Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 3 - A New Beginning

beanielou

Hope you had a lovely afternoon tea

SpekySquarehead

I won't comment on the make-up side of things, given my only experience is when I was the dame in my high school pantomime. Hope you're feeling a bit more energetic today

cbsexec

You are doing so well through such hard times - I admire you so much for all you have been through and how well you cope. I second the frump to fabulous thread. It is worth a read as they have such helpful ideas but are all doing baby steps. Thats all anyone can do. Also dont try to be something you "think" you should be. Just strive to be happy and content. Thats all anyone should want to be - fat, thin, clever, not so, pretty or not.

crazy_cat_lady

Hey :wave:
I'm just checking in quickly so you know I'm still about but I'll be on properly tomorrow. I am utterly shattered after a very busy couple of days...
Afternoon tea was immense - I was so drunk I got home and fell asleep on the sofa at 6pm, hence you didn't hear from me at all last night.
Then we decided to do the big shop for school today (thankfully I wasn't too hungover) and we were out from half nine this morning until almost 7pm. The good news is that almost everything on the list is bought.
I will get back on properly in the morning and bore you all with the details of my life but I wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you that have taken the time to write a reply on here over the past couple of weeks when I've been struggling a bit - it means more than you know.
Ooh, before I forget - I got a text from the child maintenance people today saying that I'll be getting paid £36 a month from October. I don't know if this means they have finally caught up with ex and he's claiming benefits but I think I'll ring them up at some point tomorrow and ask them.

dawnybabes

I thought it was £7 if they where on benefits. This means he has an address ...... can your solicitor / judge use it ?

[Deleted User]

Only Recently found this thread so not familiar with all your story but found it difficult to read your recent ‘!!!!! voice’ post. You are very open and self aware. There is a great thread called frump to fab 2019 started by an inspirational lady which i think you might find helpful on the weight/appearance front. There is also a website called Moodjuice which was recommended to me by a doctor. Has link to a good booklist on left hand side. One on low self esteem looks interesting. I was the pretty and clever one. Now i’m Just the severely disabled one. My advice to anyone is follow your dreams while you can.

beanielou

Sorry to read your post Flo61

crazy_cat_lady

Morning :coffee: :hello:
Where to start??? Grab a seat and a cuppa folks - I think this could be a long one. But I don't feel miserable so I don't think that it will be a miserable one.
Thanks for posting Flo - you're the second person that has mentioned the frump to fab thread so I am going to look for it and check it out today. It's on my list.
Dawn - I rang the child maintenance people as soon as I was up this morning. I was just too curious. Apparently he has registered for, and is in receipt of full benefits of some sort - so you're right, the £7 a week. Doesn't make anything of a dent into the £1k+ he still owes in child maintenance but does mean that he's alive and on the radar. I couldn't get past 'data protection' to get any more info about where he might be, but I have passed the information straight onto Dog the Bounty Hunter in the hopes that this might help in some way. He said it was good news and he is currently making physical enquiries. Fingers crossed.
So, recap on the past couple of days...
Monday was afternoon tea at the venue where I'm having my divorce party in a couple of weeks. I paid everything off there, and of course the b***h voice has been loud in telling me that nobody is going to turn up on the night but I'm trying to ignore her. I had a good chat with my sister, and things felt better between us so I'm relieved about that. Plus my ds and her dd were there so it kind of cleared the air a bit there. The food was amazing as it always is, and the owner of the place took the kids to get them to help her invent some cocktails for us to have on the night. We were each given a massive gin balloon glass completely full of a completely green cocktail that the kids had invented - it contained vodka, gin, midori and absinthe :eek: Tasted good but my word I was drunk by half way through it. My sister gave up at the halfway point but I finished mine, survived the walk home and then promptly fell asleep on the sofa for three hours :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Woke up just in time for Who Do You Think You Are on telly with a bit of a fuzzy head. Strangely enough though I managed to go back to bed for the night just a couple of hours later.
Almost forgot to mention, I also booked next summer's holiday on Monday too. I got a 10% discount voucher from the holiday company so decided to book it up so I can pay it off monthly between now and then, and hopefully it won't break me. We're going back to Bulgaria because we enjoyed it so much and because it is so cheap. :D:D It feels frivolous but I want to do it while my kids don't mind spending time with me.
So Monday was a big old spendy day paying for the party and the holiday deposit. Thankfully all of my exam money is in now and whilst it feels extravagant I am reminding myself that it is exactly why I do the exam marking.
And if Monday didn't feel spendy enough, I carried it right on yesterday as well. At the beginning of the holiday, me and the kids write a list of things we need to get over the summer holidays for the year ahead. Things, like school shoes, uniform, calculators, underwear etc. Summer is our big restock time for clothes and shoes, and time where I start thinking about their birthdays (both in September) and festivities later in the year. Because I will not have the exam money again and I won't be earning any extras between now and the end of the year. So, as arranged with the kids, we were up and out bright and early and at the Swedish Emporium in time for it opening to tick off a few items on my list - very frivolous - new oven gloves and baking trays/roasting dishes :rotfl: While we were there I also bought a picture frame, which started the process of crossing a frog off the list that's been there for a year. Last year while we were in the Lakes I bought some beautiful posters for the living room to replace the wedding stuff that used to be on display there, but never got round to putting them up. Did it last night and now have my gorgeous Lakes pictures on the wall :D:D DD also found a mirror that she wanted as her birthday present (a full length one that she's had her eye on for a while) - that's not on her wall just yet, but it's over a month until her birthday so no hurry :rotfl: We stopped for £1 bacon sarnies and 50p hot chocolates for them and free tea for me - I love the food there, and hoped that it would mean I wouldn't need to fork out for an expensive lunch. I know I spent £70 in there, but just trying to remember what else I got... a new lampshade to replace the destroyed one behind my front door, a couple of new dinner plates (we were down to four) and I think that's about it...
Then went over to the Metrocentre. I was expecting it to be mad busy but it really wasn't . I got parked quite easily and there weren't that many people at all. I suppose that it reflects the changes in shopping, and the fact that many people just go online these days. It's a shame because I'm the biggest culprit for online shopping but I really like an occasional wander round the shops. First three shops we went into - my shoes, ds shoes and dd school bag. Boom! Felt like it was going to be a useful shop so I took a deep breath and went into the phone shop. It was upgrade time, and ds is pretty desperate for a new phone (his birthday present) so I went in there to see what I could get and what the best value for money was etc. We were there for over an hour _pale_ but we did get sorted, thanks to a very understanding and helpful young man in the shop. Onwards we went, getting dd a new bra (her unusual bra size = massively expensive bras), me a book, dd calculator and ds school trousers (which will need to be taken up as they are almost long enough to make another pair of trousers out of :rotfl:). So I took another deep breath and psyched myself up to go into a department store and the makeup section _pale_ I found a lady whose makeup I liked the look of and asked for her help. She was lovely, and I came away with a tinted moisturiser (thanks Beanie) and a concealer and feeling better within myself already. DD dragged me into Sup£rdrug to buy mascara for her and me (on 2 for £12 and much cheaper than a department store) and a lip balm, and then finally on the way back to the car we got dd shoes and my 1 new outfit for work I need. The whole list apart from 3 things, one of which I couldn't get there, and I reckon I'll get ds polo shirts cheaper at a supermarket as well. DD can't decide on a coat and I refuse to pay £79 for the thin thing that looked like it was made from a binbag - I have to draw the line somewhere.
Anyway, we got on the road and then got stuck in the aftermath of an accident, so I made the executive decision that we would eat out with the Meerkat and my £10 voucher as it was getting late and I was absolutely shattered. It was a nice end to a nice, but tiring day.
Got home, unpacked shopping, helped ds set his phone up and sorted the PAC thing out, cleared the cat trays, finally put those posters up in their lovely new frame, then decided to fix my loft hatch as I was doing 'stuff' like that. It was well after half eight before I even sat down and I was too tired for much other than a last bit of exam related stuff that I'd been asked to do (must be getting urgent now - results are out next week).
Went to bed absolutely exhausted and just couldn't manage to fall asleep - it was after midnight. And I don't feel well rested this morning either... I have a bit of a sore throat but think it might just be a couple of busy days catching me up. When I finally dragged my backside downstairs I made my morning cuppa, fed the cats and was gifted a dead bird by one of them... she brought it right into the kitchen and dropped it at my feet all proud of herself. I had to sneak it into the bin when she wasn't watching whilst pretending to be all grateful for my gift. I've not done much else yet other than catch up on here, ring the child maintenance people, and I'm currently trying to sort my energy supply out - my fixed rate is up and they are going to increase my dd by £15 a month. I think not...
No other plans for today at the moment. I'm all spent up and hoping for a nsd and a day of dealing with frogs and making further progress on the non ending king size bed crochet blanket I feel like I've been doing for ever. All quiet upstairs still, but I know ds is up and about - obviously just enjoying his new phone too much. DD will definitely still be sleeping.
I have a freezer full of food so need to get on with some meal planning, and get on and check out this frump to fab thread.
Later everyone - have a fantastic day!

wishingthemortgaheaway

No wonder today is a quiet day, I'm exhausted just reading all of that. But it does sound like you have had some fabulous few days, time for a bit of self care now before you have to start thinking about 'other stuff'

Wish.

mumblingtaff

Well done on getting all the shopping done in one fell swoop and for having fun in the meantime too.
If the weather with you is anything like it is here snugglin up indoors today is definitely the way forward.....