What is that smell.........

The answer unfortunately is our house. Both the boys had bad colds, sore throats, tummies and bottoms. Needless to say this has had quite an impact on our home. The sofa and carpets will never be the same. On Sunday Ben had gome through 13 nappies !

I am glad to say that they appear to be a lot better since yesterday afternoon. So hopefully that is it now for a while.

We bought the boys a lego play table, so they can use it for their Mega Blocks and Duplo. But Ben being the creative one decided that it would be much better to sit on and use to climb up to things that should be out of reach !

Weird Workmen & I love you

During the recent storms we lost several ridge tiles off our roof. After numerous phone calls to NHBC and our insurance company, an insurance agent came out and checked the damage. Then we heard nothing for a few days.

I was playing with the boys in the lounge when there was a hell of a noise outside. When I went to check there were two workmen climbing up on my roof !

They didn't bother to call first and say 'Hello we've come to fix your roof', nothing... they just turned up and started working !!!

I asked them if they wanted a drink and they just said 'No thanks, we'll just get this done and go' - Not once did they say who they worked for etc.

At 11am they disappeared and again never said a word to me before leaving !

At 1pm again there was noise outside again, when I went to check there were the mystery workmen again.

We live in a three storey house so I was wondering how they were going to get up onto the roof top. They just used a long ladder and then shoved tiles up and out of the way to make foot holds and then just walked up the roof !



Anyway the roof is all fixed now, I still have no idea who the workmen were or if they were from the insurance company or from NHBC ?

Harry & Ben are still ill, with little sore throats. Harry has the squits and has been sick several times bless him. At the weekend he managed to redecorate the sofa in a huge amount of vomit. It was so bad that we had to put Ben in his cot to keep him out of the way, put Harry fully dressed in the bath, strip him off and hose him down with the shower. Then we had to call in Carol's Mum who is excellent with stain removal, well she has had three children herself and has 5 grand children so I guess you could say she has had a lot of experience in such things. Bless her heart she spent over 2 hours with Carol cleaning the sofa whilst I handled the boys.

In the afternoon the boys picked up a bit and played well. Ben got fed up because he couldn't work out why he couldn't put the lid on the box he was playing with.



Last night we were playing with the boys just before bedtime and I was trying to teach Harry to say 'I love you', I have been trying for several weeks to teach him that phrase and bless his cotton socks, he said it last night. It was great :-)

We did get some snow the other day, but not much as you can see.



This morning Ben woke up at 4am and wouldn't go back to sleep, at 5.30 am after being with him for since 4am, I took him upstairs to our bedroom and he fell asleep between Carol & I. We all got up at 6.20am and went down stairs. A short time later Harry filled his nappy, well that isn't quite right, he over filled it, to the extent that it was up his back !

So again we had to take him straight into the bathroom fully dressed and then strip him and hose him down with the shower. Not the best start of the day !

Well that is all our news for the past week. Will try and write more frequently once we are all well again. Bye for now

Thomas & Sick Friends

Well we are all sick now. Harry has a little sore throat but I am glad to say that he appears to be getting over it well. Little Ben has a streaming nose, he is so full of a cold and I have a sore throat. But I am starting to feel better :-)

Remember that I said that Harry and learnt to say 'Thomas' well he sure does like that word. For the past two days all we've had is 'Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...
Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...
Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...Thomas...'

It is starting to stretch a little thin now.

So the soundtrack to the last two days has been 'Thomas...Sniff...cough...sneeze...cough...' repeat that for about 8 hours each day for the past two days and you get the idea of what I have been dealing :-)

Carol has been great she came home early yesterday from work and helped out with the
boys. Bless her.

Dishwasher Cleaner & Uvula

What is an uvula I hear you say. Well this is an Uvula
Why am I mentioning it here ?

Well it all started last week. Last week our dishwasher broken down. After a few days I managed to get it working again and as it smelled a bit of stagnant water I put some dishwasher cleaner into the empty dishwasher. This worked well, it is now all sparkly and clean inside and smells nice. Unfortunately before it completed the cycle, if broken down again and left 1-2 inches of water in the bottom of the dishwasher. When I say water I mean a cloudy water/dishwasher cleaner mixture.

As the repairman is coming out tomorrow I didn't want the water to go all stagnant again, so I decided to syphon the water out with a peice of tubing and a large bowl. Unfortunately I sucked a little too hard and ended up with a mouthful of this water/dishwasher cleaner mixture. The cleaner is made up of formaldehyde - benzyl alcohol and perfume. I guess I must have had about a table spoon of the stuff in my mouth and I spat it all out. I don't recommend trying it arrggg!!!

Later the next day I started with a sore throat, was it the chemicals I had accidental gargled with or was it the throat infection my father in law has and my wife had the other week ?

The stinging sore throat and the stuffy nose tends to make me think it was the infection. But then my uvula swelled up (see I was getting round to the uvula, bet you thought I had forgotten didn't you). It is now about 3 to 4 times its normal length and is sitting on the back of my tongue making me want to gag the whole time. Not nice at all. Now acccording to that Wikipedia link for the Uvula said, such swelling can be linked to allergic reaction or viral infection. So take your pick. I am glad to say that it has gone down a bit overnight. If it is stall swollen tomorrow I will go and see my Doctor, but the stuff that was in my mouth was in there a fraction of a second before I spat it out and I don't think it is that. I have just got a nasty bug and if it is a viral infection there is nothing that the Doctor can give me anyway.

So I was up all night, with a really dry throat and bloked nose, (the same symptoms as my Father in law has) so I got very little sleep and Harry now appears to have a sore throat as well.He woke up at 5am and was coughing so I got up and took him into the lounge and cuddled him for until everyone else woke up. He was lying on my chest wheezing away and I was gently stroking his arm to sooth him. When I stopped he grabbed my hand and started moving it up and down his other arm again and said 'nice' meaning don't stop Daddy. Very sweet :-) His sore throat doesn't appear to stopping him playing hard, bless him. In the past two days he has learnt more words, Car - Duck - Horse and Thomas (as in Thomas the Tank Engine).

Ben so far appears to have avoided the germs so hopefully he will be spared a sore throat as well.

Fire

The other night there was a fire in a village not far from where we live. Three thatched cottages (all listed buildings worth a collective £1 million) burnt to the ground. One of the people who had lost their home was interviewed on BBC and he came across as a really nice guy. He mentioned in passing that his daughter had just had her 1st birthday. He didn't say anything else about that, but obviously they would have lost all her presents etc in the fire.

I knew we had toys that the boys weren't playing with anymore, so I drove over to their home and as I suspected they were on site picking through the debris. I asked them if they would like some toys and they were very grateful and having spoken to them, I can say they come across as a lovely couple and I was glad we had made the offer. Later that afternoon I popped back to where they were staying and I dropped a couple of toys off for them.

I can't imagine how terrible it must be to loose everything in a fire. So much stuff can be replaced, but it is all the little things of sentimental value that can never be replaced that would so upsetting.

Here is the BBC News item on the fire

Here is the local newspaper item on the fire