Hi there

I have moved back to blogger as WordPress is just too high tech for me..!!

I will not be closing down this account however, in case I have time on my hands in the future and I can learn all the lingo!!

Click on this link here to take you to the new Blogger Family Blog.

Thanks.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Hop over to my card blog to check out the Easter Baskets I made this kids this year…  The link is on the right under Blogroll.
Hope to hear from you soon and if you have a birthday this month then

Happy Birthday to YOU!!

Today we picked up the latest addition to our family – a dog. We have been looking for a dog for a while since the sad passing of our last dog Zara last year.

We had wanted to adopt a rescue shelter animal, as there are plenty of dogs on the island in need of a good home, but unfortunately not enough owners to go around.

We had heard about a family who were thinking of letting their dog go on account of the fact that their DS wasn’t looking after the animal as perhaps he should. Finally they advised my DH that we could collect the dog and take her home to adopt as our very own.

We were told that she was a German Shepherd, but on looking at her, we think she is a mix of German Shepherd and Husky – what do you think? She has very striking eyes – it’s the first thing you notice about her. Her name in Aida and she is eleven months old.

We picked her up today and she is absolutely gorgeous. I took the kids up to meet her and they of course, fell in love with her immediately. Chelsea taught her to stand down (instead of jumping up at you with excitement) and Thomas taught her to give him her paw so she is a quick study.

We look forward to many happy years with her.

We recently spent the weekend in one of the neighbouring Canary Islands – La Palma. Not to be confused with Las Palmas, which is the capital of Gran Canaria (where I used to live) La Palma is a much smaller, quieter island.

We decided to get there by ferry, which is OK if you don’t suffer from sea-sickness (I do!) so the three hour trip seemed eternal.

Mount Teide

When we arrived, we knew we had another hour’s drive to the hotel which was situated on the far southern coastal tip of the island. We also knew that the road was twisty and windy. What we didn’t know was that I still felt seasick and the twisting and turning of the car around the bends was almost worse than the ferry crossing. So I made everyone else suffer by demanding that the air con be set on full blast and aimed in my direction. We arrived at the hotel looking green (well I did anyway) and with frostbite.

The hotel was a welcome site set in what appeared to be the complete middle of no-where. Ideal holiday destination if you wanted to get-away-from-it-all. Thankfully we did. Here is a picture taken during the day of the hotel, looking down from the road above (high above!!)…

We were taken straight to the restaurant for our cold plate of dinner. Most of us had eaten on the ferry and so we weren’t very hungry, but it was nice to see where the restaurant was located for breakfast purposes, and to sit and have a quick drink before we made our way to our rooms.

We found our way to our beautiful rooms through the lush greenery that surrounded each of the blocks. The maids had made swans from the pool towels which was very artistic. The men headed off to the bar, whilst the women unpacked and settled into the rooms, making full use of the complementary bath robes and slippers on offer! What is it about fluffy bath robes that just makes you feel as though you are really on holiday? We had a family room which is basically two twin rooms with an interconnecting door. Heaven…

The next morning we all headed off to breakfast. I usually never eat breakfast (bad I know!) , but I always make an exception when we are on holiday, as usually we sight-see and there never seems to be a restaurant around when you need one at about 11, when I really start to feel hungry. So I sampled everything the buffet had to offer: cold meats, hot breakfast, pancakes with chocolate syrup and last but not least fresh fruit. I know what you’re all thinking – “Pig Out or what??” Yup – I’m on holiday after all!!

After breakfast we headed off in the car for a tour of the island. Initially we were confused because the map that I was following insisted that we should be on the LP01, whereas all the posts along the road led us to believe we were on the LP02. Confusing… In the end we abandoned the map’s road numbers and just headed in the general direction of where we wanted to get to. We had to make a stop for petrol and the first station (if you can call it that) that we came to, was, what appeared to be two filling pumps on the pavement (sidewalk), then a major road junction, and across the junction the remaining two pumps – bizarre! We had to pull up onto the pavement to gain access to the pumps and fill up. As we marveled at the filling station that time had forgot, we wondered how this set up could possibly work. Then we spotted across the road a tyre outlet, then next door to that an open door, which when I looked inside had all the oils, lubes and extras that you would normally find (only in much smaller quantities) in a roadside gas filling station. So it all worked for them really – so who were we to judge?!

 

As you can see from these two photos, the one on the right demonstrates a car pulling out of the junction that separates the two halves of the ’station’. The JCB digger is filling up in the first half, whilst we are filling up on the left!!

We continued on our journey around the island, getting lost only once, and having to ask for directions. Good job we did, as the road we were supposed to be on, we would never have found in a million years of driving around – it pays to be female, because believe me the men would NEVER have asked for directions! I mean how many time do you have to say, “Shall I get out and ask someone?” before they eventually relent and pull over? Anyhoo..

The map that we had initially been following was out of proportion as well as having the wrong road numbers marked on it, so a trip that we thought would take us the whole day, actually only took us half a day. We found ourselves back at the hotel before we knew it. Some of us went off exploring the hotel grounds, whilst others had a quick ’siesta’ (ahem..)

After the napping, we headed off to the restaurant to make the most of the buffet. Needless to say, I gorged myself stupid to the point of feeling sick and had to be wheeled out of the restaurant..

That night…

I came down with a terrible case of ‘Franco’s Revenge’ (use your imagination if you don’t know what this is). I had to spend the next day holed up in the room, not venturing very far from any of the ‘conveniences’. Meanwhile my DH enjoyed the facilities of the Spa which the hotel is famed for. I would have loved to have gone to the spa… Oh wonderful spa… Anyway, it wasn’t meant to be. Serves me right for gorging myself at dinner the night before. You live and learn.

I gingerly spent the afternoon taking pictures of the hotel grounds, not straying very far from the hotel room. We then packed up the last of our things and headed off to the capital – Santa Cruz de La Palma. We wanted to get there while it was still light to have a chance to look around before getting on the ferry.

Our mission once we got there was to find a pharmacy to get some sea-sickness medication – I couldn’t possibly go through the crossing again without something! Turns out I wasn’t the only one who felt queezy on the way over, and both the kids requested the tablets – just to be on the safe side! Thankfully we found an open pharmacy on one of the back streets. The streets that didn’t front onto the port (what I call the back streets) were cobbled and quaint and looked absolutely gorgeous in the fading light.

We picked a bar to hole up in for the wait until we could board the ferry home. It served great ‘Carne Mechada’ which served with some crusty bread really hit the spot. In what seemed like no time at all it was time to board the ferry for Tenerife and head home. I had already decided that I wouldn’t eat anything on the ferry, but instead found somewhere quiet to lay down and sleep with the kids (and most of the other passengers it seemed) for the three hour crossing.

Eventually we docked in Los Cristianos harbour and then made our way home where we all dropped into bed exhausted. A thoroughly peaceful weekend, which made us feel as though we had been there a week instead of only 48 hours. We shall definitely return (and do the spa next time!).

Thanks for stopping by.

Hopefully this blog will replace the yearly newsletters that I used to send out… It was hard work racking my brains trying to remember everything that had happened throughout the year.

This way, (hopefully) I will be able to post things as they happen!

Keep in touch and email me if you get the time!

Thanks for stopping by…

Abi, Adrian, Chelsea & Thomas

Long time no blog..

Guess I’m just not the type of person who can do all the stuff that Christmas, New Year and Birthdays (all at the same time) requires AND fit in time to create, blog and post. It just didn’t happen for me this year. Hence the long absence!

This means that if I had actually built up a following they (you!) would have all given up checking in for new posts by now and deleted me from their (your) frequent visitor list of blogs. I have about 100 blogs that I check every day, and some days I only get as far as M.. so you are all forgiven for having thought that I must have surely fallen off the top of a mountain somewhere and would never post again..

So, anyway, in other news, I have finally had my Internet connection fixed at home (yay!), so I can’t blame that for lack of posts in the future (insert sheepish look).

I would love to say that whilst I wasn’t blogging I was busy, busy, busy creating lots of cards and photographing them all to post in a continual stream that makes me look really good. I didn’t. I haven’t been anywhere near anything remotely crafty since the beginning of December.

(Here come the excuses..)

You see, every time I read all the great blogs out there, in between all the household chores and the kids being sick and the general hum-drum of life that goes on in all our busy lives, more often than not you will read something along the lines of… ” was able to lock myself away in my craft room ” or “the craft room was a mess but…” or even ” my craft area needed me” or some such (craft room) musings..

Well, I don’t have a craft room (insert wistful/pitiful look) ::sniff, sniff:: I had a desk once, and a printer and a computer.. Then suddenly I had a teenage daughter. (Aha! I hear you all cry – say no more).

For those of you who have ever had to share anything with their teenage daughter – shoes (when did her feet become the same size as mine?). Clothes (although I take offence to them being called the ‘vintage look’). Well, you get the drift..

Try sharing your space with her. I mean, she’s ALWAYS doing her homework!! For crying out loud, when I was her age, I was out doing ’stuff’ – granted to get out of the way of my parents, but still!.. At this rate she’ll qualify for NASA’s training programme before she hits 16. We’re talking solving equations that have more symbols in them than the highway code! I struggle to split the restaurant bill into two – know what I’m saying..? Is there really any need? Where did she even get this studious temperament from? Not me! (OK, maybe a little bit from me, the “have to do it again if it’s not perfect” she might have got from me, I’m not totally sure.. and I can’t even help her with any (OK I wasn’t talking about the maths side of things, for obvious reasons!) because it’s all in Spanish anyway.. Super hard. I can help with the English homework (as long as the words aren’t TOO difficult – thank God for the dictionary and thesaurus – woo-hoo).. Anyway I digress.. (did ya notice??)

So, I can’t get to the space that we ’share’ together because she’s been on school holidays for Christmas and instead of doing what any normal teenager would do, and leave it till the last minute and then study like mad, instead she decided to pace herself and study a bit each day. Unfortunately it always seemed to coincide with the exact moment I would have had half an hour to start on a card.. and anyone who has had a teenager tilt their head, scrunch their brow and say “Oh mum??” (only omitting the stamping of the foot to complete the picture), knows that it is not worth the time or energy it would take to argue with the teenager.

No point in saying that they could actually read the book somewhere else or connect to the Internet on one of the other two computers in the house.. Totally not worth it aggro wise… And even if I spot the desk empty with no signs of any homework type tools anywhere in sight, as soon as I sit down and get the glue box out – poof! as if by magic – the teenager appears demanding to know how long I’ll be. Then she will check back every three minutes to see if I’ve “finished yet?” I’ve come to the conclusion that this is, in fact, a tactic to annoy me (which cunningly works) so that after the first two interruptions in the space of ten minutes, I am lead to think it’s just totally not worth it, and I’ll just come back later. As a testament to this, I have been trying to come back later since the beginning of December.. To add insult to injury, when I then check back in on said teenager later to see if they are nearing the end of their homework so that I can sneak back in for 10 minutes, I find her checking out all the latest on You Tube, and “No sorry – not finished yet”. Then just when I think to myself, ‘ll get in there later, after dinner & the dishes, for 20 minutes before Grey’s Anatomy starts that’s when I get the “Going to bed early – growing kids need their sleep”.. I mean what teenager doesn’t like to goof off, stay up late and generally be a teenager? Not mine. Hence the non-blogging since the beginning of December..

Before you all start feeling sorry for me (you know you do deep down..) I have an eleven year old son, and i totally know he won’t let me down. He is totally going to goof off, stay up late and ignore ALL his homework. I know this because, a) he is a boy and b) he’s already doing it and I don’t think being a teenager is suddenly going to change him for the better..

So do ya feel sorry for me yet? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya? Didn’t think so..

Anyways.. this year I have decided to get more organised. I actually think I’m already pretty organised, but I’m still going to try and take it to the next level. There’s always room for improvement right? I’m also not going to worry so much about not getting stuff done, as I’ve discovered that this is probably what stresses me out the most. Having a concept of what I think should be happening and then being disappointed (stressed ..ahem..) that it doesn’t.. If it happens it happens, if it doesn’t, no biggie (deep breath), which leads me onto the whole point of this post (I know, I know you thought this was just RANDOM blathering!!), Nooooooo, it’s short story long blathering..

This year, I am going to give myself a break and post when I have the time. I started this blog to share what I love to do, but it all got very stressful when I checked out other blogs and realised people were blogging and creating EVERYDAY! Yikes.. Something inside of me (the competitive me, not the normal me) decided that I had to try and keep up, if not with the blogging, with the creating at least! Well the normal me is taking a stand and telling the competitive me that I just can’t do it. For the moment the normal me is winning and the competitive me is sulking.

By the way – you guys realised there are not really two of me right??

So check back later, and see if the competitive me managed to get her way and post anything..

Sorry for the long absence bloggers.

I thought I would post a quick message to let you all know I will be posting again after the New Year when I hope to have my internet connection resolved.

I am also experiencing some problems with blogger – the header has shrunk for no reason and the helpdesk assures me they are ‘looking into it’.

In the meantime – I can still send out the Santa Letters if anyone wants one – just email me.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year with your nearest and dearest.

Thanks for stopping by..

It is my DD’s 14th birthday tomorrow. Geesh, those 14 years went quickly!

To celebrate we all went out to dinner at her favourite restaurant. We blindfolded her and then drove her around all the back streets so that she wouldn’t guess where she was going!
I am posting a couple of photos because my heart just bursts with pride when I look at both her and my son and I just love to see how proud my DH is when she is around, being our first born and all..

My heart jumps with joy when I see my DS (he was born with Brittle Bone Disease and has had to cope with many, many fractures in his little life) but he has undergone treatment which has been both long and painful, and is now (fingers crossed) almost ‘normal’ and so I thank God every day, for my two special gifts from Heaven.

I have been meaning to post these photos… wait a minute, what am I saying… “I’ve been meaning…” I’ve only been blogging for a couple of weeks. What I mean is, I’ve been meaning to TAKE these photos for a while now, and now that I AM blogging I have actually gotten around to taking them. The same as now that I am blogging I have gotten around to reading my camera instruction booklet. Even though I got it, like, two years ago (or something like that). It’s strange how blogging inspires you. So anyway. Now that I have taken them – here they are. It is the door to my DS’s wardrobe in his newly decorated bedroom. He is mad about cars and racing and stuff and he loves the door I did him. He thinks it’s cool. Bless, wait another 6 months and he’ll probably think it’s really lame. Until such time I shall bask in the glory that is….. ‘My son thinks I can draw’. Ignore the bathroom shot on the left – I’m glad my DS hadn’t left underwear on the floor the day I took this..!!

I was re-directed to a blog yesterday by another craft blogger and clicked on it as it said, “If you want a real laugh at something that has nothing to do with craft then click on the link“. So I did. I then sat there for about two hours (approx) CRYING with laughter. I have posted the link on the left under favourite blogs. This lady should be writing her own book, she is so funny. Even if you only have a couple of kids you are still able to relate to this mum of six and you have to think “God Bless her” for her obvious patience and sense of humour. After all it’s a sense of humour that get’s us all through those trying moment as parents right? I think I speak for many when I say that you should check out this blog, just to give yourself a weekly dose of laughter if nothing else.

Enjoy – I really did!