health and safety on my mind....

In 2 weeks time we have the first appointment with our allocated social worker and on the phone she told us that one of the first appointments after that would be to look at health and safety issues at home. this could be a traumatic process. Our house is 300 years old with a 140 year old extension. We moved in 2 years ago knowing that there would be ongoing restoration and renovation needed but nothing urgent. The first room we tackled was the bathroom (Top right as it was, top left as it is now). Started in January and still not quite finished. Just some painting, a shelf and a mirror to go up and a blind for the window, oh, and the suffolk latch for the door - the old one crumbled when the door was stripped and I am having trouble finding one the right size to fit. So that is our first H&S issue - no lock on the bathroom door.

Next is all the steps as the house is on different levels, and the doors that fit the frames sometimes in the year but not in others. Various bits of rewiring to do that can't be done until we lift floorboards etc, which we won't do until we are ready to treat the woodworm; rotten window frames that can't be replaced without listed buildings consent which still hasn't come through. Oh And I must remember to unplug the dishwasher before every visit as it is currently plugged into an extension block which sits on the worktop next to the sink because we can't get at the original plug point for the old one unless we rip out and put back the worktop.... I could go on. Our H&S check will be very interesting!!!

Other stuff: wrenched my back yesterday so having a miserable day today; weight stayed the same this week so not too disastrous. One of the chickens is laying soft shelled eggs so need to increase grit in diet. Flip has a cold so that means I will have one just in time for induction week next week - my busiest week of the year:( But sis is coming to stay Friday night so an excuse to buy in a few bottles of red....:)

The Monday after the weekend before

We hosted a small party for Flip on Saturday as a belated 18th - we were on holiday for the actual day. Only 4 close friends over, so nothing too difficult to handle we thought. I cooked them meatballs with spaghetti, and pizza, so a sort of italian theme but purely accidental. I had said to Flip that I was happy for them to have alcohol so long as they steered clear of the spirits and I was in charge of doling it out. Why did I think that him agreeing would mean they would stick to it? So there was only the one vomiting episode (out of the bedroom window onto the grass so at least easy to clear up) and the toilet stayed unblocked. But I have decided that my son definitely takes after my ex, his father, in being a belligerent know it all when drunk. Kept telling me he wasn't drunk whilst weaving along as he walked. Didn't have a hangover except he hardly said a word all day Sunday and hardly ate anything either, cheering up by about 10pm Sunday. I don't think that he realises that you don't have to feel sick and have a headache to be hungover! Ah the joys of youth. So he was most upset when I wouldn't let him out on his moped until late Sunday afternoon to ensure maximum clearance of alcohol from his system. But on the whole it was a fun evening, and I am so glad he decided to keep it small!

Packers lost this weekend, to the Bengals - I ask you!!

up to my elbows in it

Woke up to a blocked toilet this morning. This has happened on a fairly regular basis since the new bathroom was fitted 6 months ago and we are sure it is to do with having a 6 litre flush (old stylee used to be 11 L) and a dodgy u bend. We know it is not the soil pipes as they were all replaced with brand new and my BIL (who is in the trade) was very careful about 'fall' and diameter of pipes etc. After a very patronising phone call with the Bathstore technical desk - must be the pipes as it is a woman on the phone so of course she doesn't know what she is talking about - I finally convinced 'Rob' that actually he was talking a load of s**t in trying to avoid replacing a faulty toilet. It really should not take 2.5 hours, drain rodding equipment, countless bucket loads of water, and finally, in desperation, the Karcher pressure washer to clear a blocked loo! - There's an idea, maybe I should phone up Ideal world and give then a new use for the Karcher to demonstrate......

Anyhow, BIL is coming over tomorrow to dismantle the loo and have a good look down the pipes. Am v glad that it is clear at the moment as Flip is having a belated 18th birthday party tomorrow and the last thing I need is a blocked loo plus a houseful of drunk teenagers.

Let's just say that I won't be putting the Karcher away until after the party....

american football

Sorry for posting again before the week is up. Just checked scores as the Packers was a late game on Sunday and had forgotten to check until now, and they won the first game of the season agains chicago 21-15.

Green Bay Packers is my team - can't bear soccer unless am watching my nephews play. Will be off to NFL London in October, a brilliant evening's entertainment if you have never been. Jessica Simpson may have slept in her Tomy Romo shirt before they split up. I share my sleep with Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre..........oh those lycra leggings!

some limbo ramblings

Well, it's about a week since I wrote the first post and nothing much has happened adoptionwise, other than some lovely comments (thanks Ali, Goose, Mamumi!!) about the first post. We had our medicals a fortnight ago and were pronounced basically fit and healthy, although, as I mentioned before I have a feeling that my BMI will get mentioned at some point during home study! Unfortunately the one thing the medicals did do was leave the bank balance less healthy. Yes folks, one of the downsides of going with a VA is that you have to pay for your adoption medicals - £80 each, and of course dearest Flash conveniently forgot his chequebook when he went so I had to cough up! But then, it's a good investment when you look at the journey ahead and relatively cheap compared to the other expenses involved with child rearing!

Had a not so good week with the diet this week. Just couldn't stick to Ryvita and OD'd on Tiger bread - something I normally don't have a problem ignoring. Add in a couple of takeaways and even 6 hours of gardening and a round of golf at the weekend wasn't going to make a difference at the scales. So a pound on this week and trying to ignore the box of choccies in my desk that I was given today.

My sister is organising a fund raiser for the Willow foundation in November and so has asked me to sell some cards again. I started making them as a hobby and sell them for charity now in order to decrease the pile at home. Flash reckons I ought to put up prices and try to make some profit, but that would change the emphasis and mean I would have to start doing stuff that other people like, rather than what I like. He thinks I should be getting something for my effort. I have tried explaining to him that you don't get a return on money spent on beer (one of his hobbies - not to excess any sw's lurking!!) so why should I expect a return on mine? I will try to upload some piccies of my work when I get more handy with this blog business.

Babysat for my sis at the weekend and yes, you've guessed it - "when is he coming home?" Nephew has firmly decided his cousin will be a boy and will like football and haribo (not necessarily in that order!)

I think I will try to update weekly unless anything exciting happens in the meantime.

TTFN

Lindy

Introducing us and the start of our adoption journey.

Just a short introduction to get started. I met Flash 10 years ago on a blind date, introduced by a mutual friend who thought we would get on very well with each other. He was right! My then 8 year old son (let's call him Flip) was there for our first and second dates - a good start I thought! We married in 2005. In our ten years together the subject of adding to our family has come up a few times, but in the earlier years it just wasn't the right time - work, sport and general family life needed to be put behind us first. So by the time the topic was seriously discussed again, we both felt that with a now 18 year old son and the pair of us straddling 40 (me the wrong side, him the right side!!) adoption rather than birth child was the way forward. We have enough nieces and nephews to have satisfied the cutesy-baby-turns-into-terrible-tot years and both feel that an older child would 'fit' well within our family.

Our journey so far - and we are not very far - has been relatively simple. I rang two local adoption agencies, one local authority and one voluntary. The local authority phone call left me feeling that they weren't really interested. The VA call however was much different. After a half hour conversation which was hugely helpful they said they would get some info in the post to us and would very much like to meet us. A couple of weeks later we had our first meeting with the agency manager. A hour and a half later we walked out of the meeting feeling as if we didn't know much more about adoption and the agency concerned than our research had already told us, but that the agency manager knew a heck of a lot about us! Which I guess is what it is all about.

Fast forward a couple of months and our medicals are done, our referees have submitted their references and our first meeting with our allocated social worker has been booked.

This is where I explain the title of this blog. We met several weeks ago with each side of the family to tell them of our plans and to ask a couple of family members to be referees. My 8 year old nephew was fascinated by the conversation and had his own questions, which went something like this:

"are you having a baby?"

No we want to adopt an older child. It will be a new cousin for you.

"Why don't you want a baby?"

Because I'm a bit too old now ( stretching the truth a bit to reduce length of explanation).

"Where will my new cousin come from?"

Well, some children have to live away from their old mummies and daddies because they weren't looked after properly, or their mummies and daddies might have died and so there is no-one to look after them. So we will adopt a child who needs new parents.

"Oh. So do you choose who you want?"

No, we have lots of meetings with people who decide what sort of child would fit best with our family and then together we try to find one who would fit in well.

"So will it be a boy or a girl cos I would like a boy cousin"

We don't mind. We will have to see.

"Oh. So when is my cousin moving in?"


And every conversation since then where the progress of our adoption is mentioned we get "so when is my cousin moving in?"


So that is us: Lindyloodles, Flash and Flip. Hoping to add to our little family and in the process provide a loving and nurturing home for "my cousin".

I hope you enjoy following this diary. It will probably gather a fair amount of non-adoption detritus along the way, but I reserve the right to ramble on about (in no particular order) American football (yes, the season starts again this week - go Packers!!) Horseriding (just been on board again for the first time in about 15 years and could become my next obsession!!) weightwatching, cats and chickens. I also reserve the right to add or subtract from this list according to league positions, soreness of bum, pounds on or off and relative cuteness respectively.