Bits & Bobs

Busy month so far and we're only two weeks in! MOT & service for my car, house insurance sorted out, I have started tweeting and the in-laws have been up to stay. Plus hubby has been away more than he has been here, including disappearing half way though his parents visit lol, as much as I love them that was a rather long and stressful 24 hours!

Tonight (I started writing this last Monday!) I am watching The Choir: Military Wives on BBC2. It is fabulous and seems like a really good idea, despite the fact that it is making me cry! Gareth Malone wants to give the wives a voice, a very good and noble intention. Sadly, as far as I can tell we don't have a room with a piano! Plus I think that the small sense of community we do have on our patch would evaporate in a millisecond if I subjected the other wives to my singing voice!

Since taking over the newsletter and helping to organise events, I have realised that there really is not any sense of community here, the Regt is very spread out, not everyone is on the patch as there aren't a huge amount of quarters, but still, transport if available - although not well advertised! - and previously there have not been many events on that the wives have wanted to attend .. I am hoping that will change and we'll build up to being a true community, but we'll see!

However,  the army seems to want a community whilst being in charge of what comes out of a non-regulated part of the Regt .. opinions vary as to whether or not the wives are part of the army, as a 'wife of' I think we are a part in a support 'Rear Party' role, but we do not come under the army's authority, however much they wish we did!

All in all I am finding army life really good although slightly isolating. I don't feel a part of 'normal' life anymore, but as someone who lives on an army patch but who is not serving in the army I don't really feel part of army life .. somewhat stuck in the middle! The other wives I have met have all been lovely but - why is there always a but?! - being true British wives, we all tend to put a brave face on it as we don't want it going around the Regt that so-and-so's wife isn't coping and isn't she a bit pathetic! We know that people would be supportive, but just in case we keep our game face on and get on with it, just as our boys do.

White Rabbits!

Happy 1st November everyone! 

I have done my first of the month ritual of phoning my mummy (before midday or it doesn't count!) and shouting "white rabbits!" to which she replies "grey hares!" it is just how we do things in my family!

Life As I Know It

I have spent almost a week now trying to write this post under the title 'Life As A Wife Of'. In the end I have given up. I think part of the problem was that if I wrote a post under that title I would be, in a way, speaking for other wives who happen to be married to someone who is in the British army, knowing a fair few of them now I can safely say that I would be shot down very swiftly! We wives are all different, our experiences are different and our views vary wildly. From what I have seen and read, some wives choose to go into full-on, flat-out army wife mode, others make their point loud and clear that, although they may be married to a man in the army, they are in no way, shape or form a part of the army.

Keeping all of the above in mind this post is purely about my life. I believe - hope! - that I have managed to keep to the middle ground, I am ridiculously proud of my husband and what he does for a living and I am determined to be an asset to him not a hindrance, and yes, even in 2011 an army wife can have a positive or a negative effect on her husband's career, admittedly that fact is now whispered, but it does not stop it being true.

It seems that the majority of my time is either spent waiting in for the latest Modern Housing Solutions (MHS) guy to arrive to fix something, generally the heating - I have had them out 6 times so far and it still isn't working! - talking to the Welfare guys about various bits and pieces or walking/playing with the dogs, talking of which, how handsome are our boys?!

I digress - mainly because it is absolutely blinking freezing and I had to get up to make more coffee in an attempt to keep warm which meant that the boys woke up and reminded me how utterly gorgeous they are!

Speaking to Welfare is, if I'm honest, an utter pain in the behind. They have asked Sarah and I for help and - as a result of Sarah volunteering me! - I have taken over the Regiment's Welfare newsletter which was, quite frankly, utter pump (I am trying to not swear, too many of my friends have children now so if you see pump insert something rude!). It is now smart, easy to read and flows well, the old newsletter didn't engage and contained far too much lecturing, wives are not employed by the army, therefore the army has no right to lecture us, helpfully giving them information to make their lives easier on the other hand ... I am hoping that the new format will engage the family community, I have asked for people's pictures, any recipes they want to share and set up a 'Pet of the Month' - our boys were November's pets, I figured that I'd written it and the boys could therefore win, not that they had any competition! - plus saying happy birthday to the Regiment's children. I have also set up a Facebook page so that we can remind people of events etc. I am trying to engage the community, fingers firmly crossed it works!

In any case, getting things organised through Welfare is rather like pulling teeth. They want the events organised, they want help with producing flyers/newsletters, but they want to be in charge of it all, progress is very slow and, quite honestly, very irritating. My plan at the moment is to produce next month's newsletter and then email the template to them and let them crack on with it. According to the conversation I had with Welfare this morning, I need to phone and ask permission before I post anything on Facebook, as a result I want to remove myself as an admin and watch them try to keep it up-to-date, seeing as they can't make a flyer and I'm not sure whether or not they understand the concept of saving something as a JPEG to then upload it as a photo onto the Facebook page ... 

Whatever happens with the newsletter and the Facebook page, I have done my bit to drag Welfare into the 21st century, whether or not they stay there is up to them ... I understand the fears over using Facebook, but if it is properly administered it can be a brilliant tool to connect with those who can't make it to the coffee morning's on the patch.

We had our first Mess do together which was lots of fun, I wore this dress from John Lewis which I love, actually bought it for my bridesmaids in a different colour and loved it so much that I bought it in green for myself! 

We then went to a ridiculously posh army dinner which was brilliant, it was held here:

We had a fantastic night again, amazing food, the place names were written on a mini version of the menu so I have kept mine in case I am ever feeling the need to do a very yummy dinner! Oh and this time I wore this dress:

In any case that is life as I know it, staying in to wait for various bits & pieces to be fixed (you can't get in outside contractors, everything has to be done via MHS), trying to help Welfare get the community spirit going and attending various dinners! Add to that the normal stuff; baking, cooking, cleaning, training the boys, meeting up with friends and trying to stop myself looking like swamp thing and I honestly don't know how I ever found time to go to work! 

Loving Our Life Up North

We've lived up here for about 2 and a half months now and we're both loving it. Hubby is working ridiculously hard bless him, leaving home at 7:30 and home by 20:00 if he's lucky, but he is loving being back in regimental life and doing 'proper' army work instead of being surrounded by us civvies all the time as he was in his last posting!

I've met some really fantastic people and made a couple of lovely friends already in Sarah & Lou. They are my next door neighbours and 'wives of' lovely blokes who do the same job as my hubby so we're all in the same boat, going to the same things or being home alone when our hubbies are going to stag do's together. The only difference is I'm bringing up my furry babies and they're bringing up non-furry babies lol.

We have our first Mess do coming up and I can't wait! Have booked in to the hairdresser (got to cover up my grey hairs!) and on the day Sarah and I are leaving the boys to look after our furry and non-furry babies whilst we disappear off to beautify ourselves, it won't take her long but I may need all day! I am really looking forward to it though, particularly because the Mess is a 2 minute walk from our home so the heels won't be causing too many issues!

We finally finished our home this weekend - obviously not painting or anything like that, magnolia walls throughout are here to stay! - but all of our furniture is finally here and everything is put away, we're having one of my hubby's boys over to dinner this week now and I can't wait to finally be able to entertain! Just need to make sure the dogs are tired out before he comes over so the poor sod doesn't get mugged ... 

My parents have been up to visit which was lovely, didn't have the best weather but was great to see them, am hoping to get back to the 'Shire before December one weekend so I can see my girlies before Christmas and then next year I'll be annoying everyone to come and stay!

Talking of which ... I can't wait for Christmas! I start getting excited about August time as we're in the right half of the year and I try and keep it in as long as I can but I've reached my limit and I am now officially excited about Christmas! 

Marne

Marne has officially landed, well he landed two weeks ago now, it has flown by! He was very good on the way home, I picked him up using Sparks' cat carrier so he could get used to her smell before he met her, I felt rather guilty taking him home as he was the last one to leave from the litter, he has been very loved and will be missed, not so much by Wysiwig (his mum) but definitely by Geraldine! He yodelled for 5 minutes once in the car and then settled down to the serious matter of sleeping.  I have never heard any dog yodel before, apparently it is a Border Terrier speciality!  It is absolutely hilarious, he has done it a few times since when I have shut him in the kitchen (stair gates are a must when you have a puppy in the house!) to do something and each time it just cracks me up, endless entertainment!

Sleepy Marne learning how to take over the sofa!

Jack has been an absolute star, possibly the best big brother in the world I think. He wasn't too sure what exactly I'd brought home when we first turned up, sniffed him and then jumped on my lap and turned the "What have I done wrong? Whatever it is I'm sorry and please take this smelly thing away!" eyes on me bless him.  48 hours later and the racey chasey games and the wrestling started ... they haven't stopped since!

Marne sleeps in a crate (in our bedroom) and Jack sleeps wherever he wants, generally on the bed but sometimes under it, depends on the temperature, now we are up North he is mostly on the bed bang smack in the middle!  Jack likes having us to himself at night, Marne wakes up earlier than he is used to (6 rather than 7) and he refuses to go outside with him & the hubby, and has an extra hour of cuddles with me instead.  I am trying to give him a lot of time with just him and me but it is more difficult to turn it around and let Marne have the attention he needs/deserves as Jack doesn't need half the amount of sleep and tries to join in whenever I'm training/playing with Marne bless him.

Talking of training, puppy classes begin on the 6th September! I cannot wait to start, Caroline has been recommended to me through a rescue friend of mine, Mogs, she is a bit further away than the local classes ... the last time I did local classes I ended up in a rather large argument with the "trainer" because he was an idiot ... so this time I am going with recommendations! I can't wait to start, Jack is 6 in September so I have completely forgotten what a puppy needs to know! Marne already responds to his name (recall is iffy but there are far more interesting things than me in his world still at the moment - I must make more tuna cake!) and sits like a star.  Luckily he appears to be like Jack and an absolute foodie so he should be rather easy to train ... although he is a terrier so we'll see!

Foster dogs & rescue bits and bobs

I have had a few foster dogs in the past.  My first was Smudge, who is now called Marni, a collie x spaniel (sprollie).  She was roughly 9 months old when her then owners posted an advert on the Gloucestershire Freecycle that they didn't want her anymore and she was free to the first person who wanted her.  Yes people do this.

Luckily a lady who worked for Teckels (an animal charity in Gloucestershire) and I spotted this advert, managed to get in contact with each other, and arrange that she would get Smudge out and I would then foster her, anything to make sure that she wasn't in a home with people who didn't want her or that some horrible person would take her and use her as a bait dog or something horrific.

Smudge came home with me and stayed for almost 2 months, I fell utterly in love with this wiggly, utterly adorable ball of fluff, she was twice the size of Jack (legs wise in any case, width wise she was tiny!) and a mad bundle of energy who could not corner! Jack and her had mad playing times and lots of cuddles, Teckles managed to find a fantastic home with a lovely lady called Anne who still stays in contact with me after all these years (5 years now!) and after a few tears (ok bucket loads of tears!) off she went with her new mum and collie siblings.

Since then an adorable black lab x called Sunny had a few weeks bed and breakfast with me via the Irish Retriever Rescue (IRR) before being homed to friends of mine (he is now called Guinness and is their much loved, rather large and clumsy baby!  Then two adorable little Lhasa Apso ex puppy farm bitches came to stay for a couple of months, they were little cuddle monsters who jumped onto my lap as soon as I sat down and spent the rest of the time peeing everywhere (poor girls didn't know any better having been confined to cages and used as breeding machines for their first years) or trying to chase Sparks! Sadly I didn't have them until they found their new home, I couldn't cure their desire to chase Sparks and didn't feel it was fair to her to not be able to relax in her own home so they went to another fosterer and soon found a new home with a lovely couple who adore them.

On top of the fosters there have been long drives after a day in work (after taking Jack for a run, don't panic!) the first to Abergavenny to rescue a 9 week old black lab x husky bitch (so sweet, all black but with one blue and one brown eye!) whose owners had decided they didn't actually want another dog ... when I got there the owner asked me if I'd take their 6 month old golden retriever too ... obviously I couldn't leave him there so in the car he jumped ... cue some mad phone calls on route back to Cheltenham trying to find a rescue who would take him, IRR stepped up (which is how I met Pauline and how Sunny came to stay for a few weeks) and I met Pauline outside of Oxfordshire, dropped the gorgeous boy off with her and headed home with the pup who then went up to Wiccaweys with Jack and I the next day and was homed very quickly.  An apparently aggressive german shepherd was my next rescue, I had to plead with the owners to let me help instead of having her PTS, thankfully they agreed and again Teckles stepped up and took her on, I picked her up and set off down the M5 with her in the boot, halfway there the dog guard fell down on her, quick stop on the hard shoulder and I dismantled it from the back seat around her head, she didn't flinch or move a muscle, just gave me a kiss once I'd move it all away.  She now lives on a boat in Bristol harbour and goes swimming most days!

Basically I love animals, particularly dogs and sometimes, well if I'm honest most of the time, I love them more than people, other than my family and friends obviously!  They never do anything out of hate, malice etc and despite some of the horrific things people do to them they always want to forgive, reconnect and love.  I think we're all better off when we have animals in our lives.

Once we're properly settled up here (realistically this probably means after the husband is back from building sandcastles) I would love to have another foster dog/s.  It absolutely breaks your heart when they go off to their new home, but if they don't go you don't have the space for another foster which in turn frees up a space within the rescue for them to save the life of another dog.  I couldn't run a rescue, I don't have the patience to deal with some of the cruelty they come across or some of the excuses people come up with to dump their previously loved pet, the most horrific one was (honestly someone said this whilst giving up their dog) that the dog no longer matched the carpet ... but by doing the odd bit of fostering or a home check now and again I can do my (very) small bit to help dogs out.

The Big Move Up North

Well I am now officially up North! The move itself wasn't too bad, I managed to pack up quite a lot of our old home in Kent whilst hubby was away working and we then did the remainder together, we have SO much stuff! Seriously, I have no idea how it all fitted into our old place!  We moved up in convoy, our Bongo (a fab people carrier/van thing) filled with kitchen stuff and my car with Jack, Sparks and their various bits & bobs. The drive wasn't too bad, about 6 hours all in with a coffee break/leg stretch for Jack dog and pretty much collapsed into bed when we got here.

Had a fab first week, lots of sunshine and sorting out, the kitchen had a new floor fitted which meant I couldn't unpack or do anything for the first 3 days, we camped out in what will be the study/snug with a tiny fridge which fitted a pint of milk, the kettle and two camping chairs, oddly I rather enjoyed it! Finally got access to my kitchen (which is twice the size of our old one but laid out in such an awkward way that it has half the work surfaces, very strange!) and set about cleaning it as it was covered in dust from the new floor being put down.  I had to use oven cleaner on the top of the wall mounted units they were so disgusting! Unpacked and then set off back to Kent together to pick up our hired luton van and do the first 'proper' move ... the luton managed about 40/50 mph up any sort of incline on the way back up North ... it was a rather long drive for my poor hubby!

The big unpack then began and my hubby had to drive back to Kent for the next load whilst his lovely parents drove up from Exeter to help him and I stayed up North to start sorting things out, basically the move took a while! Poor hubby has driven about 3000 miles over the last 3 weeks and is rather blinking tired as a result!

House is still in the process of getting sorted, piles of stuff everywhere and 101 things to do .. including chasing our wedding list people as we have only just unpacked the gifts and an awful lot of things still haven't been sent out, absolutely fuming!

Will write another post soon about the newest addition to our family, yup Marne is here! He is utterly gorgeous and flat out as I write this, I'd forgotten how much puppies need to sleep!

Royal Garden Party 2011

If you haven't picked up on it yet my hubby is in the army, and this year we went to the Royal Garden Party.  It was fab, I loved parking on the Mall, walking around outside Buckingham Palace with my hubby in his uniform, he looked utterly gorgeous and it was very proud making.  I also loved my dress:

Obviously not me!

and my hat which was the same turquoise as the little bits in the dress, but I can't find a picture of it :(

In any case, despite the torrential rain on and off throughout the afternoon we had an amazing day, some lovely finger sandwiches and mini cakes, we had to have a cucumber sandwich each, it would have been rude not to! Followed by a hilarious natter with one of the Yeoman of the Guard who was lovely and a smile from Prince Philip, very sad not to have met him, I think he is utterly brilliant, but amazing to be 5ft away!  We then had a walk around the grounds which were breathtaking, and so well maintained!  Obviously we expect them to be, they are The Queen's gardens after all!  I just wish I could nab one of her gardeners for maybe an hour a week?!

60th Celebrations

My lovely mummy has turned 60 today, happy birthday mummy!!

Daddy took her to London for a long weekend and we all surprised her on Sunday, well my little brother (3 years younger and 7" taller lol) managed to surprise her in any case!  We on the other hand drove first of all to the wrong hotel completely, then the wrong branch of the right hotel and finally arrived at the right hotel 40 minutes late ... although we arrived with champagne and nibbles so I think we got away with it!!

Daddy had been planning this weekend all year bless him and had arranged for us all to go to Gareth's restaurant the Rose & Crown, http://www.roseandcrownhighgate.co.uk/ for an early dinner.

The food was, in all honesty, the most delicious I have ever tasted!  I had the warm goats cheese salad to start followed by the roast sirloin of scottish beef, both were amazing.  The goats cheese was yummy, tart with sweet roasted veg on top of a crunchy ciabatta, plus the Rose & Crown is not one of those annoying restaurants were the starter is either gone in one bite or you feel full up afterwards, as Golidlocks says, it was just right!  The beef was perfectly cooked, the roast potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, the carrots & parsnips were lovely and sweet, the yorkshire pud was HUGE but hadn't been burnt or gone soggy, just perfectly cooked and the gravy was out of this world! I seriously want to go for lessons with Gareth and learn how to recreate that meal!  The service was fab too, no notepad required here the lovely waitress took our orders and just melted away and the right food, served to the right people magically reappeared, I have no idea how she did it on such a busy day but the girl deserves a medal!  Even the wine list got the thumbs up from daddy and we were having such a good time that we completely lost track of time and almost missed the next bit of entertainment he had arranged!

Mummy had been driving herself crazy on the tube whilst we were on our way to Gareth's restaurant trying to work out where we were going, I had to remind her of the lesson she forever tells me (I'm still trying to learn it!) patience is a virtue lol.  So you can imagine her surprise when instead of going straight back to London Bridge off we jumped at Waterloo, again she had NO idea where we were going, brilliant!  Daddy, my little bro and my gorgeous hubby dashed off to pick up the tickets (well the utterly lovely hubby stayed halfway all the time keeping an eye on mummy and I so that we didn't get lost bless him, I am so lucky!) and we followed at a more leisurely pace thanks to our heels! Once we rounded the corner and started heading towards the London Eye mummy squealed, actually literally squealed, she has never ever squealed in her life!!  She has wanted to go on the Eye for ages and was so happy to finally be going, especially as she had suggested it that morning and daddy had fobbed her off lol.  The weather had been very kind to us and stopped raining as we arrived at their hotel and at this stage in the evening it was clear enough to see the majority of London, we all loved it.

We then all headed home, a fab 60th celebration was had and I reckon daddy has earned a couple of year's worth of brownie points with all the effort that went in to it, not mentioning the thoughtfulness bless him.

Lady of Leisure

Well work is officially finished!  My last day was Friday, it was rather strange as I have been so excited about our new life up North that I hadn't really thought about leaving work, more about all the things I have to do before we move!

It was a fab day, I tidied up my desk, emailed all 'my' IFAs to say goodbye and thanks for being lovely, bought a ton of cakes for work to say thanks for a fab 16 months and - of course! - went to the pub for goodbye drinks.  All of which was followed by a thoroughly embarrassing goodbye speech from my 'boss' (as boss was a boy he obviously couldn't really be my boss, as everyone knows, girls rule boys drool, fact) which included the story about the time we took some IFAs to Newmarket races and I ended up throwing a tiny teeny amount of water over one particularly icky and letchy IFA!  In my defence he really did deserve it, he was horrible, one of those types of middle aged blokes who thinks they are fantastic and that all women love them, UGH!  I managed to say something not too embarrassing in reply and urged them all to enjoy the peace & quiet!

After all of that there was then a silly amount of spoiling, a couple of lovely plants for our new home up North, some booze and a gift voucher for M&S, as I said a silly amount of spoiling bless them!

So I am now officially a lady of leisure ... and I have to be honest, it feels good!

I was thinking ...

I was thinking this evening whilst walking Jack - a fact I am rather surprised about seeing as my last but one day in work was insanely busy and I have been dreaming about a glass of cold vino since about 15:00!!  In any case, as we ambled around our local park/woods, stopping now and again to have a quick natter with the other walkers, I thought how lovely it is when you own a dog, we all know each other - although to be fair most of us only know each other by our dog's names! - and say hello, ask how each other are, say hello to each other's dogs and have a quick natter about our day.  It's just so lovely to be a part of this community, we don't know anything about each other really, but we know we love our dog's and that is enough to be nice to each other and pass the time of day.

Tina and I walk Jack and Ralph (her gorgeous staffy boy, will try and take a picture of him on Monday) together most mornings and have become very good friends as a result, she came to my hen do and I've bandaged Ralph's paw, friends for life!  When you know you've met someone as nuts about their dog as you are about yours you know you've found a decent person!

It is the same in the dog rescue community, as I've said previously, I have known Sarah & Paul who run Wiccaweys (http://www.wiccaweys.com/) for about 7/8 years now, and as a result I have met various people (through transport runs, at their home from which they run Wiccaweys, at dog shows, meeting up for rescue dog walks and on-line organising homechecks etc) who I have so much in common with, and there is nothing more inspiring than a bunch of relative strangers coming together to help to organise saving a dog's life.  It really does put 'normal' life into perspective when people are willing to drop everything to help an urgent transport run to get a dog from a pound to a rescue place and change their lives to fit a foster dog in.

All in all, anyone who truly loves their dog (by that I mean someone who has put the training and socialisation work in and who walks them come rain, shine, ice, snow etc etc) is okay by me .. and by Jack!

4 days to go ...

My last Monday at my current job has now been and gone ... I am very excited about our new life up North and I can't wait to move and see how 'proper' army life will be, it is one thing marrying someone in the army but actually living on the patch will be like being back at boarding school ... other than living with a boy and being allowed to drink that is!!  I am rather apprehensive about not having a job though, even though I will have 101 things to do - puppy training and Jack training at the forefront of those tasks, such a chore! - I am not sure whether I will drive myself (and therefore my lovely hubby!) nuts by not having a job, he has given me until 2012 before I give in and find work, but I think it may be sooner than that, even if it is charity work or something part-time I reckon I'll drive us all mad if I don't do something, unless our non furry family starts - fingers crossed!

The lovely Becky - who is having the girl from the same litter our new furry baby is coming from - emailed this pic of our boy to me tonight, he is utterly gorgeous and 5 weeks old here, I cannot believe how much bigger he is in a week!  His ears alone are twice the size!

I've got my eye on you!

Just a quick mindless bit of info for you all, I absolutely LOVE One Tree Hill, Monday nights are once again complete!

Shattered!

We had an amazing weekend.  I had a lovely night out with Suzi and her girls, although I am slightly apprehensive about her wedding now as it may be in Four Weddings, I've never watched it but I hate the thought of being on tv!  We'll have to wait and see as her venue may not allow it, but I'm nervous already and it isn't even my wedding!  In any case it was a lovely evening, the food was absolutely delicious as was the wine Suzi has chosen, yum!

We then went to Rob and Lucy's for the rest of the weekend to celebrate Zach's 1st birthday, I can't believe he is one already!  It only seems like yesterday that they were telling us they were expecting (over our New Year celebrations in West Wales ... that will be on hold this year as up North to West Wales is a bit too long a drive!) and now he is one!  Zach is just the most adorable kid, I fell in love with him the first time I met him and have been trying to persuade Lucy ever since to let us take him home but she's having none of it, can't believe how mean she is!  There were 3 other one year olds on the celebration committee and one fabulous 3 month old who was passed from pillar to post and was very happy to accept the cuddles that came his way, BBQ was gorgeous - although a typical boys only zone! - and then in the evening Rob's utterly hilarious younger brother Mike set up a game of extreme croquet with my hubby, it was SO funny to watch and even funnier later on when I joined in and kicked their arses by about 4 holes ... with Lucy coming in second ... girls rule, boys drool!

Got home in good time as we had LOTS to do, the washing machine is on the fifth load, the garden has been weeded and we have watched a proper Sunday afternoon film (brilliant but mindless - aliens come to earth and we kick their arses lol) and I am now watching Marley & Me whilst cuddling Jack and enjoying a cold glass of vino, life is good!

It's the weekend!

The weekend is only 15 minutes away!  Silly to get so excited really when life will be constant weekends soon … I know I’m odd but that rather fills me with dread!  How on earth will I keep myself busy?!  Walking the dogs, training the puppy, baking cakes, oh and I’m going to try and teach myself how to quilt … I promise I am 29 not 70!  Lots of fun plans for this weekend though!

Tonight I am meeting the lovely Suzi, together with her maid of honour Vicky and another of her friends Cynthia (who I’ve yet to meet a she couldn’t make Suzi’s hen do).  Suzi is getting married at the end of the month (yay!!!) and tonight we are going over to her venue for some last minute planning - and apparently some sampling of the wines, such a shame! - I can’t wait to see where Suzi and Ed will be getting married, so exciting!

Suzi is one of my best friends and, oddly, the result of a friend date my utterly lovely hubby set me up on when I moved down to Kent to join him.  At the time I was hideously embarrassed that he felt he had to set me up on a friend date, after all surely I could make my own friends?  I’m a grown woman for goodness sake!  Then I realised just how sweet my hubby was being, he was so worried about me being lonely and miserable having left all my girlies behind in the ‘Shire, and he so wanted me to be happy having made the big move to come and live with him, that he went to all that trouble to set me up with Suzi, who is utterly fabulous and was very well chosen!

I digress!  Hubby and I are then heading off to celebrate Zach’s first birthday with a BBQ and quite probably rather a lot of Pimms, whoop!  Rob & Lucy (Zach’s parents) are so brilliant, Rob was our best man and did the most fantastic and utterly hysterical speech and Lucy is just one of the sweetest people I know.

All in all I can’t wait for 5 o’clock to come around so I can run out the door and get the weekend started!

The family

Thought I should give you all a quick introduction to our furry ones.  First is Sparks, as benefits the oldest!  She is 6 and a talker, especially when hungry, the drive from Kent to 'up North' with her will be entertaining ... to say the least!

Doing her best "You lookin' at me?" expression!

Then there is Jack, our collie cross and my baby.  He is 5 and a superstar (bar being scared of hot air balloons - from when we lived in Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, they are everywhere there! - and fireworks, oh and BBQ's which makes the summer ... well ... interesting?!).  He came to me when he was 9 weeks old having arrived from Ireland at 6 weeks with his mum and siblings to a collie rescue called Wiccaweys (http://www.wiccaweys.co.uk/) who I have been involved with for about 7/8 years now doing homechecks and the odd bit of fostering.  In any case here he is!

He loves the beach so much his paws don't touch the ground!

Last up is the newest addition to our little family, an absolutely adorable border terrier pup who has yet to be named! He is coming from the utterly lovely Geraldine and Steve of Colourboxdogs (http://www.colourboxdogs.co.uk/) and I met him for the first time last Saturday, literally had to drag myself away from cuddling him as he is so gorgeous.  He will probably be called Marne, although we are going to wait to bring him home until we finally decide.  He is four weeks old here ...

Just look at that belly! Crying out for raspberries!

An Introduction

The aim of this is purely to help me keep a track of everything that is happening before, during and after our move up North from deepest darkest Kent.

Our life is about to change dramatically, we'll be moving onto the patch (married quarters on an army camp) at the end of the month, I will be giving up my job in about a week to start packing up our house and a border terrier pup will be joining us (the hubby, Jack our collie cross, Sparks our puss-prat and I) once we've moved. There will undoubtedly be a lot of puppy photos which will hopefully make up for my ramblings!

The move itself is very exciting, new area, new people and new puppy, all good! Giving up work again isn't too much fun, I've never not worked but I'm hoping the pup and this blog will keep me out of too much mischief .... I guess we'll just have to wait and see!