Girls' night-in!

This afternoon, after picking up Sophie from university, we drove over to Mum and Dad's new house with Ian to put up the new chandelier.

While Keith and Ian tackled that (and it looked very complicated) Sophie and I popped home again to get some bulbs for it, otherwise they wouldn't know whether it was working or not! The weather today has been dismal and grey with no sun whatsoever. When we got back to the house we stood and watched some workmen laying block paving and we were amazed at how quickly they put it down. It must have been very hard on their knees and backs!

In the evening Keith and Mike were both out and Sophie and I enjoyed a cocktail or two before making dinner...

It's past 6pm...must be cocktail time!

We made nachos with cheese and chicken for dinner and very good it was as well! After eating we watched Maid In Manhattan which was a bit cheesy but perfect for a girls' night in!

Helping out

Keith went for a walk this morning after we'd deposited the kids at school and uni and after he'd arrived back and had some breakfast we went over to Mum and Dad's new house to help them with a couple of jobs.

My Mum had bought a beautiful chandelier for the living room but it had to be put together from scratch and my parents had lost patience with it. Keith set to and between him and me we assembled it completely. I will say one thing for my husband...when he sets his mind to something he gets it done. I was just afraid of it falling or me dropping as it was extremely fiddly to work on but we carefully put it all together and left it propped up on a box for when it'll be fitted.

He then put up a light fitting in the kitchen and helped my Dad construct some shelving for the garage. It was the early afternoon by the time we'd finished and before heading home we called to the Tesco garage to get some petrol. It's been a glorious day today with blue skies and sunshine but it is still cold. No sign of Spring yet!

After picking up Sophie and coming home I gave our garage door and the surrounding paintwork and guttering a good wash. The dusty exterior had been annoying me for some time so now it's all shiny and clean!

Double celebration

Not only has it been Mother's Day today, but Keith and I are also celebrating 28 years together! Where have all the years gone?

I received some lovely gifts from my children this morning - the latest Adele album and chocolates from Sophie and a scented candle, flowers and chocolates from Mikey. It was the first year that Keith didn't have to go out and buy the gifts himself so I was very proud of my babies!

Sophie was working today and before I dropped her off I called to see my Mum to give her the Next voucher I'd bought, a box of chocolates and a card. After taking Sophie into work I headed home to make a Lemon Meringue Pie for our dessert and to tidy up the house in preparation for my parents coming for dinner in the evening. Keith had made a beef casserole and had peeled the vegetables. I asked him to put the hoover around, which he did, and then we had a spare hour before we had to go to the hospital where Keith was booked in for a scan.

He has been having a problem with his waterworks so the doctor arranged for a CT scan but he was in and out before his scheduled time which was a bonus! The hospital was very quiet and I'd been surprised that Keith had been called in on a Sunday but it didn't inconvenience us as much as I thought it would.

Back home I made a prawn cocktail for a starter (for four of us, the children chose garlic bread) and then it was time to go and collect Sophie.

My parents arrived promptly at 7pm and we had a lovely meal. I left Keith to supervise the beef casserole and dumplings and despite a couple of stressful moments it all went down very well. My dessert was delicious but Sophie didn't really enjoy it as much as she thought she would so maybe she's just not a Lemon Meringue Pie fan! We had a glass of Champagne before the meal to celebrate and after we'd eaten we showed my parents a recording of the big storm we'd witnessed in Florida back in 2014. Now that I can access YouTube on our TV it was so much more dramatic. We also watched a bit of the golf that is coming from Florida at the moment and I yearned to be there!

Mother's Day madness!

Mike wanted to go to town this morning (I wonder why?!) so Sophie and I dropped him off before coming home and pottering about. Keith was off to a football match in the afternoon so Sophie and I arranged to pop to Tesco as we wanted to make a Cosmopolitan cocktail in the evening. I'd bought her a book for Christmas and there was no point in just reading it so we'd picked a Cosmo for our first attempt.

Just as we were about to leave Mike called and asked if someone could pick him up so Sophie and I had to go. He did tell me he was getting the bus home but he must have run out of money!

We drove into town and back home again in very heavy traffic, dropped him off and headed to Tesco which was heaving with people buying gifts for Mother's Day. I've never seen so many bunches of flowers in my life!

We bought two cocktail glasses, a small bottle of Vodka, a bottle of Triple Sec and some limes before heading home to make a start on dinner. I'd decided to make "Cheat's Chicken Kiev" from a BBC Good Food recipe and I was a bit nervous as I always am before trying something new.

The recipe involved making a slit in the chicken breast and stuffing it with a garlicky soft cheese. I then mixed breadcrumbs with chopped garlic and covered the chicken breasts with the mixture before baking them in the oven for half an hour. It was a bit fiddly but the end result was lovely and we all enjoyed dinner very much. Served with new potatoes, green beans and asparagus with a creamy garlic sauce (shop bought) the meal made a lovely change.

After dinner Keith and I watched the ever excellent Trapped which ends next week. I will certainly miss it on a Saturday night!

Mrs Grumpy!

Today I have managed to fall out with all of my family except the cat!

I had a full-blown row with Mike on the way to school as, despite waking him up at 7am, he still wasn't ready to go by 8.30am and we had to really nag him to get him into the car. This drove me mad as he really should be getting the school bus that leaves at 8am but I can't see it happening!

I arrived back and took a call from my Mum who thought that she and my Dad had upset me as I hadn't seen much of them this week! I'd spoken to her on Wednesday evening so it wasn't as if we hadn't set eyes on one another for weeks on end!

I started cleaning the house, took Sophie to uni and then came home to carry on, but I hadn't done much before Sophie phoned to ask me to collect her as she has a horrible cold at the moment that seems to be dragging on for much longer than normal. I went out to get her and then came home to finish cleaning.

When I was all finished and just before we popped over to the Weston Favell Centre to pay Mike's piggy bank money in, I noticed that Keith had washed the fabric conditioner tray of the washing machine in the sink and he'd left all the scummy horrible water in rather than let it flow away. Of course, I went mad as I'd just cleaned the sink in the kitchen and it looked horrible! Men!

When we got back from the bank I set to and made some more walnut and banana muffins, helped by Sophie who slopped a load of the mixture all over the baking tray. This made me really mad because if we'd left it, it would have burnt and made it more difficult to clean so I had a go at her and she flounced off upstairs! Oh dear!

I did have some good news, though, as the feedback from my first assignment arrived from my tutor and I'd passed, which was great! I'd been a bit worried about what I'd written but he said I'd made some good comments so that has motivated me to work hard for the next assignment.

Things settled down in the evening as Mike went to Heather's house after school (probably to get away from his mad Mum) and had a lift home so I only had to make one trip to go and get Keith. Phew!

Weird weather and a shocking theft!

The last few days of the week have been pretty quiet but on Wednesday, on the way back from popping to Tesco to buy ingredients for our dinner of Beef Stroganoff, the weather turned really nasty and we had a mixture of hail, sleet and snow! I had called into Next to buy a voucher for my Mum and when we came out it was raining hard. In the distance we could see a bank of black clouds and as we got into the car the rain turned into hail and then on the drive home it was properly snowing with big fat flakes!

Of course I was really excited by this sudden change but by the time we'd reached home we had blue skies again and no snow whatsoever! Typical! It was amazing to think that yesterday I'd been gardening in a tee-shirt! We do have weird weather in this country!

I didn't have a very good night's sleep on Wednesday night so on Thursday I woke up after Keith had taken Mike to school, which is very rare for me. By the time I'd had my quota of coffee and managed to wake up it was time to shower and do the weekly menu, something I really don't like doing at the moment, probably because it reminds me of the day that Archie died.

We dropped Sophie off at uni and went straight over to Kettering where we did the shopping. In Aldi we placed a big pack of loo rolls at the end of the aisle while the cashier frenetically scanned our purchases and when we came to leave the toilet rolls had disappeared! We think somebody had stolen them! All I can say is they must have been desperate!

We picked Sophie up earlier than usual and later in the afternoon Sue popped over to see if we wanted an update on her new kitchen. It's looking beautiful but it's the wonderful view that really makes it and when it's all finished it will look gorgeous. I am envious!

Changing weather

It's been a mixed bag of weather today with rain and wind in the morning and drier, milder conditions in the afternoon.

Keith went over to my Mum and Dad's new house with Ian this morning to look at the light fittings while I finished my first assignment for my counselling course. Sophie was out all day today and had planned on going for a meal in the evening with her friend Alice so it meant that I would have the evening to myself, something that doesn't happen very often!

Keith made cheese scones and I followed a new recipe for banana and walnut muffins which turned out to be delicious. As the weather had improved I went out into our gravel garden and was dismayed to see how many leaves were covering the ground. I worked for about an hour and managed to shift about 5-6 boxes of leaves and cuttings from the ivy which Keith had trimmed back last year.

Monty came out with me and my little robin was in the trees singing away, which was lovely. After I'd finished Monty and I had a little love-in on the garden seat and it was very pleasant to be sitting in the sun and gazing at the gorgeous blue sky! It was warm enough for me just to be wearing a tee-shirt!

We all ate dinner early and Keith took Mike to Army Cadets on the way to seeing his football match. This left me on my own and I'd planned a quiet evening but I was in and out with Monty who wouldn't settle and then hissed at me when I told him to go and lie down! What happened to the sweet little cat who'd been cuddling me this afternoon?

It was my job to go and collect Mike and then drive into town to pick up Sophie from the halls of residence near the theatre. Her friend Alice had moved there after being on the Park Campus and Sophie said the flats were beautiful and just like hotel rooms.

By the time I'd picked up Sophie and driven home it was 10.30pm so just time for a wee dram of whisky before bed!