While I wasn't sleeping...

Hello! I'm back. You may have been completely unaware that I'd gone anywhere. It's an overused phrase - especially by me just lately - but I've been on a whole other planet the past two months! I would estimate that I've spent at least 72% of the time I've been missing-in-blog-action sleeping in a near comatosed state. Maybe 18% of it I've been resident in the bathroom with my head over the toilet (no, not hungover) and the other 10% I've been awake, sometimes holding down some form of conversation and generally pretending to be "normal" - whatever normal is!

In short, I've been working my way through the first trimester of my first pregnancy. Fun times ;)

Most people (if not all) who read this blog will already know that by now so this isn't an announcement, just a brief explanation for my crazy long silence. So what else have I been up to in that 10% time window? Not huge amounts but here are some highlights....

(Unfortunately for some reason the formatting has gone very wrong and when I hit publish, the layout of this post is nothing like it is in the editor. However, I simply can't be bothered to fix it, sorry! Hope it doesn't offend your eyes as much as it does mine!!)

I had a very lovely 26th birthday only a couple of days after my previous blog post. It was a chilled out restful day, starting off with delicious hand-made lemon and raisin (wheat-free!) pancakes and a good strong cuppa tea in bed and topped off with a gorgeous roast dinner and AMAZING birthday cheesecake courtesy of Mr. Reay. The company wasn't half bad too as we spent the afternoon and evening with the Ravishing Reays! ;)

                                                         **********************************

Then there was the fun of playing with Thorntons' Easter Adverts with my oh-so-mature friend, H!

And before you think Amy and Vianney were better behaved and sensible on this occasion, think again......
This little diversion was taken during a gorgeous couple of hours spent one sunday morning in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, following a good friend's 40th birthday party the night before. Lots of silliness and lovely Starbucks coffee before hitting the road for the long drive home again.

                                          **************************************

There have been a handful of very lovely visits to the fabulous Morgans, hanging out with them just a couple of days before the arrival of the newest member of the family (and the day before my birthday, hence the lovely presentation from Zach!) and a couple of days after the aforementioned new arrival, Hope Seren, joined them on 22nd February. She's a beautiful addition to a godly, wonderful family.

**********************************

Another birthday, this time Andrea's and we celebrated it with a Spring picnic at Cosmeston, playing silly card games (which I enjoyed winning, oh yes!) and mocking our husbands for various accent-related reasons! Racists or what!

          ****************************************

And finally (for now!) the most recent highlight was a delightful afternoon and evening spent with the fabulous Pizos. You may know them as Mr. and Mrs. Pippa of "Pippa's Long Stockings" among other enterprises! We had a brilliant BBQ and very much enjoyed their bargainous, brand-new hammock/swingchair thing. So much so that we went right out and purchased one the very next day! I say "we": Vianney went and bagged the very last one left in ASDA while I hung out in my usual spot for the morning. I won't elaborate on that :)

Anyway, the "Pizo highlight" is certainly one we are going to be repeating soon. They put the Joy into Joyce (their surname) and spoilt us rotten with their gift of hospitality as well as their gift of a very talented local butcher!! Here's to a summer of such BBQ's and company. And here's to me managing to write another blog post before two more months pass!