New Year New Start

So i say new year but where already 16 days in. Another year seems like it will pass us by very quicky. So i say new year new start. Well as of March it will be a new start.

As i have said in a previous blog i work in a day care nursery as an Early Years Practitioner. I currently work with 2-3 year olds which don't get me wrong i do love it but i feel like it is time for a change. I have been looking in to going in to my nursing but still contemplating. Pre-school is an age i really enjoy working with. And previously used to run the pre-school room which was great fun. Our pre-school room is quite small and only holds 16 children so two members of staff are only ever needed. One of the girls is pregnant and goin on maternit leve in March.  have found out that i am going to move in to pre-school room and be Faye's maternity cover which i am really looking foward to. I feel like i am stuck in a rut and it's not a nice place to be in. So this is my new start and i am really looking foward to it. Leading up to then i am also spending a day or two a week in there to get settled back in. Don;t think it will take to long though as the children always make me feel so welcome!

2011

Another year just about over! How fast has it gone? Again i have hardly had time to turn around never mind blog. This past month more than any has been a bit of a blur. Must say this year has had it's ups an downs but far more ups than downs. Since my last blog i have been  working ridiculously long weeks at work still but managed to fit quite a few more weekends in inbetween.

The weekend after blackpool in october i went to Weston-Super-Mare for the weekend with the girls. We had a great weekend of drinking, shopping and hitting the spa. On the saturday night we decided to dress up and ended up winning to otles of champagne!

November came around so quick and again was another busy weekend. Bonfire night we went to the park to a display which was great fun sliding through the mud. The day after my mum and i hit metrocentre and completed the majority of our christmas shopping which was fun. The weekend after i was off on my travels again this time i went down to Oxford with my mum to see my sister. Again we travelled overnight to London and had the full day on the saturday in oxford. We done the usual shopping. It is such a lovely city with a lot to see and do. The following weekend it was just a weekend at home starting the mammoth task of wrapping pressies after getting in the festive spirit going to a christmas fair. Theeek after that however i was ill and spent most of the week in bed. By the weekend i had to pull myelf together as i was off to Legoland Experience in Manchester with Nathan. It was a great day we got the early train and had the full day in manchester. The legland experience is great fun for all the family and is deffinatly worth the cheap entry price too. There is something for just about everyone and i must admit i could not resist having a turn of building and racing my own car against one Nathan made! They say you are never to old for lego and that is so true.

Then we hit december. This month has gone far to fast and has been a bit of a blur in general not the greatest month. The first weekend i went to York with the girls from work for our christmas night out which was god but nt fantastic think it is probably to do with the fact it was the 3rd time we went and it's alwy the same bars *yawns* . After that weekend this month turned horrendous. My gran's cat but her on the leg on the monday and then b thewednesday she was seriously ill and rushed to hospital. At this point we did not think she would make it through the night. By the weekend she was perking up a little and we found out she had a form of meningitis which had been lyig doormant in her body but the cat biting her had saved her life. She was in hospital for two weeks which again was a blur i was going to work then going up to the hospital, coming home, seeing to her cat then going home and falling in to bed. Then of course it was my birthday on the 14th. Another year older not that i feel it! The weekend after my birthday i went up to Edinburgh with my bet friend for the weekend it was great to get away from all the stress at home. We had a fab time even had a wonder around winter wonderland which was lovely and gave me my christmas spirit back. After tha weekend i had thre days off work it was lovely. Nice to spend time with family. My sister came home on the wednesday morning for christmas. My mum and i went with my uncle to pick her up from the coach station her face was a picture as she didn'y know we were going. I spent the day with her shoping for her last few things then we went out for tea with the fmaily a bit of a belated birthday celebration. All to soon it was back to work again for two days then off for christmas.

Christmas was very quiet this year but nice. Just spending time with family minus my brother and sister in law who unfortunatley could not get up for christmas this year. I was very spoilt this year and santa was very good to me ;). Boxing day again we spent time with family and just chilled out watching dvds it was lovely. By tuesday tho i needed to get out of the house so my mum and i hit the sales. For once they were great and we got a lot. I bought myself a new toy, a kindle and i love it!

Me and the bestie in Edinbugh

Nathan and Annaleece looking very grown up

Highlights of 2011: I have quite a few! The main one has to be getting my bro`ther home safe from afghanistan back in march, spending time with friends and family and just traveling around for gigs and what have you.

A few things over the past few weeks have shown to me you don't know what you have until it has gone and life is to short. So love,laugh and live everyday like it's your last!

I don't normally make new years reseloutions because tbh i never stick to them. So this year i have decided to make a few wheather or not they stick, we shall see.

• Pass my driving test
• Blog at least once a month

I'm sure i will come up with more before today is through.

Blackpool

Wow it has been over two months since my last blog. Think that may be a new record. I have been so busy at at the moment working anywhere between 45 and 50 hours a week so by the time I get home I honestly can not be bothered.

I mentioned on one of my first blogs about dancing and Annaleece dancing. Well saturday was her frst dance competition in blackpool. We travelled down on the friday and made a weekend of it. We had a great weekend too it was nice to spend time with just Annaleece and I will be doing the same with Nathan when we go to Legoland at the end of november. I say me and Annaleece but we travelled down with my friend Andrea and her daughters Erin and Fay. We also met up with another friend Nicola and her daughter Ava it was nice for the girls to have eacher others company.

We arrived in Blackpool at 3 after unpacking we headed out for food. As it was a weekend for the kids we let them choose and ended up at Pizza hut it was a nice change. After food we headed down to Coral Island the massive amusements. I used to love going there when I was youger. The girls went on the Pirate ride and tea cups i must admit i was very tempted to go on the tea cups too! After coming out of there we had a walk along the sea front to see the illuminations they are quite nice this year. When we eventualy got back to our hotel we headed up to Louise's room so the girls could go through their dances and I finally got to see Annaleece and Jasmine's new ballroom dresses and they are gorgeous. After staying for an hour we went back to our room and Annaleece was flat out by 9:30 lol.

Annaleece and Ava

Saturday is always a long day and spent in the winter gardens. The girls danced in the under ten's. We told them we did not care if they did'nt come anywhere we just wanted them to have fun. They got through to the second round then got knocked out. But words cannot describe how proud I was of them. I was almost in tears watching Annaleece dance. She had a great time too. We watched all the other competitions too. Annaleece was in her element being able to get up and dance during the general dances it was lovely dancing with her. They also played some fun songs (cha cha slide) which she thought was great and got up to dance to. We popped out for an hour inbetween her dances and had a walk along the sea front and somehow ended up on the beach. It was cold but nice and for the first time I have been to blackpool in years it was not raining. We left the Winter Gardens at half 9 and headed back to the hotel. We ended up having a pyjama party. The party consisted of Annaleece, Fay and Erin designing a book with their JLS stickers and me and Andrea watching Xtra factor!

Some more of McGreevy dancers

It was a fun but tiring weekend but the best part had to be waking up on sunday morning with Annaleece snuggling in for a cuddle we lay in bed for half an hour having a cuddle. Got to make the most of it because my little lady is growing up far to fast.

There is loads more pictures on facebook too.

Wedding and Family Time

I think i must start almost every blog off like this but it seems like ages since i last blogged. I am finding it harder and harder to blog at the moment with the extra hours at work i am doing and my NVQ. Anyhoo i am going to stop rambling and get on with it.

Wedding's lets be honest some can be boring and some are fab. I must admit at my uncles wedding i was extremly bored and spent most of the time on twitter. At the weekend i was at my dance teachers wedding and had a fantastic day. The only thing that spoilt it was the rain. Due to the rain she had to have all her pictures taken inside the church but it was a beautiful church. She had 12 bridesmaids, 1 flower girl and two page boys. It may sound like a lot but it looked fantastic and all the children were so well behaved. After the church, my mum, Annaleece and myself went to the pub for some lunch and came home to get changed. We picked Nathan up on the way and got changed and headed back to the reception and had a geat night. Annaleece was in her element getting up to dance with the girls. Nathan even got up and had a little dance too. It was so nice to catch up with some of the girls i used to dance against when we were younger and hadn't seen for years. All in all it was a fantastic day and night and Louise looked stunning.

There is loads more pics on facebook.

As i said in the title family time. My family mean the world to me and the past few weekends i have spent so much time with them. Now my sister has been in oxford for 7 weeks and i speak to her almost everyday on the phone which makes me miss her more but she is coming home in 3 days not that i am counting. I don't get to see my brother as often as i would like but i spoke to him last saturday and ended up being on the phone to him for well over an hour. We even had a chat about clothes and fashion never thought i would have a conversation with my brother. My mum and i have been spending most weekends together as sometimes during the week we barley see each other with the hours we work.

Nathan and Annaleece i must tweet about constantly and when we take them out most people are convinced they are my children and my mum's grandchildren lol. I take Annaleece dancing every sat and then usualy go back to their house and spend the afternoon in their garden playing with the. Last weekend we took them to a fair at the local park all the rides were free so of course i couldnt resist going on the tea cups lol. They had a three pound each to spend and they were happy as larry. They stayed at mine at the weekend to. When i took them home last night i felt kind of lost the house was so quiet. Where off to Flamingoland for a week on saturday and taking them away again so everyone is excited about that.

Feel Good Friday

Seems ages since i last done this even though it was only three weeks ago. Was going to do one last week from my phone but the train and our hotel room in Glasgow had no wifi. The week before well i just can't remember what i was doing.

I have thought long and hard about what to have as my feel good moment. I culd quite have easily chose something to do with last weekend as i was with my best friends seeing the band i love and just gneraly having an amazing time. Up until yesterday that was what i was thinking of doing but that has all changed after a simple phone call.

As i said my sister is in Oxford and i speak to her at least once a week. Last week i just had nothing to say to her but last night we ended up talking and laughing for well over an hour. I suppose i used to take it for granted seeing her everyday now it is just a phone call once a week. I am pleased to say she has settled and loves it down there which i am so pleased about but miss her more everyday. Anyway back on track i spoke to her last night and we laughed for the full phone call. We've even decided that we are going to open a pub in Bauking Grange the village she loves in as there is now one. We also made plans for when she comes home in 13 days just before we go on holiday.

It is amazing how a simple phone call can make you smile and laugh so much.

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My Feel Good Friday

I joined in with this with Lucy but not sure if my link worked. It is simple all you have to do it just write a little blog about something that made you feel good that week wheather it be big or small.

Doing the job i do can be stressful at times but is also so rewarding. The children always make you smile. The thing that made me feel good this week was one of the babies. We have twin boys at work who were once my key children when i worked in the baby room. When i went in yesterday i was talking to them. When i walked out the room and said bye  and one of them blew me a kiss it made my day. It is his new thing and it was the thing that made me smile for the rest of the day. It is the simple things that can make you feel so good wheather it is a smile, a wave or this. So all i have to say to that is i love my job :).

Newcastle to London to Oxford and back again

Wow almost a month since i last blogged can't believe it but life has been pretty hectic lately. This blog is what i had intended to do two weeks ago but never quite got round to it but you know what they say,  better late than never.

I said in a previous blog that my sister was moving to Oxford for an apprentiship and she did two weeks ago today. Now Oxford is about a five hour drive. However, we were let down at the last minute by my brother so we had to make our own way there. We were out of our house for 23 hours and about 20 of those were spent traveling. We went in 4 taxis, two coaches, two trains and 4 underground trains. To say it was a tiring day is an understatment lol.

We had been at a wedding the night before which we had to leave early. I had debated going to bed but the thought of going to bed and having to be up again about midnight did not go down well so i decided to stay up with Larnie. We got a taxi from my house at 12:30am over to central station to get our coach to London and it was freezing. Whilst we were waiting we got our laughs watching all the drunks attempting to walk in a straight line it was quite amusing. We boarded the bus and no sooner had we left Newcastle i was out like a light. I woke up when we stopped, grabbed a drink and as soon as the bus started moving i fell asleep again which suprised me really as i sometimes find it hard to sleep on a bus properly. Anyway, woke up just as we were driving in to London. We also arrived in London earlier than we were due which was good. When we were heading out of the coach station i bumped in to my friend Angela who had also just arrived in London we had a quick chat then had to say goodbye and head off.

Once we had, had some breakfast we had to head straight to Paddington to get our train to Oxford. This mean two underground trains. Along with that we had two big suitcases, a weekend bag and our handbags so it was a bit akward but not one person offered to help just barged past which really annoyed me. We eventualy made it to Paddington in one piece think we may have ran a few people's toes over but we did say excuse me lol. The train was huge and of course we had to walk right along the platform to get on. We had reserved table seats on the train and had quite a grumpy old man sitting opposite us. He kept staring at us and gave me a filthy look because i plugged my phone charger in. Well thats what the sockets are for! Had to bite my tounge as i was tempted to say that to him.

Arriving in Oxford we did not havea clue where to start so we decided the best thing to do would be to get a taxi. The taxi driver had never heard of the place we were wanting to go thank god for a sat nav lol. We had quite a scenic taxi ride through the country and i think it was then it finaly started to sink in that we would be going home minus Larnie. After about 40 mins we arrived at the farm. We met Emma who showed us around the farm, and the cottage Larnie is living in. She was lovely and made me mum feel so much more at ease. We also met the farmer who lives next door to Larnie. We helped her unpack then it was time to say goodbye as my mum and i had to get back in to Oxford to get our train back in to London. Larnie was fine but me and my mum bawled our eyes out. Back in the taxi we got, minus Larnie and all her luggage lol. At the station we grabbed something to eat and sat and had that whilst waiting for our train. The train journey back was quiet and tiring i just wanted to go to sleep.

We arrived back in to London and went for the tube back to Victoria i feel like i have a better idea of where i am going on the underground now so it was a lot easier probably due to not having much luggage too. Back in Vctoria we grabbed a sandwhich and a drink from boots to take back on the bus with us. The station was extremly busy as was our bus. We got on the bus and headed home at 4:30pm. On the way out of London just before we got on the motorway we seen Wembley stadium and it is huge lol.

It was a rather eventful bus journey home. We had only been on the road about an hour when someone came down and said to the driver someone was trying to smoke in the toilet. He had to pull the bus over and go and sort it out. Apparently this bloke was also drinking which is against the law on the bus. We eventualy got moving again then when we got to Wooley Edge we had to stay on the bus as we were so late then they found another problem with the bus. Once it was sorted we got on our way again. By this point my legs really hut and i needed to stretch them. We got to leeds later than we should have and had to wait for another bus as there was a passanger on there that needed to get on our bus. At this point we were extremly tired and just wanted to get home. No matter how hard i tried after that i just couldnt seem to sleep any more. We eventualy got in to Newcastle at 11:10pm and jumped in a taxi home where we just fell in to bed.

As i said it was two weeks ago Larnie moved down and i don't think it has quite sunk in yet. I still expect her to come bounding in from the stables. She is really happy though and loving it. I am really pleased she has settled and i am hoping to get down in a few weeks to see her.