The Ultimate Incentive part 10. The only thing holding you back is you.

wendz86

Wow at how much you paid off the debt. I was happy with a couple of hundred .

Hope you have a lovely birthday!

archersluck

Happy Birthday Dinah

ruby_eskimo

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Dinah!

clearmydebts

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Dinah!

Wow - what an impressive amount to have paid off your debts. I am seriously impressed. We are making very little headway, on paper at least. I am not expecting that my sig will start to go down until at least March, but I do feel like we are plugging away at it!

Dinah93

I did have a great birthday, NIM really pulled out all the stops. We went out for the morning to the park, see the ducks (who were being blown away in the wind) then to a museum we have year passes for (£2 per person covers the whole year). We met my parents and brother for a late lunch at my favourite restaurant in town, which was delicious. Mum and dad have given me a choice of present, either 2 days in their friends cottage for all of us and a spa day for mum and I at either Slaley Hall or Alnwick's Secret Spa, or a spa day at Rockliffe Hall (which is more local and insanely posh) just for me. I'm thinking of the Secret Spa, I'd much rather be with someone, and I find it madness to pay over £200 for access to a spa and a 30 min massage which is what it is at Rockliffe. For that you get full day access, breakfast, lunch, a salt and oil scrub each and still have £100 left over at the Secret Spa.

By the time we finished lunch it was after 4pm, at which point mum took Grace and we came home and NIM had a nap after his night shift. He told me we were booked into my other favourite restaurant which is about 20mins away but at 6.30pm! I was so excited as we're now in a bit of a tradition of going for my birthday, but its too expensive to go unless its a really special occasion, however I was still completely stuffed from lunch. We ended up just having a main course each, which were gorgeous and at least it saved us some money by not having starters or desserts.

Miserable week this week. 6 hospital appointments between Grace and I, plus 1 GP and an acupuncture session, so not a huge amount else going on other than running back and forth between those. I've misplaced my diary and I feel completely at a loss without it, it has everything in it

Planning to try to try to get the last of the books and DVDs listed on music magpie/zapper/ziffit during naptime so I can at least get those sent off as a first order. Know we have lots more but I figure I can do several orders rather than trying to wait for one colossal one. Hoping to get to £50 between the 3 sites off this first trade in, but if its less its only because I put more on Amazon which is good really as thats all the higher value stuff. However as a hospital appointment is at 11.30, and grace usually naps at about 12/12.30 I bet she'll have a 15min nap in the car on the way home and that'll be it, no more naptime today. Really hoping she has a longer kip as we're out for a Groupon dinner tonight we bought back in October, so could do with her not being a cranky pants.

My very girly girl is sat behind me on the sofa as I type, arranging my hair. It's so cute! She loves to dress up in my beads or scarves, and she's just getting into hair, she likes to brush it, or part it and twirl it, I'm always scared she's going to yank it like she does the cat but she's surprisingly gentle.

wendz86

Glad you had a fab birthday, sounds like a really lovely day. I think I would prefer a spa day with someone else than on my own.

Hope the medical appointments aren't too bad this week.

That is so cute with the hair, Poppy brushes mine sometimes but she likes to brush it over my face so it is quite painful.

Birdie85

Glad you had a lovely birthday! I think the spa with your Mum sounds better than Rockcliffe hall too, I'd rather good company and treatments than a day alone in fancy pant surroundings!

Love that Grace is getting into all things girly! So cute!

Can't believe how much you've paid off the debt! Very well done! :T

1 week to go until due date now! Not sure if the funny niggly feelings I'm getting mean something's happening or if it's just going to be like this for a week or so! Have a feeling that he'll arrive on the 14th after so many people said 'Ooooh, Valentine's baby!' when I told them he's due on the 10th and I dismissed them all because I don't want to go overdue!

wendz86

Fingers crossed it means something is happening Birdie.

My Mum is a valentines baby and nearly got named Valentine, thankfully not haha.

Dinah93

Valentine is a better name than cupid. Fingers crossed you're on your way. I was just saying to Kieran after I saw you, of all my friends who've had babies not a single one was early (with the exception of me!), one was on her due date, the other 10-15 have all been past the date. You could buck this trend!

I'm about to crack. I'm trying to wean Grace off her bottles during the day, she resists juice, almost all her fluids are milk. So I'm trying to encourage her to take it out a cup. There is a huge amount of crying going on, hitting of the offered cup, and saying 'no no mama, bobba!' or dragging me to the fridge and chanting 'ilk, ilk'! Did anyone else's little one either still want their bottle every hour or so even at this age, or have to go through an enforced transition? I did at least get her to eat some breakfast and lunch for once, rare in itself.

Eye appointment for her today, waste of time. 'Keep trying to get her to wear the glasses for the next year, she should get it by 3, and its only by the age of 7 we need to have gotten a grip on things with her eyesight'. Had a complete panic though, going out to the car (which dad has had for the last 5 days) I open her door and lo and behold, no car seat. Sent a message to mum and Kieran saying 'think of the car you drove this morning. Is there a car seat in the back of it? Too many of you can say yes to this question for us to have gotten to the hospital on time'. Ended up having to bring Grace back in and madly try to assemble the new one, which came in many pieces, then attach it to the car, which doesn't seem right as its sliding all over the place.

wendz86

Poppy was 25 mins before due date haha but was in labour from 2 days before.

We went straight from bfing to cup as I didn't think it was worth introducing a bottle at a year old and then having to wean off again but it did take a bit of persuasion. From 11 months she only had milk first thing and before bed as she was at nursery and we still do the same now.