Free!

Seth's exams finished last week and we were both obviously very happy about this! It was such a novelty just to be able to spend evenings sitting and talking or watching NCIS (yeah, that's our staple TV show!) and not feeling like Seth has to go off in any moment to study. It's a huge relief to him that they are out of the way as he has been studying so hard since Christmas, if not before, and for me, it's just lovely to have my husband back!

This last weekend, we went up to visit his family as we hadn't seen them since Christmas. We left on Saturday morning and as we were driving along the M25, we were chatting away about various things when we realised that we had missed our turning onto the M11 by a long way. We laughed about it and Seth came off at the next exit ready to turn around at the roundabout and go back the way we came. In his defence, it was a pretty big roundabout, but I was fairly hysterical with laughter when we only went half way round and ended up rejoining the motorway where we had just been driving, despite me telling him that we had just come from there but by the time he realised, it was too late. I am not joking when I say that it must have taken me about half an hour to stop laughing because every time I stopped, I would just think about it and start laughing again. We found an alternative route though and it worked out perfectly. As we were driving close to Peterborough, I looked out the window and what did I see?

This really wouldn't do much to make anyone else excited and you're probably wondering what the big deal is. So I shall explain! While Seth has been busy with exams, I have been looking into travel systems. I already knew which one I wanted so it was a matter of looking around online and in stores to see what the best prices were. The plan was that when Seth had finished his exams we would start to look around the various stores together and at some point in the not too distant future, hopefully get our travel system. I know that perhaps things like having somewhere for the baby to sleep is a bit more important, but as this would be the most expensive thing we needed to get and I didn't know how long it might take for it to be ordered and then for it to arrive, I was quite keen for us to start looking as soon as possible. Needless to say, from all of my research I was familiar with the kiddicare website and when I saw this massive store as big as an Ikea, I was very excited. Even more so when Seth suggested that we go in to have a look around. We didn't have all that much time as we were running later than we had hoped to get to his parents house so we headed straight for the travel systems. Can I just say how massive that store is? They had so many things in there that had we not been going somewhere else afterwards, I think I could have spent the day in there. The shop assistant was very helpful and when we saw that our desired travel system was cheaper there than anywhere else, we decided that we would buy it. We were even more pleased when the nice salesman gave us an extra 10% off everything, which ends up being quite a lot of money off. We were both really glad that we had gone the wrong way as it turned out rather well for us in the end!

When we got to Seth's house, his Dad was busy putting in a new fireplace in the dining room. Nick (Seth's Dad), is amazing when it comes to building and making things. He had made the fireplace surround himself. Seth was pretty eager to get his hands dirty and help his Dad with putting everything together as it is something that he is very interested in and he would love to have the time to be able to make things. Here was the end result:

Isn't it lovely?

Seth's Mum, Kay is an artist and there is an art studio in the extension part of their house (Nick now shares half of it with her as his workshop). Her paintings are beautiful and every time we go there it seems that there are new paintings on the walls. Here are a couple of her pictures:
She has painted loads of beautiful pictures and at some point, I would quite like us to have one for our home.

On Sunday after church, Seth's Granddad and his wife, Wendy came over for lunch, as did Seth's sister, Laura, her husband Michael and their children, Sapphire, Mark, Ellise and Ethan. The children all adore Seth and I'm sure he's the one responsible for getting them into trouble as he winds them up so much and gets them excited. It was really nice to be able to see them all while we were there. Sapphire and Ellise made sure they took good care of me, when we went into the lounge, Ellise put the blanket over me while Sapphire put cushions behind my back and reclined the chair for me, I felt very spoiled!
A little later on, we headed over to see Seth's Grandpa and Grandma. Unfortunately his Grandpa isn't well at all at the moment so it was lovely that we were able to go over there and spend some time with them.

It has been a lovely weekend and with Seth's exams now over with, hopefully we will have a lot more lovely weekends to spend together!

Make up mishaps and a growing belly

This morning I went through my usual routine when getting ready. Before I put my make up on I do the usual cleanse, tone and moisturise, blow my nose (because nothing is more annoying than finishing putting on make up than needing to blow your nose just as you've finished doing it!) tuck a kleenex (not the same one used to blow my nose) into the neckline of my top and start to put on my make up. The tissue in the neckline is essential. Yes, it looks like I am wearing a bib of sorts, but it prevents getting make up remains all over my top as I am putting it on. Not that I am particularly messy, but I'm sure that many make up wearers can relate to this. After I'd finished putting on my make up, I took the kleenex out and continued with the normal stuff I do to get ready. As I was sitting on the bed putting on my socks (which is getting increasingly difficult and Seth often laughs at me as I occasionally lay back on the bed with my legs in the air to make the sock putting on fiasco easier!). As I looked down, I noticed that even though I wore my genius make up bib, I had make up remains on my top. On my stomach, to be precise! I commented to Seth that I had no idea how it had got there but clearly this is one of the things that happens when your growing baby belly starts to protrude further than your chest.

Yes, my stomach is lopsided, I seem to have more baby on the right than on the left!

Rach and Ieuan's Wedding

Last weekend was Rachel and Ieuan's wedding. Seth and I left to head up to Norwich on Friday evening but first of all we stopped off at Mark and Helen's. Seth's brother James, his wife Natalie and their sons are over visiting from California and they were staying with Mark and Helen for a couple of days. We had a lovely time catching up and chatting and their boys are just adorable! It was the first time that we had met Ezra, their youngest, as he was born after they had moved to California, he is such a happy, smiley baby!

On Saturday morning, Mum and Laura left early to go to Lin's house to pick up Sam and take him to the church. He was an usher so he needed to be there early. Seth and I arrived at Lin's house a little while later to take Caitlin to the church. Everyone at the house was actually really calm, the bridesmaids were completely ready and looking beautiful and Rach was sitting quietly, having her make up done. Everyone seemed really chilled out, which I guess it a lot better than running around being completely stressed about it all. Caitlin looked absolutely adorable in her dress, though you could tell that she wasn't loving being all dressed up and told Seth and me on the car journey that she wanted to be a boy so she wouldn't have to wear dresses. I love that girl, she makes me laugh so much! I did an amazing job of somehow managing to find the longest route to the chapel ever and we arrived a couple of minutes before 10.30, which was when the wedding was due to start. Not that it really mattered, as Rach was still in her dressing gown when we left! I quickly took a couple of pictures of Sam and Cait before going in to sit down.

Cait when we went to pick her up.

Sam and Cait, looking adorable as ever!

Rachel arrived about 20 minutes late, which isn't actually too bad. I think I was about half an hour late for my wedding, which Seth always likes to remind me of (my entire family told him to make sure that he was at the church on time, because he really isn't punctual at all and he's never let me live it down that he was there early (as he should have been, he was the groom, after all!) and I was there really late. I maintain it wasn't my fault though - I was sitting in the wedding car for about ten minutes ,still waiting for my family members to get into their cars and leave. It wouldn't do if I arrived at the church before them now, would it?!). She looked radiant as she walked down the aisle. The wedding ceremony was lovely, the talks were great and even our song went well, much to all of our amazement! We had only practised together about three times and it was a really difficult song to learn so how it went without a hitch is completely beyond me!

After the service, everyone went outside for photos. Sam and Cait made a quick escape outside, I think they were both relieved that their parts were over with!

Here are a few pictures that I took. Everyone looked so beautiful, the bride, needless to say, looked incredible, as did the bridesmaids, and Lin was a stunning mother of the bride.

The beautiful bride

My nephew Jamie and his girlfriend, Lauren

My nephew Ben and his wife, Hollie

Laura, Sam and Caitlin (Sam was the cutest usher in the world!)

Me, Seth and bump!

My lovely nieces, Jess and Cait

The Family Carruthers

Us sisters!

Laura and Jamie posing in their aviators

Lau and I

Three generations! Grandma, Mother and Daughter

Seth keeping me warm. It was cold.

Seth and my brother in law, Steve

Rach and her bridesmaids

The reception was lovely and they had an ice cream factory for dessert, which I thought was an awesome idea! I was all about the sweet stuff that day, I may have eaten mine and Seth's wedding favours. They were mini eggs though and they have been one of my cravings. Do you like how I'm justifying eating my husband's sweets? I also bought him an easter egg and I think I've eaten about half of that but that's another story......

We went down to the temple afterwards, where Rach and Ieuan were sealed together for time and eternity. It was really amazing to be there and to see them both so happy, they are a lovely couple. When we were all outside afterwards, it took everyone a while to say goodbye to each other. Seth and I were quite lucky in that the temple is only about 40 minutes away from our house, so it didn't take us long to get home at all, compared to the others who had to travel about 2 and a half hours. It was such a wonderful day, I can't believe Rach is married now! She's a proper grown up :)

Today's thoughts

Here are my thoughts for today:

I have less than 100 days to go until the baby is due. That really excites me and terrifies me at the same time. I love being pregnant and feeling this baby grow and move around inside me but I have no idea what to do with a baby! Hopefully I will learn fast. I've always wanted children but I have never been the type of person to go and hold friends' newborns or anything. It's not that I don't like them because I do but I'm always scared I will break them or something.  People keep asking me if I am ready for its arrival and the answer to that is no. We haven't bought anything yet, although we aim to start after Seth's exams. I think the travel system is probably the biggest thing we need to get so once that is sorted I will feel better.

I am failing in the eating healthily category. I know it's more important to do that when pregnant but I just really want sweet things. I don't know if it's a craving or not because I've always liked sweet things but I seem to be eating them a lot more than usual and don't have the willpower to stop myself. And the more I try to be good, the more I want whatever sweet thing it is! I'm not adopting the attitude "I'm eating for two so it's okay" but I'm not exactly being disciplined either!

Rachel is getting married tomorrow! I'm excited to go to her wedding and I'm excited for her too. But thinking of that has made me reflect quite a lot and it seems so weird that little Rach is all grown up and getting married! She's 21 so it's not like she's 16 and getting married or anything but I think it seems so strange to me because it feels like I have watched her grow up. It's probbaly because I have! When she and Jess were younger we used to see them pretty much every day. When she was little she used to lay in her big blue blanket and Laura and I would grab each end of it and rock her back and forth. I did her make up for her prom and when she went to university in Lancaster, I was there too. (I didn't follow her there or anything because that would be weird - Seth and I got married and he was going into his second year of his degree there when Rach started). I didn't see her every day or anything like that during our time there together but she would often just pop over if she was feeling lonely and she came round one year to help us put up the Christmas decorations. I've not seen her as much since we moved to London but I was with her, Lin and Jess when Rach tried on THE wedding dress. And here she is, getting married tomorrow! I know it will be a lovely day and she will be a beautiful bride. I'm so happy and excited for her as she starts this next chapter of her life.

Easter Weekend part 2

On Saturday, Laura and I headed up to Norwich. It was really nice being able to travel up there together, it certainly made the journey more enjoyable. Although I think I may have freaked laura out a bit when I nearly passed out at Liverpool Street station. One of the joys of pregnancy for me is low blood pressure and I get dizzy quite often. I just stand or sit somewhere until it passes, but it was enough for Laura to decide that she and Mum would drive me back home on Sunday rather than me having to take the train and bus replacement service. They are so kind! We were both pretty tired after our busy day yesterday so we were going to sleep on the train but we ended up chatting for most of the way.

Mum met us at the train station - it's always so lovely to see her! We then headed to Lin's to practise the song for Rach's wedding next Saturday. I don't know how it has come along so quickly, it's crazy! When Sam saw me and my stomach, he said that I am "really starting to get pregnant now". He's so sweet. After practising the song, we headed home for a bit (I know I haven't lived there for nearly three years now but as it was my home, I think I will probably always end up calling it home when I refer to it!) and got ready for Rach's bridal shower in the evening. We got there early to help set up - I am the master of blowing up balloons. Of course, the hand pump did help a bit. Laura is the master of dancing around to whatever is on on the radio at the time!

The bridal shower was a lot of fun and loads of people came to be there with Rachel. It was really lovely to see everyone again as I had not seen a lot of them in a while. We played various games, like seeing who could make the best wedding dress out of bin bags (our team was robbed, we so should have won!) and a Mr and Mrs type game. Lin already had the husbands' / fiance's answers to the questions and we had to try and get the answers right. Shs asked myself, Rachel, Ali and Elaine the questions. I am happy to say that I didn't lose. And we shall just leave it at that :). In my defence, I didn't do shockingly badly either and being as though Seth is so laid back and easy to please in pretty much every way, for a lot of the things like favourites of something, he didn't really have an answer, so I didn't have a great deal to work with! I did come joint second though, so I think that's acceptable!

Rach had a lovely evening and was grinning form ear to ear the entire time. I can't believe that by this time next week, she will actually be married!

On Sunday, we went to church as always. The baby seemed to be enjoying it as it was wriggling around like crazy and all of the family got to actually see it moving which was quite cool. It does look like I am possessed when I can see the baby move through my clothes but I still find it entertaining! After church, we practised the song again (our last chance singing it together before the big day!), then we headed home to have lunch, pack my things up and travel back home (this being the one I share with Seth, not Mum's home, which I also call home :)) I can't believe that Mum and Laura drove me all that way so that I wouldn't have to take the train, they are so wonderful! We had fun on the journey, singing and talking away and of course, it was lovely to have their company for an extra couple of hours! I'm already looking forward to being with everyone again next Saturday at the wedding!

Easter Weekend part 1

I love Easter. Aside from the obvious reasons of being able to celebrate the Saviour's resurrection, it's also quite nice to have a few days off work, I must say! Poor Seth was busy studying, as has been his lot for the last few months it seems. On Thursday evening, Laura came down to see us. Whenever she goes home to Norwich she travels via London and being as though we were both going to Norwich on Saturday for Rachel's hen night, we decided that Lau should come early and keep me company and then we would travel up together. Thursday night was a good one, consisting of Chinese, cupcakes, Seth not studying and The Apprentice. I love that show so much, although I still think I prefer the US version.

On Friday, Laura and I headed into London to play for the day. As we were on the train on the way in, a young guy sat next to me. I didn't really pay much attention but Laura noticed him and whispered to me that it was Matt, the winner of "So you think you can dance" (this is the boys paso doble, one of my favourite dances of the season. Matt is the one who isn't blonde and doesn't have long hair). A couple of minutes later, we were talking to him. Laura said to him that our family had spent loads of money voting for him and that we were big fans. He was very sweet and humble, which we were actually really pleased about. We didn't want him to be arrogant and horrible, having followed him on the show and thinking he was really nice. He chatted with us for a while and asked us if we danced as well. He was on his way to the BBC to do some choreography. It was really nice meeting him!

Laura and I had a pretty packed day in London - we went to Canary Wharf and London Bridge and wandered around there for a bit, then we got the tube to Holborn so that we could walk from there to Covent Garden and Neal Street. There was a bit of drama there, which could have ended up a lot worse than it was! We were on the escalator at the tube station going up. Laura was behind me and I was standing sideways talking to her. I didn't see it, but the man a couple of people in front of me fell backwards into the woman in front of me, who in turn fell backwards into me. Neither of them could get up so it was a bit of a domino effect. I was a bit worried as my immediate thoughts went to the baby. Laura was amazing and managed to catch me and take my weight, as well as the weight of the people in front of me as they hadn't managed to get up again yet. The people who were going down on the escalator next to us were just looking on in horror as there was nothing they could do and it must have looked as scary as it was for us! Everyone managed to get up again eventually and Laura hurt her arm a bit in the process, which is no wonder as she was holding up three people! When the woman who was standing behind Laura saw I was pregnant, she asked if I was okay, which was sweet of her. (when we got home later that night and told Seth the story of what happened, he asked what time it happened. When we told him it must have been just after 3, he said that he didn't know why but he had prayed for us at 3 and asked that we would be kept safe. Amazing!). We took a couple of minutes just to regain our composure and catch our breath afterwards before heading to Neal Street to get coconut milkshakes, and then to go for a walk around Covent Garden. I love Covent Garden, the atmosphere is just great and it's a great place to people watch too! From there, we walked to Leicester Square, then to Regent Street then to Oxford Street. We actually did quite a bit of walking! When we had finished there, it was around 6pm and we contemplated going home but neither os us really wanted to so we took the tube to White City so we could go to Westfield. I was wearing my "baby on board" badge and two people on the tube offered me their seats. I'm not sure if it's because they were both being generous or if they actually thought I needed two seats. I only took one of them in case you were wondering. The same man asked me if I was on television when we got off the tube, so I don't know who he was thinking of but we were amused!

We looked around Westfield for a while - it is really nice, and I think a lot nicer than the Stratford one, I prefer the shops in this one. I think we ended up getting home at just after 9. It was a busy day and we were both pretty exhausted by the time we got in, but we had a lovely day together.

To save this from being an overly long blog post, I shall post about the rest of the weekend separately!

Our weekend

The first weekend of April was really great one, as it was our Church's General Conference. Twice a year, our world church leaders give talks designed to help and uplift us and I always really look forward to it.

Seth and I usually go to our church building to watch Conference as it's really nice being there with other people as well. However, our car MOT ran out as of midnight on Saturday night, meaning that we couldn't use the car (it was booked in for the Tuesday in case you're wondering!). So, for the first time, we spent Sunday at home watching conference. We still got dressed as if we were going to church to make it feel more like we're there. The talks given were absolutely amazing, so many of them were focussed on the importance of family and serving others and also on being better people in general.

In between sessions, as it was such a lovely day, Seth and I decided to have lunch outside in the garden. So while Seth was getting the garden furniture sorted out, I made the curry (yeah I know, not the typical type of food one would eat outside but why not?) and then we had our lovely lunch in the sunshine.


We stayed outside for a while afterwards, just enjoying the sun and chatting then we went back in for the next session of conference. It was such a lovely weekend for me, it was inspiring and uplifting and I got to spend some time with my wonderful husband as well. I couldn't really ask for much more!