Sulking in the net

Everyone had breakfast together and then all the boys watched the Stoke game and were very pleased with their win. I sat upstairs and finished watching Walk Invisible about the Bronte sisters. It was really good.

We had to leave part way through the second half of the game to get Smallest to his first football game with the Assistant Coach in charge. We left Small at home with the job of emptying the dishwasher which he did. Smallest's team won 4-2 but it wasn't an enjoyable game. Neither side played well and I had the ex coach next to me which was weird. The best part about the game, after the first minute attempted goal by Smallest, was the oppositions goalkeeper refusing to play because he had a grump. He sat in the corner of his goal with his head in his hands and didn't move until they finally brought another goalie on. Then he sat on the sideline and refused to shake hands with anyone at the end of the game or move when the next game started.

Taken from above

At the end of the game all the boys walked off really quickly. No team talk, no parents talking other than saying goodbye. It was strange.

At home Smallest had a shower and we watched the end of the Leicester game before going out for dinner. Dinner was nice and we played Monopoly Deal whilst waiting. We popped to the Post Office on the way back which just happened to be near the Portuguese Bakery so we had to stop and pick up some lovely custard tarts as they make the best ones.

Back home again, we sat and watched Ninja Warrier UK (eat the wall) and then introduced Smallest to Catchphrase as Small has been watching it lately. We watched the Celebrity one which was funny.

 

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Someone brought in something for the pigs in the play*

Just as the snow was disappearing (not the huge dirty piles of it on the side of the road) it started to snow again. Huge big flakes that didn't turn into much really though it was very cold today.

After the boys went to school, on the bus, I got myself together and went off to knitting. There were seven of us including ShopKeeperEl. It was sad (one of the ladies has had huge illness in her family), funny (always funny because we are all very humorous) and helpful because Mim helped me start a new sock. Two coffees later and a part of a sock done, Suffolk and I went off for lunch and some more chatting. We had a little look around a few shops and left because it was too cold.

At home I got on with the jigsaw waiting for the kids to come home. The boys helped me to finish it and we were very disappointed to find there was a piece missing (of a brand new Christmas present jigsaw too, though to be fair it was probably us that lost it). The kids did a chore, there was a bit of piano practice and then they played on the XBox. I warmed up dinner (the weeks leftovers yum yum) and Huffle and I moved around the furniture in the living room (whilst looking for the missing jigsaw piece).

This was a hard one, bought for Smallest too difficult for him. He started it and ended it and did a few in the middle.

After dinner all the boys played a game on their tablets and I started our Christmas Jigsaw with Huffle's help later.

 

*something Smallest was saying to me. He couldn't finish his sentence because we were laughing too much. Turns out he is doing a French Play, Trois Petits Cochons, 3 little pigs, and someone had brought in snouts made from egg cartons painted pink. It took a long time for him to get this story out though.

 

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Plant pods dream

The school bus was running, thank goodness and so I packed my little munchkins off with a lunch and a kiss and settled down for breakfast with nothing planned for the whole day. Of course I could have done countless jobs like washing, cleaning etc but that sounded far too boring, especially when I got a text from Suffolk. We arranged for me to go round there for a cuppa and a chat. It was nice to catch up as we haven't seen each other since before Christmas. We arranged a night out called Winter, Wine and Wellness where there are lots of different people letting us know about things to do during the Winter (including a circus school - oh yes, I did that years ago with SpanishChica, it was so much fun). We also decided to go back to knitting tomorrow and have lunch so that will be good and we are going to ski-school once a week.

I came home late lunchtime and had lunch and watched a bit of TV. Huffle worked from Small's room mainly today because the sump pump was working overtime with the melting snow and it's very noisy. This afternoon I prepared dinner for later and made a Chocolate Bundt Cake with Orange Icing and a Banana Loaf. The plan is to put half of them in the freezer in convenient slices so the kids have nice things for lunch and Huffle and I can have nice things when the kids go to bed (naughty).

When the boys came home, Smallest invited his friend over to play on the Wii (he did actually ask him round to play XBox but forgot it wasn't his to play on, so Small moved the Wii upstairs for them). I took his friend back before dinner and Huffle took Small to football this evening. He scored a goal and got angry with one of his teammates but managed to walk away.

Smallest and I did a bit of jigsaw and then watched Paddington.

 

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BIgJob

The bus was cancelled again this morning but instead of walking them in again (yesterday I did 18,000 steps), I got my aerobics stuff on and drove them to school and then on to ExerciseNics where I sat and did the rubicks cube (can now do it without any instructions - not as quick as Small but still), drank my coffee and listened to the radio.

Ski-club was also cancelled (the first one for Small this year and he had all his stuff ready which was part of the reason we drove in - too much to carry and walk) which was a shame but on top of the rain we had freezing rain and so everything was like an ice rink. I managed to salt the drive a little bit and then bought some more when I went shopping and salted the rest of the drive and paths. It was treacherous.

Aerobics was interesting today as ExerciseNic randomly chose different exercises from a pile she had written on. It meant we did a lot of getting our mat, lying down and doing one thing and then getting rid of the mat and standing up and doing something else. So we did lots of standing, sitting, lying as well as the different weights, cardio, floor work etc. I already ache from all the walking yesterday and my sore back from the bottle sorting so tomorrow I am really going to feel it. Fun though.

I had my shower and finished my coffee and then went out and did a food shop. It was really busy and I had to start eating some Pringles while I waited to pay for my shopping. Back home, I salted the drive more, left the shopping on the floor and had lunch.

Early afternoon we had a couple of emails about football. One saying that the assistant Coach we had (who I thought was sacked too) had decided to take the Coach position (we think after being talked to by old Coach) and that there was a practice tonight with MrSchmooze and the boys were to wear their yellow kit (arrrrggghhhh, the one that was sat on the laundry room floor waiting to be washed). I washed half of it and then made a start on dinner as we needed to be out early.

I made Cottages Pies and went and picked the boys up from school. They were pleased they weren't walking today. At home they put the shopping away for me as a chore, practiced piano, wrote a letter each and played on the XBox.

Today Huffle went in to the office and didn't come home until 5pm. We had dinner early and left Small home with the XBox and took Smallest to football practice. Everyone was there except the new coach's son who is still on holiday. There was a lot of talk about last night's meeting but most people are just happy the boys are playing again. There was no sign of CoachOlDHead so I'm guessing he has been told to keep a low profile for a while, and so he should! OldCoach was trying to sound Huffle out about leaving at the end of the season, which is what we wanted to do anyway, but we said we would see what happens between now and then and see what Smallest wants to do.

 

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Schmoozing with MrSchmooze

Neither Huffle nor I slept much last night. As we thought, our minds were going ten to the dozen regarding the football issues at the moment. Possibly because we stayed up too late writing questions we needed answers to. This evening we went to the meeting and were pleasantly surprised that none of the boys were there practising so all of the parents had made a stand. It restored my faith in people. More about the meeting at the end.

This morning the school bus was cancelled due to the weather which snowed during the night and for the rest of the day. I decided to walk the kids to school. It was very heavy and wet and my mascara ran all down my face! I left them at the school crossing and then walked to the fundraising organiser to pick up a cheque and then walked on to the Beer Store to give back the cheque to get amended. On the way I had a phone call from angel and we discussed at length what we we're going to do about the football meeting and practice. I then came home and had breakfast, a cup of coffee and watched Unforgotten. I had a shower, did some washing and drying and had lunch with Huffle.

This afternoon I made Butter Chicken and Lentil Dahl for dinner, lots of filling and emptying of the dishwasher. Later I walked back to school, handed in the cheque and picked up the boys. They had had a good day but were disappointed to be walking home. However we did walk. The snow was heavier and thicker and even wetter. My feet hurt too now!

The boys did a chore each, showered and put their clothes away before we had dinner together. Huffle and I rushed off to get to our football meeting leaving the kids playing on the XBox with strict instructions to call us at a certain time to check whether we were nearly home. Just a failsafe in case we had an accident or any problems getting home.

Football Meeting

Lots of Schmoozing from MrSchmooze and his two 'heavies' who were just coaches. Not many questions were answered and they said they would answer some of our questions after Thursday when the assistant Coach was back from his holiday. They were put under a lot of pressure when all of the parents vented their anger. Some of the parents who normally would not speak out, were very vocal. I think we all got our point strongly across about CoachOlDHead and from now on he will not be the boys coach. Not to say that he won't appear from time to time but he will definitely not be their coach. One of the parents asked if our Coach will ever be reappointed and they said at this point it was highly unlikely but not impossible.

Huffle managed to ruffle MrSchmooz's feathers once again and basically called him a liar to which he said he was disappointed afterwards. We were asked to come to practice tomorrow but I think we have all decided not to. MrSchmooze looked a broken man at the end. I think he was surprised by how strongly we all felt, especially about CoachOlDHead.

 

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Passport, panicking and pussycats!

It was Moo's last day today and it started with her panicking because she lost her Passport. Silly Moo has been here for four weeks and this morning was the first time she'd looked for it. Naughty Moo. That'll teach her. It did scare her though but luckily MrCalm&Collected made her describe what she was wearing and lo and behold found it in her fleece pocket.

The boys woke me this morning and boy it was tough to get up. 7:30am, I can't remember when I last got up that early apart from when I needed the loo! Lunches were made and we sent the boys off with a cold wave (it was mighty cold again today and it snowed huge big flakes that settled and accumulated and looked like it was set in for the day but then stopped just before lunchtime).

Moo showered and packed her bags and I spent time on the phone to Angel trying to decipher emails and messages regarding the whole football debacle. The latest thing is that our Coach wanted us to make a United stand and all not attend any practices. We were fine with that because CoachOlDHead, in my opinion, is not fit to coach our son and does not have seem to have his best interests and safety at heart. Much later we found out that CoachOlDHead actually has a problem with two of the parents, one being Huffle and the other being the one that had a fight, because our Coach cannot control their behaviour. Oh dear. We were then called, as parents, to a meeting tomorrow while our kids practises with CoachOlDHead (well Smallest is not going to practice but we are going to the meeting. Can't wait! Some of the other parents were umming and ahhhing over whether to go or not. Bunch of pussies!).

Moo and I had a game of Skip-Bo before going out for a lovely lunch. On the way the roads were quite bad and one in particular, the slip road to a major highway, was not ploughed and we slipped and slid a bit. My sat nav got lost and tried to re-route us before we had even got on the highway properly and then because there was an accident at the exit we wanted, we were re-routed in a big circle. Anyway lunch was very nice and we sat in front of a fire. On the way home we got some petrol and I asked the pump man if $100 bills actually did smell of Maple Syrup (I was told that a while ago) and he laughed and said it probably smelled of feet which then got us wondering where the bill had been! Eeeuuuggghhh.

Back home we had one more game of Skip-Bo and then made our way to the airport. We had a very good journey in and I decided to leave Moo at departures and not park because I wanted to get back before the traffic was bad. I was just starting my car when Moo came rushing out, waved at me and opened the boot (trunk) as she had forgotten her neck support. I had a good journey back, a bit slower but got back before it was too dark.

Bye Moo, see you in the Summer

The boys were already home and Small was in the middle of a piano lesson. Smallest was playing on the X-box and Huffle was boiling water for pasta.

Tonight the boys had a Scout and Cubs activity. Well I say Scouts and Cubs. It was organised by them but we parents had to be there to watch our kids and make sure they were safe and pay the full price (didn't appear to be subsidised in any way). We met at a climbing place we have not been to before. Both boys climbed without harnesses or belaying, which was a lot harder than they thought it would be. At the start we had to fill in waivers for each child and each adult even entering. This took forever though we were told to do this beforehand, bloomin' know it alls! The place was FULL of climbers, lots of young adults, very noisy, very "look at me skipping, exercising........". The kids were taught how to fall onto big crash mats and given a long talk which probably took half an hour and they finally got to climb.

They were so good together. Helped each other and were nice.

Oh yes, and we pushed Huffle into the 6' pit of sponges

They had fun but were worn out and we came away early. The place was quite a way and we didn't get home until around 9:30pm. Then Huffle had a long phone conversation with our Coach and then several emails from other parents. We didn't get to watch any TV, just managed a quick cup of tea before bed. I'm betting that Huffle won't sleep tonight as his head will be swimming with questions and I will probably be having conversations in my head. Tomorrow's meeting will not involve CoachOlDHead, unless he gatecrashes the meeting again.

 

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Never enough sheep!

OMG I woke up to the sorest back ever! I can hardly move. Moo has a hurt back too but only on one side. That's because she mainly threw cans in a tall box and I guess she used the same side to throw. I had to have various painkillers plus a heat pack on my back. Arrrggggghhhhhhh.

It was extremely cold outside today. -23* with windchill, hence we stayed inside. This morning I sorted through all the family's hats, gloves, scarves, gloves trying to find a missing Christmas glove and my new hat. Moo did all the washing, including my coat and other new hat and scarf which took forever to dry. It was a handknit one and it seemed to get bigger and bigger. My coat, which is full of goose feathers, seemed to have all the feathers fall to the bottom but once we stuck it in the dryer it all plumped up again. Phew! My hat and scarf are still in the dryer and we are hoping it might shrink a little, not too much though.

I found my hat and glove in the end, in Huffle's ruck sack that he had put away without emptying. Naughty Huffle. The boys played on the Xbox until we called them up for lunch and then we spent a good couple of hours playing Agricola in which Moo and I lost terribly and the kids, who teamed up, won!

Huffle Skyped Grandma and Grandad while Moo and I made dinner.

This evening we watched The Grand Tour. Tonight is Moo's last night as she flies off tomorrow early evening. She made us an Apple Crumble and Custard - about time, it's the first one since she's been here this time.

Big foot!

 

 

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