Halloween and Half Term

It's freezing, really, really freezing. I'm sitting here with me thermal vest and woolly tights on top of me undies, a long sleeve t-shirt, a long t-shirt, a skirt, cardigan, scarf and furry boots and I'm still cold. The fire is on too and all the draughts have been filled, it's just cold.

The cold didn't stop us taking Kye to the Halloween parade in the town on Monday though, he loved it and was surprisingly, completely obsessed with the smoke machine.

Originally he was going to go as Jack Sparrow, but he needed a costume he could put on himself at school last Friday, so he chose to be a soldier. He didn't win anything, don't actually think he knew it was a competition anyway. He collected a 'prize' along with all the other children, for taking part.

He played soldier on Friday night again when he went out Trick or Treating with Graham after Dedrie very kindly offered to have him for me. He was thrilled with the big bag of treats he got, most of which he won't eat, so we'll pass them on.

School is back tomorrow, phew, he doesn't cope well with any break in his routine.

Du took me out in Dave his new van, it's very strange being driven to the supermarket by your son for the first time. I thought he did really well and handled the two uphill starts on the route I chose (by mistake) really well.

D has been taking every shift that she can, but managed to squeeze a Halloween party and a meal out with Michaels' family in over the weekend. Both were good she told me and the meal went much better than she had anticipated. All of this happened in the same week that Michael offered to pick me up some shopping while he was in Youghal if I wanted, which was really surreal for me.

I have absolutely loads to do as per usual, it would be great to actually be some bit on top of things.....On that note I should probably go and get on with some of it now the little monster has gone to bed.

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Baking mad

We had the most fantastic pizza last night, having used the recipe in the little bread book of mums. The breadmaker made the dough, which when I took it out seemed quite wet, undeterred I rolled out two (very) rough circles of dough and placed them on pizza trays. Left them to prove for about 10 mins and then loaded them with toppings. Fifteen minutes later they were pizzas capable of inflicting pizza envy on a worldwide scale. Great cold too.

Today I've been running around in Clonmel looking for nice but cheap curtains to cover up the draughty doors and stop the gale force winds that are blowing through the house. Managed to find a pair of goldy/umber ones in Clonmel Fabrics for €60, fingers crossed that firstly they'll get put up sooner rather than later and secondly, that they'll work. Also managed to pick up 3 pairs of lighter curtains for the shop, just to help it stay a little more snug during the evening classes.

Du is now the proud owner of a Peugeot 203 (think that's it), 1.9 diesel van. It's black and a little banged in places, but he's chuffed to bits. He's been working on it for days now. Cleaning it up inside and working out how he's going to put his speakers - it's great. Unfortunately, the bad news is the insurance, double Dinas', which seems so unfair and they'd both be a prime example of why it's unfair. Dina is the little speed junkie, not Du, she's a maniac and there's no telling her. Restricting the speed on the car hasn't helped, I personally think she should write of to rally car companies and ask for trials. With the right training and direction she could really do well, she has no fear and which company isn't going to see her as 'saleable'. OK, so I've finished pimping my daughter now.

This is the van, I think he's called it Dave after a character in Space Odyssey???

I have tons of work to do and am not really sure where to start, but I'd better go. Before I forget though Bear has been re-homed by a lovely family down the road and whose children go to Kye's school, so at least we'll know how he's getting on.
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Boy Genius

It feels like this week has just flown by, I really need to find a way to make my days last longer and then find a pill to allow me to keep up.

On Monday morning I took Kye to see Anya Smyth the Educational Psychologist that Kye was assessed by before the summer. We gave Du the option to see her because he wanted to know if he also had ADHD on account that he can't sit still, stop fidgeting, etc. The 9.30am appointment in Kilsheelen ended at around 1pm and much to Du's disappointment he does not have ADHD. Disappointment because he's a bit odd, obviously. His constant need to do something is associated with his Dyslexia, apparently his mind is just wired up like that and there isn't really anything that can be done. His Dyslexia is also what makes him forget everything (same as Kye) and also why he has to know every precise little detail. Du put that bowl in the cupboard for example, will only work if he knows what cupboard, which space and if it has to go in other bowls, which ones go below and above it.

Actually, that description might be a little unfair but if you replace the bowl with a u-bend and me with Coni, his need to get it right, please his dad, be a good apprentice and subsequently a plumber results in it all getting a bit complicated sometimes.

The really good news is that although his Dyslexia holds him back his overall intelligence is average with only 5% of the worlds population being more intelligent than him when it comes to perceptual observational intellect (at least I think that's what it is). From a career point of view this would mean he should do well in things like architecture and engineering and that plumbing may not be testing enough in the long run.

Of course Du isn't really up for going back to take his Leaving Cert so his plan is to continue with the Plumbing, take as many complimentary courses as he can find like Auto Cad and see what happens. He may go back as a mature student when he has his apprentiship and some more experience under his belt. Either way the assessment means he now knows for sure that he's bright and he has a valid excuse of sorts for being a little nuts.

We have an appointment today to discuss Kye with one of his resource hour teachers today. Mrs Fives works with him and his Dyslexia and has brought him on no end. The biggest problem I'm having is trying to keep him motivated at home in order to complete the extra work he needs to cover. Ideally, I'd also like to begin filling in the gaps in his knowledge when it comes to being on par with his peers back home, not sure where that's gonna fit in at the moment. He has been really tired this week, walking around with big black circles under his eyes. He's eating even less than usual, this morning I basically had to force one and a half digestives and half a glass of orange juice into him. He has swimming today and will be sitting around for a couple of hours after with wet hair after, then hurling this evening but he'll still only eat plain pasta for dinner I bet.

I'm gonna go and get on with some work before our meeting, I'll post up how we get on and try and get some photos of the kids.

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Bear

OK so this could be quite possibly a little unfair I'll admit, by uploading the photos of this delicious puppy I could quite possibly be seen to be emotionally blackmailing people (no names mentioned, mum...). I'm not honest, just hoping we can find him a good home and blackmail someone else with these photos.

He's a lab cross nicknamed bear because he looks like a bear cub. Is actually very quiet and loves cuddles (a bit too much if you ask me). The children do not want him re-homed but with three bitches and Coni and not in that order, it's just not feasible. He's a chunky little chap, who seems at his happiest sleeping.

Anybody out there have some love??????

The meeting we had with Kye's teacher today went relatively well, his very poor memory is beginning to have an impact on his work and he spell as he speaks (as we all do), except he seems to be getting a little confused eg. he says w instead of r and rag became wag. I know it's not funny but Johnathan Ross isn't doing too badly, not sure the school could see my point of view.

D has put her CV all over the place, there seems to be only part-time work though, but she might be lucky and get a couple. She's at work this evening until 8, although we haven't seen much of her this week as Michaels parents are away on holiday.

Not too sure what the weekend has in store for us, work tomorrow and then the rest will depend on the weather a little. I've been a bad parent and not reminded Coni to take Kye to Hurling this evening, but I don't think he has remembered.

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I'm sick of feeling like poo!!!!

I can't actually believe that I seem to have managed to catch another virus on top of the chest infection I already had, either that or it's mutated and now comes complete with matching headache and a feeling of being underwater upside down.

I think I should face the fact that clean living just isn't all it's cracked up to be and take up all manner of things that are 'bad'-drinking, drugs, very late nights, slovenly behaviour, MEAT, etc. Maybe then I'll be fighting fit.

As per usual loads has happened, Du has finally had his notification for his FAS block release in Plumbing & Heating. He starts the end of November and continues to go daily until the end of April -Hurrah, the catch is it's in Waterford and he needs tools that are specified (about €600 worth that Coni says he's unlikely to ever use). We're going to have to check out buses and lift sharing because we can't really afford to loose the 4 hours spent driving him to and fro daily. I've been told there's a bus from Dungarvan, so that's not so bad.

The only other problem is our holiday, apparently he's not entitled to any hols whilst on block release.

After constantly being digged at for not getting around to his hair, I managed to squeeze a cut in on Sunday, so Du is now sporting much shorter hair (suits him, if you could see properly).

Dina and I saw The Women on Friday night, twas OK, padded out and not one to necessary bother making the effort for though. Scrapaholix on Saturday went really well, I fought through this bug and had a really good time. Although I managed to crash and burn soon after and like a bad parent didn't manage to take Kye to the birthday party he was invited to.

Sunday was spent, hairdressing as I mentioned, shopping and taking the little man to the playground in Dungarvan and then to the beech in Abbeyside for a stone throwing session, finished off for him anyway, with a McDonalds, before I headed home to feed the rest of the roast Chicken.

I managed to get everything ready for my class tonight yesterday - using fabric on cards, as per usual I had to curb my enthusiasm. Last night was a very quiet Knit 'n' Knatter, although I did know it would be, it was really nice to sit for a couple of hours with Sandra and Ildi though.

I'm off to the hairdressers now for my highlights, only for she's so busy I'd cancel as I don't relish the thought with my head at the moment - no pain, no gain I suppose.

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The Ploughing Festival

Yesterday Coni and I were bad parents and kept Kye off of school to go to The Ploughing Festival.


Having made it in record breaking time, due to the complete lack of traffic on the roads, we parked and headed off in the direction of the show, where we arrived some 20 minutes later (I kid you not).

After spending several hours looking at tractors and cows - nothing new there as we live on a COW FARM, we headed home complete with €87 worth of toy tractor and trailer (yep I did say €87), homemade cake, a book on self-build log cabins, very hungry bellys (no vegetarian options except chips) and very, very sore feet.


Not that it wasn't a good day, more a case of it not being set out very well. We didn't even see any ploughing because it was just too far to go with little people. At least the sun was shining and we managed to top up on some much needed vitamin D.



Arriving home we were all so exhausted that we didn't manage to do much, favouring an easy night and barely managing to keep my eyes open to watch Ross Kemp in Kenya.


Today I have to try and finish my second layout for Scrapaholix tomorrow (not much to do) and get some baking done. If I manage to get all of that done, plus the usual it might be time to address the ever growing pile of ironing because it's not going to do itself.