French Fry

Thank you all so much for the lovely messages you left about our beloved Malcolmcat.

Blogland is full of such supportive friends and each comment was so very much appreciated.

It really is about time I did this post about the week leading up to my birthday and the final daily round of daily activities.

Friday 13th July was French Fry Day and I went for (slightly) healthier option and had a bag of these with my lunch rather than skipping along to the nearest takeaway and snaffling my way through a portion of deep fried fries!

Sunday 15th was another weird and wonderful day. Who would have ever thought there'd be a Gummi Worm Day.
From Pinterest I found instructions for making 'dirt cups', which is just Angel Delight and crushed Oreos layered in a glass dish. Jelly worms were added to look like they were slithering out of the earth.

For Ginger Rogers' birthday on 16th July G and I watched Shall We Dance. The story line was ridiculously flimsy but the dancing was sublime, especially this roller skating scene.

Next up are three food based days. Tuesday 17th was Peach Ice Cream day. I made some ice cream and up until now I had completely forgotten it's the in freezer what with everything that's been going on. I guess we should try some soon!
Wednesday 18th was Hot Dog Day so this meant there was only one choice for our evening meal. 
Thursday 19th was Ice Cream Day. I knew what I wanted to do for this day and because I didn't want to run the risk of it being a cloud free day I made sure I got some photos a little ahead of time.
G and I were very pleased with our efforts.

The day before my birthday I had intended to mark by jumping.
I knew there had been a photographer called Phillippe Halsman who at the end of photography sessions would ask his subjects to jump and he would snap them as they did so.
He believed this act would reveal more of the genuine character of a person than the polished and styled one they may want to project to the public.
I think this is such an interesting idea.
I may not have found the time to physically jump but I spent all day metaphorically jumping for joy at all the surprises my work colleagues laid on for me.
I arrived at work to be greeted by colleagues singing Happy Birthday and my desk covered in banners and primary coloured paper decorations, cards and presents.
As the time ticked round to lunchtime they surprised me further when a table full of food suddenly appeared and we all enjoyed a buffet of party food. 
One of my colleagues is an extremely talented cake maker and she made me this vanilla sponge cake. I told her it was the prettiest cake anyone has ever made me ever.
What a lovely lot of colleagues I have.

Punch

I was quite boring and went for this straightforward, but nevertheless very refreshing, mix for Punch day.
Had I known that T was going to have some incredibly exciting news today in the shape of a job offer I may well have planned something a little more celebratory.
So proud of that boy. 
Fingers crossed all works out well for him.

Summer Lovin'

.... had me a blast

Summer Loving happened so fast

I met a girl crazy for me

Met a boy cute as can be

Summer days drifting away to oh oh the summer nights.......

*****I love the movie Grease*****

That song was going round and round my head for ages after I had wrapped up this birthday gift for a friend recently.

The photos don't have anything to do with the words on this post, but they are all so bright and cheery I had to use them.

So what is this post about then if not love and lollies?
It's one of those I need to do every so often in order to record a couple of things which have happened and affect our family.
First up is a change to my work pattern. A month or so ago I increased the number of days I work from 3 to 4. It may not sound like a big deal but I spent ages wondering whether or not I should, we had a change 2 months ago in G's job when he began working shifts once again and as someone who likes structure and routine I wasn't sure about another change so soon.

It was the Easter holidays which had set me off thinking. 
It really came home to me how much more independent S has become and although over the past couple of school holidays I haven't been needed so much this one really showed me how much less.
All this happened to coincide with my place of work looking to recruit a new member of staff and so I asked, if it fitted in with their requirements, would they consider giving me an extra day.
Although in an ideal world I would have liked to have started working that extra day after the school summer break when they agreed to my request I considered myself lucky that I had been given the opportunity more or less as I needed it.
One day less at home means I need to try and be more organised with all the things I do at home and extras like when to do the shopping, especially as like I've already said, G is on a new shift pattern and that's got to be taken into consideration too.

As a consequence I have been feeling a bit more tired by the end of each week. Would you believe the first week I did the extra hours I overslept on the Saturday morning and missed an appointment at my hairdressers.
I was so embarrassed!

Then last week something happened with S which was emotionally tiring.
I don't mean to sound deliberately cryptic.
She is absolutely fine. We are all fine.
It's just a personal matter, an issue around adoption and as such it's not something suitable for discussion here.
As I've said before, this blog is my on-line diary and so I need to use it to record all the things which happen to us as a family.

We had a fairly quiet weekend.
T worked and was in and out in between, S had a sleepover and on Saturday evening we had friends over for wine and pizza. Sometimes low key, moochy weekends are exactly what's needed.

In Print

Look who was in our local paper.
Yep there's a smiling T telling everyone about Sue Ryder and why he has volunteered in one of their charity shops for 18 months.
He helps out on at least one day at weekends and he does extra days during the school holidays.
That will be changing now though as he has recently been offered a weekend job in a supermarket.
This he is absolutely thrilled about.
It was his first job interview and he was very nervous but hopefully he made a good impression.
Earning his own money is something he is very much looking forward to. He hopes to still be able to volunteer now and then as he has made a firm set of friends with the team there.
With school ending and new academic and workplace challenges beginning T will be busy.