Time to get in on the blogging act!

I have decided to give you all the chance to read my side of the story...
My husband Steve is about to embark on a two year training course which will lead to him becoming a Vicar one day, currently he is known as an Ordinand. He has a blog of his own - from his perspective. This blog is intended to give you a glimpse of what an Ordinand's life is really like from a wifes' point of view! As I have been sorting out our new house, getting the children prepared for school and organising life in general I am behind him in posting blogs of life so far. A potted history:

July 2008: Left a job which I loved and colleagues who were great, watched my children say goodbye to life as they knew it, friends, lovingly cherished bedrooms, Guides, Cubs and other clubs. Started the sorting and packing process. Said fond farewells to church family - I spent quite a lot of July leaking from my tearducts!

August 2008: Went to a family wedding, packed up one 3 bedroomed house in leafy Ferndown, Dorset, packed up 2 children, 2 rabbits and went for tea at my best friend's house - for some reason it felt a bit like The Last Supper and I was the betrayer! Said see you soon and meant it.
Arrived 3 hours later in Cambridge City with two quite excited children and a worn out husband, didn't really get much sleep on an airbed masquerading as a waterbed - it was that kind of motion everytime one of us turned over.

The removal men arrived bright and early the next day with a mahoosive lorry - well alright it was 2 trailers. Thankfully it was bright sunshine and blue skies overhead and the children were bouncing on their new trampoline - bribery as part of the moving deal! Then followed a near constant stream of plants, boxes, furniture and yet more boxes, which were emptied into our new 4 bedroomed, 3-storey townhouse. Finally we collapsed in a heap sometime after 6pm!

An old friend took the children out for a couple of hours and then fed them tea, Steve and I had a Macdonalds - neither of us could think by this point and we knew where the golden arches were! The following day my parents arrived ( I now really understand the term Godsend) Dad was putting stuff together - well he had to or they'd have been sleeping on the floor, Mum was rapidly unpacking boxes like a whirling dervish - I on the other hand would have happily gone and hidden somewhere! By Sunday evening everything that could be unpacked was, there were even pictures hanging on the wall in the lounge! One room was full of empty boxes - neatly stacked and organised by mum and mostly garage and shed stuff, but everywhere else was beginning to resemble a home - maybe that's when it hit me. This was now home, so how long before it would really feel that way?

The next couple of weeks were filled with putting pictures and clocks on the walls and sorting out more permanent homes for things. It was also the time to discover the little irritating things about living in rented accomodation - like washing machines nearly catching fire and Lawnmowers with official not safe labels on them. A tiny dishwasher for a family of four, a range cooker that isn't a patch on my humble double oven back in Ferndown and a really stupid and impractical white kitchen floor (which has 2 doors to the back garden!)

I also had to endure several nights where my children found it really difficult to settle - what I don't yet understand is how they seem to think that I have the answer to why they can't get to sleep and how I can magically make them fall asleep! This is after applying all the usual techniques known to man on settling babies, toddlers, children and adults!
Then finally after buying last minute items for school and trying out routes to new schools the last day of the Summer holidays was here.

September 1st 2008
Quite a horrible day, both children were grumpy - I put this down to nerves about the reality of new schools. Isaac has declared that he wishes Daddy would change his mind - then we can all go back to Ferndown and he can finish Yr 4 at Hampreston. We got school things ready and tried to get them to bed early -Ha Ha
I was going out at 8pm to a Pimms O' Clock evening being held by the Ridley Hall spouses group - more about that later. In the end I left after Beth had stropped out majorly and Isaac had procrastinated so long in the bath that he was more raisin than prune!

September 2nd 2008
First day of new schools. Steve cycled with Beth to St. Bedes and I walked a reluctant Isaac to St. Philips. It was a shock for me, it was like another world. St. Philips is a C of E Primary School in the Romsey area of Cambridge - we live in that part of the city, I don't know what I was expecting, but the multi-ethnicity and appearance of pupils and parents made me feel like a fish out of water. I also was not prepared for how I would feel leaving Isaac there. I went with him to his peg and then to the classroom door, gave him a big hug and said right off you go then - see you later and watched as he dejectedly swaggered into the classroom looking for a seat and flopped into one. He looked so out of place and lost. It's hard to describe but I felt a very real sense of abandonment, what had I done putting my baby through this. I cried on the way home.