Occasionally we receive messages from friends or family and Carl says 'you should
reply to that with some of our news'. I say "Yes, I should," and then don't!
Well today I have.

I'll start at the bottom, with Laura Mae. The wee cherub is not quite so wee any more
and wears proper shoes. She's got 10 teeth, had her first 'official' hair cut 
(we've tackled her fringe twice already) and waves good bye when you put her to bed! 
She doesn't say many words as yet but has no trouble communicating. This is usually
by means of a small (sometimes a somewhat larger) squeal which can mean anything from
'will you remove this lid' to 'I'd like another malteser'! She seems quite bright to 
me - she's been able to hold, and use a pencil since the age of 9 months, which I 
suppose could be a fluke; I'm doing my best to suppress any possible intelligence 
just in case!

Talking of suppressed intelligence brings me on to Charlotte.
Charlotte has started school now (full time) and wears her Holt Farm Infants uniform
(pronounced'ooniform') with pride. She takes a packed lunchin her Sindy "lunchbock"
(one 'lunchbock' : two 'lunchbocks') and occasionally takes a "twik" for pudding!!!
She is truly a hand-me-down victim and when asked her on her first day if she'd got
her own school uniform she replied "Yes! I'm wearing all Rebecca's old clothes."      

More recently when she outgrew her shoes mum asked her whether mummy had bought
her some new shoes. Charlotte replied "No. Mummy found these old ones in the
cupboard. They don't really fit but she lets me wear them anyway!" The shame!! 

The girls seem to be growing up fast. Rebecca's been to her first disco (5 until 8pm!) 
and came home singing "3-2-1 when the crowd says Bo selecta!" - whatever that means!!
They're into STEPS at the moment. Charlotte had the STEPS video for her birthday and
they stand in front of the television performing the routines along with the group.

Carl took them to see Noddy at the Cliff's last weekend which they thoroughly enjoyed
although they've spotted that STEPS will touring next May and have asked Carl to get
tickets - ha ha ha !

I was at the Cliff's last week along with Mum, Sue, Diz and Mandy. 
The men of the family had all bought the wives tickets for Sing-along-a-Sound of Music 
for Christmas. We were all a little unsure of this at first but it turned out to be 
the most hilarious evening I've had in a long while! It was incredible to see so
many people - young, old, many drunk - that know The Sound of Music as well as me!
You are encouraged to dress up and whilst Nuns in wimples packed the streets of
Westcliff, it was good to see the odd loony come as a mountain (with lonely goat herd!)
or a brown paper package (tied up with string!).

Everybody joined in - some more than others! The drunk man at the back was 
particularly vocal shouting "Don't go!" in a mournful voice as Maria left the party
to go back to the Abbey, and "She's a whore!" as George announced his engagement
to the Baroness!

My very most favourite bit, however, was when right at the very end, as the Nazi's 
searched the Abbey for the family, two or three members of the audience got out their
torches and shone them round the auditorium in a searching like manner!!! 
Audience participation at its very best!!!  

In January it was our 7th wedding anniversary and I was treated to some balls of wool
and a knitting pattern. 

Carl likes me to feel special. On Sunday morning as I awoke, he turned to me and said
"You look old." Last week, as we lay in bed he told me that British Gas are abandoning
their Standing charge. Has the spark all but gone?    

We're thinking of moving house. I probably do most of the thinking but Carl does 
join in occasionally. We went to view a particularly spacious house last week and were 
all examining the enormous cupboard in the downstairs toilet(!) when Charlotte announced
"Is this a bedroom?" She's not used to such space!

We had hoped that we would move to a 4 bedroomed place, the girls would stay as they are,
and we would have a study room. However, Bec and Charlotte are already talking about 
when they get their own room...

We haven't put our house on the market yet. The estate agents have been round but Carl
has seen a sight in the Internet where you advertise your house yourself for nothing
so we'll suss that out first I suspect - Carl likes a bargain! 

I seem to have missed Bec out. Life will always be fairly traumatic for poor old Bec 
although the traumas are less frequent and she is allowed to walk to the lamp-post and
back when things get too much. She adores Laura and I'm sure Laura is good therapy for her.

She's doing brilliantly at school, loves her teacher and has even joined an after school
club where she can play away from home and school. She came home with a ticket last week 
saying that she'd achieved her targets. She can now add speech marks and punctuation to a 
sentence with some considerable accuracy. It's quite scary when they know things. Recently
Bec saw the name Buzz in the credits of a programme. I laughed and said 'Nobody is called
Buzz!' Rebecca said they are.  I said 'Yeah. Buzz Lightyear!' feeling quite smug, when 
Rebecca added, 'Buzz Aldrin.'   

Anyway, I suppose I ought to wind up now and get the small important one out of bed. 
Yesterday I found her sitting on the bottom bunk with the headphones of Charlotte's
dalmatian walk-man on her cheeks 'listening' to Mary's Boy Child. 
Perhaps she's not so bright after all...

Will get Carl to send this, this evening. We've been out every night this week, not once 
together! Still, no rows. And no chatting about the Gas Board!!

Oh! I've just remembered - At the Youth Club where Carl helps out, one of the lads asked Carl 
whether he was in the war? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha


Stay in touch (thanks to those who do already!)

God bless.

Judy