First few days of the summer holidays and everything is running smoothly. (Touch wood, fingers crossed etc)
The kids, Ian and my Mum have all taken to me being at work very well. Nobody is stressing and the kids don't seem to be bothered that I'm not there half the time.......... Not sure how to take that one!!

Anyway, I am loving the job. I'm actually helping people. I get to talk to parents who are stressing at the Doctors and sometimes the nurses too but because I'm a Care Assistant they seem to open up to me a little more. The fact that I've been to theatre with all 3 of my kids at one time or another really helps because I genuinely know what they are going through. When they are sat on the ward waiting for the call from the recovery theatre I can make sure they get a friendly smile or a chat occasionally which the nurses and the doctors just don't have the time for.

Yesterday the ward was the busiest I've seen it since I started. Of course it's the first week of the school hols so all the broken limbs and banged heads are starting to make an appearance......... no doubt at least one of mine will be there before the holiday is over! 

Right, got to go and iron my uniform ready for work.
I only have one complete uniform at the moment and I'm lucky to have that. When I went for a fitting they just happened to have one in my size that fit perfectly and they let me take it. Just as well because I am due three more and they still haven't arrived. I have to wash, dry and iron the same one after every shift! The others had better turn up soon because at this rate the one I currently have won't last long! 

It's been 2 weeks since I started my new job and I think I have definately made the right move.
I am enjoying the environment and the people.
The work itself is relatively easy but hard going because the hospital is hot and there is lots of walking and physical activitiy involved.
This as it turns out is a good thing as without even trying I have lost nearly 7 pounds!
If I actively start a diet and cut out the snacking and the beer then I think the weight may just drop off.
I seem to be more relaxed at home too. I'm not stressing as much with the kids and with 7 weeks holiday a year I won't be missing out on much during school holidays either!

Going back out to work?......... highly recommended.
If you're stuck in a rut financially and stressed out at home and your kids are at school full time then you've got no excuse! Even if it's just part time because you're kids still need you after school getting back out to work will give you some of your self respect back and give you a break from the stress at home and the bonus is the extra money!
I have been very lucky in that I have a family to assist me with the kids so that I can do full time but for anyone thinking about any kind of work all I can say is...... GO FOR IT!
I was a stay home Mum for 11 years so it's never too late to start again.

Things are going very well at the moment.
Too well in fact.
I'm getting very nervous, something has got to go wrong soon or maybe I'm just being too pessimistic because of the last ten years.

Since the bankruptcy ended for both of us in April we have settled into a nice rhythm.
We don't owe anybody anything.
We pay our monthly bills when the paycheck comes in and we have worked out what money we need to put away each month to cover annual things like car insurance and road tax.
What we came to realise very quickly is that Ian's wages alone simply weren't enough.
There was no money left in the pot at the end of the month to think about shoes and clothes and the idea of a family holiday was just a fantasy.
It is for this reason I went out to find a job.

The timing was right.
My Mum works in a school kitchen and she has always helped out with babysitting and things during school holidays.
She is also retiring at the end of this school term and will officially be our 'nanny'.
With my new job together with my husband's job we now work out when she is needed for school runs. She will occasionally have the kids after school for tea and to keep herself busy she will also be helping me with a little housework! Whoo hoo! 

My job appears to be one of the best decisions I've made for a long time. The people I work with are lovely. The job itself is enjoyable. I can see myself doing this for a long time.
Having said that the ward has been very quiet. (which is a good thing!)
I think I am being broken in gently. Everybody keeps telling me that from around October the ward gets extremely busy. This I won't mind because I prefer to keep very busy at work. I'm not a particularly good thumb twiddler which I am doing quite a bit of at the moment.
As soon as a bed is vacated I jump on it!

So, from the end of this month we have another wage that we can split into pots for clothing and shoes and we can even start to think about saving for a family holiday.

It's all going too well!!
Or do I just need to relax and enjoy it?

Started my new job on Tuesday and so far so good.
I really enjoyed my first 4 days and found out that the job is a lot more involved than I first thought!
I am actually classed as a 'clinical' worker. I thought that because I wasn't medically trained then I would be classed as a 'non-clinical worker'. I turns out that I will eventually be trained in taking a full set of observations and taking out canula's etc.

This week though I just followed another Family care assistant around while she showed me the ropes.
I changed beds, took patients and families up the theatre, helped with the dinner rounds, generally made sure parents were happy, got to know a lot of the people I will be working with and yesterday I got to cuddle, change and feed premature twins. That was the highlight of the week!

Anyway, next week I have my Trust induction training and because I am a 'clinical' worker my training is over three days.
On Monday it will consist of the obligatory welcome and all the boring bits like pension and payroll, occupational health and incident reporting etc. There is a little medical training on infusion pumps and obs later in the day.
On Tuesday I will be doing CPR including paeds, learing how to maually handle patients including a practical and finishing the day with tissue viability.
On Wednesday I will be doing Infection control, learning about coping with a major incident, blood transfusions, Fire evacuation, dietetics and Oxygen.   

After that it's all on the job training and just getting on with it.
It was a very quite week on the ward but everytime I said the word 'quiet' everyone said 'NO' don't say that word!!!! The word you are looking for is 'calm'.
Although it was generally busy with lots of tooing and frowing, it wasn't manic. There were no serious emergencies from A+E, just a couple of broken arms and even the day surgeries were regular but not manic.
I suppose technically this is actually a good thing!
I have been told that winter is the worst time and it can get extremely busy. So I'd bettered take it all in now so that I know what I'm doing when it comes to the crunch!

My youngest daughter (paramedic Dharma) is over the moon with Mummy's new job and she wants me to teach her everything I learn. She still wants to be a paramedic and if she keeps going the way she is whe won't need any training to do it!!!
How many 6 year olds know what an 'AMBU' bag is?
Come to think of it, how many adults know what an 'AMBU' bag is?
Well Dharma does. God help us!

I am so glad I walked out of Eon when I had the chance.
I am now in a job where I feel I am actually helping people and at the end of the day I'm not stressing over problems that I have to keep check on the next day.
Speaking of 'walking' I must have walked MILES over the last few days.  My feet and legs are really complaining today!
All the walking up and down the wards and trips to the various theatres really racks up the miles and combined with the 'heat' in the hospital I've actually lost about 3 pounds over the last 4 days without really trying.
I haven't changed my diet in any way.
I think that if I actually tweek my diet a little and cut out the alcohol and crisps and cut down on the red meat then I should steadily and safely lose wieght continuously. That little black dress in October next year is looking more and more viable.
Time will tell.

We had a lovely day yesterday.
My brother had a big family BBQ. I went over to help him get ready in the morning and Ian came over with  kids at lunchtime. There was a Local Fun Day over the road where he lives so we went for a couple of hours with the kids before coming back to his house to start off the BBQ and wait for the guests. 
The weather was perfect and a good time was had by all.

We left my brother's at around 9 o'clock last night and when we got home we finished off the day by watching Dr Who that we had recorded on the V-plus box.  CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE SERIES FINALE NEXT WEEK!
Everyone was happy and tired and all was quiet...........

Until half past midnight last night.......

When Murron decided that she'd had too much sun, too much food and too much pop and she brought the whole lot up all over her bed.
EEEEeeeeewwwww. Not something you really want to deal with after a few drinks in the early hours of the morning.

Anyway, I have a hectic fews days ahead of me now.
I have a tonne of ironing and washing to get through, nothing unusual there!
I also have to go back over to my brothers later today to help him sort out the aftermath of the BBQ and to bring my car home.
Tomorrow I will probably be trying to finish off the ironing and getting the house tidied.
Later tomorrow me and Ian are looking at a house that's come up for rent in my Mum's street and it could be all systems go on a house move by 5pm tomorrow afternoon.

On Tuesday it's all change.
I'm back to work and our lives are going to be completely changing.
It's going to be a really tough few months as everyone gets used to the new system and their new responsibilities
Hopefully it will all fall into place without too much of a hassle. 

With both of us working now I have no idea how a house move will fit into the timetable but needless to say the few months could be very interesting.

Right, I've already wasted too much time today. I'd better actually get dressed and get started.

A friend of mine has just started up her own jewellery business.
She specialises in bridal tiaras and jewellery but also does unique and unusual necklaces, bracelets and earings.
She does commissions so if you have an idea or colour theme then that's not a problem.
Her prices are very reasonable, there's something for everyone.

So! if you want something unique at an affordable price or you are getting married and want something that's not so run of the mill and your bridesmaid co-ordinated then look no further.

http://jdlmjewelleryandtiaras.co.uk

Take a look at this pattern.

The crcles are moving right?

Wrong!

It's all an illusion created by the pattern.
If you stare at one of the black spot centres it should virtually stop moving.
If you don't believe me just print it off to see.

On March 4th I blogged the following.......

" Regular readers of my blog will be tutting and shaking their heads over this entry.
I've said it on many occasions but this time I think I'd better mean it before it's too late.

I'm unfit and over weight.

I have been for most of my life.
I hit 18 years at a size 16. Even through high school I can't remember being below a size 14. I've always struggled with it.
No,.... struggled is not necessarily the right word. I just enjoy food too much. Me being overweight is mainly my own fault with a touch of family genes mixed in. My Mum's side of the family are all cuddly and always have been.

Anyway, on October 24th 2009 I will be hitting the big 40 so I have now made a concious decision to do something about my weight and my fitness before then.
My aim is to be back down to at least a size 16 but I would be over the moon with a size 14.
I know I can do it.
A couple of years ago I went on a health kick and actually lost 3 stone and felt great. Unfortunately I lost my motivation and have never been able to get it back again. I did however get some of the weight back again.

So, over the next 20 months I will be slobbing it. I'm not forking out on new clothes while I'm losing weight unless I'm desperate. I am going to save for a slinky black dress that I've never been able to wear and I'm growing my hair out.
I hate my hair at the moment. I regret cutting it short a couple of years ago and I miss being able to put it into a tail in the mornings. I miss the dramatic curls when I go out. If I leave it alone it should be long enough for a good bob by my 40th. We'll see.

They do say life begins at 40. Who knows."   

Well needless to say we are 3 months on and I still haven't started! Apart from growing the hair out. 
I do have a new motivation however........ my new job.
First of all it's with the National 'HEALTH' Service. I really should set an example!
Secondly I have just received my uniform. mmmmmm sexy! Grey tunic top and burgundy trousers. Not the most flattering thing on a slim lady so on me it's a nightmare.

Over the half term holiday I realised just how much junk the kids can actually get through when they want to.
Sweets don't stand a chance, even when they've been hidden.
Crisps are the worst. I buy BIG mutipacks but they are lucky to last a weekend.
Mum's cakes. MMmmmm Mum's cakes. 2 a week. Filled with butter cream and jam and topped with icing! Not good. Well actually they are good, too good just not good for dieting and sugar starved kids.

My problem is my 1 - 2 milky coffees in the mornings. These must be around 600 - 800 calories alone and that's if I don't have a few cubes of chocolate with them.
Then there are 2 - 3 cans of lager in the evenings. Most evenings just lately. Very naughty.
Apart from these my overall diet is very good. Portions could be a little smaller but overall it's very balanced.

So, last night me and the hubby finished off the last of the lager in the house. The kids have finshed off the crisps and I am currently enjoying my last cup of milky coffee.
I will be replacing it with a proper breakfast so I will still be getting my calcium intake from some milk but I won't be getting the caffeine and the sugar.
I don't have a lot of drinks that I like. I'm not a squash kind of person. I do like fresh orange juice and I have recently discovered a love of fizzy water! So fizzy water is replacing the lager during the week and I will only have lager as a treat on Saturday evenings or when we go out.

The one thing that really helped me lose 3 stone 2 years ago was walking. I went on marches around our local marina. Twice around the marina 3+ times a week.
If I can get back into that and walk the kids to school as well, then the weight should start to fall off again.

The stupidity of all this is that I know what I'm doing wrong and I know how to put it right so why can't I just get going?
I will write weekly updates on my progress. Hopefully!

Marjorie has been on at me to let her do Karate for at least a year now.
A a few weeks ago she was invited to go to an open day at the club her little friend goes to and she enjoyed herself so much that I decided to let her start.
She has two classes a week. We have been very lucky because her little little friend Marli's father started the lessons along with his daughter so he takes Marjorie for us and in return if he ever has a problem going himself I can always take Marli along with marjorie.

I went for a job interview today and got it!
I really didn't feel like I had when I walked away from the interview but surprise surprise they phoned a little while ago to say it's mine if I'm still interested!

I am now a Family Care Assistant on the children's ward at our local hospital. Basically I will be doing all the non clinical duties so that the nurses can concentrate on the clinical duties. I will meet and greet families and help to reassure and calm parents in stressfull situations. I will also help with stock ordering and keeping the treatment rooms in well stocked condition ready for use.

I am hoping this will be a more satisfying job than the one I held for a record 3 months last year! I think I will actually be able to help people in this job and actually enjoy doing it. On a quick walk round the ward I felt that all the staff were very friendly and happy in their work. It also looks like I will be going out 'with the girls' on occasions as well.
I have high hopes for this job. I hope it stands the test.

I won't be starting for at least another 4-6 weeks because they now have to do reference checks and also a CRB check because I will be working with children.
That gives me plenty of time to get on top of all the housework and gardening and get the manual written for my husband and kids in the hopes that they will actually start to realise they need to help more now that I'm working again.
We'll see.

I have just been going through some old family photos to find some pictures for my family tree.
I found one photo that quite literally took my breath away.

The People in the photo are my Nan and Grandad with two of their daughters, Karen on the left and Kim on the right and their first Grandchild, my cousin mark, sat on Nan's lap.
Mark is now 43 years old so this photo must be about 42 years old.

What grabbed my attention was my Auntie Kim on the right of the photo.
At first glance, even at second glance you would think it was my youngest daughter Dharma!
It's uncanny!

Honestly, if I didn't know any better I'd have thought they were twins. 

I had another encounter with Murron this morning.

It started with the loss of her glasses. We can't find them after the weekend and now that she isn't being seen by the clinic we don't get a spare pair as a back up. I'm hoping that she left them at her friends house after a sleepover but as she didn't go to school yesterday because of a bad stomach I won't know until tonight. If she comes home without them and if I don't find them when tidying today then I'm going to have to go into town to order a new pair which will take a week to arrive.

Then we started on getting the kids ready for school which is an event and a half on it's own.
None of them has a sense of urgency.
They are all woken up at 7am which gives them plenty of time to get dressed, get their breakfast and get out the front door by 8.15am......... so you'd think.
Every morning is the same thing. I literally spend an entire hour saying, have you got your shoes on?, have you done your hair?, have you brushed your teeth?, hurry up and finish your breakfast!. The last ten minutes before having to leave are a nightmare because they just don't see the urgency. They're all stood there without their shoes on, without their hair done, bookbag contents spread all over the living room floor thinking they have all the time in the world. I would be interested to see what my blood pressure reading is at about 8.20 in the mornings!   

Then we ask Murron the ultimate question at the moment. Homework...... has she done it or has she got any to do?
The usual answer to this is no I haven't got any or I did it at school already.
Then I look in her homework diary to find messages from her teacher like..... English homework not done yet again!
Notes suddenly start appearing out of the bottom of her bag that she received a week ago and that need our immediate attention and usually money!

Murron had a great report from her teacher about her school work and that she seems to have settled in well but her attention span in class and homework is letting her down. She just doesn't do it.
We can't seem to get through to her just how important it is that she gets stuck into her homework.
When she does do it, it's a half hearted attempt just to show she's done something. A prime example was a little piece she had to do a couple of weeks ago on Christopher Columbus. She was told to do an A5 sheet with some information about the man and what he did.
When she showed me to let me see that she'd done it I was staggered. It has taken her all of 5 minutes.
At the top of the page on two lines and taking up about a quarter of the page in big red letters was the name 'Christopher Columbus'. This was followed by a nice big picture of his ship the 'Santa Maria' and a portrait of the man himself. Right at the bottom of the page was a little sentance that she had literally cut and pasted from the internet stating when he was born and when he died. Apart from typing the title and positioning it and colouring it she had just slapped what she'd found from the internet onto the page and thought that would be enough.
She couldn't grasp the concept that she should have read anything about him to find out exactly what he had achieved and that the whole point of the project was for her to learn something!

Anyway, Ian took the kids to school and I've calmed down a bit and I've just been having a discussion with Ian about something we've been suspecting for a while.
We think Murron may be dyslexic.
She just won't bring herself to read or do homework at home. Her spelling is atrocious and she can't even copy things from the board into her homework diary without missing letters out or mixing them up.

We did some research and after reading this little paragrah.......

"Many subtle signs can be observed in children with dyslexia. Children may become withdrawn and appear to be depressed. They may begin to act out, drawing attention away from their learning difficulty. Problems with self-esteem can arise, and peer and sibling interactions can become strained. These children may lose their interest in school-related activities and appear to be unmotivated or lazy. The emotional symptoms and signs are just as important as the academic and require equal attention."

.......we decided to see about getting Murron tested. We are sending out a letter today.
I don't know what else to do. I know she has a brain. Her teacher has said she's bright but she just doesn't want to use her brain.
If she gets tested and it proves she does have dyslexia it could be the best thing that's happened to her educationally so far. We can tackle the problem and hopefully she will begin to flourish.
That said, if the test proves that she doesn't have it then I am literally going to have to crack the whip! and my stress levels are going to rocket.

I've found a new hobby.

Just over a week ago my eldest daughter came up to me while I was working on my computer and stated that she was interested in doing some family history research.
I had dabbled with this a couple of years ago but I couldn't find any of the information I originally had.
I knew that Ian's Dad had been working on the Winter side and after talking to him we found that he's managed to get back to the mid 1700's so far. He's sending us the info he has so we can add to our own tree.

Anyway, I got intrigued and started to do some digging again.
I started by talking to my 88 year old grandmother. She managed to fill us in on info about her parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents and aunts and uncles.
This was a great springboard and when her sister in law's daughter Jean found out what we were doing she found some birth, death and marriage certificates on Grandad's side of the family.

Ian decided to get in on this with me and for the last week we have been like a couple of detectives and it's actually been quite addictive so far!.
We started putting the family tree together on Genesreunited and we have already hooked up with a couple of other trees and made contact with some distant cousins.
We are back to the 1700's on both sides and are getting to a point now where we need to start visiting places and checking records to confirm everything. I also want to start putting faces and stories to the names and dates.

I already have one story I want to get a hold of from newspaper archives.
Apparantly my Great Grandfather was the head gardener at the Priory in Hitchin.
In 1910 when he was asked to quit his job and the tied cottage that came with it he committed suicide.
It was big news at the time.

This hobby is going to go on for a long time.      

All three of my kids needed new school shoes last week.
I initially gave Tesco's and Matalan a thought but I new that if I got them all shoes from there they wouldn't survive until the end of term.
I thought the High Street shops and Clarks would prove a little too pricey so the next best choice would was Brantano's.....
Or so I thought.

I was shocked and disgusted at what I found.
All the black, sturdy, sensible shoes that parents want for school were horrendously priced. Every pair I picked up was over £35 with the worst offender being £45!!
I wouldn't spend that on shoes for myself!
We did find one pair at £16 in a sale reduced from £35 but they had flimsy thin velcro straps that wouldn't make it to the end of term.

To add insult to injury their extensive range of pretty summer shoes and trainers and sandals all ranged from £3 - 5 to around £20 - 25!

I felt like I was being held to ransom.
They know we have to buy these shoes so they hike the prices! or at least that's how it felt.

We ended up getting the shoes in Clarks afterall. Their school range was priced at £28 - 32 and you know you're buying something that's going to last.
Even so £90 for three pairs of kids shoes is rediculous!

It been a less than brilliant day.

It all started at about 5.30 this morning when we had to get up and get ready to take Dharma to hospital for squint correction surgery on her eyes.
Everything went smoothly and Dharma was really excited about the whole prospect. Right up until she went under the anaesthetic she was smiling and talking away.
At 1pm she was finally back up on the ward but it turns out that Dharma is one of those unlucky people who take forever to get over it and also gets quite sick!
At 5.30 this afternoon we made the decision that even though she wasn't eating or even drinking too much but as she had produced urine, the best thing for her was to get her home into her own bed to sleep it off overnight.
She got tucked in about an hour ago and we haven't heard from her since.

So, we then decided to boot up the computers and trawl through the days e-mails only to discover that our Ebay account has been suspended because of a Trademark Violation!
Ebay stated the following........

'The rights owner for the items you listed sent us a signed legal statement telling us that your item infringed their copyright, trademark or other rights. We were therefore legally obliged to remove the listing.'

It turns out the BBC don't like me selling my own artwork. It was the Dr Who artwork that got withdrawn.

Great!
I didn't make much on Ebay and what little I did get helped us buy gifts for our kids on their birthdays and at Xmas.
This means we now have to close our Ebay shop as we just can't risk legal action being taken against us.
It was nice while it lasted.

With that in mind we then get a phone call from Murron saying she wanted to come home. It turns out that she had a little dissagreement with my Mum and was trying it on for sympathy.
It didn't work.

Poor old Marjorie has had another rough day today. The Dr says it's just a flu like bug that's going around and to just wait it out but Marjorie has been up and down like a yo yo all week. So we are playing a waiting game with her.
This could explain the episode with Murron and Mum. I think she's just a bit put out with all the attention Dharma and Marjorie have been getting over the last week.

Anyway, that's our shitty day over with. I just want to veg out an go to bed.   

Won't bore you with how I got to it but I caught a couple of episodes of a show called Wonderfalls this morning.
This is another one of those wonderfully quirky shows that didn't make it to a second season and it originally aired early in 2004.

Anyway, while watching I was struck by the guy playing the bar tender.
I knew I'd seen him somewhere before but couldn't place him.
For just a minute I thought he was a younger Mathew Fox! Then I realised that Mathew Fox was filming Lost when this was airing and this guy is about 10 years too young.
After 'googling' him I realise that he was in dinotopia with Wentworth Miller. My daughter loves this show and has it on DVD so I've probably seen him in that quite regularly.

So, I just couldn't shake the image of Mathew Fox from my head and I just had to get some photos to prove I wasn't going crazy.
So here we are. Tyron Leito on the left and Mathew Fox on the right.

It's uncanny! The only difference is the eye colour. Tyron is quite literally a younger version of Mathew Fox. He even sounds like him!

Just a quick update.
I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. It just feels like it sometimes.

Basically I've just been plodding along with life as it comes. Sometimes it gets just a bit monotonous and I get caught up with something to take my mind off it all. Lately that seems to be my Facebook account and playing a few quizzes.

Marjorie had a mystery illness over the weekend. She came home from school on Friday feeling sick and looking very pasty. She spent all weekend in bed feeling well and truly sorry for herself. By Sunday evening she was feeling fine and as she never actually threw up over the weekend she went back to school today.

Murron's school had a major flood overnight on thursday so when she turned up at school on Friday she was told the school was closed for the day. Luckily Ian had walked the kids to school so she caught back up with him and came home.
It must have been a nightmare for the school because they were turning away kids with their parents, hanging onto kids who had turned up alone until they could contact parents but there were kids who walk to school alone who got the word from someone else before they showed up at school who then just walked home again. There must have been quite a few working parents who were just totally unaware that their kids weren't in school.!

I do have a complaint to make to the school now though.
I understand Friday morning was a nightmare for them and they did all they could to let parents know and even had an announcement on the Local Radio to make sure all pupils were safe. There was even a quick announcement on the Bedford County Council News site, BUT that's as far as it went.
ALL weekend we trawled through the 'crappy' school website, phoned the school itself, checked the council news site for an upate, even went to the school itself at 8'oclock last night to see if a notice was on the gate letting us know if the school was open or not.
Nothing.
We could not find anything.
They didn't even leave a message on the school phones answering system. How hard could that have been?!!
We put the radio on this morning waiting for news and in the end we didn't know until we physically took Murron to school if the school was open or not.
If I was a working parent (and I hope to be one again soon) I would have been livid. Because I didn't know one way or the other I would have had to take today of work and as it turns out it would have been for nothing!