Music I Want My Children to Listen To – Robbie Williams

He’s the One!!!

I have loved Robbie Williams for as long as I can remember from his early days in Take That to his amazing solo career and back into the arms of his buddies in Take That. 

I love his songs and adore his personality, that cheeky chappy, very naughty boy next door.  I think he always comes across well on television and his live shows are fantastic.  He is a natural all round performer and a true show man, which is something I admire and like.

I saw Robbie live at Roundhay Park for my 30th birthday.  It was amazing, a great exhausting day and night with my wee sis.  We had a great time bouncing to the Basement Jaxx and singing every word of the Robbie repertoire.  One of the best days and nights of my life and one never to be forgotten.

Made even more special as I shared with my little sister, Julie.  I cried when she gave me the tickets for my birthday and we queued from early in the morning so that we could get somewhere close to the front.

Robbie owned the stage as he always does and we were in awe and amazed.  He put on a real show and I felt that it was just for me, for my birthday.  It was just wonderful and sealed my obsession with Robbie.

I want my children to enjoy his music, to know all the words to the ballads and miror the moves from his dance tracks.  I want them to bounce to Let Me Entertain You and cry as soon as Angels begins.

I hope they have No Regrets and are One of God’s Better People.

I want my children to listen to Robbie Williams and see him perform even if only on television.

What music do you want your children to listen to?

 GhostWriterMummy

I Believe

I believe in me

I am strong, I will fight for what I believe in

I am love, I cannot love you more

I am warmth, I beam with love and pride

I am loyalty, I will always be by your side

I listen

I learn

I am for keeps

I believe that I will always be here

I believe in you

You are our protector, you hold us in your arms

You are our provider, of all things big and small

You are our comforter, you are always by our side

You are our entertainer, you make us laugh, smile, sing and dance

You are our centre, in everything we see, think and do

I want to keep you

I believe you will always be here

I believe in them

The future

The sunshine of our day

Our inspiration

The reason

Our heartbeats

Our love

Can we keep them?

So tiny, so precious?

I believe they will always be here

I believe in us

Our unit

Our team

Our family

Our fortress

I believe in us

Together

One future

One destiny

One dream

Four heartbeats

Four souls

Can we keep them?

Will we be here?

I believe in us

Together

Entwined

Entangled

I believe that for all time we will always be here

I believe …

Please visit Sleep for the Weak to see what others have come up with for this week’s writing workshop about belief.

Writing Workshop

June is Bustin' Out All Over – updated

This weekend Life in a Pink Fibro has asked us to think back to June 2010 for the Weekend Rewind.

My blog was not even concieved last June.  I was 5 months pregnant and thought I had 4 months of my pregnancy still to go.  In reality the birth of Esther and William was just a few short weeks away.

HYTHE JUNE 2010

 Here I am, bustin’ out all over, with my lovely twin bump!

To help jog my memory about June 2010 here is my month in Facebook Statuses!

June 1 – Jennie is having a lovely half term catching up with family and friends.

June 1 – Jennie has had a lovely day in the sun with Mary, Clare and Rohan.

June 3 – Jennie thinks she should have planned to do something this morning rather than just sitting and waiting for her scan!!

June 4 – Jennie is happy and relieved after seeing two active, healthy babies on screen today. And only two weeks to wait til next scan!

June 4 – after a day learning BSL is now getting on with the baby budget!!! So exciting!

June 5 – Jennie begins her last two weeks at school for the forseeable future!!!

June 7 – Jennie has decided to stay at school one more week! Now finish 25th June all being well!

June 9 – Jennie got a bit emotional in Mothercare today and bought the twins some teeny tiny newborn socks! So cute!!!

June 11 – Jennie got a bit emotional in Mothercare yesterday and bought the twins some teeny tiny newborn socks! So cute!!! Now she is sorting all the contents of her hospital bag!! Just in case!

June 12 – Jennie is tired and the day has not even really begun!

June 14 – Jennie is looking forward to some retail therapy on Thursday.

June 14 – Jennie has no more work til Monday!

June 15 – Jennie is finding choosing a name for our girl twin sooooooooooooooooooo hard!

June 18 – Jennie decided to scale back rather than leave altogether!

June 23 – Jennie really wants to make a start on cleaning and sorting her house but after school and home tutoring just feels too tired! Roll on 9th July when I will be finished school and can spend my days getting ready!!!

June 23 – Jennie and David have exciting plans for their house!!!!

June 24 – is looking forward to introducing Maia to Rohan!

June 26 – Jennie is listening to 90s Indie classics and sorting through baby clothes!!!

June 27 – Jennie and David have been to the sea!!

June 27 – Jennie would like some advice on what to do about her fat, pregnant, painful swollen ankles and feet!!!! Ow!!!

June 28 – Jennie is home from 24 week scan and all is well. Hooray

This all seems like such a long time ago.  I had a job and went shopping!  The twins were so longed for and now they are here!!! 7 months old when they should really only be 4. And they are doing so well.  Growing bigger and stronger every day.

Listography – My Perfect Day

I am so thankful to have this to do today as I am having the worst few days ever with Esther and William, well William really.  He is teething with a temperature and refusing to eat or sleep.  I love him with  all my heart but he is exhausting at the moment as he is often inconsolable.  David works from home and is getting increasingly stressed that he is needed to help with the babies rather than focus all his attentions on his work.  I think we are both nearing breaking point, so taking 5 minutes (albeit with William in my arms!) to ponder on what would be a perfect day for me right now is a really rather nice thing to do.

What would make my perfect day right now?

1 – I would wake up to a warm, sunny morning.  The babies would wake smiling in their cot and we would go downstairs where I would put them down to play on the lawn whilst I got a breakfast of coffee, orange juice, fruit and croissants.  I would sit in the warmth of the sun and watch my children playing happily together.  It would be quiet apart from their beautiful coos and babbles.  There would be periods of warm hazy silence.

2 – The postman would deliver a letter from my sister telling me that she is pregnant and that she is moving home from Australia not just to the UK but to Kent where we will be sisters, friends and neighbours and our children will grow up knowing each other like cousins should.

3 – I would have lunch in a cafe courtyard in the sun and enjoy drinking wine and eating finger foods with good adult conversation with a group of friends.  We would laugh and joke and be playful.  We would discuss and debate.  We would not notice the sun beginning to set and day turning to night.  It would be wonderful.

4 – I would go to a salon and have a relaxing back massage, facial with Indian head massage and have my hair cut and styled.  I would take a lovely outfit with me to the salon and would dress there ready for an evening out.

5 – The evening would be with all my family and friends together at a function rather like a wedding reception with good music and good food.  There would be dancing to cheesy music.  There would be fun and frolicks and laughter. Lots of laughter.  Everyone would be loving the company of everyone else.  It would be riotous and yet so peaceful. Like being home!

And if there were just one impossible thing that I could make happen right now, I would like to go to 167 Grange Road for a cup of tea, a game of scrabble and a cuddle with my Nan.  Because I miss her so much even now, everyday.  That would be a perfect day.

Photobucket

Music I Want My Children to Listen To – Dodgy

I love Dodgy and adore their album Free Peace Sweet from 1996.  I had just left school when this was released and bought the CD whilst a Fresher at University.  I would listen to this album over and over again.

When I met David, he and I would often listen to this in the car over and over again.  Singing at the top of our voices, driving fast, windows down, sun on our faces, wind in our hair!

One of the songs from this album, One of Those Rivers, is one of ‘our songs’ and will feature in our wedding in September.  It contains the lyric

Let’s not worry about, what we haven’t got
And let’s not choose the life, that will have the cost
As long as you and I can live happily
then surely all I want is staring back at me

That is how I feel about David, it matters not about anything else, as long as we have each other that is all I need.

Another song, Homegrown, will be played at Esther and William’s christening next year.  Homegrown is the way that it should be – those words fit so perfectly over photos of our gorgeous homegrown babies.

These songs just fit us.  They mean so much.

David and I were supppsed to get married in August 2010 and I wrote to Dodgy who said that they would record Homegrown for us specially for the service.  I didn’t remind them and they have never been in touch again but I might send a link to my blog, explain that the wedding postponed and see if they will do something for us this time.  It would mean the world to David and I, and be a treasure for the babies to keep.

Back to the album …

If You’re Thinking of Me is a beautiful, sad song that has gotten me through some sad and lonely times over the years, but now Dodgy reminds me only of my first summer with David and a video he made for me on my birthday that year.

Dodgy are easy to listen to, they have simple and meaningful lyrics which tell a story.  The melodies are catchy with some of their faster songs being true Brit Pop anthems.

This band have grown with me from school through Uni to parenthood.  They are a shared favourite with the man I love, we listen to them in the car and In a Room; and I can picture us, in the future, as a family Staying Out for the Summer with Dodgy!

 GhostWriterMummy

Esther and William’s First Author – Oliver Jeffers

When Esther and William were born I bought them each a book.  Because they are twins I wanted the books to be by the same author and so I chose Oliver Jeffers.  I wanted each baby to have a story chosen especially for them, that could mean something to them all of their lives. I also wanted them to have a story to share.  The three books that I chose are: The Way Back Home; Lost and Found and How to Catch a Star.

Lost and Found was William’s book.  It was first read to him on the day that he was born by his Daddy.  David and I sat by his incubator and shared this story with our newborn son, who weighed in at just 2lb 11ozs and could not open his eyes or breathe without assistance.  We read to our little boy lost hoping that he would find his way, that we would find a way to be together as a family.  Lost and Found is about a little boy who finds a penguin.  Penguins (along with giraffes!) are my favourite animals and I want to pass that on to my children, to share it with them.  The little boy thinks that the penguin wants to go home and the boy does all he can to help him find his way but then he realises that the penguin was not lost at all but was lonely, he didn’t want to go home, he wanted to find a friend.  It is a very touching story about friendship, told very simply with beautiful illustrations.  It explores loss and loneliness which seemed very apt for our William who was all alone in a plastic box when he should have been in our arms with his sister.  It tells how two people can find comfort in one another and help each other along the way.  it is a story of the journey of friendship, through words and pictures it shows the strength and determination of one little boy to help another. We dedicated this to our Mr Strong, our braveheart, our William.  This is a wonderful first story for a little boy.  For our little boy.

Our daughter’s first ever story How to Catch A Star.  I chose this for Esther because one meaning of her name is ‘Star’.  I read her this book for the very first time on the day she was born.  I sat beside her blue lit incubator and read it to my 2lb 4oz baby, who I had known just hours but already loved with all my heart.  This was the prefect choice of story for Esther.  It is about a boy who loves stars and tries everything that he can to find one.  This is a story with the message of never giving up, of doing all you can to achieve your dreams, of fighting for what you believe in, of striving for your goals, of being strong and reaching for the stars.  This was the perfect message for my tiny, fragile daughter fighting for her life in an incubator rather than celebrating the start of her life in my arms.  I read this story with broken voice and eyes full of tears.  My little star was going to need all the strength she would muster and all of our strength too.  This book is so beautifully illustrated I just know that it will be treasured for always for its message and devoured time and time again for its lovely language and exquisite illustrations.  Thank you Oliver Jeffers for helping us give our children such a lovely start to life and the world of literature.

The final book , I bought for the twins to share.  It is called The Way Back Home.  Inside the front cover I wrote:

Dear Esther and William

We can’t wait to show you the way home to our house, your house, your home.  We love you now and always.

Mummy and Daddy

This Oliver Jeffers book is about finding your way home.  This was all we wanted for our two babies, to find a way to bring them home.  This story is about a young boy who gets stuck on the moon with an alien and together they must find a way to get each other home.  It is a tale of friendship and what can be achieved when friends work together.  I hope that Esther and William will be life long friends as well as twin brother and sister and whenevr they fight or fall out I am going to remind them of this book, the first time we shared it and how far they have come.

Oliver Jeffers is a brilliant writer and illustrator of unique and exciting books for children that can be enjoyed by all the family over and over again.

Simple stories with complex messages and meanings, filled with heartfelt love and warmth.

Please, if you have not yet discovered these books and enjoyed them with your children, please do, I am certain that you will not be disappointed. 

Thank you Oliver Jeffers!  Keep writing please!

First Ever Flashback Friday

For the first ever Flashback Friday I am exploring Februarys past.

FEBRUARY 2011

This February has been all about my sister’s wedding.  My wee sis got married to her lovely man, Hugh.  They are now in the US on honeymoon before they return to Oz where they live.  Well done again, wee sis.  So, so proud x

FEBRUARY 2010

February 2010 featured another wedding.  On a beautiful winter day David and I went to our dear friends Rich and Lex’s wedding.  I was about 5 weeks pregnant in this picture and we were not sure yet if it would be twins or not!!

FEBRUARY 2009

February 2009 is when we moved into our house.  It has snowed a lot since we started living here.  It is a perfect house for snow and Christmas.  More about that next Friday as I plan to feature the house again in my Friday Flashback post.

FEBRUARY 2008

This was the month that my parents left for Spain but here I am with my Dad on his February birthday before they left.  It his birthday on Sunday actually, so …

Happy Birthday Dad!!

So there you have it, a little flash through my februarys past.  What will you choose to reminisce about?  What have others chosen to share?  Why not hop on over to Cafe Bebe and begin your own trip down memory lane.

Thank you for a fun Friday meme x x