Night out in London

A couple of weeks ago, Laura and Mum were down visiting me for a couple of days. I love having them down with me, especially at the moment as Seth's exams are coming up and he is spending every moment that he is not at work studying for them. Which is pretty rubbish for me and Caleb as we don't really get to see him. However it's also good because Mum and Lau come to keep us company!

On the Saturday, we went shopping at the designer outlet in Ashford (purchases may have been made!). Mum then left on Saturday evening and Laura and I went into London to meet up with a couple of friends, Lorraine and Hedylamar. Laura had served an 18 month mission for our church at Temple Square in Salt Lake City almost ten years ago with both girls. Hedylamar was over visiting from Spain. Laura hadn't seen her since the mission and it was the first time I met her. She is the nicest girl, it was lovely getting to know her. Even though Laura was on her mission with Lorraine, I met her when we were both counsellors for a youth conference and we have been friends since. It was a lovely evening to be in London as it was sunny and as always, bustling. I have been to London so many times and I never grow tired of it, I love it (as you can probably tell from any of my posts that talk about London but I think it's a great city!) We walked through Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square and Picadilly, then went for dinner in a lovely Mexican restaurant close to Covent Garden. As far as I am concerned, it ranks highly as they serve gorgeous non-alcoholic pina coladas - always a plus! Afterwards, we walked through Covent Garden to see the Royal Opera House (I really want to go to see the ballet there one day!) and then headed back to Leicester Square. They have a Haagen Dazs restaurant there, and being as though it's there, it would have been rude of us not to go there for dessert! If you haven't been there before, I highly recommend it! Their menu is a book of all of the different desserts they do. I think I could have quite happily had all of them but thought better of it! I opted for the brownie explosion, which was divine.

I hadn't planned on going out with the girls that night, I pretty much gatecrashed but I am so glad I did as we had so much fun. As much as I love my boys, it was lovely having an evening with the girls!

Me and my shadow

My little Caleb is now 10 and a half months old. Up until a few weeks ago, he still wasn't crawling. Whenever is came up in conversation with people, they said that I should be glad that he's not crawling because once he's on the move, there will be no stopping him. To be honest I wasn't sure if he would ever crawl or if he would be one of these babies that just start to walk. But, a few weeks ago, he leaned forward to reach for a toy (on one foot and one knee, as he does) and just started to crawl in that position. He did it so confidently that it made me wonder if he had actually done it before and I had completely missed it! I thought that the whole reaching for a toy thing may be the motivation he needed to start crawling, as I would often find him crying in frustration with a circle of toys around him from where he had thrown them all out of reach, but with no way to get to them.

I, perhaps somewhat naively thought, that once he started crawling, it would take him a while to get used to it and being able to move around. Apparently not. He is all over the place! It's so much fun seeing him moving around. The cutest thing is that he now follows me around the house. I will leave him in the living room watching cbeebies while I go to my bedroom to put on my make up. The next thing I know, he's peering around the bedroom door and will then crawl over to start rummaging through my make up bag! Then yesterday, I was washing up in the kitchen and when I turned around, he was sitting on the floor behind me, just watching. Again, he had been in the living room before. I love seeing how curious he is, he loves exploring and discovering new things. If I hold my arms out to him and he is on the other side of the room, he will smile, crawl over to me and hold onto my hands as he pulls himself up.

 

We found him trying to climb out of his cot. Needless to say, we lowered it. Then, when I thought he was in the living room, I found him in the hallway, playing with my Toms!

 



 

 

 

In some ways, I miss having a newborn baby to cuddle, but I have so much fun with Caleb now as he's learning more every day.

Wedding

My nephew, Jamie got married at the end of May. I have been meaning to blog about it since it happened but I was kind of putting it off because it was such a great day and there was so much to write about that I didn't know where to start but I thought I should probably finally do it! I'm using my journal to help me write this but I shall definitely be condensing as I wrote 10 pages about the day! So this is a bit more of a summary :).

Jamie is my oldest nephew and I am only three years older than him. Even though I am the youngest of all my sisters, in some ways it doesn't really feel like it because some of my nephews and nieces are so close to me in age and so they seem more like younger siblings. I remember when Laura and I took Jamie to his football game when  he was younger and the coach told him to stop chatting with his girlfriends and to go and play.When Jamie told him we were his aunties, he made him run laps for being cheeky as he thought Jamie was lying. Jamie and I have a relationship that seems to consist of pretty much always ripping on each other. Not in a nasty way though, we both have fun with it and whenever we are together, it's always constant jibing. I was pretty excited when he phoned me in the New Year to tell me that he had just gotten engaged to his lovely girlfriend, Lauren. I had only met Lauren a couple of times (due to me not living in Norwich anymore and conflicting schedules we seem to all find it a lot harder to get together these days!) but she is a great girl, and they are a great couple.

The wedding was held at Dragon Hall in Norwich. It's a medieval merchants hall and it was a beautiful setting for their day. Seth, Caleb and I arrived about 40 minutes early and we saw Jamie as soon as we came in, looking very dapper in his top hat and cane in hand! He was pretty excited, although you could tell he was fairly nervous too (the deep breaths every few seconds were a bit of a giveaway!). We went upstairs to where the ceremony would be taking place, and where Laura was in position at the piano, playing the prelude music. I love that Jamie chose the music, I think in amongst it was music from Harry Potter, the Rocky theme tune and Superman, to name a few. I'm not sure how many of the other guests noticed but it amused us! As you can see, Laura was amused as she was playing. And no, she wasn't playing Pride and Prejudice music at the time, the other music is in front of the book, for anyone who is paying close attention.
The wedding ceremony was lovely. I was watching Jamie's face as Lauren walked down the aisle and he was so overjoyed. Lauren was every bit the beautiful bride, she looked amazing. The ceremony was very personal to them as they had written vows for each other. I don't think I've ever been to a wedding where the bride and groom had done that but it was so beautiful.

My niece Tor (the blonde one) rocking her bridesmaid dress.

Jamie seeing his bride for the first time. 

It's official!

One of the best men, My nephew Ben with Tor

After the ceremony, we all went outside for photos. There's nothing like a family wedding to get lots of pictures of everyone together!

Sisters!

My lovely Mum, known to the grandkids as Grams, Moo, G-Ma and The Don 

Jamie with his Aunties

The reception was fun and in my opinion, I was at the best table in the room - Seth, Caleb and I, Mum, Laura, Deb and her partner Paul, Lin and Steve. It was lovely to be with them all again. You know when you go to weddings and the speeches can sometimes go on and on and on? This wasn't one of those weddings! Lauren's Dad gave a beautiful speech and in it he said how he had started to think about the speech as soon as Lauren was born, so it was 25 years in the making. My nephew, Ben's best man speech was one of the best  have heard, there were no embarrassing stories, which I'm sure Jamie was glad about because I am sure Ben had ample ammunition! He spoke about Jamie and Lauren being there for and supporting one another, it was very sweet. Jamie's speech was beautiful, he, of course said some lovely things about his bride but he also said some wonderful things about Deb and what an amazing Mum she is. Deb was crying and had her face turned away from him and he made a joke that she could at least look at him when he was talking to her. He seemed so grown up, I can't believe that he is now a married man!

Jamie and Lauren came over to our table and had a play with Caleb, which he loved! Lauren held him and the whole time I was chanting in my head, "don't be sick on her dress, don't be sick on her dress!" Luckily he wasn't, and Lauren is so lovely anyway that she wouldn't have made a big fuss even if he had been! Still, I was relieved!
There was a lot of dancing and I am proud to say that, even in my six inch heels, I managed to dance the night away. It was so great to be with my family and get my groove on, ha ha! It has been a while! I was amazed at how easy Lauren made dancing in a wedding dress look, she was dancing away with everyone. It really was such a perfect wedding and it was lovely to see Jamie and my new niece so happy.

It's done!

For quite some time now, Seth and I knew that I wouldn't be going back to work. In fact, it was always the plan that once we had a baby, I would be a stay at home Mum. Of course, that was the ideal for us but we had to work a few things out (money!) to make sure we would manage it. Even though we knew that I wouldn't be going back, I hadn't actually handed in my notice. I don't know why really. I think it's because, while I was just on maternity leave, it was still MY job and my place of work and in a way I kind of liked that, it felt like I had a foot in both camps.

Last week, I decided to finally bite the bullet. I went into work to meet with my boss. I know I could have just written a letter or sent an email to tell her I wasn't going back, but I didn't want to do that. It seems so impersonal, especially considering the fact that my boss has literally been the most amazing boss ever. She was always so supportive right throughout my pregnancy and she has become a good friend. She knew I was pregnant before my family even did (I had a couple of bleeds early on in the pregnancy and needed some time off work). So, last week, Caleb and I went into work to meet with her. When I told her that I had decided not to come back, she was so lovely about it. She said that she had wondered if I would or not and that she doesn't blame me for wanting to stay with Caleb. After that was done, we went for lunch, along with my other colleague and friend, Kerstin, who is also a great friend.

So, there we go! I am now officially a stay at home Mum. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to work at such a great place and to make such lovely friends.

This was my building. My office was in the middle of it, overlooking the courtyard.

 But now, I am even more grateful for my new job role. I feel really blessed that we are able to manage on just Seth's income. It is going to be tight and we probably will struggle, but we are both really glad that we have made the decision for me to be with this little one full time. 

Scrabble!

Yes, I like scrabble so much that it warrants its own post and I am not ashamed of this fact!

I think my earliest memory of playing scrabble would be when I was a lot younger and we would all be playing it as a family. I would always be on Mum's team, which essentially meant that I sat there looking at her letters and didn't really do much else because I was just that rubbish. However, over time I actually got to play without being on Mum's team.When I was living at home, most Sunday evenings would consist of a game of scrabble with Mum and Laura. A lot of the time one of us would be repeating (okay, mainly me) "don't go in my place, don't go in my place" as we (I) would see an ideal place to put the amazing word I had. When I got married, Seth and I continued this tradition of Sunday night scrabble. We don't play every Sunday evening, but often on a Sunday once Caleb is in bed and all the washing up is done, we'll get out the scrabble board and play.

Playing with Seth is always entertaining. I have never known someone who can take so long to play a word. Which brings me to the scrabble game a couple of weeks ago. Seth was able to get all of his letters out, which I know this because I looked at his letters. He wouldn't let me say where he could get them out and with what word, so I stayed quiet. For a little while, then I told him where and with what word. It was on a triple word score as well (goodness only knows why I was helping him when I wanted to win!). However, Seth hates it when I help and so after a few seconds of deliberating, he decided that he wouldn't play his word there. There was also another place where he could get all of his letters out. Again, I told him, but didn't tell him where. He took HALF AN HOUR to figure out where it was he could play and with what word. We were really laughing about it and I haven't let him live it down!

Last week we played scrabble and I got the Z quite early on in the game. I couldn't play "zoo" (let's face it, everyone thinks of "zoo" first if they get the Z!) as I didn't have any O's. I did, however, have FREEZIN. Seth had a G. I was pretty pleased when he decided to use the G in a place where I could get all of my letters out.

I got 92 points! I may have done a little celebratory dance. How many of you are actually checking that it does actually add up to 92 right now? 

So, this post is pretty much me celebrating doing well in a game of scrabble. Praise me.

Seth's week off!

Seth had Easter week off work and it was amazing! He works so hard and because of that, often we don't get to spend more than an hour together a day, so Caleb and I were both very excited to have him all to ourselves for a WHOLE WEEK!

We didn't really do anything huge during that week. On one of the days, we went into London to play. It was such a beautiful, sunny day. I love London in the sun, it makes walking around so much nicer. And we did walk everywhere! It's so much easier than struggling up and down stairs of underground stations with a pram. Caleb was awake and alert the entire time we were there, he was taking it all in. For some of the time, he was in his baby sling which he loves as it meant he could look around more. He only fell asleep when we were walking home from the train station.

Being as though Seth has been so busy with everything lately, not much decorating has been done in the house, so the rest of the week was spent painting Caleb's room. Caleb was kicked out of his room and he was sleeping in the lounge for a few days. We would put him on our bed to go to sleep and then when we went to bed, we would transfer him to his cot in the lounge. In case you were wondering. Which you probably weren't. Anyway.... Seth wouldn't let me help paint as my wrists were still recovering, so once Caleb was in bed, I would sit in there with Seth and keep him company. He would be painting until around 1am so we were just chatting for hours, it was lovely! He ran out of paint with only a tiny bit of wall left, which was a bit annoying so we went out to buy more so that he could finish the job. He also sanded down all of the walls before he painted them to make them smooth. There was dust everywhere, but I was just amused by the fact that Seth had grey hair as a result!


As I said, my wrists were still recovering, which meant that even though Seth was on holiday for that week, it was also a bit of a holiday for me too as he didn't let me do anything around the house, he did all the cooking, washing up, preparing Caleb's food, it was great. Here we are all hanging out in the kitchen while he was making mashed apples for Caleb.
Like I said, we didn't do anything major that week at all, but it was so lovely to just all be together. I love my little family!

Results

As you have seen, if you have been reading this blog, I had my grade 8 piano exam a couple of weeks ago. I honestly came out of it, not knowing how I had done. I'll tell you my whole piano playing story so if you can't be bothered to read it, skip to the end to find out how I did!

It was in the new year of 2012 when I decided that I wanted piano lessons to try and get to a higher grade than grade 2, which is what I had attained when I was around 11! Even though I was about 12 when I gave up having lessons, I still carried on and really enjoyed playing and composing (I have written the accompaniment and parts for a few choral pieces which you can see here). I had thought about having lessons again for a while before I mentioned it to Seth. He, being the ever-supportive husband, encouraged me to look into it. I was very lucky to be working at Goldsmiths, University of London which has an incredible music department and I started to have piano lessons with Coady Green, a phenomenal pianist who has performed globally. He is a fantastic teacher and just what I needed, I think. I didn't want a teacher who would tell me I had played something brilliantly if it was in fact, pretty rubbish but by the same token, I didn't want a teacher who was so harsh that he made me wonder why I was bothering. Coady was always really encouraging and helped me to develop hugely. I don't think I would have managed to do nearly so well if it wasn't for him.

Practising wasn't always easy. I was so used to having a piano to play when I lived at home, it was something that I just took foregranted. Laura and I would often take turns to play and Mum would sit there with her eyes closed, enjoying listening to us. The often repeated phrase in our home was, "oh, play that one again, you know I love that one!". Seth and I didn't have a piano, so I was practising on a keyboard for a long time. Well, for most of the time I was having lessons, I was practising on the keyboard. Although it was a pretty good one, it's just not the same as practising on a piano. For one thing, you can't really get a feel for the dynamics as there are none. Also, I was missing a couple of octaves, which meant that I didn't always have all of the notes that I needed to be able to practise properly. It was after I came home from a piano lesson crying because I thought that there was no way I could pass this exam that Seth suggested we start looking for secondhand pianos. I searched on ebay but was unsuccessful with every bid I made. At this point, we thought it might be an idea to actually measure the width of the corridor and stairway of our first floor flat. It turns out that there is no way that we would have managed to get a piano into our flat, so at that point, I was so glad I hadn't managed to get a piano! We did however, manage to get a yamaha clavinova secondhand. I love it, it's amazing! It made such a difference being able to practise on that.

Long story short (or shorter than it could have been, had I carried on. Be grateful, people!), I found out on 25th March that I had failed the exam. Just kidding. You probably knew that though because that was a pretty long build up just to tell you that I had failed, right? I passed! And I got a merit! 125 out of 150 marks! Even though I had made some mistakes in the exam, I still did enough to pass (plus I was praying pretty hard so I think that helped too!). I am so happy! It's not that I think I'm amazing or anything, but it just proved to me that if I work hard at something that I really want, then I can achieve it. And I really wanted this. Strangely, even more than I wanted to succeed and do well in my degree. I think it's because I felt so passionate about this, I love playing the piano so much and because of that, it makes the accomplishment that much sweeter.

And just because I like blog posts with pictures, here is one of me with my favourite pianist, Ludovico Einaudi, taken a few years ago at his concert in Cambridge.