it's all about her

So this time it's all about my daughter.

My daughter Rachel was born on 24th October 2003, she was 6lb 12oz, I alas don't have any pictures of her here as a baby, since they're all in her photo album, which is at my mums

she loves getting her picture taken and was talking away at just over a year, she could hold a full conversation and still asks major questions.


this is her about 8 months old

She started walking when she was 9 months old, and she was tiny at the time, looked like she was about 3 months old, due to her height, she was wearing 18 months clothes at 2 1/2

She grew up exceedingly fast





on her 2nd birthday with her noddy cake, made by my friends wife Luci


She went to a private nursery, which was amazingly expensive and learned a fair bit of French
she came on in leaps and bounds and ended up singing to me a xmas song in French, she wasnt even 3 yet!!


at nursery on halloween, still 2


when she was 3 we moved home and she contined going to her private nursery, when she was 4 she went to the council nursery, it was weird having her at home half of the day!!

She turned 4 in 2007

4th birthday, with her bear percy which was brought home from America for her before she was even here yet.


She was still growing and before i knew it she was off to school!!

first day of school

she went to school with Mrs Connell and this is where the problems started, the teacher said she was dreamy, and I wasn't convinced, my daughter loved to read and asks majorly inappropriate questions for her age, including what blackmail is and the holocaust.

The teacher's weren't convinced, but her teacher was so she challenged her and the problem went away

until this year, when again i was told she was dreamy, i explained that I wasn't convinced as she reads Roald Dhal, Harry Potter and such other things, the book she gets at school are a-typical kids books, so not very challenging.

I was also told she wasn't a very good writer, I asked if the teacher could do anything about it, and she shrugged, which didn't impress me, so I asked for a worksheet to be sent home so we could work on her writing at home. If this happens again, I'll be making an official complaint to the school.

So that's my daughter, she's now 6, she loves, loves having her picture taken, she's going to be a complete heartbreaker when she's older!!


In the park, picture taken by my friend Pete




easter dress that my mums friend bought her





another park picture


I love my daughter, I'm amazingly proud of her and I want her to be happy and I hope that the school actually does something with her




on the slide


hope this was a good update

it's all about me....

So hello, I think it's about time you got to know me and my family?

Before you read this, you should know, some of it may offend and or upset you and if this is the case there's not much I can do about it.

Well I do anyway

I'm Julie, I'm 28, I live in Paisley


this is my flat in Paisley

I play airsoft with my team at various sites around Scotland, they are called Sierra 8, I've been playing for about 2 years now and own a few rifles of my own, at the moment though I don't really play as we're skint!!

I also have just starting Marshalling for car racing and this weekend I am doing my first marshal at the Scottish Rally in Dumfries.

I'm fairly excited about this prospect, it could be a good career move for me as due to my age I'm not employable as an apprentice.

I have a 6 year old Daughter called Rachel, who i'll post more about next time, when it's all about her.

When I found out I was pregnant I was beyond devastated, I'm not hugely maternal and never really have been, something you're not meant to say as a parent, and especially as a female. You're meant to be wanting to have a family as apparently that's what everyone with ovaries wants to do.

I rarely tell people that I wasn't happy about becoming a parent and still shrug my lack of being all "mummy" off as my maternal instincts being lost in the post, as I'm aware just horrific it is to not want to be a mother, especially to your own child. I've grown with Rachel though and she's turned into a fantastic little girl, she's going to be a heart breaker when she's older!!!

The fact that I wasn't very maternal was written off as "PND" which I know can be a legitimate cause, but being forced to talk about it, when I knew I didn't have it wasn't a pleasant experience, midwives wheren't very accepting of the fact that at 21 I just didn't want to be a mum.

I wouldn't trade my daughter for anything or any money in the world, I also wouldn't want any more kids, even though my boyfriend is fantastic and would absolutely make a fantastic father, he's incredibly patient and calm.


Myself and Rachel at the beach, she's 6 in this picture and we're on the beach at Millport.


I have a big sister, she's 35, she's called Angela and at Christmas she got a nasty infetion in her leg and collapsed


Me and My big sister (she's on the left)


We used to knock lumps out of each other when we lived together, she's made some incredibly bad choices in her life, which are hopefully now getting better.

I have a wonderful boyfriend

Fraser

He's 35, works at napier university and comes from an incredibly middle class family. I met him at airsoft and he moved in last September, well he came over to go on holiday and just never went home, I wouldn't part with him either. He isn't the typical guy I imagined myself with, or even thought i'd end up with, but He's great :)


I drive a mark 3 1995 VW golf, I called him George, I name everything, I don't know why!



I'm currently a level 2 qualified mechanic and next year I'm doing my HNC at Clydebank College, I'm hoping to go work for the AA and hopefully end up lecturing as a motor vehicle lecturer at some place good.

Hope that tells you a bit about me, and if it did upset and or offend you, then I'm sorry, I suppose, but the truth can hurt and being honest here was hard.

Pate cake, pate cake

Yes, yet another cack blog title, sick of them yet???


I decided to make chicken liver pate (with orange...)

you'll need

100g Butter
1 garlic clove
1 small onion chopped ( I only used half mine and I used a red onion)
250g chicken livers
1 Orange
1 Tbsp Orange Juice
1 Tbs Milk (optional)


Wash your chicken livers in cold water and pat dry.
Take half your butter, melt in the pan
add your onion and stir until soft
crush your garlic clove into the pan as well cook for 1 min
take onion and garlic out of pan with slotted spoon and set aside

heat butter up again, add liver, cook for 2/3 mins until brown on outside but pink on inside (I cooked mine a bit more than this as I'm funny about cooking meat...)

Add Orange juice, zest of your orange, livers, garlic & Onions into the food processor blend until smooth.

I tasted mine at this point and wasn't keen on exactly how it tasted, So I added the juice from the orange and a tablespoon of milk and blitzed again.

Tasted again, much better




Tada, it didn't make a whole lot, but it was a trial run to see if it turned out okay.

enjoy if you try it!!

feminism

On seeing a few of my internet/actual friends had joined a facebook group for Feminazis from hell, for all the women out there who aren't typical women (as it were). I know a few amazing women who consider themselves feminist. In no way do I think that their choices are any better than mine, nor vice versa. But this is my take on it...

I'm not a huge feminist, I sew, I bake, I have a partner, I'm a student, I have a six year old.

Very much the "typical" female role in the household. On the other hand, I'm very much anti "girl" Not that being a girl is a bad thing, I'm just not that person. I don't live in an immaculate showhome and I never will, not with a 6 year old who has two giant guinea pigs, 2 cats - one long and one shorthair, plus a labrador.

The problem I face with being my gender is the child factor. The fact is I don't want children, and this may sound horrific but I was never the "having kids" type, Yet I'm so anti abortion I have my daughter. I don't feel the need to procreate, so i asked to be sterilised, Something which is such a huge decision in anyones life.

I thought long and hard about it, deciding the pro's and cons of it, I realised I don't want to be stuck attached to drugs to control my body to ensure I might not have a family. The fact of the matter is no contraception is 100% affective and the decision to not do it any more really made me happy.

It would mean that I can't have children at all, the very thought of which fills alot of women with fear. So I went to the doctors, made the appointment, got a referral where I was ridiculed for being 27 and not wanting to kids, how dare I make such a choice. The consultant is so sure that I will want a family that he refuses to steralise me until I'm 30, even saying he would bet me that I would change my mind.

I don't feel this was a very mature or professional thing to do, but me being the stubborn girl I am, took his bet. I absolute abhor losing anything, plus the more insistant that he is that I'll change my mind the more insistant I am that I won't.

My doctor says I should write him a letter, as apparently I was happy with this choice, to wait until I'm 30, but I just can't get the courage to do it yet, It's two years away, minus x months, I know in my heart that I don't want a family but it's still such a huge commitment.

I just thought I would share that with you guys, so thoughts would be nice :)

Julie

carma cawheelion

Yes I know it's a rubbish title but I don't care! :)

So, let me see....

I'm Julie, I'm 28 I drive a mark 3 VW Golf 1.6 litre and it has no where near enough power for my liking. I'm a complete car geek, I love cars, not like you'd know from my blog, it's been all cooking and crafts to date!

So I decided tonight for you lucky few I'd write a bit about my days at college.

First of all

Mechanics like doctors aren't infallible, we do make mistakes. Myself, I got a socket set jammed under the safety switch on the four poster ramp, jamming it.....while my car was on the bloody thing.

We used a jack to jack the leg up, getting it high enough to move the socket set from under the switch and move the ramp, phew disaster averted.

Today Chloe cross threaded a nut on a fuel injector




this was the injector, she cross threaded the bolt that attaches between the camshaft and the actual injector, meaning our lecturer had to fix it with a hacksaw.... It worked though!

To make us all feel better Peter told us one of his horror stories, he was working on a Suzuki motorbike and overtightened the timing chain, leaving it in a silver mist of fuel, writing off the guys engine. He said he felt like asking if he should get his coat.

Mistakes are part and parcel of the job, it's kind of terrifying to know that someones pride and joy is in your care and you solely are responsible for it. This is why I am glad to look at things but I would NEVER attempt something if I wasn't 100% confident I could do it.





This is a formula four car, from Knockhill racing circuit, they brought it down for us to do pit stop challenges on, our team "The Dubnuts" (Hey me and Liam like VW's sorry...) got 38 seconds, which is good, but no where near the 28 seconds that won the prize - an all expenses paid trip to Knockhill and a chance to see the touring car final full hospitality!!!!


We have a variety of lecturers on our course

this is two of their cars




The one on the left is a Blue Citreon Picasso and the one on the right is a V8 Red Chevy Camaro Belonging to V8 Pat as we've dubbed him. I love this car, left hand drive, BHP and torque coming out its ears. (you non car people are like blah blah what now, aren't you? I'm sorry!)

We've done a few things so have some other car pictures


One of the students in another class put the jack in the wrong place on a red Saxo the college have, bending the chassis and moving the radiator, myself & Liam had to strip it right down and rebuild it. I have one picture of it stripped down to the bodywork





I think I'm just about done.

I'll leave you with a very very very badly spray painted yellow wheel






This had nothing to do with me nor Liam, this is a car on my street, with one painted yellow wheel, beginner spray painting tip mate, don't drive with your newly painted wheels!!!

Hope that was quite enjoyable for you, if so I'll post a whole day of stripping and parts and oh you'll love it ;)

Little & Large Craft swap

I participated in Vonnie's Little and large craft swap.

I've now posted my stuff away, so let me show you what we got and sent! I can't apologise enough for how picture heavy this post is, but I just couldn't help but show off!


we received this



Which I took some more pictures of. It included a hair band, 2 packets of sweets for Rachel from USA, A box of oreos, chocolate, a bracelet and a little peg doll. (which i forgot to take a picture of, sorry!)

some more pictures of what we got :)




A little pillow, it smells of something, which I can't quite put my finger on!




Some Green & Blacks Dark chocolate, Lush shower gel




A nice knitted hair band for Rachel.



Some Tinkerbell sweets all the way from USA


And we sent this...





A lion teddy bear, a horse, 2 bars of chocolate an amigurumi pikachi, jigglypuff, a little mario mushroom. Rachel also wrote a letter and made a little bracelet Which I forgot to take a picture of.


Lion teddy bear, that rachel sewed and stuffed herself





Amigurumi Pikachu, made by me, my first ever one also.




Amigurumi Jiggly Puff, made by me





Rachel's horse that she helped to stitch and decorated by herself.

and finally



MMM chocolate!!


Again, apologies for the sheer picture heavyness of this post but I'm pleased with both what we sent and what we got in return

Gotta have cake, cake, cake, gotta have cake!

Since it's a bank holiday, and the weather here, although hot isn't staying dry for any length of time to allow Rachel to not be in doors, nipping my head!

So we decided to bake












nice simple cake recipe since Rachel made it, I just supervised

250g butter
250g sugar
250g self raising flour
200 degree oven/gas mark 6
3 large eggs (approx)

Mix butter and sugar together in bowl, sieve flour into bowl (and all over washing machine, cooker.....)


mix eggs in stir, spoon into cake cases and bake for about 30 mins

the end result is







lots of multi coloured cake, we gave some to the neighbours, since they got harassed by my neighbour last night, Rachels really pleased with them. We made some amount of mess but hey it was fun!