Author: racheltheunissenwriter

London with the kids

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

In the August of 2019, I decided to meet my beautiful sister-in-law with her girls in London and do a bit of sightseeing with the kids. My oldest, Tom, was 11 and the youngest, Leo, was 4. Travelling to London on the train seemed the easiest way to get there and I knew the kids would be excited by the novelty of it. They all had their own backpacks with fun activities they wanted to do on the train, a few snacks and a drink. Great fun! The photo above was taken soon after we met up with our lovely family at Buckingham Palace.

By this time, I’d begun to realise my mistake in thinking I could do this on my own! It’s another example of my ‘It’ll be fine’ moments. When we got to London, I bought all the kids day tickets for the tube so they could get themselves through the barriers. However, Leo is left-handed, so at every ticket barrier he tried to go through the wrong gate! I would have to grab him to push him through the right one and make sure he got his ticket back! This happened every time, and you can imagine the other people waiting to get through the barriers weren’t exactly pleased to see me handing out and collecting tickets, pushing kids through and then probably what looked like snatching a child from one of the barriers and shoving them through another.

Anyway, we got to Buckingham Palace and the children all stared through the iron railings. The younger ones couldn’t see very well, so they climbed up, as you can see here. Cute hey?

A few moments after this was taken one of the soldiers in front of the palace starting yelling. We all thought it must be the changing of the guard. But no, he stepped forward and pointed at these beautiful faces and yelled for them to get down and made a show of the massive gun he was carrying! A bit over the top. Not sure Leo was planning a coup!

So we swiftly moved on, trying to assure the children that they weren’t really at risk of being shot for standing on the railings! We cooled off at the fountain as everyone was already a bit hot and bothered! The girls were still smiling but the boys were melting! We tried to get them all enthusiastic about the historic sites but things began to slide from this point on!

We found a phone booth and thought it would be great fun to squeeze all the kids inside! As you can see the kids weren’t impressed, and Leo could only be appeased if he was allowed to hold the phone to his ear!

After a lovely picnic lunch, we said goodbye to the cousins and headed off on our own to the science museum. You can see from the photo that my kids were at the end of their patience for my upbeat optimism that we were having a lovely time! Even Abbie is flagging here!

I was sure the museum was going to be a win because it had to be cooler inside than out. A short tube ride later and a head count through the barriers we arrived, bedraggled and tired at the museum. By this stage, I was doing my best to keep everyone positive! We wandered through the upstairs of the museum, especially stopping to look at all the space exploration exhibits. My upbeatness was keeping everyone moving!

Abbie was buying it! She was embracing the fun! Not a forced smile at all!

A few moments after this photo was taken, I realised that Leo no longer had his bag. Now, if you’ve been to London, you know that everywhere you go there are signs telling you not to leave bags unattended!

Now everyone had begun to enjoy the water play and were quite chilled. Millie was probably on the verge of a meltdown but had been holding it together. I tried to stay externally calm, while imagining the bomb squad surrounding Leo’s bag somewhere in London, only to find a Nintendo DS and a colouring book. I calmly told the kids we would have to retrace our steps and find the bag. This was breaking point.

Poor Leo had no idea when he’d last had the bag. Tom thought he remembered Leo having it when we arrived at the museum. So with a lot of persuasion and a few tears, I rallied the kids, and we went back through the museum. In the space area, we found the bag in a video booth. No bomb squad, no alarms going off, we had done it.

This is the moment I gave up. I was hot and exhausted and couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to carry on exploring. It was hard work but I managed to get everyone onto the tube.

When we finally got to the train to go home, it was absolutely packed, and so we crammed five people on two seats for a two-hour journey. Needless to say, I didn’t do it again!

Beach Day!

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

As the weather is so lovely, I thought it would be a good time to share one of our favourite beach stories! One summer about 8 years about when our kids were aged between 4 and 11, Sean was working most of the day on a Saturday and so was a good friend of mine, so I offered to take her kids and mine to the beach for the day.

So, I took all six down to the beach and reserved ourselves a spot. I set up the windbreaks and umbrella, sun-creamed all the kids and then entertained them for around 6 hours. Sean then arrived with my friend. She bought a dinghy, which we immediately blew up and took out on the water. Sean said he’d look after the kids while we headed out in the dinghy for a row and to give me a bit of a break.

Now, we had a lovely time bobbing on the waves and getting away from the noise of the shore. To be honest, I was a bit hopeless at rowing, a bit of lack of co-ordination! But we got pretty far out. Eventually, we felt we should head back to shore and check everything was ok with the kids. As we drew closer, we saw all the children standing on the shoreline calling something to us. We couldn’t hear, but they were very urgent about it. As it felt urgent, I jumped out of the boat and swam to shore. The kids immediately surrounded me, and that’s when I heard this story!

When I had left Sean with the kids, the kids had all gone off to play, and Sean had been enjoying a bit of peace after a busy morning. After a few minutes, he decided to have a quick headcount and counted only five instead of six. Both my friend’s kids were with him, but only three of ours. The youngest, Leo, 4, was nowhere to be seen. Minor panic set in. Sean was sure he must be with one of the other kids.

He checked with them all, and none had seen Leo for a few minutes. Bournemouth beach in the summer is heaving! Sean took a deep breath and commissioned the kids to go off in pairs to try to find him. They scoured the shoreline without success, and they regrouped. At this point, Sean began to try to rationalise in his head what he would say to me when I got back. He knew I’d had the kids on my own for six hours and he’d had them for less than half an hour and lost one! One thought was that maybe three out of four was ok!

Finally, my friend’s daughter ran up and said she thought she had found him but couldn’t be sure. Sean was a little baffled by this but ran in the direction she pointed in. There was a large crowd of people surrounding a beach hut. Sean pushed his way through and there, right at the centre, with some police officers and some friendly beach hut owners, was Leo. Sean swooped in and scooped Leo up. He reassured the police he was definitely Leo’s dad and managed to convince a tearful Leo to agree!

He headed back to the beach camp and gathered the children to talk to them. “Now kids, Leo’s here, everything is ok, there’s no need to tell mum about this!” Cue the kids then running to the shore to wave and shout at us as we headed back!

Camping with young children!

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

We have been camping with the same family every year for the last 11 years, since our youngest, Leo, was 2 months old. This means we have quite a few funny stories. Camping with toddlers leads to some hilarious moments. When we recently went away, we were chatting about some of these, and I knew I had to write them up for you. Don’t judge us too harshly; we’re good parents really, but these stories don’t show us at our best!

When the children were very young, getting them to sleep was a bit of a challenge. We would take it in turns to settle them before sitting out in the fading light drinking something, usually alcoholic! One evening, when our littles – Abbie, 2 and Leo, 1 – were just about asleep, we sat out in the awning to listen for Abbie to settle before we snuck in to get the wine out of the fridge. Finally, all seemed quiet, and a sneaky peep through the window showed two sleeping toddlers. Sean went to open the door, but though the handle turned, the door wouldn’t open. Of course I had to try too, but no, the door was stuck. We realised that Abbie must have turned the latch on the bottom half of the door and locked herself and her brother in!

At this point, our friends had finished settling their kids too, and we all stood staring at the caravan, trying to work out how we were going to get in! Fortunately, the window to the ‘bathroom’ (really just a cupboard with a toilet in) was open. This was still quite high up, as you can see from the pictures! It wasn’t easy for Sean to get in and we were all laughing more than helping!

Another morning the kids were entertained watching a film in the caravan while we had our coffee outside. Abbie came out and told us there was a bird. We all said that was nice, they were watching the Lion King and she was right there were birds in that. She frowned and went back inside. A couple of minutes later one of the other kids came out and told us the same and said we should come and see. We’d all seen the Lion King numerous times and so weren’t overly excited about rushing in to look at Zazu on the TV! We said we’d come in a minute. Sarah drew the short straw and went to see! She dashed out a moment later saying there was an actual bird in the caravan! She then managed to catch the bird and release it back to the wild!

When Leo was younger, he had a nasty stomach issue, which meant he regularly would have a day of vomiting. Poor boy, he coped with it really well. This happened once when we were camping, and the best thing to do seemed to be to keep him isolated in the caravan and let him try to sleep it off. He was very sleepy and so slept a lot of the morning. By lunchtime, I brought him outside to sit on my lap, and he seemed to perk up, but being concerned in case it was a tummy bug, I took him back inside and he felt sick again. Sean came in and noticed there was a funny smell in the caravan. Sean has a very sensitive sense of smell, so I wasn’t really that surprised. Leo had been sick more than once, and so the smell was to be expected. But when one of the kids came in and said they smelt something funny too, we investigated a bit more. To our horror, we discovered that the leisure battery was leaking gas into the caravan! We’d essentially been poisoning Leo by leaving him in the gas-filled environment! Fortunately, a caravan serviceman was on site and quickly helped us to get rid of the battery, and I sat outside with Leo until he was feeling more normal!

There’s another poisoning incident, but I think that deserves a blog post all of its own!

There used to be a very tall and, let’s be honest, quite rickety slide at the campsite. This was the focus of much of the park fun. In the pictures below you can see Sarah, safely holding onto her daughter as she went down the slide, and also Sean kind-of holding Abbie. However, when Leo was old enough to go down at around two, he was a little scared to go and so Sean decided to help him. He did this by taking him up the steps and then holding him dangling at the top, before (much to my horror!) letting go and allowing him to whoosh down on his own! Needless to say he didn’t enjoy it! We still talk about this and wonder if it’s why Leo is so fearful of slides and often concerned about safety.

Next time I’ll elaborate on the poisoning!

Camping Acrobatics

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

Enjoy this blog written by Tom!

Another classic camping moment comes from two fathers of the respective families, my dad and Adam. Each time we go camping, once in May and once in July, the men (I’m happy to be included in that category) go to the pub for a pint and we get meat for a braai. The women often go charity shopping together on another day for clothes or mediocre board games that only get played once a year. 

On this occasion, I was able to drive the car for the first time, so I was naturally allocated the role of the designated driver! We parked up after some great driving (given the car was quaking under the weight of myself and the 3 large men it was holding) and went to the butcher; browsed for the meat we wanted and we got it using the great discount for those camping at the place we were at. We then headed to the pub. It had a great garden seating area, and the sun was shining bright so we were almost fighting for shade under the giant parasol that was above the table. Due to my being the designated driver, the other guys had a little extra to drink, which was, after later evaluation, likely the reason for this story being told. 

We got back to the camp site, and sat down to eat some really well-cooked meat! We were discussing how our dads are old, and can’t do anything. Unexpectedly, our dad got up and said that he can still do a headstand which he then demonstrated. Surprisingly well. He even managed to spread his legs in the air.

At this, Adam, filled with excitement, said that when he was 14, he could dive-roll really high and said that he would demonstrate. It was at this point that the cameras came out. The videos should be linked below. My dad resumed his position and Adam began his “run-up”. He had recently had a knee operation and is not the most athletic person to begin with, so this was more of a limped waddle leading to a collision and the two rolling on the floor in pained laughter. This story is great, because it’s one of the stories where there are multiple videos to look back on. At every mention of it since, Adam has remained convinced that he could do it if he tried again and I’m eagerly awaiting the time they try again.

Sean’s 40th birthday fail day!

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

When Sean was turning 40, we made all kinds of plans to have family and friends over. It was going to be great fun. We had family come over and he had his presents from them. As the day wore on, he was feeling a bit under the weather. The next day, after family had left, Sean had a fever and as we were still in the Covid season, it made sense for him to do a test before we had any guests over. Unfortunately, it was covid! So all our plans had to be cancelled, and we were going to be homebound for a few days.

I’m not one for sitting around doing nothing. I felt fine and so I got started on a job we’d been avoiding! The drains! We had noticed the drain in our garden seemed to be backing up. So we followed the drain line to the next manhole cover, we lifted it to discover it was full to the brim with floaters of many varieties! Disgusting!

Our drive is on a hill, so we walked down to the bottom, opened that cover and it was dry as a bone. So I went on Amazon and ordered some drain rods for next-day delivery, closed the manhole covers and waited for the rods to arrive.

Fast forward to the next day, Sean’s birthday. Thankfully, he was now feeling much better, just a mild cold. The rods arrived, they extended about ten metres when all connected. I was looking forward to getting this sorted and so I opened up the man hole cover at the bottom of the drive and fed the rods through. I ended up lying on my front leaning into the man hole reaching to push them up as far as they would go but didn’t feel any resistance. Not long enough.

Never to be deterred from a mission, I scoured our shed for something to make the poles longer. I found a crowbar which I then taped to the end of the rods. Now, at a stretch, I could just about feel the point of resistance. But still, it wasn’t quite long enough. There was nothing else in the shed I could use, so still determined, I searched the house for something to add to my rods! My eyes lighted on Tom’s retractable light sabers! I took one of the red ones, the dark side, it was definitely a job for the baddies!

Back out by the man hole cover, I taped the light-saber to the crowbar, then taped all the retractable parts of the lightsaber. At this point, Sean came out, shaking his head at my contraption! But I was confident. I lay back down on the ground and reached into the hole, holding the handle of the lightsaber! Finally, I could feel the resistance and so started to shove with all my might. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing.

I looked up at Sean standing with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “Do we really have to do this today?” Perfectly reasonable question. It was his birthday after all! Next question was, “What do think is going to happen when you release the flow! Your face is pretty much in the hole!”

I reassured him that I could do it, I’d be able to jump up in time! So I continued to try to clear the blockage. Eventually, with a sigh, Sean indicated with his head that I should get out of the way! He grasped the lightsaber handle, lay in my place, and gave an almighty thud.

There was a gulping sound and Sean leapt up, all of us screaming as the brown tsunami gulged to freedom. Sean retracted the rods with impressive speed as the flood of our families excrement made its way down the hill. The speed it came at was quite shocking. We all took a step back as the hole filled with …. well, you can imagine! Fortunately, it then moved into the main drain and didn’t splat anyone in the face, or anywhere else (Sean’s big fear)!

You’d think that would be the end of the story, but Sean then had to clean the rods before putting them away! Not his favourite birthday story, but one that always makes us laugh!

Kid’s eye view!

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

I have compiled two stories into one here because I feel like they both fall into one category of “How we saw Mum do it” because the funny part of the story is not what actually happened but the way we, the kids, saw it using the beautiful imagination God blessed us with! 

The first of these stories happened when we had our Tesco food shop delivery, usually on a Sunday. This service is really helpful for our family as it means every week mum doesn’t have to carry food for 8 people and a cat up the drive… instead a random spotty teenager or grumpy old man does it. It also means we can all pull our weight by doing something together in a super efficient manner. On a rare one or two weeks, a non-essential item would slip through the system and not make it to us like marmite, for example. 

On the week in question, Tesco seemed to have missed a few items, but the thing we noticed after the Tesco man had left was the bananas, a very important fruit in our house, so mum went back outside to see if she could get them. In reality, she had called the man, who had not yet reached the van to check and as it turned out, he had accidentally missed a crate of food and he brought it up to our door. When mum came in with the crate, she was very surprised to find everyone in the house in utter hysterics, because of how we imagined the interaction.

In our minds, the Tesco man had already driven away and mum ran with all her might to catch up to him, had hit her slipper against the window, forced him to stop and then dragged him out of his van to search for our bananas. It also transpired that the Tesco man standing at the door heard what we thought had happened and was chuckling when mum gave him the crate back!

The second of these stories comes from an evening dinner when we were having a staple meal in our home, fajitas and enchiladas. We all sat down to eat, with everything laid out on the table so we could serve ourselves. There are usually 7 or 8 of us at the table and so a common problem is that we run out of cheese very quickly! As everyone knows, over the last 5 years, the cost of, well, everything has gone up massively, and it’s not stopping, so every penny counts. Mum, aware of this, told us, “we need to stop wasting the cheese! Cheese is really expensive!” while putting a small portion of cheese onto her wrap. This was met with a chorus of laughter and mime as we showed what we had seen her do. The way we saw that moment was that we saw her saying that cheese is expensive while furiously filling her wrap with the cheese so that it was flying away as she threw it down onto the plate. This is regularly mentioned when we have cheese with any meal, particularly fajitas. 

Covid Stories

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

If you have read my blog series on ‘Moves and Miracles’, then you’ll know that we had to move out of our home and into a friends flat during the full covid lockdown in 2020. This resulted in lots of stories that are often recounted around our dinner table. Everyone has covid stories and so I thought I would put all ours, in just one blog post! We don’t want to dwell on that season anymore than necessary!

Some of these stories result from six of us living in a two bed flat and only able to leave once a day! Initially we had all four kids in one bedroom, it didn’t take long for us to see this was not going to work! Tom then moved into the living room, sleeping on our mattresses, that were acting as a sofa!

The night Tom moved out of the shared bedroom, he thought it would be fun to set an alarm on Millie’s Alexa at 1am! That night, bedtime was a little fraught as Abbie was snoring and so when Millie went to bed, she stopped on her way to slap Abbie in the face and tell her to ‘shut up’! You’d think this might signal to Tom that perhaps his ‘joke’ might not be quite the right timing?! But more likely, he’d forgotten he’d done it!

Anyway, Sean and I woke up to the alarm going off at 1am. We spent a while blearily trying to work out where it was coming from, finally figuring it out and turning it off. It didn’t end there though! For extra fun, Tom had set the alarm to go off every hour for the rest of the night! Needless to say by monring, none of us were Tom’s biggest fans! Although we all laugh about it now!

The flat we lived in, was a relatively easy walk from the beach. So one morning, I decided to take the kids for a swim in the sea as our ‘daily exercise’. We had a lovely time on the unusually empty beach. When we got back Sean was sitting in the hallway outside the flat with his laptop because he had locked himself out after going to meet someone. He was in a meeting so we couldn’t chat but opened the door and went in, leaving it open for him to come in when he was ready.

I went into our bedroom and proceeded to get out of my swimming costume and dressed for ‘home school’. It’s as I’m totally naked that Sean walks in and past me with his laptop held in front of him, still chatting to everyone in his meeting. At which point, I scream and throw myself into the wardrobe! Everyone in the meeting claim they didn’t see anything but still the mortification is real!

When we were finally allowed to have people over for dinner we obviously did! We had a lovely family that we know really well come over. As we all sat down to eat, Leo turns his head to the side and sneezes all over our friend’s plate of food!

We moved into our new home on the 31st July and life suddenly became much easier and so none of us really remember any stories, except the relief of having a bit of space!

Key Dramas Part Two

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

This is a recent story that has been shared pretty widely but causes laughter still!

As last year was quite a tough year, we decided to go away in October half term. We booked a lovely Airbnb with a hot tub, next to a golf club in Norfolk, for four nights. The kids were excited for the hot tub, Sean was excited for the golf and I was just excited to get away with my lovely family!

The only fly in the ointment was the five-hour drive to get there. I looked at the route and had thought that on the way we could stop off in Windsor to do some sightseeing and, on the way back, visit Cambridge and do the same. So we loaded up the car and roof box with everything we needed, including Sean’s golf clubs, and headed off on a bright autumn morning.

We bought meal deals for everyone and arrived in Windsor at lunchtime. We drove past the castle and talked about how we could have a look around the outside and enjoy a walk in the gardens (to be fair, the kids weren’t that excited about it!). However, we got to the car park and saw the cost of parking just for one hour and decided that looking at the castle from the car was sufficient!

Everyone ate their meal deals in the car before we set off again, eager to get to our destination. We arrived at about 3pm. Let ourselves into the house and had an explore. Everyone chose their room, and we came back down to empty the car. We got the few bits out of the boot, a couple of games, pillows and Tom’s bag. Then Sean went to open the roof box and held out a hand for the key.

I didn’t have it. Sean and Tom had filled the roof box and locked it. We checked the car, under the seats in the cup holders, in everyone’s pockets. But the truth soon became obvious. The keys were sitting on our key hook at home! My first thought was, how hard can it be to break into a roof box? Turns out pretty hard!

We got a knife out and had a poke around. This did nothing. Next step, google! We found some videos on YouTube but discovered we didn’t have the tools needed. The next best thing was a locksmith. So we called a few. It was now getting on for 4pm and none of them were keen to come out to our remote spot. The one who agreed to come, said he couldn’t guarantee to get into it and would just look, but thought it unlikely he could get in. He would charge us either way!

So change of plan, Sean jumped in the car and drove over to the nearest Halfords to ask if they could help by giving us a spare key or giving us the tools we needed to break in. An hour later, it was getting dark as he pulled up. I’d been entertaining the kids while we waited, only Tom could use the hot tub because only he had any clothes!

We had another go at breaking into the lock without success. We discussed all the options, did we need everything in the roof box? Probably we could have managed, except for the fact Sean’s golf clubs were in there, and that was the reason we’d chosen this location. We went round and round and realised there were only two options left. I go to Halfords, plead helpless female (urgh!), and try to get them to help or Sean drive the five hours back home and get the key. Obviously, we went for the first option.

I didn’t get anywhere with Halfords, although they were very sympathetic but they couldn’t break into anyone’s roof box. So I took the girls who had come with me to buy some swimming costumes and other essentials for that night and headed back, in the dark and rain, down winding country roads to the lodge we were staying in.

Sean had already accepted the inevitable and had something to eat before jumping back in the car and driving back to Bournemouth. He got back just after midnight and got the key out straight away and tried to unlock the box. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t turn! So instead of spending any more time fiddling with it, he went to bed and set an alarm for 6am.

The next morning, he tried again with the key and found it wasn’t just because he was trying in the dark; the lock was officially broken. With no other choice, he got a hammer and chisel and broke his way in! It was harder than expected, but he had managed to make the hole in the picture below.

So he had gotten everything out of the hole and put it all in the boot. Now he had a holey roof box that needed to come off the roof rails. Otherwise as well as a roof box we would have to buy roof bars! Cue, crawling into the box on top of the car to unscrew the brackets! I think he was very glad to be on his own as he did all this! I’m sure his frustration would have been worse if I had been there offering helpful advice! Although, Leo might have been better suited to crawling around a tiny box on top of the car!

Finally, he began the journey back, and arrived in Norfolk at lunchtime. I’d been entertaining the kids by feeding the ducks, soaking in the hot tub and playing card games! As soon as he got in, I sent him out to have a few minutes to himself in the hot tub before the kids jumped in and the holiday could finally begin!

The rest of the time away was really lovely, we went to a swimming pool, visited a zoo and had chips on the seafront. But the holiday will always be remembered as the one with the key drama!

Camping Dramas Part Two

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

This is a rare story where we were just bystanders! But it still makes us laugh every time we think of it.

For a few years, the family we camp with, the Parretts, had two dogs. A springer spaniel and a border collie. They were both energetic and loved to go for a walk in the woods. Once in the woods they would disappear into the overgrowth and gambol around, having the happiest time! Then, when they got back, it would be time to brush the dogs out and remove the tics!

Although, Sean and I tried to take them for a walk once, and as soon as we took off their leads for them to run around the woods, they turned and ran back to the campsite! Clearly, they didn’t feel we were trustworthy enough!

Anyway, Sarah arrived back from a walk one day and gave both leads to Adam as he sat in his camp chair and began to brush them out. She got a plastic cup to put the tics in. There was a surprising number.

The dogs, meanwhile, were not particularly impressed with being brushed and so were moving around, tangling around Adam as he tried to control them! It was an amusing spectator sport!

Adam, being incapacitated couldn’t get up when one of the children needed help. Sarah had to leave Adam with the tic cup and dogs.

So with the tic cup in one hand and the two leads in the other, he really had his hands full. So when he saw the tics climbing up the sides of the cup. He panicked they might escape and get on him! Adam decided to blow them back in! Big mistake! The tics flew up and filled Adam’s beard!

At this, Adam leapt up, yelling, the dogs started jumping, and we all doubled up laughing as he swatted at his face, calling for Sarah to come to the rescue!

Just a mention of the ‘tic cup’ causes laughter!

Spring time Fidgets!

/ racheltheunissenwriter / Leave a comment

Every year at this kind of time, I find myself getting fidgety for change! It must be the sun coming out and giving me extra energy, but Sean’s face drops when he sees me wandering around with the tape measure in my hand! Over the years, it has resulted in some very amusing moments.

Several times it has meant me deciding the furniture needs to be moved. I know how much Sean hates doing this, and so I started just doing it myself! One particular time, I decided that we needed bunk beds for our boys. So we’d ordered them together, and they’d arrived while Sean was at work. I looked at the instructions and saw that it said it needed two men to put them together. Well, that was a challenge! I may be one not very tall woman, but I could do it on my own! Cue hours of fiddling with alan keys!

This particular set of bunk beds had an upright piece for each end and then the bases for the mattress screwed into that. So with balancing the bottom bunk on some books and cushions, and leaning the ends against the wall at one end and holding the other end. I somehow managed to get it screwed in place! Then it came to the top bunk.

The mattress base was going to be at about my chest height. Part of me thought I should wait until Sean got home and get him to help me, but a greater part of me thought, no, I won’t be defeated! So I got the mattresses, put them on their sides on the base and lifted the top bunk into place. It wasn’t particularly secure but once I’d got the first screw in place I was happy! So, finally, the worst was over and I just had to attach the bumper bar to stop Tom falling out of the top bunk.

The only problem was the holes for this seemed to have disappeared. By this time, I was exhausted and so I thought it might be time to give up. But then I realised that I’d put the top on the bottom and the bottom on the top! I needed to start all over again! I had a mini tantrum! But I’d come so far, I couldn’t give up now. I checked on my little two, they were happily playing in Abbie’s room and so I carried on!

I took the whole thing apart and started again. By the time I used the mattresses back in place to put the top bunk on I was completely exhausted. But I made the beds up anyway. I finally finished in time for the school run.

Sean came home from work ready to put the bunk beds together and couldn’t believe it when I opened the bedroom door with a ‘Ta-da’! He rolled his eyes so hard I’m surprised they didn’t disappear entirely!

I think it was a relief really. At least it wasn’t a half finished job like the time I started to break up the concrete in the garden because I decided I wanted grass. That resulted in Sean spending a whole spring breaking up the garden, digging out stones and then laying top soil. Or the time I had measured all the furniture and moved our room around, only to realise, when I was almost done, that I hadn’t accounted for the lip at the top of our wardrobe! That time he had to get a saw out and cut off the protruding edge! Or the time I decided I could move the whole climbing frame to another part of the garden without even measuring. He watched as the whole thing rolled down the hill crashing bushes and plants in the process!

This year, Sean’s gotten away lightly. I’ve just been scouting for a double oven and have moved things around in the kitchen! But, I’ve got plans, and you never know when he might come home to some ridiculous scheme I’ve either finished or made a start on!