How many cats can you see in this picture ?


Are you sure ?

What about this picture..can you see any cats ?


Did you see this naughty cat ?


Notice that he couldn't get out again without us moving the monitor, so how did he get in this impossibly small space to start off with ?

My husband was not very impressed with my pan cupboard organisation, he claimed that this stack was impossible by the fact the red frying pan on the top was double the size of the lower pans.

I say...it all stands up and fits in the cupboard..what is the problem !?!

The newly opened craft shop in Hillsborough is starting scrapbooking classes, so I signed myself up for the first class which was this morning between 10am and 12am.

I nearly couldn't go as my husband had taken my bank card to work with him...grrr. Well to be honest I gave the card for him to hold yesterday when we went to the cinema and I forgot to retrieve it. But luckily I could just scrape together the £5 needed for the class from the loose change in my purse.

A lovely young lady called Kate taught the class (well she looked younger turned out she was 4 years older !!!) and there was only two students me and another older lady who loved cruises.

We both had a great time, cutting and sticking bits of paper to other bits of paper and the best bit was running around the shop deciding on which paper and card to use for our designs. Talk about letting children loose in a sweet shop

I had taken my naughty cat photos from yesterday as my project and managed to produce this scrapbook page.


I am so impressed that I managed to do an entire page and so I have signed up to next weeks evening class too.

I'm going to take my empty wedding album and get some ideas on how to start my wedding album. I need to get moving as I have promised my mum I will finish my wedding album before 'Bert' is born

We have very few rules for our cats, no going on the kitchen surfaces, no going on tables to beg for food when we are eating and no jumping on dangerous/high inappropriate places.

Usually a sharp 'No' will make most of our cats behave but Tigs has 'toddler selective hearing' and never hears such words as 'No' and worse still he is encouraging his partner in crime Spot into similar bad habits.

Can you see the naughty cats in question ?


Just in case you can't see them, here is a couple of close ups.

Tigs sleeping on my wedding album box on top of the 6 foot high cupboard


Spot lying on the TV


Then Spot jumps up to join Tigs and they start fighting on top of the narrow cupboard


Spot won and Tigs retreated to the sofa looking miffed


I hope we have better luck training our child, though he/she is unlikely to be found on top of the cupboard or TV....I hope !!!

I have the overwelming urge to start painting the spare room, to make a nursery.

Even though baby 'Bert' will be sleeping in his/her cot in our room for the first few weeks/months and we are intending on moving in the next few years so there is no point in creating a nursery...I want one !!!

So I am 20 weeks pregnant and I want to go up ladders painting...maybe not a good combination.

I think I should sort out my excessive book collection and out of control clothes pile before I start anything else

My first mothers day (kinda as 'Bert' is not due until August), certainly the first mothers day when I realised that I am more a mother, than just a child...very weird feeling.

My sister came over last night to visit for the night with a beautiful bunch of flowers for me


This morning my sister and I drove down to see our parents unknown to me my husband had given a card and present from 'Bert' to my sister to give to me, when we gave my mother her presents.

I was so touched, especially as I'm not really a mother until August, I am so lucky to have such a thoughtful husband.

My very first Mothers Day Card


Harry Potter DVD Yippee


The wrapping paper, carefully chosen as my husband works as a 'Viper Officer'

I have been getting sicker over the last couple of days and today it has hit big style and I have so much stuff I should be doing around the house but my cold has made me lazy.

So I went shopping instead !!! I visited the local baby shop and order the curtains I wanted to match the bedding I am collecting for Bert called the Meow Nursery set I'll have to post some pictures of it...purple and cats what more could we want I picked up the matching curtain tiebacks and musical cot toy as well.

I also spotted a lovely cot, cream and wood, it looks like the cot that I wanted at mothercare but it is only £200 compared with the Mothercare one which was £400 !!! I had a chat with my husband and I am going to put a deposit on this lovely cot on Monday. They are made in Holland and are shipped over as they are sold. This cot has an eight week lead time for delivery, hence it should be with my parents in June.

My mum bought me a lovely Moses basket online which has the same Meow design and I will pick up the cream rocking stand with brake for it when I go and collect the curtains on Monday.

So I feel like poo, but I have had a great time buying baby things so that must even up things

For the last few days I have been feeling occasional light tickles from my belly...I really think this is the baby moving for real !!! It is a wonderful feeling, I just smile and rub my expanding tummy.

I have also been feeling a uncomfortable and painful at times pressure very low in my belly, the other mums at Pregnancy.org reassure me this is normal cervix moving and stretching, sometimes it makes it harder to walk...isn't pregnancy fun !!!

I am having fun trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in, now that sleeping on my back is not allowed and uncomfortable. But it is only for another 4 months and then I'll see my baby in real life

I have been having an a BIG declutter session today and took 8 binbags of stuff to the tip. The kitchen is practically clear now with the exception of a BIG cardboard box in the middle of the kitchen filled with Deckchair's rubbish (or essential DIY tools according to Deckchair)

Deckchair had promised to remove said box from the kitchen by Sunday, else it goes to the tip !!!

So I just have to finish painting the kitchen and afix the skirting boards and that room is finished for Bert. One room down several more to go ...arrgghh

Big thanks to TangerineCath for sending my husband and I a surprise gift in the post to cheer us up.

Deckchair has not seen his present yet, but as he doesn't read my blog I can post about it anyway

He has got a big metal badge with a pint of beer in the middle of the badge and the words 'She's pregnant...I'm drinking for TWO'....how very apt !!! Especially as I'm out shopping later and the first thing on the shopping list is Cobra beer for my husband.

I received a Original Musical Mexican Bola. Which is a beautiful silver sphere which chimes and is attached to a long leather cord.

The idea is that you tie it around your neck like a long necklace with the actual Bola resting on your pregnant belly. The baby hears the sounds of this calming chiming and it helps the baby to relax and apparantly the baby will recognise the sound after birth as well !

It is calming to the mother-to-be too, I am already wearing it and I'm sure my baby is moving in return, feels like vibrations low in my belly. Though I am still unsure when I am feeling the baby and when it is wind !?! Sorry Bert

But at 19 weeks I am pretty sure this is the baby moving...though I can't wait until Deckchair can feel the baby move too.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as We were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.

We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!

We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law suits.

We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.

We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.

We walked to friends' homes.

We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...They actually sided with the law. This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them. Congratulations!

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us. This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face: The majority of students in universities today were born in1986........They are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never heard of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Nena Cherry or Belinda Carlisle.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam.
AIDS has existed since they were born.
CD's have existed since they were born.
Michael Jackson has always been white.
To them John Travolta has always been round in shape and they can't imagine how this fat guy could be a god of dance.
They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are Films from last year.
They can never imagine life before computers.
They'll never have pretended to be the A Team, Red Hand Gang or the Famous Five.
They'll never have applied to be on Jim'll Fix It or Why Don't You.
They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

Now let's check if we're getting old :-
1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married.
4. You are always surprised to see small children playing comfortably with computers.
5. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.
6. You remember watching Dirty Den in East Enders the first time around.
7. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the good Old
days, repeating again all the fun you have experienced together.
8. Having read this mail, you are thinking of forwarding it to some other
friends because you think they will like it too...

Yes, you're getting old!!!

Sadly I missed the opportunity to take/post a picture of several of my cats being very cosy. Awww

To set the scene we have had a builder around today, who spent most of the day plastering our back utility room ceiling and boy does it look so much better than it did.

Because the nice builder was in that room which had the cat flap in it, apart from Milly whom I had both let out and in the front door I had not seen hide nor hair of any of the cats.

So once the nice builder had left with some of our hard earned cash and left us with a lovely smooth ceiling with no holes, I went in search of feline company.

Annie of course is still hiding under the corner kitchen cupboard which she retreats too at the first sign of any person who is not Deckchair or me.

When I reached the hall by the stairs, Tigs cantered past me Murrping at the top of his voice. In our room I found Sandy at the top of the cat tree and on our bed in a neat square I found Bramble, George, Milo and Spot. It is amazing how they might have their spats with each other like kids but when they are upset they seek the same space and seem to take comfort from each others company.

It always surprises me when people refer to cats as solitary anti social creatures. Our cats activitely seek out each other to play, play fight and to groom each other and when upset they are usually found together...surely this is proof that not all cats are anti-social !?!

Look what my mum found for me...swaddling blankets website.


I have not done any research on these yet, so I have no idea if these items are currently mums best friend or the devil in linen but I like the idea of naturally calming a very young baby.

But what colours do I buy ? Pink, Blue, White or Yellow/Aqua !!!

Several months after the scare of having new furniture in the living saga, made Annie retreat to the kitchen, she is back in the living room !!!

She has been sat on the door jowl of the kitchen/living room door for months but would not come in any further and today she just scooted in and sat on the new rug and had a good sniff around and then dashed back to the safety of the kitchen.

Yeah for Annie :)

I passed my Prince2 Foundation Course !!!

I not only passed the course but I got 70/75 and was the top of the class (the next highest mark was 65)

The course tutor was so confident that no-one would top his own score of 68, that he offered a bottle of whisky to anyone who thought they could beat him !!! Not that I thought I would beat him, in fact I was aiming to get the pass rate 38/75...never mind whisky would have been pointless at the moment

I was completely speechless at my good luck and pleased that the 20 hours of pre-reading of that project text book paid off.

I am very happy and even wondering if I can get on the Prince2 Practioner course at some point ?