A 'Quiet' Week

I was thinking this week was a quiet week, but actually we still seemed to fit a lot in!

On Monday 19th January, Tom and I walked (and skateboarded) with Harry to school, then Tom and I drove to Peterborough for Tom's first Orthodontist appointment. I struggled to find parking on the first drive past the Orthontists, so had to drive round the one-way system again, before finding a little car park. We were in the Orthodontists for about two minutes in total after all that! They just confirmed that he would indeed be starting treatment with them for his overcrowded teeth, and gave us an appointment to come back on Friday. I dropped Tom back at school for the afternoon.

On Monday and Tuesday I worked on a couple of cards, and blogged them, ready for them being featured on a craft company's blog on Wednesday. It also turned out I had a couple of cards featured this week in an online magazine-type blog, in an article on interactive cards. The reporter had contacted me a couple of weeks ago, asking my permission to use a couple of my card photos she had come across on the internet.

Did other usual stuff on Wednesday and Thursday - washing, ironing, a load of Stake Young Women phone calls and emails, organised things ready to stick in Harry's baby book, did an online Tesco shop for all the refreshments for Friday night, organised my Stake Young Women folder, getting all the contact details for everyone up to date.

The kids and Scott have all just been getting on with their stuff as usual too, though Lucy has had four mock AS Level exams this week, which she has been pretty stressed about. She doesn't think they went very well. So far she has found out she got a C in her biology.

On Thursday morning it was my turn for doing the early morning Seminary run, and on Thursday evening I drove to Northampton for a Stake Council meeting. One of the things I enjoy in Stake Council meetings is when we have returned missionaries come along to give a report of their missions. We had 5 at this meeting, and I love listening to their experiences, their wonderful, strong, unique testimonies, and their love for what they have done and the people they have served.

After the meeting I got chatting to Ben Hirst who was waiting for his Dad, and we had a really good conversation about church and life and what-not. I got back home some time after midnight.

On Friday, I picked up Tom after his first couple of lessons and we drove to Peterborough again for his second Orthodontist appointment. For some reason the satnav took us to a totally random street in Peterborough, even though we used the exact same address as Monday! We ended up driving all over the place and were about 5 minutes late. This time Tom had some x-rays done, some photos taken, and rubber moulds made. When his lips were being help back by the plastic scissor things, Tom reminded me strongly of Wallace, from Wallace and Gromit! I didn't dare take a photo, but this picture is close enough!

We were done quite quickly again, but I had signed out Tom for the afternoon, so I rang up Scott, and we drove to the college where he works, and he took us to dinner at the restaurant there. I really enjoyed it, and it was nice to spend time with just Tom. After that Tom wanted to sit in the car while Scott gave me a guided tour of the college, and introduced me to a few more of the people he works with. It's nice to have an idea now of where Scott is every day! It seems a pretty decent place.

(Naff phone photo.)

Driving back home, Tom and I were very interested to see that they are building a few new windmills near the one we have had here for years. (A phone picture of one of the new windmills with no sails yet, and a crane.)

On Friday evening I made tea early, then Ben Conway came over and I drove Lucy, Jack, Tom and Ben to Northampton for a Seminary Meeting and Deacon /Beehive Forum. (Tom's first Stake Youth event since being in youth!)
I was with the younger kids who had a choir practice for a couple of hymns we are singing at Stake Conference next Sunday. We sang for a bit, then played some games in the hall, then when the Seminary meeting was finished we went and joined the older youth in the chapel so that we could all run through the hymns together. There were well over 100 kids there, and when they all stood on the stand to practice our positions for the day, it was a wonderful sight! All 'my' lovely kids together and singing! We finished off with the refreshments I'd bought, and then we cleared up and drove home. The drive seems a lot quicker talking to Ben!

Yesterday (24th January) we had a good lie in, and the biggest job I had to do all day was to cut Tom's hair.
Tom in my hair dressing studio!

 After!

 Harry being goofy!

Last night ended up being pretty eventful. Scott and I were quite late to bed, but almost straight away I could hear Harry up - he'd had a nightmare. I went in to comfort him, and saw that Tom had fallen asleep midway through messaging a friend on his ipod. I read the string of messages, and was a little taken aback at the content. Tom wasn't saying or doing anything bad, but I realised he's not a little kid any more, and after I'd got Harry back to sleep, I talked to Scott about it, then lay in bed feeling sad and worried at what Tom faces, and just that things had fundamentally changed.
I'd only been asleep for a couple of hours after that, when I was woken by two neighbours having an argument in the street. I think at least one of them had been drinking and they were pretty upset, and shouting. I think they finally quietened down at about 4.30am, and I got to sleep some time after that. I felt bad for them, especially having the whole street hear their problems word for word. They're usually a really quiet couple.

This morning Scott had his pre-church meeting, and the kids and I went to church at the normal time - it was good, but we were pretty tired! I also had a chat with Tom about the conversations on his ipod. He seemed a bit sheepish about it, but we had a good talk, and I felt a lot happier and that there's still plenty of the 'kid' left in him.

Today, we had our second 'no-screen-Sunday'. (I also said that Tom and Harry can't have devices in their rooms after bed time.) It was really nice again! Tom drew, read and used my watercolour inks, Harry wrote a story and drew some comics, Jack and Scott read, Lucy slept, and I did this picture with my watercolour inks. (We had a spare frame, and Lucy has taken it for her room.) The boys all helped me make banoffee pie, and after tea I read all of  'The Spaghetti Tangle' to Harry and Tom.