BOO!!

Well we've been hiding for ages it seems. Not deliberately, just extremely busy. There's no real available time to put things on here normally anyway, but less than normal. As I said to Michael's Mum recently, I haven't been able to justify spending the bit of time needed to add to this recently, but at the same time, I've realised again how unsettling it is not to be doing it. Much like when I don't manage to write in my journal for ages (I suppose it's a little bit of a family journal for us, but also the best kind of communication we are able to have with family and friends. I have 5 people I am trying to write e-mails or regular letters to, and have been trying to for a couple of months at least, but there's never a moment to do it it would seem. So I figure that doing something here will probably help me feel better, share at least some fairly recent photos with all of you, and I'll be communicating with somebody again (if anyone looks that is!) and recording something too, even if it isn't in my journal. :o)

Another problem I've had for most of Samuel's short life now, is our camera not working. It won't stay charged even for one photo most of the time, and despite needing to invest some time to investigate why exactly that is (is it the battery charger, batteries or camera failing?), and it being important to me to have some good photos of him and everybody else in the family as they grow, the right time never presents itself. Luckily Michael and I each have a mobile phone now, with camera, albeit not very good ones, so that is where all pictures are being taken right now and have been for at least a couple of months. So the pictures are pretty grainy, but they're all we have. I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Here's a few from our "Not Back to School Picnic" just over two months ago (you could call it a celebration of "home" education), including one of Samuel the first time I put him in a swing. He was delighted, and giggled so much, but I never can catch that in a photo. I hope I'll manage to remember it without. :o)







More of Samuel in a swing, this time after going to a home-ed sports group. There's a park nearby, and as we rarely make it to playgrounds here with none properly nearby, and with Peter sitting through games of football, basketball and tennis but being too young to join in with everyone else, we make a stop at the park afterwards so he gets to play too. Rachel and Hannah, are of course playing at being a horse and jockey in the one of all four girls at that park. Somehow Peter never made it into a picture, but that's probably becasue he doesn't stay still long enough to get one of him (it's not always for want of trying!)






Swings again!! Peter was trapped twice in this park though, so you can see him too! Sarah was working out what trees were growing within the playground here, and doing a tally of how many of each kind there were. While she was busy studying the trees, Rebekah, Peter and Samuel had a lovely time playing in a park again! In fact, after such a long break from going to any playgrounds, and then quite a few in not such a long time, Peter is most days now telling me which park he wants to go to. He has the funniest 3-year old ways of describing them to me though, and I invariably can't quite work it out! We notice such different things at each place, me being 30 years older than him, that our descriptions don't usually match up too well, and it really does take some investigative work to understand!







Here's a dressed up little Samuel. Rachel was holding Samuel while Michael and I were both unable to, and when we looked again, she had him all dressed up, and he was totally happy with it too. :o) That was about a month ago. Yet again, he has grown through the next size of clothes, and those don't fit him anymore. At nearly 6 months old now, he's wearing 9-12 month clothes. He's a big, heavy baby, but so beautiful with it. :o)



Here's a cuddle with Rebekah. Rebekah is still going through a highly panicky/fearful stage and being with Samuel is one of the things that calms her just beautifully. She loves him dearly. One other great thing is a homeopathic remedy, and sometimes having her feet rubbed with massage oil helps too. I did a homeopathy course one morning a week for three weeks in October, which has started me off with being able to use homeopathic remedies at home without seeing a homeopath. There is a homeopath that has a clinic at our local Children's Centre every other week at the moment, so we are able to see her for some things, but first aid / acute things we're able to do at home with great success. It's been a real blessing for us.



To finish, a few fun sleeping pictures of Samuel. He is such a fun boy. He loves to feed, and play - always reaching out for things, and of course EVERYTHING goes in his mouth. He likes to sit or stand up with help, and most of all be carried, but wherever he is he rarely keeps still. Peter loves him a lot and loves to come and find him in our bed each morning, and spend sometime there with him wherever possible before the day really starts. Samuel hasn't been very happy the last few days - extra clingy and needy, crying more and not being settled at all at night (if Mummy's not there it's time to scream and scream until she is!) I think it's probably the teething going up a level, so hopefully will calm back down again soon. Here are those sleepy pictures:

Two months ago (at 3 1/2 months old)...



One month ago (at 4 1/2 months old) - playing sleeping lions... :o)




There is so much for quite a while now that hasn't even been made mention of on here. Things like our holiday, a special visit to the temple, a craft stall we ran in the summer, or anything else that we've been up to really!

We've also been having an extended clear out and move around. Five out of eight of us now sleep in a different place in the house! We've been weaving, tangling up our fingers, reading, going places, studying (that's Michael), doing church things, and generally living life. We also had a sweet new cousin/niece join our family, as my brother and his wife recently had a little girl called Elodie join their family. When I manage to, I'll add bits here and there, so keep looking. :o)

Of Bumps and Bubbles - the follow-up to Easter

Thanks Kylie and Debbie for your comments - you might want to look at my replies in the last post.

Well, that funny collection of things that the children found as their treasure for the egg hunt really did have a purpose, which they were very excited about when they realised what it was. They opened a joint present between them after that which explained all - in leiu of chocolate eggs or whatever! Sarah has struggled with the idea of Easter because of the big deal everyone makes about chocolate eggs, how many they have, etc., so there certainly needed to be something to make it a bit more fun! They didn't get to try it out until two days later though, on the Wednesday.

First let me explain something else...

While I was putting out the treasure hunt on Monday, the back windscreen of the car decided to explode!!! I heard the crash, and various things the children said like,"What happened?", and "How will you go to Coventry tomorrow now the car is broken?!" I was aware SOMETHING had happened, but decided not to investigate until I was finished as we were so late in the day already. I was glad I didn't, as it had given me time to quietly absorb all I was hearing and seeing, and feel sure that whatever needed to happen was best. How wonderful to take that in my stride!

Peter had picked up and thrown a small screwdriver while they were all out in the front of the house with Michael, which had hit the bottom right corner of the windscreen and bounced off. Then a whole minute or so later the glass suddenly exploded in the top left corner of the windscreen and shattered right across it! The two pictures I took of it were among the ones that didn't upload to the computer properly, so I can see them, but you can't! It was quite impressive shattering with a nice huge hole! It made for an interesting evening, as nothing was open, car insurance lines included, and it was clearly going to impact on the next day. We felt it best in the end anyway that Michael would be around the following day so that we could do anything that was needed for Peter's head if he wasn't alright by then. He was, but it still felt needed, and that it would work out somehow.

Michael was meant to be sorting out things in our house in Coventry, the sale of which was completing on the Thursday. He'd been there the previous week, and we'd planned for him to go on the Tuesday and Wednesday of this last week. So it all had to be done on Wednesday instead. It took a long time on the Wednesday to do what was needed, and with help from my Dad and a LOT of help from Michael's brother Tom, it was finally done. Michael and Tom didn't arrive back in Brighton though until early morning, so slept until morning before unloading Tom's van and he was back on his way again - a big thanks to Tom!

While they were busy doing all of that in Coventry on the Wednesday, we were also very busy here. Then having done as many jobs as we had the energy for, we decided it was time to try out the Easter gift. So here it is...

The Bubble Thing!





All of those ingredients together made for an interesting bubble mixture. It wasn't at all the best weather for making big bubbles, especially as it was starting to cool down by that point in the late afternoon. Knowing that though, everyone did pretty well, once we got the hang of it.











Everyone had a go, Peter with assistance as he couldn't manage it on his own. They often popped quite quickly, but some lasted fairly well. It will be fun to try again in warmer weather, or after it rain is meant to be good too, both because of the moisture in the air.

Hannah became the entertainer after a while. She really got the hang of it and was producing bubbles for a while for everyone else to watch and/or pop!













The audience showing their appreciation from up on the balcony!

We're here!

Well we're back on line now, and no I don't have any photos of this house for you yet other than the one you've already seen. We've had a battery problem for quite a while now with our camera which is at last sorted out, so we do have a camera now. There were several occasions in our first couple of weeks here that I wished I had the use of a camera, but have committed those occasions to memory at least for a little while and enjoyed them at the time at least. No, we haven't been to the beach a lot! We're not really as keen on the beach on Brighton seafront on the hotter days as it is so packed and frantic. We found a lovely beach where we had a short family "home evening", or really a "family beach afternoon" I suppose, a few Sundays ago. It was rocky still of course, but it was a place to just be by the sea and enjoy the wonder of it. That was along the coast a bit somewhere around Shoreham I think. We plan to go back there during the week as soon as we can (before the weather really turns to winter if possible) so we can explore it properly.

These photos are from our last Sunday in Coventry. Rachel, Hannah, Sarah, Michael and I all spoke in sacrament meeting, and we all sang one of our favourite songs together. At least everyone did but me. Michael had persuaded me to play the piano - a piece I can play without a problem at home, but when I started to play in front of nearly 200 people, my hands began shaking enormously and just never stopped! It was quite impossible really. Nerves certainly got the better of me, but I had never played in front of people before, so that's a first anyway!! I'll be sticking to the singing next time, which I am certainly better at. :o) It was a lovely day though, and a bit of an emotional one, but then we have been in that ward since we were married, and me for a couple of years before that, and each of our children have been born and grown up there so far. It's funny to think that Peter, and probably Rebekah won't remember much of anything of it after a little while - quite a shame really, as it has certainly been home to us for a long time! Amazingly though, Brighton is beginning to feel a place to call home already.


Hannah spending some time with her friend Milla.



Rachel babysitting baby Heather for a while,
and clearly loving it!


Cousins - most of them anyway.


A big Peter watching the goings on in the corridor after church.


Ceri and Michael outside church.


Michael and Hannah outside the church where he only recently baptised her.


Our bishop, and brother, and uncle.


David let Michael lock the gate one last time!
He had some helpers who wanted to join in too.


A special place where we spent our "family home evening" that afternoon. We had a lovely time there, until Rebekah fell over on the hard gravel ground and called a fairly abrupt end to our proceedings she was so distressed about it! We were all exhausted though and needed a good rest, which we got that afternoon at home.

A little extra note ...

Just found out today that it will likely be 2 weeks after moving in that our phone will be collected, and possibly 6 weeks until we have internet connection. So I guess I'll talk to you again in about a month and a half! Bye for now...

See you soon!

Hi all! I had really wanted to find the time to put a few things on here from the past month or two, especially our visit from/with family in August, but no such luck! We spent quite a bit of time during August visiting Brighton, and trying to find the right place to live. The place we found in the end is not nearly so affordable as we had hoped but is only a 5/10 minute bike ride for Michael to the Uni, and just 5 minute drive down the main road to church, but we could bus or even bike or walk it if we needed to (it would just take a while longer!) It's close to needed shops too by car, a bit more tricky without, but we may have to make that work anyway at some point. Most of all though, it is very definately the right place for us to be, so we are certain it will all work out one way or another.

Well, this computer will be packed away tonight, as Michael is picking up our vans in the morning. Not that we're ready for them! Michael is still finishing off a friend's bathroom having had a few hitches, so is not around, and I was struggling through the day yesterday with a heavy cold, constant sneezing and a fever. Your prayers would be welcomed, but again, it will all work out I am sure. We are doing the things that we need to be doing, so going slower than expected can't be helped, especially as we were put back a week with illness a fortnight ago as well.

Well enough of that! I don't know the deal with internet connection in Brighton yet, so can't be certain when we'll be up and running again, but I will let you know when we are. For now though here's a little picture of the house we'll be living in certainly for the next 12 months. The children haven't seen it yet, which is just as well really as it is a student house and will hopefully be in a bit better condition when we arrive than it was when we saw it! If not there'll be a lot of cleaning to do. We'll make it into a nice home for the year though. I have sent the address out by e-mail. If you haven't had it then let me know and I'll see what I can do.