The big two are booked into some activities this week, so we’re spending a bit of time running about after them and the rest of it trying to give the younger two a decent week. I’m having to do an AWFUL LOT of chasing up of parcels as the strikes seem to mean things are just lying about undelivered; i’ve had a record of 15 missing parcels since mid-July. BM was busy, but has been deadly for 2 days, so we’ve caught up a bit now. New site nearly ready and lots of new products hanging about that i’m dying to start selling, but it all just takes SOOOO long. Still, will get some time the later part of this week i think.
Monday was a bit of a dashing about day, 60 parcels to send, which invaded rather so we all tripped up on them a lot, or tried to stop LF climbing on them. AMelie and i spent some time doing some words and stuff together but mostly it was a bit fraught; i did the week shopping for the first time in goodness knows how long, with all of them in tow, which was a test of my endurance, but we seemed to have most of what we needed when i was done 😆 Then we had to hurry off to the docs where i had a “must you blooming well read everything???” moment with Fran. “Mummy? How WOULD i know if i had chlamydia?” So (and i hope you’d be proud) we had a full and frank discussion about STDs in the middle of a just-crowded-enough waiting room. I was determined to be cool and chilled about it, but i think i did go a bit pink 😆
While i’m at it, what’s the general opinion on getting our daughters blanket vaccinated against cervical cancer please? Any thoughts?
Upshot of the docs was a steroid nose spray for Amelie (she can breathe again already) and no dairy/anti-biotics and cream for Josie. ARGH. And Pah. And BAH. And that little emoticon that rants.
Then home and i managed a bike ride.
Tuesday was a bit calmer; we left MF to it and i took the little two with me to Kate’s; we gossiped, drank tea in the playground opposite (very decadent! 😉 ) and she asked me to be Madison’s godmother, which made me very happy indeed. So now i have 2, which presumably means i should plead and sound needy about things more often 😆 Madison gorgeous and i had lots of cuddles and will now have carte blanche to spend money in the brand new and beautifully redesigned AnaraToys – so jealous of that shop!
Tuesday evening was the evening of the VAT return submission… quick challenge here; see how long it takes you to find a link for the online VAT submission service. We reckon it has to be possibly the hardest link to find in.the.world.ever. We did it eventually, but even then not in a window you could actually bookmark! Only £585 this time (i’ve been doing a LOT of buying) but still PAH and BAH! Forgot parents wedding anniversay. 36 years. Ooops. Well done mum and dad.
Wednesday Bought a padlock – had a honking card payment system crisis (their fault, not mine, lost lots of sales contributing to retail death day, loss of earnings and imminent departure for debtors prison.) beans arrived and we played, chatted, ate and oggled some of my new lines. beans left without buying ANYTHING (that’s happened a lot recently, i must be losing my touch 😉 ) Amelie had mini-violin lesson… must buy roisin… CGF mended my network and it does all sorts of things it has NEVER done before. Clever man, that clever man. Made tea and batted eye-lids by way of thanks, then ranted at messy children.
This evening we went over to Great Gran’s to collect things we both wanted to keep. Kids stayed with Sue, so we got to do it alone. Realised how little time we spend alone these days 😕 Highly emotional really, i roared at least twice. She has kept such an amazing amount of detailed and beautifully kept stuff, treasure, really treasure. She was a funny old thing and it is hard to see now that actually she was highly sentimental over precious family detail. I’m in awe really and as usual when someone dies, realising we’ve lost something, someone that we didn’t appreciate enough at the time. Terrible how that happens. Found a grandparents book, like a baby book in reverse, that one of us must have given her – it’s filled in 🙂 I know i’ve given them to my nana and mum and dad, must badger them to fill them in too. Very precious memories.
I guess my girls will have this blog (and my garage full of goodness knows what) – they’ll be able to access it, whether i want them to or not, before i’m dead, so perhaps they’ll always know me better. I won’t be a hidden person they discover when i’m gone (i hope anyway.) I wonder about it at times; will the 15, or 20 year old come to me, having read all this and ask questions i don’t want to answer? Some things are going to be blindingly obvious to them and some will need answering – but hopefully it will at least mean i’m more accessible, not a private hoarder of loving detail. But some stuff just won’t exist; no one prints emails, there will never be a stash of letters to pore through and wonder at, or piles of phots – a blog and a flickr account won’t be quite the same.
It’s enough to make one think.
Hehe, look at the ad that came up here! Yes I often think about what we’ll leave for our children/grandchildren by way of padding out the story. And – horror of horrors – what if the internet just disappears? Can it do that? Tom keeps telling me it can’t now, but I still don’t understand why not.
Argh! Doctor’s surgeries are a minefield. Jess always wants to know all about what the ‘people with the balloon’ are doing in the safe sex poster.
Re the vaccination – we’ve been thinking about it and have decided that both of ours will have the jab (though slightly confused as to when that will be as I have no idea what the US policy is on these things). I don’t buy the argument that giving girls the vaccination will encourage promiscuity – after all, most people have never heard of HPV or that it can cause cervical cancer, but far more are aware of other STDs.
I might have to blog about it – but the last time I ventured into that dangerous territory (MMR) I got flamed to death.
I lost my mum when I was 8 and I have nothing other than a few photos. Almost all of the questions that go through my head would be answered in a blog like yours. How did she feel about me? Her life? Her marriage? What made her happy, or sad? What had she achieved?
How many people start a blog and give up? Merry, I hope you’re immensely proud of your blog. It’s an amazing history of your life and of your girls.
I’m all for vaccinating against anything that can have serious effects so yes, ifi t’s offered Aprilia will be having it.
But T-bird, does it not bother you to use a new vaccine on young girls, way below the age they should have sex, if it is only going to protect them against something they are likely to catch if they have unsafe sex with (probably) a fair few partners?
i do a yearly photo album of my favourite photos. we back up the blog, and if ever flush enough, will turn it into a yearly book as well. just for mouldering on the side for family.
We’ll certainly encourage P to have the vaccine. In matters of STDs it is always dodgy to think that promiscuity is what causes people to contract a disease – as that might increase the chance, but is not (of itself) the cause. I hope our kids are safe in their sexual behaviour but people do slip up – that’s life. Of course, we do believe in vaccination, so that side of it isn’t an issue for us.
It’s not that, if they get to 15/16 and want to have it, i’ll be absolutely fine with that; i’ll drive them there. I certainly know that people slip up 😕 It’s the blanket vacinnating of 12/13 year olds that worries me a bit.
Using myself as an example, i’d have been vaccinated with a virtual unknown at 12, then not slept with anyone till 18, then only slept with 1 person who never slept with anyone else before meeting the man i was going to marry. While Max could certainly have had an infection and i might have got caught out, he didn’t and i didn’t, so i’d have had it for nothing.
The thought of vaccinating them as a precursor to a decent sex education as opposed to slightly later with the young adult making a considered decision, really bothers me.
Obviously I don’t have any girls but as Merry said the blanket approach bothers me amongst other things. There are several strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer but this vaccine doesn’t cover them all and what about the 30% of cervical cancer that isn’t caused by HPV? Plus the fact that once you’ve caught the HPV infection you are more likely not to get cervical cancer than you are and it can take 10 to 20 years after that for any cervical cell changes to show up anyway.
I think the money would be in part better spent on trying to find a cure for the advanced disease and improving the smear system. The first stage of the cancer is 100% treatable and overall its a way more treatable cancer than any other like ovarian cancer for example which can be so aggressive. My mum has been in remission from that for over 5 years but has been told if it comes back it will kill her.
I see your point Merry, I suppose it’s a case of feeling that I’ve covered all the bases to a degree. All the girls at my school were vaccinated against rubella at about 13 because of the risk to our future babies and I don’t think any of us made babies for a few years after that so you could say that that one was a bit premature but at least it was done. I do think that a vaccination against any of the STDs (or in fact all of them!) would save the NHS a fortune in the long run as they can cause so many problems, especially for girls.
Obviously I would like to think that my girlie will go all inocent to her marriage bed adn that her husband will be similarly inocent hence leading to absolute confidence that neither have pidked up anything on teh way but life doesn’t always happen the way we would like.
And obviously no vaccine can replace proper education about relationships and health etc but I think that we have an advantage over parents of schooled children in that we can address that in a way tailored to our girls rather than the cringing embarasement that is a class full of pubesent kids being told about it all by some old duffer who quite ovbiously has never done *that* for goodness sake….(cos it would be too gross surely….)
I think i’m just highly dubious about my kids being the first few that have it. Feels very guineapig ish. I guess we’ll have to discuss it.
hmm, yes, not keen on the guinea pig bit of it myself but one would hope (although this may be nieve) that it’s been properly tested before being unleashed on our girls
Looks like they’ve already found some guinea pigs…
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2845221
Luckily Jess is only 3, and we should be back from Texas before she reaches 6th grade, so hopefully they’ll have ironed out the wrinkles by then.
sharp intake of breath…. mandatory vaccination?