SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!

We here on Teesside have had the snow since Wednesday evening/Thursday morning. Kids are loving it and even though my daughter has her painful wrist due to her HMS she's enjoying playing out in it. To avoid too much after pain I'm limiting her to an hour at the most in the cold. We've had several heavy snowfalls over the last few days, we should have been due some overnight last night but it doesn't appear to have been as heavy. Both the schools my kids go to are open as normal which is good as the kids aren't gonna be home and getting bored; the senior school was open as normal from 8.50am but the primary school isn't opening until 10am to give staff a chance to get in so there is the correct ratio staff:students which is fair enough.

On Saturday we went to the birthday party of my Godtwins and a great time was had by all that managed to brave the snow and attend. My car was clear of snow when I parked up at 11.30am but by the time we went to leave just after two hours later I had to de-snow the car again as it had about 2-3 inches of snow on it *completely awestruck at how much came down*

Haven't managed to capture my daughter in the snow yet but here are some photos of the snow from the last few days:

The snowball was launched by youngest towards oldest.....

Back of the head mwahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

Take care everyone in this snow and cold weather.....if you haven't received it yet in the UK you will over the next week or so!!!

A winter's tale......with a twist!

As the venturer steps outside there is a quiet eery stillness that sweeps around you as the air temperature drops to a bone chilling zero; he pulls his hat down around his ears as the clouds although high in the sky show their hidden weight and threaten to let it gently fall to the ground at the right time as they swirl across the sky in front of the moon. The venturer walks along the path as quietly and gently as he can but every step he takes it sounds louder and louder as the crispness of the snow underfoot crunches and cracks.

A gate bangs in the dark breaking the silence as a cat jumps over it on his way home to curl up somewhere warm. A distance bark reminds the venturer of the quietness as he makes his journey further along the path. The path lights up and glistens, as if a child had spilt its tub of glitter, as the moon shines through a parting in the clouds so bright there is no need for a guiding light for the path ahead. There's a rustle to the side as the night time creatures go about their business while there's no-one around.


Suddenly, the venturer feels the temperature rise a little as the clouds allow their heavy load to break through and flutter gently and silently to the ground. Soon the venturer is finding his steps are getting softer with every step taken as the crisp ground under him is transformed into a soft carpet of white velvet. He stops to admire the sereness of the world in that magical moment where he feels like he's the only soul around in a deserted town with the buildings slipping under the covers of the carpet around him.


The venturer remember his purpose and walks on enjoying the atmosphere around him. The flakes get heavier and thicker as he walks but it doesn't deter him from his mission, he knows he has to walk on through it as he is nearly there. He turns the corner and sees a warm glow appear down the road, he walks on steadily towards it; as he approaches the glow he satisfies himself it was worth his mission................




...........to take the daft mutt round the block for his nightly walk!!!!!!

Baby Matinee Jackets and sore joints

Hi there everyone, thought you might like to see the finished products of my knitting achievements. I've made these two jackets as birthday presents for my Godchildren who will be one at the weekend. The pattern I've used is a family favourite that was taught to me when I was still in primary school so I've been knitting it for about 25-26years now. The first time I knitted this pattern I made it for my school teacher who was leaving to have her first child, she was thrilled that I'd sat there and made it myself (mum had to stitch it up for me). I find this pattern is so easy to do up now that I rarely look at the pattern apart from to check if I'm still doing it right lol :P

The wool used here starts of yellow then fades to a big block of white then you get the green then it fades to the white again before going into yellow etc its a really nice ball of wool to knit with.

On another note the cold weather is already starting to play havoc with my daughter's joints. She's come home tonight with her right wrist hurting that much she can't complete her homework, then by bedtime her shoulder was starting to hurt as well. I'm just glad that at the minute its sticking to these joints and not entering her hips as this makes walking very difficult for her as her joints end up extremely painful and stiff. The pain relief that she can have as a young person doesn't even take effect against the kind of pain that she is in. Tonight she can't get to sleep because of the pain that she is in and at the moment she is at the maximum amount she can take. Paracetamol and Ibruprofen hardly touch it; the only thing that she can possibly take is codeine but that has to be used sparingly because of her age. As I'm in such a quandry as to what is the best move I've contact the out of hours doctors and awaiting their help to make a decision over her pain relief. It hurts me to see my daughter in so much pain at such a young age :(

Thank you

I would just like to say a big thank you to The Stitchin' Chicken for choosing me as the winner of her stampers competition.

Here is a link to her blog: http://stitchinchicken.blogspot.com/

I really look forward to receiving my prize. This was a very much welcome bit of good news after 3 days of hell from my daughter.

Take care everyone xxxx

Children In Need 2010 - Show your spots!!!

Just thought I'd share some beautiful pictures that I was allowed to take this morning lol :P

It shows just what can be done to a plain t-shirt and shirt with some colourful pens and a bit of imagination :D

These pictures are of my daughter and my youngest son - eldest one wasn't getting dressed for the occasion lol

Enjoy your day!!!!

Victorian Day at school

My daughter had a victorian day at school today as part of her topic work for this term covering the Victorians. We were told a few weeks ago what they had to wear; a list for the boys and a list for the girls....well that in the first instance caused problems with her because she HATES wearing skirts or dresses and guess what the girls had to wear????? We spoke about the day with her therapist on a recent visit and it was decided she would go as a matchstick girl but dressed as a boy...she accepted this so thought it was fine.

We've been talking about the day coming up and I'm assuming the school have been working up towards it as well. The teachers were going to be dressed up as victorian teachers and were going to play the part by being really strict with them. She went into school fine but something must have happened during the day to make her not cope; obviously I'm going to have to talk to school to find out what happened over the day to break it down as to what it was that has set her off....oh the joy of dissecting a school day *sighs*

With her only telling you stuff on her terms I only found out just before teatime that apparently one of the teachers had said they were going to be given "gruel" at lunchtime but they weren't they had their normal school lunch meals; unfortunately because of the Aspergers she takes things literally so thought she really was going to be having "gruel" for her lunch so wasn't happy that this didn't take place. The teachers aren't at fault for this, they probably didn't realise how literally she takes things when you say them to her. Tried to explain to her that the teacher was only playing his part for the victorian day and that is what children would have had in those days; she just didn't get it and said she didn't find it funny and he shouldn't have said it if it wasn't going to happen....have a funny hunch its this small detail of the day that has set her off.

Since we came in from school she has been sniping/whinging/screaming at everyone if something happened that she didn't like even if it was something that normally happens in the normal routine of the day after school. When you have a child doing this for several hours it can be mentally tiring to deal with but today it was more so because her older brother has been unwell all day and he was biting and snapping back at her which of course hasn't helped anyone. Then add to this mixture her younger brother who wasn't happy because I told him his school friend couldn't come for tea as per arranged due to his older brother being ill. I met the younger one from school and explained to him straight away that his friend would have to come play another night; this induced a set of tears to form and fall down his face. My friend understand completely that her son couldn't come play with mine and we both explained that we'd arrange for another night for them to play together when everyone was well again.

So tonight has been "fun" in the loosest sense of the word *sighs* and I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a better day as its a non-uniform day due to Children in Need. I think the school are going to be doing different things throughout the day because of this charity day so I'm hoping she copes with it better than she has coped with today. Will have to inform the teacher before school starts about what has happened today.

I would have loved to show you how she looked when she was in her outfit but this morning we didn't have time and tonight she wouldn't allow pictures to be taken without a mouthful of abuse so gave up.....ho hum!!

Take care everyone and thank you for reading my rant :)

Updates Galore!

Sorry no updates for a few weeks its been a busy month with appts etc.

First of the updates is that my daughter went for her appointment with her therapist the other day and we got told that she is going for her multi-agency autism team appointment hopefully sometime in May 2011. I know this seems a long way off but it takes this long as there is so many people being referred now.  My youngest son has also been referred to the same therapist as they seem to think he has similar problems so that should be fun "dissecting" him as well as my daughter. His problems are different to hers but the doctor we saw in the development clinic only a matter of weeks ago seems to think that it could be under the same ASD umbrella of things. With him following instructions are harder for him to do than with her, not sure if that is because he is younger or not.

Bedtime the last few nights has been horrendous and has been getting worse and worse since we put the clocks back an hour at the end of October. It getting harder and harder to get the youngest to go to sleep when he's put in his bed at 7.30pm. Daughter is going up at 8.30pm and son is still awake but then causes problems by talking to her or shouting down what she is doing. Then my eldest one goes up between 9pm and 9.30pm, last two nights all 3 kids have still been wide awake at 10.30pm!!!!! ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! With my sciatic nerve playing me up as well the last few days the going up and downstairs to try to get them to go to sleep has not been fun....some people pay good money to go to Step Aerobics, perhaps I should start hiring out my stairs at bedtime for people to use as their exercise :P

Anyway enough of my whinging, here's another update on my stitching that I've been doing lately:



I'm working on the backstitch on the pink flower at the moment then I'll move onto the other flower that is missing from the bottom left corner. I've also been finishing off the knitting up of a baby jacket to go with one that I've already completed for my Godtwins who are going to be 1 year old at the end of the month; where has their year gone, this time last year I was still taking their mum for her ante-natal appointments on a Wednesday morning lol ;) mind it meant that I got to work on a beautiful piece of cross-stitch for my brother of an army man (he's ex-army). Here's the completed Army Man for your enjoyment:

I'll post a picture of the baby jackets when I've finished sewing up the seams and put the buttons on.

Hope you all keep well xxxx