I promised tim I would put some photos up of the bathroom as he has been working so hard on it and wanted to show everyone! It is really coming along, we think we can get it finished by the new year!
The photo above shows the wall/partition that used to be there to seperate the bathroom and loo, below shows it is now gone!!! it makes the room look so big!
Our new bath! it's huge, love it!!!


Well I am a bit achey today so I am going to lie down. chat soon, big hugs xxx

Hello,

so I have been trying to get my kittens to be cute in christmas stuff so that I could take a christmassy photo to put on a christmas card this year to send to people... it did not work. Einstein was playing for a bit but Oscar wouldn't, may be because I tried putting my Build a Bear costume on him which probably didn't help.... he did look cute though...
So I have now bought some from sainsburies instead.

They are loving our fire at the moment, it is so cold outside. It even snowed a tiny bit this morning but not enough to settle.

Well things here are good. Tim is busy busy busy in the bathroom still. We had our plumber in this week so all the pipe work is now completed, and our new bath is in and working. Tim is now preparing the walls for me to paint and for us both to have a go at tiling. Then we can fit the shower and the sink unit. It all takes so much longer than you imagine. It is a big job.

I have been feeling less sick which is good news, still not great in the evenings but my appertite is improving more and more each day. I do now however have a raging cold which SUCKS, as I can't take any medicine. I have been sipping lemon and honey hot water, hot ribena and eating lots of satsumas. I am so tired of sneezing!!! And have got through a box of man sized tissues already! Poor tim will probably end up catching it this week too... oh dear!

No bump yet but am definitely feeling rounder and my tummy is incredibly sensitive, all my trousers now feel very uncomfortable. I invested in my first pair of maternity jeans from Next, they are fab as the have elastic round the sides so don't put pressure on my tummy. I never knew it would feel this sensitive so early on! I guess everything is getting ready for growing... exciting!

School is going well too. I have a student, unfortunately for only one more week (but have her for 6 weeks in January and Feb!), she is fabulous and takes the pressure of teaching which has helped. Only four more weeks which is scary! I can't wait for christmas, need to actually start my christmas shopping though now... have been so too ill to shop, but need to kick my butt into gear!!!!

chat again soon, big hugs, Gemma xxx

Guess what exciting news Tim and I have???

Well there you go, Little Baby Smith is due in June 2009!!!

We feel so lucky right now and very blessed. We have known for a while but wanted to wait for our 12 week scan - we got dated at 11 weeks and 4 days... not sure how on earth they can be so precise, it's pretty amazing!

The scan was incredible, it wriggled about so much flipping up and down, it had it's back to us then turned to face us... you could make out it's hands, feet and profile!

We are very very happy and just hoping now for a healthy 6 months ahead, can you believe a third of my pregnancy is over with already!

I have been terribly ill morning, noon and night, and even fainted in morrisons the other day probably due to lack of food staying in me. I am starting to feel better in the mornings now so hopefully it will soon last all day. I am waiting for this so called 'pregnancy glow' to kick in!

well there you have it!!!

big hugs, gemma (+1) xxx

So this time last year this was us!!! Sitting on deck chairs drinking wine out of beakers in a smelly, dirty house!!! We had just got the keys and had spent the day pulling up the stinky carpets, washing the smelly curtains, scrubbing the walls with bleach and generally saying to one another "what have we done???"
And now... look how far we have come... for starts our lounge is AMAZING, we love our house so much!!!

Our bathroom is well under way, we even had our plumber around yesterday to talk money and start thinking about next steps. I think it may be done by the new year if we really nuckle down - I say we, I mean Tim and the plumber... although I will paint!!! we have decided maybe to do one wall a plum colour and the rest neutral. It will be so gorgeous!

well no other gossip from me. Tim is off to Wales this weekend, I will miss him but he has had it planned for months. I would go with him but haven't been feeling too great recently and think I need to rest and stay in the warm, besides he will be doing lots of big walks and my fitness isn't up to scratch at the mo and I would just hold Tim back. He can really go have fun with his climbing friends and not worry about looking after me! I think I may get a chinese take away and buy the new Shrek Christmas movie to watch!!!! Besides my boys need me to cuddle them with all the fireworks that are going to be going off this weekend. I currently have them locked in with me in the lounge as the banging has already started here and Tim has given me strict instructions to keep them inside. Bless him, he loves his boys really!

I had better scoot, chat again soon, big hugs from Mrs Smith!!! ( I still love saying that!)

BYE XXXXXxxxxx

Our very wet and windy weekend in Scotland!

Us in our gorgeous hotel room! Ewich House Hotel (if any of you are interested) had the most cosy rooms, lovely hot shower, loads of nice touches like yummy hand cream and lavender growing in a pot by our bed!, delicious breakfasts and a stunning open fire in their lounge!
This was the view we mostly saw of Scotland.... rain, rain, wind and rain!
We managed a little walk at Glen Nevis, was scary seeing how powerful the usually tiny streams were, they were gushing white water rivers!!!



When we got back to the car the heavens opened and Tim got drenched, luckily we had all our wet weather gear!
On the Sunday the group did a walk up one of these snowy hills (more like mountains to me!) but they had to turn back as the weather was just too atrocious.


Tim after being hammered by hail stones in 4 degrees temperatures!
Back at home with our boys, here is Einstein... and to think the cattery people compared them to ferrall cats... as if!
Chat soon, BYE xxx

Tim's greenhouse is now finished!!! I helped a little putting plastic rubber bits on the frame but tim did most... he is amazing!!!!
Our porchway is also finished!!! It looks fabulous, am now so proud to welcome people into our home! We now have a lovely floor and gorgeous hooks to hang our coats.

Annie wanted tim to show her his new car... here it is!
I have just had a day from hell taking my class to Chatsworth for the scultpure trail. I was so excited and looking forward to it, but the day started badly and went from bad to worse.. basically was feeling ill, then the bus driver went the wrong way so almost drove into a low bridge at Ambergate, luckily another bus spotted us heading that way and stopped him. So we had to do a ten point turn in the road, then he got lost so took 2 and a bit hours to get there. He also drove far too fast. I rang my school secretary to get her to complain to the bus company. Then when we finally got there is CHUCKED it down and we got totally soaked.... kept on walking round for a bit in the rain, then had lunch under a shelter we found, then sun came out so had about an hour to rush round all the sculptures. Then the bus journey home was horrendous... we almost crashed on the M1. OUr mad bus driver got lost so turned around to ask us which junction to come off at, but whilst facing us swerved off the hard shoulder!!!!!! I screamed at him to turn around.... was petrifying, all the kids were so scared. I just put on a big smile and told them it was fine but was shaking inside. Luckily survied but now making a big complaint against him, these people shouldn't have licenses to drive a bicylce.... let alone a double decker bus filled with children!!!! Rant over... sorry. Just had to moan!

Well here is a tranquil view through one of the sculptures to make me feel better,

big hugs, Gemma x

The Annual Lubrizol Ball!!!

Ok so we had a relaxing Friday evening, and a lovely day on Saturday. Ron and Jean popped round for coffee in the morning which was lovely. Then I wandered into Belper for some shopping and Tim carried on with his greenhouse - which is turning into a bit of a traumer!!!! Some of the glass is broken when Tim opened up the packets so he has to order more, and we have to put this rubber seal round every edge of the frame which takes hours and is really tricky to do. I have done 8 bits this morning but my thumbs are red raw so am having a break.

Last night we went to Tim's Lubrizol ball last night in Derby. Was very swish, champagne reception as we arrived with live hazz music, then a buffet meal followed by a band playing and dancing. Was fun! It was also good to get dressed up too...


Below Tim being silly, I thought he was smiling...
Tim's chem syn group - his boss dave, Tone, Paul and my husband!
And another one of my boys, they were being very snuggly yesterday and thought this was a cute photo opportunity! What am I like?! How many cat photos do I have now...


well I have tons of work to do, I have parents evenings this week tuesday, wednesday and Thurday (which is my late one so have an 8am-8pm day.... boo)
Best scoot, chat soon, gemma x

How adorable are my boys?????
Above is einstein in absolute heaven! Streched out in front of our fire, we only put it on for a tiny bit...

and below is my baby oscar, he has had a porrly foot but is on the mend!
My gorgeous boys...
No goosip here, just wanted to put these photos on cause they are so cute!!!

bye xxxx

Photos as promised, below is the start of our vegetable patch (the wooden bit in front) and the green house (the metal frame at the back), the front of the green house is going to be to the left, we are going to dig up the bit of wall/soil patch you can see to the left and make some steps down into the green house. Tim has it all planned in his head!
My gorgeous hubby working hard in his garden!
Einstein wanting to use the camera to take photos...
Evil Oscar - he is cute really, just caught him as he was mid yawn! He looks like he is saying something evil...!!!!
Here he is helping tim!
well off to cook dinner - fish and homemade potato wedges with provencal herbs! and peas of course! yum!

BYE xxx

Hi, So tim and I have had the most relaxing weekend of eating, watching TV and generally chilling out. I am now sturggling big style to get my act together and do my school work. I really hate sunday afternoons so much, and it's sad because they used to be my favourite time of the week - roast dinner, songs of praise and realxing before the week ahead. For the past few weeks we have been so busy, and this weekend so lazy, that I haven't done my work till now... I am determined to get back into the swing of doing my planning on a sunday morning so I can relax before my week ahead.

Remind me again why I decided to become a teacher???

So tim has been really busy in his garden again, our greenhouse arrived yesterday so he has been building the base and sorting out where it's going and where our vegetable patch is going to go. He wants me to take photos when he is finished to put on my blog so keep an eye out for that!

We are also quite close to getting our porchway finished, we thought it would be good to get that done before the weather really turns so we have somewhere to hang out winter coats and put our wet boots!

Well no more gossip from us, I have no photos from this weekend so thought I would remind myself how big our gorgeous boys have grown!

Picture one taken in January 2008

And now look at them, they are such monsters now!
Well will post photos of our garden later tonight, chat again soon, Gemma xx