MyHeritage.com

I've just been to this site. I found it on another blog I was reading and I thought it was really cool. I like the fact I have a bit of Elizabeth Taylor and Rita Hayworth in me. I have always considered myself a glamour puss and this just proves it. HA HA HA.

Lacey's Page

I've just made this layout of my new grandaughter, Lacey. She is two months old now but these photos were taken when she was just two hours old.
I was so pleased when Chris told me they were having a little girl. Each time I got pregnant, I prayed for a daughter but alas, it wasn't to be. I did get four lovely lads and I have never wished they were any different but it would have been nice to have had a daughter. I see how close my sister is to my niece and sometimes regret that I never had that.
And the old saying 'A son is a son till he takes a wife, a daughters a daughter for all of her life' is very true. Since my lads have found partners they have moved out and on with their lives and I don't see them as often, but they visit their partners' mums all the time. Ah well, them's the breaks, I guess.
Anyway, now I have a little girl to spoil. I can buy all the girly things I yearned to buy when I was a mum of sons. All the pink, sparkly, fairy, fluffy things that girls love. After a twenty three year wait I finally get that chance, and I am definitely going to make the most of it. This is one baby girl who will grow up to be a proper girly girl, if grandma has anything to do with it.

Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino

Smooth and sweet, you fit in to almost any crowd. No one would suspect you of being a coffee tweaker!

What Flavor Frappuccino Are You?

You Are Lemon Meringue Pie

You're the perfect combo of sassy and sweet Those who like you have well refined tastes

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Well, that's a coincidence, seeing as that's one of my favourite pies.

Your Personality Cluster is Extraverted Intuition

You are: A true wordsmith - a master of wordsOriginal, spontaneous, and a true inspirationHighly energetic, up for any challengeEntertaining and engaging, both to friends and strangers

What's" Your Personality Cluster?

Fourteenth Wedding Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary. We wanted to get married on Valentines Day but it fell on a Sunday that year so had to make do with the 13th. Some said it was a bad omen but I've never been superstitous and we proved the doubters wrong. It really doesn't seem like 14 years ago but I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every single year.

Not that it's all been plain sailing, by any stretch of the imagination. We've had ups and downs (sometimes it felt like more downs than ups) but we have survived them all. I know there'll be a few more bumps along the road to eternal bliss but I believe we know each other so well by now we can weather almost any storm. We have a mutual respect for each other and we are not just husband and wife but best friends too. I think that's the key to a happy marriage, that and being able to laugh together.

Don't get me wrong, John isn't the perfect man. Sometimes he annoys the h**l out of me. But we're soulmates and I wouldn't be without him for anything. However, I could be persuaded to leave if Mel Gibson ever came knocking........

A Visit from the Grandchildren

My son Chris and his partner, Leah, have just left with the grandchildren. I really enjoy their visits. Lacey is only 7 weeks old so she is still sleeping most of the time. She is a really good baby, hardly ever cries, just when she needs feeding. Good job really because her brother, Kalem, is a live wire.

He is 19 months old and never sits still. He loves cartoons but has a very short interest span so will not sit for long and watch. He likes to throw and bash things so when he gets the urge we all jump to avoid or rescue said article. Feeding time is messy to say the least as he still prefers fingers to cutlery. And his toybox gets emptied all over the house. I swear he tires me out just watching him. But he has learned not to touch grandma's precious fairy ornaments, at last.

However, I love him and his sister to bits. I wouldn't miss having them around for anything. As a grandma I get all the good bits without the hard work. I don't have the sleepless nights, making up bottles, constant nappy changing, etc. I get to read stories, play games, have fun without the hassles of parenthood.

And best of all - I get to give them back when I've had enough.

Kalem's Book

I finished my first full album last week. It's called Kalem's First Year and is all about my grandson. It's a 6x6 album so I only had room for one photo per page. As you can imagine, this proud granny has hundreds of photos of him and it was really difficult to pick out the ones I wanted to use. I spent many hours poring over all those delicious baby photos before I finally decided on just the right ones.

This is one of my favourites.

I don't consider myself very creative and I struggle to 'see' how a layout should look but this was a pure labour of love so I just let myself go. And I've now got a fantastic memory book of my little darling.

I'm now busy taking photos and collecting stash for his little sisters book.

My Family

A little bit about my family, I think. I've been married, divorced and remarried. My second husband is my true soul mate. I knew we were meant to be together from our first date and we are about to celebrate fourteen, very happy, years together, on 13th Feb.

Me and John at Christmas 2006

I have four sons, all to my first marriage, Craig, Chris, Matt and Jamie, a grandson, Kalem, age 19 months, and a grandaughter, Lacey, age 7 weeks. They both belong to Chris.

My lovely lads

My youngest son has a genetic disorder, called Dubowitz Syndrome. It's one of those rare ones that nobody has ever heard of, including most health care workers. Jamie is very severely delayed in his development. He has the mind of a four year old in the body of a fifteen year old. He also has a physical disability with his feet turning in on an angle so finds walking difficult.

Life with Jamie is hard at times because he has no sense of danger or what's the right and wrong way to behave. An insight into that for you, if he burns his hand on an open flame, he would still go back and touch it again so has to be supervised constantly. And when he's just poured a full packet of wash powder into the sink it's real hard to be calm (we changed to wash tablets). Or he's blocked the toilet by putting a full roll of paper down it, or torn up the library book you left laying around, or sprayed shaving foam all round the bathroom. Get the picture?

But it also brings it's own special rewards. Every time he has achieved a new milestone like walking (at 3, after being told he probably never would) or his first intelligible word (at 6, again told it wouldn't happen) we have felt far more pride than usual. And when he hugs you and gives you a kiss, simply because he feels like it, well you just melt.

We have learned a lot about patience over the years. We also have learned that stressing out over things you can't change is useless, so just accept what you have and move on has become the philosophy we live by.

Yet Jamie has never held us back. We have always had holidays, days out and special treats. He has always been treated the same as his brothers and disciplined when naughty. He has rough and tumbled with his siblings and they have always loved and accepted him. Jamie has a wonderful personality, he laughs all the time and is very loving to others. He is friendly to everybody he meets and can't understand why not every one wants to be his friend. All in all, he is a blessing and a gift that, despite all the hard work, I wouldn't have missed for anything.

Jamie