Busy Times

Getting very behind here again. Life's been hectic recently on all kinds of fronts. Some random happenings have included absolutely THE largest spider I have ever seen outside a zoo, which happened to pop into the sitting room last week. Jon valiantly picked it up on a mop and let it loose in the garden. Two minutes later, Severus brought it back in and headed upstairs with it. When I shrieked at him, he dropped it and it started to make it's own way up. Ack. I'm afraid I instinctively squashed it. And boy did it make a mess. Ugh.

Beautiful rainbow photo Emily took at some point this last week. She's added photographer to her list of favoured careers. Fashion design is still the clear winner at the mo, but you never know!
Emily and I started making a very large sun and moon papier mache wall hanging/mobiley thing. Haven't painted it yet, but it's looking like it will turn out rather nicely. That was about the sum total of "education" this week, as it's been very hit and miss due to other things going on in life. Emily's had plenty of things to keep her busy though, so she's not complaining, lol! She's been helping Jon in the garden (amazing how much use you can be whilst bouncing on a trampoline...), writing stories, illustrating, researching prices on ebay and pondering sending a letter to Erin Hunter, author of the much beloved Warrior Cats series, with information about a new cat clan she's invented.

On Wednesday, Emily's friend Maisie came to us for a 24 hour sleepover. The girls had huge fun (and actually got *some* sleep - result!) although I was about ready to drop by the time it was all over at 10am on Thursday. Janette came back to dinner with us on the Wednesday evening, having dropped Maisie off in the morning, so it was a nice chance to catch up with all her news. Here are the girls with the obligatory midnight feast and doing lots of neopet-ing and nintendo-ing instead of going to sleep


I took Grandad to the hospital eye clinic on Thursday, which was apparently a waste of time, he says. I thought it was a constructive visit with a lovely lady doctor who was very kind and attentive. Funny, that. Jon went to the dentist on Friday and came back unexpectedly with one tooth less and in a great deal of pain :-( The dentist was supposed to have been fixing a crown he put on a few months ago which was already failing, but apparently he decided he couldn't fix it so turned to extraction instead. He's an absolute butcher, that one. Horrible man.

Voldemort and Severus have a new hobby - climbing right up to the top of the netting surrounding Emily's trampoline and tight-rope walking along it, before throwing themselves onto the trampoline itself. V.v.v.v.v.v.v funny, once you get over the shock of seeing it for the first few times. Romeo and JuJu look at them as if they're completley nuts. Gawd knows what matriarch Cassie Cat makes of it all. I have a load of cute cat pictures to post, but it will have to wait....