T-Bird Anni Rides Again

well, just one more time for today….

Today I finally sorted out the tax credits.  I feel I may deserve a medal.  It seems that it was the employer he was working for when he broke his arm that is the last one on their list although I could ahve sworn I’d phoned to say that he was no longer working for them adn then later that he had a new job on whatever wage it was (in fact I def remember that because the nice chap on the other end of teh phone had to work out what £6 an hour worked out at as an anual wage cos I forgot I needed to do that bit!) But never mind.  The record is now straight, for now anyway.  And if he changes job again can someone remind me to tell them who he’s working for as well as how much he’s getting, I mean, I’d hate to be breaking teh law by witholding vital information from Big Brother again…..  Still don’t understand why it matters and why on earth they can’t just TELL YOU this!  They tell you how much money you are getting, how much money you think you will earn etc so what’s teh problem with telling you who you are working for on hte half a forest’s worth of paper tehy send you?

Rant over

In other news, Aprilia has mostly played on Digital Arts and Crafts Studio today whilst I’ve read to her.  She did some lovely work on it, she’s so much more tech-savvy than I was even at twice or three times her age!  She’s fired up for doing some Brownie Badgework over the 3 week break.  I suspect I need to drop a note to Brown Owl to warn her :LOL:  She also read to me, not as fluently as last week, I susepct tiredness was making her falter a bit but she is still determined and whilst she is, I’ll keep on pushing with her.  I know we are getting somewhere but that obligatory photo of the child reading way past bedtime that everyone seems to post at some point seems just so far off to me at the moment.  And I know that that really doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things but some days I just wish I had a magic wand I could wave and just get her past this stage.

Saturday morning saw us all emerging from bed a little later than I’d planned (hey ho!), having a quick breakfast and throwing random items into a bag (very random for the smallest member of the family, marginally less random for the oldest!) adn setting off for a visit Off The Path.  I’d planned on getting there between 10 and 11, so naturally we got there at 20 past 11 due to trafic being a bit clogged here and there and Holme Moss being in the clouds which made driving a little entertaining.  Aprilia evapourated, along with 2 other small girls, the moment the car was stationary and the grown ups got on with the serious business of socialisation (I am qutie sure that it is parents who require regular contact with others to maintain our social skills, not the kids!)  As blogged elsewhere, Aprilia spent the afternoon with M whilst C was at Brownie Revels and the evening with C at XCite.  Duke spent most of the time with Jonathan talking Linux and trying to do technical things with Duke’s PC (did I mention that very random things were packed?) whilst stroking one or other of the cats (funny, our cat totally ignores him but those pair seem very fond of being on his lap!)

Eventually all small children fell asleep after a long drawn out discussion about how to sleep 3 small-ish girls in a bunkbed with a single on the top and a double-sized bed underneath.  It appears it was "M’s turn" to sleep with Aprilia last time and thus "C’s trun" this time even though M didn’t want to sleep on the top bunk because that’s not her bed (fair enough)  Sigh.  Eventually they compromised and all slept on the bottom bunk!

Sunday started earlier than I’d planned, it was sunny and Duke was snore-y so I wandered downstairs to browse books.  After church, Jan retrievd Duke who had continued the playing with the PC in our absence, and we adjourned to the park for a lovely afternoon.  It was dry although ridiculously cold, especially when you consider that only 7 days previously I’d spent the day reminding marshals to keep drinking enough water and to slap on more "factor duffelcoat" to avoid sunburn.  Aprilia came 3rd in the 7 and under egg and spoon race and has the medal to proove it.  There was much running about for small people and less for the big people.  I have some pics on the camera which will get Flickred at some point I’m sure (the other Flickr account, not the TBrid one!)

All good thngs come to an end eventually and, much as Aprilia was desperately trying not to look it, all the girls were tired out so rather than risk spoiling a good weekend by going back to house for more running about and potentially overtiredness induced tantrums, we bribed her with the promise of a McDonalds on teh way home and headed off.  The cat didn’t know whether to demand fuss from us or leg it outside to make up for not being out for a couple of days and in the end got herself accidentally shut into Aprilia’s room at bedtime as we hadn’t noticed her in there!

So, all in all, a lovely weekend, thanks again to Jan and Jonathan.