Emily Beth McCulloch

She's arrived! Emily's birth was a beautiful surprise on Tuesday morning as we both felt strongly that we were having a boy!
Emily arrived at 3.50am after being admitted to the ward at 12.30am! The midwife was extremely surprised at how quickly the whole thing happened. I'm sure we will fill you in with all of the details later!
Emily is a beautiful 7lbs little girl with a wonderful head of black hair. We're not quite sure where that came from.
Both ladies are doing really well and will be in hospital for a couple of days as Emily has to undertake a course of antibiotics. She spent all of yesterday sleeping and was very well behaved for all her visitors. However, as soon as we were all made to leave Emily decided to wake up and kept JA up most of the night demanding a feed!
As a proud father it is almost impossible to explain how the whole thing feels. The reality of Emily actually being our daughter has still not sunken in yet. I'm just looking forward to getting back into hospital and seeing them both again this morning.

JA and Emily meet face to face for the first time

Beautiful Emily sleeps peacefully during a busy day

'Hallelujah' Emily can't keep her hands down

Term + 4

Back at the midwife today, what a bummer!
Baby is fine, I am fine, all is well, however the midwife told me to go home, put my feet up until next Thursday when I go to the hospital to discuss being induced!
Basically she thinks that it is doubtful that the baby is going to come on its own or before term + 14. So... the upshot is... baby will come, but according to her, not in the next week, but what I do know is that he/she will come before or on 10th July.
So for all you baby watchers and waiters out there, you will just have to wait a little longer, like me!

Weekend of Waiting

Well, the baby isn't here yet, we are still waiting. We never knew that waiting for your life to completly change could be so infuriating!
So wait we will, patiently, frustratingly, anxiously but wait. Jamie's nana gave us some advice.
"When the apple is ripe... it will drop."
So what have we been up to this week? Well yet again Jamie has been busy marking, marking ...marking. He has now marked over 13 000 questions with 7000 ish left. The World Cup has featured highly on the viewing stakes with the sofa getting a bit of a bashing as Jamie marks and watches. He/we are looking forward to the 4th July when the papers are all marked and we can get out, walk and enjoy being outdoors again.
It was my (JA) birthday... a great day with lots of fun things and a visit to my favourite restaurant to sample the deep fried courgettes! However, with baby pushing all my internal organs, I over ate (it's hard not to at the Lime Tree) and felt unwell for the rest of the night! Serves me right for being greedy!
This weekend was a great chance to meet up with our god-daughter who was visitng with our good friends Jon and Rosemary. It was fab to catch up and see how much Lucy has grown. She is a really great kid, we laughed lots as she entertained us with stories and her quirkiness. Seven seems a great age to be!

My (JA) parents have arrived for the week to spend time before the baby arrives. I want baby to arrive in the next couple of days so they can spend some time with he/she before they go back to Belfast to be with my sister, Emma as she gives birth next week. She is due for a C section on July 5th if her's does not arrive before then.

My other sister, Judith moved house this week, she now lives at number 53, Emma lives at 73 and my parents live at 20! All in the same street! It is a Patterson affair on that road, soon to be renamed Patterson Row!

So that is our week, maybe next weekend we will be blogging about labour and adjusting to parenthood. I am trying my best to hurry baby along with reflexology, raspberry leaf tea, fresh pineapple, bouncing on the birthing ball, walking fast, jumping up and down and running (jogging) up the stairs, but for now baby seems quite happy to stay inside.

Exam marking, the World Cup and Root Beer.

These are the highlights of the past 7 days. The baby hasn't arrived as yet, it is due to arrive next sunday, we hope he/she comes before or on Sunday, but we are not holding our breath.
Exam marking dominates the lounge. Jamie has a quota of 850 questions per night after work. He is plumping the cushions every night as the sofa is taking on his peachy butt shape as he sits for 3 -4 hours per night marking GCSE maths!
The world cup dominates the telly, a thankful addition to the monotony of the marking process for Jamie. I now have been exposed to the passive and the active off side rule, I just find it hard to explain the differences!
After 6 hours of marking yesterday we went to find the A & W burger restaurant in Ashton as we have been told that they sell root beer on tap in tankards! Off to Ashton we trundle, 20 mins later... we arrive outside the orange glow of A & W with Jamie salivating at the thought of a root beer float. ( It will be a year in August since he had his last one in Alberta!) We go in and order to be told that 3 hours earlier the pump had broken and there would be no root beer and no floats! What a disappointment!



That's been our week, Jamie marking and watching the world cup, and me, well maternity leave is great, but I am a bit bored now as the house is clean, the baby's stuff is ready, the freezer is full of home cooked meals, I am nearly finished all the school jobs and daytime TV is rubbish. So bring on the baby. ( Minus the labour, but I am told that storks struggle to find houses these days!)

This week doesn't look to be any different according to the calendar or diary, however, the phrase expect the unexpected creeps into our minds. This baby could come any day, so watch this space!

Enjoy the World Cup, sunny weather and the unexpected!

A successful week for Jamie

I am going to blog this as Jamie is too modest to!

Jamie got promoted this week!

From September 1st 2006 Jamie will be the Second in the Mathematics Department at Hazel Grove High School.He had his successful interview last Thursday and is now looking forward to the challenges of senior management in September.

He also had his threshold interview on Friday and has successfully passed through to the upper pay spine which will take effect again from September.

Jamie is a clever boy!!

I am very proud of him, he has had a hectic week which was finished off with a drive to London to attend his 'skilled expert marker' standardisation meeting for GSCE maths. This meant that he missed most of the England game, a real sacrifice!

Well, last week is over, Jamie has achieved a lot and this achievement will bring many changes in September.

For now...

I think he is waiting to find out when life is going to change in the next month as baby is due in less than 2 weeks!
Watch this space, we will keep you informed!

Busy Half-Term

Well, here we are again at the end of another half-term although this one is very different than all the rest. When I head back to work on Monday JA will no longer be accompanying me on my journey as we await our special day. It's a strange feeling knowing that this is how it's going to be for the next 10 months. However, I'm obviously pleased on two levels. 1) Our baby will soon be arriving and I don't need to explain the joy and wonder that that will bring, 2) JA will get that well deserved break from work that she has been in need of for some time. Yes I know that the baby will be a full time job as well but it's a completely different type of work!
The half term has brought along many opportunites to meet up with others, go out for the day, do jobs around home and generally get some rest. We enjoyed having Judith (JA's sister) here for a weekend and made it over to Buxton and Bakewell for a day.
We also had the joy of watching Mia (my work colleague, Cherry's daughter) being baptised into faith. I got to see 2 films I've anxiously been waiting for - X-Men 3 and The Da Vinci Code. JA is struggling to see these kind of films at the moment as any kind of suspense is having a detrimental effect on her body!
Antenatal classes have also been good with a reassuring visit to the delivery suite and ward where we know we'll be spending some time soon. I say reassuring as we had all (the class) been filled with panic as we watched the 'birth video' prior to the tour! A natural birth and pool birth created a series of conversations in the remaining hour.
So, to finish I thought I would share some photos from our visit to Tatton Park on Thursday. It was a beautiful day in which we enjoyed a picnic, a sleep by the lake and a visit to the wonderful gardens. JA is looking more rosy than usual with her exposure to the sun!
I have to say the gardens were excellent and were much larger than we had expected - a smaller version of Buschart! Enjoy.

A busy day for celebrations

Well, today is a busy day I am sure all around the world for lots of people, but for some of our friends it is an extra special day.

Dee and Andrew, Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary. We hope that the year ahead is fun and laughter filled for you both.
Esther, happy Birthday. We hope you have enjoyed your birthday in Australia and that the sun shone for you.
Nicola, happy birthday to you too! Enjoy the half term break, hopefully you wil be able to squeeze in lots of Marc time!
Katy, a very happy birthday to you. We hope that Tony and the boys spoiled you today and that you ate lots of cake.
Derek, Snadra and Leon, welcome back to the U.K. We are looking forward to spending time with you over the next month or so.

And for me, well I am celebrating as it is my first proper day of Maternity leave as I finished school on Friday. It feels kind of strange as this is the 2 week Whitsun half term for me, I am sure it won't sink in until I would normally be back, but Jamie and I are so glad that this time has finally come and we await our bundle of joy to arrive... hopefully in 4 weeks time!

Happy First Birthday Soren

Wow, another first birthday.
We were thinking today how weird it must be to have a birthday that you don't remember, yet it is so significant! Maybe there is someone out there who actually remembers their first birthday, but for Jamie and I... we don't.
Anyway where am going with this? I suppose a first birthday is all about family and the family celebration of a new life, the reaching of a milestone and the developing of a mini personality in a mini body.

Well Soren, yesterday was the big One for you. We wish you many birthdays to come, lots of cakes to be guzzled, many boxes to be opened and wishes to be made.

Happy Birthday, wee man, keep up the walking, it won't be long until you are chasing a ball just like daddy and uncle Jamie! ( you may even be better!)

Happy Birthday Leon Isaac Brower

Wow, has it been a year already? Time seems to go by so quickly.

Lev, we wish you a very happy first birthday. We hope that you enjoyed playing with the boxes and wrapping paper, and that the birthday cake tasted great. We are looking forward to seeing how much you have grown when we see you in a couple of weeks.
We couldn't trust the Russian postal service, so you are going to have to come to collect your pressie from us.

Enjoy your birthday wee man!

Catching up and bit and pieces.

Life has seemed so busy over the past couple of weeks. We had my parents here for the weekend. My dad was officiating at a wedding and my mum was a glamorous bridesmaid. It was great to see my dad 'pastoring' again and a bit weird to see my mum as a bridesmaid in a traditional dress. She looked fab and did a great job looking after the Romanian bride, who was trying to get her head around the 'britishness' of the wedding!



For Jamie and I we have been busy. He had lots of school things on like parents evening, meetings and other stuff that has been engaging him. For me, I have had SATs. My class are exhausted and I am tired with swollen ankles! I went to the midwife wondering if my blood pressure was up as I wasn't feeling too great, but wow, it's nice and low with no problems. The baby's head is now in the right place ( pointing down) so we will wait and see. We are counting down but 6 weeks still seems so far away.

Next week we have breast feeding classes, we are not sure what to expect, but we will fill you in after the event!

Ezio

Saturday night gave me an opportunity to go back to Academy 3 to watch Ezio in action. I first heard of them in January when my colleague from work invited me along to hear them. He knows I play guitar so thought I would be interested in their music. This time though I took Gid (and Will) with me as I thought Gid would appreciate seeing how good these guys are (I'm teaching Gid how to play the guitar so this was an educational visit!).
Well, they played for around 1 and a half hours of just the two of them on acoustic guitars. They were sensational. The big dude (Booba) is just lightning quick when he's playing lead. When I looked around the amount of people standing with their mouths open in disbelief was amazing. You can't help but just stand and stare.

Well, if you want to hear a sample of their music then click here to check out their web page. I have to say they sound a hundred times better live that just listening to their CD. The only problem with all of this though is that they have a huge following in Germany (with the likes of David Hasselhoff!) but that shouldn't put you off!

Bump Watching

For all you keen bump watchers out there, here is the long awaited bump shot at 30 weeks and 5 days.
Baby is well, he/she certainly is an active one! Hopefully he/she won't be giving us this much action at 3am in the morning in 2 months time!

Off to the coast

Well, one week is over and we are about to begin our second week of Easter holidays.
Easter is a great holiday, not only because it is so crucial in the Christian calendar and to us, but also because it is great to get two weeks off work. One week to 'tinker' with school work and another to holiday, rest and relax.
So tomorrow, after church we are off to Staithes on the north east coast.


We will blog later in the week to tell you all about it, we are staying in a house 2 doors up from where Captain Cook was born? lived? (not quite sure which one!)

A happy Easter to all.

School holidays

Don't you just love them!
Well Jamie and I do. We are now 3 days into them and we have been enjoying our lack of routine. We find the whole Monday to Friday get up around 6.30am be at work from 7.30am leave work between 4.30 and 6pm a bit boring... so it is so great when the holidays come round.
So... what have we been up to?
On Monday Jamie went to school with me to help me move lots of my heavy stuff and take down displays that required balancing precariously on the top of a ladder. Tuesday we both went to our own schools and caught up on paperwork for J and for me, well more packing up of my resources and things. I thought I should do it now when the kids aren't in as I have only 5 weeks of teaching left when we go back after Easter.
But today has been the best day so far. We got in our new car, ( we had to get one that would fit a pram and a car seat and 2 adults!!) and drove to Formby Point, near Liverpool,

to see the red squirrels,

stroll around in the sand dunes,and get our faces blown off on the beach.

It was great. We did see something that caught our eye, you really can find everything including a kitchen sink on Formby Beach!!

All in all a great day, a cool way to spend our day.

On another note, our good friends Eifion and Esther are now in Dubai and soaking up temperatures in the 30's. They were hoping to go sand dune buggy racing, we don't think the wind will be as biting there as it was today in Formby. Have a good holiday Jenkins!! Enjoy the sun!

For all you baby bump watchers, we will try to remember to take photos of the growing bump and post them soon. ( only 11 weeks to go!!)

End of Term

It's the end of term!!! The kids are leaving school and suddenly I am surrounded by peace and quiet. Oh the joys of knowing you have 2 weeks off!
Well, I knew it had been such a long time since I had posted that I thought I would share this little story with you. Some of you may know about it already but my friend here at work showed this to me earlier.
Below is a picture that won the Photo of the Year competition in the National Geographic. As you can see it is a pretty amazing shot. My colleague is a R.E. teacher and uses it to creat discussions in his class about Who, What, How, Where, Why etc. He says this photo in particular is a particularly powerful tool.

He then went on to say that this picture was in fact a hoax. When readers of the National Geographic had seen this the magazine received 2 seperate letters, one claiming the shark photo to be theirs and one claiming the helicopter photo to be theirs!

The photo had in fact been overlapped to give the sensational picture above. You can see below this the photos that were placed together to give this one image.

Well, I'll let you know how the half term is going throughout next week. I do have quite a lot of work to do so I will be coming back into school for a couple of days. As some of you know that is quite unlike me!

I'm also off to the United-Arsenal game this weekend. Got some tickets in the new Quadrants that have been recently built so looking forward to that.

On Easter Sunday we'll take off with my Mum and Dad to Whitby for a few days so it will be nice to get away. That's all for now!

Pregnancy update

Well, it has been requested so here it is. All those who are fed up hearing about it or are just not interested I apologise.

I am now 27 weeks and 4 days pregant and very excited. It is truely amazing the whole process of a baby developing inside and how they communicate without words. The whole moving around thing after meals and the waking up between 9.30 pm and 11pm as if to say, 'pay me some attention... I am in here you know!'
We were back at the midwife last week for check ups and again got to hear the heart beat. It is truely amazing and something that really does make you realise a baby is growing and developing daily and that we hope to be parents in less than 13 weeks time!

The practicalities continue. The cot is built, we now have sheets for it, the pram is built and stored away, friends and family have donated and bought us clothes and bits and pieces, so really we are just waiting to the big day.

We talk about being prepared however the antenatal classes haven't begun yet, so we are not sure how to be prepared, however fear factors as well as sheer delight and excitement share parts of our brain and discussion daily.

Apart from all that I am well and healthy, just the normal complaints, I get a sore back, especially in the evenings, and my lowest rib on the left side is sore most of the time. The midwife tells me it is to do with the release of a chemical called relaxin (yes it does what it sounds like) it relaxes muscles etc so my ribs are now more floatier than usual hence the botttom one jutting out and being painful. The leg cramps continue through the night with me hopping and dancing to a range of different beats in the dark as I try to sort my leg muscles out!
My little sister is still struggling with a twisted pelvis so her back pain is greater. We both say if this is as bad as our pregnancies get, we are very fortunate mums to be!

So the update on the baby and the pregancy, all is well, Jamie and I count our blessings every day and pray that not only will he/she be happy and healthy but will grow up to love God and people.

13 weeks and counting, but so far no stretch marks to count!



On a different note it was my parents 30th wedding anniversary this weekend. It was a joy to celebrate with friends and family and to see them so much in love and so happy. Jamie and I are blessed with parents who love each other deeply and who love us deeply - something we sometimes forget or take for granted! It was a great but tiring weekend, eating and celebrating in Patterson style. (Jamie as usual had to fight to be heard amongst all the Patterson women!)
So that is us all up to date. Baby is well, JA is well (and expanding) and Jamie continues to run in the rain and hail, sun and wind and seems to be gettting fitter and faster!


Oh... don't tell me how much we look alike or how much I have grown. I had all that from the aunts and uncles at the weekend! ( but it is pretty freaky how alike we are!)

Another week zooms by

Well, I did promise I would write at least every week, however this week just seems to have sped away at a pace of light years with not a lot happening.

I have been on courses on how to improve children's writing to level 5. Shouldn't it be how to encourage children to write imaginatively and creatively and not just to pass a test at the end of Key Stage 2?
I have been to visit a neighbouring school to share experiences and knowledge on how to improve the standards in Mathematics in our schools.
I have been to a staff meeting about improving map skills and hygiene in food technology.
I have been in reviews about special educational needs kids and how if I fill out more forms the government will give school more money so that we can deal we their complex learning needs.

Oh and I have taught my 35 Year 6 darlings that sugar dissolves quicker in hot water as the higher the temperature of the water, the more energy it contains therefore the solid will dissolve faster! ( What is the point? I hear some of you say) TO PASS THE KEYSTAGE 2 TEST, SILLY!

But don't worry, tomorrow I am doing sensible things like hockey, drugs education, probability and writing in simple and complex sentences, using a variety of connectives and punctuation.

Well, I am off now to get my lessons ready, hopefully this week will not fly by so quickly and hopefully I will have something more interesting to blog about by the weekend!

All change

This week saw the last of my parents evenings for a least a year. It felt quite weird as I still feel that I have so much time to go at work, but with the school timetable it was my last official meeting with my parents, (I have been seeing the same ones for the last 2 years as I have the same class again.)
It is also kind of strange as for the next few years at least, I will never do parents evening on my own as I hope and plan to job share and work part time. As you all know I am a bit of a control freak and I am not sure how sharing a class, classroom etc is going to work out, but I am getting used to the idea, I hope I am a good team player and I work well with whoever the person is going to be.
It is so far away in the future, (April 26th 2007 to be exact, as I had to fill my return to work form in, before I left!!)

Well, it is all change for me at work and at home. Yesterday the cot arrived and the study no longer exists. It now shares a room with Jamie's music stuff and the sofa bed. Nothing stays the same forever and we are so excited about this baby. He/she moves around a lot and is really starting to make an appearance, ( my body is expanding!!)

This blog, I seem to remember was not to be a baby diary, but I know for a lot of our friends, everything is changing for them and that there are lots of changes in the near and distant future for you all.

This week, I hope all the changes are pleasant and comfortable as well as welcomed as I/we are enjoying ours!

A visit to the capital

Well, this weekend was our third in a row away from home. ( Willow, our poor cat will eventually forgive us!)
Paris, York for a Christening and this weekend a visit to London with Eif and Esther to see Mary Poppins. What an amazing show and she really flew ( ok on wires but you couldn't tell!)
I am sure I could feel Jaime and Eifion's feet tapping beside me and Esther and I were definitely humming along in places.
We also had a chance to visit the Natural History museum. What a remarkable building! It was great. We did the shuffle, as it was so packed, past the dinosaur exhibition, we visited the Human body section and the Earth Sciences part about volcanoes and extreme weather. (that was 3 1/2 hours worth) We really enjoyed it and would love to visit soon.
Just a question. Has anyone seen the film 'one of our dinosaurs is missing' with Peter Ustinov? Jaime and I think it was filmed there. Any opinions out there?

What a great weekend, We squeezed in lots of good time with our friends before they leave for Australia in 5 weeks!!!!! We are now back in Manchester for the next 2 and then off to Belfast for my parents 30th wedding anniversary party. This bobbing around will have to be reduced soon, but for now we are having a great time seeing friends and family.
Jon and Roz, watch out we hope to visit at Easter!!!

We're back!

Well it is not as if we have really been anywhere but life seemed to take over and I never seemed to make the time to catch up with the blog.
I am now 23 weeks pregnant and quickly growing out of my clothes. Baby, dad and mum to be are doing well, this week we heard the heart beat for the first time, medicine and knowledge is a great thing, it was truely amazing.
The pram and car seat have arrived and await in their boxes ( my mum is slightly supersticious!!!) and we decorated the nursery over this past week as it was the long awaited and much needed half term. Apart from that, from time to time our noses are pushed into a range of parenting, baby prepartion and scarey books all related to the theme of the ever expanding family!

Well, what have we done over this past month!

1. Organised JA's Parents 30th wedding anniversary party for the end of March. Thirty years seems such a long time when we have just passed 5. It is truely amazing to see both our parents' marriages and how long and stable they have been, we feel blessed as children to have such great parents.

2. Visited Paris for 4 days as part of a belated Christmas gift. We enjoyed all the sighs PAris had to offer with rain, wind and snow thrown in for free! The Mona Lisa was great ( Jamie relived chapters of the Da Vinci code as we walked the corridors of the Louvre), Versailles was busy but beautiful and the Eiffel Tower served great tea. All in all the trip was great, JA especially enjoyed it as it was great to visit a city she has always wanted to visit!




3. Our good friends Eif and Esther have made the really exciting decision to relocate to the other side of the world! We wish them all the best as they move to Australia and hope that the galahs are friendly. We hope that the next 6 weeks go slowly as we try to squeeze as much time with them as possible.

4. Emma ( JA's youngest sister) is enjoying her pregnancy and continues to be healthy. Her baby hopes to arrive 2 weeks after ours so we wait and watch to see who's comes first!


We do solemly declare that this blog will become become a priority and have at least one post a week.

For now,

Rosemary, we hope morning sickness doesn't kick in this week ( or the next few)
Greg, good luck in the new job.

Soren, grow strong and healthy and enjoy swimming classes with mummy this week.

Leon, we hope the new tooth comes quickly and painlessly, please be kind to your parents during this time.
Eif and Esther, happy packing.
Dee and Andrew... hope studies for both of you are positive and productive.

We'll be back!

XXX