The Big Uniform Day

Today was the big uniform day!! First day of big school is now getting really close my older daughter is all kitted out but we are still to find shoes to fit my youngest.

This year my husband and i have decided to go the easy route and buy three times the amount of uniform we would usually buy including 15 pairs of socks each. The hope is that this will make the morning less stressful. as even though we do not have a large house my daughter still manage to loose most of their socks etc.

Our other make life easier decision is to opt for school dinners as the whole lunch box thing is a pain. As my eldest has slowly decided she doesn't like and sandwich filling what so ever. So at the end of last term i was sick of throwing away lot of good food and woring she wasn't getting a balanced diet. so school dinners should alleviate that stress from my life. I am all for making the new school term as stress free as possible so I can enjoy all the good bits.

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The Big Summer Holiday

Sorry for the big delay in posting.

We have been away on our summer holiday to the South of France. It was brilliant!!! A real goood adventure traveling by ferry and car 650 miles all the way down to the coast. We had all the mod cons to make the trip run smoothly sat nav, DS, DVD player. The girls travelled really well just as they did last year, in fact I think the loved the adventure as much as we did.

The pool was great and the beaches were amazing it was great to be away from home. I love my Small Furry Hotel but it is there 7 day a week 365 days a year. To keep myself fresh I do need to actually go away as you can never have a day off and be in the house.

It was lovely to come home refreshed and re charged to take on the busy summer. Busy is an understatement we are fully booked right throught until the middle of September which is amazing, but boy am I happy I spent two weeks doing nothing before hand. I do think business owners especially ones that works from home could quiet easily miss out on well need breaks. I am so pleased I have realised the benefits and take holidays as I do think otherwise I would get stale in my approach to the business. On the ferry home my head was buzzing about the future of Small Furry Hotel and K9tac.

Mind you my day dreaming was interuped my my youngest thorwing up just as the ferry ramp was coming down. All the cleaners were coming on to the ferry and I was trying to wrestle a bucket out of some lads hand as I could see not taking the leather option on the car seats was going to become an issue. Then I had to give a French impatiant lorry drive the "mother look of Death" you know the one when a mum is looking after her baby and some one gets in their way. My husband was flapping but I was underterred I was going to take 3 minutes to settle my little girl after she had vomited up the disgusting ferry food. They were queing at passport control anyway!! Regardless of the fact my caravan was blocking 20 lorries!!!!! and the driver were getting quiet animated. I calmly steped from the can an did my best actions to explain "My baby is throwing up everywhere" "She is Crying" " We're not moving until were sorted" The ferry guy winked and said no problem I didn't wait for a reaction from the lorry drivers. Honestly people lack of paients and care for those around then grates me some times.

Well we bought the first part of my youngest school uniform today as school is approaching fast. Once the girls are back in school I do intend to make my blog more regular. well I hope you are enjoying the summer holidays. we do still have some bouncy castles free mid week if you need something to occupy the children and their friend 15 % off a hire in Aug if you mention my blog when booking

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Exciting News

After my emotional out bust the other night and my want to put the breaks on I am know looking forward to September. WHY you ask?

Because..................
Small Furry Hotel has made it to the final of the Pet Care Trust to say......

We are a finalist in the Boarding Establishment of the year. I am so thrilled and proud all rolled into one.

In September I have to attend an award ceremony in Birmingham apparently it is like the Oscar's for the Pet care industry. I am soooooo excited.

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NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!????

Well as one Bank holiday is over another one approaches.

Last weekend I headed off in my new car to the in laws with my two girls. Dad was left at home with the animals.

On the Sunday we went to a dog show where my puppy came fourth in the group. Which means she was against all the other pastoral puppies that had won their classes. It was my first time showing and I really enjoyed the day and was thrilled with the help that was offered to me by all the other dog people.

After a great day I headed off to my friends house in Reading for the night so we could leave for the next show in Newalk. 5am we left all packed two dogs and lunch. I was driving and we were making good time just 45 mins to go when the tyre blew out on my car. Amazingly the only reason I knew there was a problem was because the vibration through my spine was quite painfull. I discussed the bad road surface with my passenger but decided to pull over to investigate. well I opened the passenger door and was nearly sick with the smell of burning rubber, the whole tyre had been ripped of the alloy.

So as it's a big car and to be fair I have never changed a wheel I called the AA. Out comes Mr AA who doesn't want to be working Easter Monday. He informs me I have no locking wheel nut key. "a what" I ask. "I don't know, it's in the boot". Well after dumping most of our belonging on the side of the road it would appear I have bought a car without a vital part.

Fuming I am now told I will need to be towed home!!! Straight on the phone to hubby telling him to get it sorted " single child syndrome "i want it now" was in full force. Bless him he phoned everywhere no where had a tyre to fit our car. So AA man number one drives off. AA man number two turns up, now he took pride in his job assessed the situation and said it was so dangerous we needed the police. ( please now visualise the steam pumping out of my ears) "Oh no were ok I can manage it" he pips up. So after detailed analysis of our dogs and the likely hood of them eating him if he got in the car he decides to put it on the ramp. The dogs were not interested in the AA man they just were a bit bemused by all the fuss so went to sleep!!. so car on lorry dogs now having a better view as we are towed to a garage somewhere that removes the wheel. This takes 20 mins so we are now too late for the show. To ad insult to injury apparently AA man number one could have sorted it. We then have a space saver wheel on that you can only do 40 mph on. Long story short I got home at 5pm, I have never suffered so much road rage and abuse from other drivers because I was doing 40mph, I even had my hazard lights on but they still speeded up the back end of my car, slammed on their breaks and beeped and flashed me. Two men even pulled up along side me to swear at me! a complete bunch of nutters. It was really quite sad that so many people failed to even consider my car may have a fault, if they had taken the time to look they would have seen the tiny wheel on one side.

Anyway that's by the by. I am thrilled that this week my eldest daughter had her first hack ( went out of the field for a ride) she has been buzzing about it ever since.

If you have a dog and are free Mon 2nd we are running a dog show at the Bransgore Funday to raise funds for Jack and Jills pre school. It starts at 1pm on the bransgore playing fields email via www.k9tac.co.uk for details or view www.facebook.com/k9tac

Thought of the day - Don't leave home without a locking wheel nut thing it can ruin your day!!!

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School Holiday...............................

Well that's it we are free of school for a while. I like the holidays as I get fed up of the 3pm school run, it kind off cuts your day in half especially in the summer. I find the traffic so bad in Bournemouth and Poole that after lunch I am too worried to drive anywhere just in case I don't get back in time.

So I am going to enjoy the freedom not that I will go far but I could if I wanted to.

School holidays also means a break from dog training as our classes try to run in line with the school holidays although Easter is so late this year we are only having a week off. I love the last week of training as it is Progress test week. I am always pleased with progress. For some dogs it's being happy/quiet in the room with all the other dogs and for the advanced dogs it's them achieving some thing fang dangled. I love to see the pups go from a blank canvas to taking an interest in their owners regardless of other distractions and concentrating on pleasing/ working out what their owners are asking of them. There is nothing better than seeing those lines of communication opening up as dog and owner start to understand each other. Our new course starts April 18th and we have a kids club for any dog mad children out there. Some children bring their own dogs others borrow ours.

Had to take a bunny to the vet today as it's vaccine ran out whilst she was on her holidays . I am not a huge vet fan, what I mean is they have to prove themselves to me as I have met a few hopeless vets in my time. Well the guy at companion care in Pets at home in Christchurch was great. Really into rabbits and a bundle of knowledge - he was talking about a new vaccine that will last 6 mth for Myxi and a combined myxi and VHD jab, can't be bad. He was supper efficient and printed off a copy of the details for the Small Furry Show on the 16th and put them on the notice board. Great Vet I will have to get his name - he also keeps rabbits himself.


I am hoping to do a bit of intensive riding with my eldest daughter to get her going a bit on her pony. We started when she was 7 and she has far more fear than her kamikaze 4 year old sister which she finds a bit frustrating. Mind you if she listened once in a while and didn't argue Black is white so much we may get further, I think it's a phase that I remember going through myself, although highly frustrating I am glad she has so much self belief at a young age.

Voting closed for the langtry Manor Business awards today so I am excited to hear how I got on. My Mother has already sent me a dress for the final - now is that confidence in your daughter or what?



P.s picture just because I like it and couldn't find the one I wanted

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A Great Week

Well What an exciting week we have had. Tuesday I picked up my much needed new car. Then I found out that I had made the Final 10 of the Langtry Manor Business Woman awards. I am so thrilled to be shortlisted and very much looking forward to the voting starting on April 1st. The mother with the most votes wins. I am up against some great woman/ mothers so to get this far has been a great achievement. I started www.smallfurryhotel.com some 4 years ago and have build it up from nothing. I wanted a business that I would love doing and would be able to be a mum at home too. Small Furry Hotel has aloud me to do this. I love my little business and all the opportunities it has opened up for me. Honestly if you are sitting there considering setting up a business go for it. There is so much help out there to help you succeed too.

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