Home sweet home

Hi honey, I'm home!

Greetings from sunny Scotland, where all the children are back at school and all the mothers have collapsed in a heap. Or is that just me?

Holly and I flew back from London yesterday. My dad picked us up from the airport and we went in by Kathy's house for a cup of tea before heading home. Holly wasn't even in the door minutes and David arrived to get his fix. He brought me a little present, a drawing of Jack. It's really good, I was so touched.

Jack, wearing his winter hat, asleep.

Five minutes later, Holly's best friend Diz arrived and there was lots of screaming and laughter and the house that had been quiet for all of a few short minutes was filled with noise, just like it always is!

Later that evening the respite unit called to ask for some meds that I had forgotten to put into his box, so off I went up with them. I wanted to get a wee glimpse of my lovely boy since I hadn't seen him in a week. He hadn't been in bed long but he was still awake and when I came around the side of the bed and spoke to him, his eyes opened wider and he wouldn't take his eyes off of me.

I wasn't expecting this at all cos usually, if I have been away, he doesn't take me on, in any shape or form. He wont even look at me! This time he was so happy to see me, giving me lots of smiles, making lots of noise and  letting me give him lots of kisses. He is such a funny wee man.

Instead, according to Kathy and Emma, he gave them the silent treatment and he certainly put them through their paces this time! Within 24 hours of us leaving, they had to give him rescue meds after a big seizure and they'd to call the fire station to fix one of my fire alarms as they'd fitted them and one was misbehaving!

I was so jealous when they told me that the Firemen had arrived, cos well, I have a thing for Firemen. I insisted on a picture and the Firemen dutifully posed for it, with Jack who was sleeping off the rescue meds!  It wasn't just a few Firemen who arrived either, it was a whole fire engine full but only two came to the door. Tee hee hee. Guess who will be taking the batteries out of the other two alarms if that is what I am gonna get appearing at my door!

Meet William and Simon and of course my lovely boy...zonked!

I like going on holiday but the best thing about being away is coming home. As we drove up the street to our house, Holly said "there's our house, isn't it lovely?" and I couldn't agree more. It's good to see things with new eyes. Once inside, after getting an excited welcome from the two mad dogs, I walked from room to room, getting re-acquainted with all my lovely things and then I lay down on Jack's bed just to be close to him. I do this every time I am away from home for a while cos I love my house and I forget why sometimes, so it's nice to see it with fresh eyes.

You will be pleased to know that we managed to avoid the riots in London but there were a few dodgy moments. One in particular, during which Oxford Street shut down early and there were police cars and police vans everywhere so we decided it was time to get out of there. Heading down to the tube we were followed by a gang of youths who were talking about the rioting and looting and were laughing about it. I dare not turn round and willed Holly not to either and I must admit that this was the first time that I didn't feel safe in London. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we got back to our hotel.

Every morning that I dropped Holly off to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama she would tell me to keep safe and watch where I was going. My poor paranoid daughter would breathe a sigh of relief when I was there to pick her up every night!

Despite this, we had a great time in London and I have lots more stories to tell but for now, I am just glad to be home, chilling and spending the day doing very little. Oh bliss. Saying that, I will be catching up on all your news, since I missed most of it while I was away and I am delighted that Sush and Bouncin' Barb received my blogaversary give-away parcels as I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there!

Have a nice day my little gigglers.

The happy traveller returns

Holly is home from London..........woo hoo! What a brilliant time she has had.

They went to see Stomp and were treated to a Q & A session with some members of the cast. Afterwards they then took off to see various shows in the west end.  Holly chose to see Les Misérables as this was the first show she ever took part in. Their last day was spent shopping then more entertainment by La Soirée.

I think she is all drama'd out now!

She brought me back some very cool scenes from 3 of my favourite movies.  At first, I thought that they were photos from the movies but then on closer inspection I realised that they were hand painted and was so impressed.  Suffice to say I love, love, love them.  The artist is featured on a website called Timeart.  The artist's name is Michael Kozlov and she bought me 3 prints from his Movie Legends Collection.

The three prints are:  Dirty Dancing - The Kiss,  Grease -Danger Ahead and Captain Jack Sparrow.  Now I just have to find somewhere cool to hang them.

And check out these funky boots she took home for Jack.

He is going to look such a cool dude in these, the wee trendsetter that he is!

Holly and I are both interested in art and artistic but she is far more talented than I am.  I gave up drawing and painting at school because a teacher kept putting my drawings down, saying I was a copy artist, not a real one, yet come Easter, Halloween and Christmas, it was me that she chose to paint decorations on the class windows.  Unfortunately I believed her and rarely pick up a pencil and pad.

Because of this, I have actively encouraged Holly's artistic side and now I am gonna give you a sneaky peak of the shoes she customised for a friend's granddaughters.  It was her first go at them so, she isn't as happy with them as she would like but hey for a first time effort, they look bloody good!

 

and lastly, the ones she customised for me (which she hasn't finished yet!)

So this is what she gets up to in her spare time, which at the moment, is few and far between but I hope that after her exams she will finish my shoes in time for the spring and I can show them off cos shoes are my thing and I am renowned for having some really different and funky ones.  Watch this space!

The F Word

Holly is away to London for a few days with her school.  They left Wednesday night, mega excited and I have not heard from her since.  This is not unusual as she is not a slave to her phone and only switches the damn thing on if she wants to text rather than being like me who has mine on all the time and is constantly texting.

I am missing her so much already and I really am starting to wish that Jack and the dogs could speak!  Mind you, I'd better be careful what I wish for cos imagine if the dogs started nagging for a walk every 5 minutes, like toddlers! And if Jack could speak, his first word would probably be Fuckkkkkkkkkkkk! cos it's the word I use most often, every time he has a seizure in fact so maybe not such a good idea after all :)

I hasten to add that my language is not full of swear words, honest but sometimes the F word is the only one that will suffice.  When my lovely mum first became ill with Motor Neurone Disease, she had some really crappy days.  One particular day she was in quite a lot of pain and frustrated by her body which she could no longer move and I said "awww mum, just tell it like it is" and she said "what do you mean?".

I laughed and said "well saying it's horrible and crappy sometimes just isn't enough so maybe you should just swear and be done with it, cos after all it's not just crap is it, it's fucking crap!" to which I was rewarded with a shocked "Lynne!"  Now my mum was no prude or angel but she really didn't swear much at all whereas I, during times of mega stress do resort to the F word and it was quickly becoming my word of the moment because I was under so much stress with Jack constantly being in and out of hospital at that time.

So after much encouragement, I finally got her to say "fuck" but she said it so quickly that to me there was no satisfaction in it at all!  When I explained this to her she was like "I don't get what you mean" and I then said "well, in order for it to make you feel better, the word has to be long and drawn out, kinda like a groan or a scream, like Fuuuuuckkkkkkk!


She laughed but gave it a try and I was rewarded with a great big "Fuuuuuuuuuuucccckkkkkkkkkkk!" "There now, I said, doesn't that feel better?" and she said "funnily enough, it does".  So I said "go on have another go, it'll make you feel so much better" so she let out another yell of "Fuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccccccccccccckkkkk" quickly followed by "cunting whoring bastard!!!!!!".

I was so shocked and exploded with laughter cos it was so so funny coming out of her mouth and the next thing we were in fits of giggles and suffice to say, she felt a whole lot better! And I was secretly chuffed that I'd been a bad influence on my mum, who knew!

It's 12.15am and Holly has just text me, a great big novel over 4 texts telling me all about her day. She is having a total blast and I feel so chuffed cos finally she has checked in with me.  Once a mum, always a mum so now I can chill a bit, knowing that she is back in the hotel, safe having had a great day.

But before I head off to my bed, I must tell you that I have been approached by a company called CSN Stores here in the UK asking me if I would be willing to do a competition/giveaway for them and the winner will receive a £25 voucher to spend.  Sounds exciting?  Well there will be more on that next week when I work out how I am going to do it!