2009

2009 has unfortunately been the fourth year in the row when major horrible things have happened so I am glad to see the back of it in every way. This time for the first time, those horrible things have been both personal and business related rather than just personal. I've moved on from the business part though as it's just not worth dwelling on. The year has ended badly too as I had to cancel my 9th IVF cycle I had booked for January 2010 as a direct result of what was done to my business by a third party.  The email that I sent to the clinic last week doing that was probably the worst thing I've had to do for a very long time especially as I've been waiting 26 months for this cycle but I had no choice.

We started this year with a big positive - 3 weeks in Florida for Charlie and I in January. We had a wonderful time, much needed break for me and perfect for us to reconnect and Charlie turned 11 there. It all seems so far away now! Charlie asked to learn guitar so I bought him one and he's been having lessons from next door and seems to be doing very well.

March saw the business finally leaving my house and moving in to premises which was a big relief all round. In April I got a year older (groan) and we got two dogs from the RSPCA.

We spent Spring and summer having lots of days out and some great walks with the dogs too. Charlie has come along leaps and bounds with his Maths again this year. He's had some moments where the penny has obviously dropped for him which has been lovely to see.

He's very definitely growing into a young man. He has growth spurts all the time and is needing new clothes almost at the same frightening rate as he did when he was a toddler! Even his feet have grown which hadn't happened for almost 18 months. He still sucks his thumb though which has surprised me considering he turns 12 in 15 days time but despite my fears that he'd need a brace because of it, he doesn't and his teeth were declared perfect by the dentist. He's a very interesting mix of baby and young man, he still adores all his cuddly toys but takes on responsibilities beautifully and can be trusted to do so much now.

He surprised me a few months ago when he asked for Galore Park Secondary level Maths. Actually surprised is a bit of an understatement! But, to give him his dues, he has coped very well with it so far even though we are only a couple of chapters in. He is loving the secondary level History, English etc which go with the Geography and Science he already had.

It's hard to believe he will be 12 in 15 days time, harder to believe that I am old enough to have a 12 year old, in 6 years he could be gone,  but as we head into 2010, I know that he is growing into the most amazing young man and that makes me very proud.

Christmas 2009

Lisa worked the 21st and I did 22nd & 23rd, both times I was in and out in less than an hour which was fab and Christmas work wise has been a million times calmer and better than last year. I've worked less hours and whilst at times it has been stresful, it almost seems like nothing compared to last year. Being able to have the premises and even better, the employee in the premises rather than both in the house has been priceless. Just having the space to pack properly means that parcels can be done in half the time. Fantastic.

Consequently this means that home life has been much better this Christmas. The Christmas tree was bought the first weekend in December rather than a few days before Christmas Day, and Charlie and I have had time to do stuff together. We've had a few rocky moments but overall, so much nicer than last year.

I had some dental surgery on the 16th December which has definitely affected everything as I really suffered this time with pain right up until Christmas Eve. I was overdosing on ibruprofen and paracetamol every single day just to be able to barely function. It was horrid. The sleeping sedation also wiped me out completely which was also a new side effect. I can barely remember anything of that day and managed to wipe my new site after being stupid enough to do some work when I got home!

So, Christmas Eve started with giving Charlie his Christmas Eve hamper which went down a storm. This is my new tradition and is an extension of new pj's that I always wrapped and gave in the evening of Christmas Eve. After breakfast we started work on the Gingerbread House Kit I got in Selfridges, had lunch, did the star biscuits, watched some xmas films, played some games etc Charlie had a bath, I had a shower, we donned our new xmas pj's, we popped popcorn, made our snowman soup (hot chocolate with squirty cream, mini marshmallows and chocolate drops) and watched Santa Buddies and then Charlie went off to bed. Lovely, lovely day.

Christmas Day and Charlie woke at 7.45am and came in to my room and we opened stockings. Charlie love his wooden puzzle box and his other bits and pieces, particularly the Disney Pin I picked up in Florida in January for his collection.

Downstairs and we let the dogs out and then opened presents. Charlie loved his DSi, Meccano set, puzzle ball, DVD, DS game, Bear Grylls books from my Godsons mother and National Geographic subscription from my best friend and 3 Wii games from my brother and his GF.

Charlie got me a new Willow Tree ornament, the new Dan Brown book, box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates, Next & Debenhams gift cards and fruit and nut toblerone.

I made Jamie Olivers Christmas Pancakes for breakfast which were yummy and then we went over to my parents around 11am. Lovely lunch and more presents, lego and Cambridge Brain Box kit and some other bits for Charlie and then we came back around 3pm and walked the dogs. By the time it was 4pm I was starting to feel really ill and fell asleep on the sofa for an hour which is really unlike me. Charlie helped my Dad take my Nan back to the care home and we had a light tea and then early bed for both of us.

Boxing Day and we went into town as Charlie wanted to spend some Christmas money. It wasn't very busy really, much busier when we went back on Monday!

Apart from going into town again on Monday where Charlie got two cd's and 3 DS games for £60 in HMV we've just slobbed out at home since. Very nice and relaxing tbh. We've spent every day in pj's since Monday.

Will add photos tomorrow.

Nearly over for another year

Quick catch-up on last week, Monday and Tuesday I can't remember much of, mostly lying around in bed as my back had gone again the previous week meaning weekend plans with friend and London trip had to be cancelled :(

On Tuesday we took apart Charlie's bunks to make them into 2 single beds and put one bed in the spare room along with his tv, dvd player and his PS2 and the Wii was also moved up there from downstairs. Am planning a crafty flat screen tv purchase in the sales for that room. His bedroom now looks much bigger and better and we've been surfing the web for ideas for new bedding, rug and bits and pieces.

Wednesday we were up at 6am to leave at 7.15am to get to the dental surgery in Oxford so I could have a tooth out under sleeping sedation. Of course, if the referral hadn't taken 4 months to come through, I could have just had a filing and kept my tooth but by the time the bloody NHS had got its act together it was too late. I had a lovely sleep and consequently remember almost nothing of Wednesday except wiping everything from my brand new website which is supposed to be launched. That will be why they tell you not to do anything important like work or sign legal papers for 24 hours then. Sigh.

I've been in serious pain ever since, am taking painkillers every two hours and couldn't open my jaw to eat for 3 days but apart from that....

Friday morning I dragged us out of bed early to be at the Mall by 8.30, took some paperwork to the Council offices, got some last minute Christmas bits in, did a food shop and a dog food shop and then made it home. I was in no fit state to be doing any of that but I knew at that point if it snowed even another inches worth the muppet wagon wouldn't be able to get off the drive and I didn't want a repeat of this year when we got back from Florida and promptly got snowed in the house with no food!

Saturday we had a lovely pj's, sofa and movies day and watched various films on Sky. I am loving the new Sky+, being able to pause tv is so much fun and very handy!

Sunday was a particularly bad day pain wise :( Managed to do a bit hoovering and cleaning and changed the beds and got through a few loads of washing. Then I just collapsed in a pained heap and watched Brothers & Sisters d/l's on my Macbook.

Today I was pretty much at the warehouse all day. So many expedited delivery orders over the weekend. Everything got sent, ebay sale has gone very well too. I will go in tomorrow as there are more orders and I let Lisa finish today and then hopefully there won't be any orders on the 23rd.

I won't be here at 2pm

Famous last words!

I had NO intentions of going into work again as I am really enjoying how much calmer and nicer it is this year with the business being gone. I am actually seeing December and I like it. But when my Dad came over at 9am to help me put the boy dogs ear drops in (poor sod has an absolute raging ear infection) he kindly gave me 4 parcels to send for him. He has been selling some Bronica (sp?) camera equipment on ebay that he no longer uses and has made £700 - he is thrilled as this means he can afford the specialist £860 printer that he wants.

So, I dispatched Charlie upstairs to do his work (GP secondary level) all was fine and he is very excited about doing the Geography field study (he's had the Geography for a few months now) and I whizzed through the accounts and banking and we left around 10.35 and were just beaten by Lisa arriving early.

Charlie was in the back room finishing off his work, Dad's parcels packed, my Secret Santa present wrapped and sent, stock control done, orders printed off and Courier booked and then whilst Lisa packed I started to work on the fix for the previously mentioned SQL database error.

I was in the middle of fixing it when I noticed it was now 12.00 so sent Charlie to the cafe to get lunch and breezily explained to Lisa that as I wouldn't still be here at 2pm could she please print off the rest of the orders and mark as shipped as its settlement day.

At 1.50pm she laughed out loud and said "of course you won't still be here at 2pm when the Courier comes will you" I resisted the urge to throw a box at her ;)

SQL problem fixed and then at 1.30pm Packing Partner broke - I resisted the urge to scream. So downloaded fix for that and then went back to trying to install the evaluation of the stock control system now that the SQL was fixed - it threw up a new problem. I am awaiting their tech supports help now.

I sent Lisa home at 2pm and then we left around 2.30 as just before I went to leave I noticed Mr Bubbles needed replenishing so parcels could be packed tomorrow.

Dinosaur model out on the road had extra bits to his torso today so that was exciting and we found out they are being filmed for a documentary which is why no-one can go down one particular corridor between 7pm-7am at the moment.

Home and flopped. Charlie has K'Nex'd more, Meccano'd and lamented that his thesaurus and dictionary are lacking so he couldn't finish his English GP as the thesaurus didn't have the word in that he needed to look up. Must rectify that with trip to bookshop.

Second only to...

Fed up with my beloved sons moaning about being made to do work for school years beneath the one he would be in, last week I ordered GP Maths, Science, History & English in the first books of the secondary series. Science, History & English he could do in his sleep at that level but I think in about 20 Maths pages time he will regret moaning! He asked, he got, sometimes you learn to regret asking for things.

So, up as usual this morning, work, afore mentioned GP books arrived, Charlie did an exercise or 2 of each, played with some K-nex motors after his brand-new-only-arrived-yesterday Meccano set was confiscated as a punishment, he dealt with the dogs, I dealt with work stuff and parent stuff and then after lunch we dashed off to the unit as I needed to try and install some trial software.

That failed - @£$%&!!! stupid Windows machines - I could have kicked it. Someone NEEDS to sort out proper stock and order management software for Macs, please!

So we left after an hour had passed and I had unpacked our second delivery from a new supplier. We marvelled at the new animatronic dinosaur model outside Avalon Studios - they make the Walking with Dinosaurs models - we love that they are on our business village as there is always exciting stuff around to look at and they sometimes let Charlie go in and watch a model being molded or having something done to it. Also found out they are putting on an exhibition type thing on Oxford Street next year - they've made 24 dinosaurs for that. Lovely people too.

Popped round the corner to go to Tescos, didn't buy anything though, wanted to look at a Flip video camer IRL and also checked out a few other bits and pieces. Back home for dinner and have been stuck upstairs working ever since.

It's December

Which apparently means that no "normals" or anything even remotely resembling work is getting done. Hmmm. Not entirely sure I have the energy to enforce it either.

My mother is at it again. But that I mean, not so subtle attempts to persuade me to send him to school. A few weeks ago we were at their house and she "secretly" took me into the dining room and told me that she'd seen in the local paper that a lovely private school in Brackley was giving full fee bursaries away and it's a lovely school and wouldn't that be good and she thought I'd be interested. I gave her a look, said no and walked out of the room. Then about two weeks later at my parents anniversary "do" my Aunt not-so-subtley asked if I was still HE'ing him and hadn't I thought it was better to send him to school now he is of secondary age. So obviously put up to it by my mother.

I am sick to death of the constant undermining and it isn't even restricted to HE/school.

Not much other news as nothing ever happens here HE wise as no groups or HE friends. Charlie is starting to get more and more lonely to the stage where it is seriously affecting his behaviour. Poor little man :( I've said it before a million times but it's still true, I hate living in this stupid County. Plans to move in 2010 have most likely been scuppered in the most despicable way by an outsider which just makes everything worse as we are both desperate to move somewhere where there are HE people/groups.