this 'n' that

       

Well the boys are off school as it is an inservice day...They're also off school on monday as it is our local holiday monday...You know sometimes i do wonder when did teachers learn all the things they need to know now when i was at school...We didn't have 2 fridays off a term for inservice training...I really wouldn't mind if they did learn useful stuff...Now i don't mean that in a disparaging way at all before any teachers have a go at me...Just like when G was at primary school then one of the inservice days might have been better being used to learn about any special needs any of the pupils had...Even about epilepsy which M had as a toddler and when he was at nursery and the school claimed they didn't know what to do if he had a seizure...I know some schools do use them for things like this and i have known of parents who have gone in that day and given a talk about their childs condition...I certainly wouldn't have minded at all and would have been more than happy to go and do a talk...Oh well ce la vie they're off school and supposed to be tidying out their bedroom...HAHAHAHA are they heck...M is watching enterprise on skyone and G has gone out to the ATM to take out his alleged money LOL...I can't remember if i said that G is now getting an EMA for staying on at school...EMA is educational maintenance allowance and pupils can get £30, £20 or £10 a week depending on parental income...This is to encourage them to stay on at school so they say...In one way i think it is a good idea but in others i think perhaps not so good...It could encourage pupils to stay on at school who don't give 2 hoots about learning and be disruptive to those who do want to learn...As a plus point then as there are so few part time jobs around for school pupils it gives them some financial independance so they can learn to deal with finances...Anyway G has had his first payment and spent it all LOL...He is going to save some of it but i let him off with blowing the first lot...Being on a low income i have always been eligible for a clothing grant but once they get the EMA then the clothing grant is paid to them...This is what has been paid into his account this week...Said to him that money is mine <ggg> He said then why did i get paid it LOL...Said because you get EMA but i already paid out for new clothes for school so it's mine...Being nice mum that i am <koff> i said you can keep it on one condition...That it is used to pay for getting his hair dyed and cut again and he could keep the change...So he's ok about that...It's confused his aspie head just a tad that money that should be mine is paid to him...He's off out to buy a card for his pal who's birthday party he is going to tomorrow...Shame M isn't going to but the mum doesn't like M even though M is friends with her son now too...Actually be for the best as one of the other lads who will be there still bullies M :o(

That bug we had well we wonder if it was or not...Neighbour downstairs had same thing as did one of the neighbours upstairs...Also someone that bloke downstairs cooked soup for had same thing straight after eating the soup...Bloke downstairs thinks maybe something wrong with our water...As he's off to azerbaijan for work again then it's up to me to phone scottish water see if we do have something iffy going on in our water...I haven't phoned yet i'll try remember and do it next week...Am gonna be going out over the weekend and buying either lining paper or anaglypta paper to put up in living room and buy paint to paint over it...Also want a shelving unit with a cupboard at bottom to put in one of the alcoves...Gonna get other shelving thingy off best pal to put my dragons on and generally get the living room looking less cluttered...All my card making stuff is in boxes and scattered around in here at the mo...Builders are coming on mon to finally fix bathroom then i can phone flooring people to come put that down...Yes am gonna be busy but not as busy as it sounds really...I've not put up wallpaper for years but am sure i will manage LOL

G is going to be going rockclimbing with school on thurs at one of the sports centres...He is going to come home on the bus by himself after it finishes...I can't pick him up so will see how it goes...He's very wary of going on bus on his own and will panic if he misses it or misses the right stop to get off at...M was managing to go to corner shop alone but had a setbackthis week...He went to get his butteries before school and was in a panic when he got back...He'd come across a dog and being absolutly petrified of them it has now set him back from going out alone :o( ...K got told yesterday she could move into the house she's gonna be staying in today ARGHHHH...She's going to move in next fri instead...Much easier for us to go down next weekend than this one...Better go and do something constructive like erm play a game online or something LOL

Take care all xx

Celebrating Holland

Here's the follow up poem to the holland one written by a different author...Apolgies for the size of the font but it refuses to show how i have actually entered it grrrr...Comic Sans 12 unbloded and comes out on screen as comic sans teensy unbolded

Celebrating Holland- I'm Home
By Cathy Anthony

 

 

I have been in Holland for over a decade now. It has become home. I have had time to catch my breath, to settle and adjust, to accept something different than I'd planned. I reflect back on those years of past when I had first landed in Holland. I remember clearly my shock, my fear, my anger, the pain and uncertainty. In those first few years, I tried to get back to Italy as planned, but Holland was where I was to stay. Today, I can say how far I have come on this unexpected journey. I have learned so much more. But, this too has been a journey of time.

I worked hard. I bought new guidebooks. I learned a new language and I slowly found my way around this new land. I have met others whose plans had changed like mine, and who could share my experience. We supported one another and some have become very special friends.
Some of these fellow travelers had been in Holland longer than I and were seasoned guides, assisting me along the way. Many have encouraged me. Many have taught me to open my eyes to the wonder and gifts to behold in this new land. I have discovered a community of caring. Holland wasn't so bad.
I think that Holland is used to wayward travelers like me and grew to become a land of hospitality, reaching out to welcome, to assist and to support newcomers like me in this new land. Over the years, I've wondered what life would have been like if I'd landed in Italy as planned. Would life have been easier? Would it have been as rewarding? Would I have learned some of the important lessons I hold today?

Sure, this journey has been more challenging and at times I would (and still do) stomp my feet and cry out in frustration and protest. And, yes, Holland is slower paced than Italy and less flashy than Italy, but this too has been an unexpected gift. I have learned to slow down in ways too and look closer at things, with a new appreciation for the remarkable beautyof Holland with its tulips, windmills and Rembrandts.

I have come to love Holland and call it Home.

I have become a world traveler and discovered that it doesn't matter where you land. What's more important is what you make of your journey and how you see and enjoy the very special, the very lovely, things that Holland, or any land, has to offer.

Yes, over a decade ago I landed in a place I hadn't planned. Yet I am thankful, for this destination has been richer than I could have imagined!

LOLOL

Got this from a mate and had to put it on here <gggg>

Welcome to Holland

Hey crikey 2 entries in one day and maybe a 3rd or may leave it until another day...I go on the special needs message boards a lot on AOL and someone was looking for this poem again...Decided to put it in here as it is so inspirational and lovely...The author wrote it about her downs syndrome son but it can apply to anyone with special needs child...When i first read it a few years back on the boards i said i'd landed in antarctica instead...Well we're gradually moving to better climate and one day we might even get there but as you all know i adore my sons to bits and my daughter and don't really care whether we're in holland, antarctica, italy or scotland :o) There is another titled Celebrating Holland and i'll put it here another day

                                         "Welcome to Holland"

                                           By Emile Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this ...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip … to Italy. You can buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Colosseum the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.  Its all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes and says "Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a new language and you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And the rest of your life, you will say "Yes that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I planned".

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

 

 

Poorly sick

Well hahaha so much for being able to do more regular entires...Can't remember if i mentioned that G was sent home sick from school the other week but he was...Daft time to phone ask me to come get him as it was 2.15pm when they phoned...Got there at 3.05pm and they finish at 3.30pm...But he really wasn't well and had some horrid tummy bug...He got back to school on mon and kindly passed it on to me and K...I got the worst of it and have spent most of this week in my pj's throwing up, sweating buckets and passed out on the sofa :o( ...Am trying to see if some rice krispies i had earlier are going to stay in me...Sorry TMI but hey ho LOL...Haven't been able to take my meds either which doesn't help...Isn't it always the same they are fine all hols then go back to school and catch some bug and are off sick grrrrr...M of course didn't get the bug i so wish i had his constitution as he rarely gets anything.

K had recovered enuff to go back to edinburgh yesterday...I had to ask my best friend to take her to the train though as i was unfit to drive...Not happy about being poorly all week as best friend had weeks holiday from her work and we were gonna go out have nice coffee etc...K is having to kip at a pals for a couple of weeks as she can't move in to her accomodation until 28th due to a cock up by mortgage company...So she's off with a suitcase, laptop and papers she needs for uni and not a lot else...We'll go down in a couple of weeks and take her gear to her and go pick up all the stuff she's left at my friends...I really am quite chuffed with reactions i have had to my web thingy...Some people i know are passing the link on to other parents which is quite a compliment...I've added a news type page just to put things that are happening on it...Like just now it has about the Robbie gig LOL...I don't want to link this blog to it as i don't want my ex or his family reading this ROFL...But on that news page anything i write hear that is about the boys and important i will copy over...I pinched the quizzy thing below from sara's blog which she pinched from Jens and filled it in about myself just for a bit of fun.

Type the first 2 words that come into your mind...you can only type 2 words....no more....no less.  Apart from if you have to cheat once or twice as I did!

1. yourself:  bonkers mad 

2. your husband:  long divorced

3. your hair:  needs cutting

4. your mother:  up north

5. your father:  sadly dead :o(    

 6. your favorite items:  computer car

7. your dream last night:  i wish 

8. your favorite drink:  diet coke 

9. your car:  citreon xantia 

10. the room you are in:  needs decorating 

11. your ex boyfriend/girlfriend:  too clingy

12. your fear:  heights wasps

13. where you want to be in 10 years:  happy working

14. what you're not:  feeling well 

15. your best friends:  amazing people 

16. one of your wish list items:  happy children

17. the last thing you did:  tried eating

18. what are you wearing:  pyjamas  

19. your favorite weather:  snow sun 

20. your favorite zoo animals?  tigers

21. your thought for the day?  be happy

22. your favorite book:  anne mccaffrey (i can't chose one of hers) 

23. last thing you ate:  rice krispies

24. your life:  too complicated

26. your body:  too fat

27. what are you thinking about right now:  getting well 

28. your crush:  keanu reeves (drool)

29. what are you doing at the moment:  typing this 

30. your fall schedule:  see Muse

Can anyone see the mistake in the above LOL i can't be bothered changing it

Toodle pip tc xx

Pics of robbie gig

Just watched Robbie live from leeds so decided to do an entry with my rubbish pics of the Robbie gig last weekend...They were taken on one of them throwaway cameras so not too bad really...I did take my digital one with zoom on it but it went wonky on me so gave up LOL...He really is an amazing performer, entertainer and showman...I've been to loads of gigs over the last 25 years and must say for pure entertainment value and a show that Robbie and Meat Loaf were the best gigs...I lost my voice completely after the gig and then going away on the sat morning meant it didn't recover until late thurs/yesterday LOL...I tried to get pics of the fireworks and flames going off at the gig but failed miserably...We weren't as far away from the stage as it looks...It's huge and taller than hampden ROFL...Like i said he got the world famous hampden roar in spades...The accoustics there are pretty damn good to say the least.

And hey Scotland are sitting top of our group for the euro championship footie LOL...Okies probs not for long but hey we won 2 out of 2 games and scored 8 goals with only 1 against so pretty good going and long may it continue...Now am back i hope to doing regular entries again and reading and commenting regular again i hope.

Toodle pip for now tc xx

in recovery LOL

Well just a quickie to say i am alive but only just LOL...Robbie was fantasticly brilliant...I took pics at the gig but they will be a bit pants when i have them developed i will post them on here if any good...The stage was awesome and taller than hampden LOL...He got the famous hampden roar in spades and said he couldn't hear the band in his ears <ggg> ...The pyrotechnics display was fab and the lighting was best i've seen at a gig yet...The start of his encore was like the start of an actual gig...I was absolutely shattered after the gig though...The amount of roadworks on the way to glasgow on fri was shocking and it took 3 times as long to get there than usual...Didn't get home until 3.30am and i still had to pack for going away on the sat morning so didn't go to bed LOL...It was good to see people again on the sat though and i had a lovely time...Spent all day yesterday and today recovering and still need at least another day to get my voice back LOL...Would like to thank everyone who went looked at my webthingy and for commenting in the guestbook...One day i may even get a counter to work on it LOL...Better go and attempt to do something constructive like feed the boys before club tonite...Will catch you all properly once i have recovered sufficiently

Toodle pip tc xx