to play with. I am so happy, though, what a wonderful place to work, an old stately home in beautiful grounds. I will be doing outreach work for children and informal learners and I cannot wait! The scary bit though, is that I may have to be there on my own in the winter to open and close the house, and that would freak me out! It's full of mannequins just waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting human!
Well, now's the time to get planning, find a nursery for Mae and start a new, WAY more hectic lifestyle!

Hello big world! and welcome to our lives...

Well, here we go, finally I figured it's time to start a blog. With Mae and I out and about everyday and the three of us on new adventures every weekend, I figured this may be an easier way to keep in touch....let's see!