School's out for summer ...........

Have a great summer, we will be back soon.

Sue x x x

You can't please everyone, all of the time........

At the end of each school year we hold an Oscars Evening at work.  Every child receives an award for  recognition of their achievement's over the year.  We are talking medals, trophies and cups here! We all dress up in our Sunday best to make it a special evening for the children.  It takes weeks of planning, everyone helps out and puts hours of unpaid work into making it a success.  We do it in 2 stages, one for each key stage, and the whole evening lasts for around 4 hours.  There are drinks (wine and juice) and nibbles on arrival and we even have a professional photographer on hand so the parents can have a keepsake of the event.  It costs at least £2k to stage, which comes out of the PTA's and schools purse.

You know, where I'm going don't you.

Why is it that some parents are sooooo ungrateful.  My god it gets my back up.

"How come my Johnny only got 2 awards, and Peter got 3, so unfair, he'll be scarred for life" 
"What a waste of time, I'm missing my favorite TV programme"
"I'd rather be at the pub, than here"
"Boring, boring, boring"
"How come I can't sit at the front with the other staff and governors, I'm a dinner lady after all"

This is all being said by the parents on the seats behind us whilst the children are singing for their hearts out parents.  Actually, it wasn't all parents, some of the remarks came from the staff. The front row was saved for the staff who were giving out awards.

Why do we bother? Actually, I know the answer to this one. The next day at school, all the children were grinning like Cheshire cats.  Hayley came up to me and said: "Mrs Smith, thank you for my trophy, I slept with mine on my pillow last night"

Have a good weekend.

Sue x x x

Brighton rock.....

All I can say is, nice weather for ducks!  Boy did it rain today, flooding everywhere too.  I don't mind the rain if I'm sat indoors all snug on the sofa watching Miss Marple or Columbo with a latte or hot chocolate but NOT when I'm trying to get to work and then to school in it...especially when I wore my sandals as I didn't really believe the weather man this morning as he had lied to me yesterday!

We spent the day in Brighton on Saturday. I few weeks back I manged to get some tickets at a 90% off price as Southern railways had a special offer on.  This meant that it only cost £4.50 for the 4 of us to travel to and from Victoria station to Brighton - what a steal.  We got the 9.06am train from Victoria and pulled in to Brighton station 55 mins later.  So much better then driving, and a lot cheaper too.  I wish someone had given me the tip-off that they had a Hollister and Superdry store there as thanks to Becky we spent a fortune (mainly on her!).  Although I did treat myself to a few bits form the Kath Kidston store as well as the L'Occitane store too :-)

For lunch we decided against the fish and chip shop on the pier and decided instead to eat at the Harry Ramsden Fish restaurant .  Big mistake.  We queued for 25 mins to get a table and I have to say I was really disappointed with the food.  My fish was over cooked and really dry.  When I went in to work on Monday and told a colleague where we ate, they said we should have eaten on the pier as it does the best fish and chips in town...sods law or what!

The weekend didn't start off to well as we had 3 bits of bad news on Friday - firstly one of the teachers at work found out that their partner has CJD - such a shock for him and us I can tell you.  She had not been herself for a while and initially they thought she had had a stroke.  The outlook for her is very bleak indeed.  Then I get home to find out that my all time hero (and God) has passed away - Peter Falk, aka Columbo. And then to cape it all, a,15 year old child from Becky's class got stabbed by 15 kids from another school on Friday eve just up the road from us.  He was airlifted to hospital and I understand that he was stabbed in the kidneys but we still wait to hear if he's going to be OK.  It's so sad that the country is coming to this it really is.  You turn on the news, or open the newspaper and that's all you seem to hear about nowadays.  I'm dreading the time when Alex starts to go out on his own in the evenings, I really am.

The penny dropped for me last Wednesday .  I've been saying I wanted to loose weight for years but not really had the willpower to do it.  It just seemed that everything came to a head and I realised that I needed to take control of my life as I was really unhappy with the way I looked and felt.  I've always felt fat - even when I was skinny.. when I look back just 10 years ago I really had a nice figure but even then I felt fat and ugly.  I'm guessing this stems back to my teens when I had an eating disorder.  I have had an under active thyroid gland for the last 10 years so this has not helped with my weight issues at all.  The problem is I don't actually eat a lot.  I know this sounds like a person in denial - bit I don't.  The problem is I eat the wrong foods. 

So for a week now I have not had any crisps, sweets, chocolate, cakes or biscuits or any other sugarry crap and been really careful with what I do eat and a have been watching the calories too.  I've also been keeping a food diary ....I hope your all impressed!

I know I'm never going to be skinny again, and if I'm honest I don't want to.  I just want to be comfortable in my skin and for my clothes to fit better and look nice on me. :-)

I'm even doing some exercise each day and walking a least a mile each evening. I've also been eating fruit, something that has never really appealed to me.  It's not going to be easy but I really feel that I can do it this time as I am in the right frame of mind to do it.

That's all for now, I hope your week is going well.

Sue x x x

What's on the box....

I don't watch a lot of TV now days.  Mainly because I don't have the time but also as I can't get near it due to the kids but as I was cooking dinner this evening, Becky was watching last nights episode of Waterloo Road.  For those of you not familiar with this programme it's a weekly drama about a secondary school in a run down town up north.  I have only let my daughter watch this in the last few weeks as I felt it was a bit too old for her with some of the story lines.  Basically I gave into the "Please Mum, all my friends watch it" line.  Well anyway, over the last few weeks the story has been around a young teen who has cancer and basically she couldn't be cured.  In this weeks show she took her last breath and boy was it sad.  So sad in fact that I was crying in to the pan of potatoes as I was mashing them...not a good look.

It's got me thinking, why oh why do they have to make such sad story lines.  I mean, you read the papers and it's doom and gloom, you watch the news and it's doom and gloom wouldn't it be nice to switch the box on to get away from it all?  I used to be an avid follower of the soaps before I had my children but because of all the sad and sometimes disturbing story lines I refuse to have them on in my house.  And lets be honest some of the shows are really far fetched and a bit hard to believe, so why are so many of us hooked on them???

It's been raining on and off throughout the week.  Funnily enough there always seems to be a downpour around 9am and 3.30pm...amazing that isn't it!.

Sue x x x

Nice weather for ducks....

My goodness it was piddling down this morning, not the best start to the week is it.  But on the other hand It would have been harder for me to go into work if it was brilliant sunshine!

We had a lovely few days away last week.  Although, it seemed to be a bit of a non-starter for us to leave on the Saturday morning, it came to 10am and no one seemed that bothered or keen about going...this makes me think even more so that perhaps the caravan is coming to a natural end now.  It's harder now that Becky is nearly 15 as it's not really cool to be with your Mum and Dad all the time, and even less cooler to hang around with your 10 year old brother.  I can remember the last holiday with my Mum and Dad - the only reason I can still remember it is because it really was that bad.  I was so bored, I just wanted to go home. I'm already dreading the 2 weeks we plan to spend there in July.

So, we have 7 weeks left till the end of the term...not that I'm counting.....MUCH!

Have a good week.

Sue x x x

Oh blogger......

Blogger is being a real pain in the butt, I can read all your lovely blogs but I can't post any comments which is really frustrating.  It keeps asking me to sign in after the verification word and then goes back to the start again....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Won't be around much over the next week as we are going away to the van for a few days.

I hope you are all keeping well.

Hopefully by the time I'm back blogger will have sorted itself out...fingers crossed.

Take care.

Sue x x x x

Such a beautiful song....