The end of a long summer

I know, I know, I've neglected this blog dreadfully!

The main reason for this is that I heard at the end of May that the organisation I work for was being closed by the government as part of the first "in-year" spending cuts.

As part of the Communications team, I have been busy making sure that the right thing is said at the right time and, having been a bit raw about my own situation, was a bit concerned that every blog I started to write was becoming a rant. Not helpful.

So I've kept quiet for the whole summer! If you know me well, you'll realise what a sacrifice that's been!

The summer hasn't been all about redundancy and sad stuff, however. We've had some brilliant times too. Venice in July/August was a particular highlight. Lots of pasta, pizza, amazing weather, not to mention the amazing and slightly improbable city of Venice. Fantastic.

Our lovely Canadian cousin, Kerry, was back over on these shores at the end of August and we met him in London for a fun day of sightseeing and lots of chat.

We also celebrated my sister-in-law's wedding in September, which was a wonderful day of family, friends and lots and lots of love.

So now I'm looking forwards and not back. This work situation could just be the beginning of something very exciting for me - I'm looking into what I might be able to do that uses my gifts and talents that will still work for the family and gives them back a happy wife and mum.

We're getting there, in spite of the rigours of this summer. Roll on Autumn and Winter, as I think that they might hold good things for us! They might even have a bit more blogging too....

No farm no good!

Ok. So it was a good job that we checked. The Cotswold Farm Park was shut last week so we went to London instead and missed the snow! We were pretty proud of our superlative efforts on the museum front -we got in a bit of each of the V&A, Natural History Museum and Science Museum!

We even went to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace and waved and everything. She didn't wave back, though....



Then Sunday saw us going down to Surrey to Joshua's baptism. Dave and Pam are old friends from uni and it was so lovely to meet their little boy and his amazing cheeks!

10 years ago...

... we were just in the middle of our wedding rehearsal! We got married on 10 April 1999 at the Crossing at St Paul's in Walsall. Embarrassing picture of how young we looked below.....

I've been remembering the week leading up to the wedding really vividly over the last few days. I'm not usually this schamlzy about our anniversary but 10 years feels like the first milestone and one worth celebrating and it's got me thinking.

Key things I remember include:
1. being told by an older, married friend on the Sunday before to remember to concentrate and take all the detail in on the day. She was so right and I'm very glad she gave us that advice. I pass it on now.

2. spending the Thursday in wellies with one of my three lovely bridesmaids, peeling ivy off my Grandma's fence, pegging it to the washing line and hosing it down, ready to be wound round the hand rails on the stairs at the church (we got married two floors up - a long story of church reordering).

3. practising our vows at the rehearsal with all our families there and thinking that this was the most special bit.

4. being proved right about 3. on the day.

5. having a really, really lovely time with many laughs at the pub with both families and close friends after the rehearsal.

6. our french friends arriving on the Friday with a very large, white peace lily that Agnes had held for the whole drive from Albert, in the Somme, to Walsall!

7. spending the evening before the wedding with the girls, trying to get my chief bridesmaid's hair to curl and one of the other bridesmaids burning her head with the curling tongs in the effort. Was quite sore the next day, bless her.

8. my dad coming in to the lounge full of women at about 9.30am (we got married at 11am) and suggesting, in a slightly tense voice, that someone might like to take the initiative and get showered and dressed. I hasten to add, we made it with time to spare and were all clean and beautifully scrubbed up!

Then there are so many memories of the day itself, the only sad bit of which is how many very special people were there then who aren't here now.

If I get this dreamy at 10 years, what am I going to be like at 25?

I'll stop. And yes, I'll gladly pass you the bucket now......

Family, friends and a whole lot of cake!

I've had a lovely week toing and froing, celebrating various momentous occasions. First off was last Friday when we went to a surprise party for Mike's cousin, who's turning 40. He had a great time, we had a great time and got to know some of the friends that we've heard Graham talk about but never met. The birthday boy managed to get up close and personal with a chocolate fountain whilst trying to cut his cake and I'm not sure if his Tshirt will recover! He should look at it as a lasting momento of a good night....

Then we had the family meal for the same 40th birthday. It was a really lovely evening and the boys, as usual, kept all entertained. Graham bravely suggested that they sit either side of him to eat and so it took him a while to eat his own dinner, in between cutting up meat and catching drinks. All good practice for when he becomes a daddy in a couple of months.

Then today we've been down to Hertford to celebrate the baptism of the little boy of some of our closest and oldest friends. Catching up is such a good thing to do and it's always so easy to slot straight back in to how it used to be when we all shared a house at college. Plus 6 kids and one bump, obviously. My 6 year old explained it best when he was talking about them - he reckoned that "they're kind of our cousins, aren't they?" and that's how it feels. Not family in fact but definitely family in feeling.

The definition of a sugar rush

The Ibbotsons and the Masseys came to our house yesterday for a lovely, yet manic day of playing. In case there wasn't enough excitement, we decided to make up the gingerbread house and then eat it. Sooo good but soooooooo sweet. Not bad, though, for an inept mother (me) and 5 willing sugar artists (Christopher, Owain, Dom, Izzy and Ben), all under the age of 6.