whoosh there goes weekend...

So as I get ahem older, I noticed that the week goes slowly but weekends go whoosh. Even quicker then when I was a kid waiting for school.

So this weekend we went to mate Fiona and her clann Friday night where we got to hang out with her two wee lads and herself and her hubbie. (I used to babysit for them and laughed out loud when her husbands only question to me when first meeting him was what was my fav sci fi film...) Lovely Irish family and her 7 yr old beat himself at chess after some pizza. Not that Jan was trying to win but he wasn't looking to lose in the speedy 7 moves this kid took. Then we went to their garage where they were very nicely giving us some of their old baby stuff. Now I rented a van, just in case mind you as they were giving us a crib so wanted to be able to transport easily.

I never imagined we'd fill the van but we did. Wow. They gave us so much stuff. I think I could open a daycare with all the cool fisher price toys alone. They last forever those toys. They gave us travelling cot, crib, baby seats, toys, security gates - we filled the van. It was a large van folks. I had to do a running jump to get in it ! As much as I can do a waddling running jump at moment...

Saturday morning then used the van to go to Ikea and Osh to pick up more storage - bookshelves and cabinets and outside sheds. I've starting dreaming about organizing/nesting in my bloody sleep (or lack there of - see legs cramps and second trimester and turning over in bed like a piece of bacon doing an hour each side...).

Then we had Sarah (who we call Labrador puppy Sarah as that's her personality - bouncy, smiley, wonderful and just bloody excellent person) come down with her hubbie Lou and wonderful baby Aeden Bear Saturday afternoon. Wee Bear is so so cute not even funny. He's that nearly 7 month old baby who's a constant giggler, smiles and engages you and a wee Buddha with his beautiful baby chunky legs and arms. (Side note - how come babies are super cute when extra chubby and we aren't?)

The men went off to BevMo to get a new keg of beer for kegrator and then Frys for electronics fix and we sat and I built new fisher price door toy I had got from one of my credit card free points catalogs while chinwagging with Sarah. Of course after putting together wondered why did I do that since baby Hobbit realistically won't be playing with this till Januaryish and of course it doesn't fold up so another space hogger. At least baby Bear got a few minutes play with it next morning.

Sarah also gave us a baby swing and a baby bouncer as Bear's too big for them now (having a Mammy and Daddy both tall he's got their big genes! They are so good as its great to have a friend who's also a new Mummy and who I can call.

The baby bouncer brought back memories of Maeve my wee sister in her bouncer and how she wanted to be in it even when her bum was practically on the ground in this old net bouncer. She got so big for it that in the end she flipped over still in bouncer and was crawling around like a snail with it on her back before we had to hide it to stop her trying to get in it.

So they stayed over Saturday night - we had a lovely night chillin and then Sunday I did a dash to pick up a baby car seat and snap in and go frame stroller for it from a lovely http://www.freecycle.org/ person and picked up and dropped off laundry. Then we sorted through toys, putting them in to soak and cleaning clothes we had got while himself took out his hearty electric drill and put a bookshelf together from Ikea and snapped together the Osh outdoor shed. phew...

So then Sunday night we went to see Hot Fuzz which we had missed at our local wee cinema (which we can walk to a whole block away and normally are only folks there !) We laughed out loud - loved the movie. Had dinner at Max's and came home and chilled

In between all of this had to go bring back van to local www.enterprise.com office. Rented it for 24 hrs, picking it up 33opm Friday so dropped it back Saturday at 23o with himself in car so we could get home quick for Sarah and baby coming over. But Alas the office was closed - a sign saying closed till Monday, no dropping off key in door slot which was sealed shut. I told them I was dropping off Saturday at 3pm so was kinda shocked and didn't want to pay for extra two days rental. Called enterprise and got a lovely person on the phone who put in a ticket and kept apologizing for any confusion I had. I went there at 730am Monday as soon as they opened (having left the van outside their front door all weekend) and the lovely girl behind counter said immediately that she would just charge me for the one day. I'll be using them again - its nice to run into customer service that coordinated! She also said don't I know you. I smiled and said yes I was here with my sister who rented the car from Ireland. She laughed and said yes the one who was cursing..

So story is that when Grainne and Dee was here we were at car rental place in February for a car for them and doing the walk around the car as you do for scratches.. There was one on the hood/bonnet and Gra in all Irish innocence said -

"F**K how did they get that scratch there ?"

and the Enterprise girl nearly dropped her clipboard in shock. I apologized and explained that in Ireland cursing isn't so much cursing but used as an adjective, noun and verb so very different to puritan America where the f word is seen with aghast and usually a faint... Gra realized what she'd said and turned to the girl and apologized saying -

"I'm so f**king sorry - my apologizes"

.. and genuinely meant it all with a straight face not even realizing she was cursing again while apologizing. The look on the girls face was priceless and turns out she remembered it well and remembered us in process... Better to be remembered than not I suppose!

Whoosh there went weekend folks. Now to clean up for next weeks BBQ and mates staying over... Hope yours was a good one !