We bought white roses to remember, ate Maltesers and drank hot chocolate whilst we talked of you.. its nice to hear the things the kids remember.. your "dancing" eyebrows, the tickles and laughter... and I love the way Heather always smiles softly as she says "Grandad Peter was nice.."
They miss you.
I miss you.
I love you Daddy, Happy Birthday..
J
x
p.s. almost forgot your present.. I passed... and come that lonely day in May, I'll be there on that hill to see you.. in that car you paid for.. driven by me.
Today I'm dedicating my thoughts and this post to the memory of the people that lost their lives on 9/11.
It's hard to believe that it's ten years ago already, so much has happened to the world and indeed in my own life since then.
Ten years ago today I was heavily pregnant with my firstborn child, my son Jake. I was sitting at home on the sofa watching daytime tv.. (such is the joys of maternity leave!), I was having some quiet time alone with my ever expanding bump actually.. we'd been in the shower and applied lotion to the mass of stretch marks..lol, had lunch and were settled on the sofa watching the tv whilst my hubby Rich went to Tesco's for the weekly supplies.
I remember being irritated as the newsflash bulletin interrupted my lazy day and I wondered what had happened.. nothing could have prepared me or any of us for what happened next.. for what was about to unfold before our eyes.
It shocked me.. it shocked everyone. I remember phoning Rich in Tescos and telling him to find a tv in the electrical department.. I remember the faces of the newsreaders as they delivered the devastating details.. I remember the look of horror on the peoples faces and felt their fear as they watched what was happening to their beloved city and her people..I remember watching their pain and listening to their anguished cries and screams as the towers fell and they watched their loved ones die.. I screamed myself as they fell and I prayed with them as they searched for survivors... and I cried with them as they mourned their dead.
I know I'm not the only one that watched with her heart in her mouth as America struggled through her darkest hour and I also know I'm not the only one who will never forget..
Someone posted on facebook something so simple and yet so moving.. I thought I'd share..
"For the husband who told his wife I love you one last time before his plane went down in a field, for the wife who stopped in the stairs to call her husband to say I will love you forever, for the mothers and fathers who kissed their kids goodbye the morning they died, for the policemen who rushed in with the firemen to help get others out only to die themselves, for the soldiers who fought back and lost their lives. Today, tomorrow, ten years from now, we will remember.. Never forget 9/11/01."
Yes the time has finally come for me to tell you all about the Savage Tour of 2011.. I know you can't wait can you? I can feel your enthusiasm from here!! LOL
Ok.. I've been a bad blogger - again! eep!! I really need to get a handle of this "complete the task at hand" lark and finish the blog posts in the order they actually happen but what can I say.. I've been very busy since I got home, what with confronting my dentist phobia and passing my driving test and I just havent had time.. nevermind, I'm here now.. are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.. lol
Well we all know where the Savage family like to spend our summer jollies.. we're creatures of habit, we like it here...
yes.. its Scarborough!! Who'd have thunked it? lol
Seriously though, we love it and the kids love it and are comfortable and thems the kind of lasting family memories we're hoping to create.. Talking of families this year we took Rich's Mum (more commonly known as "Grandma Liz") with us for the duration and subjected her to the incessant chatter of Angelina and Heather by making her share a room with them.. probably wasn't much fun for the poor woman but hey.. was a hell of a lot quieter for us!! So first and foremost I would like to thank Grandma Liz for deflecting the chatter from my ears at 7am thus allowing me that rare experience of being able to slowly come around over a nice cup of coffee and toast instead of being forced awake with the sounds of "I'm bored.. wake up Mummy!" that comes from the evil one as she stands at the side of my bed staring at me and trying to use her Jedi mind powers to get her own way at an unGodly hour.. So YAY for Grandma Liz!!! *round of applause*
I hope poor Grandma Liz had a good time, I said "poor Grandma Liz" quite often for the 2 weeks because she was subjected to many moments of madness including...
Bum's at the bus stop!
Yes this was the moment that they all got bored waiting for the Filey bus and decided to moon for a bit of fun.. notice Grandma Liz on the left hand side of the picture facing very much away from them in the classic "I'm not with you lot" pose..
and I can't say I really blame her can you?
Also on the list of "Grandma's fave bits...not!" is this moment..
This was the day when my Mum (who came over for the day) and Liz were sat behind a man on the open topped bus who was a little sweaty.. you can just tell by their faces that they're not amused can't you? LOL (and the fact that Rich has snapped them outside "Winking Willy's" is just classic timing btw) when they got off the bus the pair of them gave a rather gossipy sounding "oooooohh!!!" that reminded me of a certain other 2 'ladies' and I was quickly reduced to a mass of giggles..can u guess who I mean? No? hmm... ok.. well maybe this will jog your memories..
yes.. exactly like that!! Had me giggling for hours.. nearly wet myself when I fould that clip on you tube. lol!
Whats next .. oh yes the weather.. well it wasn't always warm..
there's Grandma sunbathing..lol
but as always there was some quality moments from Rich.. including this one which was taken on the first day when his Mum put him on the naughty step...
and here when he discovered he has his own museum!
In fact he was a constant source of entertainment!! Here he is with his mates the lifeguards...
and I dont think I need to say much about this one except that Alison actually looked up from her phone and said "What the f*ck was that?!?!? OH!!! It's Rich!!!! LMAO!"
Yeah talking of Ali.. she said she came over to build sand castles with the kids.. well I see Ali and her mum and some sandcastles but I dont see no kids...LOL
What else?? Well its hard to think which was my favourite bit...there was Pirates (as you can see) and pirate school and castles and abbeys in Whitby.. (yes we lived dangerously this year and ventured out more..lol), there was the petting zoo at Filey and sandcastles and fair grounds and a birthday and seagull crap...poor Rich, he's consistent.. cant fault him really.. he always gets crapped on..lol
There was a trip to the cinema to see Cars 2 and the huge poster of naked bums which made Jake cringe with embarrassment and Rich drool every time they saw it..
There was...
this.
This is the moment in Whitby bus station, when Rich forgot how to work a door.
A moment later there was a look of panic on his face as one of the girls dropped her pants in view of EVERYONE and sat down to pee not really giving a fudge who was looking.. and Rich had to stand in front of her or face the wrath of me. lol
and then there was this..
mmmm... knickerbocker glory's... always a winner!!!
There were some classic conversational moments...
GL: "Hello Jamie it's your mother... Oooh you sound miles away!"
Rich: "He is!!!!"
and
Angelina bursts into book shop and shouts as loud as she can: "MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!!!!!!!!!!! Dad says have you got a tissue? He's just been pooed on by a reet big bird!!!! Come see... it was ace!!"
or maybe..
Rich stretching: "Ooof I'm tired.. I'm all stiff and achy.."
Jake: "Ha.. Dad's got a stiff" o_O
Outside the cafe at tea time, Me: It does say all day breakfast Rich.."
Heather: "But it isnt breakfast time Mummy!!"
could the game of "Chef's" Angelina was playing..
A: "Mummy, what would u like for dessert?"
Me: "i'll have the jam roly poly thank you.."
A: Sorry.. we dont have jam roly poly. We have sausage. SURPRISE!!"
I know the kids favourite moment but it involved a walk to the bowling green and a "trip" Grandma Liz made and I'm sure I'm not allowed to share what happened next... but if it been me that had done it lets just say I'd have blamed it on Rich lol.
I think I remember my favourite part.. ahh yes.. this was it..
toes in the water.. cool and warm.. relaxed and looking at this fabulous view...
Does it get much better than this???
Hope you all had a great summer, enjoy the rest of the pics.. xx
Job done... yes thats another thing to cross off the "Things my Dad thought I should do" list
Yeah I know I was a bit shocked too but its true... look!!
Sorry had to black out bits for obvious reasons but there it is.. the pass certificate and I dunno if u can see this but what surprised me was that I only had 2 faults!
there, hope thats not TOO blurry! lol.. yes I know.. 2 faults.. who'd have thought I was that good? hehehe especially after having failed repeatedly due to the small matter of shockingly bad nerves..
I'm more than a little surprised that I managed to get in the car for the test because I almost cancelled at the last minute.. sooooo glad I didnt now!!
So thats what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks.. which explains why I havent been able to concentrate on updating here and blogging the fantastic holiday we've just taken in Scarborough with the kids and the mother in law... it was truly brilliant, there were some amazing giggles and there are about 200 photos and lots to tell so now the driving test is out of the way and I am able to focus on something else I shall be spending the weekend typing out the "Savage Tour of 2011!" posts... sorry for delay but I think after all I've been up to this week that i deserve a break dont you? Watch this space.. I promise it wont be long..lol
Now.. if you'll excuse me.. I have a date with a cheeky lil Peugeot 307 I like to call David... ;)
The kids are all smiley happy that this years done and they have 6 weeks off now and I'm smiley happy that I have 6 weeks off work.. although I will be home alone with 2 stroppy 6 yr olds and a bonkers 9 year old for the summer.. but meh.. minor detail... I HAVE SIX WEEKS OFF WORK!!!!!!! YAAAAAAY!!!!
I LOVE this part of my job...lol
On another note, I've now completed a whole year in my job at the school..and in that time you become quite attached to the people around you. I work with a GREAT bunch of people who I'll really miss for the next 6 weeks and bizarrely I think I'll miss some of the kids too.. they've sure given us the runaround somedays but we've had some fun too.. its not always hard work and of course there are our year 6 leavers too and I'll genuinely really really miss some of them.. so.. I wish them all the best and good luck at their new schools. I hope they have a great time.. I loved high school.. I hope they all have as much fun as I did.
As for everyone else.. well... I'll see you in 6 weeks you horrible lot!!! LOL Have a GREAT summer!!!! xxx
play on" they say... and it has been, in my head constantly lately...
ok brace yourselves.. I think my Dad is messing with me.. o_O
Yes I know he's been dead for 3 years but we've had this conversation before.. My Dad always told me that if he could find a way to bloody haunt me he would..
We need to go back a bit for the full tale.. a long long time ago I had a few cross words with a dentist-type person that I didn't like so much.. well he kept hurting me and then he kept charging me for the priviledge and that relationship wasn't working very well for me see.. so when he told me one afternoon that I needed certain work doing that I didn't think I needed I wasted no time in telling him I would not be partaking in his idea for my perfect smile... to be honest, he'd drained the well of all cosmetic dentistry funds and I was a wee bit sore... so no, I dont really want my fillings replaced, they're fine and doing the job perfectly and I dont really care if they're that nasty old silvery colour instead of the new white ones.. I'm not doing it.. argument ensues and I tell him to shove his drill up his... well, I dont think I need to go on... you can probably guess...
I didnt see him so much after that.. or at all even.. that was about 5 years ago..
How does my Dad fit into this? Well he told me to apologise.. or better still find a new (or cheaper) one!!! But not being so keen on dentist-type people, I did neither. Oops.
Jump forward to last year and there I am munching down on an apple or something and out comes my bloody filling.. and can I just add at this point that it wasnt one of the nasty old silvery coloured ones that have been in my head for about 20 years.. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it was one of his stoopid new white ones that are supposed to be BETTER.. yeah right.. TWAT,..I hate to say I told you so, you fat balding old sadist but I DID!!!
Anyway.. filling (white) out.. "Oh bugger." think I.. "Thats not good.." and the next morning I wake up with a very sore tongue..cos well.. you just cant leave it alone can you? and the edges are always a bit rough lol..So, I avoid dealing with it for a few days because it doesnt hurt...which was a big mistake because then I bit into something and broke the tooth..
"Ahh shit." say I as I pick out tooth from my mouth. "Thats going to sting abit!"
Only it didnt. Not only that but a week later as I continue my search for a new dentist.. it STILL didn't. See its above the gum line, so its not going to.. there wasnt any root exposed... and I couldnt find a dentist.. and I dont like them anyway so I didnt try tooooooo hard.. and I left it.
Of course now I'm in total frigging agony and the pigging thing needs to come out.. I still cant find a dentist and will most certainly have to pay for private dentistry which, is fine now cos I can afford it but still... I dont want to phone them cos I'm a big girlie poof and would rather be in agony obviously.. lol.
So again, how does my Dad fit into all this? Well.. I have noticed when I need to do something or rather, he thinks I should be doing something I am bombarded with music.. more specifically a known "Dad tune" everywhere I go.. it'll crop up on a tv show or be on when I put the radio on and be on another station when I change channels.. it'll be on in the supermarket etc.. taxi radio.. If I then dig out the cd and "acknowledge" that I've heard it, it will stop for a day or so.. if I ignore it then I hear it in my sleep.. it'll be the song on the radio that wakes me in the morning for the next 3 days.. one of the kids will be humming it etc..
He drives me crazy with it. It only stops when I do what needs to be done...soooo.. I'm phoning the dentist in the morning..cos I cant take anymore of the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" this week..
Go on admit it.. you're singing along now aren't you?? Yeah you are... I can hear you!!!
I'm not artistic..or even naturally creative. I could never draw.. when my elder brother was painting a mural on his bedroom wall (remember the inner sleeve for Led Zepplin's Stairway album with "the Hermit"? yeah, talented tw*t painted it on the wall) I was still drawing matchstick men.. in fact, I'm 36 and I STILL draw Matchstick men..lol.
So.. I'm not artistic.. I can't draw for shit. I can crochet and knit and sew but I have to work hard at all of them and on a good day I can bake too but I'm not a "natural" cook either..ask my husband (the chef) how many times I've set fire to his beloved kitchen over the years and I dont mean the times I did it on purpose either.. well come on..I have to get out of cooking dinner somehow. ;)
But I can write. Its one thing I've always been able to do. I sit with a paper and pen or more commonly lately, the Laptop (in these days of modern technology) and I put on some background noise.. usually mellow music to keep my mind flowing gently and off I go.. Generally speaking I can sit for hours if given a chance just bimbling on and on about anything and nothing in particular. Some of its rubbish, actually most of its rubbish..lol and sometimes its just ramblings but occasionally there comes something.. and it's just there, like it fell from my lips as I chirped along to myself or my fingers did the "talking" (typing) and when I stop and go back to read there it is and I get that "wtf?!" moment and I don't remember writing it half the time... ooh..wonder if its not really me? spooky..lol
Throughout my life I have written about mainly everything I've ever done. Diaries and journals, short stories, letters etc.. if I was an interesting person there could be some money to be made here and my memoirs would be fairly easy to write given that most of it has already been recorded by my mad ramblings on a Sunday afternoon!!
When my Dad died, everything was written down.. all my thoughts and fears, memories.. some of it was posted here in letter form to him, or in a darkened moment of sadness and despair and the rest was hidden from public view and has either been stashed to a back up disc somewhere or deleted in a fit of "must declutter the mind and cleanse the old soul" type thing.. I realise now that it was probably just too painful for me to go back and read through and also that I had decided I wouldn't want my children to find one day in years to come and therefore it was "buried" instead..as so many things are.
So as I said.. writing has been a constant to me really..it relaxes me so much but lately I haven't felt remotely sensitive to it.. like I'm out of tune with myself maybe. Life is busy, it rolls over and the days blend into one and then a month has passed and where did it go? There are plenty of worthy blog topics..I had a birthday, its fathers day tomorrow..I've been decorating the house and there are before and after pics and we've even been growing veggies and making things and all kinds of things are going on and yet I've got nothing.
I know my brain is as frustrated with itself as it is exhausted from the trials of parenthood, my temper is short and frankly.. fried. I'm exasperated by the little things and irritated easily and all because my usual outlet is failing me. I haven't the time these days, to sit for hours with a pen rambling in a long letter to someone..anyone and I have no one to write to really.. everybody is either gone or on facebook..lol
Internet chatting is fun but it isnt the same is it? Has the internet killed the one creative outlet I have?? Maybe so..
Or maybe not, for here I am.. no pen to hand but the words are flowing and Adele is serenading me with her dulcet tones..so maybe all is not lost after all.. unless... wait a minute... I better go back and read.. check if there's anything there or if I'm just babbling on again..
mmmm...just as I thought, total rubbish..lol. I need a new topic, maybe I should do a Nat and start writing book reviews, maybe I should go back to writing stories or maybe I should try something new like article writing.. maybe I should find a new penpal.. like you. xx
