Uncle Paul & Auntie Debbie

It's been a mad week! On Sunday we took Dad out for a birthday dinner at a local pub and when we got back to his house he had a message to say that my brother and his expecting wife had gone to hospital for a check up.

The heavens opened in the early hours of Monday morning, giving us 10mm of rain by 6am. We set off to work and the rain just kept coming and coming. Debbie was sent home early with the situation getting quite serious all around us. Given the horrendous traffic, Debbie just came straight to me rather struggle home and back again. When we did eventually get home, the rain gauge now read 80mm! We watched the news in amazement at the extent of the flooding in Sheffield just down the road.

On Tuesday morning at 6:30am the text message came through that we were waiting for, our neice had arrived, born at 4.05am weighing in at 7lb 12oz!

Dad managed to get to the hospital to see his Granddaughter and filled us in when he got home that evening. We were hoping to visit the hospital ourselves on Wednesday but the traffic around here was bonkers with all the main routes into Sheffield still closed through fear of a dam bursting.

As it happens, Mother and Daughter were allowed home on Wednesday night and after a day of adjusting to their new world on Thursday, we went to visit last night.

She's absolutely gorgeous, she slept the whole time we were there, just stirring now an again waving her tiny arms about.

Can't wait to see her again!

Paul

Back To The Coast

Debbie finished her course of antibiotics on Friday and with her mouth still sore on Friday morning we still weren't sure about going out for the day on Saturday. Thankfully, by Friday night the pain had eased enough and we decided to go for it.

We invited my brother along who stayed over on Friday so we could get away early and head off to Robin Hoods Bay.

We had a blast on the beach, Debbie celebrated the passing of toothache by climbing up the cliffs and hopping across the rocks while my brother and I tried less risky routes around the pools and streams. There was more water about than normal despite the tide being right out because of all the rain water still flowing from the hills following the heavy rain on Thursday and Friday.

Lucy had a ball too, she's getting better and better with water, she was speeding round the rocks, diving in to numerous rock pools head first.

After exploring every corner of the beach and with Lucy looking like a drowned rat, we called in at Whitby for a tray of chips and a look round the shops. The rain finally caught up with us late in the afternoon so we headed off home having had a brilliant day but we were all totally and utterly knackered!

Paul

Flamingo Land

We finally got around to loading some pictures from our day out at Flamingo Land back in May.

Debbie took 133 pictures of the Sea lions, thank goodness for digital photography! You can see the best shots of the day here.

Paul

Achey Breaky Tooth

Debbie's been having a rough time with toothache recently which has been getting worse over the last few weeks. It started out as nothing more than a sensitive tooth, so we booked ourselves into the dentist for a checkup. The required treatment wasn't to be until July as our new dentist was off on holiday for a month.

Last week the sensitive tooth turned into excruciatingly painful tooth and I tried to get Debbie into the dentist earlier. They still couldn't offer us anything earlier than 3 weeks and by Friday Debbie could take no more so we rang NHS Direct. They promised an appointment somewhere that day and would call Debbie on her mobile to let her know.

Thing is, Debbie's phone has been playing up a bit and when they rang it didn't and went straight to answerphone. They didn't leave a number and Debbie hadn't got the NHS Direct number with her so called me.

I called our dentist to get the NHS Direct number but after explaining why I wanted it, Debbie had an appoint that afternoon!

I got a phone call late on Friday from a very tearful Debbie who just wanted to go home. It turned out that the offending tooth was cracked inside, this is what was causing all the pain. There wasn't any option but to have the tooth extracted, so out it came, but not without an almighty struggle.

After the anesthetic wore off the pain started to return but we hoped that would subside by morning.

Morning came but the pain was still there, pain killers seemed to do the trick so we set off to the coast as planned. Poor Debbie struggled through the day, popping pills and putting on a brave face as we explored Mablethorpe and Cleethorpes.

The pain was worse than ever on Sunday morning so we called NHS Direct again and after going through everything were instructed to go immediately to Accident & Emergency.

The hole where the tooth used to be was now sporting an abscess, Debbie had two options, go to see a specialist for more drilling or take antibiotics and a new cocktail of pain killers. Debbie opted for option 2, we left with 2 kinds of pain killers, antibiotics and a mouth wash.

The new drugs seemed to do the trick and the swelling and pain has been subsiding over the last couple of days. The course of antibiotics lasts until Friday by which time the hole formerly known as tooth will hopefully have healed completely.

Paul

Back To Work

We've been back at work for 4 whole days and it already feels like we've never been away, roll on next holiday!

We did have a great time last week though, Debbie took over 300 pictures while we were at Flamingo Land, we'll have to find some time to post a few of them.

It wasn't until later in the week that we discovered that Debbie's new camera was rather good at doing movies too or we could have got some great action shots of those mental rides.

We we're lucky with the weather while we were off, our garden became the favourite hang out for the local Starling population, tucking into free snap and cooling down in the new bird bath.

The weather seems to be picking up again, it's been freezing this week but I think the shorts will be coming out again tomorrow. We can't complain though, it's done wonders for the garden, there is green everywhere now with the odd hint of the colours that are just around the corner.

Paul

OLD

Sorry for the lack of post! It's been a bit of a sad time at the mo, we lost Grandma who is now resting with Grandad and causing havock up there sorting out our guardian angels.......

We just had a week off work and got some much needed jobs done around the house, the bathroom has been redesigned and is looking pretty good, all we need to do in there is pick a suitable floor covering to which we can not make our minds up at all, so hence its bare floorboards, I have acheived something that I thought I would never do and that is tiling part of the bathroom!

We spent a day at Flamingo Land and got burnt to a crisp, the rides were fantastic and even Paulie went on all the fast ones (this aint the norm), but all in all it was fantastic and just what we needed, we giggled all day and came home on a very high.

Thursday was my 36th birthday (boy Im feeling old), we had an appointment at the hospital to see the professor, who was chuffed with how much weight Ive lost and Im now off the tablets but sticking with my change of life, Im not going back to the old Debbie!!

Friday was a day of shopping making sure we had everything for our BBQ on Saturday.

Saturday was a pure delight, I woke up and Paulie had booked me a surprise, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 at the cinema, after a chill it was back home to arrange the seating plan and get all the fatty food on the BBQ (Hence I had my food set to one side no FAT in mine Please).

My twin brother Mark and his girlfriend Kath arrived and so did my sister Tracy and her husband Ray, next was Paulie's Dad and his brother David then some very close friends Lisa & Dan with their two Children Beth & Charlie (Our adopted niece & Nephew) and last another close friend Claire with her husband Alec & son James!

We even had a birthday cake and candles to blow out, all in all it was a fantastic night and too much Champagne and no food does wonders for a Sunday wake up!!

Debbie .x.

Grandma

Fascinated that you were a welder during World War II, making aeroplane wings for Spitfires, treasuring the memories of those week long summer stay overs when I was growing up and having a chuckle thinking back to how animated you got during grappling time on Saturday afternoons.

Grandma, we'll miss you...

Tropical World

After a day's cruising up the coast road on Saturday, yesterday we did a little more work on the house, getting the cladding up around the staircase followed by an afternoon chilling.

Today we've been to visit Tropical World near Roundhay Park, Leeds. We had high hopes following a visit a few years ago, sadly though, the only thing they had an abundance of today was screaming kids. The butterflies and birds must have gone into hiding to avoid all the commotion, they seemed to be very thin on the ground whereas last time they place was alive everywhere you looked.

Although the lack of bird and insect life was disappointing, the spectacular show of tropical plants and flowers more than made up for it, keeping us busy with the shutter and keeping our minds off the little terrors all around us.

The full collection of 51 photos.

A little bit of therapeutic shopping followed at Castleford before returning home, mowing the lawn and trying to find out why Lucy is obsessed with sticking her head in our dry stone wall!

Paul

A Day On The East Coast

We went for a day out on the East coast yesterday. We started at Bridlington, the least said about that the better. Next stop was Filey which we love and finally, Cayton Bay which we had pretty much to ourselves!

The Full Set

It was cloudy and a little on the chilly side all day, until that is, we set off home and the sun came out, typical!

Paul

Another Milestone!

Just managed to catch the moment when our counter ticked over to the next big one...

Our fifty thousandth visitor was someone on the lookout for a smiley flower, the nearest proper visit was from Borders Birds, closely followed by Yorkshire Soul.

Check back in 2011 to see if hit a hundred thousand!

Paul