random pics and bits and bobs..

Hello everyone!

Just a few bits and bobs really this week!

Nick's off to Mauritius "working" tomorrow for 10 days - well, he does actually work but its the kind of work that makes working seem more like playing! As an example, they are having an 80s night whilst they are there and Nick and 2 of his friends will be dressed as Ghostbusters!! Here he is with the wig that he will be wearing to go with the outfit - utterly hideous eh?!?!!! (Thought you might particularly enjoy this one Lauren!!!!!!!)

So, Nick leaves at 9am tomorrow and, with luck, he'll be home about midnight on the 30th May - if he misses his transfer back from Heathrow, it'll be the 31st. Nick has just complained that its "not fair" that I'm blogging the above pic and that its "character assasination" - if the shoe fits....... ;o) hehehehehehe

Other news, our house is getting a roof this week! All is progressing really well still - we have signed stuff at the solicitors, chosen all our options, and our kitchen has been ordered. All systems go for moving the last weekend in June. Many thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks and your continued support as we get close to the moving date. Its such a short time to get everything done - particularly with Nick away for about 2.5 weeks in the meantime! Oh well, it just gives me less time to get really stressed - if I had longer I would still leave everything to the last minute but I'd have longer to worry!! :o)

This is our actual house last weekend - I'll take another shot when we have more roof and post later this week. We couldn't get right behind it last weekend but they've opened the road now so I'll be able to get a better view next time.

I haven't mentioned training in a while - its been going really well but its going to take a dip the next few weeks cos I won't have chance to run. Caitlin likes to accompany me on her bike but its a bit much for Iz - so I think I'll resort to fitness videos in the lounge!! hahahaha - now THAT's a picture I won't take!!

Today we've been bowling all together as a special treat before Nick goes away. Final score: Nikki 101 (not great but check out Nick's score!!), Izzy (with ramp and bumpers) 68, Caitlin (with bumpers) 61 and Nick 58!!!! Hahahahahahaa - I laughed!!!!!! So funny! Izzy loved the bowling shoes - her first time!

I also got my car back today - all in all this week, servicing cars and fixing and taxing and MOTing my car (annual inspection for cars over 3 years old in case its different across the pond!) has cost us over £800!!! :o( Oh well - they're all running really well now and its just what you have to do when you run cars I guess!

I'll leave you with a rather cute pic of Izzy who kindly allowed me to put her hair in bobbles this morning - she was very proud of her "beautiful" self for about 10 minutes - then pulled it all out!! She's such a tomboy!

This week will be a bit of a toughy. I've taken short days to make sure I can keep on top of the kids, the house and the job so it should all fit in just fine. I'm just praying that the kids stay fit and well as they are now! On Saturday Nick's Mum and Dad are coming for the bank holiday weekend and the three of us are really looking forward to that - particularly taking them round the show home and showing them how our new house is developing. I think that Lauren's friends Claire and Helen might pop round as well one evening - who feels a chic flick and chocolate coming on??!?!

Love to all of you - and particularly love to Sharon and Brad on their last week as single people - this time next week you guys will be Mr and Mrs - aaagghhhh!!!! :o) Enjoy!

Big hugs

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Decisions, decisions, decisions......

Morning all!!.... and especially "good morning" to Lauren now back in Canada for a few weeks and to all her family! Hope you guys are having lots of fun :o)

So, yesterday Nick and I went to the excitingly named "options centre" to choose "options" for our new house - boy was that a marathon session!!

We were there 2.5 hours and really needed another 30mins but I had to get back to work!!

We sorted the kitchen, the tiles, the electric upgrades and the wardrobes though :o) The kitchen is going to be amazing we think! If you look at our previous blog, the worktop in the kitchen showhome is the same worktop we are getting - kind of a matt dark brown called (and this seems to be "colour name of the year!!") 'wenge' - whatever that is?!?!? The units are going to be a high gloss cream with stainless steel handles - should look good! There were too many choices though :o) We've picked out cream tiles for the kitchen and utility and (hopefully) Nick's brother Nigel is going to put a dark laminate / vinyl floor down for us - we're excited!

Other things are just to be quite simple - the bathrooms have a nice white tile, very simple but we don't like too much fuss. Then we can accessorise to suit - the girls are going to have raspberry accessories in their bathroom! Our bathroom might be a bit more detailed - we've asked for a quote for a white tile with small glass tiles as a border - can't describe it that well but if we can afford it it will look wonderful :o)

My car went into the garage yesterday - it ran out of warranty in April and promptly my indicator stalk and rear windscreen wiper motor have failed - the pleasure of fixing it - £300!!!!! Daylight robbery! I think in future I'll go to another garage not the main dealer though because every time I go they also try to charge me for random other things that I don't need - Nick has become quite sarcastic with them!

So, breakfast and Backyardigans with the girls.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxooxoxoxox

What to do whilst waiting for the gas man.....

Hello!

I'm waiting for the gas man to come - so thought I'd do a bit of an update with pics whilst I'm waiting!!

Hopefully, you've read the previous blog on the house and that certainly took up the majority of last week! Few pics from Justin Timberlake for you first tho - we had such a fab evening!

Lauren and I before the show and the opening stage:

The boy sings, dances, plays the piano AND looks hot!!!!!

Nick and I took a few photos in the show home last weekend too - these will give you some idea of the house - just remember though - this is the spanky nice showhome, expensively decorated and filled with all possible luxury upgrades!!!!! Nick and I are going to the "options centre" on Monday - to choose tiles, kitchens, bathrooms stuff - but there will be a whole heap of optional extras which we could choose to upgrade to if we want. Fitted wardrobes, carpets, kitchen appliances etc etc so we're going to have to be very focused to avoid spending ridiculous sums of money!!

Lauren's room, the kitchen, view from master bedroom through dressing room to en-suite bathroom, lounge through to dining room (with my best mate Ros, her son Finn and Izzy!):

Ooohhhh - gas man's here - I'll just let him in - BRB!!

So, the boiler and fire has to be serviced and a safety certificate issued to part ex our house so that's what's going on there!

Last weekend Nick and I went to stay for the night with his friend Sarah and her husband Dan near Manchester. Sarah is the lovely lady from Beachcomber who Nick works for in Mauritius and the Seychelles - and also the lovely lady who is organising our amazing holiday this year. The holiday just got more amazing - as well as the Seychelles, she's also paid for 3 days in Dubai en route flying business class with Emirates!!! Wow!!! We are SOOOooooooo lucky!!!!!!

Whilst we were away, Brent and Lauren took the girls to Beamish. They took some lovely pictures - check out Lauren's blog (link to the right) if you want to have a look :o)

Better get back to the gas man!!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxox

a very expensive week!

Hello all

Once more, this will be a quick one cos I'm just about to go off to work - this week I'll have chance to do a proper one but last week was crazy busy - and this is why........

Last week on Saturday (ie Saturday before last) - Nick was in Gran Canaria and Lauren, the girls and I decided to go look round a new showhome in Ingleby Barwick. We'd seen the plans a few months back and the house looked lovely but its always hard to tell til you see it "in the flesh" and the showhome on site is the house that we liked the look of in the plans.

So, we looked round - and fell in love!!!! Guess what happened next..... Nick came back from Gran Canaria late on the Saturday evening and on the Sunday, he came with me for a look round - and also loved it. BUT its a lot of money and we went for a chat at the pub and talked ourselves out of buying it..... by Sunday bedtime, we'd talked ourselves back into having a bit more information!!

Monday lunchtime, I called into the showhome to chat to the very nice ladies there. They could do a part exchange on our house for the new house (not quite built yet - just up to the first floor windows!!) which, if we were able to get a good price for ours, would be excellent. Hassle free - we wouldn't have to worry about showing our house, bringing round estate agents and paying estate agents fees AND it would all be done very quickly.

The showhome ladies arranged for our house to be valued so that they could make us a part exchange offer and estate agents arranged to come round last Friday. All last week, mad tidying took place!! I took Friday off to do the final thorough clean and Lauren had been busy all week. Nick had done some serious stuff shifting on the evening and between us all, by Friday lunch, the house looked lovely! I'd also arranged for our own estate agent to come round so that I knew what the actual value of the house would be - just in case they tried to offer us something ridiculous on the part exchange.

Valuation from the builder first - lovely chap but he didn't tell me what he thought the house was worth. Then the independent estate agent - who told me that my house was worth less than I thought cos of the shared access to the drive (and I agree - we would never buy a house with shared access again!!) and also cos the kitchen is now looking a little dated.

That was a bit of a downer and by this time, Lauren had picked Caitlin up from school so the 3 of us decided to go back and look at the showhome again to cheer ourselves up! On the way, my mobile rang but I couldn't answer cos I was driving. I listened to the message outside the showhome and it was someone from Miller (the builder) head office saying she had a part exchange offer for me (literally 1 hour after the estate agent had been!!) and to call into the showhome for details - so I did!!

They offered us £15k more than I'd been told our house was worth!!!!!!!! I'd be no good at poker cos I squealed with excitement and grabbed Lauren's hand then we went and skipped in the showhome where I phoned Nick who said "did you bite their hand off and pay the cheque"?!!!!

Long and short of it is Saturday morning, as soon as the showhome opened, Nick and I were there with a reservation cheque and ID and we filled out the forms and the house is now ours for the taking!!!! We're just finalising details with the bank this week so its not a totally done deal yet but the house is reserved for us and we're starting to plan decor etc etc!! So exciting!! If it all goes ahead, we should be moving in in early July :o)

Anyway, the bit you've been waiting for - what is the house like...... here's the link!

http://www.millerhomes.co.uk/explore/NorthEast/10842/housestyles/4646

Enjoy!!!!!

More details pics and other non-house news later.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

JUSTIN IS SOOOOOooooooo FINE!!!!!!!

AAAGgggghghghghghghghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........

I'll write properly later cos I've got to go to work but just wanted to say.....

Justin was utterly delicious!!!!!!!

Lauren and I squealed like teenage girls! It was so much fun! The stage was awesome, the dancers were amazing, the lighting was breathtaking and Justin was a lot more talented than I thought he was going to be - gorgeous voice and his dancing - mmmmm mmmmmmmmmm ;o)

That boy is FINE!!

Anyway - I'll post some pictures later but just wanted to share the excitement - Lauren might get some pics up during the day today so you might want to check her blog later too!!

Love to all - and especially JT :o)

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxox