Spent a lovely day outside today watching the barley being harvested.  Had a Tesco delivery which only had 1 item missing - hurrah!!

 

I've finally uploaded the photos I took during our short trip to Jan's.  It's nice to see the cousins together and wish we were closer to do it more often. 

 

I got up early with the girls whilst Peter had a birthday lie in.  Lauren spent a while practicing "Happy Birthday to You" whilst I was making his breakfast, Peter was very happy all the same and Lauren was too!

 

In the afternoon, we all went through to York to celebrate Mackenzie's 4th birthday and the girls had a lot of fun.

Had a lazyish day today, just doing usual stuff like tidying the house, doing laundry, playing outside with the girls etc.  Peter's birthday's tomorrow but we went out tonight with it being Saturday.  We went to see Transformers at the cinema and it was fantastic - recommend it to anyone who is into trucks, robots (or Autobots!), military etc!!

 

 

 

 

After a hearty LIDL Family Breakfast, we packed our things, thanked Jan for having us and said our goodbyes.  It felt like another flying visit and before we knew it, we were nearing Berwick upon Tweed.  It was raining quite heavily and Martha was asleep so we decided against a trip around town and Lauren & I amused ourselves in the van for a while until she woke.  We had a wander around Morrisons and bought some juice and gossip magazines.

 

We left and headed for home with the rain getting worse the further South we drove.  When we arrived home, I found a huge pile of washed and folded towels and clothes that Peter's mum had kindly done for me whilst we were away - it's saved me weekend of non-stop washing - thank you!!!

 

I also received a prize from Sally Hansen of lip volumiser, I've not yet tried it but Peter & I are going to the cinema and out for dinner on Saturday for his birthday so will try it then!

 

The light we bought for Lauren's room looks great but the 25w bulbs we bought are far too bright and wake Martha up so will have to see if I can get lower wattage when in town tomorrow.

 

Lauren stayed dry again and wore proper pants on the way home this time - well done Lauren !!!

Peter left early to do his work and the girls and I stayed with Jan, Emily, Lucy and Georgie.  We went for a nice walk and Lauren was happy when she saw Preston Tower as she thought it was a castle.  We helped Jan do some litterpicking and Lauren loved using the grabbers - I might ask our local council if they can supply us with some and we'll start clearing up here.   Jan and I talked about how people visit an area and enjoy a really nice day out then leave rubbish spoiling it for the next people who come along.  It's a bit like that here and upsets me, especially when you see McDonalds bags and cups when we are 30 minutes away from the nearest one!

 

After our walk, the girls entertained us with stories, songs and dance.  They all played nicely together but I think I liked the "quiet game" the best after disturbed sleep!!

 

We arranged to spend some time with Laura and Kev on Wednesday teatime and took a detour via IKEA where we bought some non-essential items as usual to accompany the one item I actually went in to get!  It was lovely to see Laura and Kev again and we went to Frankie and Benny's for our tea which was another treat!!  We returned to Jan's and thankfully bedtime wasn't much of an issue compared to night before and the girls slept fairly well all night.

 

Lauren had another dry day!

We left Glasgow and headed over to The Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh where Peter had more work to do.  I was very surprised to bump into someone I knew and enjoyed a nice conversation with them.  We ate lunch on the balcony and basked in the sunshine it was lovely.  After Peter had finished his work, we took a quick drive over to South Queensferry and ate an icecream and tried to dodge a couple of downpours but it was so great to be out in the heat, it's been miserable at home so it was a welcoming feeling for us.

 

We left South Queensferry and headed to my sister Jan's house.  I was really happy to be seeing her and her family as it had been about 9 months since I'd seen them, I think that is the longest ever.  I enjoyed my first trip to Lidl with Jan and Emily before we sat down to a special takeaway treat!  Sadly, Lauren and Martha didn't settle too well so I went to bed early to help them settle and missed out on time with Jan and Nigel.

The girls and I accompanied Peter on his monthly Scottish work today.  We headed to Hawick first of all where we spent a nice couple of hours whilst Peter was working.  We drove from Hawick to Glasgow Airport and stayed at the Travelodge at Glasgow Airport which was quite nice, although not a lot to see around the hotel.  Peter & I have an ability to be really rubbish at finding food in unfamiliar places, we tried to use TomTom unsuccessfully to find McDonalds and Burger King as these seem to be preloaded onto the system.  We had no luck but thought "let's drive around, surely there'll be something"...40 minutes later we were outside a chip shop eating our fish and chips!!  We are so rubbish, and were gutted the next day when I discovered that the hotel actually served "proper" food rather than bar snacks that it looked like they did, we could have saved ourselves, and more importantly the girls a marathon hunt for food.

 

Lauren's toilet training is going brilliantly. We put her in Pull Up pants that we were given a while ago just in case she had an accident in the car on the long drive up, but she stayed dry all day and told us when she needed to stop which thankfully wasn't every 20 minutes! We are very proud of her, and she is very proud of herself.

 We had a great day today, not doing anything in particular, just being together.  We went into Pateley Bridge where the monthly local Farmers Market was taking place, Peter and Lauren had a look around whilst I sat in the car with a sleeping Martha.

 

We decided to have an improptu lunch out at The Bridge Inn where they do a fabulous and great value carvery every Sunday.  Afterwards, we decided to walk off our dinner and headed for the playpark.  Martha walked a long way from the car park to the playpark which is about a 3-4 min slow stroll for us normally - today it took about 10 minutes but that was OK as she loved every minute and stopped at frequent intervals to observe interesting branches, stones and leaves.

 

We were very proud of Lauren who is currently undergoing toilet training.  She has worn pants since yesterday (bar night time) and has only had a couple of accidents.  Her reward for becoming a "big girl" will be ballet lessons at her own request!

Peter had his van's windscreen replaced this morning by Autoglass who did a sterling service - the new van is now all ready for Peter's trip to Scotland where we will be accompaning him - I can't wait to see my sisters, nieces and brother in laws!!

 

Peter repaired the Landrover's starter motor and it now runs perfectly again!  Thank you Peter !!!

 

This afternoon, Peter observed Martha taking a whopping 10 solo steps, with a little bending break in the middle.  She is trying to walk everywhere now and I think that walking/cruising has now taken over from crawling as her preferred "mode of movement".

It is the last day of term today at Lauren's playgroup and they are having a party to celebrate.  Lauren doesn't normally attend on Friday's but I asked if she could come along if I accompanied her which was agreed.  Lauren carefully chose from her vast selection of party dresses (she really is a princess!!) and decided on a summery linen one with silver stiched ribbon waistband and lovely lilac, white and pink diagonal panels at the bottom, it is very floaty and girly.  I decided not to dress Martha in a party outfit as she will a) spend most of the time crawling on the floor and b) I wanted to make sure Lauren felt special with her friends.

 

We arrived at playgroup and Lauren was instantly greeted by a beaming Ben who was very pleased to see her.  He took her by the hand and the two of them spent the rest of the party dancing with each other and chasing each other and Ben's cousin, Emma.  Ben and Emma leave playgroup this term to start school - I know they will all miss each other. 

 

We came home and took some lovely photographs of each other and had fun inside as it was raining (again!).

It has been a day of triumphs - this afternoon Martha took 5 completely solo steps!! She was playing very happily with Lauren and just pushed herself up on the sofa then walked towards the array of pop-up tents I had put up in the lounge.  I don't know who was more excited out of the three of us, Martha was grinning madly and clapping, Lauren was jumping up and down shouting "Martha's standing and walking" repeatedly and I was clapping and smiling like a loon!

 

Today also marked my final therapy session.  Last night I completed for the third time an assessment of my mental health.  Today, Charles marked my final assessment and told me a points difference of 10 is classed as significant - I had in the areas of Depression, Anxiety and something else, a points difference in excess of 20!!  It feels like a huge cloud has been lifted of me and I can now get on with my life, with the old (but slightly improved and less naive (perhaps) me and actually enjoy the life I have and my family again.  I doubt I'll ever forget the accident and the last 18 months or so but in some respects that may not be a bad thing - I've learnt to appreciate and respect the important people and things in my life.  I will never again misuse the phrase "I feel depressed", now I know what a horrid, dark and lonely place that is.  Hopefully now I can support other people who are there just now and feel like it's never going to get better.

 

We're having a chinese takeaway tonight to celebrate the end of it all and I can't wait!!! 

 

A big THANK YOU to Peter, my sisters and friends for helping me, I know it can't have been easy on you either and I'm really grateful for your support.

We decided to take a look at the car boot sale in Pateley this morning regardless of the fact that previous visits have been very disappointing with people selling more and more tat.  Today, we were not surprised to find the same!!!

 

This afternoon it was the Dacre and Summerbridge Playing Fields Association Family Funday (What a title!).  I had volunteered to help at the playgroup stall and spent a fun couple of hours helping raise funs for the Playing Field Association and Playgroup.  The day started very warm and humid but by late morning, we felt the first couple of spots of rain.  The rain has become heavier and heavier, however everyone was in really good spirits and still had lots of fun.  Lauren was delighted to use her Fairy/Princess umbrella that she received at Christmas (Thank you again Barker Family!!), sadly Martha was very grumpy and spent most of the time screaming.  It was far too wet to let her wander as she cannot walk unaided at the moment and she'd have got so wet.

 

We came home and had a lovely roast chicken dinner followed by Peter's mum's Bilberry Pie and custard - yum!

 

Lauren and Martha were both exhausted and have gone to bed at 1900hrs on the button!!  Hurrah!  After the restless nights we've experienced recently regarding Lauren this was a much welcomed treat - time for me to have some "alone" time and spend some quality time with Peter, it feels like we've hardly talked for a month!!! 

 

Peter spent the morning at the garage helping Jason change the discs and pads on the car and replacing the thermostat.  Lauren has been very grumpy owing to her tiredness.  We are having a battle at bedtime and the moment and it's draining me.  She has been sleeping brilliantly since she was a 6 weeks old, I don't know if this is normal toddler behaviour or what but am running out of ideas as to how to get her back into her routine.  Not letting her nap is my latest one which worked until she fell asleep on the sofa!!! 

 

I made some bread again today which I've just tried with my homemade butter - yummy!!

Lauren had her playgroup Sports Day this morning.  We packed a picnic for Lauren, Martha and I to eat afterwards and heading to the cricket field in Dacre Banks.  The night before I had a panic, Lauren does not own any trainers!!  I found her old gym pumps which we tried on and they were a tight fit but were ok for an hour or two.

 

To start with Lauren held onto my leg and wouldn't participate at all.  Thankfully one of the play assistants, Tina, spotted her and asked if she'd like to run a race with her.  Lauren happily went off and from then on wanted to do every event!!  She won the 2nd obstacle race and I was very proud.  Martha loved the morning too and enjoyed crawling around, amongst and over the children and parents.  She has such a lovely smile and giggle that everyone was happy to help watch her whilst I "assisted" Lauren in her races.  Martha even walked a race herself - we had to do a parents race and we could run with our child.  Martha was so desperate to get involved that I thought I would take her, I'm sure it made her day!!

 

Martha fell asleep as soon as she was in her car-seat so Lauren and I decided to head home and have our picnic on the top field whilst we let Martha sleep next to us in the car. 

Jason thinks that it is either the thermostat or head gasket that caused yesterdays car blip - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's the thermostat!!

 

Bit of a boring day today, spent it mainly tidying the house.

We met up with our friends Eddie, Rachel, Lewis and Hayden in Clumber Park.  Thankfully the weather was very kind to us on the whole and we enjoyed a fun day having a picnic and playing with frisbee like things (I don't know what the modern equivilents are called!!!).  The Park is halfway for us and we're hoping to do a bit more meeting up over Summer.  Lauren is still smitten over Lewis and tried holding his hand at every opportunity, he took it all very well for a growing boy!!  On the way home, the car started to overheat and we had to stop, not sure what it was/is, but suspect it to be the head gasket - yippee more money to spend!!!  It got us home fine, so fingers crossed it's not too serious.

I've been trying to think of ways that I could use the tubs of double cream we have left from the party.  We were running out of bread today so I decided to make a couple of loaves myself.  I've not done it for a few months and had forgotten how much I enjoyed it.  I decided to experiment and discard the recipe I usually follow.  My deviations were replacing 2tbs olive oil with 2tbs milk and 2 tsp sugar with 2 tsp honey.  The yeast was out of date so I wasn't holding out much hope that it would be ok, but amazingly it is!  The girls love it and even eat the crust (-  wrapped them in a damp tea towel after they came out of the oven and it's given them a lovely soft crust.  I remembered whilst kneading that my recipe book had instructions as to how to make butter so I decided to use the double cream for that.  Lauren had great fun shaking the jam jar and dancing around.  It didn't take that long to do really, but sadly it's not a great big block, you must need to use 2 pots for that!!

 

When Peter came home from work, Lauren requested we have fish and chips for tea so we took a trip into Pateley.  I bought some more yeast, renewed my library book (I seem to do this everytime now - shows how little time I get to read nowadays!) and bought our fish and chips!  We took them home and had a lovely tea.

 

I recieved a phone call from Leeds Council regarding the complaint I made about the indoor play place.  They couldn't find anything wrong apart from it being grubby, which they say they can't do anything about legally, they can only recommend as it's not so bad to be dangerous.  It looks like they've replaced/removed the damaged equipment which is really all I wanted to happen.  The Inspector did make me feel like I acted a bit over the top "I wouldn't have a problem taking my children there", but I'm sure that if he saw what my friend and I did, it would be a different story.  It didn't appear that he had a copy of my "statement" either as he was looking primarily in the older section rather than the baby unit but nevermind, at least he's gone and they've changed things.

Today was quite productive unexpectedly.  After dropping Lauren off at playgroup, I took Martha along to the mum & toddler group as planned. It was nice to see everyone again and they were all amazed at the changes in Martha.  I exchanged a few telephone numbers and made provisional arrangements for during Summer.  One boy, Ben will be starting Lauren's playgroup in September and is a week older than her.  He and Lauren knew each other before she started and he and his sister came to Martha's birthday party.  I suggested to his mum that he and Lauren have some playdates over summer so that when he starts he'll know at least one person, Lauren is very good at looking after new people by all accounts!!

 

I was on the washing up rota at playgroup so Martha and I left church early.  After we did the dishes, I was invited to stay and attend a Food Hygeine and Safety course, I accepted and spent a good afternoon learning some useful things.  Lauren had a whale of a time having free rein in the playgroup with the other few children whilst we were in the adjoining room.  Martha was really good as well considering she was either in her pushchair or trying to play with the older children.  One naughty boy tried to feed her sand but thankfully I could see and ran in quickly.  She'd been picked on all day, the poor thing - another boy at church hit her on the top of head, the same "sand" boy was pushing toys cars into her earlier and Lauren had taken a few swipes for good measure - I felt so bad for her and can't wait until she's a bit bigger or at least walking so she can defend herself better.

 

Yet another party!  Today we attended Lauren's friend Ben's 4th birthday party.  They too had a bouncy castle and managed to bring the party into a cowshed/stable to avoid the bad weather.  The girls had great fun bouncing and playing pass the parcel.  We had one powercut during the party which thankfully only lasted a few minutes so Pass the Parcel was played.

 

The real excitement came after the party.  Peter has an allergy to horses and when we left the party, his eyes and nose were playing up.  He noticed that Lauren was struggling a bit with her breathing and remembered that he was exactly the same when he was younger.  Lauren was still suffering from a cold which didn't help.  We got home, where we all got stripped in the porch to stop anything getting into the house.  The girls were plonked in the bath and Lauren recieved some Piriton.  Thankfully her breathing eased within an hour or so but was still not perfect.  The girls went to bed and Lauren managed to get a couple of hours sleep before her breathing started to worry us again.  I called the emergency Dr and was asked to take her to the Out of Hours Centre at Harrogate District Hospital.  When we arrived, Lauren was instantly put onto a face mask inhaler thing for about 10 minutes - she was so brave and grown up throughout the whole ordeal, I was so proud of her.  When she came off, the change in her breathing was amazing, she had been taking really shallow, sharp breaths and now it was regular deep breaths.  We went home about an hour later armed with soluble steroid tablets to take for the next day or two, an inhaler and spacer device.  Lauren has been using it brilliantly since and we've been so impressed with her mature attitude to what must have been a frightening experience for her.

 

Well done Lauren!!