Pictures for grandma...

Obviously, he is adored by his nanna and grandad!  Dylan gets to whip the cream for our Sunday dinner.

Edith and Daddy enjoy the fruits of Dylan's labor.

Naked picture alert.  Look at those pins!

Getting ready for bath time and saying goodbye to the grandparents.  Hooray for multi-tasking.

Our trip to The Deep...

Walking down to see the fish--we are trying to find Nemo!

We make a few stops along the way, and Edith enjoys pushing buttons on the displays.

Dylan is fascinated by the "jellies."

Edith tries to catch the fish as they swim by.

Then Dylan does the same.

We finally found Nemo!

The End.

Spring has almost sprung in North Lincolnshire...

More details on Martin's new job...

Martin will be starting as the manager at a restaurant here in Barton called The Stables in two weeks.  The current manager is leaving, and an old employee of Martin's was singing his praises to the owners.  They suggested he drop his resume by, so he did.  He had a two hour interview yesterday, at the conclusion of which they offered him the job.

He will be working more hours, which will (of course) mean more money.  He will have to work every Friday and Saturday from 10 am until the last customer leaves, which is what he did off and on at the Place.  It's not too much fun for me, but it is manageable.  Martin will have two or three days off every week.  FULL days off.  He hasn't had one of those in months!  And he gets 28 days paid holiday, as well. 

The best part of this job though, hands down, is the self respect that Martin will re-gain from it.  He has been searching for a new job for over a year now, and he's been really down about not getting hired for anything.  I know it's been really demoralizing for him, and I'm happy that his confidence will get a much needed boost.

His schedule will be a little bit weird, and it will be difficult to plan games nights and stuff with the Mundays (sob).  But I don't work and the kids aren't in school, so it doesn't really matter which days Martin has off work. 

Although I am a little bit nervous about going it alone so much more, and Martin is a little bit nervous about starting at a new place, this feels right.  It feels like the answer to a prayer.  And if it isn't working out, he can always keep looking for something else.

And don't worry--this doesn't change our desire to get the house sold and get back to the good ol' U.S. of A.

Congratulate us...

No, we are NOT expecting another baby!

For the first time in what seems like ages, I have good news to blog about.  Martin is about to make a phone call and accept the job that was offered to him this morning.  He will be starting it in two weeks' time.  I am so proud of my husband!

Wish us luck...(and an Edith update)

Martin has a job interview today.  It's for the manager position at a restaurant that opened up here in Barton about 4 months ago, and it looks promising.  It will mean long hours, but he will still be in town and the money should be pretty good.  It seems (right now, at least) like the perfect job for him.  So keep your fingers crossed, say a few prayers, whatever it is you do.

And the Edith update:

She went in for her 6-9 month checkup on Monday.  Yes, I am aware that she is nearly a year old.  The health visitors are very behind schedule.

She is doing just fine developmentally.  She is passing objects between her hands.  She is crawling.  She responds to sound.  She has started babbling.  She doesn't squint when she looks at things.  She is bright and attentive and happy.  What she is NOT doing is gaining any weight.  She is in the 91st centile on her height and only the 25th on her weight, and has only gained about 1 1/2 lbs. since I last had her weighed about 3 months ago.  Oh, and her head circumference is in the 25th as well.

I'm not terribly concerned, of course.  She eats like a little piglet and is obviously thriving.  She has a ton of energy and is a very happy and contented child.  But if she still isn't gaining weight in two months' time, she will be referred to a pediatrician--just in case.  They will want to make sure there are no underlying conditions preventing her from gaining weight.  In the mean time, I have been told to make sure she has plenty of fat and protein in her diet.  I laughed when the health visitor told me that, because she had dined on baked beans, oven chips, and cheese for her lunch.  Can't get much more protein than beans, or much more fat than cheese.

It's so funny that I have Dylan, who has been at the top of the charts since birth and looks and sounds at least a year older than he is and Edith, who is such a quiet, petite little thing and would look a lot younger than she is if not for how tall she is and how well she gets around.

One of my visiting teachers has a little girl who is about 4 weeks younger than Edith, and she had her over last night.  Seeing baby Jessica sitting next to Edith I realized just how tiny she really is.  She has lovely features and cute little cheeks, but absolutely no baby fat on her body.  She's not skin and bones, but there's not a lot extra on her.

Anyway, I was on the early morning shift today so I am going to crawl back in to bed.  It was a rough night, with Edith waking several times and Dylan getting up early because he needed to pee (incidentally, he has been accident free for about 3 weeks now).  Having kids requires a lot more stamina than I could have ever imagined!

Milestones for my conversation pieces...

It seems like the kids don't do anything new for absolutely ages, and then all of a sudden they do something really interesting.

This week, Dylan started singing WITH us.  This might not seem like a big deal to a lot of my readers, but he's never done it before.  He didn't start singing for a long time, and then he finally did at about 18 months.  But he would never sing at the same time as someone else.  He would quite happily fill in the words if you started him off, but would stop singing the minute someone else joined in.  Two days ago, we sang the theme song to Thomas the Tank Engine together.  It was so much fun!

And I'm not about to leave Edith out of this, because she did something amazing as well.  Yesterday she got up onto her hands and feet and Mowgli crawled, just like Dylan used to do.  She is so desperate to walk, and is taking all the steps to get there.  I really think she might be on her feet by the time she turns one (though I thought that about Dylan and he didn't walk until he was 15 months).  Which, get this, is in just about 6 weeks.

Where has the past year gone?

Fun activities...

You can't teach an old dog new tricks...

The dog, in this case, is my husband.  The new trick is learning to lock our car doors.

He was delivering Kleeneze orders the other night and left the car unlocked.  The box, which contained around £150 in merchandise, was stolen off the passenger seat in the approximately 5 minutes that his back was turned.  I'd rant and rave about him leaving the car unlocked, which I can honestly say I never do, but it wouldn't do any good.  We called the police and we have been walking the neighborhood to see if anything has just been dumped by the side of the road, but to no avail.  We still have to re-order those items and pay for them twice.

At least they didn't take anything else out of the car.  There was nothing else in there worth stealing.  Poor theifs--there wasn't even any change in the ashtray.  What a disappointment to the miscreants.  All they got was bunion removers and household cleaners.  I've learned not to keep my make-up in the car now.

AND, when I went out to the car the following day, Martin had left it unlocked again.

I give up.

Other than that, things are going well.  Dylan is still accident free and doing really well with his potty training.  He is only wearing diapers when he goes to bed, and is often dry when he wakes up.  It's great, because most days we are only using one diaper for him.  I am about to move back to a smaller bag because I only need to carry about 3 diapers for Edith when we go out.  Though I might still keep the giant bag because I can fit a lot of snacks in there.

We have a trip across the bridge planned for today, which is pretty exciting.  I bought a light off eBay, and need to go and collect it in Hull.  It looked good in the pictures and only cost me a fiver, so I'm pretty excited about that.  And while we're on the "wrong" side of the bridge, we're going to take the kids to the Deep.  We went for our anniversary and gift-aided the admission.  If you do that, they very kindly give you a bounce back ticket so you can go for free the next time you visit.  We just need to make a donation to them rather than pay the full admission price.  I'll have my camera glued to my hand for the trip, so watch out for cool pictures.  Edith was only 5 months old the last time we went, so I have a feeling that she'll enjoy it a lot more this time!

We took Dylan to have a look at Castledyke Primary School last week.  In September he will be eligible for government funded nursery school, so we took him to look 'round the "foundation unit" at our closest school.  Castledyke is, quite literally, right around the corner from us.  Actually, it is on the next street over.  If we could cut through peoples' gardens, we could walk there in about 3 minutes.  Instead, it takes about 8 minutes to walk there.

It's well laid out, with this huge room dedicated to the nursery school.  It's all open, with different areas set up for "learning through play."  It is so bright and colorful and fun looking.  Dylan loved it!

He just wanted to play with everything.

I can already picture him in his little school uniform, running around like a mad man on the playground with the other children.

Even though I had hoped we would be back in Utah before it was time for Dylan to start school over here, I'm looking forward to it.  He is SO excited to go to school, and I am looking forward to having some one-on-one time with Edith.  It'll only be for three hours a day, which sounds just right to me.

Of course, I am still pushing for a move back to Utah before then.  We just need to get this house sold.  Keep saying your prayers for us.  I want to come home!

I don't want to jinx it, but...

Dylan has been diaper free except for sleeping times for over 2 weeks now.  He is getting good at this toilet business.  He thinks using the toilet is great fun.  Especially because he gets treats and stickers when he does it. 

Of course, when I asked Martin if Dylan had used the toilet at church today, he did say, "Yes.  He peed on Tony Leadenham's shoe."

Awesome!

That's my day.  Martin is working tonight, so we are doing Valentine's day stuff tomorrow.   But he got me a lovely necklace (I think Dylan helped him choose it) and I bought him a new mug and filled it with chocolates.  And I made him pancakes for breakfast.  And Martin let me get a nap this afternoon, though I don't think that really counts since he used that time to watch rugby.

I spent my Valentines day at church, and this evening with my mother-in-law.  I actually gave her a massage.  Romantic, huh?

Key just turned in the lock--my husband's home.  My night just got better!

Thanks, Mango Mom!

We had date night last night, and we made one of the crafts from my sister Velecia's craft blog.  It was the leaf wall art, and it turned out beautifully.  We spray painted it "antique gold," so it would go with the copper accents in our house, and it looks lovely.  We still need to give it another coat of paint and hang it up, but I'll post pictures of it once it's done and up.  It was a great date night, with crafts and classical music and Haagen Das cookies and cream icecream.

Martin makes me laugh.  We listen to Classic FM on the radio, which Martin says is the common classical music station. Apparently, Radio 5 is high-brow.  Funny, I didn't think there was such a thing as low-brow classical music.  But, according to him, we are the chavs/white trash of the classical music listening world.

I hope the pictures from my last post were well received.  I wanted to get a few of Edith standing up, because I am still amazed that she's doing it.  She is growing up so fast, and prefers to be standing up all the time now.  She's still not as advanced in her motor skills as Dylan was at the same age, but I think she's starting to catch up.  Dylan was just bigger and had stronger muscles, that's all.  She's certainly intelligent--I'm not worried about that at all!

I'll be putting a new video on soon, of a conversation I had with Dylan.  I love that I can now have a full conversation with him.  Sure, it's not the most intelectually stimulating of conversations.  But a year ago he only knew about 30 words.  Now he can tell you how he's feeling, what he wants, what his toys want, name colours and numbers, tell you the stories in his favorite books, express fear, and, my favorite, express love!

He's currently hiding behind one of the chairs because he's scared of the lightening on "Handy Manny."

Anyway, I need to get Martin out of bed in a few minutes.  He's got his long day at work today, and he is working tomorrow night as well.  Valentines day kind of sucks when your love works in a restaurant (or two).  But we have a date planned for mid-day on Monday, so that should be fun.  NO KIDS!  And Cathy, my sister-in-law, is coming to visit today.  Plus, my mother-in-law might be coming over tomorrow night since her husband is also working.  We're going to tie a quilt.  I remember the Valentines day I tied a quilt and watched "How to Marry a Millionaire" with my Grandma Lofley.  One of the best Valentines days I ever had--I love you, grandma!

Oh, and I need to go collect a sewing machine that I got off Freecycle.  I'm so excited to have my own sewing machine!  I've been borrowing Christine's every time I need to sew for years now, and it'll be great to have my own.  Maybe I'll even be ambitious and make an awesome quilt (maybe a wedding ring quilt, since they're my favorites).  Maybe.  I'll definitely make my pajama trousers though!

Hooray for Freecycle!

Wow, this post makes me sound really grateful for a lot.  I guess it's because I am.

Wish me luck with my Saturday...

For my mom, again...

Cleanliness is next to Godliness...

...and my house has been an unholy mess for far too long!

I am officially back on my housekeeping schedule, and I'm sure glad this week is over.  Monday, clothes laundry day.  Tuesday, front room, dusting, and carpets.  Wednesday, bathrooms.  Thursday, kitchen day.  Friday, bedrooms.  Saturday, bed linens and towels laundry day.

Breaking the housework down like this is amazing--everything gets done.  My most loyal readers will recall when I started the regime.  Dylan was about 8 months old when I read a book called "Home Comforts, the art and science of keeping house," and it changed my life.  Seriously!  But then I got pregnant and I was ill for most of my pregnancy.  Then Martin's job changed, and we had another baby.  Major upheavals in my life. 

Well, I woke up last week and thought to myself, "Self, your baby is nearly a year old and you are in pretty much perfect health.  The house is disgusting and it's making you miserable.  No more excuses--sort it out!"

So I have.

Almost.

See, most of the housework gets done every day.  The focus days are just for really big, deep cleans.  So the first two weeks of getting back onto the house cleaning schedule are hellish because all of the little jobs that you've been neglecting for so long have to be done, and when they've been neglected things are extra dirty.  So the kitchen took some major work and elbow grease to clean the cupboards, windows, behind all the kitchen appliances, etc.  Next week will be a little bit easier, and the week after that will be easier still.

I didn't mind having a dirty house before I spent almost every waking minute in mine.  Now I feel all icky if the house is untidy and dirty.  It's my own fault for letting it get this bad, really.  Having Martin home for most of the day on weekdays makes it harder, for sure.  Partly because he is is such a slob and is hard to clean up after--seriously, I could just follow him around and clean up the trail he leaves in his wake.  But mostly, I lack the discipline to do housework when he is home.  I'd rather just hang out with him.  Saturdays have always been my least favorite day of the week because he is gone all day, but they are fast becoming my favorite.  Simply because I get a lot done.  I have 11 hours to do it all!

I feel like I can relax and be creative when the house is clean, so maybe Dylan and I will do an artsy project when he wakes up from his nap.  Could be fun...

And maybe I'll feel a bit more "godly" at the end of this day?

my blog...

I started this blog in August of 2005. 

A lot has changed since then, and my beloved blog covers it all.  I moved to another country, bought a house, worked at three different jobs, had two kids, became a stay at home mom, and all of the other little things in between.

It really DID start out just as a way for me to keep my family updated on what was going on.  In the beginning I posted about our weekend trips to beautiful places throughout England and included pictures of the sights.  Then I had Dylan, and the trips stopped but the pictures and updates about his progress began.

And then something interesting happened.  My world started to shrink.  We no longer go anywhere exciting at the weekend.  In fact, there are some days when I don't even leave the house.  My whole world is contained in the walls of my home.

My blog changed accordingly.  Now it is not just a way of communicating with my family.  It is a chance for me to express my thoughts and feelings.  It is sometimes my lifeline--the only outlet I have for my frustrations and revelations about motherhood and being a housewife.  Sometimes, my blog is my sanity!

I feel that some day I will be able to read this record of the last 4 1/2 years and see myself growing as a person.  It should make for some interesting reading.

Dylan's first nosebleed...

On our drive home from Emma's house the other day I was just, well, driving, and Dylan told me that he had something on his fingers.  I turned around to have a quick look, and this is what I saw.

Edith was, of course, totally unconcerned.

So was Dylan, for that matter.  I told him he needed to stop picking his nose, but it's a habit he's completely unable to break.  I think we've got a hopeless nose picker on our hands, and a lot more nosebleeds to come.

Funny faces...

In England they call it "gurning," and Edith is a champion.  But look at this angelic face.  My daughter is so beautiful!

How precious are little children?

Martin and I watched a highly disturbing film last night.  It was called "Perfume, a story of murder," (I think)and it totally creeped me out.

Right from the first I was horrified, as it showed this baby being born in 18th century Paris to a woman working a fish stall in the market.  She gave birth while working--just squatted down, pushed the baby out, cut the umbilical cord with her fish gutting knife, stood up, and went back to work.  Left the baby lying on a pile of fish guts to die.  The narrator informed us that this baby was her fifth, and that the previous 4 had all gone the same way.  Horrible!

The film was good, but so disturbing on so many levels.  This poor baby survived but was raised in an orphanage and became a total sociopath.  He killed 14 women, and honestly had no concept that he was doing anything wrong.

It gave me bad dreams last night.  And it also made me think about my own children...

I am an intelligent and reasonable person, and I know not every baby is loved or wanted when it is born.  I know that not every child is cared for properly.  I remember when I was younger that girl in the U.S. who gave birth in the girls' bathroom of her high school during Prom and dumped the baby in the trash can.  I know about these things.  But I honestly believe that most people take care of their babies.  It's genetically hard wired into most women to want to care for our offspring.  Even if you behave like an animal, most animals take good care of their young!

I think about how much I wanted my children.  I hoped and dreamed and prayed and cried myself to sleep many times because I was so desperate to have children.  And when Dylan and Edith were born they were welcomed with open arms and overflowing hearts.  They have never known anything but love in our home.  They are both adored by their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.  Their early months were filled with soft words, kisses, cuddles, comfortable clothes, warm bedding, plenty of food, and, above all, love.  They have been, and will continue to be, cherished.  It was the same for me and Martin.

It hurts me to think that there are children out there who have a very different life.  How could anyone harm an innocent child?  Or worse, leave a newborn baby to die on a pile of fish guts?  I was so disgusted!

I love my children more than anything else in the whole world.