To my dear friend...

My darling friend,
Today you fly away
And in a few weeks, you fly even further away.
You are a kindred spirit, and I know that even though you are going to be thousands of miles away, in our hearts we will always be close.
I am so excited for the big adventure you are starting, this road that you will be travelling down is going to be thrilling, exciting, scary, fun and testing.
I am going to miss you so, so much.
How will we co-ordinate our hours long phone conversations when we are living in such different time zones?
My friend, thank you for being so amazing, thank you for being my friend, thank you for being one of the most incredible people that I know.

"A true friendship that lasts throughout the years is rare indeed, and to be treasured as a priceless gift."

facepaint....or bumppaint?!?

Dear Mom and Dad

I know Mouse is going to be the best big sister,
and I can't wait to learn all the tricks of the trade from her...
and I know suffering a certain amount of abuse from her is par for the course,
but please, please make her hold out for another 10 weeks!
Love
your growing baby
XXX

mY jOY:
taking scissors to Mouse's hair
NO MORE CRYING OVER KNOTS!!!

Letters of love...

My Dear Sister

So , as per my weekly routine, I checked your weather...and mine.
Good news.
We are both due to have rain ALL WEEK.
However, you are due to have an average of 25 degrees, and I am due an average of 9.
I think I am suffering from SAD.

In other news, Mr.A is due home two weeks today. Now that does make my heart beat a little faster, and it also means we can start planning our trip to you at the end of the year. I am looking forward to mellow afternoons around your pool, lots of braais and webers, LOTS of family time - Mouse misses her cousins, auntys, uncles, Gramps and Granny Pops- LOTS of sunshine, and perhaps the chance of getting a tan. I am so lilly-white I really do look like a little grub that has been found under a rotting log!!!!

Have a lovely day at school, hope the girls in your class behave. Give my gorgeous niece and nephew a huge kiss from us.
Love you lots
XXX

Letters of love

My darling husband,
This morning in playgroup i was feeling a bit blue. I was missing you, especially today being our day. When Bev taps me on the shoulder and presents me with a single long-stemmed red rose, with a card....carrying a few lines from a very personal poem. I was thrilled, and so touched that you had organised this with her. Then Lindsey tapped me on the shoulder, and gave me another rose...and more of our poem. Then Nicky, then Rachel, then Alex, then Alaine! I was swooning and all those other moms were eyeing up my roses and cooing over how gorgeously romantic my husband is. I thought that too, but no, you had to outdo yourself. During circle time, in the middle of our nursery rhyme singing, out came a lovely bouquet of another 6 roses. My darling, my gorgeous, gorgeous husband....words just fail me. How sweet, how romantic, how loving. I could've jumped on a plane, and come to Norway and just kissed you silly!
I love you so much Mr. A
For another 105!

Dear Mr A....

....if someone where to ask me right now what it is that i love about you so much...it would be the fact that you knew I was a bit sad, so produced some mint choc chip ice-cream from your pocket...(sigh) you are such a star my love!!!

mY jOY:

Somewhere under that duvet...and curtain...is Mouse, dreaming of pink dragons!!

another sunny Sunday....

...another beach.

My Darling Husband....

With the weather about to turn cloudy next week, waking up to sunshine meant we had to find another beach. So we did, and it was so beautiful - an estuary more of a beach, but still there were waves.....and lots of sand....and crabs....and shells.....and SUN!!

I am ashamed to admit I have become very dependant on TomTom. As you know,I pride myself on my map reading/driving at the same time - remember how I would make you sit in absolute silence in the passenger seat - not allowing you one glimpse at the map, whilst I weaved crazily all over the road trying to see where we were meant to be turning off next?

I am very glad you now have your Driver's Licence. But with that came TomTom - I cannot believe an RM is as bad at directions as you - my brain confuddles as to how that works!!!

So I blame you that I am now equally dependant on the Sat Nav...but I have discovered Jane takes Scout and I on the most wondrous of adventures. She doesn't stick to the main roads, and leads me to discover little hidden treasures in the Devon Countryside.

Driving back from the beach a little while ago, I was in such a happy, content, and peaceful state of mind.

The weather is glorious, Scout was loving all the scenery, I was loving all the scenery - these amazing farm roads, hemmed in by high green hedges, and smelling of freshness and farm life, with the occasional rabbit and pheasant darting out in front of you.

My iPod was on shuffle....and your favourite song came on. And instead of being sad that you weren't with us, I was so rejoiceful. It was such a picture perfect moment. One I will store in my memory box forever. One I will describe to you in great detail the next time you call. One that reminds me to constantly stop and smell the roses. Stop, and just take stock. Be thankful. Be rejoiceful. Be humbled. There is a bigger picture that we need to appreciate. And sometimes we need to look inwards and also appreciate ourselves.

I love you so incredibly much, and although it is really, really poo that we are apart for six months, you needed this big adventure, and I needed this time to find myself. Although in a complete contradiction I am a little lost without you.

So happy sailing down the Suez my love, and the naughty ( perhaps perverse ) imp in me is very pleased you have to wear your full rig, with bullet-proof vest in 35 degree heat - coz if I can't have the hot weather, then you can't enjoy it!! ha ha, don't forget the factor 50 angel - don't fry your face....and hey I bet you being all sweaty and GI Joe-ish looks very hot.......only I can't see you to jump you...hey ho - how POO!

With all of my adoring love

your wife

who, by the way, goes to the beach in long pants and a hoodie......harumph!

mY jOY:Discovering how to upload photos from my phone to the pc.The camera battery died at the beach so had to use my phone......and they seem okay as far as phone photos go.....

Dear Mr. A

Darling Mr A.

I know you are worried that I am not dealing with my feelings of you going away....for 6 months....

I know that it is hard for you to try and get me to talk about it, and I know you think I am avoiding the subject, but I am not.....I am just digesting it in my brain-thing.

Well. I think today may have been a breakthrough. As you know last night, I got a message to say our playdate was cancelled this morning, so I used the morning in a very naughty way...I let Scout watch a movie whilst I did some of my Valentines Day swop stuff. In my defense, we had done puzzles, drawing and play dough already so was all created out!

So, I put Brother Bear on for Scout to watch whilst I worked at the dining room table...I wasn't even WATCHING the movie....it was just background noise for me....but at the end....when the brother's spirit comes back with the mommy bear's and the other brother changes back from a bear to human and back to bear again ( try to keep up)....... I just sobbed.....honey I SOBBED.....REALLY SOBBED.

I think your trip is kicking in.......

So please bring home more tissues....

And chocolate......

Your ever loving wife

Noli

XXXX

Dear Husband

By 4:30pm today I also wanted to climb into the washing basket with Scout.

It has been one of those very BAD days at the office...aka our home. As you know, our daughter, whom we both cherish and admire as the fruit of our loins, woke up on the wrong side of bed. HOWEVER, you made a lucky escape by having to go to work, leaving me home with said Fruit. Now, I am EVER so grateful that you work so hard to bring home the bacon so that I can be at home, fondly watching our daughter's amazing growth and development...(which included emptying my entire knicker drawer, spilling a jug of water, stripping and running around without a nappy....to piddle under the diningroom table, and tearing the pages out of one of her books...and all this accomplished before 10am!)....my! how she keeps herself busy. And no darling, it wasn't that I didn't want to keep her occupied so above disasters didn't befall us, but I was so busy cleaning up one mess whilst she produced the next....I think it is a game we play! Except said Fruit hasn't told me the rules yet, so how can I possibly win?

My darling, I am so sorry you spent so much time outside today and the temperature was hovering around zero degrees, but by lunchtime my patience was hovering around zero degrees too....did I mention how our Fruit spilled a cup of milk on our friends carpet, after proud ole me had told Donna that she could "more than handle a cup instead of a beaker"?and that she bullied Donna's sweet little boys and then ran out into the road....and all this between the hours of ten and twelve?

And again I find myself apologising for the mess she has left in the car and the fact that I gave her some forbidden food for lunch..but I was desperate to give the screaming banshee something on our drive back from Saltash, as neither of us could hold out for the ten minutes it takes to get home...so yes, she ate a sausage roll...leaving half the roll on the backseat in the form of crumbly pastry bits...

My darling whilst you were wrapping up work for the day, we were at the library, where again said Fruit destroyed Catherine's lovely neat shelves and WALKED...yes, walked, all over the lovely little children who were sitting and listening to a story.....oh, and hair pulling.....don't go there...

so honey, please understand why I am not very enthusiastic about life this evening, and please understand that I TOTALLY know you work hard every day......but I had a bad day too, and tomorrow can I go do electronicy twiddly things...and you stay home?!?

Signed

Your ever loving wife and co-bearer of said Fruit-turned-monster-for-the-day.

PS Dear Lord, let tomorrow be a better one, amen.