11 years ago....

11 years ago, at the tender age of 23, I walked up the aisle of a church in Sheffield, South Yorkshire to say "I do" to the most wonderful man in the world. When we married we had only known each other 9 months and a lot of people said it wouldn't last. A lot of people thought I was marrying him because I needed an extension to my visa. A lot of people thought it was being hurried because I 'had a bun in the oven'. There was a sweepstake held in his office, amongst his closest work colleagues, for people to guess when we would be announcing the impending arrival of a little person.

We married on a beautiful May day. It started off extremely foggy but the sun was out in full force by 11 o'clock.  We had a beautiful day. A day I will never ever forget. I promised myself, my life and my whole heart to my man and in return he promised his. What we both got was soooo much more than that.

So today, I want to officially tell the world about how much I love him. He does so much for me!! I'm not the world's best housewife and yet he puts up with that and tidies up after me. He does all his own ironing. He always goes way above and beyond the call of duty. He adores our children (and they adore him). He provides and protects and, most importantly, perseveres!! Even when I'm hormonal or just plain grumpy. But above all... he loves me, and he lets me know that every day in a million small ways.

For that I love him even more.

Thank you God, for sending me my perfect other half. You knew exactly what I needed and sent him my way. Amen.

Happy Anniversary my love!



(PS. You still have time to enter my Giveaway!)

Himself the Engineer

For those of you who don't know, I'm married to an engineer... a Civil Engineer. They are the guys that deal with roads, bridges, water, pipelines etc. For the past 12 years or so Himself has been exclusively devoted to the world of Water Engineering. He helps companies like Scottish Water (his current secondment) to design pipelines, reservoirs and treatment works. He is very good in his field and has worked his way up to being a Senior Project Manager with a whole team of people working for him at his every beck and call. However, it may surprise you to know that I think he has completely missed his calling. Yup, Mr Diva is in the wrong job. What he should have gone into is Lego Engineering.

For example, take today's offering... we have all been poorly today with a stomach bug so Himself took the chance to spend some extra quality time with his two acolytes. Herself, being the eldest and currently more demanding, asked Daddy to build her a 'Building site'. "You want me to build you a house?" says He. "No Daddy, I want a building site". Now, having spent a lifetime on building sites of various shapes and sizes, Himself is well aware of what makes a proper building site.... but could he recreate it in Lego scale?

He rose to the challenge I think!

Please note, all builders are compliant with current Health & Safety regulations and are wearing the appropriate safety gear. Correct use of the sack barrow has been ensured by full training which has been given on site. The skip will be emptied regularly by a trained operative. All building materials will be stored in a designated area on site, out of the way of foot and vehicular traffic.

As is normal for a project of this size there will always be someone slacking off for a 'brew'. This site is no exception.

All tools will be stored in the appropriate place and distribution will be overseen by the site foreman.

Ladders may only be used if there are no black cats present.

Unfortunately a recent gas explosion resulted in the deaths of the majority of the workforce, including all the site medical staff and the site skateboarder.... ok I don't know why he's there but he definitely died in the blast!

 Your comments of condolence for the deceased are always welcomed. Please do not send flowers, however, you may wish to send a donation to "The Dead Lego People Foundation" in memory of our fallen colleagues.

(Gosh, it's been a long, tiring day! My sense of humour is having to kick in or else I'll end up killing someone tomorrow)

Part 2: Himself

Ok, I know that I promised to update on my weightloss 'later this week' but I've been hit with the most horrendous cold ever. As I write I'm sat in bed with my laptop and I've been in my PJ's all day. Consequently the photo I was going to take of me looking all svelt and slinky has not happened this week. I look rather a lot more like a hedgehog that's been dragged through a haystack... backwards. So excuse me if I don't take a photo right now; I don't really want to cause a stampede as you all run away screaming!

Instead I thought I'd update you a little on what Himself has been up to in 2010 and give myself a little bit of time to recover before I try to take a photo of myself.

So, what's he been up to? Himself would say:

Eat. Sleep. Work.

True as this may be, it's not the full picture even if it is a large part of it.

This year Himself decided to embark on Weight Watchers with me. He wasn't fat as such just a little tubby and in need of a healthier diet.... like most of us on this planet actually! His will power is amazing and has been really inspiring to see him shed the extra pounds! So far, he's lost 3 stone and is looking much trimmer. He's happy because he's back into his 'skinny man' clothes and feeling much better without the additional weight to carry around. Well done that man! I think his goal weight is only about a ½ stone away so not much more to do.

The other major change that has happened this year is that Himself changed jobs... well, sort of. These things are never straight forward with our family are they? His previous company has seconded him into the local water company and he was enjoying that job when it was announced that his employers were losing the contract in the next 5 year spending period. This prompted Himself to approach one of the companies that had been awarded the contract and they took him on in exactly the same role that he was in already. So the upshot is that he works in the same office with the same people on the same projects for the same salary BUT the paycheck is signed by a different hand. This move has also provided him with a good 4 years worth of steady work before the madness of tendering for the following spending period begins in earnest.

Eat. Diet. Sleep. Work..... and play with the girls. His engineering skills come in really handy when they're playing with Lego!

Thanks for coming by! I really appreciate and read all comments that are left. I will be posting an update on my weight loss and a few other things early next week so come back soon!

Crunch Time

Well himself, myself and herself are home again safe and sound. In more or less one piece although himself is still limping and wincing everytime he moves.  He's feeling loads better today espesially after the shock of seeing the car yesterday.  We had to go to Sandbach to fetch some stuff out of the car wreck and took the opportunity to take some photo's at the same time.  Rather scary I felt, it made me realise how much we owe to airbags and other wonderfully complicated safety measures that we take for granted nowdays.  If Roberts' car had been older he wouldn't have walked away from the wreckage.  We counted a total of six airbags in the car 3 of which were for the driver (thank goodness!) I didn't even realise there were that many in the car!

The other guy's car didn't come off much better either although he apparently didnt feel the need to go to hospital.

Apparently himself was merrily tootling along the country road doing 60mph when he saw a black Toyota Celica coming around the bend.  The driver lost control of the car and veered across the road. He fought to regain control of the car but couldn't and ended up ploughing into our Fiat pushing Robert sideways through a brick wall and into a garden.  We're unsure what speed the other car was doing at the time of the accident, but it must have been at least 60mph.  Robert was trapped in the car for a while until somebody managed to wrench one of the back doors open.  The ambulance service then took Robert to Leighton Hospital A&E in Crewe.

We would like to thank the ambulance and A&E staff for their care. My in-laws (who went to sit at the bedside) were very impressed with their care and efficiency.  Also to the South Merseyside Police who have been very helpful in providing information and support after the incident. 

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive in this stressful time. We really appreciate it!!

Ouch!

So, I was planning to do a post this week about the brilliant Great Northern Paper Extraveganza Show that I attended with some friends in Harrogate on Saturday and also about my dilemma of to cut or not to cut my hair.  Unfortunately these exciting topics have been pushed out of my little head completely by the phonecall every wife/partner dreads.  The one that says "Mrs Goodman, please don't panic, but your husband has been involved in a serious collision".

Due to this phonecall I'm now in Leicester with my in-laws and my very bruised and battered hubby.  He is ok, but the car is a complete write-off.  He's very stiff, has loads of little scratches and cuts and some very big bruises. Also some friction burn on his face from the airbags, but that is bearable considering the alternative injuries he could have had.  The hospital have given him a clean bill of health, which is great as I wasn't sure what state he was going to be in when I arrived here.

Anyway, I shall post again as soon as everything has settled. I might even have an idea of what happened in the accident which I shall post at a later stage.  Thanks to everyone who has phoned, texted or emailed us since yesterday morning. I shall get back to you all in due course.

Hard at work

Well, as much as normal anyway.  Finished a few LO's this past two weeks or so, but haven't really had the time to take photo's and upload them.  I did manage to take one photo so I'll post it here for you... It's my first LO about himself, which took him by suprise I think.  I felt the title was particularly apt!

I have also added a slideshow to the blog, after much muttering.  Struggled to do it as TypePad kept giving me error messages. Then once I figured what was wrong there I found out that it was too big for the sidebar and was being chopped in half. So, after several attempts at making it smaller I finally got it down to the right size!  E voila! One slideshow with LO's on! Now that I know what I'm doing with it I might add another with family pics on.  What do you think??

That means my dear SIL and her DH (and other technically minded members of the family) and my parents can see the latest and greatest shots of the darling cherub. Even if she is being a monster at the moment cause of teething.

Anyhooo, the little monster is trashing the room behind me as we speak, so I'd better go rescue the cat again who is currently cowering under the furniture!