Time flies (whether you're having fun or not)

It's been 2 weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone? Despite the glorious sunshine, it hasn't all disappeared in the garden where we did spend a lot of time. It has gone on various things, some nice, some not so nice. So let me give you an idea of what happened during those past 2 weeks:

- My jobseekers benefit ran out. I knew that would happen soon, I just didn't know when. I was never notified of the date. All I received was a long form back at the end of January, that I dully filled in and returned. But no letter advising me that my benefit would run out on such a date. So imagine my surprise when I went to collect my weekly pittance and discovered that it was not there. After a few phone calls, I discovered that they could not process my application as a form that establishes my 'habitual residence' wasn't accompanying the form. And how am I supposed to fill that in if there is no mention of it anywhere and it's not sent to me? Another sign of how efficiently the department of Social Protection is being run and how there is absolutely no consideration for the people behind the numbers. Anyway, the situation has now been sorted and the means test has been done, resulting in the loss of quite a few euros a week. I just find it quite ironic that on the same week I have to fill in that 'habitual residence' form, I also get the other form, you know, the one I get only because I'm not Irish and that has to do with Child benefit.

- On a nicer note, my mum and dad came to visit. My mum stayed for a few days while my dad stayed for the whole week (the joys of retirement!). The girls were really happy to see them, particularly Marie who had no idea that they were coming despite a few slip ups on our part. She thought I'd gone to the hospital for a check up when I was really gone to the airport. The look on her face was priceless!

- We finally got her communion dress and shoes in. After a bit of indecision on her part, she has finally made up her mind that she wanted to make her communion. So my mum and dad kindly went shopping with us and we found a lovely, simple and elegant communion dress, paired with lovely, simple and elegant shoes. I think you have all understood that we are going for simple and elegant as opposed to looks like this.

- We also had our first (and probably only) scan. And we can now confirm that the due date is the 7th of August (give or take a few days). We have also found out that we are expecting a little boy! That should round off the family very nicely. I'll just have to learn how to change nappies for boys and how to avoid nappy changing unexpected showers of pee.

-  Noelie and myself developed quite bad kidney infections. Mine saw me take to my bed at 11.30 am on Saturday morning and not really get up until Sunday. The back pain was unbearable and made me walk like a 90 year old woman. We went to the doctor's on Monday and Noelie has now to complete a course of antibiotics for the next week. She has also turned to cranckometer to the highest setting, resulting in a fully blown tantrum lasting 3 hours last night as she was over tired and refused to go to bed (something we are definitely not used to!). And then, suddenly, she just lied on her back and fell asleep.

- We have spent a lot of time outside, gardening, taking walks to see the cows down the lane and enjoying the sunshine.

So, in a nutshell, these were the highs and lows of the past couple of weeks!

Before our dongle goes...

Hello again everybody! I am back again for a short while. The dongle thingy has to go back tomorrow so I decided it was time to test it to the maximum and see if its powers were strong enough to last through me writing a whole post. I doubt it. I might just throw away my computer at the cows next door in frustration. You see, it's not the most reliable and it tends to not upload / disconnect / not work at the most inappropriate time. So as I am writing this post, I am already dreading the upload. Will I lose everything or not? I'm taking a big gamble here!

So we are finally settled here albeit without phone or TV yet. But it's starting to look a lot less like indoors camping than it was. It's been a pretty busy time for everybody. We managed to move in everything in 3 trips except the girls. They were staying with Mr Foodie's mum and dad while we were shifting things and until the house was to be considered livable and not a health and safety danger anymore. So they spent 3 nights over there. It was the first time we were leaving Noelie for such a long period of time but she had a great time. We were popping in and out of there anyway since Mr Foodie's mum was our designated tea maker / caterer.

Last week was a very busy one. There were so many things to do. Boxes to empty, wardrobes to build and fill. We finally went to Ikea to buy stuff. We had gone there 3 times without buying anything and that took a superhuman effort on my part. So on the first day of the sales, we went there and bought a big TV unit, a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. It took Mr Foodie about 2 days to put it all together, while I was unpacking and putting things away. I'm glad we waited though since we managed to save more than 400 euros on the stuff we bought. Had it not been on sale, as much as I liked it, I probably would have settled for something cheaper. Mr Foodie's dad had gone away for a few days so Mr Foodie's mum came to stay with us for a couple of days. She provided an invaluable babysitting service for us while we explored the area, taking whatever road we came across to see where it lead us, trying to figure out where the nearest supermarkets, shops, post offices etc were. We had to figure out our surroundings pretty fast since Mr Foodie and one of his brother had decided to throw a 60th surprise birthday party for his mum in her own house and we were in charge of some of the shopping. We had to throw a 'fake' birthday celebration in our house (meaning that the house had to be presentable for people we invited over) while his brother was decorating her house and getting the food ready.

Last Friday we also invited a couple of friends over for dinner. They ended up staying the night. Since Marie was away in NoodleVille (just east of NoodleLand) for her first long week end, we had a very very lazy Saturday (meaning I took a nap while Noelie was having one) and basically not getting out of our pyjamas all day.

So only now are we trying to find a routine for ourselves. Noelie is exhausted. She has so much ground to cover now that she has to take a couple of naps a day to recover. Marie is having a great time. She met the little boy next door today and has been playing in his house for the past couple of hours. I went to try and retrieve her but our new neighbour invited her for lunch. So she is staying there for a bit. She has no idea that my cousin is coming over to stay for a little over a week today so that will be a really nice surprise.

And I'm here typing a post, praying that the dongle won't die on me and enjoying the silence while Noelie takes a nap. I have to stay in today as I am waiting on our bins to be delivered. Tomorrow, it should be Sky and sometime before the end of the week it will be Eircom. So a lot of waiting around but then everything will be sorted and complete. Well apart from the Internet. That will be another 4 weeks or so. I hope you'll all still be here when I come back.

X
Foodie Mummy

I'm still alive

I thought I would just pop in here and let you know that I'm still here! I'm still alive! I haven't been buried under a pile of boxes only for my body to be found sometime next year once all the boxes are finally unpacked. There is still quite a bit to do. The move went really well. We met our new neighbours who sounds really nice. The old house has been cleaned to the best of our abilities. The new house has been cleaned too and most of the boxes have been unpacked. But there is still quite a bit to do. So this is only a flying visit. Mr Foodie has borrowed a dongle thingy so I could catch up on the blogging world and let everybody know that I'm not dead (how considerate was that!). I will let you know more soon. Promise. But for now I have to get back to my unpacking while Noelie takes a nap.

Talk to you all really soon.
X
Foodie Mummy