Adventures with the puppy...

After the last post I decided to venture into an area a little less serious - that of our puppy.

She is growing and, unfortunately, she is also managing to jump even higher.

Yesterday I made a cake for the boys' tea, I placed it on the hob and turned around to close the oven door. When I turned back the puppy was already on the hob (which wasn't turned on) and eating her way into a freshly baked orange drizzle cake that must have been still close to the 180degrees that the oven was set to. She didn't seem bothered and despite my telling her off she just carried on eating.

Afterwards I surveyed the mess that was my bake off challenge and decided the best thing to do was cut the top third off, ice it and not say anything. So that's what I did. Except this being the age of social media I couldn't help but put a picture of the resulting mess up on Facebook - 153 hits later and hubby definately knew about the cake. Luckily the kids didn't and they tucked in with abandon after their evening meal.

After dinner I had to log onto to an online revision site for my upcoming exam in psychology - such fun! As I tried to listen to the lecturer and ignore the hundreds of 'chat messages' from fellow students who all wanted to be re-assured that they were indeed going to pass the exam despite having full time jobs and families, I also had to manage the puppy, who has decided she will never leave my side - or in this case my lap. Trying to type with a dog trying to leap onto you is not easy. Needless to say, I didn't take much part in the chat sessions but used the time to try and focus on the areas that need the most revision. This seemed to involve starting three weeks ago - oops!

I haven't taken a written exam since my schooldays, so I am pretty nervous but, apparently, with the right amount of revision I will be ok. Then why did they schedule the exam the day after half term? The poor boys will be spending their days at pony clubs and fottball camp whilst I try to revise.

I wonder whether the puppy can go with them?

This morning the puppy decided the boys' rabbit was her bestest friend in the world ever! The rabbit wasn't too sure, particularly when puppy managed to open rabbit's cage (I still don't know how) and had her head in the rabbit's dinner bowl (I spend a fortune on puppy food and I could easily have just shared the rabbit pellets). The rabbit wasn't too happy and hopped out and it all would have been fine if he then hadn't decided to run. The next five minutes were spent with the dog chasing the rabbit and me chasing the dog - the rabbit found a spot behind the garage and barracaded himself in. It took me twenty minutes of coaxing to get him to come out and pop him in his run (puppy safe!)

We have just come back from our walk and luckily she is worn out - as am I. Although I know it wont be for long!

Wish me luck!

Getting Ready for Winter...

Yes it seems to be that time of year again and Lea was very concerned about what we were going to do about her rabbit, Ginger, now the weather is getting colder.

Papa has decided that neither Ginger, nor TJ's guinea pig, are to go back into the garage as last time they escaped and destroyed most of his nicely stacked cardboard boxes and led us to believe we had rats.

Now the garage is cleared out and paper boxes have been replaced with nice see through plastic ones, so we can clearly see the stuff we have never used for years and which Papa still refuses to either throw away or give to charity.

So we decided the pets were to stay in the garden and therefore we went up to the local pet shop to look for covers to go over the hutches and keep the little rodents warm.

Papa took one look at the prices and decided the animals could freeze to death!

This provoked much hysteria from the children so he decided that he could make the covers much more cheaply from a piece of tarpaulin. So our next stop was the local DIY superstore where we found a huge piece of waterproof tarpaulin which was quickly purchased and brought home ready for the transformation into a hutch cover - it was like living our own episdoe of the kids TV programme Blue Peter!

Papa and the children measured the hutches and soon set down to work cutting and sticking and velcroing bits together. I say children but within abot 10 minutes TJ was bored and had sneaked upstairs to play on the wii and Lea had managed to 'pop to her room' for a minute and was never seen again. I later found her on her bed listening to Michael Jackson cd's (CD's that had been 'borrowed' from my collecion I hasten to add!)

So Papa was left cutting and sticking and swearing (well, the kids weren't around so he could) while I washed and ironed all of Lea's clothes - this fancy private school requires PE kits to be washed and ironed every week! Not like TJ's state school where the kit comes home at the end of the term and practically walks into the washing machine by itself!

So Papa and I go on with everything. I cleaned shoes, made lunches, baked a cake and some muffins (I really am Martha Stewart) Papa placed the new hutch ocvers over the animals homes with the satisfied cry of "£25 - thats all it cost £25, stick that major pet store!" He was very pleased.

"Kids', I shouted up the stairs, "Come and see the brilliant hutch covers that Papa has made!"

Needless to say they didn't come and later that evening I found all my beautifully ironed PE kit simply shoved into Lea's sports bag... great!

So Sunday, being the day of rest, saw Papa and I at our busiest whilst the chidlren enjoyed their much needed relaxation... Just wait until next week!

Thank you for the....

We decided to sit down and write our thank you letters. I say 'we' decided. To be more frank, I decide it was time it was done...

Good grief it was like pulling teeth. KC, who has problems with writing anyway, diligently sat down and copied everything I wrote down for him first. Unfortunately, his writing is so bad that most of it is pretty unintelligible but at least he got there... TJ on the other hand... sigh...

Where KC struggles, TJ can cope. His writing is fine... his stamina and concentration powers are close to zero. The first three letters went by without a hitch. Then the whinging started... 'my hand hurts...' closely followed by... 'my back hurts...' then came .. 'I have a headache.' To all of these I had the stock reply, 'well, if you are in so much pain I think once we have finished instead of playing Skylanders you should go to bed and rest.'. The threat of Skylanders removal is a blessing (thank you for that great gift Grandma and Grandpa - a thank you letter is on its way - from me!!!!!)

This argument got us through a few more letters then he changed tact... 'Why do people have such long names?' (he objected to having to write Uncle... and Aunty.... He even want to write Pa and Ma instead of Grandpa and Grandma, even though that would have changed the meaning of his letter), next complaint was, and I kid you not, 'Why did people give us so many presents?' - I think even I was stunned by that one and simply said, 'well, we can give them all back if you like.' Finally, he turned to me and said, 'I think you should write all the letters and I should just sign them!' Obviously TJ has me mixed up with his PA. Anyway, it took over 2 hours to write 10 letters - I was nearly suicidal. I have also stopped drinking alcohol for the month in suport of Cancer Research UK - its their Dryathalon Caompaign and I signed up to it in a flurry of good intentions. Papa looked at me knowingly while I signed up saying 'We have two kids... I give it two days!' I nearly succumbed on that day - but true to my word I held off. I have taken to drinking plain tonic water and pretending its laced with gin!

Then I went upstairs. I heard a commotion from KC's room. I opened the door and it looked like the butterfly cage in the zoo - except with moths. When he was given a gecko by his godparents they came with the usual godparent warning, 'Beware if the wax worms are not fed to the beast within 2 weeks they will become flying moths.' He had heard the moths rattling around in the box and rather than taking them outside opened the box to see what would happen. Cue small child leaping around the room with the butterfly net from his science kit! It would have been quite a beautiful sight had it not been for the fact that Papa is terrified of moths (I have no idea why - I told him they were just the less pretty cousins of the butterfly, but that didn't go down too well). So we then spent 30 minutes rounding up moths....

Last night KC dropped the cricket house - where crickets live before they are fed to the gecko.... crickets are much harder to catch than moths and they hop under beds!!!!!!! I hope we got them all.... And one of the rabbits has now decided it would rather chew its way out of its hutch than stay in bed all night... I have to be careful before we enter the garage in case it hops out, or the cat gets in there.... oh the joy of having pets!!!!!!!!