Family... My Family

Eldest son and family

We have just had a weekend that was like Christmas but without the hassle and the music and the alcohol. What we had was just the fun!
While two of my children live close enough to pop in whenever they feel like it, my eldest son live on the other side of England. This means that we don't get to see him and his lovely wife and two delightful sons as often as I would like (by this I mean, of course, EVERY DAY).
This weekend they came over to us so we had the pleasure of seeing how much the boys have grown since April (photographs are fabulous but seeing them and hugging them beats all) and we managed time to sit and talk.

Daughter and S-i-L and family (not the balloon lady)

At one stage there were ten adults and six children under ten years old in the house and it was great. I cooked dinner for eight adults and two of the children and we all managed to get around the table even if my daughter and I were standing up to eat. it was ok because we were passing things like glasses of wine and beakers of water and the salt and more gravy.

granddaughter and family

My great granddaughter sat on her chair with her chin just level with the table and ate her chicken and vegetables with a big fork "like M". Miss M sat beside her and showed her how to do it properly.

Continental Lentil Toad-in-the-Hole

I cussed and swore at the oven because it is the most nasty piece of torture equipment ever devised! If you put things in the top of the oven they burn if you put them in the bottom of the oven they take at least double the recipe time to cook. I have some fabulous heavyweight baking trays that fitted my old oven but are too darned big for this new pile of scrap. The biggest mistake I ever made was to listen when I was told that this oven was far better than my old one. I am saving my pennies and looking at things to sell on eBay because I want a new oven. I cooked a four bird roast and a Continental Lentil Toad-in-the Hole for the family dinner and the packaging stated that the roast would take three hours from frozen at gas mark 7 well I was prepared and put it in two hours early in the bottom of the oven and after 3 hours it was about defrosted so then I zapped it for half an hour in the top of the oven before putting it back at the bottom so I could put the Toad-in-the-Hole at the top.

Once again I am defeated by the formatting on Blogger. All I want to do is put the pictures down the side with the text alongside but it just leaves huge gaps!!

A Wedding

We were at a wedding yesterday. We were there in the role of "Parents of Choice". One of the grooms is a close and treasured friend of ours with no family so he asked us because "If I could choose who I wanted to be my parents if would be you two."

We are honoured to be thought of that way.




We said yes.

I got to walk him down the aisle and we got to sit in the front row and I was able to cry quite freely throughout the partnership ceremony.

They had two cakes, one was made of cheese! Isn't that incredible
?

The evening event was a masked ball - it was amazing! There were so many people there from the live roleplaying and freeforming community so we caught up with old friends, reminisced about past freeforms  and caught up with the latest news.

I was hugged. Lots of hugs from lots of lovely friends and acquaintances. I like hugs.







We arrived home at 11.45pm having taken exactly two hours to drive back from Tamworth. I took loads of pictures and I have been asked to put together the guestbook, because "you're into scrapbooking aren't you?"
"Yes, a bit" I replied and Mr M snorted with laughter.

So, a good day a stress free journey there and back and the chance to meet up with people I haven't seen for more than ten years.

I have given up trying to put the text and pictures where I want them Blogger is being bolshie and messing up everything I try - sorry

A Bedroom Story

this is his 'not another photograph' face

I have a thing about spiders. Lots of people do. They don't like them because of all sorts of reasons. I don't like them because they cause an allergic reaction. So I avoid contact. When I worked in the Garden Centre this could be a problem because spiders come as part of the fixtures in greenhouses and sheds. As I am also allergic to wasp stings my boss used to worry. I didn't. I carried the auto injector everywhere and just got on with it. This allergic stuff makes you careful where you grab hold of things and pretty darned quick to react .....so.

this is my 'oh goodness he's got my camera' face

Now I want you to picture if you dare the bedroom that Mr M and I share. It's really quite ordinary with a standard size double bed, a couple of chests of drawers, a chair and a couple of bedside cabinets. The curtains are thick enough to exclude most of the light from the streetlights outside so it is pretty dark in there.
We are in bed. Now neither of us can ever be described as svelt or slim so there is no chance that we could be lying there and not be noticed but spiders don't care do they?
We were asleep. Something woke me, I don't want to think about what it was thank you.
I opened my eyes and in that split second of recognition I was aware that Mr M was still asleep and snoring softly behind me. We are both lying on our left side. I am facing the edge of the bed and he is facing the middle.
I opened my eyes and looked into the face of a spider whose body must have been the size of my thumbnail. It was big and it had attitude. It took a step towards me and as I registered the tap tap of it's feet on the pillow I went backwards. At. Speed.
I went under Mr M, out of the bed and up against the wall next to the light switch. Mr M was still revolving in the bed. He is frantically trying to unwrap his legs from the duvet and saying "What? What the h*ll happened?"
I am pressed back against the wall with my right hand pressed against my chest and my left hand pointing at my pillow while making the strange gasping noise that all husbands should know signifies extreme terror. Am I the only person who finds it impossible to breath out when scared? I have never yet screamed when frightened. yelped yes, sworn of course, but screamed? Not really. That's because I am too busy gasping and only breathing in.
Mr M eventually extricated himself from the covers and I managed to reverse the flow of air and hissed "Spider!", again flapping my hand in the direction of my pillow. (Mr M says I was flapping wildly in the general direction of Cardiff, but he exaggerates).
Mr M began the process of searching for the spider. he picked up and shook each pillow and handed them to me. He then gathered up the duvet took it out onto the landing and shook it over the bannisters. He lifted the mattress and finally moved the bed and the bedside tables.
He then told me that the sonic boom caused by the speed I moved at had probably caused the spider to explode and if I needed to exit the bed in future could I at least go over the top of him because revolving was not something he was built for.
I didn't get much more sleep that night.


This story has been brought to you through Storytelling Sunday, created by Sian from High in the Sky.