week 2

Been a so so week for the schools this week apart from finding that my eldest is behind on some of his subjects. The school have set a level of standard that he should be working at for the end of the year but they seem to be expecting him to be near this level already. If they didn't set his levels so high then he might actually have a chance of making his targets, mind due two of his subjects he said that he gets bored in the class so doesn't pay attention.......that to me is a teacher problem not a student problem and I will be making an appointment to see these two teachers with our James to see what can be sorted out between us. If they don't make a lesson interesting I can't see why or how they can blame the student for not maintaining the correct level of attainment that is set.

On Monday night our Becca went for an audition for a stage play but unfortunately she was unsuccessful this time. I thought she might take it worse than she did but she came out quite composed and didn't seem too bothered. The experience of doing the audition was a first for her and at least now she has something to work on and build up from.

Tuesday night was orchestra night for our James. He has been playing violin now for several years and he really enjoys his weekly orchestra sessions. He is in the senior group I think and plays either in the 2nd Violin or the 3rd Violin section depending on what the music the conductor has chosen for them to play requires. He is there for 1½hours so I always go prepared with something to do and a flask of tea as the hall is rather on the cool side after school hours. This week I took my crocheting with me and finished off some granny squares that would become part of a pram size blanket. This is the finished article:

 

Wednesday after school Becca went to her Drama class for the second week running and thoroughly enjoyed so def well worth the £4.50 a lesson. I went off shopping at one of our local retail parks while she was busy, got myself some more wool for the next blanket.....yet another pink and white one, it'll be the third one of a set of 3 that was ordered.

Unfortunately, Thursday evening was not a good night for our Becca as her and James argued and a door got slammed onto her shoulder joint leaving it a bit sore and stiff. With her HMS accidents like this don't heal as quickly as you and me so even now she is suffering with some residual pain from it :( She has been excused from doing PE until it no longer hurts as they are doing gymnastics at the minute and a wrong fall at school could more than likely make her shoulder take even longer to recover.

As a family we also got some bad news on Friday, we found out that one of our local police horses had passed away. It was our Becca's favourite one and she cried buckets when we told her, there was no real right or wrong time to tell her as we knew it would break her heart either way. The police officers that look after the stables are really good and let us go up and see the horses on a Sunday morning so we went up to see the others. She really enjoys being up there and comes right out of her shell so to speak even to extend that she allows the officers to have a bit of a laugh with her without her taking it to heart like she would if the ribbing came from her brothers or family. She is getting better with a couple of the horses and is starting to really fuss them now by stroking them, I'm hoping that next time we go up she might let her new favourite one eat a carrot or an apple from her hand.

These following pictures are from a few years ago RIP Blue xxx

This was taken a couple of years ago but it is of Becca with her
favourite horse Blue that passed away

This was taken the same day with her brothers James (L) & Stevie (R).
The police officer with them is Vicky who was Blue's rider at the time.

A Stevieism!

Conversation with Stevie from Tuesday.

STEVIE: What's for tea mum?
ME: Pizza and chips
STEVIE: (said excitedly) Oh good chippies.....(said with a grin on his face) I love eating buildings!!!!
ME: Buildings?? What do you mean??
STEVIE: Chippies are buildings Mum so we're having pizza and buildings for tea!

I love the way my Stevie can turn a simple conversation into a howler!!!

Stevie & Becca on New Years Eve, trust Becca to notice the
camera and pull a funny face lmao

week 1

Wow!!!!! What a week to start the year with!!!!!!

Kids went back to school on Wednesday which means the normal routine is back in place, yippee!!!! no more "I'm bored Mum!" or "he won't let me play mum!" or "GET OUT!!!!!" being shouted across the landing/down the stairs!!! I love school for the chance to recharge my batteries, unfortunately school brings its own problems but at least I'm used to dealing with them now :)

In all honesty school hasn't been a problem this week and our Becca actually made it to the newsletter on Friday as well. Go Becca! Go Becca! Go Becca!

Our Becca goes to a dancing school on a Saturday and has been given details of auditions for two local shows where they need an amount of children in the cast. One of the auditions should have been on Wednesday night after school, unfortunately when we got their we got told the production company had to cancel due to personal health. Now with Becca you can't normally change a plan of action at such short notice due to her Aspergers but she coped brilliantly with the news. The dancing school owner said that our Becca could join in with the Drama class that she runs on a Wednesday as a norm, left Becca and when she came out she was beaming from ear to ear asking if she can go again next week as she enjoyed it that much!!! I'm so impressed that she not only coped with the change but also embraced the chance and has now found a new love to indulge in. The Drama class will help her with her social skills as she can hide behind a character within the class which makes her come out of her shell as the character is being judged and not her (if that makes sense).

This week I also decided to make a collage of the pictures my friend sent me at Christmas from Vancouver of her and her young family:

I love seeing these pictures every day as I walk through the front room. Thank you Heather for sharing a little bit of you with me, it has given me the idea to do something similar for my own 3 kids when I get the chance.

Another accomplishment this week is that I have managed to finish off blanket number 1 out of an order for 3 from Handmade By Stitchy and here it is:

Sun is shining and radio is on so I'm off to make a cuppa and enjoy the peace that school brings lol and work on blanket number 2. TTFN xxxx

Its 2012!!!

I've had a busy few months since i last properly posted on here. Here's a few photos to show you:

This is one of two blankets I made for my friend who had twins and lives on Vancouver Island, Canada

Then I started making some teddies like this one in various colours including a rainbow one.
I posted this teddy on my Facebook account and ended up with people requesting them
so I made a page up called Handmade by Stitchy, please feel free to stop by.

A pig

A rainbow one (with the new 2012 ear tag)

A puppy

I got asked if I would do a bespoke piece of cross-stitch for someone's partner, this is the result of several weeks of discussions to see what he wanted after he'd given me the description brief of what he wanted in it.

Now I'm doing an order for 3 blankets, one cot size and two pram size so that should keep me busy for a bit as then i've got another order for a puppy and rainbow teddy.

I have also decided it time to do battle with the bulge again so as of Sunday just gone I'm back on the Weight Watchers, will keep you guys posted on my weight loss. Take care wherever you are at the moment as there is some really really strong winds around at the moment xx

OMG I can still sign in......

I've been that busy with one thing and another that I'm sorry to say I forgot about my blog, so I've dusted it down and given it a new look ready for its new lease of life ☺


In recent weeks we have found out that little Stevie is definitely on the Autistic Spectrum, we're just awaiting paperwork to confirm exactly where on it he is.


The kids have had so much changes going on at school that it has caused so spectacular meltdowns especially from Becca whom I haven't seen these kind of meltdowns from since at least summer of 2010. Stevie has been having problems when it comes to getting dressed and undressed at the beginning/end of each day.


We decided to put our decorations and trees up on 19th/20th November, yes I can hear you crying out that is far too early but Stevie wanted them up and he was struggling cos the timetable at school was already introducing Christmas activities so thought what the heck lets put them up. Here's some festive pictures for you from our house:

Its Santa!!!
(he was being shy cos he wouldn't turn round) 

These hide under my tree; until our kitten Tink goes under and scatters the lot lol ☺

Window stickers door 1

Window stickers door 2

This Tatty Ted tree topper was a bargain; picked it up in H Samuels for £9.99 instead
of £19.99 plus it feeds Becca's obsession with Tatty Ted lol ☺

Re-cycled Fibre Optic tree number 1
(friend was going to throw this and the other one out so I claimed them both)

Re-cycled Fibre Optic Tree number 2
(Stevie decorated this one all by himself such a clever little elf ☺)

Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year. Hope Santa brings you and your little ones most of their wish lists. Speak to you all in January.

What we've been upto lately...

This was reproduced with kind permission
from TFM Radio

This was reproduced with kind permission
from TFM Radio

Finally after 2 years and an £18.5million refurbishment one of our local leisure centres re-opened their doors to the public on Friday 3rd June 2011 at 9am. With sponsorship from one of the local radio stations TFM Radio we now have an ice-rink back again, along with swimming pools and gyms etc (further details can be seen here). The kids, me and their dad went along to the grand opening and the pictures above were taken by the station of us queuing to get in (Becca got tired so sat on the floor while Stevie got a carry cos he was tired). The weather was absolutely glorious while we were waiting and it was an absolute brilliant way to spend one of the last days of the half-term school holiday.

We decided to go to the first session of the ice-skating and we all had a whale of a time. It felt great to be back on the ice again as I remember going when I was a teenager and while I was courting the kids dad. Our James hadn't lost his skating skill nor did I or Dad, Becca was a bit hesitant to begin with but not surprising as she is still a learner on her in-line street skates. James was off like a whippet skating round and "lapping" everyone. Stevie kind of skated but it was more walk then skate lol but then again he was only a toddler the last time we took him. Dad skated round with Stevie while I worked 1:1 with Becca who insisted she couldn't skate lol ;) Towards the end of the session she was actually skating round without hanging on for dear life to the side of the rink. She'd just got the hang of it and had skated twice round without stopping or hanging on when she went a cropper and landed on the ice (had to be on her poorly knee that had a scab on it), got her patched up and then we came home after she'd skated round with the presenters from the radio station's breakfast show. As she had a splint on for her broken hand she got the presenters to sign it lol they were brilliant with her. Here's a couple of pictures I managed to take while we were skating :-

Becca hanging on for dear life lol ;)

Our Stevie with Dad and James behind him
(there's his gorgeous camera smile again lol)

Look mum I can skate (well sort of lol)

Would have posted this sooner but I was awaiting permission to use the photos at the top of the blog, these were given permission to be used only this morning.

The Simple Things

Its amazing how the simplest of things brings about an hour or two of happy playing between a couple of friends.

Our Becca and her friend M had come in saying they were bored so I gave them a tub of chalks and told them to go decorate the driveway........here's three of the better pictures that they drew and thought I'd share them:

I also thought I'd share with you some pictures of a rose I bought as a dry stick for 50p about 6 years ago, don't ask me what its called cos I haven't a foggiest lol :P