Andrea’s Last Day At Work
Andrea had her last day at work as her contract finished today. She was sad to leave as she really likes working at Sussex Uni with the Helen and every one.
Second Baby Scan
We finally had the second scan of the baby after what felt a life time since the first early scan. Andrea had been feeling the baby kick for a few weeks already so we knew the baby was doing OK. It was an excellent picture on the screen and we could see lots of detail. We found out that the baby was a little girl so if all goes well, Katie will be having a little sister to play with!
Ronan’s 5th Birthday Party
After church we had Sally over for lunch which was nice. Hadn’t seen her for a while so it was good to catch up. Her car conked out though on the way to ours so after lunch we got the AA out and they guy fixed it up. After that we went on to Ronan’s 5th birthday party at Juliet and Jamie’s. That was a nice afternoon. All the family were there and Katie enjoyed playing on a drum machine toy!
Valentines
Grand dad baby for us in the evening and Andrea and me went to Thai Connections in hove. Very nice Thai food. They had a special 4 course valentines set menu which was very good and filled up nicely! It was lovely to be able to get out just the two of us.
Kartie Anne’s Actual 1st Birthday
I had taken the day off work for Katies actual birthday. We all went to Andrea’s day time home group as normal in the morning and had some birthday cake and a great social time as it Jenny and Lily were there so it was Lilys 1st birthday the following day. After that we came home and had lunch and in the afternoon we took Katie to middle farm which she absolutley loved. she got to see lots of farm animals for the first time including chickens and every kind, pigs, cows, ducks, horses, goats, etc. We had a good time too. We all watched the cows being milked which intrigued Kaite! Then we had a cup of coffee and a slice of cake in the tea room there and wondered around the big farm shop as well. What a perfect day!
Katie Anne’s 1st Birthday Party
We had a little party for Katie’s first birthday at the house. It was Saturday afternoon and we had a house full of Grand Dad, Nana, Grand Pa, Clare and Dee, Juliet, Jamie, Kian, Ronan, Keavey, Fin, Micah, Alex, Chippy, Sally, Pia, Steve, Leila, Atkins, Gava, Mellisa, Tall Paul, Vickie, Toby, Matt, Kate, Georgia, Alex! Phew! Andrea had made lots of party food and a lovely big cake as well. Everyone stayed for about 2 or 3 hours and then Katie and an early night after all her excitement.
Curry and Cards
Meet up at Chippys place for a boys night. There was Chippy, Gava, Steve, Matted, Tall Paul and myself. Chippy cooked LOTS of curry and we had a good game of poker as well. Was a really night and great to see all the lads
New Years Day Banger Racing
Me and Dad drove up to the Wimbledon Stadium in South London for an afternoon motor sport off the highest quality. Super stox, Lightning Rods, 2.0 Litre Hot Rods and Bangers! Great afternoon out. We were out for longer than we thought as it goes and had to miss the finals of the Lightning Rods, 2.0 Litre Hot Rods and Bangers so I could get back to see Katie and give her her bath before her bed time! Some really good racing including a 60 car banger race! Quality!
New Years Eve
We just a quite one indoors this year. We’d gone out earlier in the day to get some shopping to cook a nice meal that evening and popped into town in the afternoon. In the evening we played some games, cooked a lovely meal together and had early night. We were both asleep before midnight. Must be what becoming parents has done to us!
Christmas 2007
We had a great Christmas this year. I had a week and half off work because of the way the bank holidays fell this year, which was really nice. Felt like I was off work for ages! Spent a lot of time with Andrea and Katie before Christmas which was great. On Christmas day we opened a few presents each and had a lovely breakfast together before going to church for a short Christmas day service. Didn’t leave till a late as I was locking up but we then went straight to Grand dads as it was raining. Had a really nice Christmas dinner there with Clare, Dee , Anne and Mike. Ate loads and opened of presents. Sorted. Andrea took Clare and Dee home just after Katie had gone to bed and when she got back we played a game of Articulate which I had got for Christmas. That was good fun. Me and Andrea won! We stayed over at Grand Dads that night.
On Boxing Day we went for a walk in Rottingdean and along the under cliff in the morning which was nice and then went on to Anne and Mikes for lunch. Pete Newman joined us for lunch which was really nice. Good to get to know him a bit better. Had a really good afternoon all together.
The next day we were all back at Anne and Mikes along with Jamie, Juliet and the children. That was another great day, except the kids weren’t very well. Juliet organised a fon do for lunch!
Scan of the Baby
We went to the Royal Sussex County Hospital this afternoon for our first scan of the baby. The scan went well and the baby is doing fine.
Katie Anne does a Be-Bo
Katie anne played be-bo with Andrea for the first time. Well Andrea has played it with Katie for a while but Katie did back to Andrea by putting the little taggy blanket over her face then showing her face. She did it a couple of time after Andrea had been doing it.
Katie Has A Cold
It seemed to have been coming for a little while but Katie has got a cold. This is pretty much her first real bout of feeling ill. She’s very blocked up but she’s coping with it really well and itsn’t too grumpy with it at all really. Still getting lots of smiles and giggles in between the snotty phases
Curry With The Boys
I’d arranged to go out for a curry and a few beers with Gava and some of the boys and after some umming and erring decided it wasn’t raining too hard to walk to the Druids, but about 15 mins into my walked it absolutely chucked it down and by the time I reached the pub I was soaking. Meet Gava, Chippy and Steve there and a couple of Steve’s mates. We had a couple there and then went on to the Shahi where Micah joined us. We ate some good curry and had a really good night.
Andrea Goes Back To Work
Andrea’s first day back at work at Sussex Uni after going on maternity leave with Katie. She will be doing two days a week until end of Feb 2008. Fortunatley Nana and Grandpa will be looking after Katie one day and Grandad the other day.
Fireworks At The Sussex Cricket Ground
Fortunatley I’d order tickets before we went to America for this so Andrea and me, Grnadad and Anne and Mike all went off to see the fireworks While Gava and Mellissa babay sat Katie. We got there about 45mins early and it was about 20 or more late in starting but we kept watm with some hot choc and some chips. It was an excellent show as normal. After the fireworks we drove up to the pub at Devils Dyke and all had some food up there.
Sallys 30th
Saturday night we went out to Sally 30th do and the BN1 club which she’d hired out. Grandad baby sat Katie and we drove into town. We were one of the first ones there. It was a really good do. Every one was out for it and saw a few people I hadn’t seen for ages like Geoff and Helen. We took the opportunity to tell everyone that Andrea was pregnant again which everyone was really pleased about. We left about midnight and gave Cooper a lift back to the pub where his car was
Katie Anne Stands
While we were away in America we discovered that Katie was able to stand (with a little help.. well alot of help)! We were amazed. She kept her legs nice and stright but couldn’t balance very well. Since then she has got better and better and is able to stnad by herself for a little while if she can hold on to the sofa or something
Andrea Pregnant Again
We found out today that Andrea is pregnant again! We slightly suspected it but Andrea got a test today and she did the test when I got home from work. We’re really pleased. We didn’t have too long to chat about it all as I had to go to a PACT meeting for church at John Elbourne’s house and was a bit distracted
The Gunnells Go To America
On the 15th Oct 2007
The Gunnell family went to America for 2 weeks with Grandad and Auntie Brenda. We were a bit worried how Katie would be on the plane etc but we had a free seat near us on the flight out from Gatwick which was good and Katie was really good on the flight. We flew from Gatwick to Atlanta and then changed planes to go onto Pensacola Florida. We arrived and were meet by Ian, April and the family. Got all our luggage OK and sorted the hire car out quickly. It was a really nice Toyota 7 seater people carrier. I drove it from the airport to our beach house on Pensacola Beach which was about a 30min drive. I actually did pretty good seeing as,
A - I’ve never driven a vehicle that big,
B - I’ve never driven in a foreign country
C - I didn’t know where I was going and
D - I’d just done 12 hours of travelling!
We got to the beach house OK only they had a red tide on the beach! Red tide is an algae that releases spores into the air which basically make the air like tear gas. So we ran from the car to the house ferrying luggage to minimise the coughing and spluttering.
After a couple of days with just us at the beach house Anne and Mike joined us. They had been in Orlando visiting friends for a few days. It was great to have so many of the family all together. Katie really liked it too.
The red tide lasted a few days until a storm came and cleared the water. The storm lasted a few more than the red tide. Lots of rain and lightning. It was quite spectacular! One day we decided that we’d go to the shopping mall to get out of the wind and rain. So we drove up there and Andrea commented that the weather looked even worse near the mall and she hoped it wasn’t a tornado! The nearer we got the more tress were down and the more traffic lights were out and the roads got more impassible due to flooding. Anyway we eventually got there OK. Upon entering the mall however, we noticed that most of the shops were closed. We thought it was a bit weird as it was 10.30am. The next thing we know a security guard is running over to us telling us to get away from the glass doors! We ended up being herded into a central part of the shopping mall due to a tornado hitting the mall! After about 5 minutes though we get the all clear. It turns out we’d just missed it by a few minutes! phew! We were then free to roam the mall (apart from the places were the sky lights had been blown in and water was pouring through).
The rain continued right through till the day of my brothers outdoor wedding. The morning of the wedding it was still raining hard but after lunch it stopped and the sun came out and dried up the place just in time for the 5pm wedding in the brides parents garden. You wouldn’t have known it had been raining at all! The wedding itself was really good. A good ceremony int he back garden (which was a lovely garden behind their lovely house. The garden even has a jetty going into the lake at the bottom of the garden). As part of the speeches I was to go second after Dale and say prayer for Ian and April which went well. We got back to the beach house about midnight in the end and then me and dad went to a praty at the other beach house were all Ian and Aprils friends were staying and Ian and April were partying there too. We stayed a couple of hours and had a good time.
The weather then went back to stormy and raining until it was about time for Anne and Mike to make their way to Atlanta were they were visiting the New Hope people. We then had 3 or 4 really nice days which we spent by the beach. We even saw a pod of dolphins swim by one day.
Hello world!
The-Gunnells.com has been up dated to have a real blog using the word press software, so rather than daily posts which have become unrealistic for dad working full time you’ll just see the occasional entry on here when we’ve done something worth writing about or have something worth reading to write!
