Lengths that is!

We are now family members of the Nene Leisure Centre in Thrapston. This opens up a whole host of opportunities for everyone and we intend to make the most of everything.

Membership includes: unlimited swimming, unlimited use of the gym, unlimited participation of adult classes (there is a Salsa Fit class on a Thursday morning that I’m really looking forward to) and unlimited participation in all of the dry side courses for children, which include trampolining, soccer school, dance, gymnastics, cheerleading and more! Membership also covers two other leisure centres that are close-by.

Me, Jack and Ellie are going to go at least once a day Monday to Friday. The plan is to swim between 3 and 4pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday (we can’t swim at that time on a Wednesday as it’s staff training in the pool) and then spend an hour in the gym afterwards with just the gym on a Wednesday.

We swam 50 lengths on Monday and 55 yesterday – to swim the Pier to Pier distance we only have to do another 73 lengths. The kids are also going to take part in this year’s Marie Curie Swimathon on the 24 March, there are 3 distances you can do: 1.5k (60 lengths), 2.5k (100 lengths) or 5k (200 lengths). If they do it at our pool at the gym they will have 3 hours to complete their chosen distance in; if they do it at the Kettering pool with Tony then they’ll get 4 hours to complete it in – they haven’t decided on a distance or pool yet.

We also had our gym induction course yesterday – the kids are only allowed to use the cardiovascular machines and ‘Stuart’ showed them how to use them properly and worked out a little fitness programme for them. ‘Phil’ showed me how to use the CV machines and some of the resistance machines and has devised a programme for me to follow so that I’ll be able to rediscover my old wardrobe again – YIPPEEE!

Other news:

Edward is too big for his baby car seat now; his new one AKA ‘The Beast’ arrived yesterday – it’s ENORMOUS and looks very comfy. See what you think….

Sarah x

We are members of the RSPB and today we went to an “Aren’t Birds Brilliant!” day at Stanwick Lakes in Stanwick (funnily enough) which is about 10 miles away.

“Aren’t Birds Brilliant!” is running every weekend throughout February with RSPB staff and volunteers on hand with binoculars, telescopes and a wealth of information.

We sat in the hide and watched a Tufted Duck duck and dive under the water over and over, a Great Crested Grebe dive and catch fish, Canada Geese snoozing in the sunshine on an island, Mute Swans glide past elegantly with their big signets following on behind.

We also saw Coots fighting over territory – I don’t think any of us had seen anything like it before (other than on nature documentaries). They lay back on top of the water and fight with their feet, which are claw-like like garden birds rather than webbed like ducks’ feet. If kicking isn’t scaring the other one off then they try to sink them, the RSPB man said that it’s not unknown for them to drown an opponent – I don’t think I fancy coming back as a Coot!
Jack and Ellie went swimming at the pool in Kettering with Tony this afternoon to carry on their training for the Bournemouth Pier to Pier swim in the summer; they are staying over at my mum’s tonight so it seems eerily quiet here at the moment – I’m off to make the most of it and wonder how on earth Edward can be seven months old already.

Sarah x
Tufted Duck

Diving…

Fighting Coots!

Swan – just beautiful.

Or so they say! Here are just a few…
Madaline – fast asleep when she came to stay

The light around Lowick church changes almost by the hour it seems – here are a few differing light shots, the last one was taken this morning as the sun came up.

Northamptonshire has a maze of villages of varying sizes that are all separate from each other – our nearest ‘big’ village is Thrapston (think of a cross between Steyning and Storrington) and is separated from Islip (smaller village but not as small as Lowick) by the River Nene. To get to Thrapston you have to drive across the Nine Arch Bridge (complete with overnight mooring facilities for narrow boats) but you have to wait your turn, it’s only wide enough for one way traffic…

Home sweet home…

The only ‘snow’ that’s stuck around for longer than 5 mintues…

Jack with short hair (make the most of it, he’s already looking fuzzy!)

And for the grand finale – The Bear Cub (taken on Monday).

Sarah x

I have been trying to decide on the best way to catch up with our goings on. The trouble being that the more I procrastinate the bigger the gap and thus the bigger the problem of catching up!

So I’ll carry on from today and throw in bits that have happened these past few weeks in more detail as we go in the coming posts.

In the meantime here’s a list of the main things!

We changed our minds and decided not to send the kids back to school.

Sarah had the worst ever toothache caused by an infection under one of her back teeth.

Mum and David came to visit – hooray!

Edward just keeps getting cuter and cuter and his poo is getting more and more solid (weaning)!

I started a new course – Web Wizard – the follow on to the Web Entrepreneur course I completed last year.

So that was a brief run through I have probably missed out loads of stuff but we’ll add it later.
Over breakfast this morning Ellie was asking about Amsterdam, where it was etc so that gave us our learning topic today! The EU. So the first task was for the kids to find out what countries make up the European Union, there are 27! When they had done that we talked about the order that they joined in and found out that it is the EU’s 50th birthday this year. Their next tasks were to find out the main language, population and flag for each member state. Then tomorrow they can draw a map of Europe and put the flags in the right places!

Jack, Ellie and I went for a stroll in the park with the dogs. I think that when it gets warmer quite a few learning activities will take place there. I can see them sitting on the grass with a sketchbook drawing the big house!

Today I decided to restart my Comptia A+ course. The professional body has just released the 2006 course objectives – I had been studying the 2003 objectives – so we had a choice, either carry on or start again with the new materials – so I opted to start again. The course materials are similar but have been updated to reflect the new technologies so it shouldn’t take long to catch up.

Jack has decided to grow his hair long so we’ll wait and see on that one! Ellie is being all grown up and very helpful and Jack has become a real bookworm, he can’t put them down! His latest preferred author is Mark Robson .

Right I think that will do for today – I’m off to test the new mattress!

A day of good intentions that were partly achieved! One goal, which was achieved was to make sure that the kids ate early enough to be able to have an early night without going to bed on a full tummy as they are visiting a potential school tomorrow morning.
Chilli con carne was the dish of the day! It was cooked in the morning and with only the rice left to cook the kids were eating by 5.30pm and in bed by 8pm – unlike their younger brother, who insisted on staying up with his Mum and Dad, we eventually got to eat just after 9pm. Edward settled down to sleep at about 9.45 having had a couple of ounces of formula for a snack!

It was a big day for Edward – he found his feet and then spent every opportunity on his back curled up in a little ball playing with his feet whilst giggling hysterically. He’s so cute! He also continued to practice his rolling abilities – from tummy on to his back!

Noo planted up the last of the buckets with bulbs, which will then be sunk into the front garden. The front path has a border either side it.  It is currently covered with pebbles – or at least that is what we thought. Noo discovered that it wasn’t a covering of stones, it was literally filled with stones. So that put the kibosh on planting up the borders with bulbs etc. That is until she had a brainwave – she decided to put the bulbs in buckets and ‘plant’ the buckets! So in a few months we should have a fab show of spring bulbs.

On the wireless network front I have made a little progress. Because our cottage has 2-3 foot thick walls a reliable wireless network signal was just a forlorn hope – the Linksys range expander hasn’t been a huge success yet but I am hoping I might have more luck with it boosting the signal upstairs so that both Jack & Elise can access the net in their rooms. The signal downstairs has been improved by changing the wireless channel to 11 and broadcasting only ‘g’ instead of a mixed b/g.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for Edward – he will be 6 months old and will meet his cousin, Madeline, she is 1 years old and lives in Newcastle but is down with her Mum, Paula for a few days!

I’ll leave the waffle until later and just post some pictures from this morning for now.

Jack smiling under duress having just been dragged out of bed.

Ellie relaxing and waiting patiently with Morpheus

Edward opening various presents and trying to eat the paper!

Sarah x

Edward Bear slept in this morning until 7.30! Shame me and Simon have been awake since 4.45am and up since 6.30am – sigh.

The trip to PC World was eventful, Jack has learned that missing out a vital junction exit can add a least an hour and a half onto your journey time, especially when you have no idea where you are to be able to find yourself on the map in order to get to where you really want to be. But they found it in the end and came home with various gadgets and gizmos.

The additional hour and a half tour around the Peterborough Ring Road meant that swimming and dog walking were postponed until today.

There’s lots to do today – walk the dogs, wrap presents, make a start on the ‘going home presents’ for our group of ‘baby friends’ who are descending on us on Wednesday. These are the women and their husbands/partners whom I met online who were all pregnant at the same time as me. So we have Tamsin and Adam with Tabitha coming up from Bath (although they are actually coming up a day earlier than the others), Helen C (we call her Frank) and her daughter Robyn (her husband Lloyd can’t make it) coming down from York, Shonagh and Richard with Archie also coming down from Yorkshire and finally Helen and KB with Sebastian who are over from Norway!

We’ve met Helen, KB and co and Tam’ and Adam before but this will be the first time we are all together – it promises to be fun and perhaps just a little rowdy.

I must get on – but before I go here’s another picture for you. This is what we see out of the end kitchen window (the one behind Simon in the kitchen photo). Apparently people come from all over the world to see the tower (topped with a splendid octagonal lantern, flying buttresses and 12 pinnacles the blurb says) and 14th century stained glass windows.

Hmmmm…to start from moving day or from today?

Well moving day was long and the drama with Morpheus the following morning looks, thankfully, like it was just one of those things caused by who knows what!

So nearly 4 weeks on are we completely unpacked? Almost! There is a box or two of odd things, that don’t get used often enough to have been found a home, still languishing around but apart from that it’s done.

Cooking anything takes four times as long as it used to a) because the kitchen is huge and b) because Sod’s Law dictates that the thing you are searching for is in the last cupboard that you look in. But we can COOK things in an oven again – the first taste of perfect roast potatoes again was bliss.

I’m sure the kitchen will seem to shrink the longer that we’re here bit at the moment it feels as if there is enough space for everyone to be in the kitchen and still swing a cat – although both cats are still enjoying their dog-free holiday at my mum’s house!

I’ve decided that sofas that are ‘going begging’ are like buses – you don’t see any for AGES and then all of a sudden! three of them come along at once and you end up with more seating than you can shake a stick at.

It didn’t occur to me when I saw the BIG sofa squeezing out of David’s car that it would also need to be squeezed in at the other end. This applied to lots of other furniture and getting some of it in and up the stairs was more than a bit Krypton Factoresque! Some things just weren’t going to go upstairs though no matter how hard the were pushed and shoved or eased and cajoled, so Jack’s desk, which was our desk, is now my desk again. Ellie’s desk is now Jack’s desk and my corner computer cupboard now resides in Ellie’s room.

Simon is now an expert in networking computers in houses with walls that are 2 feet thick. Jack can’t pick up a wireless signal in his room but Ellie has phenominal signal strength in hers (there’s irony there somewhere) so solutions have been looked at from expensive flashy signal boosters through to home-made antennae made from Pringle cans.

The bathroom is nice and clean and bright and the shower emits more than a dribble and doesn’t go RED HOT when nextdoor turns any taps on – heaven. The one issue in the bathroom quickly became apparent – LOW WINDOWS! Of course this isn’t a problem all the while you’re sitting down but anyone walking past when you stood up would have seen more then they bargained for. A quick dash to Rosebys for a voile to put up at the window soon remedied this.

The dogs are slowly barking less everytime someone walks past the house but they still can’t control themselves when the chickens from over the road stroll by.

Me and Ellie have been out exploring and the animals are all registered with the local vets in Thrapston (the nearest place with shops – think of a cross between Steyning and Storrington and that’s Thrapston), we are all registered with the doctor there and have yet to sample the delights of Ben’s Chippy – although judging by the queues we’ve seen there it’s going to be good.

Simon and Jack are off on an adventure to find PC World in Peterborough (20 or so miles up the road), then this afternoon the kids are going swimming with Tony at Kettering as part of their training for the Pier to Pier swim in Bournemouth in the summer. And whilst they’re doing that I’ll be walking the dogs with my mum.

Then it’s a quick dash back home to light the fire in time to sit down down with a glass of wine in time to watch the Strictly Come Dancing Final.

That’s all for now – I’ll leave you with a picture of the kitchen

Sarah x