22 Foxhole East

crazy_cat_lady

Oh my goodness! What a weekend so far - I am sincerely hoping that the worst is over now. How fantastic that you can keep a sense of humour about it though because I cried for 2 days when my ceiling fell in...
Good luck avoiding the kids for the rest of the day... I'll be thinking of you.:p

f0xh0les

OH OH OH OH Forgot to say - I have won a competition!!

An Advent competition from a gourmet coffee company

It is a surprise present. So they have my address, and I have no idea what is coming, from a single teabag, to a kilo of nice coffee or anything in between.

Yay!! Will keep you informed as to what I get.

f0xh0les

It is a lath and plaster ceiling, so we still have a rustic wooden slat peasant style ceiling, but all the plaster fell off.

Luckily the light is still there.

No harm, no foul.

Nobody died.

Everything else can be fixed.

Might open the mulled wine this afternoon.

This is the stuff of family legend innit?
Remember the Christmas the kitchen celing fell down and we all could have died - mwah ha ha ha ha!! Oh how we laughed! Pass the gin please Vicar

Dobbibill

:eek: at the ceiling but you are right, nobody died and you probably will laugh about it one day.

You have actually just make me chuckle too with the DS2 loud and proud statement of them being the best behaved. It did remind me of my 3 DSs, DS2 who was the absolute naughtiest of them all and still (in his 20s now) announces this type of 'Who would have thought.....' when the others have a moment and do something silly. Rest assured, if they are anything like mine, it will continue for years to come wayyyyyy beyond their 18th birthday. :rotfl: :rotfl:
I hope the rest of your day is somewhat calmer.

mark55man

oh my word - such fun!

kids can be relentless when they have a grievance - if I can misquote PG Wodehouse (not that I quote him a lot - bit of a posh git really) "its never been too difficult to distinguish between a kid with the hump and a ray of sunshine"

at least the ceilng reset the household dynamic for a bit - but like elephants children never forget who is owed what!!

badmemory

f0xh0les wrote: »

Might open the mulled wine this afternoon.

Are you sure mulled wine is strong enough. I'd be looking at something 40% proof combined with a high dose of chocolate. I need an emoji that says respect!

f0xh0les

And so it continues...


The mystery prize turns out to be three packets of posh flavoured coffee. Will be my Xmas indulgence. Yay!


The poor postman has been run ragged with a million parcels being delivered. M-i-l has spent twice as much on DS1 as the others. So unfair.



S-i-l has sent the nastiest set of 6 mugs - think dogs wearing baseball caps and rabbits with sunglasses - Will make sure the kids use them often. I may tell them they are the only ones they are allowed to use. I would rather have had nothing. They would be going straight to the c/s but she is threatening to visit in Feb, so they have to stay at least 1 hour after she leaves.....


I lost two entire days to wrapping other people's presents to my kids. Just when I thought I was finished, and had packed the whole shebang up and tidied, I went into the hall and the postman had delivered another 4 jiffy bags, so had to wrap and tidy up again. I keep telling myself it is the thought that counts.



DH had his work Xmas do on Thursday night, he came home on Friday morning - before 1am, but still - dirty stopout. He was bedraggled in the morning and it serves him right, but I did drive him to work after I took the kids to school because I am a lovely human being and he was deserving of sympathy - just not from me!


This morning I made a huge apple sponge, but I thought I could smell gas. I opened the window and carried on making the sponge. The boiler was off, so there was no reason to smell gas, then 10 minutes later DS2 wandered down and asked why the bathroom (above the kitchen) smelled of gas.... in fact the whole house smelled of gas.... so we rang Mr Emergency Gasman, turned the gas off at the gas tap on the meter, and opened all the windows. An hour later Mr Gasman turned up and as we had opened all the windows, his sniffer wand thing could not find a trace of gas, and he could not find the source. He was very thorough, but could not find where it had come from or why.



I assume the pilot light had gone out or something, but it started first time when we tried turning it on. Will def get the boiler serviced after Christmas as it is due half way through January anyway. Safety first and all that. Will get Ireland out of the way first though.



So, feeling happy and a little bit more organised.



The pantry is heaving with tins and jars - I have decanted all the half opened packets into large clear jam jars so it looks lovely in there.



Lists of stuff to do have been written for the week, and after having to move the blimmin' fridge to let the gasman get up close to the boiler, I may begin again in my task to reduce the amount of carp I have accumulated towards the back of the house.



I am in a chucking away / charity shop mood. Be warned!! Feeling motivated.

greenbee

Enjoy the purge foxholes! I've done two CS trips recently and a whole lot of stuff has gone to the night shelter as well. I have a bit more for the CS, and having spent today with my brother I now have all my SIL's stuff to take in too... so the car is rather full!

f0xh0les

Another week gone and I have been absent - sorry!
I am on top of all this Christmas -shizzle, all presents bought, all birthday presents for DS3 and DS4 bought as well.

Cheque arrived today from DH's aunt - I have asked repeatedly for her to stop sending things, in the nicest possible way, really tried the whole 'no unnecessary presents pact' thing - but she wants to, and DH's mum still sends her grown up nephews (the aunt's kids) things. Sp she feels she has to. So we are the victims of their bizarre rivalry. Anyway, she sent me a cheque which arrived today (22nd), and asked me to put money in the birthday card and christmas cards for the kids from her.

Except the cheque will not clear before new year, so there is another £110 cash out of my budget. And I cannot not give it to the kids as there will be expected to be a phone call to say thank you or there is a whole world of passive aggressive phone calls from m-i-l about aunt-in-law not getting a thank you from the kids, and text messages about possible theft by the Royal Mail, as she has sent something she does not think arrived.

Although the £60 m-i-l said she was sending to cover DS1s present she demanded I get (so she did not have to pay postage), she admitted to DH today she had not got around to sending yet. Two weeks ago!! So I am, on top of my service and MOT this month, 2 car insurances due the first week of January, a 4 day mercy trip to the old and infirm, plus 2 x kids birthdays and 4 x kids Christmas presents, I am down an extra almost £200 I had not budgeted for. Merry bloody Christmas. I am currently a tad on the miffed side.

DS4s birthday tomorrow, so I will be making strawberry santa hats for the top of his cake - already made so it will def be cooled, and there will be no sliding of cake layers. Just got to get through present opening, a lunch out and cake cutting. Blimey this is all knackering.
Poor DH is properly knackered.

Come-home-from-work-and-fall-asleep-on-the-sofa-before-supper-tired. He has been having kidney pains and is just plain under the weather. I think it is all the painkillers he is taking for his knee. I also think he is a tad low in iron, so I have bought him an iron supplement and am making sure we are having iron rich foods. Will let you know how he is doing and if he perks up a bit. I hope so!
That blasted telescopic curtain pole has not yet arrived either!


4 days til it is all over, and 6 days until I go over to step-gran, only 10 days until I am back, and it is the first day of 2019, a shiny new year with a shiny new plan. A shiny new savings plan.

crazy_cat_lady

I don't know how you put up with all that behaviour from the in-laws. The sooner the banks finish rolling out the thing where you send them a photo of the cheque and they clear it that day then the better... Sorry it's so stressful for you.
It's my niece's birthday tomorrow as well (she'll be 8) - obviously a good date.
Hope your hubby is on the up soon.