TOTS 100 - UK Parent Blogs

Pages

Saturday 30 March 2013

So its supposed to be spring?

Mum has just reminded me the clocks go forward tonight. Its the sign of spring as we all know. So where has it gone then??? Certainly not here.

We even had a few flakes of snow here today. It has to be said it was fun because we were at a fun fair at the time. It was really far to cold to be there but Grumps and nanny gave some money for the children and i decided we should spend it on some time out. I couldn't afford Chessington or anywhere like that so this was next best thing. We were able to buy unlimited bands and had 3 hrs to go on as many rides as we wanted. We therefor did. I even managed to get son on one he has previously refused to try because of the height.

We decided because we're at a Dog show tomorrow (Easter Day) we would bring it forward by a day. The children were given their presents early and loved them. I don't buy Easter Eggs as i think they get enough from family so this year i got daughter a chin up bar (strange you may think) and son a LOTR lego set. Daughter has used the chin up bar to practise her gym on and is already swinging away with her legs straighter than before and her toes pointed. "Success!" i cry. She did ask for one after she saw a friends daughters one and had a go on it. Son set the lego up and placed it together with another set he had saved up for and bought and had a few hours left to play with it.

With the dogs bathed and ready for the show tomorrow all i can say is i hope tomorrow is a nice day and if at all possible that there is some semblance of spring in the air. If not we will be getting very cold in the show ring outside.


Wednesday 27 March 2013

Yay its the Holidays




Hooray, our Easter holidays have arrived. I'm so pleased, despite it being a short term for us, we've had so much happen that i'm ready for it.

This post was going to start about how i was looking forward to my first lie in of the holidays. But alas its not to be, as i started writing i had to delete and think again- I have an appointment at  9.45. Big bummer. Normally i try to make sure that the first day is a lazy day, we do nothing unless we want to. That means we can laze about in pj.s all day if we want to and watch tv, or in my case stay in bed til lunch time reading a book.

Then we start thinking about the rest of the holidays. We were going to be going to Cornwall to stay with some lovely friends of mine, but unfortunately due to my car having to have lots of work done on it for the MOT and also needing car tax at the end of this month we can't afford to go. I'm so disappointed as it was the summer that we last saw them. We skype regularly but its not the same.
So having re-evaluated our plans we will be doing cheap days out.

Daughter has gym on her normal days and in 2 weeks she will have her 2nd competition, so as a special bonus i've arranged for her to have 2 private lessons leading up to it. This will hopefully cure some of her bad habits and give her a boost on some of the areas she is lacking in confidence.
She will also be having a friend from gym over to play, and a friend from school, although the days for that aren't set.

Son will be doing the same, he will be having a friend from school over to play.

We will also be having one of the gym mums i have got to know over to visit with her children. All of them get on well so they should have a lovely time.

In the holidays we normally go out with mum one of the days too so we'll be planning that shortly.

I have an appointment at the hospital too, so when i actually look back at this post i realise that we've probably got enough here to fill most of the days of the next 2 weeks.
I almost forgot that we have a dog show to go to on Sunday too. That is on the Kent border and will take most of our day. It will be a good day out as all the dogs can go and can be entered into at least 1 class each. Since its a Companion dog show its more relaxed and everyone has fun.

We shall be enjoying some of these too:-


HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE XX

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Another winner

Last night was "its a Knockout" at Ring craft. The short tale is that every dog gets a no and is then paired with another and judged against each other on movement, and form and behaviour. One is knocked out and the loser's handler judges the next pair. The winner from the former pair waits until all the pairs have been and the same starts again until there is only one pair left. Yoda and i have never got beyond the first round until last night.
Last night we got through i think 3 or 4 rounds until we were in the last pairing. Very nerve wracking as we were up against one of the clubs experienced handlers with his dog and the handler is also an experienced judges so has a distinct advantage. My heart leapt in my mouth and i expected to get no-where but thought i would use it as good experience and tried not to show my inexperience, especially as the man judging was also experienced as a handler.



You see correctly, to my huge surprise we were declared the winners!!!! A big round or applause and a huge well done from people and it sank in. I won the night. To make matters even more exciting the gentleman who hand declared us the winners was the 2008 Best in show winner at Crufts with his champion dog.
Can you believe it, this hugely experienced man who has shown at the most prestigious and famous dog show event in the world judged me a winner!!!!!

Yes i'm still very excited at that. This is another reason i was nervous, my friend had told me at the beginning of the evening who he was, and then i have him standing in front of me. now i'm not someone who gets starry eyed at someone famous, but this person i know has worked so hard to get that title, and i'm so impressed that he thought my Baby was good enough to recognise the work we've done. I really can't put into words what it means, but it makes me more determined to push forward and get that qualification for Crufts next year.

In other good news, Son took Max along for the first time and they did well. Max walked round the ring, showed his movement nicely and has given us a good idea on where we need to start working on his behaviour while out and about. He is amazing with other dogs and wasn't at all fazed by the amount of animals there. When not needing to be doing anything he sat or layed down quite happily and went to sleep. Son did so well and came away excited.

A good evening all round.
Cx

Monday 25 March 2013

New family addition

We have a new family addition. After our sad loss of Buddy the gorgeous cat, son was not doing very well. He was missing someone to talk to. So we decided to rescue another animal, this time we have Max.

 In the picture we also have a gorgeous Shelby. Max is a Shitzu and we were told he's 18 months. Having checked him out with breeder friends of mine she's thinking he's around 2-3. He has been moved around bless him.
We took him off a gentleman's hands as he was scared for his children, he had only had him 4 days and had cut mats out of him and cleaned him up. Had had done so to a degree, we had to sort him out some more after a bath and clip the mats out of his tail.

From what we understand the gentleman bought him as a companion to his female form a lady who was very timid and couldn't control him. I'm not sure what that meant since we have had no trouble so far. Yes he's a little possessive over his toy- but then you can tell its playful- he's wagging his tail the whole time and jumps away, showing you he wants you to chase him.
he's not keen on being groomed- but again, considering the matting in his fur, its no surprise.
And then we come to his feet. He has dew claws on his back paws and they are growing into his paws!! Yes its that bad. Whoever had him either didn't realise he had them on the back, or the lady was so timid that she never went near his feet. From what the gentleman was saying Max was in a state when he got him so i'm guessing the woman didn't really bother trying with him once he started to answer back.

Pretty much everyone knows that with all dogs you have to show who's the boss, if you don't they will rule you and you will have no control at all.

We don't back down to him, use a firm voice and my son is doing really well with handling him. He was a little jumpy at first when Max growled and snapped at him, but then having had the attack from a friends dog that's no surprise. Now they have bonded he is much stronger with him and cuddle together on the sofa and at night.

 More updates on the life of Max as he settles in with us as a family.

Cx

Thursday 21 March 2013

Bullying

The worst time has come, my son admitted one of my biggest fears to me today. He is being bullied at school.
Currently its only name calling and snide comments but the people doing so have pushed the exact buttons to get him in tears.

I noticed his temperament begin to change after Christmas- He gave up doing cadets, decided to give up gym and didn't want to go to Free running anymore. Free Running was something he really enjoyed doing as well. He has also turned into a very introverted child who clings to me and is telling me he loves me at every opportunity. He cuddles me much more than he did before as well. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with him telling me he loves me, but as often as he does now isn't normal for a 13 yr old boy. They should be off seeing friends and being independent. I've always brought him up to stand on his own 2 feet. My outgoing boy is now no longer there.

My first action was to give him a big hug and tell him that it will be sorted out. My next was to call the school and speak to his head of year. She called me back this afternoon and we had a long talk. I told her everything that he told me and we discussed the change in his manner and temperament. And we arranged what the next step will be. She will be talking to him in the morning and will be taking things further with the children involved. Also his form teacher will be asked to keep a close eye on things and see if he notices anything.

One thing i can promise- i will not let this get worse, if i see any sign of that i will be taking the matter up with the head of the school and then the governors of the school. Bullying is not tolerated in my house! I have always taught my children that they should treat others as they would like to be treated. Another of my favourite phrases is that if they can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all. Its a shame that other parents don't teach the same and take care to ensurer that their children actually do so.



There are so many images to show anti bullying, but these 2 stood out for me.

Thursday 14 March 2013

Crufts

On Friday 8th March i had the pleasure of going to Crufts for the Toy and Utility day courtesy of my lovely friend. Because she is a registered breeder she can get discounted tickets. It was a very long day for us both. We were up at a silly early hour to catch the 9am train and didn't get back until midnight.

The journey up there was so boring, i have never like trains for various reasons, one of them being the lack of control.I can't just stop and get out when i want, or come home when i want. Also suffering Migraines the idea of an attack on the train is terrifying. I digress...

Once in Birmingham its a hop off the train and few mins walk until we were in the NEC and could see the enormity of what is the worlds largest dog show. For more details about Crufts see http://www.crufts.org.uk/

Five, yes 5 huge halls full of stands, show rings, display rings, competition stands, you name it if its to do with dogs it can be found there. All round the outside of all the halls and in between the halls are food stalls. Again all you can think of can be found to eat.

Let me get to the dogs. We arrived just in time to see the judging of the Chihuahua puppy round judging. We didn't actually stay long as there were something like 24 puppy in the round, all of them to be walked round, then the favourites pulled out and then narrowed down to the final 4. It does get quite boring, but seeing the puppy's performing was amazing.

We also stood and watched the Golden retriever display team at work. Something spectacular, around 10 dogs and their handlers almost dancing in the ring to music. Ok they were walking around the ring, but it was in time to the music and they were making patterns and shapes. The dogs were left in certain places while the handlers walked away and around them. All the time the dogs were simple enjoying themselves. I've never even seen it on TV and my friend said it was even better in real life.

WE had lunch there which i can say was a disappointment, it was mass cooked and not that flavourful. I can however say i got an awful lot on the plate so they were generous there. If we had found them we would have chosen something like a jacket potato, but at the point when we were hungry we hadn't seen all the individual stands around the halls, only the big ones like Burger king and we didn't fancy those so i ended up with sweet and sour chicken and rice and my friend had pizza. By the time she's queued for drinks the food was cold too. They had one person serving and making latte type drinks with a queue reaching way back- more people were collecting cups and dishes than really needed.

Anyway back to the show. The shopping was amazing, i've never seen so many stalls offering so much stuff. Some of it really useful, others rubbish, some cheap other expensive. And then there was the normal rubbish food and treats and the really decent food.


There is so much i can say about it that i'm getting all muddled and because there is so much to say this post has taken me 3 days to write with gaps in between.

The outcome of the day was that my aim is to get Yoda qualified and showing there next Year. It will take hard work and lots of money but it will be so worth it.

Saturday 9 March 2013

R.I.P My darling Buddy.

This is my Baby. His name is Buddy and he was around 15-20 years old.

  He was a rescue and when we got him he was already a young Adult. Until last year he had very few illnesses bar some trouble with his teeth. But over the last 9 months he's had cat flu twice and some sort of vascular disease. He recovered each time but the gaps between each bout were lessening.
This time i took the choice to do the best for him and end the suffering. A friend very kindly came to the vet with me and having discussed it the vet agreed that we could throw lots of money at him and discover that there isn't really anything they can do. Any thing they did need to do under anaesthetic he probably would survive due to his age. I don't agree with pumping animals full of drugs for it to happen again a few months later, and with no quality of life how is it fair to him. All he wanted to do was sleep lately.

So with much sadness we wish Buddy a very sad farewell and keep him with us in a special place in the garden. He will have a nice plant buried on top of him so we never dig in that place accidentally.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Interesting timeline for Fibro.

I was surprised to find how old fibro actually is. Looking at the time line Dr's discovered and labeled symptoms of it back in the 1800's. I felt this important enough to share with my readers.



Thanks to Cindy on Fibro Colours, Fb

Sunday 3 March 2013

Joining the 21stCentury

I have been thinking for a while now that i am wasting lots of time while a gym 'watching' daughter. So i thought why not join what millions of others have done and "go mobile" with my laptop. Not easy with an actual laptop though since you need 3G or wireless. Since i don't have that capability and my mobile is to small in memory and screen size to do anything such as my blog or proper e-mails, i treated myself. Or rather my lovely mum did.
I am attempting to type this on my new android tablet! It takes some getting used to. At thispoint the space bar is really annopying me as i have to press it rather hard or in the exact center. I replied to a post on a blog i follow using the touch screen, but so far can't  decide which i prefer.

I will have a play around with it at gym and in other places, i will also attempt to add pictures using it at some point, but right now i will content myself with seeing how posting this goes