Showing posts with label bbq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bbq. Show all posts

Friday, 15 June 2012

Reasons to be Cheerful 1, 2, 3 - Week 4




Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy from the Heart

It's been a bit of a tough week this week for me emotionally.  I think my depression is rearing it's ugly head again and I am struggling to stay cheerful.  Although I can see the good things, I am struggling to really enjoy them at the moment.

My reasons to be cheerful this week are:
  • Having a job interview next week.  I have come to the decision that with Noah starting nursery in September and Aled going to school full time, it would be a good time for me to return to work.  Before I had the boys I was working in a school as an administrator and really enjoyed it, therefore the first place I looked for vacancies was the schools website.  I was lucky as they are advertising a position that I feel I can do and it's term time only, so I still get to spend the holidays with my boys.  The best of both worlds.  Fingers crossed I get the job!
  • I went to a BBQ last night with my weekend job colleagues.  It's an annual BBQ that they have done every year.  The food was yummy and they did a raffle.  Normally I don't win in raffles, but this time I won a huge slab of Cadbury's Dairy Milk! Yay.  To top it off, at the end of the night, most of my colleagues were off to a nightclub (I am waaaay to old for such shenanigans) and one of the girls asked me if I wanted the bottle of wine that she had won, as she wouldn't be able to drink it before getting to the club.  Thank you very much, with the last episode of Desperate Housewives that I have recorded, that is now my Friday night sorted. :-)

Um, I am now struggling to find something else!  I feel terrible, I feel that there should be more, but I really can't think of anything more!

Hopefully next week I will have a much more positive outlook on life.

Jackie. x


Monday, 11 June 2012

My Week That Was - Week 3 (The Half-Term Edition)


Look, it's Monday and I am doing My Week That Was on time!! lol.  Last week was the double bank holiday and also half term.  It didn't go quite as planned and although I was determined not to, the Great British weather did mean that some of my plans were postponed.

On Monday we decided to go off to Legoland to renew our annual passes.  Thanks to my weekend job, I had 50% off vouchers for the Merlin Annual passes, so we decided to get those this year, rather than just renewing our Legoland pass.  We got there about midday(ish) and by the time we got the annual passes sorted and walked down into the resort, the weather wasn't too great.  We managed to get one ride in before the rain really started to come down.  I had heard about the special Lego Jubilee Queen model that was there, so I insisted that we went to the Miniland area to see it.  The crown of the Lego Queen is encrusted with 48 tiny diamonds, worth thousands of pounds and looks rather pretty.  As you can imagine, there is a security guard there at all times looking after the little Lego Queen.  While we were there admiring the Queen, Aled calls out that he can see the Queens boat.  We had watched the Jubilee River Pageant the day before and I was rather impressed that Aled recognised the Lego model of the Queens boat.  I do find it fascinating of how much detail goes in to these little models.  After visiting Miniland we got the Hill Train back up to the top and hubby, PJ and Noah went for a wonder around the Star Wars area.  Aled thought that the area was 'too scary' and didn't want to go in, so we wondered around the shop.

Lego Queen with real diamonds
The Lego Queens Boat

On Tuesday we had a little Jubilee party at my mums.  It was originally going to be a family BBQ, but we had to change our plans due to the weather.  We got there for about 10.30am and me and mum went off to Asda to get the food.  We tried not to go too mad, as there weren't many of us.  When we got back to mum's, my step father was already there.  Not long after, my sister Susan came, followed by my other sister Helen with her stepson Brandon.  We put out our party food and tucked in.  It was a nice afternoon spent with my family and something that we really should try to do more often.  During the afternoon, it came about that mum was babysitting Brandon on Wednesday.  We decided that it would be nice to take the kids off to Legoland for the day.  For the rest of the afternoon we watched a bit of the Queens parade on the tv and then highlights of Monday nights concert. 

Our party buffet
As stated above, we went off to Legoland on Wednesday. I must admit, I wasn't expecting it to be as busy as it was!  When we got there we had to park in the overflow car park, so had to walk a fair distance up to the resort.  While walking up the hill the heavens decided to open and there was one hell of a downpour!  We were soaked!  We waited at the top under the shelter by the turnstiles for mum, Susan and Brandon to come.  They weren't too far behind us.  After going into the park we headed off to the Discovery Zone.  I was aware of a Ride Challenge that Legoland was doing during the half term to get special edition badges, so we collected our entry sheets.  The aim was to go on the rides listed and get a stamp.  Once you collected all of the stamps, then you go back to the Discovery Zone to get your badges.  We used this as our guide of where to go in the park, along with some of the boys favourite rides.  It was Brandon's first time at Legoland and I think he had a blast. He loves aquariums and fish and so the Atlantis ride was a huge hit for him.  As part of the Ride Challenge, we took the boys on some of the bigger rides that we don't normally do.  Some of them, such as The Dragon's Apprentice and Knight's Quest Noah was able to go on, but others he had to miss out and Susan and PJ took Aled and Brandon on.  I wasn't sure how they would be with rides such as Viking River Splash and the Jolly Rocker, but they loved them!  We ended up not leaving the resort until past 6pm and it did take us a while to get out of the car park.  With all of this and then traffic back home, I ended up late for work that evening!  It wasn't particularly busy at work, but my being late did mean that I ended up finishing slightly later than usual as well.

A few of my pics from Legoland
Thursday and Friday we ended up having 'duvet' days.  I had initially planned on going to Chessington World of Adventures on Friday, however, we (I) were still pretty knackered from Wednesday.  On top of that, the weather was pretty atrocious as well and it just wouldn't have been much fun being out in it.  Instead, we gathered up our duvets and vegged out on the sofa for two days.

On Saturday and Sunday I was back at work.  Saturday was pretty good.  After I had finished my shift I decided to get my lunch in the staff canteen.  Normally I go straight home, but I was feeling rather hungry.  After buying my lunch, the managers were there giving out free Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  Thank you very much!  It was really yummy (even more so as it was free!).  Saturday evening I baked up my second Herman batch (I promise I will do a post about this soon!!).  Sunday I had an early night with my book, but ended up not sleeping very well, resulting in me lying awake for hours until past 3am with all sorts running around through my mind.  

Well, there we go.  I don't think this week will be quite as exciting as last week, although it is only Monday, so who's to say what's to come!

Don't forget to click on the badge at the top there to see how the other bloggers week went last week.

Jackie. x