What time does it start?

My daughter has always had a knack with words - getting the right words was another matter. She has sailed through life grasping a word that begins with the same letter as the one she needs but means something totally different. She does this because her brain is in a hurry and doesn't have time to examine every syllable minutely, besides, you'll know what she means won't you?
Let me give you an example.
At age ten she came through the door after school yelling "Mum, Mum I'm on the netball team so I need an airfix shirt!"
I did know what she meant and when I had stopped laughing I corrected her "It's Aertex shirt". She made a kind of Pshaw noise and sped on with how she was selected.
When Mr M and I first met we took my children to stay in his parents caravan for a weekend and during that time She announced loudly that "You two are not going to be left alone at all, I am going to play grapefruit all weekend". She meant it too even if the word was gooseberry.

All this is just so that I can say how delighted I am that Miss Boo has inherited that gene.
When does the apocalypse start, Daddy?" she asked last Thursday evening. "Ooh not for a long time I hope" said Daddy, "The apocalypse tomorrow, Daddy, with the moon and the sun"
"Ahhh, the Eclipse! well that's different, that starts at about 8am"
"So what's an apocalypse Daddy?"

He explained but he simply had to tell me about it later when we were watching the apocal eclipse through welding lenses in the back yard. I just had to share it

Me on Monday - thinking

MIss Boo passed her level 4 in her swimming class so now Mummy has to get up early on a Saturday to take her to her 8.30am level 5 class.

OH OH she has a pen name! They are having a series of writing and drawing competitions in school and they have to use a pseudonym (and be able to spell pseudonym) Miss Boo has chosen Valentina Rock-Star Macey. I won't go into the details of why she chose this combination, this is just a heads up to watch out in the future because she likes the idea of being famous under another name.

We took a pile of junk items we don't need to the charity shop on Saturday a lazy susan that has spent the last 7 years under the cupboard gathering dust a pile of DVDs that we were given and hold no interest for us and some posters still in their plastic wrapping and a whole pile of shirts and T-shirts because they were lying in the drawer waiting for us to lose weight. I decided that they should go to the charity shop now and when we lose weight we will buy new ones as a reward. From the charity shop we circled around and dropped into Sainsbury's for bread and vegetables. They had buttermilk too and I have a recipe for buttermilk biscuits (the american ones that are really scones) so we had biscuits and gravy for dinner. Mr M had vegetables too.

Sunday was a sleazing day. I spent some time in my craft room putting pictures of the Arizona Cousins into an album. I take it to the reunions so that the UK cousins can see the rest of the family. Cooked a roast pork dinner and then played a while on the puter before sitting down to watch the King in the Carpark about the search for Richard III and the subsequent forensic work to prove whether the remains they found were really him. A fascinating programme.

Today I am deciding whether to make an aran throw from the knitting I am doing or whether to combine it with the tension squares and crochet practise pieces and make a sampler throw. This might take a while so I will need to sit and knit and think.

This Me on Monday has been written because of an idea by Sian at FromHighInTheSky why not pop over there and take a look - you could even join in, it's free and fun

A Lovely, Kind Lady

 A parcel arrived today addressed to Miss Boo. She had netball club after school so she didn't get here until 4.45pm. She spent the three minutes walking from school trying to guess who could have sent a parcel.
When she saw the size of the box she was amazed - I know this because she said so. "I'm amazed at how big it is, Grandma" she said.

I used my special parcel opening thing on my scissors and her face lit up when she saw the bubble wrap. Then she saw an envelope addressed to Miss Boo.


The note inside said" Dear Miss Boo you don't know me but I have read about you in your Grandma's blog".
She paused and looked at me and then continued reading the note.

It was signed Eileen. "How do you know Eileen, Grandma?"
"Through blogging," I replied, "I read her blog and she reads mine.
"Well she is a lovely, kind lady and I will make her a thank you card from some of these wonderful things .................OOOOH look Grandma!BLING!!!"
There are card kits and decoupage sheets and ribbons and paper and........and.............and bling and stickers and peel-offs and everything was looked at and touched and carefully stacked on the table until Mummy came home and then it was carefully put back into the box so that Uncle Mark could carry it upstairs to the craft room.
I might have said I really liked a few of the 8x8 papers because when she found the decoupage sheets she said "If you teach me how to do this I shall give you some of those Grandma. Don't you just love it when you see yourself in a ten year old?
So a huge and heartfelt thank-you to Eileen who has given her hours of crafting to think about and the papers and stuff to actually do it. You really are a Lovely Kind lady

Me on MOnday - mundane

It's been a not do very much and do it slowly weekend. Mr M took me in search of some new tops when I realised that most of my T-shirts are nearly as old as Miss Boo and those that are younger are actually cast offs from my sister in law. We did grown-up shopping on Saturday morning and "Oh gosh" we have bought frozen stuff so we'll have to go straight home - secretly we both like that to happen sometimes. We spent the rest of the day dozing and waking and watching TV.

"Tomorrow" said Mr M "We'll go to that shop my sister told us about and buy you some clothes of your own" So on Sunday we went to Cwmbran and into a shop called Yours, where they have clothes for short fat people. I spent a lot of his money on six tops. I love them.
He suggested that if I wanted to I could go into the changing room and try them on. He had totally forgotten that small space and me is not compatible. As he was speaking he saw the look on my face and remembered, then he stopped speaking. They have an online shop too so I might be spending a little more money today

So that's me on Monday, an idea from Sian at FromHighInTheSky

Me on Monday - happy

Alma Cassandra Serenity Rogers age three weeks

 It was a get everything ready on Saturday and then pack up the car and take it all to the hotel on Sunday for the family reunion. It was great!!! There were 50 people there so it was a bit noisy and a but fraught but no one got heated and no one stormed out. There was cake

MMMMmmmmm Costco chocolate filled celebration cake

 The children shrieked a lot and one little one kept going under tables and then banging his head when he tried to stand up. This meant that he then screamed for his mother but that's what kids do and it isn't half so bad when it's not your problem

Great grandfathers always have the knack of calming them down

 My cousin Bernard showed us how the great grand gene means that babies fall asleep as soon as he holds them. Mind you he could do that with grand children too

So many charts to look at and so many people to talk to while Cousin Andy puts a message in a bottle

 I took the scrapbooks with all the old pictures and newspaper cuttings I found in my Dad's box of treasures. They caused much conversation as did the descendant charts. Mostly because everyone was quick to correct my errors.

"I can't get the Skype to work, are you downloading films?"

The Bluefunnels were there. Admiral Lord Bluefunnel was plotting as usual but it gave everyone a chance to chat to him and much family business was sorted out - there were mutterings about "the next one" so we must be doing something right. Yes, the next one will be in a park in summer. Everyone can bring their own chair and a picnic and there will be room for the little ones to run and run and run. Leaving the older generations to sit and talk and do the "I remember....." thing.
There were four generations in that room it was fantastic.

Me on Monday - Good grief! it's March Already!

It's been a Happy birthday, don't put him in the suitcase, sleazing in front of the TV and dinner with the Bluefunnels kind of a weekend.
When we told Miss Boo that Grandpa always wears a bib when he dines at the Bluefunnels she didn't believe us. Last night we remembered to take a picture before he began to eat

 and then another picture after he had covered the bib with Dinner Medals.
The problem is that he likes a lot of gravy and eating gravy with a fork is fraught with problems - as we all know. I have learned not to boast about a clean shirt until the empty plates have been removed to the dishwasher. The saga of Blue Cat and don't put him in the suitcase I wrote about HERE . The sleazing in front of the TV was Saturday. We listened to the rain and I knitted a lot. I am now half way through a really pretty baby blanket pattern that was free on LoveKnitting.com. Sometimes free really is free.
This idea of Me on Monday was given to us by Sian at FromHighInTheSky why not take a look there now that you've read mine

Don't put him in the suitcase

Some time ago I told the story of the girl who put the dead dog in a wheelie suitcase to take it on the tube in London to the vet who would "dispose" of the remains. A nice man helped her with the heavy case and rather than tell him what was really in it she lied and said it was all her computer stuff because she was a student and moving house. The suitcase was stolen. Do you remember me telling you that? I would have given you the link to the story but as usual I can't find which one it is.
Anyway, what I have today is really my daughter's story but she has so little time these days that I said I would blog it for her because this simply has to be shared.

It was Miss Boo's birthday this weekend and rather than have a huge party where at least one person ends up crying she invited five of her friends for a sleepover, a midnight feast and then a visit to the bowling alley the following morning. Mummy said she could cope with this - and she could - and they were all excited because they were going to make their own pizza for the feast.

Now, three cats live in the house with Miss Boo and her parents. Rosie Custard decided there were too many small hands reaching so she retired under Miss Boo's bed Ruby Tuesday stayed in Mummy's bedroom with Daddy who was trying to sleep because he had to go to work on night shift. Blue Cat, who is now pushing 16 years old and is a real grumpy old man, remained downstairs in the thick of the party. He curled up on the end of the sofa chosen by Hollie as her sleeping place. This came as a surprise to Hollie because, as she said, "Blue hates me, he never comes near me"

He cwtched himself into the sofa and went to sleep and remained there throughout the evening. There were the usual hiccups when one little lady dissolved into tears but Mummy said "I told you at the beginning, tears have no effect, I don't care, get over it."
This was a wee bit of a shock for the cryer because tears always get what you want - don't they?
Soon it was time for the midnight feast and Mummy came back down stairs to get a drink of water and as she was about to go back up she had one of those thoughts. You know the ones, where as soon as you think it then it must have happened.
"I hope Blue is not dead" she thought "because it is so unusual for him to go near Hollie." Having thought it she noncholantly stepped into the living room just to remind them that the lights had to go out at half past midnight and just as noncholantly she smoothed the top of Blue's head and was rewarded by him peering crossly up at her.
The train of thought had continued while she was doing this. She had thought "I'll have to pick him up as if I want him to sleep upstairs, then I'll have to put him somewhere. I'll put him on the floor on Biker Boy's side of the bed and put a note on him saying "Don't put him in the suitcase" He'll understand.
When Biker Boy arrived home at 6.30am she told him the story. His laughter drove away the tiredness he was feeling after 12 hours at work and he took ages to get to sleep because he kept thinking of it and chuckling.

Worth sharing? I thought so