My son has a birthday looming and he will be 21! What an occasion.  I still can not believe he can be 21! I keep doing the math, fingers and toes out, and coming up with same answer.  Where has my cheeky little boy gone? I’m not sad though, because now I have a cheeky big boy.  I win!  It makes me laugh how the entire family are looking to me for inspiration for his twenty first birthday gift?  My dad is asking me his ring size…. How do I know? My daughter wanted to pay for him to have another tattoo done! I vetoed that one pretty quickly I can tell you! I’m not a fan of the body artwork on my own children. It’s ok on other people’s children. )

Then after the birthday its Christmas…. I care less about the gifts and more about the fact that I just want to ensure that I have a carpet down to put the Christmas tree on. I’d like to have all of the painting finished so I can put decorations up and I’d like to have doors fixed on so I can close them and get cosy!  Small things….. But apparently they take the longest to get right! Oh… and a sofa to sit on… and a dining table so we can sit around it and pull crackers.

I’m not getting my usual array of garden visitors now.  I know why, it’s mainly due to the fact that I have a family of Sparrow hawks living nearby. It puts a dampener on the normal feeding frenzies I used to have. Unless of course they want to become the food that causes the frenzy I think things will stay quiet for a while.  I’ve seen more foxes than usually lately.  On the way back from the cinema at the weekend with my daughter and my sons’ girlfriend we spotted a fox crossing the very busy roundabout as we left the motorway.  I also saw one crossing some waste land near my house.  I like seeing the fox as it’s not something I get to see often.  (I’ve seen quite a few asleep on the roadside….seems a strange place to snooze.) The squirrels have gone… not sure where but they have left the garden.  It will give me time to squirrel guard the feeders for spring! Destructive little devils!   I seem to have invested in the very posh Nyger seed for no reason! The nyger seed feeder is untouched, and here was I, sure I would have all the tropical birds visiting from miles around!

My house critters are all doing well.  The Dragon and the gecko seem happy, spending their days lolling! They make it look easy! We witness the occasional spurt of enthusiasm when my son puts the crickets and meal worms in the tank.   The fish seem happy…. I think… it’s hard to say otherwise, I mean, have you seen an expressive fish? Moving into my daughters’ room…. We have my favourite ladies, the degus! They are fine.  We had a moment on Sunday when one of the girls seemed to injure herself.  She was being a little over enthusiastic trying to get to a monkey nut and she suddenly slumped to the floor.  She seemed to hold up her front leg.  I scooped her up and handed her to the animal cuddler… (My daughter… that’s what she always used to say she wanted to be when she grew up) She calmed her and rubbed her gently. After about ten minutes she seemed ok. We put her back in the cage with the others and she seemed fine. However, a couple of hours later she was huddled alone in her hammock looking less than happy.  I told Andrea that she may have hurt herself and just needed time to recuperate.  I must be related to the Dolittles because right enough, the next morning she was scurrying over the log bridge like a Degu possessed!

Andrea’s hamster Polo died a few weeks ago.  We haven’t had a lot of luck with the hamsters lately and we wondered if it was to do with where we were getting them from. That being said, we have decided to call a halt to hamster adoptions. She breaks her heart over them and they already live short little lives.  This one was never very sociable and Andrea hadn’t managed to work her magic with him.  He just went to bed and never got up so I’m presuming there was little suffering.  Allen of course saw an opportunity to offload his dwarf hamsters and he knocked on her bedroom door, cage in hand, smile on face. Andrea rolled her eyes and placed the cage over by the window.  These two little guys live even shorter little lives than the Syrian hamsters! 12-18 months tops! They are cute little boys though.  We have so much fun watching them. They like to tunnel so we have found a use for empty toilet rolls! Add to the toilet rolls lots of sawdust, two wheels and some food and you have instant entertainment!  They have some terrible mealtime manners and toilet habits. Apparently there is no need to leave the wheel! Lordy there is poop and food flying all over the place as they spin a mile a minute with full pouches! So Ares and Apollo seem happy to be living with the Belle girls in Andrea’s bedroom. There is officially no room for anything else…… not even the two rats Andrea keeps smiling at in the pet shop.   Uncle Gordon has been getting a snake (Ceaser…like the salad) so he has kindly offered to make use of any future dead rodents! Andrea was appalled at the offer!

Whilst admiring things of beauty, I managed to capture a vision of the word ‘Serenity’.

How gorgeous is she? I think I caught the perfect moment. She was just lying there.  She did move…slightly just to look and see where her dad had gone….

Haha! To perfectly caption this post….. “Where’s my dad gone?”

I’ll finish with my teen Angel.  Although she appears to be having a ‘Peter Pan’ moment. She had been searching in her under-the-bed cupboard for cuddly toys to donate to a dog charity.  As you can imagine the pile to keep was so much higher than the pile to go! The birdy got to stay!

I think this is the first time I have seen her smile properly in over 4 years.  She has hidden her smile for so long.  I have to say though, if there are any parents out there who think for one minute that getting a brace fitted for your child is not the right thing to do, take heed!  My daughter received an instant confidence boost the minute the brace was taken off.  I know, she has to go back to have a retainer fitted but it’s only for a few extra months and looking at how nice her teeth are now, she has no problem with it at all.  I think in general it is a long drawn out process having the teeth straightened but with Andrea, her jaw was unevenly aligned due to all the teeth keen to make an appearance and so the whole process has been longer for her as she needed blocks fitted before the brace when on. 

She’s beginning a new chapter in her life today as she is doing her induction day at Sixth Form College.  I am the proudest mother around!  You GO Andrea!

Not much has happened in the past week apart form the fact that my house looks like a scene from a war movie.  I’ve no skirting boards on, I’ve ladders where dining tables used to be.  The elephant ornament family have taken refuge in a storage box.  I have no blinds up, I have colour test patch all over the walls, it looks like a severe case of the measles has broken out.  I keep saying to myself…. “It will all be worth it.” (Repeat 986 times and remember to breath!)  The floor is coming up, the doors are being removed.  I shall live in a shell! It will all be worth it!

I have to pinch myself you know, just sometimes. I see my 21 year old young man, come home from work and then I see my 16 year old young lady, come home from college.  How did that happen! I must have done something right!

Things are changing for me a little on the work front… after 8 years of having a company car it looks as though the company are changing their policy and the company car will be a thing of the past.  Of course, my salary will reflect that and negotiations are in place.  I will now have to bear the cost of a car and all its running costs and have it all in place by October 1^st.  I have my eye on something very pretty……  You may remember this blog post from the past, although it did seemingly go by almost un-noticed! Well that’s what I have my eye on… I just have to hope my funds will go that far! We may have to cut back on costs….. if I got rid of all the animals in the house I’m pretty sure I could comfortably afford one…. I know…. That’s not going to happen!

You would be very surprised though how much our animal collection do cost me.

The degus are especially expensive to keep happy. They need so many new things to keep them occupied. (A bored degu is a sad degu!)  My Blue Peter attempts of making things have been a little lacking. My dad is funny though, every time we visit him he hands Andrea an armful of empty toilet rolls informing her that they are for the “Gogo’s”

My lovely daughter did amazingly well in her recent GCSE results.  She had a smattering of A’s B’s and a very lovely C in maths…along with a D or two, but they are all passes.  She has the results she needs to forward march into Sixth Form college and continue her education.  She wants to concentrate on English literature and Language, History and Geography.  I’m very happy with her selection.

Andrea has another landmark event in the offing… she has her fixed brace removed on Monday! After almost four years she is very happy with the prospect of being brace free… well almost… She will need to fitted for a retainer but it’s much smaller, less bulky and not permanent.

I haven’t spent enough time promoting my lovely garden friends this year and I intend to change that.  The bird feeders are once again full.  Mainly visiting blue tits and coal tits but they are all welcome.  The Jays appear to becoming braver and seem to venture further up the garden every day! Not close enough for a photograph though! I’ll keep trying to capture that image.  The rabbits don’t dominate the garden as they used to in previous years.  This year we had more flowers in the garden than ever! I still see the odd rabbit but they remain nearer to the woods… far enough away from the flowers!  With Scruff and Louie making more frequent visits to my garden perhaps the rabbits are little less keen to congregate there.

So, that’s me bang up to date once again.  How are things with all of you? No really…. I’m interested.

Oh one last thing… I don’t want you to think that I’m not mentioning my lovely son Allen. He helps in his own way. Look at him here! He’s helping me with the clearin gup after dinner!

Well another lengthy wait before I decide to do an entry!

I’m always surprised anyone still reads….other than the obvious die-hard readers. (For which I am truly thankful!)

So another birthday came and went… It was fun, with the aid of facebook and the birthday’s notifications everyone you know is informed of the mournful day. (It was for me anyhow!) 42! Goodness, how did that happen?  Here I am, a woman of forty two with two grown children.  I sometimes have to check this life is really mine, I check the reflection in the mirror is really me and I check that the scales aren’t faulty!

Thank you to all of my friends who wished me a happy birthday through one medium or another.  The girlies at work made the entire day a lovely day.  Considering I WAS at work that’s quite an achievement.  Sadly it would seem that my family and friends truly believe that me and my home smell… well considering all of the smellies and candles and aromatherapy bits and pieces I received…. I’m assuming they are trying to tell me something.  Of course all of those things I do love, along with squid.

My dad in law decided to tell me that I almost got some squid but the fish market man didn’t have any left! That would have been the icing on the cake!

My dad bought me a smart phone! Me, getting a smart phone! I couldn’t even fathom that you needed to read the emails from the provider and click a link to activate the 3G (3 Gnomes??) and of course the keyboard is too small for me, it has nothing to do with me having stumpy fat fingers.  Until they slim down I’m afraid my texts will be littered with typos.  Finally! I have a valid excuse for typos! See, the phone IS smart!

Along with greetings from family friends there was also an email greeting from someone who I haven’t considered a friend for quite sometime. I appreciated the greeting; it was very nice of this person to remember my birthday.  Had the boot been on the other foot, I doubt I would have done the same.  I gave thanks, no olive branch was offered or received or would have been accepted but at least it’s a civil non-friendship!

Time marches on, we all get older, most get wiser, some of us have the reverse happen and become somewhat dumber…. I blame it all on age! 

As the family unit trundles through its daily rituals I find myself happy in life in general. I find myself comfortable with time if not with age and I find myself content with what I have but assurances that if I was offered more I would become no less content!

It was my attention to share some photos of the latest family members but sadly I’m on a different pc.  I may add them at a later date.

Allen has added to his ‘reptile house’ with two non reptile members. They are Ares and Apollo, not Gods but dwarf  hamsters! Some may see the resemblance.  Andrea has Polo, the new Syrian hamster not minty confectionary.

They are all as sweet as can be…  I’m guessing they are happy even though a smile is not visible.  One of the dwarf hamsters tends to look a little grumpy on occasion  (That may be Ares, well he is the Dark God of war!) but I think it’s due to the noise of the crickets in the reptile food drawer.  I have to admit, some people say they hear bells and I hear crickets.  I wish the Bearded Dragon would consider a vegetarian lifestyle or the equivalent in a diet of non-noisy foodstuffs ….

Back to the entry, it was really just to say thank you. Thank you.

My daughter Andrea sits her final exam tomorrow.  She will then leave the school and walk through the gates for the last time.  What an achievement… I don’t mean to leave school; I think I mean what an achievement for my daughter, Andrea.  Friends who have been around a while, in the days when blogging was as required as breathing, may remember this post.  My daughter was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in 2003 when she was 8 years of age.  The same year I lost my mam.  The funny thing  is, I lost my mam in October and Andrea was diagnosed in the December and my mam never even knew she was ill, or how ill she was.  She just loved her. 

I remember after the diagnosis she was prescribed (T4) Thyroxin for life.  I could never imagine the changes that would occur in a very short time.  My daughter blossomed.  She was now able to do all of the things that she had never ever thought she would be able to.  Swimming, bike riding, tree climbing, running, skipping… They all sound like such normal activities; most of us take for granted the ability to do these things.  All wonderful things but I was warned that her schoolwork would suffer….

In her final parents meeting at JuniorSchool I spoke with her teacher, Mr Woodhouse. He told me that Andrea was not going to reach her potential.  He told me she would make remedial classes at best in all subjects.  I was astounded.  Doomed to fail, no hope, no offer of help, no kind words of optimism.  FAILURE!  It’s hard to hear… It’s hard for your child to hear those remarks.  I remember leaving the demountable buildings with Andrea’s little hand tightly held in mine.  I would not cry. 

It takes time for that kind of information to sink in, what I had been told did not make any sense to me.  I had (and still have) two very bright children. Reading and writing as quick ,if not quicker than their peers.  Andrea was singing the alphabet when she was two.  NO. The teacher may have had no hope but we had bucketfuls!

I can’t even remember how it all started.  I remember it was when we didn’t have a home computer.  Flighty did weekly blog posts full of interesting things about the planet, animals, festivals of celebration and much, much more.  Something for everyone but I knew he always had Andrea’s interests at the forefront of his mind.  We were regulars at our local library, booking the computer for an hour at a time.  She was able to read, research, comment and thank him for the wonderful posts full of vital information that reached her far quicker than it reached most.  It was as if it was a handful of delicious food held out to her and she would reach out for it and gobble it up greedily.

So here we are.  Andrea has sat just almost  all of her exams, she has studied (and on occasions, crammed!) so she is able to sit in the exam hall for each examination knowing that she has done everything she could.  Her projected grades are good and her incentive was piqued with the knowledge of monetary reward from her Mam and Dad should she reach her goals……

 Now we wait.  Andrea has chosen to stay at school, a sixth form centre in the city where she will study for A levels in English, English Literature, Geography and History.  Those are her favourite subjects and ones which she excels at.  All of those subjects are related to the important years of those blog posts from a friend.

I’m not there yet so don’t worry about me. 

Most of my evenings have involved cleaning lately, needs must.  I needed my house to be sparkly clean and now we are starting to decorate the downstairs.  Houses don’t do themselves but I’m amazed at how quickly the time goes by.  It’s been that long since we decorated that if you take my clock off the wall, there is still a clock on the wall! Haha….. Don’t tell anyone!  The shame!

Andrea’s degu’s are my passion at the moment. They are the cutest things.  Having the four of them means that they keep each other company but that doesn’t stop them from demanding attention.  They are all called Belle.  Well, they look identical and they don’t answer to it, they respond to clicking fingers only.  We lost three under the bed last night.  Forget about doing the Wii Fit for exercise, just get some degu’s and let them out to play in a storage box…. They are just like little Jack-in-a-boxes, springing up all over the place.  Monkey Nuts! For ultimate entertainment put four monkey nuts in the food bowl and watch total comedy chaos ensue! I must try and video them sometime…. People need to smile and watching them makes you smile!

The garden has suddenly sprung into life.  From having an almost eerily silent garden over the past couple of months it is positively bustling now.  It always goes quiet at nesting time, that’s when the Starlings take advantage and use their gang mentality to bully what few little birds there are about.  I must admit I did react and I cleared the feeding station of food.  I then relented and now, every morning, all you can hear is squawking baby starlings, not sure how they squawk so well with their baby beaks gaping open!   We’ve also been lucky enough to spot a pair of Goldfinches which are not frequent visitors to my garden, in fact this is the first time I have ever seen them here. Husband says he saw one last year but I can happily admit that we are suitably impressed and chuffed on each returning visit.  With all of the returning flocks, drays and herds (Herd of rabbits would you believe!) we are also delighted to see the Woodpecker back in the garden.  I couldn’t even get into the garden to hang out my washing this morning as I didn’t want to disturb him/her. 

It looks as though we are going to have an active Springtime/Summertime out in the garden.

In other news my daughter Andrea is just about finished at school.  She has 11 more exams to sit between now and the end of June then she officially leaves.  Of course she isn’t going to look for work, I’m thankful that she is ‘staying on’ as we call it and going to The City Sixth Form Centre for a further two years.  She’s looking to gain A and/or AS Levels in English, English Lit, History and Geography.  Don’t ask me what she is going to do after that as I have no clue….neither does she but I’m sure her future plans will form over the next two years.  The schools are on half term this week and yet my daughter has spent three mornings at school at the specially arranged ‘revision’ classes.  *Very proud*

She has her ‘prom’ next Friday.  We had so much fun (and a little stress) finding her a lovely dress.  She was adamant that she was wearing a short cocktail type dress.  I tried to reason with her and coax her to go for the traditional ‘prom’ dress.  We ‘happened’ to pass a shop in the local shopping centre that specialised in gowns…. She tried two on, just to appease her mother and would you believe it, she fell in love with a gown.  I can’t wait to take some pics of her on the evening which I am sure to share with you.  Her Grandma was given the special task of ‘taking it up’ and her cousin bought her the costume jewellery to match.

Now all we need is a pair of silver, strappy sandals…. then … ‘Outfit complete.’

Perhaps I’m just not trying hard enough. 

Last weekend saw me, my husband and daughter leaving behind the house and all the work needing doing to be done in it and to it for a little jaunt up to Edinburgh.  I have to say it was just what the doctor ordered.  The fun started immediately when we saw our triple room! Three beds in a row put me in mind of Goldilocks.  Of course what ensued was a fight as to who had to sleep next to the grizzly bear!! (Loudy McSnorty, my husband!)

The weekend whizzed by and after mastering the local bus service we managed to sight-see as much as we could.  The zoo is an old favourite of ours although it is going through many changes at the moment and so I guess they are glad of the visitors as it is a little chaotic.  I think our favourite place had to be The Camera Obscura.  This was fascinating and so much fun… not so funny when my husband hadn’t realised the illusions had stopped and he walked into the glass door as we exited the displays! Luckily I had tissues to mop up the blood and there was a handy ice-cream van on the approach to the Castle. Ice cream works for all ages!  On the Saturday evening we had booked up for a ghost walk which took us to some spooky parts of Edinburgh and to have the spooky tales retold by our very nice and theatrical tour guide! The tour took us to the vaults underneath the city where tales of terror and haunting were told by candle light. 

Back home and the recent nice weather and lighter nights always make you feel a little happier.  Everyone seems to be well in the Daffy household. Andrea has her exams coming soon and so can usually be found in a corner of the house somewhere with her head in a book and her hand in the biscuit box! Allen appears to want to rival the local reptile house! We have had a recent influx of scaly house guests.  I’ve had these pictures on Facebook so some friends may have seen them but I’ll still leave you with a couple (or three) of photos…..

This is Tino, the Leopard Gecko, having mastered the art of climbing. He also does the ‘sliding back down’  the wall very well too!

This is the baby Bearded Dragon. (What do you mean “You expected a photo of me!!”)  As yet, this critter is un-named.  I love the simple look he has…. vacant expression. 

Now then, this is one of two Bumble Bee Walking Toads we now have.  They are great to watch! Once again, they are un-named! (Excuse my sons dirty hands but these toady critters live in top soil and roots!)

Have a good weekend!

I’m not going to sit here and make excuses…. I can be flakey!

Well we have a new member of the family and if I don’t tell all of you who do I tell?  I know Flighty will be over the moon at the sight of Tino…. the Gecko!!

Andrea has changed her hair colour… Scruff has had a dramatic fur-cut … who would I share it with….

Look People… if I am in your reader… leave me there.  Then you will see when I post and you can choose to view or not.   How’s that!  Of course if I write I hope you do.

*Loretta… you left me a lovely comment on my last (final! hehe) post.  Please could you comment again so I can get your blog address please. Thank you.

I didn’t just want to disappear as I know people worry.

I know a lot of my lovely friends that I have been lucky enough to get to know through this medium  are on FB so I will still ‘see’ you all there.

I have had a wonderful time blogging…. no regrets at all.  Only one sorry incident which resulted in someone being a little childish and pendantic but hey, you are better off without those people in your life anyway.

All in all a wonderful experience.  I find myself sayinging I’ll blog more regularly, it lasts a week then I don’t blog again for a while.  The best idea is to stop, To leave it altogether and if my circumstances change in the future, well I can always start again.

Thanks to everyone who has ever read or commented on this blog.  I appreciate the time you have taken and the stories we have shared.