Another Day…Another Trip!

I am not sure if Chris’ mum is funny with me or not. I detailed a few entries back about an argument we had which was pretty horrible. We have text each other since then in a reasonably nice way and as far as I am concerned there is no bad blood there. She usually looks after the kids for us if Chris is working after I have done a nightshift. She works shifts herself so can’t always do it but does it most of the time. Well Chris has to work on Thursday and I am working Weds night so need cover for me to sleep on Thurs. My mum is in London visiting my sister. I text Chris’ mum to see if she was available on Thurs and she replied "I am ever so sorry Sarah I can’t on Thursday". Nothing particularly wrong in that. The tone does seem strange to me though. Maybe I am being super sensitive but usually she responds with "sorry I am working that day" or some reason. Not just a no I can’t. And the ever so sorry bit? hmm to me it seems a bit sarcastic but it may just be that she is worried I would think it is cos of our argument. Perhaps she is saying it like that to say "look it isn’t cos we argued" but to me I know her quite well and would not be surprised if it was a bit of grudge holding. She can be quite spiteful and vindictive at times however I will give her the benefit of the doubt and see what happens in the future. She is taking Joe to London tomorrow to go to Madame Tussauds because there is a superheroes event or something. This was booked months ago so we shall see what she is like when she picks him up.

This whole thing left me with no childcare on Thurs – I am back to work on Tues night after 19 nights off! Chris managed to get a shift swap so he is off on Weds but couldn’t get Thurs off. I was not relishing the prospect of working 11pm – 7am on Weds night and then coming home to look after 3 active kids all day! Luckily my dear friend, Janine, said she will look after them for me!! Bless her heart. This means she will have 5 kids all day (including her two). That is a 7yr old, 2 5 yr olds, a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old! Eek! She was working overnight on Sat so I said "look let me have your kids on Sunday as a trade off". So she agreed. It was good in the end because she got asked to do a bit of overtime for Sunday afternoon and because we had her kids she was able to do it. Chris was home so we decided to take the 5 kids out for the day. We went to Puxton Park in Somerset http://www.puxton.co.uk/ . It was a nice day. A little bit stressful at time qwith 5 kids in tow but overall they were really well behaved. We saw loads of animals and the kids played on all the equipment and generally had a whale of a time. Janine was so surprised when I told her where we had been and kept saying thank you and wow – not that it was a big deal – it was only a day out!  It has been an expensive week but summer is nearly over so hey ho. I will be able to whack in some overtime at work once Liam is in school full time. Not that I want to  – hence my numerous entries saying I want a new job but needs must and it is good to know I can earn extra money if we need it – which we always do! Gotta start turning my attentions to Christmas  – more expense.  I have been saving up my Nectar points though since the start of 2012 and we have £35 so far so hopefully by Christmas that will be at least £50. Not a lot but every little helps (oh wait that is Tesco not Sainsburys!). Couple it with the half price toy sale they have in Nov in Sainsburys and my 15% colleague discount (it is always 15% at that time instead of 10%) and I should get over £100 of toys for free which gives us a good start. Chris wants to get the kids a bike each as their main present this year which he will fund so it shouldn’t be too bad.

One more week of the school holidays! It has gone quite fast. It has been lovely having the past two weeks off with the kids and I feel really chilled and relaxed. It has made me realise that a lot of my stresses at the moment come from being super tired after nightshift. Oh another nice thing. Joe’s friend Ben has left school now (his dad is funding private school apparently). We had Ben over for dinner before the holidays so I have his mum’s phone number and she has mine. She text me yesterday to say she has some clothes that might fit Liam. So I got a massive bag of clothes…..mostly school uniform but also some designer stuff (rich dad again). Really nice stuff so that was lovely of her- she has also invited us to a BBQ next week so I think I have made a new friend! He he. She isn’t with Ben’s dad anymore and he seems to overcompensate for his absence with expensive clothes etc for Ben. Each to their own I guess!

What else? Hmm not much. I think we are going to have a quiet week this week. Been loads of places recently aso we are all tripped out. I am back to work too – gotta get back into a routine and start getting the kids ready for school. Time flies when you’re having fun hey!?