Two already!

It only seems like yesterday that I was posting about the arrival of my niece and now look at her.

Hasn't she grown?

And now she has reached that milestone of a birthday, two, there is no stopping her!

Snow Day

Yesterday I crossed my fingers for snow, not enough to cause destruction, but enough to cause a day off work. I wasn't completely surprised to wake this morning and find a blanket of snow covering everything, it had been forecast over a week ago; but the forecasters don't always get it right, do they?

I have a policy of not driving in these conditions if I can help it and called upon the services of The HoF who lives close to me. I was hoping that he would take my suggestion to call work and say we couldn't get in, but he insisted on picking me up and driving in. To cut a long story short, we didn't make it very far; driving at two miles per hour in thick snow seemed to help him make sense of the situation. I was back home and playing in the snow in no time. At about the same time I discovered that my school had been shut and I needn't have bothered trying to get there in the first place!

Me and my Sons had a snowball fight and built a snowman, although I was only able to stay outside for periods of ten minutes before needing to defrost myself inside. Our efforts were rewarded when we found out that our respective schools will be closed tomorrow too. Just what are we going to do!

If you can keep your head...

JB loves reading, no I really mean it, he LOVES to read. In fact I would go as far as to say it is a slight addiction of his; he will read absolutely anything.
I taught him to read at an early age, using magnetic letters on the fridge and from then our literary monster was born! We have been told at Parents Evenings (and teachers have been very apologetic for telling us) that he reads too much! I think the problem was that he read at the wrong times; he continues to do this and it adds at least ten minutes onto his getting ready time in the morning!
It's a real job keeping up with his passion and making sure that new books are available, although he will re-read favourites again and again. This love of reading is not uncommon in my family and we are able to maximise on this by swapping books with relatives.

As you can see from the picture, not even the chaos of moving house can keep him away from a book!

I should have been...

in this 8th century castle for my birthday today, enjoying a lavish meal and good wine with Brunsli and Breadfruit. However, due to a minor(replace with major) mishap with my passport and the fact that being part of the EU doesn't really count for much when it comes to travelling to Spain, I had to cancel and stay in England. To say that I was disappointed would be a major understatement. Despite the fact that they weren't expecting me to be in the country, my family and friends rallied round to celebrate with me (and to cheer me up) throughout the weekend and today. On Saturday I went to Shish for a meal with friends; I have to admit to having mixed feelings about the food, I enjoyed my starter but wasn't enamoured with the main course. It has a great atmosphere and was packed on all floors, but I think it is a place to visit for drinks and snacks. We had post dinner drinks here and I loved it; the decor is great, it's a bit like popping into someone's house for a glass of wine!
On Sunday I enjoyed a mulled wine and mince pie evening at my Dad's, this was preceeded by watching the nativity story at the local church.
Today I was treated to breakfast in bed, a lavish lunch and then a wonderful Thai meal in the evening along with a large number of my family.
I had a fantastic birthday and feel lucky to have such wonderful people in my life; you all know who you are and I love you all.

Imagine our surprise when...

...picked up the keys to our new house, entered it and found this


and this





and this





and this!

On the move

After all of the house hunting, we finally decided on a house that suited us. Our offer was accepted and everything is in the hands of the solicitors. The house will need some work doing to it and we won't move in until June; but it has the potential to be a great family home. As excited as I am, I have been brought down to earth by the amount of work that we need to do before moving. This includes packing up all of our belongings and putting the bulk of them into storage; I guess the plus side to this is being able to throw away all of the stuff that we really don't need. I have to admit to being 'a bit of a hoarder' and I have no doubt that my family will be grateful for the clearout that this move will force me to do.

I won't be giving up my day job

My Mum has been wanting a change for her hair for quite some time now...




So two days ago, I began plaiting her hair; my Mum's hair is very soft and fine and I found that no sooner had I finished, they would unravel. To make them more secure I decided to put a knot in the ends and used my nappylocs tool at the root; I think that in all it took me about ten hours to complete. Mum was really pleased with the results, as was I.
Now I have another set of locks to try and maintain!

Something I've learnt this year

Ok, ok I know we're only a week into this year, but it's a while since I've done it.

Buying a new house is soooooooo stressful!

This is what we are doing at the moment and it has me absolutely zapped. We have seen 11 houses in the past 4 days and I must say, that bar one house, we really enjoyed it. Thankfully we've managed to get a short list from these and fingers crossed, our new home is amongst them. But the tiring part is dealing with Solicitors, Financial Advisors and Estate Agents, don't even get me started on Estate Agents. We have become their new best friends and they seem to have us on speed dial; they all have the perfect house for us, in fact they all have several of the perfect house for us!

The process of packing up our current home has begun; we are trying to get rid of all of the stuff we have acquired over the years, that we don't need to take with us - isn't it amazing how much 'stuff' you can accumulate over time.
I am a little nervous about moving, it will be a new house, new neighbours and for us a new area; not too far away, but enough for me to notice.

For the first time in, let me see, in a year, my hair is taking a back seat!

For Brenda

It has been a long, long time since Brenda 'won' a cheesecake in my blog quiz! And it has been an equally long time since I have made my signature dessert. As I can't put the cheesecake in the post I am sharing the recipe here instead. I made it for my New Years Eve soiree and as expected, didn't have any left on New Year's day!

You will need:

• 175g Good Quality White Chocolate
  
• 250g Cream Cheese
  
• 200g Ginger Biscuits
  
• 200ml Double Cream


• 50g Unsalted Butter

Prepare your base by crushing the biscuits and melting the butter. Combine the two together and then press into a flan case.
Put the cream cheese in a bowl and whip it lightly. Slowly add the double cream, whisking the mixture continuously.
In a separate bowl, melt the chocolate; when it has cooled, slowly add it to the cream cheese and cream mixture.
When all of the chocolate has been added and mixed in well, spoon the mixture onto the biscuit base.
And that's it, easy peasy. Put your cheesecake into the fridge for a couple of hours (if you can wait that long) and enjoy after a good meal!

I promise you, it tastes delicious; the white chocolate works so well with the ginger. For those of you (and I mention no names) that don't like white chocolate, it can be replaced with the juice and rind of two limes; this creates a lighter, refreshing dessert.

If like me, your family absolutely love the taste, you will find yourself making extra so that they can take one home!

Maybe I should start designing party hats for locked hair

My sister insisted that we all wore hats at my very small New Year's Eve party. In fact, it was also my sister who insisted that I had the party in the first place! Of course everybody thought it was hilarious that my hat wouldn't, actually I mean couldn't fit on my head properly. My ill-fitting crown didn't stop me enjoying myself; I laid on a mean buffet and made cocktails to order - the perfect hostess!
When Big Ben struck midnight, we all stood in a circle holding hands and sang a chorus of Auld Lang Syne. At JB's request, we then watched the London firework display on the television.
A great way to see the new year in.

More birthday celebrations

The celebrating of my Mum's birthday, presented another opportunity for our family and friends to get together. This year's gathering took place at her house and there were plenty of people there to share her day.

My cousin and sister cooked up a storm and I was especially happy to see that fried chicken was on the menu :-) It was a nice, mellow event, but I think I must be getting old because I had to leave just after midnight, to catch up on my beauty sleep. According to my sisters; my Mum and her guests were still going at 3am!
We will continue celebrating her birthday on Saturday, when we'll be going out for a family meal. Glad you enjoyed today Mum.

Birthday greetings also go out to my cousin Deb, who is in Japan where her husband is stationed. X

The newest members of the Simply Mel clan

Introducing Chris and Noel.

JB had wanted a pet for quite some time; he'd never requested anything specific until last week, when he asked for some fish. After a lengthy consultation with the lady at the pet shop, he chose his tank and his fish on Christmas Eve. Their names were selected before we'd even got home! (I'm sure you can work out where he got them from)
I think that pets are a great way of instilling responsibility in children and I know that JB will take his role in looking after them very seriously.

Your hair looks nice...in that picture!

I was showing my sister and my cousin a few of my picture albums (because of course I only have a few!) this evening. My cousin commented that my hair looked nice in a few of the pictures and she wondered why I didn't have it like that more often. I guess I have just become lazy with my hair; now that I have cut it, it takes a lot more effort to style. I have long been an advocate of freestyling; but on reflection I have to agree with my cousin, at it's current length, my hair looks better with a little styling.
It's not as if I don't have the tools to do it; I have my softspikes, I have a growing collection of beautiful hairties and I have some great clips and headbands. I figure that as Sunday evening tends to be hair washing time, it could become hair washing and styling time; a softspike set (or if I'm pushed for time, plain old plaiting) will give my hair an 'I've made a bit of an effort' look for a few days.
Mmmm, we'll see how it goes; I'll keep you posted...

More buck for my pound

Super T arrived back home today after his trip to Orlando; by all accounts he had a wonderful time. He made good use of the favourable exchange rate; the near empty case he left with, came back bursting at the seams! I've never been to America; now that I have heard about his adventures, I am even more determined to get over there. I think I will take advantage of the strong pound and start buying my $$$ now...

Clubbing it

JB made all the choices about his birthday yesterday; we started off with a lovely lunch and then spent the rest of the day at the golf course. He wanted to try the driving range and play adventure golf; I'm sure he'd had the day planned in his mind for a long time.



We also hired the batting cages and spent an hour having softballs fired at us; I think I need to work on my stance!

Happy Birthday JB

It's JB's birthday today!

Have a fantastic day. Xxx

And then there were three

Super T has headed off to Orlando; no not by himself! He'll be gone for a couple of weeks and we are missing him already. It's funny how the dynamics of a household changes when someone is absent. The house is quieter and dare I say, a little tidier (only joking son, I know you read my blog!). He has rung to let us know he arrived safely, apparently the weather is great; if only we could say the same for here. I do wish I could have gone with them, but of course having just had six weeks off school, I'm not allowed anymore for a little while :-(

I kid you not

No, I did not post the picture in error; indeed that was my son and I! Many thanks for your birthday wishes, he was chuffed with all of the interest :-)
We had a bbq today to round off his weekend of birthday celebrations; we had a great time. He is growing into a wonderful young man (I can't quite remember when I had to start looking up at him!) and of course we are very proud. He's heading Stateside on Friday; I'm just coming up with a 'little' shopping list of goodies for him to pick up for me. If there's anything you think I should add, let me know.

Happy Birthday Super T

It's my Son's birthday today!

Have a wonderful day Super T Xxx

Bon Voyage Grandad

He hasn't left just yet, but my Grandad will be going back home soon; we had a little family gathering today to send him on his way. If I don't make it to Guyana next year, it will probably be two years before I see him again. Of course I would LOVE to go over there and with my Dad's house just about finished, I'll have a choice of places to stay! I do have travel plans already for next summer, so maybe next Christmas Grandad ;-)