Anniversary surprise

Hello all!

I had to blog this one straight away cos I was SOOOOooooo happy this morning with my 11th anniversary present from my fab hubby :o)

We were just chilling this morning in the lounge. There was a knock at the door....a bit early still for the neighbourhood children!

Nick looked towards the door and then turned to me with a twinkle in his eye and said "I think it's for you"!!

I got the key to open the door and could see there was a man with flowers there.... "Are you Nikki" he said, grinning hugely, "cos I've got something for you if so"! Then he started looking through the huge pile of flowers in his arms...."this is for the first year" he said handing me a single hand tied red rose with a post-it from the florist attached to the sellophane saying "1st Year"....
then he roots through the flowers again....."2nd Year" he says.....


and again....3rd year
4th year


5th year

6th year


7th year

8th year

9th Year

10th year

Then he says...."is that right....10 years?" still grinning. I replied "no, it's 11" also grinning - "ah" he said "then you'll also want this" and handed me the biggest gorgeousest bouquet of 11 red roses all beautifully tied :o)


What a wonderful, amazing, romantic and thoughtful present eh? Totally made me cry!! Here are a few pics of the flowers all laid out on the lounge floor this morning and then a few of them in vases as they now are all around the house :o) We had to go and buy more vases to house them all!!!!




Nick had got Diana Kaye in Yarm to do the flowers, she won florist of the year last year and I think I can see why! Nick phoned her to thank her for doing such a fab job and apparently the girls in the shop had been talking of nothing else all morning! An original and very romantic anniversary present - which impressed a shop full of florists!! ;o)



If ever there is a day to feel truly blessed by marriage - this is it! Thankyou Nick - I love you more than words can say.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxxx

back to school.....

so, the summer holidays (such as they were cos it really has been miserable weather wise!!! - altho we've still had lots of fun) are over and the girls are back at school :o)

They went back on Tuesday and were both SO excited :o) Caitlin is back with her teacher from year 3, Mr Shildrick, who she gets on with SOOOooooo well - and he really appreciates her talents and personality too so I think she'll have a wonderful year. As Barleyfields is a new school, it opened 2 years ago only up to year 4. Caitlin was year 3 at that time and joined a small mixed year 3/4 class which grew throughout the year. Last year, they had a mixed year 3/4 class and a mixed year 4/5 class and Caitlin (again) was in the top class - year 4/5. This year, they still don't have enough year 6s for a full class of 30 (but nearly!) and more year 5s than fit into one class but only just. So, a few of the more able year 5s are in the mixed year 5/6 class and, you guessed it....Caitlin's in the top class again!!! She'll have spent 4 years in the top class in the school by the time she leaves for secondary after year 6!! Its going to be a tough year for her tho because the year 6 kids have their SATs to do later in the year and will have to work very hard. Caitlin usually works with the year 6 kids anyway so, by default, she's going to have more to do. There are only 3 year 5 girls in the class (and I think 3 year 5 boys) so that little group are going to be pushed! Caitlin loves to work and enjoys the challenge of learning but please keep her and her other friends in your prayers this year that they don't get disheartened and still have the energy for their real year 6 year next year!

Izzy has also been a star this year. Barleyfields has wraparound provision on site for nursery children called Ryandale. Up till this year, Izzy has been looked after by Lauren, then the childminder, then Renee in the mornings and then went to nursery in the afternoon. She only has one more term of nursery to go and then starts full time school in Janaury - which she can't wait for!! So, for this term, Izzy goes to Ryandale in the morning, they take her for school dinner at lunch then onto nursery for the afternoon. She has settled SOOOooooo well - I'm such a proud Mummy!! She loves the playgroup in the morning (which has staff from after school club in it so she already knew plenty of both the staff and the children who go to nursery with her in the afternoon!) and ADORES school dinners ;o) It'll work really well cos she'll get used to school dinners under direct supervision for a term before she starts doing it on her own in January.

Aside from the settling back into school, Caitlin travelled safely back from Exeter having had a wonderful time with her Auntie Mel, Uncle Carl and cousins - she also saw lots of my brother and had a great time with Uncle Steve too :o) How amazingly grown up of her to travel back on her own tho - proud Mummy time again!!!! Izzy and I met her at the airport which was lots of fun - the girls missed each other so much - so sweet to see them back together again! I put Izzy in her pushchair as it was after 8pm when we had to pick Caitlin up so she was all in her pjs and dressing gown and tucked up in the pushchair which she loved. Izzy was never a pushchair fan and we haven't used it since well before her 3rd birthday - I think she was about 2 and a half when we put it away!! She was so funny this weekend tho - wanting to sleep in it and go everywhere in it cos "my legs get so tired Mummy with all that walking".....heheheheeee - I told her "tough" and put it back in the garage when we'd finished picking Caitlin up!!!!! :o)

Nick's in the sunny Seychelles again.....I'm saying no more but I still think he really ought to blog his trips at some point!!! Caitlin and I were laughing the other day looking at facebook cos lots of his friends / "work" colleagues who go to Mauritius / Seychelles with him had posted pictures of him....in the first one, he was lounging on a lounger under a palm tree with a cocktail, second one, propping up a bar arm in arm with friends drinking a cocktail, third one, with a friend and a glass of something or other....Caitlin said "he's not working in this one Mummy......or this one......he's definitely not working in this one"......;o) We took the mickey a bit before he left and he assures me that someone has taken a photo of him "working" this time...so we'll see!! ;o)

Tomorrow Lauren is coming over to spend the morning with us and hopefully stay for lunch cos its yummy pasta, our traditional Saturday treat which I never knew who enjoyed the most, the girls, Lauren or me!!!! We're all excited to see her - and will hopefully get over to visit her very soon in her new house just up the road in Billingham :o) YAY!!! So great to have her back and be able to text her random things or give her a quick call :o) I think Nick's quite relieved that we'll have our first meet up when he's not here cos he can't keep up with our conversation and the speed at which we talk and usually ends up with a headache!!! ;o)

Sunday marks the beginning of the new year of Razamataz with our new groups :o) I've got a lovely group of year 3s again and I'm excited to see a whole year through from beginning to end and to really plan and think about what we're going to do from the start :o)

Think that's about it for now.....to finish in true brit styley - I went to work this morning in trousers, a wooly jumper and a jacket - the heating is back on and its grey, cold and raining! - oh well.....next step Christmas!!!! heheheheheheee

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxx

Caitlin's in Exeter!

Hey all

Well, just wanted to let you know that Caitlin has arrived safely with her Auntie Mel in Exeter!!!!! :o) She's so grown up! :o(

We had my niece here for 2 days - Millie is just SO amazing, nearly 16 and just a lovely, intelligent and wonderful person :o) She's been great with the girls and I felt so much better today knowing that she was flying with Caitlin :o)

In other news - Izzy has slept through the last 2 nights!!! YAY!!!!!!!! I think she's just about better!!!! She still has a slight cough but its not really disturbing her and she's able to run a bit and ride her bike without coughing too much which is great! As promised - here she is with her rash....

its all gone now tho!!! and as you can see, the rash didn't really bother her!!!!

That's about all for now - safe flight for Lauren tomorrow :o) and I'll update you on Caitlin's trip down to Exeter and our wonderful "holiday at home" this last weekend next week.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxxxxx

ikkle splodgy Izzy!!

This morning Izzy runs into my bedroom just as I'm finishing getting dressed for work....she's all dressed for holiday club, lunch boxes ready to go and everything on track....."look at my arms Mummy, I've got red freckles ALL over them" she says.....

yup...just as the face rash was fading, it moved to her arms and legs!!! So, we popped to see the dr this morning just to confirm that it is "slapped cheek" - and it is.....1-4 days after the cheek rash starts, it moves to the limbs - aaggh!! But this truly means she's nearly done with it and I'm SO hopeful that sometime soon she'll sleep through the night again!

Nick's away this week so I had to take today off work to get Izzy sorted - she's totally well in herself - no temperature and the rash isn't itchy. The cough's still the biggest problem cos she's full of gunk which makes her choke in the night and sometimes a bit sicky - and that's why she needs her Mummy every night...

On a different note, cos Nick's away I get control of the tv remote...so last night I introduced Caitlin to the delights of "Extreme Makeover Home Edition"....she too is now a Ty fan!! ;o) Its great to have my big girl to keep me company :o)

Fab news from across the pond is that Lauren has got all her paperwork and is now TOTALLY legal to live, work and be married in the UK :o) She's due to arrive a week on Saturday and the girls are VERY excited to see her again! I took Caitlin and Izzy to buy school shoes today - Caitlin is now a 3.5 - same as Lauren - so she's looking forward to borrowing her shoes!!!! Or will that be the other way around?! ;o)

Last weekend we went to Mum and Dad's and had a fab time - including another trip to the fab butterfly / tropical / animal place we found last month. This time we took Nick who attempted to take better photos than me of all the animals....and with his better kit and more talent totally managed to achieve that!!!! Hopefully I'll be able to sneak some of his photos to blog when he's home this weekend. The girls got to hold a snake which was just amazing! Caitlin was really nervous but totally loved it and I thought Izzy would never let it go! ;o)

I think that's about it really - next week my niece Millie comes to stay on Tuesday for a couple of days and then takes Caitlin back down to Exeter with her for a few days of quality time with Auntie Mel! ;o) This of course necessitated a bit of Next clothes shopping online last night ;o) Can't send Caitlin away without the right clothes!!!!! ;o)

I'll try and add a few photos to this blog over the weekend - including one that Izzy wanted me to take of her this morning with a big grin and rashy arms!!!! ;o) Please keep her in your prayers that the rash goes quickly and most of all that the cough goes very soon and she returns to her normal full health.

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxx

update on Izzy's cough...

...so Izzy's now had a cough and the snotty grotties for 2 weeks - she's been up pretty much every night (and so have I!) dealing with snot....and Sunday morning she woke up with bright red cheeks....yep, she's picked up another germ...this time "slapped cheek"! Its the 4th most common childhood illness (apparently!) but Caitlin never caught it so I hadn't seen it before. You can't miss it tho!!! Those cheeks.....she looks hugely embarassed!!!!! VERY red!

At least we now know why she's had a cough / cold cos that comes first for 4-20 days then the rash on the cheeks..at which point she is no longer contagious but she has been for the past couple of weeks...whoops!

Hopefully this is now it....and when this is done she'll be back to her normal good health and we can ALL get some sleep!

Love to all

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxxxxx

when we were young.......

Hey all

Well aside from Izzy's ongoing cough - we're all doing pretty good and enjoying the summer...apart from the rain! Renee left on Friday as her Grandad isn't well so she needed to get back a bit sooner than planned and has arrived safely home in Canada.

The girls are enjoying a couple of weeks of holiday club during the day until I have a week off with them from the 25th August. Caitlin is travelling down to stay with my sister for a few days at the back end of that week - all on her own!!! She's a bit nervous cos, although she's flying down with big cousin Millie who is nearly 16 and VERY sensible, she's flying back on her own under the care of a chaperone. What an adventure! Its only down to Exeter so about 45 minutes flight - can't believe how she's growing up! She now has her ears pierced and has a bit more freedom to call for her friends. Fortunately, she remains a very trustworthy girl and I'm proud of how she's handling this extra freedom....she knows her Mum's a worry basket and so always lets me know where she is and comes back on time :o)

This weekend Izzy and I have been having some quiet time trying to beat this cough cos she was up for 3 hours on Friday night :o( This left both of us a bit jaded! Over the weekend, I took the opportunity of not having much to do to work on a project that the whole family are doing for my Nanna's 94th birthday in a couple of weeks. My Nanna (Mum's Mum) is an amazing person and up until very recently has been pretty fit and active. At some point, I guess age has caught up with her a bit and she's not really able to get around much anymore and is really enjoying reminiscing about friends and family both past and present.

My Mum has a digital photo frame and a few months back she lent it to Nanna for a few weeks. Nanna loved it although it was just a small one and she couldn't see all the pics clearly. So, Mum thought getting her a big digital frame would be a good idea and we agreed to try and get photos from all the family - children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as some scenery from our travels and also some photos from Nanna's youth and when her children were young. My Grandad died about 23 years ago and my Auntie Joan, my mum's sister, also died about 13 years ago so we really wanted photos of them on there. Nick managed to get a 15inch screen which will be perfect for her and we need to get it ready to go for next weekend.

By the power of Facebook, I managed to contact enough of my cousins to get a good selection of photos and my Mum raided my Nanna's photo drawer secretly for some special old pics to add to some photos we had anyway. Yesterday I scanned 283 pics and I thought I would share a few with you which I thought were pretty amazing.....

This is my Grandad's Mum and Dad (I believe!)

This is my gorgeous Nanna (dark hair) with her sister Rosa when they were in their early teens..

These cheeky looking chappies are my Grandad and some of his friends. My Grandad is 3rd from the right



This is my Nanna and Grandad - they were childhood sweethearts and a great example of a happy marriage

and can you guess who these 3 are?!?!?!!!!.......

Yes!!! That's me and my little brother and sister! Nice 70s frocks there ;o)

Hope you enjoyed those anyway!

Take care and enjoy the summer - if there is any where you are!

Lots of love and God bless

Nikki xoxoxoxoxoxoxxxxx

Congratulations Lozzie-loo and Brent

Just a quickie to say YAY!!!!!! Lauren and Brent were married on Sunday and I hear from friends across the pond that it was a really happy day and Lauren looked gorgeous :o) I'm sure Brent looked pretty good too ;o) Poor boys never get told they look gorgeous do they?!?!?!!!

I'm so happy for them and so pleased that two such amazing gorgeous and lovely people had a truly special day.

More general stuff at the weekend I hope - promise I'll try to find time!!!

Nikki xoxoxoxox

mega update blog!

Hello all

Make sure you're sitting comfy cos this will be a LONG one!.....

We start way back at half term - last week of May (oops!!)...Nick had tootled off to Mauritius on the Wednesday and we'd had his parents up at the beginning of the week which was lovely :o)

On the Wednesday, to cheer us all up, I took Caitlin and Izzy with their good friend Gaby from next door to Centre for Life in Newcastle for the day. We had a great time with the experiments and science stuff, a yummy lunch and we even caught the train! Funny that the highlight of the day for the girls was probably parking on the outskirts of Newcastle and taking the metro train into the city centre!!! We also finished the day stopping off at Dalton Park - a dicount retail park - and the girls had fun on the play area there :o) Lots of fun as you can see!!!

On the Thursday, I'd planned to set off fairly early with the girls to go and stay at my parent's house....the plan was to amble into Leeds, have a cup of tea, go to mum's work (which none of us had ever seen) then head back to their house. The reality was that the gardening and tidying up took longer than I'd planned (my garden is coming on REALLY well btw - tomatoes, trellis and climbers, lavender, fuschias....!!!) and then Izzy decided that Muffin needed poking and prodding whilst in her litter box....result, one frightened Muffin and poo all over the kitchen floor.....thus necessitating another cleaning attack in the kitchen before we left. We then got lost trying to find Mum's work in Leeds (no sat nav in the mini) and generally arrived a little bit frazzled!!!!

Fortunately, we still had a lovely weekend :o) Mum and the girls and I went to Cannon Hall on the Friday of half term but we DIDN'T go and see the animals this time - we went to the museum and the gardens instead and had a brilliant time. The girls loved the Victorian kitchen and the old fashioned rooms :o) We had lunch in a Victorian kitchen and took some photos in there and the garden...enjoy!

That Friday evening - 31st May I think - I saw an advert for half price Tom Tom sat navs so Dad and I whizzed out on Saturday morning and I am now the proud owner of a very cool Tom Tom with integrated bluetooth (so YAY I now have handsfree calling in the car!) and John Cleese doing the voices ;o) No excuse to get lost in Leeds again! Saturday afternoon - back to Cannon hall - this time for the park and the animals ;o)

Sunday was back home and church in the morning then Sunday afternoon was cleaning and sorting ready for Renee arriving on Tuesday 3rd June. The rest of that week was all about getting Renee used to the house, the girls and the routine and then on the Friday 6th Renee went solo with the girls whilst I had an amazing spa day with my friend Jan from next door :o) We went to Slayley Hall which is up in Northumberland and had a 2 course lunch, full massage, facial and lots of time to chill in the pool and sauna :o) Yummy gorgeous day to relax which was SOOooooo needed as Nick was still away and I'd had a tough couple of weeks :o) It was actually on Jan's birthday as well which was even more special :o)

Saturday we went into town and introduced Renee to the delights of Middlesbrough - including the carousel!

Sunday was Race for Life and it was SOOOOOOooooooo hot!!!! Nick came home in the middle of the night unfortunately with some nasty bug or food poisoning which quite a few of the group had come down with :o( We'd planned that Nick and the girls would come to Darlington to watch me race but he was not a well boy so the girls stayed home and played with Nick for a while and Renee for a while. Ros and I did the race in 45 minutes - not fast at all but it was roasting hot, glaring sun and the course had a number of places where we all had to squeeze through a gate or across a bridge so we had to stop and walk slowly ;o) Here I am when I got back after the race - as always, an inspirational and emotional experience. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me :o)

Sunday afternoon and Monday was all about getting Nick's washing done and ready for him to go again to Cyprus first thing Wednesday morning. He's had 2 really good trips this year and I really think he should blog them properly!! Here he is with Caitlin just before he set off for Cyprus...

Friday 13th (ominous eh?!!!) Renee travelled on the coach down to Oxford to see her friend Angie who is also aupairing this summer. She had an interesting journey!!!! We had Caitlin's friend Charlotte to stay over and on the Saturday we all went out for TGIs and had great fun :o) Have a look......

We're now at Monday 16th June!! Just a normal week really - except I managed to pick up some bug and had a raging temperature and felt awful :o( Nick was still away - I've decided that I always get ill when Nick's away - I guess cos there's more for me to do and I get tired and run down! I decided to take the Friday off and we went back to Mum and Dad's so I could get some TLC ;o) We had a really truly lovely weekend and stayed with them until Sunday evening. The weather was grim (and has been ever since Race for Life really!!) but we found a fab new animal place to visit and we also introduced the girls to birdwatching - really lovely relaxing and fab weekend :o) as you can see.....

The girls got to hold millipedes, bearded lizards, milk goats, hold a tawny owl and feed the lambs :o) even the rain couldn't spoil our fun!! They were worn out by the end ;o)

Nick came home late on the 23rd June and it was fab to see him again :o) Caitlin picked up some bug at the end of the week, very similar to what I'd had the previous week, and was off school on the Wednesday and Thursday. Its left her with a nasty cough that she can't shake :o( So, we had a nice quiet weekend, Caitlin went for a sleepover at her friend Charlotte's house with her other friend Aimee and they had a great time :o)

The following weekend (5th / 6th July) marked 1 year since we moved into Hillbrook Crescent :o) Renee went back down south to visit her friend and had another lovely trip. We invited all the neigbours round for a mega bbq party on the Saturday night and it was amazing fun :o) So many people turned up and everyone got on really well - some people got on FAR too well with the alcohol and literally reeled home after midnight ;o) Fortunately the weather held (just) and it was just a fab bash.

Sun 6th Izzy woke up with a raging temperature and had to miss church. We'd arranged a bbq "bye bye" for Brent and the rest of the Canada visitors - Brent's parents and brother came along with Lauren (Brent's brother's girlfriend), Lauren's parents and brother and a bunch of the Tab crew :o) Izzy was too ill to join in :o( By this point she had an uncontrollable temperature of over 40 degrees and was sick :o( We still had a nice party but it would have been so much better if Izzy had been well :o(

That kind of marked the beginning of a particularly tricky week - for those of you who are my facebook friends, you'll know that Izzy ended up in hospital this weekend :o( After Sunday 6th, she continued running a very high temperature, sick, not eating, struggling to drink, aching all over etc etc until Tuesday evening then we started to get the temp under control. Wednesday the temp came down a little more, Thursday almost back to normal and Friday fine so she went back to school. She still wasn't herself tho - not eating much which is always a worrying sign for my girls! Saturday morning her temperature soared back over 40 again :o( So, we booked her into the emergency doctor and they admitted her onto the ward as it had been going on too long with too high a temperature and she clearly was a poorly little girl :o(

Their first thought was that it must be some infection - obviously they had to rule out meningitis etc with blood tests - because the doctors said it was unusual for a virus to go on so long with such a mega high temperature. When we arrived, her temp was down a bit from the calpol and I think they didn't quite believe her temp was over 40 - I actually thought maybe our thermometer was wrong!! - anyway, Saturday evening they also measured her temp at 40.7 so clearly not very well :o( She had xrays and tests on the Saturday night and Nick stayed with her - he's been brilliant! He's much better at sleeping in strange places than me so he stayed with Izzy and I came home to Caitlin. Neither of us slept much on Saturday night tho cos of the worry :o(

On Sunday morning Caitlin and I went to the ward to take over from Nick for a while. Izzy was playing in the hospital play room! I have to say that the staff at North Tees Hospital children's ward were FAB!!! They gave us a private room and couldn't have been more welcoming, supportive and helpful....if you ask Izzy now, she'll say that she liked staying in the hospital!! There was a play room and an art room....Izzy wanted a picture of herself to remember - here she is on the rocking horse in the play room and in her bed in her own room with her own telly ;o)

On Sunday her temp was still a bit nasty - tho lower - so we had to stay another night. She had medicine at 6pm on Sunday - but none since! Her temp normalised over Sunday night and on monday morning we were allowed to leave - with a diagnosis of a random evil nasty virus but nothing more sinister thank God. She's now supposed to be resting for a few days and her appetite is really coming back today (Tuesday) to the point that she's bouncing off the walls full of beans :o) Lovely to see her so well again tho after 8 days of being a poorly bunny :o(

Yesterday afternoon was Caitlin's sports day so I'll leave you with a couple of pics of that....

Hope you feel updated now!!!! :o) Its Caitlin's big drama production on Thursday evening where she plays the Pied Piper in the Pied Piper of Hamelin :o) We'll blog that soon! She's got 4 solos and LOTS of lines ;o) Caitlin also got her school report last week - truly outstanding - she's a star!!!

Love to you all

Nikki

xxxxxx