2022

Nothing to do with me

Got up today with every intention of working towards finishing the base for my shed but it turned into a day spent doing stuff for others.

Walking Billy because he needs a dump Washing school uniforms because Reagan and Lincoln need them for Monday, visit Grandad because he’s desperate to see his grandkids, gymnastics because Lincoln needs more than XBox at the weekend shopping for a phone because Jamie wants a new phone. Back to the outback because Lincoln wanted to watch a film with Mommy and Daddy.

I love a day like this because I worry so much about being selfish and whether I give enough I always feel like I never do enough to make other people happy because I like doing stuff I like to do, at home that most would find boring but its what I like to do.

Tomorrow I hope I get the chance to get out into the garden and do some moving and levelling and hopefully get our garden to the point where I can store wood as well build a shed too.

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Surprise!

I like to surprise Jamie with the mundane.

I have always found great joy in carrying out the mundane tasks, needed to keep a house ticking over (cooking cleaning washing etc) but doing them as a surprise. A good example of this was tonight, I had finished work and had sat down watching TV she had a client at 6:30 so told me she would cook our curry at 7:30. So she went to work thinking once she’s done she has to cook. It would have been easy for me to just sit back and allow her to do that but I got up cleaned the kitchen prepped and cooked the curry so that when Jamie finished work and walked in to the kitchen it was cleaned and the curry was nicely bubbling on the stove.

It’s knowing I have just made her feel so many emotions and taken away some too just by helping out when she wasn’t expecting it! Yes I should get up and cook yes I should get the kitchen cleaned and do do both regularly but to do it as a surprise makes me feel good too.

It’s the little everyday things that cost nothing that if you get right the rest will be just great?

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Our babies

Every year when the blosom appears I remember that feeling I got as we planted the tree at the bottom of the garden and when it falls after such a short time growing on the tree I am reminded how lucky we are…

2.4 children
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I am so excited!

I really am excited to go to see the Denver Broncos in London at Wembley 30th October, the fixture was officially announced at about 13:15 this afternoon and I have felt like a little kid at Christmas dreaming of how it might be or how I want the weekend go. It feels great to be excited, you don’t get many opportunities as an adult to have something like this to look forward to because we have so much now that most things are accessible and if you want something generally you can have it, but this is special and I’m am sooo looking forward to the trip already!

We asked the children if they would like to come with us but stressed that this is my weekend and if you are not prepared to spend all of Saturday and Sunday indulging me and my passion I would prefer you to say no and stay at home, Lincoln said he would like to go but Reagan said she couldn’t sit through 4 hours of football let alone a whole Saturday of NFL celebrations which I respect because it would annoy me if she tried to make it about her or spoiled the experience for me.

My thoughts keep going to what we are going to do and see, if we will meet any players, what will we all wear, do we need to get new gear, is the hotel we booked yesterday close enough to where all the stuff on Saturday is going to happen hahaha I am so excited.

The big thing now is to get tickets, I have absolutely no doubt we will get 3 but for how much is the thing, hopefully registering on the Jags website and keeping an eye out everyday we should get lucky for a reasonable price…?

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Broncos in London (waiting)

Grandma messaged me overnight to say the Broncos are playing in London 30th October against the Jags which I knew was a possibility so I was ecstatic that she had confirmed it, but when I looked at the internet I realised that no announcement had been made but “strong rumours” suggest that tomorrow that fixture will be confirmed. I know the schedule is not released until 12th May but the international fixtures will be confirmed around 14:30GMT tomorrow so I am super excited that, after the disappointment of the 2020 Atlanta Falcons London fixture not materialising because of the pandemic, tomorrow I will be able to start planning second live Broncos game.

My fingers and toes are crossed!

GO BOROCOS!

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Blosom and No Rain

Every year I think about this photo and every year as the blosoms fall I think this is the year we can reacreate it, but every year it rains and ruins any chance. Well today I thought we could try even though the blosoms are not fully falling yet we went to the church yard and got the photo. If it stays fine nd the sun shines maybe we can get another with a carpet of pink again but I love it another great photo

2011
2022

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AutoCAD all day

After clearing up the house after Reagan’s sleepover, which didn’t take long, and taking Billy for a walk I spent the rest of the day designing my shed. I absolutely loved it I get a lot of joy and satisfaction from using AutoCAD and to use it to design something I may one day build is really satisfying!

My aim today was to draw the framing which would allow me to calculate what sort of wood I require and how much which will in turn allow me to shop around for the cheapest deals for the wood I require.

Framing timber list

2.4m Long 63×38 Scant Timber
45

3.0 Long 63×38 Scant Timber (Roof)
8

2.4m Long 63×38 Treated Ends at (Bottom)
2

3.0 Long 63×38 Treated (Sides at Bottom)
2

3.6m Long 47×100 treated (Skids)
7

One thing I have realised is the flag base is 1 row too small so I need to lay 4.5 more flags before I cam build a shed….damn!

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Escape Room

For Reagan’s party today we went to an Escape Room at Cheshire Oaks, it was Titanic themed and we had an hour to escape, Reagan invited 3 of her friends and Mommy me and Lincoln so we were locked in and told to use our wits and team work. Reagan as always tried to take control telling people what to do but not actually how to escape but where to put things [rolls eyes] the energy in the room was high very high but once we started working together we started solving the puzzles and it was fun and stressful at the same time. We didn’t make it out but we were close the main thing is we all had fun trying.

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Mommy’s fire walk

A couple of weeks ago Mommy came home and informed us that she’d signed up to walk through fire…?

She explained that the gym she goes to 3 times a week is running a fire walk for AMMF Cholangiocacinoma charity

well done dude!

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Reagan is 12 today

The usual start to a Forster birthday this morning, we always start with Clare Grogan singing Happy Birthday I heard Reagan in her room way before our 6:30am alarm went off and when she did come in to our room she’d already curled her hair and was really excited to got see if she had any presents another tradition is also that I or Mommy go down first so that we can video the present opening. Breakfast after that and this morning was pancakes and bacon as requested by the birthday girl.

A little ride up the road on her new bike before she had to go to school. After school both Reagan and Lincoln went to the park for a bit before Mommy got off work and we went for a family walk although Reagan went on her new bike.

Tea was mac n cheese followed by cupcakes and scrabble all in all a pretty good birthday

Happy 12th Birthday Reagan Grace…

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