Goodbye 2011/Hello 2012!!

Well, here we stand on the verge of a new year.  The sun's gone down, so it's officially New Years Eve!

Highlights of 2011?  Moving to this house & seeing Motley Crue again.

Plans/goals for 2012?

Firstly, I need to buy tickets to Download, as we've heard a rumour that Poison will be playing...  If they are it'll probably be the only chance we'll have to go see them.....

I'd quite like to go see the Olympic Flame pass through town as well...

Goals-wise:

Have at least 4 rooms decorated by the end of the year.  That gives me 3 months per room to strip & prepare the walls, then repaper (if necessary), paint, accessorise etc.  If I stop procrastinating, that's more than easily do-able...

Get a lot more organised & Domestic Goddessy about the house...  I say this every year, but I say it as a resolution, rather than a goal....  So as I've decided to set measurable (& hopefully attainable) goals I can break it down into steps on route to the holy grail of spick and span-ness... 
As I said in a previous post, I'm signed up to Habithacker (I promise I'll blog more about this in a very near post) & that does seem to be helping (having broken down the steps for me!!! )

As part of this becoming more organised thing, I aim to actually be organised & zen about next christmas.  I say every year we're going to start getting sorted for it early so it's not a mad rush & every year we don't (other than getting veggies pre-prepared & in the freezer - & that's kind of ingrained in me after 30-odd years of it!!! so it doesn't count!) 
So I'm going to start a spreadsheet of what's needed, from pressies, to decorations, to food.
I'll add on what we already have & tick off what we need as we get it.
I'll start a plan of action with deadlines for when everything needs to be done...  honest gov!!!!


Anyway - I promise to come & break these goals down and share them properly with you, but you need to share your goals for 2012 with me!  Let's support each other to achieving them!

 Right now, I wish you all a Happy New Year! xxx

Nadolig Llawen!!

Merry Christmas, Yuletide Blessings!

Everything's done bar prepping the turkey which I'll do in a second & getting the pressies under the tree (which will wait till the boys have gone to sleep!!)

I do have a tiny bit of hat to finish but that won't take very long at all...

Hope you all have a lovely lovely time! xxx

A tale of two concerts...

I know, I know - I'm not very good at this updating regularly malarky - but at least this time I have a genuine excuse/damn good reason!!

At the weekend, when I would normally have been posting witty & entertaining thoughts, I was instead in Manchester with my lovely friend from back in the day Woody & his slightly crazy (but very sweet) girlfriend.  Now this wasn't just a social visit - we were in fact there to see the mighty Motley Crue!!  (well, he lives in Manchester but you know what I mean!)

And yes, many memories from 20 years ago were dragged up over a whiskey (or 2) which I won't go into - except to say that they all seemed to revolve around drinking & debauchery!!!  Ah - good times.

Anyway - the gig...  (at this point I suppose I should point out that Def Leppard were headlining but that really is just a minor point).

Steel Panther opened & I really was pleasantly surprised at how good they were.  And I still find myself humming "Community Property" to myself!!

As for Crue - they came, they saw, they ROCKED!!  They were fantastic & I have no voice left to prove it (& by the way - this isn't a gig review, so don't expect one!!)  Tommy brought over his rollercoaster drum kit - which looked absolutely amazing & I am so jealous of the girl who got to ride it with him!  Mick Marrs looked healthier than he has in a long time, Vince was Vince & Nikki was the sexy beast that he always has been!!  And they looked like they were really really enjoying themselves! (oh & it was Nikki's birthday so yes, a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday was sung by the crowd!)

I'm not going to go into Def Leppard - I wasn't impressed - I'm just glad I hadn't spent the money to go see them.  Thousands disagreed but I just thought they were meh....

My feet are still killing me though but I'm  not surprised considering the heels I was wearing!!  I'll post some pics of the gig in a bit & I'll include a pic of the shoes!


Right - fast forward to todays concert.  No rock chick moments today - just lots of Very Proud Mammy ones!  Yes - it was the kids christmas concert (well, for 2 of them - one still isn't at school & the eldest one has his on Monday)

They were absolutely brilliant - Toby was an elf & had a speaking role - he was so clear (mind you he did shout his 2 lines!!  I can't remember them both but one was "OK OK Sion Corn"

Brett was a shepherd & I think I was more nervous for him than I was for Toby because he's so shy bless him that I was worried that when it came to him saying his lines he was going to clam up...  I needn't have worried because he was really clear with his lines too!!!

And the singing was beautiful (yes I'm a biased Mammy!)  I'm so proud of my gorgeous boys & all the kids in Meithrin, reception & Years 1 & 2 - they all did fabulously.... 
(but damn these hormones that start the minute you give birth & make you well up at the slightest notice...)

Snow

Have you had any?  None here, not a flurry, not a flake.  Well, it tried on Tuesday for a whole 30 seconds & we've had some hailstones but as hailstones are just as likely to occur in June as December, they don't count....

So why the bleeding nora have I seen a snowplough today?  Two in fact (although I suppose it could have been the same one coming back....)  Do we really need a snowplough for rain & wind?

(And that's a point - why has there been hardly any wind on the school run, including a stretch of road known as Windy Hill - EXCEPT for my village?  Driving out of the village & the car's being blown around.  By the time I got to the next village (a whole 3 minutes away!) it had died down....  Same on the way back - once I started getting into the village the wind was back.  Strange...  But then we are at the top of a hill I suppose...)

Anyway - snow...  are the council just panicking about the prospect of snow or are we in for a hard winter? 

What do you think?

December already...

and yes, apologies are needed as I seem to have been rather lazy this week & completely missed out my mid-week posting...  Oops.

So, what have I been up to?  Well, I HAVEN'T been decorating my eldest boys' bedroom.  But then, given their behaviour recently, I'm not convinced I really want to.

However, today I've managed to get my christmas veggies prepped & in the freezer.  Yep, 2lbs of carrots, 1lb of swede, mountains of brussels - all done & dusted.  And the chestnut stuffing & bread sauce....  *polishes halo*

But don't go getting the wrong idea - I haven't suddenly gone & got organised on you (you should see the state of the kitchen just now!) - it's just that I really really can't be bothered to be doing all that stuff on christmas eve....  no way, jose - not a cat in hells chance!!  Other than the fact that I'm working this christmas eve, it should be about relaxing, singing loads of crimble songs & tracking Santa on NORAD....  Maybe a quick trip out as early as humanly possible to get milk & bread.  But that's it - not flaming well peeling mounds of vegetables (apart from potatoes that is - but if I could work out how to freeze them in advance for mash, I'd do those early too!!!!)

What do I still need to do?

Cranberry sauce, mince pies, order the turkey & trimmings & a handful of pressies (oh & order the food from Tesco!) & I think I'm good to go!

So how are my lovely bloggees doing?

Cutting the cost of shopping...

So, today I was going to post about HabitHacker, but then I came across an article about Extreme Couponing...  (I promise, I'll come back to HabitHacker).

And we all love a good bargain don't we?  I have to admit that despite it being a Mail on Sunday article, I was quite intrigued..  I'm constantly skint, so I'd love to be able to cut the cost of my shopping...  (if I can halve the cost of my shopping I'll be very impressed!)

My main problem is getting vouchers (usually at the checkout with my receipt) then forgetting to actually use them...  So I really need to start remembering them!  But reading this article, it does seem that it would be more productive (cost-cutting) for me to find online vouchers & do my shopping online...


Tips include using price-comparison websites when making your shopping list in order to work out which shops you should be buying which items & using voucher websites in order to find money-off vouchers & codes for your shopping.

When you consider that one woman quoted in the article got £155 worth of shopping for £99 & over in America, "extreme couponers" make even more savings (£148 worth of shopping for just £4.45!!!) it's definitely worth a little bit of extra work...

I'm going to be starting with these sites:
www.mysupermarket.com
www.moneysavingexpert.com
www.savoo.co.uk

then I'll start googling for even more sites & offers!!

Happy shopping everyone! xx

The joys of potty training (could this be the most boring post in history?)

So now my youngest is 3, I figured that I've really got to stop being lazy & get on with getting him out of nappies & into pants...

So, this time last week I bit the bullet & put pants on him....  Cue lots of wet pants & no wees in the potty...

The first time he did a wee in the potty (which was completely through sheer luck, I'm convinced of it) prompted celebrations totally out of proportion to the actual act!! 

And still we had more wees "in the wrong place" (ie his pants & on the floor) than "the right place" (the potty)  buuut - he was able to tell me that he'd wee'd & that it was in the wrong place - result!!!

Then yesterday, he did a wee when asked to - & his little face lit up! He was so proud that he'd done it in the right place bless him!!

Which brings us to today - he's actually asking to go for a wee!!!  Hoo-fecking-ray!!!  Even though it does mean that I'm up & down like a whores drawers!!  I'm so hoping that we've cracked it with wee's!

BUT (& yes, there had to be a but) he doesn't seem to want to poo in the potty...  well he doesn't actually mind pooing in the potty - but if he does it's more luck than judgement (usually prompted by the eldest shouting "Mummy, Nikki's taken his pants off & now he's going to do a poo on the floor" leading me to run like a fecking mad woman to get him on the potty in time...)  He won't actually tell me that he needs a poo - which is leading to a lot of accidents & pants needing rinsing out before being flung in the washing machine....  gah...

Ah well - I've got nearly 7 weeks to get him to figure it out before he starts school!!!