News & Summer of Fun

We have had a whirlwind year since my last post - so much has happened.

I started work in January at a local school as a teaching assistant.  I started in year 3 just afternoons and they were a lovely year to start in.
As of September I am now in a year 5 class - I am still getting used to them.  They are still pushing the boundaries, but am making headway with a couple of them.
I am responsible for a guided reading group for the very low achievers.  The average reading/literacy age with these year 5's is year 2 - it is so sad :-(

John has had a busy year work wise - for 3 months until end of July he was working an average of 14 hour days - it was tough on him and us as we missed having him around.
Tiz missed him the most as he was gone before she was up and home after asleep and only saw him for a few hours on the weekend.

All change for Tiz with regards to school.
She is now in year 3 and in a new school.  She had been asking for a while to move as not happy, but we stuck it out until July to see if we could iron out the problems she was having.
She has an above average reading/literacy age and also in maths. 
Unfortunately the school she was in has an higher than average special needs ratio and therefore unable to guide her in the right direction. 
The majority of the time she wasleft to her own devises (which as you probably know for a 6/7 year old is not a good idea!!)
She was also having problems with bullying but when we bought this up was told what did we expect as the children involved had various special needs.

She is now happy and getting settled slowly in her new school and from the off the teacher has her sussed out and is challenging her in the right direction.  She has A LOT of homework
This is a typical week:
Spellings - 3 or 4 times a week
Reading - everyday
On Friday she gets comprehension, literacy, maths, timetables,  additional spellings and Topic - this has to all be in by the following  Wednesday - Phew!!

She also turned 7 and had a 'Alice in Wonderland' party.

My dad was diagnosed back in Febuary with bowel cancer. He has just finished his chemo and suprisingly he is doing great and awaiting a reversal operation to remove his bag.
I have done a lot of travelling back and for visiting him (about 800 miles in a weekend)

With John working so hard he was unable to take any leave, but it worked well for us - he got 3 weeks off in the summer, so we managed to do 2 houseswaps :-D
We first went to Valencia in Spain and oh WOW what a beautiful place, but oh boy was it hot - 45f.

We then had 1 day to get home and get house ready for our next exchange to Hasselt in Belgium.  We had such fun

   

Valencia

 

Gulliver Play Park in a 10 mile park 

 

 

                                           
                                                  

Barefoot walking in Belgium

 

Science Project & Half Term Fun in Mid Wales

 

Tizzies 1st ever Science Project

Cycling/Walking/Running in Elan Valley - We all managed 8 miles :-)

Elan Valley

Tree Climbing

Ready for some Serious Hiking up Mountains and through Wash Pools

(5 Miles and they came back soaking wet and happy - the shoes took 3 days to dry out)

My beautiful Smiley Girl

Half Way up

Daddy's Girl

Local Ponies

Mummy and Tirzah's Special Smile

A few pics

Here are 3 pics in connection with my 40th

 

 

 

Present from one of my best friends - she is sooo creative

                                                         
                                                Birthday Cake

                                               Birthday Cake

The BIG 40

Well I hit the BIG 40 last month and it came and went painlessly.

The day started well - breakfast in bed with cards being opened (with a little help!)

Tirzah had the day planned for me as John was at work and couldn't get day off :-( .
We went and watched Brave the new Disney princess film - it was great and sooo lovely to spend it with my favourite girl :-).

Presents opened once John home - well I was blessed - Kebo (ereader) from Johns parents and aunt, lovely white gold hoop earrings from my brother and his family, a  beautiful heart necklace from my aunt and lots of money for me to spend (such a hardship!!)

My birthday was extended to the weekend - we spent saturday with some lovely friends, then they looked after Tirzah while John whisked me off for a picnic at a local stately home whilst watching Macbeth put on by the Lord Chamberlain's Men - they were fabulous.

I have been thoroughly spoilt :-)

xx

Yay - Finally getting there

Well it's been 6 months since we moved house and area and at last we are finally settling down after some initial problems.

First problem we encountered was within a week of moving in the boiler was condemned and there was a gas leak, we were 5 weeks without heating, but thankfully we have some lovely people in our new Church who offered portable heaters and sometimes their homes while they went away for the weekend.  Also double bonus is that we have a great plumber at our Church, who did a great job and we had heating just in time for Christmas unlike British Gas,but thats another story.

Second problem was one stormy night in December, John got up in the middle of the night to find a rather large wet patch on our carpet - our roof was leaking!!  John spent the next hour crawling around our loft space placing buckets, fortunately we found a company who came in and fixed it within days and before the next storm hit us, apparantly when the house was built they cut corners and put broken tiles up!! We were cross because the surveyor should of picked it up as there was a gaping hole in the roof where the rain came in, but he covered his back with his wordingin the survey.

We then spent Christmas with a poorly Tirzah. She had croup so badly that we ended up in A & E in the early hours of Christmas Eve for her to have steroids and observation.  We were meant to be going back to Tunbridge Wells to spend Christmas with some of our lovely friends, but Tirzah wasn't up to it and we didn't want their childrento catch it. We had a lovely quiet Christmas - it was like God was telling us to be quiet and spend time just the 3 of us - which since moving in we hadn't had any proper time just the 3of us.

We have been blessed too, through these problems we settled very quickly into Church and found friendship with some lovely people although we do miss our friends back in Tunbridge Wells. We haven't had any many 'old' friends come visit, but Johns family and my brother has - which is lovely.

John is playing piano regularly and sooner than expected at Church as our minister and his family have moved onto his first 'vicarship' and there was no-one else to play, but he is enjoying it.
His work is going really well and he is enjoying it.  At the moment he is doing 10-12 hour days - starting at 7 and most days home at 7.  Fortunately it will hopefully be all back to normal hours by July.

I am enjoying having 6 months grace from doing anything at the Church, which since being 15 is a first.
I am going into Tirzah's school 2 afternoons a week to help out.  I am really enjoying.  Sometimes it breaks my heart that most of the children come from broken homes and the home life they have is poor with social services involved.  So many of them are only just starting to read and write properly and the parents show no interest in helping them progress as they see no need to and they want a quiet life.  Some of them only have the meal they have at school a day and survive on biscuits the rest of the time, but I also get a big buzz when these children manage to read/write even the basic of words which we take for granted.
I am also cleaning 1 morning a week for the Vicar in charge.
All of this keeps me out of mischief!!

Tirzah is settling into Church well too and has made a couple of lovely friends of whom one is as feisty and strong headed as her and they get on brilliantly and get over their arguments quicker than anyone she has had disagreements with in the past.   She threw me a blinder the other week, by asking me to explain the Trinity to her as she knows God loves her and she loves God in her heart, but wants to understand that - wasn't expecting that and at 5 years old.
At school she has settled so well and is doing really well - she is in top groups for all subjects, but is excelling at reading/english, so much so they are going to be moving her up to year 2 after year 2 have finished their STATs in May.  She is getting comprehension homework - the only one in her class.  We are so proud of her, she works so hard and with no pushing from us - she is definately Johns daughter - they both enjoy studying!!  BUT the flip side is she loves having fun and being outdoors and being a 5 nearly 6 year old (in June) - stroppyness included - where have those years gone!!

My brother and his family are doing well - Logan is now 1 and has just started walking and is into everything - we are going to visit them end of the month in their new home in Abergavenny.
They are still hoping to get married next year - so that is something lovely to look forward to.

My dad is getting divorced from his second wife and it is nearly all completed - he nearly lost everything as she was asking for everything and I know there are always two sides to each story, but she left after being very nasty to my dad and judging him and the way he wants to live his life.

As previously mentioned Tirzah is 6 in June and this year we are not having a party,just going to spend the day just the 3 of us doing something she wants - Disneyland was mentioned, but that is way too expensive and too far for 1 day.  Her birthday is 3 June, same day as the Queens jubilee celebration, so we are having an early birthday on the 1st and going out for a meal on the 3rd.

Anyway that is all our news for now.

Rach xx

Yet another year passes!

Well as the title says it has been yet another year since I last blogged and yet again a lot has gone on.

Where to start?

Well since my last post I have finished my councelling and feel 'normal' most of the time.

That is apart from now which I will go into later.

Tirzah is now a beautiful 5 year and has just started in year 1 in primary school. She is really thriving, but also pushing boundaries - is there an age when they don't?

Johns job - well he got settled into it really well and then decided to push a push doors elsewhere and guess what God opened one for us just over 2 months ago, so we are on the move.

We have been here 6 years and that is a record for John!

Where we are moving to is about just over an hour away so not to far for us to visit friends here or for friends to come visit us.

It is still going through the motions of solicitors etc.. but we hope to be moved by October half term or end of October at the latest.

We will miss all of our friends here but it is time.

This is why I am low at the moment.

John has had to start his job before we have completed and is staying with friends - as some of you know I don't cope this well with John being away so for him to be away all week and be around on weekend is tough and if you noticed the time I started this you will see it is nearly 3.30am and haven't been asleep yet. It is only the first night so hope it gets better.

We thought Tirzah would be the one that didn't cope and I would but NO we have a role reversal!

So my biggest prayer at the moment is that everything with the move completes asap and we can be together as a family again or that someone has a house we can house sit for till our new house is ready for us to move into.

On a more happier note my brother and his girlfriend have had their baby - A boy whom they have called Logan William - wasn't sure on Logan but am getting used to it (I can't say anything about unusual children's names!!)

Him and his girlfriend are now engaged and plan on getting married in 2013 - they seem to get on really well so wish them every blessing.

I will not promise to blog more as I always seem to break this promise :-}

xx

A long overdue update

It's been nearly a year since I last blogged and the time has flown by.

It has been a year of ups and downs.

A few months after my last post I had a mini melt down - suffering from panic attacks, anxiety and mild depression - I had a breakdown about 7 & 1/2 years ago and thought after that I never wanted to go back there.
Fortunately, it wasn't as bad and I have wonderful friends and the most fantastic husband in the world who no matter what is thrown at him he copes marvellously.
I thank God for all the wonderful friends and family I have in my life.

I have been receiving councelling which I am near the end of and boy has it helped - my councellor is a wonderful lady who doesn't push me when I don't want to talk, lets me cry all over her and just generally supports and helps me puts things into order. Not once has she said 'it's your mothers/fathers fault' just linked things to a different time in my life.
I am doing a small cleaning job one morning a week and some typing for Johns aunty, which isn't too much pressure and makes me feel as if I am helping out at home.

Tirzah is now 4 years old and a proper girl with a good mixture of a tomboy which makes daddy very happy.
She can be very trying and pushes the boundaries with me, but also can be a very loving girl.
She is now riding her next size bike and is enjoying riding 'off-road' with daddy.
She doesn't go to school till January, so we have 2 more terms at pre-school. Pre-school have said she is ready for school, but as she is a June baby will have to wait.
We are learning letters, numbers and writing, with her doing the leading. She wrote her first word last week and it was mummy - we hadn't even got as far as m and u, but she wrote it just right and just in time for my birthday :-)

Johns job has been a rollercoster in the last year. He was told last October that his job was at risk and would have to re-apply for it. This didn't happen until May this year.
At the same time the team leader position became available and he got it - he is still learning the ropes, but is doing very well.

My brother shocked us about 8 weeks ago - he is going to be a daddy. It wasn't a planned one. He freely admits it was a drunken accident. They are now really pleased and baby is due next March.
He is feeling low a bit with mum not being around and he keeps saying 'mum won't see her grandchild', all I could say was welcome to my world.
I am hoping it will help him grow up a bit and take responsibility seriously. I have stressed that no matter what happens the baby is now the centre of his world and if he and his girlfriend ever split up he HAS to be there for the baby/child and not just in a monetary way.

I am going back to singing this Sunday at Church in the evening. It is a smaller congregation and our musical director V knows exactly where I am coming from with my anxiety etc.. and is very patient with me.

Anyway I will try my best to post more :-}
xx