Sunday 19th October 2008

Another bog standard, totally chaotic day. Kids and offspring ALL arrive, and bedlam ensues. There was ONE small twist to it. A few months ago, Mark, a lifelong friend of my kids, and his 'live in ' partner were told they had to get out of their house....a redevelopment thing. They had a greenhouse they had to get rid of - and I happened to be the lucky recipient Further...where we once had green fields next to us, locally known as 'the sandies', that area is now all built up with new houses. Now all this building went on at a frantic pace, riding on the crest of the housing wave. Then came the credit crunch, and suddenly no one is buying houses. The company that built the houses were stuck with them. The eventual solution (for them) was to sell the houses to a 'housing association', who let them out. Well, it seems that Mark and Liz (for thats her name) have been allocated one of the unsold houses. So, the person I got the greenhouse from, is now going to be a neighbour just YARDS away :) (she has NO chance of reclaiming the greenhouse ) The twist was....along with the kids piling in on me today, so also we had Mark and Liz - they'd been viewing the house. Its going to get 'interesting' around here, if it wasn't so already. (old chinese curse....'may you live in interesting times' )

Thomas went home with his Dad tonight....for about an hour. He is not a happy bunny tonight. Not sleeping anything LIKE soundly...waking up crying every half hour, etc. The expert (that the woman I live with) has pronounced that its another tooth on the way. Whatever it is, David was beaten by it...he called, asking for assistance. Dealing with a screaming child with no one to turn to for help is a chastening experience. The end result is, that Thomas is back here again.....still disturbed and restless....but at least there are two of us here to take turns with him. I must have gone through all this when MY kids were little, but I don't remember it like it is now, where every little whimper has EVERYONE sitting up!! Perhaps now I have more time (?) now, or maybe just more time to appreciate? When MY kids were that age, we were dividing time between three of them....now its devoted to one.

Nathan....now there's a thing. He spends the weekends with us (since we practically raised him?) and because all his friends are hereabouts. Only he's now 14 years old, and a typical teen, in other words, a real pain in the ass. So saturday night he is out with his friends. He sends me a text asking if someone can pick him up at 11.30pm at his 'girlfriends' place. This, after being told 11pm is the absolute limit. So I reply to the text, stating the time again. HE replies, still asking for 11.30pm. I reply to HIM asking just what about the digits one and one he does not understand. Silence At 11pm, Nell goes to pick him up. And he's REEKING of beer. Well, if it had been me doing the picking up, I'd probbly have killed the lil shit....but to her credit, she gets firm....and drives him straight home to Joanne. Not our problem :) I reckon he'll be grounded for weeks :)


I hope, that when I finally shuck off this mortal coil, he gets to read this. And knows what grief he causes.


enuf