Mums Running Club

Oh and Jg - no idea about tax credits etc. I only qualify for child Ben.

cm you'd better get her an appt at the shrink . clearly not normal 

Sorry I know nothing about tax credits either. I am in a tizz over child benefit too because my salary only went over the top threshold in sept (just) so I am probably due something and then of course in aug I will hopefully go on mat leave so I'll get 3 months on just half pay which will dip me back under again but the thing is I am probably due so little that I don't know that I can face the self assessment form for the sake of ??50!

Argh well work's been knackering this week. Tuesday I got asked - told- to go to Ipswich this Monday and do a presentation on 3 topics and then I was told to get my slides done by 4.30 on thurs! Er..... I did actually have work planned not to mention a 2 hour unchangeable pre trial meeting on thurs which is my short day. So anyway had to work at night til 1030 both nights and so I have just been feeling so bad. Exhausted and after the second night I went upstairs and threw up 4 times. The only good bit is that by going away on mon (pray the travel is ok cos Ipswich is blooming awkward from Edinburgh! Stansted then an hour's taxi) Anyway the good thing is that it passes time til wed. Scan day.

Gawd it's cold here.

Mm hope hubby's challenge went well. Loved the cake!

Hope everyone is ok. Finally seeing light at end of the sick tunnels.

Caro that's a pest about that vet job but you're right, it just kind of happened so if you actually looked properly I'm sure you'll do much better.

Vixo well done on run. Take it easy!

Sorry that's me - on phone so can see 2 lines at a time!!

whoops Camlo - see you posted the recipe.

CM - ha ha to E and the choc but  to the supermarket experience. Have never done a boot camp but used to do a fairly extreme circuits class for years that I LOVED.

EF - that's grim travel/work and to the 4 x vomiting too. Roll on  Weds for sure. Hope you are taking it easy this weekend then ... Ipswich is a bu**er to get to from ANYWHERE.

We definitely don't qualify for the CB any more. Has never been saved, goes into the general pot of living - mainly spent on activities the kids do and is swallowed up very easily.  I think for me, yes we will miss it but it's just the whole principle of how they've gone about it - makes me furious that my friend down South and her husband both work and are just below the threshold and so still get it, but we don't because I stayed at home and my hubby is above the threshold. That's what bugs me!! So we are penalised because I chose to stay at home and look after my children.  Ho hum. Has been done to death.

Actually, as hubby pointed out, the tories have stitched themselves up a bit, everyone will be filling out their tax returns relating to this debacle, just before the next general election and will be getting nasty tax bills - hmmm, that'll really help their popularity!!

Glorious but freezing day here today. Think it may just about reach 3 degrees. Off out for walk with kids, J still not great but fresh air will do some good I think.

I agree CC - as I said before me and hubby work full time and bring in a decent wage but keep our child benefit (works for me but carp for you). EF - surely if your wage for the year works out as under the threshold you would get it for the whole year? Also I have heard of people taking child care vouchers to bring it under and they can be stored up for when you have to pay child care for new baby? It's going to be nightmare for people to work out and for gov to check/ enforce?
Enjoy your walk CC - we have 2 superhero costumes to find for a party this afternoon! Hubby is plastering and extension is beginning to actually look like it should! Not sure when to tell him I want to go running in the morning......

I wasn't sure if childcare vouchers counted. That's good cos I take 100 a month and I pay 80 into pension. But I still can't face the forms!!!

But if you took vouchers and pension so taxable income stayed beneath 'whatever threshold' would you have to do any forms? Just carry on getting it?

CC we are in the same boat with child benefit, was a bit gutted to cancel it. Think they need to reevaluate the whole benefits system, then no one would get it unless the family was on a low income which makes more sense. To me anyway!

I'm only below the top threshold rather then the lower one so I'd be entitled to some but not all. Aaargh.

I haven't cancelled it yet ...

Gorgeous walk, freezing but just stunning. Out for 2.5 hours with the kids feeding ducks, making dens and trying to poke eyes out with ever increasing sizes of sticks!!

 

lol at the sticks CC

if it got the cardiff uni job, i would be between the two thresholds, unless they paid me top whack for the job, which i can't imagine they would... it doesn't make much difference to me on a day to day basis as i have to save the money anyway

breaking news - i have been for a run. there was some walking involved but only because i was worried about my lungs. there was plenty of wheezing, not too much coughing, but i did manage a fair bit of running and i haven't been coughing and wheezing too much since i got back. so i am taking that as a positive sign!

EF- boo to all the travel, and fingers very tightly crossed for weds. i have had to go to ipswich a few times with work. hell of a place to get to from anywhere!

J tried out rugby this morning so i am looking forward to finding out how it went when i call the kids later. i can't imagine it was very successful. he struggles with team games - gets distracted by the instructions, other kids, colour of the sky etc. they coach (who is the dad of one of J's classmates) was very excited about him starting because J is such a huge boy and he looks like he will make a top player. however, i fear that may not be the case...as long as he enjoys it, i really couldn't care less. he has to go almost straight from rugby to art class, which is his real passion. he lives for his art class - bless him.

lol to the chocolate CM, my girls r the same, regularly have to throw out boxes of chocolate from Nat's room that go all white cos they have bn in there for a yr. I found 2 chocolate Santas in Camryn's toy oven with the heads eaten off and nothing else. Not normal! When I was child every selection box would have scoffed b4 new yr. I am hoping they stay that way + don't end up with the constant battle with their weight I have. Trouble is I ate everything in site as a child/teenager + was still built like a beanpole, so won't know til their grown ups.

Well I had a feeling this yr was going to b a good one. Was a little disheartened that Camryn then came dwn with chicken pox, but actually thought about it some more + was a bit worried last yr when she didn't catch chicken pox at same time as the 2 children I mind + most of the nursery had it bcos my sis-in-law caught chicken pox when she was pregnant + lost her baby at 26wks so it had always bn in my mind if Camryn didn't get it as a child I would pay for vaccination when she was a teenager. So actually it works in quite well with my feeling it's going to b a good yr.

My Mum got home from hospital on Wed + she is still home + doing well.

The company that Duncan worked for temp over Xmas called him in for an interview for a completely different job totally out the blue, they had bn looking through cv's + he was a financial advisor for many yrs so they thought his experience would suit this job, fingers crossed. It is just to cover maternity leave but he has his dream job lined up in the Tyndrum gold mine when work starts there in a few months so this would b perfect. (He worked in the gold mine 25yrs ago + loved it, so he is over the moon it is reopening.)

Plus my 2 cousins have bn in contact + r keen to meet + build a relationship. My Uncle died 22yrs ago when they were 6+3 and we haven't had much contact over the yrs, so I am really looking forward to getting to know them.

Plus I somehow managed to enter the Strathearn marathon, don't know how that happened. And I lost 3.6 lb this wk without actually trying, don't know how that happened either.

Read Born to Run this wk + it has given my running a new lease of life, just thoroughly enjoying it even the hard bits I am thinking 'I am so lucky I can do this + enjoy it'. Funnily enough I met a woman I used to talk to in school playground yrs ago, I run past her house all the time and she always beeps her horn when passes me running. Met her coming out a shop this morn + her exact words were how lucky I was to b able to Run and enjoy it. So weird!

CM- hope the being able to Run helps get those lungs cleared out.

EF- I have a good feeling about scan day and my instincts r going great guns so far.

Just called kids. Rugby went well but awful to hear T shouting at kids to eat 3 more spoonfuls of tea with both crying. FFS. If they don't want any more, why force them so they cry?

Oh TT, fingers and toes crossed for you for all of the above. Would be fab if even half of that little lot came off!

CM - my J sounds so like yours! He loves his Rugby, when he first started he spent a lot of time admiring the sky and generally skipping - yes, skipping around. Now he's moved from tag rugby up to the P4-5s (8+ year olds) he is doing sooooo much better, can catch and throw the ball correctly, probably has way too much enthusiasm for the tackling and still has a way to go to grasp the concept of teamwork but it's paying off.

Hahahaha CC. Yes skipping, arm flapping etc. suspect my J and yours very similar!

Just had friend from running club round for dinner. She has shared residence of her 12 yr old. Has been a big battle to get even that as her ex originally had residence. It is so lovely to talk to someone who completely understands everything I feel because she has been there. Horrible to be in this situation tho

Cm - it also shows that arrangements can be challenged and whilst you are limited by available funds to go back to court at the moment, who knows? Keep that diary going... This week crying in Asda to stay with you and hearing them being shouted at. You have evidence to back a challenge if you ever get the opportunity and if kids were to express their feelings to someone officially it could happen.....
TT - wow, bring it on!!
CC - love the thought of a big lad skipping around a rugby field!
Crap nights sleep so up ready for a cold (defo -4 or -5) club run then going to persuade kids to let me snooze on the sofa.....

CM-There will come a time where the kids wishes will come 1st + I am sure u will come out top. Seems like a long way away now but it all goes by in a flash.

Thanks girls. There is no point challenging anything now as I would have no case. Courts don't care about crying and behavioural things unless they are v serious - like self harm / getting expelled from school constantly. The one thing I have to do is just ignore ignore ignore what goes on when the kids are with T. It is the very hardest thing in the world to do and I have to force myself to do it

As for making their own minds up - my friend's daughter is now at the age where the court would say she can decide herself but she is too scared to stand up to her father and therefore won't. I can imagine how hard it must be to make the choice between the two parents. Even if you really did have a preference, the fear of upsetting the other parent would be a big burden for a child of 12.

I am not even meaning going back to court or anything, more that teenagers just do their own thing + will gravitate more + more towards u as they grow up, they don't give a monkeys what court says about where they should b. They will just turn up at urs + eat ur food + plonk their feet on ur furniture. One thing I would also work hard at doing is encouraging them to make lots of friends where u live, teenagers will go where their friends r. And as T spends a lot of his time with them trying to buy their affection by taking them places they might not get chance to build those strong friendships at his house.