Ooops!

Well i didn't think it had been THIS long since I last blogged but to be honest the past few weeks have been a complete blur, not really what you want when the time I have with Pete home is as precious as it currently is. The main reason for the strange time vacuum i've been in is Pete's board. Building up for the last nine months and culminating in having to physically check that he did actually come home from sea over the past few weeks because he'd been buried under reams of paper and stuck to his laptop. However, all the work was worth it as he passed his board last week. He looks at least five years younger than he has done over the past year just through finally letting go of the stress!

It's funny to think that he's now addressed onboard as Mr Farrell or 'Sir'....sounds so bloody formal doesn't it. I did try it at home for a few days but got bored quite quickly! And now the rush that is Xmas begins. Doesn't help with different kids at different schools as there seems to be no time to breathe! Freya had a concert last night with her choir, another for the district choir and orchestra tonight and her school performance next week aswell as her one for Stagecoach coming up. Emily also has one at school next week (she plays a donkey! LOL) and I'm sure Natasha will have one with the nursery so it's keeping us all really busy. Thank goodness Pete is on leave next weekend.

We had our first parents evening with Emily and the girl is a genius, which we kind of knew already LOL! She's doing work with the year one children and whilst some of the other reception class kids are still practicing their names, she's writing sentences! Although they aren't grammatically correct, they make sense when you read them. Her entry in her school weekend diary after the remembrance service said 'my mummy took me to see the dead soldiers!' which raised a few eyebrows! I can't believe how well she's thriving at school and she has this constant demand to be learning all the time. I guess you just have to encourage it to continue.

Talking of Em, it was her fifth birthday last weekend. She had also been invited to a birthday party down at Tamar Valley Donkey Park in the afternoon so that saved a few pennies on a party! We did however, splash out on a cake and had some family round later in the evening. I just love the cakes at Waitrose and with four kids I don't think it'll be long til I've had everyone in the catalogue.

She loved her cake and her new bike without stabilisers......daddy will finally get a chance to get her out on it this evening if it isn't too dark. I'm hoping he can get her comfortable on it before he returns to sea because i'm useless at that sort of stuff!

I've got the dates for next year now and it's going to be a harder trip than i first thought..... 5 and a half months at sea! With Natasha starting her funded nursery sessions in January that should help me get a little escape time but it's certainly going to be hard, especially with so little contact. I'm still umming and ahhhing about flying out to Dubai where they have an extended port visit about half way through, but the costs involved may prohibit that, plus it would be so difficult to get on a plane to come home with the kids wondering why daddy can't come back with us.

So the house is now getting back to normal and Pete is duty tomorrow night so i'm hoping to get some papers and scissors out. It will be the first time over two months and i'm looking forward to it. Freya wants to make some cards for Xmas too so there will probably be glue and paint everywhere....YIPPEE!