New House!

It's been a very busy couple of weeks.  We had my birthday, which turned into a bit of a disaster, since I was sent home from work for having a focal seizure.  I ended up being off for the entire week for focal seizures, followed by 4 days of exhaustion, when I couldn't even get out of bed.  I eventually made it back to work for the final week of summer school, which was fun.  The kids are lovely and it's a nice way to spend a morning.

We also had Dad's birthday.  He and Mum were camping, so Matt and I had the house to ourselves for a week, which was quite nice.

Now, i've just finished my first week off since February half term, and it's been an exhausting, but exciting one.  We finally completed on our house and got the keys on Monday.  We (mostly Matt and Dad) have done so much of the heavy duty stuff.  Mum's been amazing with the cleaning, and Matt's parents joined us for a few days this week, so Tony has been great too.  I've been doing the online work, because I can't do any of the heavy lifting or be around the dust that's coming off the walls too much.  I'm pretty useless in this situation really.  I can keep everyone supplied with tea and cakes and that's about it!

Anyway, here are some photos of the house as it was on Monday...

And a few from Tuesday after we had got started on the wallpaper stripping...

More house progress photos to follow soon!

 

Matt's Birthday

It's been a rather busy couple of weeks!

Summer school is now half way through and even though i'm only doing 8.30-1.30 every day, it is rather taking it out of me, I must admit.  It might have something to do with being 15 weeks pregnant, or perhaps something to do with the 30 + degrees heat of the last week or so, or maybe just the fact that entertaining 16, 6-10 year olds is hard work even on the best of days.  I'm glad i'm working the mornings, because the kids are all fresh and enthusiastic.  I did one afternoon, after swapping with another member of staff and those same lovely kids had turned into nightmares!

The kitties have been having some time outside, exploring their 'Luxury Cat Enclosure' and the garden in general.  They seem to be quite nervous of being outside but are definitely curious about the garden and happy to spend a few minutes outside every day seeing what's going on.

Matt keeps taking photos of Snowball and I taking our afternoon naps... 

They are pretty funny, I guess...

We went to stay with Matt's parents for the weekend of his birthday.  We had a BBQ with his Gran and Aunt and Cousin and we were able to tell them about the baby, which was really nice.

I took Matt's birthday, which was a Monday off from work so that we could drive back home at a leisurely pace.  We stopped at the Swan pub in Lyndhurst for a delicious lunch on the way.

 

Yinyang Cats

Just a couple of photos of the cats looking like a yinyang today.  They are so cute.  We're really enjoying having them home.  Both cats have now had encounters with Lola, and both went quite well.  They ended up with the cats making themselves as fluffy as possible, but no one got swiped by a clawed paw, so I count that as a success!

This was the last week of term for me, although it was very strange with all the teachers and teaching assistants having a real 'summer holidays are here' feeling, and me knowing that my working hours go up during the holidays for the holiday camp.  I could really do with a summer holiday, but never mind.  We've got a huge number of kids signed up for the holiday camp, so we'll be kept busy, which is good.

We had a BBQ yesterday, after a nice walk in the forest, and today Mum and Dad have gone to Basingstoke to visit their friends for the afternoon.  I've not felt great this weekend, so Matt and I are taking things easy, currently with the Formula 1 on and some cats on our laps. Perfect.

Sooty and Snowball

Our fur family is reunited!!!  Oh my goodness, i've missed those fluff-nuggets so much.  I didn't even realise how much until I saw them at Heathrow on Thursday.  They landed on Wednesday (a week later than expected because China decided they needed our original passports - please let us get them back safely soon!).  Their 8 hours of airport quarantine took them out of office hours, so they ended up staying over, and Matt drove us to Heathrow on Thursday morning.  They seem to be adjusting to English life remarkably well.  At first, they were shy and nervous, but it really didn't take long until they were sat on our bed, curled up, purring, fast asleep, looking like they owned the place!

They have always been very affectionate cats - maybe something to do with being strays - but the love and cuddles got going again pretty much straight away.

Lola is very interested in them.  The boys are in the downstairs front room, so that they can look at Lola through the glass door.  She hasn't stopped wagging her tail.  The cats seem a bit curious, but not really that fussed about her at all.  Matt bent down while holding Snowball today, so that Lola could sniff him.  Snowball didn't seem fazed at all, which is great.

It's been a rather busy week or two.  Matt and I went to visit his parents last weekend, which was lovely.  It was so nice to have a change of scenery and to see family.  We came back on Monday morning, in time for me to go to work.  Unfortunately, when I got home from work and was in bed having a nap, I had a seizure.  It's good that I was already lying down, since I didn't hurt myself, but very inconvenient.  I've been off work for the rest of the week, and am absolutely fine now.

It's Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary today! Congratulations!  Here is a photo of them on their wedding day...

... and here, 40 years later eating a fry up...

Yesterday was Sam's birthday, so he and Amy came down for the day for a socially distanced BBQ, which was lovely.