29/01/2012 by stupidgirl_no1.

This weekend we are, in effect, house bound.  Well, kind of.  You see before Christmas Owen suddenly asked to “pee in toilet” and has been doing it on and off ever since.  So we decided it was time to toilet train him.  After reading Gina Ford’s toilet training in a week book we set to work!  Well yesterday we got through 9 pairs of pants, today we’re only up to about 4 or 5.  I think this is progress.

Anyway it coincides nicely with the RSPB bird watch weekend so I thought we might as well take part.  As we were eating lunch a jackdaw and a magpie came into the garden so that was that - our hour had started!  We all spent most of the next 60 minutes by the window eagerly watching for more.

By the end of it we were able to record: 2 seagulls, 1 of each of the following: jackdaw, magpie, wood pigeon, robin, blackbird.  Results are submitted and I feel a bit helpful or something.

Posted in gardening, Animals | 1 Comment »

23/09/2011 by stupidgirl_no1.

On Monday my Dad turns 60 (regardless of what he says about being 21…).  Then next Saturday my Mum reaches 64.

Obviously their birthday’s are theirs, and I do hope they have lovely celebrations.  But still.  I’m taking this personally.  I’m going to have “OAP” parents.  Add to this the fact that my darling little baby Owen turns 2 on 18th October (already?!) and I’m feeling rather old.  Certainly can’t deny being a grown up now can I?!  Even had a conversation with one of my friends about giving up my stupidgirl tag.  I can’t bear that obviously but I did discuss it.

That’s really all I have to say on the topic, just that its scary, getting old.  Of course the greys don’t help trying to deny it.  So I dyed my hair this week.  Oops.  Colour was a bit darker than usual, I now have pretty much black hair.  Which it must be said I have always wanted to try.  I just didn’t mean to do it just before 2 important functions at my work and then going to visit my parents.  Actually it was probably kinda fitting for the first function as we had the crime author Stuart MacBride into the library to do an author event for us.  He has nothing against the colour black.  Last night though was the President’s Dinner at my work, lots of VIPs from organisations around the city, including the Lord Provost.  I bet he didn’t like my hair.  Oops.

Dad won’t like it either when we go down to support him in his old age…I mean celebrate his birthday!  Ah well, such is life.

I am very excited about our impending visit though, we’re going down on Sunday so we will wake up with him (not literally obviously) on his 60th birthday.  SIXTY!!  The plan is that we have a family day out to Blair Drummond Safari Park so fingers crossed the weather lets us do just that.  I used to go every year when I was wee as we got a free family pass in exchange for having their brochures in the hotel.  I hadn’t been for years until this summer when I went with some fellow Law Librarians.  We had a fab time and I went home with my face painted as a dalmation…

Anyway I know you don’t care about me, so here’s the update on Owen…
He’s doing great, can count to 2, speaking lots of words now, obcessed with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Hi ho being frequent words on his lips!), loves cars, tractors, our cats, flirting with girls. He is really intelligent, last week I told him we were going to see his Grandda at lunchtime, he pointed to Bryan and said Dadda’s Dadda - which is right. It wasn’t a fluke either as back home that night he pointed to the football strip Reg bought him and that he was wearing proudly and said Dadda’s Dadda again!

Last time I took him to my parents’ place we drove down at his bedtime, the plan being to let him sleep in the car then quietly transfer him into a bed at their house. However I got out the car to find he’d woken up and was saying “Grandad” very excitedly. We’d got him and all the bags into the house and the monitors set up when he realised he shouldn’t be awake and started crying, but as soon as he was put into bed he rolled over mid cry and went to sleep! Bless him!

Anyway lunchtime over so will shut up for now, but will try and report back after the weekend!

Posted in family, Baby!, Animals, Trips out, General waffle | 4 Comments »

31/07/2011 by stupidgirl_no1.

We are just back from Bryan and I’s first proper holiday together since our honeymoon eight years ago.  Given the choice of anywhere I wanted I chose self catering in Carnoustie and as you can see we had a whale of a time!  My photos and videos are online here.  ADDITION - Bryan’s photos are now available too!!

We were staying at a lovely converted stables that had a sports centre next door so most every morning but one Owen and I went for a swim after breakfast.  Most afternoons I went for a “proper swim” as well, and occassionally jumped in the sauna or spa bath.  One morning Bryan even got up in time for a swim with us which was a nice treat for Owen.

Each afternoon we did a different activity, we were really lucky with the weather - the only times it rained were during the night or the Thursday - when we’d arranged to go to Edinburgh to meet up with some friends and meet a 3 week old baby so we were going to be inside anyway!

So we travelled down on the Saturday, via Charleton Fruit Farm near Montrose.  Had an ice cream and a play.  Once we checked into our accommodation Owen took a nap, I unpacked and Bryan found the nearest Tesco and got us stocked up.

Sunday it only seemed right to hit Carnoustie beach.  We paddled, built a sand castle, played in the park, and enjoyed the sunshine.

Monday was a bit cloudy so we headed for St Andrew’s Aquarium where we had great fun waving at each and every fish and beastie.  Owen tried to copy a seal’s flipper movements which amused me a lot!

The next day we headed for Camperdown Park in Dundee which has a Wildlife Centre.  Now we have passed signs for this many, many times and I wish we had been sooner as its ace!  Will certainly be stopping off there in the future, either just for a run around in the huge play park or to visit the animals again.  I was disappointed to find that the elephant I’d seen mentioned on the website was only a sculputure but all the other animals were cool!  Even the wolves got up to see us, and Owen was quite taken with the brown bears.  We were slighty scared by a skunk who looked a bit dead but on close inspection he was just having a very deep sleep in the sun!! 

The next day we were all a bit skunked…so we had a quiet day flopping around the house, kicking footballs around the disused tennis court, and doing not much else.  Then in the late afternoon we went back to Carnoustie beach and had a lovely time at the play park.

Thursday, as I mentioned, we went into Edinburgh and met up with our friends Iain and Laura and their daughters.  We all had lunch and then Owen and Rose were set loose in a soft play area.  Then it was back to the Young household for a visit from Kieron and Lyndsay and a good catch up with all their news as well.  It was lovely to see them all - especially the tiny wee baby who I was allowed to hold a couple of times!

Friday we were obviously running out of time so managed to do two different destinations!  It was also the day Owen said “no!” to the swimming pool in the morning.  First we went to Crombie Country Park and had a nice walk looking for nature, most of which Owen scared away in his noisy ways!!

Then it was home for lunch before we headed to Arbroath to see what their beach entertainments were like - and they were glorious!!  A huge paddling pool, a play park and….a miniature railway!  Obviously we HAD to take Owen on it.

That night we were going to get an Indian meal from a take away we’d been told about but we decided to have a leftovers meal instead to eat up all the bits and pieces in the fridge.  It was an odd mix but rather satisfying nonetheless!

Saturday was home time, but not before one last stop off!  I had often noticed Brechin Castle Centre from the road when passing so it was finally time to explore it.  Unfortunately when we got there we were firmly told there were to be no picnics and there were no animals anymore - but on the upside it was free to enter!  Inside we found those huge bouncy cushion-like things which proved to be quite entertaining for rather a while!  Owen was also excited to get to sit on a tractor and pet a cow! 

We had our picnic in the car, with ice creams for pudding, and then headed for home.  Bryan and I agreed it had been a sucessfully enjoyable holiday for all of us, just a shame it wasn’t longer!  The only thing we hadn’t done that we had planned to was to spend a rainy afternoon at the cinema for Cars 2 - but we certainly enjoyed the sunshine in its place, and we can always do that now we’re home! 

Owen spent the afternoon re-acquainting himself with his toys and books before heading happily to his own bed.  After which Bryan, Lee and I enjoyed a Pizza Hut with beers, ice cream and a good movie.  There’s no place like home!

Posted in Animals, Trips out | 1 Comment »

31/05/2009 by stupidgirl_no1.

Well sorry to be boring but we have had another nice weekend and another exciting development in the world of bumpiness!

First the weekend - Bryan spent it with his cousin Ray and their mate Gary.  I believe drink, pizza, xbox/PS3 and Star Trek movie were the main ingredients of the weekend.  Meanwhile I took the excuse to nip down and visit my parents’ for a wee trip.  My photos from the trip are available on Flickr, just click here.  My favourite picture is probably this one of a red squirrel:

I spent the weekend watching him/her and the family eating nuts, running across the garden and playing together.  A couple of times I tried to creep up for a photo but gravel and heavy pregnant footsteps aren’t a good cover!

I must admit to watching Britain’s Got Talent this past week, and made Dad have it on in the kitchen whilst he tried to do Saturday night’s guests as I wanted to see the final.  I was supporting Julian Smith so was a bit disappointed he only got third but hopefully we’ll see more of him anyway.  I did think the winners were absolutely amazing as well.  Mum was supporting the Scottish lady so was disappointed she only got second but I didn’t see that refusing to smile was much of a talent….each to their own!!

I got two lovely surprises when I got to my parent’s place - neither of them could wait to give me…presents!!  Mum had found a lovely baby sleeping bag with “Rufus the Bear” on it, rather fitting as our first Gordon Setter was called Rufus!  And then they had seen in a shop a lovely baby swing, which was something I’d mentioned wanting a baby seat or swing.  Mum said it was too early to buy stuff for bump but Dad insisted that it might not be there nearer the time so they had to get it right then!  He was so proud of it and had it set up swinging and singing with a teddy in the seat to demonstrate when I walked in!!!  Think they might be excited about their first (and let’s face it, I’m an only child and not likely to do this again) and probably only grandchild!

And lastly, what was the exciting development?  Well I could say that my parents now have wi-fi in the hotel so I was able to Twitter from the garden, the kitchen and my room quite merrily!

But actually, the truth is, that this morning the baby moved, and I was able to watch it!!  Yes my bump was wiggling!  It was quite a bizarre experience but I guess I’ll need to get used to it now its started!!  All references to Aliens will be happily ignored so dinna start!!

Tonight I went into town and met my friends Jenny and Rob for dinner and a catch up at Pizza Express.  Bryan was invited but had eaten enough pizza, and not had enough sleep, over the weekend so took a rain check!

Hope you’re enjoying the sun too, and not being as silly as me - walk on Aberdeen beach on Friday and got sunburnt bit under chin, drive to Trossachs and back and got one sun burnt arm.  Oops!

Posted in Baby!, Animals, Music, Trips out | 1 Comment »

03/05/2009 by stupidgirl_no1.

April was a busy month, went to the theatre to do reviews three times for a start.  Saw Measure for Measure which was quite hard viewing as I’m not used to listening to Shakespearean speak.  It was also really long and pregnant ladies like me do need to pee occassionally so I was wiggling lots by the end!  Then there was the bizarre Interiors.  Lastly was After Mary Rose, will add the link once my review goes online!  Added 4th May.

I was out at the theatre 4 days in a row this week, once for Mary Rose and 3 times for the wonderful Carmen and the bizarre but captivating Lying, Cheating, Stealing by the Scottish Ballet.  This time I was able to watch the take a class as well, quite interesting to see the dancers just being themselves - and to see them doing the splits - just to stretch themselves!!  The show was amazing, I loved the costumes and the dancing.  LCS had music by Icebreaker which gave fantastic opportunities for the dancers to show off their choreography to the full but I don’t think I could have sat and listened to the album! 

As I was helping out I got to go back stage and see some of the gorgeous costumes close up.  One night I left at the same time as one of the amazing dancers as well, William Smith, and got all star struck and tongue tied.  Just like a teenager with a crush!  On Saturday between watching them take a class and do the Matinee I sat in the sun in the park and saw quite a lot of them coming and going which thrilled me, yes I’m easily pleased.  Was quite bemused to only see them eating or drinking two things - coffee and cigerettes!  Hmm, what happened to “my body is a temple”?!

As a contrast to my theatre trips this week I also went to the cinema with my friend Gill and her two children.  We went to a preview of Coraline which was really good!  Wee four year old Daniel summed it up at the end by saying “it was very good but I don’t want the DVD as it was Scary!”  I loved it lots and probably will need the DVD although not sure if it’ll be as good at home when you don’t have the amazing 3D aspect!

Other than being cultural, I have been slowly growing.  Yes baby bump has now appeared, as I did previously blog.  I will be 18 weeks tomorrow and it started to appear 2 weeks ago.  I thought I would be able to wear my old size 14 clothes for quite some time but apparently not!  So have done some shopping and now have enough maternity clothes to keep me covered!  this week coming I have my second mid wife appointment and my first ante natal class so it will be quite exciting!  I have already learnt one thing - its antE natal, not antI natal.  I sent out a communication to all the members at work with the wrong spelling.  Oops.  For those who don’t know anti is against something and ante is before something.  Once pregnant you should not be anti natal.  Unfortunately spelling has never been my strength!

I am now trying to calm my social life down ready for the baby coming and stuff.  May’s diary is a lot less hectic than April’s, and I did lots of fun stuff in April so I have lots of happy memories to keep me going!  I had my birthday; Bryan and I’s trip to Edinburgh; the theatre trips; a visit from our friend Gary and the Robertsons when I got to change my first nappy; some meals out with different friends; a visit from my Aunt Kathleen, Uncle John and cousin Claire to see the house; Claire stayed over and we walked round Perwinnes Moss, played Wii, had pizza, went to the ice cream van, and had lunch and shopping trip to town!  I did my last waitressing job until baby’s old enough to leave, I was quite useless as I got tired far too quickly, I just have no energy anymore so won’t be working again.  Will miss the teamwork of it though, the caterers I work for have a lovely team, so I will look forward to going back next year sometime!

I had a weekend with my lovely pal Jennie, down in Edinburgh.  We did a lot of chatting and sofa worshipping.  Also some shopping, we met our friend Lorna in Loopy Lorna’s Tea House (no relation!) which had the scariest toilet but very yummy cakes!  Photos on my flickr page, along with some other photos from the weekend!  There’s also photos of Jennie and I’s attempt to make some easter bunnies, the kit was for age 5+ but I think there must have been an upper age limit as we didn’t seem to do very well…  Was exhausted by the time I got the train home, even though we tried not to do anything that would tire me out!  Silly lack of energy!  When I got home I had to make lots of fuss of the cats as it was actually Benson and George’s 2nd birthday that Sunday - my wee boys are growing up!

So that’s me up to date!  Hope all is well with you and yours too!

Posted in Baby!, Theatre reviews, Animals, body issues | 1 Comment »

11/04/2009 by stupidgirl_no1.

Finally, Bryan and I got a week of work, well I did, he could still only get 3 days bless him!  We went down to Edinburgh for the 3 days.  To make up for not getting our wedding anniversary night in a nice hotel I booked us into The Scotsman Hotel, which was lovely.  The staff were so caring and attentive, the room was lovely, and breakfast was.. well as I was told on check in - award winning!  I fell in love with the bathroom, it had a huge bath with shower attachment if you needed it plus a separate shower cubicle with multi jets (although I wasn’t sure mini bump would like those).  There was even a night light under the sink so you could see the doorway in the dark and then it was light enough in the bathroom to have a pee or whatever without turning the main light on and waking yourself up - genius!

Whilst in Edinburgh we managed to meet up with a different lady each night for dinner - I’m so kind to Bryan!  Hee hee!  We saw Jennie the first night at the Albannach which is a pub Bryan and I used to eat in quite regularly.  Then we met Lyndsay the next night at Grape, she’s now back in the country planning her wedding after 2 years in Australia with Kieron so we had a lot of catching up to do! 

We also managed to visit some shops and go to the cinema and see The Boat That Rocked - which I totally loved!  Ooh and I only took one photo our whole trip which was this cute wee guy…

On the Wednesday morning I slipped out of the room for an early morning swim in the hotel pool, which apparently isn’t a good idea for a dyhyrated pregnant lady.  I nearly passed out at breakfast and terrified one of the waitresses, but they gave me iced water and fussed over me lots, bless them!  Poor Bryan had to drive all the way home though with me watching for laybys in case I needed him to stop in a hurry!

So my last couple of days were spent on the sofa watching daytime tv and catching up with emails and paperwork with my feet up!  I did go to the theatre on Thursday night to see The Idiot Colony with Eilidh which was really good.  I also entered Benson in a cute cat comp so please go and vote for him now!!

Today we have friends coming for lunch so I’d better get washed, dressed and shopping! 

Happy Easter one and all!

Posted in Baby!, Theatre reviews, Animals, Trips out | 1 Comment »

15/03/2009 by stupidgirl_no1.

Ok so I’ve been a bit blogless recently, I’m sorry!  Benson seems to be well on the mend although he still is a bit patchy on the fur front bless him.  He’s a lot happier since the operation and seems to have more energy again so that’s all great.  Now he’s off all the medication he doesn’t take up quite as much of our time either although he still needs lots of love and attention obviously, and its hard not to give it when he’s so darn cute!  Whilst he was away for his various hospital visits George has discovered the glory of cuddles as well, although he’s still quite shy about it and he jumps off when Benson comes in the room but it is nice to get lap warming sessions from each of them!

As my Benson worrying decreased it was replaced with my Mum.  She has been having issues for a while, it was thought to be her knee but was then realised to be her hip, which needed replaced.  She finally got the operation and it went really well, and she’s been making fab progress ever since!  It is a bit weird when your Mum phones you sounding all proud of herself because “I had a shower” or “I walked down one drive, along and up the other drive” but these are all steps along the road to recovery and they are each great achievements!  I went to visit last weekend once she was out of the hospital and she was “kind enough” to show me her staples, luckily I was allowed to leave the room on the Sunday when the district nurse came to remove them!  Although apparently it tickled more than hurt so I think that was quite a relief!

Anyway between the four of us, my parents and hubby and I haven’t enjoyed 2009 that much.  My parent’s gorgeous dog Budd was killed on the road, our house got broken into, Benson got so ill with cystitis we had to have his penis removed and then Mum had her hip operation.  We’re hoping that things can start looking up now and are trying to be optimistic about the future.

I have managed to get to my target weight and (far more importantly!) we have Ray and Nicole’s lovely news of the birth of their son Lucas to be happy about.  So here’s hoping I’ll be happier and more bloggy in the coming months!!  I never think its worth blogging/sharing when you’re all gloomy and dull, so if you haven’t had an email or a phone call for a while - that’s the reason!

So what else have we been up to?  Hmm not a lot really, I’ve been to the theatre doing reviews again.  I really enjoyed the romantic Brief Encounter but wasn’t quite so keen on Medea - so depressing!

Yesterday I spent most of the day with Nicole and the gorgeous Lucas who is eight weeks already!  He was a wee sweetie and slept a lot of the time so we had a jolly good girly gossip which was lovely!  Today Lydia is meeting us for a walk on the beach, it was a lovely sunny day yesterday when she suggested it but we could do with the exercise and it’ll be good to catch up with her so we’re still going!

Well I think that’s pretty up to date with my life.  Will try not to leave it so long before my next post!

Posted in Theatre reviews, Baby!, Animals, body issues, Trips out, General waffle | 1 Comment »

16/02/2009 by stupidgirl_no1.

Ok, so on Saturday we drove to Edinburgh and brought Benson home from the vet hospital.  He is now a bit Poodle of Frankenstein.  That is he has various shaved bits, like a poodle, and a vicious looking scar, like Fr-yeah you get where I’m going huh?!  Unfortunately he also smells of the vets so his brother isn’t too welcoming, even after a seperation period where Benson got lots of cuddles to rub my scent on him!  Either that or George is scared of the cone helmet thing Benson has to wear to stop him licking his stitches.

Anyway he seems pleased to be home, is eating and peeing as he should do so fingers crossed he will heal up nicely and be much better now.  Please?  Here’s hoping for his sake, oh and our bank balance sake as we’ve used all the “credit” from our pet insurance now.  Yikes!

There is life other than that which revolves around Benson, pills and pees.  I did go to the theatre last week to see The Miser and wrote a review about it.

Also in one of our wedding anniversary cards my Aunt had included some photocopies of some old family photos, one of which is my Great Great Granmother wearing the brooch that was stolen from our house last month.  I love old photos so thought I would share them with you.  My Grandad is the gentleman with the donkey, I love and miss him tons.

Old family photos

Posted in Theatre reviews, Animals, General waffle | 1 Comment »

13/02/2009 by stupidgirl_no1.

This morning I had a call from the vets, Benson is progressing very well, his wound looks good and he seems to be really enjoying peeing and doing it lots!!  We’ve arranged to collect him at noon tomorrow - hurrah!!

So I get to spend Valentine’s Day evening with my 3 boys on the sofa, all being well!  Bit different than the wedding anniversary treat we had booked for ourselves of D,B&B at a lovely looking hotel in town but after this week, it will just be nice for the 4 of us to be together to be honest.

Have a good weekend and happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted in Animals, General waffle | 1 Comment »

12/02/2009 by stupidgirl_no1.

I’ve not blogged for ages, sorry but things haven’t been great.  Our house was burgled, our cat has been ill, we’ve been struggling through snow etc etc.  Am going to try and get back on track now though.  But first, must report on poorly pussy! 

Ok, so story so far, Benson has been ill on and off from November with cystitis.  When he was at the vets over Christmas it was announced to be chronic cystitis.  He appeared to be doing well after that but he took bad again following the weekend.  We took him to the vets on Monday night and they couldn’t get the cathether in to clear the blockage this time.

So we ended up rushing him to the Dick Vets in Edinburgh on Tuesday afternoon. 

They tried a couple of things to help him but in the end they had to take the horrible big step of removing his penis as this is the bit that keeps blocking.

Anyway this morning’s report is that he is doing really well, wound looks perfect.  He peed by himself 3 times during night.  He has been licking the wound so has a collar on but has just been having cuddles in kennel and is comfortable and happy.  So they will start him on antibotics today and see how he goes.  Only bad thing is he hasn’t eaten but they aren’t worried about that considering what they did to him yesterday, they will be tempting him with lovely things today.  He should ready to come home Saturday as things stand at the moment.

There can be complications with the surgery but when the surgeon called yesterday after doing the surgery she was very pleased with how it went so hopefully he will heal up well.

He will still have cystitis and need medication for the rest of his life probably but it should be more manageable now.

Thanks so much to those of you who have supported us through the last few days, it hasn’t been easy but we’re now able to look forward to getting our boy home again.

Posted in Animals | 1 Comment »