looking back at 2014.

The last day of the year, and what a year its been. I love to look back and see what we have been up to, the boys laugh at my constant photo taking but I often catch them looking at my photo's on the PC..when they think I'm not looking.

This year has been a year of change for me, I hit 50 and realisation hit that I need to start changing things now to live the life we want in the years to come.Its still a work in progress but I've come along way. 2015 feels like its going to be a great year for us.

So as you read this I shall be sat in Cornwall saying farewell to the old year welcoming in the new .I wish you all health and happiness for the coming year.

Preparing for the off.

Managed a quiet day in the office yesterday. Just a few of us in, mainly just catching up with paperwork, but had my 6 month end of probation interview, I passed my probation! which means I am now officially contracted back to my new old job! Relief..

Went home to a warming chilli and a roaring log fire, its blooming freezing.. yesterday morning took me half an hour to defrost the car!! This morning there's a harder frost again.. Brrrr

Today is all about preparing for the off.. we heading south...... to...... CORNWALL.......

I am so happy , I cant wait..packing to be done, dog to take to kennels, FIL to visit before we leave, then its onto the M5.. Serious items have already been packed,

knitting , a WIP that needs to be finished

Reading, a Christmas gift from a friend who knows me well.

Amazon link

and magazines I treated myself with from Christmas money from dad.

and of course the essential piece of kit

little Nikon has been treated to a case and an SD card, again courtesy of dear dads cash gift, so there will be no stopping me..

Now I suppose I best go and find some clothes to pack...

Dogs day out.

A bright and sunny day, cold but beautiful. A day for walking and celebrating my mums birthday, she would have been 72 today. Not that she would have liked a trek in boggy mud ! 

There was also an unused Christmas present to try out... THE CAMERA..  no 1 son declined to come, no 2 son came and complained all the way.. we did about 5 miles..

A refreshing blow the cobwebs away day. bliss..

11 years gone.

I cant believe its now 11 years that my beautiful mum passed away. 

Today will be filled with fond memories and an aching heart.

Not quite as planned.

Christmas morning arrived with me being the first awake at 7.30, made a cuppa for hubs and me, then went back to bed and waited for the boys to wake. Didn't take long! but how strange to be able to sleep to a normal time, a bit of a lie in for me and hubs!

The boys have always jumped on our bed to open their stockings first thing, I love this quiet time before the day starts, we even let the hound up to join us..

then it was off downstairs to see what was under the tree..

no 1 son decided he was the present giver..whilst hubs and I had a bucks fizz! as he was wearing his new American football hat it was more a catch it if you can present giving !

Max was excited to find a gift with his name on..

He had a great time unwrapping it! it was a box full of doggy delights, toys!

And wow, wait till you see what hubs gave me..

I love taking photo's, the boys call me a tourist! but always use my phone camera, now I have an all singing and all dancing camera..I am so happy, 2015 will be a year of pictures... I am super excited about trying it out.

After the present frenzy, we have always done gifts first thing, they get gifts given over the 2 day period, Christmas morning is our gift giving, everyone elses gifts come later, breakfast was in order, bacon & egg  butties.. yummy.. that's when our plans started to go off course. 

A quick call to check on the father in law found him full of the lurgy and at his age it wipes him out, hubs went up with lemsips and love, but to no avail, he didn't want to come down as planned..What...oh no.... the first year in 15 we have had no parents for lunch...it was just the 4 of us.. it was a quiet affair!

I have to say we had a great day though. After coming back minus his dad, hubs and I took the hound for his walk, boys wanting to stay in Pj's, we stopped at our local for a swift lunch time wine, 

Its great to have our local back up and running, its been closed for quite a few years but the local MP and community group have done a grand job, the garden still needs finishing hence the boards still up by the trees. We sat outside in the sun  looking out across the water, it was glorious, don't be fooled by the picture, it was busy, and so many dog walkers, it was open for 2 hours at lunch time,

then it was back to finish preparing lunch, a call in into say merry Christmas to one of our friends who lives near by, then home to eat a feast for a king.

Suitably stuffed we sat and watched a movie before some  friends popped in for an unexpected evening visit.

It has been a weird but unexpectedly lovely Christmas day, hubs and I feel its a taste of Christmas's to come, the boys wanting to do their own thing and me and hubs spending it outdoors and simple..

Today we will be meals on wheels service to father in law, his Christmas lunch and gifts, its the first Christmas without his wife so I am sure part of it was wanting to stay with his memories, such a sad loss, we raised a glass to our mothers and remembered when our table was once full of family.

I shall pop in to see my father and step mom and then home for another dog walk, a slightly changed plan of action for boxing day,but no doubt another enjoyable day.I wonder what unexpected events will occur today?

Merry Christmas.

Christmas eve and  the holidays start here. The boys are still asleep, hubs is at work, I have been out and finished the last minute shopping, things hubs forgot when he did the shop, like milk and cream! visited my friend, my dad, the GP surgery, luckily remembered to put my repeat prescription in, and the garage. Phew, only 11 am. I am now safely parked up for the holidays, what a lovely feeling.

Today will be spent pottering about, walking the dogs and generally winding down, no 2 son is now feeling much better which is a relief. we shall just be us, together enjoying our time, making memories and remembering those that are not with us. Christmas is always a time of reflection, both mine and hubs mums died during the festive period, this is the first Christmas without hubs mum. They are sadly missed.

Last night we had the final I don't believe in Santa conversation, no 1 son is almost 17, he'd been hanging on to that dream, but in reality probably stopped truly believing  a long time ago. Now hes coming on board with the ' its not about the gifts, its about family & friends' way of thinking. Quite sad though, that magic has now gone for ever. No letters were sent to Santa this year.

Tomorrow we shall have hubs dad with us, just a small family meal and time spent together, the boys will no doubt stay in their new Christmas PJ's, the hound will have great fun shredding paper, me and hubs will take it easy, sneaking a dog walk in, hopefully on the beach, Boxing day will be spent out walking, then a visit to my dad later in the day, Come the weekend we are off to see the hobbit part 3 The boys are looking forward to that, and we will be entertaining a few friends, its nice to be able to have time to do all the things that we love, and to be surrounded by loved ones.Then we will be counting down to our new year trip to Cornwall..

I wish you all a  very happy holiday .

xx

[ pic from the telegraph]

if you want to check on Santa's progress click here

Finally..

Yeah, its here, my last day of work before I finish for Christmas. I can feel myself winding down already..I had the best nights sleep I have had for a long time last night, I feel refreshed and ready to battle the day.I'm all up to date winding up this months caseload and next months is planned ready for the off, today will be about finishing 1 report then having a final check that I have signed everything off, bliss....

This years Christmas build up has been very quiet , a sign that the boys are now growing up fast, we haven't really done anything christmassy, unfortunately no 2 son has been very poorly this week so nice planned Christmas trips have been curtailed,lets hope he's feeling better by Thursday..

Christmas gift buying is all done,wrapped and in on budget, this weeks food shopping was done by hubs last night, our weekly budget is £100, which includes any cleaning products/toiletries and dog treats, hubs was a star and bought in Christmas weeks shopping for £108, I am very impressed, it includes extra treats for the boys and the Christmas meat, hubs opted against Waitrose and stuck to our normal Aldi, a nice joint of beef and a Turkey Crown, just the cake to ice tomorrow. No debt here in January!

Sunday saw us go down to Exeter to visit the brother in law and his family, taking he father in law down for the day. My poor sister in law, her Aga has given up the ghost! on Christmas week, engineer is coming out today, hopefully he will be able to fix it or she will be doing Xmas dinner on the BBQ..she did a cracking job on Sunday despite lack of cooking facilities. It was nice to spend some time as a family again, even though we all missed our lovely mothers. mothers in law.sister in laws mother is also no longer with us, no grand ma's in this family... very strange in deed..

Now I'm off to battle the traffic and clock watch till 5pm. Getting excited !

Whoosh.

Yet another week has disappeared, nothing much has happened, just manic busy trying desperately to get my workload and reports cleared before I go on leave at 5pm on Tuesday...just 2 more days of work and I can relax. I've pretty much cleared it and completed my January work plan! go me..Which means I can then relax and forget work until the 5th of January.

Christmas is done and dusted, I even managed to write and post my cards this week.All we need to do is buy the meat and fresh veg, leaving that one to hubs! now to find some Christmas spirit still feeling a bit bah humbug. Pleased to say Decembers money will not be used for Christmas spending, all in on budget, how fab is that!

Max has been totally chilled this week, I am pretty sure the adaptil plug in is working, we still have the whole door/window business going on, but generally hes settling and is loving the raw food diet, strangely hes not liking the raw duck necks, mind you they do look a bit yukky! will try cooking them for him or give them away.

Craft wise I have been knitting on the never ending scarf, easy TV knitting, but why oh why did I decide to knit a scarf in silk laceweight. I may get it finished for next winter!

Desperately trying to work through my projects before I get startitis again, I can feel myself itching for a new project on the needles..I will resist..

Now I'm off to do some housework before they all wake up,typically on a day off where I could lie in I was awake at 3.30am.. gave up at 4.30 and got up!

 no 1 son is at his volunteer job at the zoo farm today, no 2 son has archery, hubs is going xmas shopping! I shall be doing the running about but am hoping for a sneaky 5 mins to get the last of the wrapping done, then tonight I may just suggest we go down to the German market in the Centre, there may be some festive spirit there!

Making sense of Max.

Today was part 2 of the behaviorists assessment. The good news is there is nothing that we cannot work with, which means we don't have to fret about whether we need to find him a new home, hes staying...

We had lots of good advice and were taught different techniques to work with him. We also purchased one of these

photo- Adaptil

Absolutely no idea whether it will work or not, but lets just say we have a very calm dog at the moment...probably due to being worn out from a 2 hour session with the trainer, a good walk and lots of nibbles.

So what did we learn?

1] Diet, we are changing him to a raw food diet for a trial period, nothing to do with behaviour more to do with his stomach and poop. He wont get fed in his bowl anymore he will need to work for his food, filled kongs and natural treats when training.

2] Managing the door anxiety, lots of desensitisation work , and grated cheese! Mornings will be breakfast in his kong whilst we are doing our morning routines, another refilled kong left out for when we are going/gone, as we are leaving  we throw some grated cheese onto the floor [its wood not carpet] for him to hoover up. Hes already liking this one. When we have visitors he will not be able to greet them at the door, he will be kept separate and then introduced with food treats, visitors will be pre trained!

3] Obsession with hubs, toy focused activity only, with a training plan, to learn the leave command, more nibbles involved.Low arousal and only reinforcing good behaviour, I shall be training hubs!

4] Toy orientated play, all interaction at present will be orientated around a toy whilst he is learning his commands and appropriate behaviour.This will also teach him self control

5] Handling training, muzzle training and vet training, teaching max not to become anxious when he needs treatments.Getting him to like the muzzle and relax when going to the vets, we have a plan.

6] Relaxing, teaching Max how to relax, and reinforcing when he is calm and settled.

7] chase recall, so we can enjoy more walks that are not oriented around chasing a ball or 3 to stop him chasing cats or wildlife.

8] Reaction to noises, fireworks, thunder etc. We are downloading a commercial recording of said scary noises and then starting with it very briefly and quietly until we can build it up and he doesn't relax, this wont start until the new year when all fireworks will have been released.

All in all a really good session and definitely worth the money. I think we feel more confident in dealing with him and will get 6 months of support whilst working with him, When we are settled into a routine and Max has changed his ways, she will come back in the summer and do outdoor training with us so Max can enjoy a greater variety of trips out and we can walk him on a lead without our arms being pulled out of their sockets.

Currently we are a happy settled household. Long may it continue.

Cleaning.

Yes you heard me right. Today was spent cleaning, I don't mean a bit of spit and polish I mean full on get the bleach out cleaning.

[photo- forward.com]

It started upstairs and then just took a hold of me, The blinds in our room need to be replaced, they are knackered.I decided to get rid of the 2 side blinds, its a bay window, and just leave the main one up until we get the new ones.Blooming heck, where does the dirt come from, embarrassed was not the word. Its a good job I don't entertain people up there. I dread to think what the window cleaner thought! 

Well that was it then, I was on a mission. I have not stopped. The house smells of bleach, its a spray cleaner that has bleach in,not pure bleach, but its not Eco friendly at all. Have you seen obsessive compulsive cleaners on TV, well that was me today.

There is something cleansing about cleaning, I don't mean the physical act, I mean the effect on your inner being. There is a sense of satisfaction there, clearing away the debris, uncluttering, getting rid of the dirt, mindfulness, it feels good.  

Whilst I love the whole Christmas decoration thing, the associated mess that goes with it does my head in! I think at last all the blooming lights are now up, so I can get the boxes put away till the new year. I did feel sorry for hubs, no 1 son wanted the rope light up along the gutter, they checked it was working, spent ages outside putting it up, and hey presto, the blooming thing doesn't work now! I don't think hubs had the heart to take it down again, it will stay till the new year then disposed of, hopefully not to be replaced!

But today I feel I have reclaimed my home, got rid of all the boxes and clutter which preparing for Christmas creates, cleared a path , got things in order, my  house smells cleansed and I feel satisfied. 

Another large bag of 'stuff' headed to the charity shop, it included 2 gifts no 2 son had last Christmas which he never opened! They were stocking gifts but none the less, a complete waste of money, at least another child will benefit at Christmas. Note to self, don't buy for the sake of it. Lesson learned 2014 !

Today was about cleaning, I needed to clean.

Hello weekend...

These weeks really are becoming a blur. I would so like a peaceful week. Roll on the 24th, the first day of my time off!!So what else has been happening in my crazy life? ah, crazy dog.. A lovely behaviourist came to meet Mad Max

He was very well behaved ! Typical......

Unfortunately half way through she had a call to say her 12 week old baby was en-route to hospital in an ambulance, session was cut short! she will be back on Sunday to finish off, I did say she could wait till the new year when her little one is better.

The session was really interesting, asking lots of questions and putting them in context of why he does what he does, hes a rescue so has issues! What she said made total sense, I can see that some of things that we do, like hubby working shifts, walk times being unpredictable, lots of ins and outs make an anxious Max, it was like a light bulb moment, so explains his manic behaviour when hubs is home in an evening, hes just getting used to him being out and bam, hes back in on the evenings again, poor old max cant cope!

I totally felt at ease with her, unlike the last few people we have seen, and max seemed to love her too.I'm really interested to see what her plan is for us, I can almost feel a change in the air at home, excited..

She did get to witness the mad, you cant leave me,performance when she tried to leave! bless him.

The week at work has been busy I have worked my little handmade socks off, I have been very productive.. I am determined to hit the holidays and my time off with no outstanding reports to write. As a reward I bought a Christmas treat..

I have always had a radio times, its a sure sign that Christmas is coming.. sad but I love to have a look and plan our family viewing, Christmas day the boys like to stay in their PJ's,eat junk and relax, I have a strong suspicion they will not want to come for the boxing day walk this year!

Then an unexpected surprise dropped through the mail box

I am saving this for weekend reading and dreaming..

Feeling in an upbeat mood I thought Id splash out on a 2015 calendar

A pound store special, does the trick and I like the pictures. I am sadly looking forward to starting to write on it, In fact I am excited to welcome 2015, 2014 has been a turning point for us and I have a feeling in 2015 things are on the up.

This week I also managed to finish my hitch hiker scarf, I LOVE IT... seperate post to follow.

So home from work this evening, Christmas lights on, steaming mug of coffee in the hand, curled on the sofa, boys and hubs out visiting granddad, just about to start reading my radio times and the door bell rings, what the? no one ever calls unexpected here. Opened the door to find poor old gent from next door, he'd locked himself out, he very much keeps himself to himself, we nod hello, and always keep a watch on his curtains to make sure hes up and about every day! Invited him in, asked if anyone had a key, his sister who lives miles away.., called him a locksmith and said he could stay till they arrived, he looked very uncomfortable, especially with mad max dancing all around him, he refused a drink, but made small chat, the first time in 13 years we have had a conversation, I said that he could leave a key with us if he wanted too, not sure he will take us up on that, but hes now safe and back in his house, bless.

So I am now about to go get another coffee and try to read my radio times, a little bit of RnR before the boys arrive..

Happy weekend everyone.
xx

November review.

Running late on this one, but better late than never !

Way back in November I set myself another batch of goals,

Personal.

• rejoin slimming world   nope, but did buy myself a diet recording book, its a start!
• get eyes tested  done and dusted.
• sort out eyebrows  threaded!
• complete wardrobe stock take  haven't managed that yet.
• arrange night out with D  nope 
• go car booting with S  nope
• meet up with A    this coming Saturday !

House

• source curtains for front room  yep, now saving up, need new ones couldn't find any re purposed ones.
• continue to look for suitable sofa  ongoing
• source 'z' bed for craft room yep, now saving up for one.
• sweep chimney  all done and first fire of the season has been enjoyed.

5 items completed, 6 items ongoing and 5 items not done.

Not as good as last month, but life has a habit of getting in the way. What I have learned from these past 2 months is that I like to set goals but then struggle to do them and end up beating myself up about it. This months goal is to RELAX and ENJOY the festive month. 

I am pretty much all done for Christmas, we don't over shop, we have a our new year excursion planned, and am excited to be going down to Cornwall again. I will be glad to get to the new year intact and with a healthy bank balance, that's goal enough!

Tomorrow is D day, DOG behavior day to be exact, the behaviorist is coming to see if she can help with some of Max's less attractive attributes, I am not hopeful, but this is last chance salon, if it doesn't work we have to learn to live with them or make a hard decision to find him a home that can cater to his needs, I hope it doesn't come to that, but we have discussed it, especially if its separation anxiety. At the end of the day its about giving a rescue dog a new loved life, if not with us then with someone else more suited. I will update you all on Thursday, no doubt he will be on his best behavior whilst shes here then have a mad rant when shes gone! hey ho..