Bye bye Betsey...

Our little girl was killed by a dog nearly 4 weeks ago. I can't even begin to describe the pain her loss has caused.

Yesterday would have been her 4th birthday :(

Miss my wee woman so much. I don't think many understand how much its affected me because i do a really good brave face impression! Only those who really know me realise i haven't been the same since we found her.

Our house feels empty, even though we have the little man but he's not the same kind of cat. She was so affectionate and loving and he's a lil ball of crazy! A new addition to our little family might make things a bit easier, missing her cuddles at night is by far the toughest thing to deal with, so maybe if we had that again it won't hurt so bad.

Bye bye Betsey Booboo

09-03-09 - 08-02-13

Blogger app?! Universe you read my min!

I have been the same with blogging as i am with diary keeping...awful.

I saw someone tweet about a blogger app and voila!!

I'm hoping this will make me much more active because I've been meaning to post so many stories and pics, just never seem to get the time!!

Fingers crossed this goes the way i plan! :)

X

Gee whizz, time flies!

June was the last time i posted?! I think life may have got in my way a bit, or should i say the monotony of life! 2012 is destined to be a good year so i intend to be a lot more on the ball!! for now though seeing as my last post was about my little man Elvis, here's a few up to date picture of my not so little man now!!

My other brand new little nephew meeting his cousin!

 Whinging asking for more food!

With his big sister Betsey opening their christmas presents! terrible pic but one of the only ones where they're together for longer than a millisecond!


I have so many new pictures to put up and stories to tell, I'm excited for launching back into this!

The Evolution of Elvis...

Yikes, it's been far too long since I was last on, but I have a very good excuse! We just got a new addition to our family....a kitten!! (no babies yet thank you very much!).

He's been very poorly so every spare minute I have I've been using to tend to my little boy. Here is his story...(the pics are all taken on blackberrys so apologies for the poor quality)

My friend works for a recycling company doing office management and one of the truck drivers came into the office a few weeks ago with a box. When they looked inside they saw 2 little kittens! He had been about to send his cargo through the shredder when he heard a little squeak and looked a bit closer, only to see 2 tiny balls of fluff. Luckily he had a heart, unlike the scumbag who dumped the kittens there, and rescued them from a truly horrific death.

He brought them into the office and my friend immediately called me to see if we would be able to take one, as the other one had been taken right away. I was so saddened by his life so far, but because we have Betsey already I wasn't sure how she'd handle having a little brother or sister, but i asked her to send me a picture anyway. As soon as i saw him i knew he was mine and i bombarded husband with texts telling him the horrible tale and how this little baby needed a home. He thought the same as me, Betsey really is like our daughter and she's so spoiled we were both worried she would be upset with a new addition.

My friend brought the kitten home and i went round that night to help her feed him and look after him. When i walked in i squeaked because he was the tiniest thing i have ever seen! I've owned guinea pigs that were bigger!! He looked so ill, his little eye was sealed shut and he was sneezing.

My friend brought him round to my house the next day after a lottttt of convincing with husband. We took him in on the premise that we would look after him until he got better, and see how him and Betsey got along, but always with the idea that we may give him up to the Cats Protection Society Belfast if Betsey wasn't keen on him. Once we had him at home we kept him and Betsey apart because we didn't know what was wrong with him, or if it was infectious etc. After some googling, we figured out he had cat flu, which is mega contagious and quite dangerous for kittens, so much so it can kill them. Neither of us wanted to risk Betsey so i phoned the Cats Protection to see how we go about handing him in. The lovely woman told me they were full and to make sure he got better we could take him to Cedar Grove veterinary and get him treated for free!! I couldn't believe it, because i phoned the vet first and they said for just a consultation and an antibiotic it would be a minimum of £40!

We took him to the vet and she said it was cat flu and he would get over it, but he might lose his eye because it had blood ulcers from being uncared for and not cleaned for dear knows how long! After a quick clean up, antibiotic injection and some eye drops, he was already looking better!

Its been 3 weeks now of nursing him, syringe feeding him until he was strong enough to ear himself, giving him eye drops every 2-3 hours, midnight feeds and general cuddling and he is so much bigger, better, fatter and stronger!!

We are most definitely now a family of 4 and he is ours forever. Nursing something so small and vulnerable it was impossible not to fall in love with him. We named him Elvis just before we got the great news that his eye is all better and although there is some scar tissue visible on his eye, he can see out of it perfectly clear!!

It just sickens me to think anyone could do that to any animal. Surely it takes as much effort to drive a cat to a sanctuary as it does to take them to a dump where they know they will die. It's the same feeling i get when i hear of people raised on farms where drowning kittens or puppies was just a run of the mill task. Any human capable of killing an animal in that way is more than capable of killing another human being in my opinion. To take the life of another living thing is intense, especially domesticated creatures who put so much trust into us.

I'm just glad this little man is safe with us now and although he hasn't been introduced to his big sister just yet, i think she'll be just fine with him. We've had to keep him in quarantine until he's fully over the flu, but we should be letting them meet properly in a bout a week! Betsey knows there's something going in but isn;t quite sure what and when she has seen him in passing she's curious but not angry or aggressive! 

The evolution of Elvis has been hard work, but rewarding and long may it continue!!

Easter brings chocolate and picnics...

Easter has always been a traditional family time for us and i was so excited to not only have a few days off, but manage to blag a whole week with the help of a royal wedding and clustered bank holidays (the only thing i will ever be grateful to the royal family for i suspect...)

So this year was even better! On Easter Monday the whole clan went to a place called Peatlands Park in Dungannon. It's a relatively unknown little spot but is brilliant for family times because it has so much greenery, forest walks, picnic tables, a pond with ducks to feed and more importantly a little train that takes you on a tour around the park. Not one of those trains designed into tricking kids they're off on an adventure, this is a proper little train that goes for a good long while and has lots of interesting facts and beautiful scenery to travel through!

We started off with our picnic which i was probably a little too eager for, mainly because it gave me the chance to show off my very cute picnic basket. I bought it a good few years ago, but my Dad is chief food provider on family outings and never normally asks us to bring anything, so i never got a chance to use it before. However husband and I are both vegetarians and can sometimes be left with not much choice in the food he brings so we thought we would bring our own, which also included the excessive amount of fruit we both eat on a daily basis!

This is my hamper in all its pink glory! it originally came with plastic cups, plates etc, but i replaced them with vintage style blue melamine ones and bought hot pink plastic cutlery that were designed with a retro feel.

This is my famous couscous salad! Nothing hugely special about it, but the combination of flavours makes it really tasty and the addition of a little balsamic vinegar and side serving of  homous with pre-toasted wholemeal pitta bread makes it a firm favourite at every dining occasion!

After our food we got an ice-cream, (naturally) and headed to the train station! My 2 nephews were with us, Ethan (4) and Caleb (2 months). We really have been spoiled with 2 such well behaved little dudes and I'm sure when we get round to popping out some babies they will be a nightmare in comparison. Plus my sister takes pride in pointing out that she makes very cute children, and by jove shes right, they are gorgeous (no bias honest!). 

The train is so much fun and Ethan is obsessed with all things locomotive so he had a blast. He says his Uncle Mark is his best friend, so they were stuck together like glue all day. I enjoy nothing more than watching the 2 of them play together, or Mark trying to teach Ethan all about transformers, or the best way to combine lego. It does make me broody, if I'm honest...and then i remember my sisters tales of child birth and the moment passes...quickly!

 This is my favourite picture from the day. Just us and our favourite little man!

Ethan didn't want to get off the train as you can see from the picture up there! But we had cricket to play and ducks to feed so we had to go! It was such a sunny day i had to take the opportunity to take some pictures of the blossom on the tree. Pink is my favourite colour so to have beautiful apple blossom trees every you go this time if year makes me a very happy girl indeed. 

We headed to a little farm near by for some more animal feeding and then with an exhausted 4 year old we headed home. I LOVE spending time with my family, especially when i feel like I'm not cramming in time to spend with them, like i do every Saturday, which is the only time i ever get to see them really. There are a few more bank holidays coming up in July (in Northern Ireland) so hopefully we can fit in a trip to the seaside to show little Caleb the sandy shores of Portrush!

or to me and Mark thanks!

Lovely, lovely times were had.

Age Rage...

A friend and I started up a little cupcake company a while ago called Ani & Lulu's,  taking personal orders, birthdays weddings and all manor of events where cake is required (which if you ask me, every day is a cake day!).  We do a lot of festivals too, but we get a lot of orders via word of mouth or referrals from people who've tasted our lovely cakes and want more more more! 


Recently a friend of my mums asked me to make some cupcakes for her daughters 18th birthday. I also volunteer for a kids club and the birthday girl used to attend when she was about 6-10 years old so hearing she was turning 18 made me feel ancient! Nothing makes you feel old like seeing someone you used to think of as a child in drunken pictures on Facebook or hearing they've graduated from Uni, sometimes from a course you never thought they would be able to comprehend or with a better result than you got!

It got me thinking about my age. I'm 27 now and turning 28 in November which absolutely terrifies me. I know it isn't that old technically, but maybe because I've been with my husband since I was 17, moved out of my parents house pretty much as soon as I hit 18 and I've had a job since I was 13 i feel a lot older than i should. I guess I've just generally been a little more grown up than i should be all my life, not necessarily maturity-wise, just in that I've taken on responsibilities most people leave until a little later on in life, like rent, relationships, budgeting money to be able to buy food, volunteering for activities, getting married fairly young and buying a house fairly young. I don't regret any of the choices I've made in my life, but man do i feel like an old lady! It probably doesn't help that most of my friends are younger than me, my best friend is only 23 and she thinks that's old!


Once you get married people tend to expect you to get preggo and pop pit sprogs right away. The fact of the matter is we never had that plan. We got engaged when I was 17, i doubt anyone thought we would be together this long, we got married when I was 23 even though i would have married him the week i met him, but winning over the folks and having all the family present for the wedding I'd always dreamed of was the best idea ever because my wedding day was literally the happiest day of my life, all cliches aside! We always agreed we would be married and enjoy being with each other for a while before having kids, but now I'm approaching 30 and hubby is 6 years older than me, it sort of limits the time we have to start planning our family, because although i want to wait to have little ones, i also want to be young enough to enjoy it!


Ah the perils of the aging process, and the most ridiculous part is there's nothing you can do to pause time, even just for a little while. I've been joking about not celebrating my birthday this year, but maybe instead I'll celebrate all the things i have done up to this age and learn to relax more because I've already achieved quite a lot so far!