Alex only had two weeks left of college now and then he’s finished with his course. He’s worked so hard all year but he still has quite a lot of work to do before he’s finished all of his assignments. I was helping him earlier on this afternoon with one of his assignments, just going over his grammar and helping him extend his explanations a little bit more. There is one tutor that keeps leaving his work unmarked and handing it back to him yet when he does what he asks him to do, it still doesn’t seem to be right. He’s getting a little frustrated to say the least. Hopefully he can get it sorted out this him this week.

Alex will be going back to college next year for a two year course on the same subject and then he’s finished with his education. His initial plan was to go to university but he’s changed his mind about that now and has decided to not go. I’m hoping to start college in September too for one year and then start university in 2011. Its quite scary but also exciting! I’m so excited to study English Literature at long last. Hopefully I can get the funding I need to go.

Right, I’m off to actually do what I’m supposed to be doing – that shopping list! Take a look at this life insurance lead if you’re currently looking for insurance.

It’s Alex’s 30th birthday coming up in the next couple of months and I have no idea what to get him. He doesn’t like anything fancy like diamonds or watches – he probably wouldn’t even wear them if I bought him some – so I’m a little bit stuck. I looked at some PS3 bundles today when I was in town but they are really expensive. I was also thinking about getting him a new guitar but even that might be out of budget right now. We’re going away for the night for his birthday and we haven’t actually booked the hotel yet. He said he was going to buy it but I think I might just do it and maybe get the hotel to do the room up for us when we arrive and have a bottle of wine on ice waiting for us. Its an idea but I’m not certain yet. I still have about eight weeks to figure it out.

Alex got the job I was talking about the other week! He had the interview on the Wednesday, the trial day on the Sunday and was offered the job the same day. He started work last Monday and he’s currently working different shifts around twenty hours per week. This job is definitely something new for him. He’s only ever worked in offices or in warehouses and this is at a restaurant! I think he’s enjoying it though.

He’s had to buy a couple of new things for work. He gets a company t-shirt and baseball hat but he has to wear jeans and black trainers. He already has enough jeans but because he’s working on the grill, he’s getting quite greasy so he’s decided to rotate between his two oldest jeans that he rarely wears any more so his decent ones don’t get ruined. He didn’t have any black trainers though so today since we were in town, we went on the hunt for some black trainers. He saw some he liked but they were £30 and in my opinion, they were definitely NOT worth £30 and especially for work where they are only going to get dirty anyway. We eventually found some really nice ones for £12 in a sale that I actually liked a lot better than the more expensive ones!

His usual work gear shopping was for things like overalls and safety glasses or shirt, trousers and tie so it was nice to buy something he could actually wear out of work too!

Not me. I don’t have any allergies thankfully. Meghan has a suspected fish allergy although she’s awkward and can eat some fish but not others. Alex is allergic to anything airborne which means EVERYTHING. He’s constantly struggling to keep his allergies under control and its hard seeing him suffer and not being able to do anything about it. He’s tried so many different allergy relief products that just don’t work. Several antihistamines, several eye drops, ear drops, nasal sprays and inhalers but nothing works. I keep telling him to tell the doctor that he wants to see a specialist – demand a specialist – but he just wants to bare with it and keep taking what they give him. When he gets the new drugs they work for about 3-7 days and then he’s back to square one again. If we had no dog and cat it would help a lot but its not an option to get rid of them – his words, not mine. I think if it carries on for a couple more months, I’ll go to his appointments with him and make sure he gets referred. Its not fair on him to suffer like he is doing.

Its mine and Alex’s five year anniversary in February. The time has flown by and each year just gets better and better. I could not imagine myself with anyone else. Our anniversary last year didn’t go as planned. We had a hotel in Manchester and booked a table at a restaurant but our relationship wasn’t at its best and we had too many expectations for the night and everything went wrong. I don’t think we will be able to afford a hotel this year but I would still like to go back into Manchester for a meal and a film before heading home for a few drinks in town. Just a night with no expectations other than to enjoy ourselves.

Maybe if we become millionaire’s we will head out to the Bahamas and stay in the nassau hotels. They looks beautiful. Definitely somewhere I would want to visit at some point.

Alex started college last week, the same time Meghan started pre-school. He is studying audio production and he is really loving it. He’s had to buy a few things for his course like some blank CD’s and some headphones. He was also searching round the internet looking to buy buy memory, preferably something portable to transfer his work from one computer to another when he needs to move rooms in college. We managed to find him an 8GB memory stick on eBay for a great price so he bought one this week and it arrived yesterday. He took it into college today and he said everyone loved it and was asking him where he got it from! Quite a few people only bought 1GB memory sticks but with the course being the production of music, music files can be huge and so the 8GB one will definitely be a lot better.

Alex is almost ready to re-do his driving test. He had his first one about a month ago but he wasn’t ready yet – and he knew it – so he didn’t pass. This time, after a few more lessons, he feels he will definitely pass the next time. I really hope he does because one of us driving is better than none of us driving! We haven’t started looking at cars yet but I know of a few car accessories that I’ll be wanting to get. An iPod station and a CD player are definitely a must. I couldn’t do without music in the car. I’d also want to buy some bumper stickers and things for inside the car to make it a little more interesting. I’m excited to be able to be more independant more than anything so here’s to hoping he passes soon.

Its Alex’s last day at work tomorrow. He’s been made redundant like we were expecting. He’s half happy about it and half panicking because it means him coming home is further away than it should be. He got a redundancy settlement which is already all called for. Most of it is going to pay a debt off so its out of the way and the rest is going to training courses – he wants to do a plastering and tiling course – and passing his driving test. One of us really, really need so learn to drive. Its getting so pathetic now. I can’t rely on the buses and my mum any more and we just need a little bit of independence. It means we can go out at the weekends with the kids to somewhere decent and he can take me shopping when I need to. I’m looking forward to him driving and I can’t wait to start my lessons once I get myself a job sorted! He’s going to start up his lessons again after he’s passed his theory test and then he’ll need to look into getting a car and things like tax, MOT and car insurance. I hope it doesn’t take him too long. He’s confident in his driving so I think he won’t need that many lessons to pass.

Alex booked his theory test for his driving last week. Its scheduled for February 3rd at 5PM so he has a decent amount of time to study for it before he has to go. I’m hoping he passes first time because as soon as he has, he’s going to start driving lessons again. One of us needs to drive, badly. Getting Emelye is such hard work since her school is a twenty minute bus ride and then a ten minute walk away from where Alex lives and the buses are always so busy at that time of the day. Dropping her off again is even worse since the buses only run once an hour after 7PM. I need a car because I can never do a proper grocery shop as I can’t carry it all home. I have to go two/three times a week just to get food for over a few days. Also, most of the places I have seen work at are too far out for me to get to on a bus but would be very easy if I could drive. Alex’s mum has told him that when he passes, she will put him on her car insurance until he gets his own car so at least we will have access to one. Once Alex has done his driving, its my turn. I can’t wait! Hopefully I’ll be driving in the next twelve months.

I’ve been a bit neglectful of this place recently. I hate that I just did loads of paid posts and then nothing since. I seem to have loads of idea for blogs but when I get to the computer, I either forget what I planned on writing or I just don’t have the time and energy to get it written out. I should start doing a few scheduled blogs on the days when I’m in the mood to blog. I love blogs that have blogs up daily and this is my aim for all of my blogs. It only takes around forty-five minutes to blog at all three places so I really should make the effort, especially when most of the time I’m sat on the internet doing absolutely nothing.

I did one thing I hate doing today; I went shopping for food without a shopping list. I pretty much always write out a meal plan for the week and then from there, write a shopping list. My mum and I didn’t plan on going to town until this morning so I didn’t have time to write down a list. I got what I always get plus a little bit more variety of fruit because both myself and Meghan are not eating much fruit at all at the moment and I thought if I bought something a little different than usual, it might help. Hopefully I have enough food in to do me until next week though. I didn’t buy much but I have two chicken breasts in the freezer from last week and now two pounds of minced beef. Money is still a bit rubbish so I’m trying to make the most of what I’ve got. I can’t wait until I get money sorted out because I’m going to order myself a Domino’s pizza and veg out in front of the PC watching Dexter. Sounds like a little bit of heaven.

I’m doing okay on my own by the way. It’s a lot easier this week than it was last night but its still taking me a while to get used to. Meghan’s not really noticed the difference but she knows Daddy’s not here as much as he usually is. I actually impressed myself last night. I had dinner made, the dishes washed, kitchen cleaned, Meghan bathed, dressed, hair dry, story read and into bed all before 7.30PM! Recently, she’s not been going to bed until around 8PM and although me having a lie in until 9AM is lovely, I would rather have the time on my own in the evenings and go to bed earlier.