The Story of Milo the 6 Year Old Labrador

Me and the kids have wanted a dog for years, but Tina has always firmly put her foot down against the idea. I’ve always grown up around dogs myself — we had them throughout my childhood, and all my brothers and sisters have dogs too — so I’ve always felt our kids were missing out on a really special part of growing up.

Then, last week, Amy stumbled across what seemed like the perfect opportunity. A friend of hers was looking to re-home a six-year-old Labrador called Milo after sadly being widowed. With young girls to look after, she simply couldn’t commit the time and attention the dog deserved. She wasn’t asking for any money; she just wanted to know Milo would be going to a loving home where he’d be cared for properly and given the attention he needed.

So me and the kids quietly sneaked off to meet Milo and take him for a walk. To be honest, we were smitten almost immediately. He was everything we could have hoped for — calm, friendly, affectionate, and just an all-round lovely dog. Tina, however, understandably saw things a little differently and wasn’t too impressed that we’d gone behind her back, even though we hadn’t made any commitments.

After everyone had calmed down, we arranged for Milo’s owner to bring him round to our house so Tina could meet him and see how he settled into the home environment. That visit actually went really well, although Tina still wasn’t entirely convinced. So, the next step was agreeing to have Milo stay with us for the weekend to see how we all got on and whether Tina might warm to the idea.

By the end of the weekend, me and the kids had completely fallen in love with our new four-legged friend. Having Milo around just felt natural, like the missing piece of the puzzle in our house. Tina could also see the positive effect he was having on the kids. The problem, though, was that she had started experiencing tightness in her throat whenever she was at home with him — symptoms that seemed to ease whenever she left the house. With Tina already suffering badly with asthma, and Labradors being known for triggering allergies, it became clear that this could potentially be a real issue.

What we couldn’t establish over just one weekend was whether Tina’s body would gradually adjust to Milo and whether her symptoms would improve over time. So, together with the owner, we agreed to keep him for a full week to really give things a fair chance. During that week, I bought an air purifier for downstairs and Tina kept on top of her allergy medication, but unfortunately there was no real improvement.

As heartbreaking as it was, we had to accept that our family’s health had to come before having a pet. In the end, we made the very difficult decision to return Milo to his owner.

If I’m honest, I think the decision hit me harder than it did the kids. I’d grown really attached to Milo over that week and genuinely felt like I’d become his “alpha”. He came with me on early morning runs around the Wick and would then happily sit with me in the gym at 5:30 every morning while I trained. He really was the perfect dog. Joshua had also taken to him brilliantly and was doing an amazing job training him and teaching him different tricks.

The positive to come out of the whole experience is that Tina has now finally come around to the idea of us having a dog one day. We just need to find one that’s more suitable for asthma sufferers and less likely to trigger allergies. So, finding the right dog for our family will become our next little project once we’re back from holiday later this year.

Milo, the 6 year old Lab.

Joshua really took to Milo and worked so well with him.

Within no time he was completely settled and it was like we had always had him around.

But Tina's asthma and allergies had other ideas for Milo.

For the first 3 days I didn't get a chance to really walk Milo as the kids all took turns and wanted to do it.

He loved just sitting by the back door and made this his spot looking out for birds etc in the back garden.

The dog had managed to bring the 3 kids together and get them all out of the house together to take him for a walk!

It was so nice to see them all getting along and enjoying spending time outdoors.

Wick park looking glorious in the sunshine.

Milo was so good on the leash and even Holly could handle him fine.

None of us had an issues with Milo, but he didn't seem to like Brandon's girlfriend and snarled at Tina every now and then.

Milo cuddles with Holly in the front garden.

Holly also took on Milo's daily grooming without even being asked.

1st Child to get Inked

Well, it was always going to happen one day, but I don’t think Tina expected it to be quite this soon. Yes, the first of our children has officially been inked. Joshua has been thinking about tattoos for a long time and was determined to make his first one meaningful.

After plenty of research and deliberation, he decided to get his right forearm tattooed with a dove, a clock face, a rose, and the date his Nan (my Mum) passed away. Josh certainly didn’t go small for his first tattoo either — it covers pretty much his entire lower forearm and took a whopping six hours to complete. By the sounds of it, he was an absolute trooper and sat through the whole thing without taking a single break.

As much as Tina was against the idea of a tattoo, she can’t really say too much as he’s 18 and paid for it himself (£450!). He seems really pleased with it, though, and has already been getting lots of compliments. I’m just glad he chose something that genuinely means something to him, rather than something random or the latest trend that might look a bit questionable in years to come.

Joshua's first tattoo and as you can see he didn't go small.

Great detail and shading for his 6 hour session.

Lovely tribute to his Nan.

100 Merit Milestone

How good is this? Not even 1 year at Beauchamps and my little Superstar Holly has achieved her 100 merit certificate. To put that in to perspective, Joshua didn't get a 100 merits throughout his entire secondary school!!!! 

Canvey Beach Clean Up

We recently took a nice afternoon walk along the coast at Canvey Island and I was super proud of Brandon and Holly as they decided to have a beach clean-up and trolled the beach looking for any rubbish that they could pick up and dispose of in the bins. We also tried skimming a few stones and enjoyed a nice ice-cream to finish off our coastal walk.

On a sunny day it is amazing to live in a place where we are just 20 mins away from the coast and can enjoy such nice walks. If you can overlook the bad reputation Canvey Island has, it can be beautifully scenic as you can see in the pictures.

Beautiful scenery on a sunny day in Canvey Island.

I think our coastline is starting to clean up as it becomes harder and harder for companies to dump waste in the sea.

I know it is shallow, but the water actually looks cler and clean here.

These two were on a mission to clean the beach and went on a rubbish collecting mission for the afternoon.

Annual Car Clean, Parking Ticket and Insurance Cancellation!!!

Joshua has had a testing couple of weeks with his car as of late. It all started when he picked up his first parking offence in Wickford resulting in a £60 fine. However much worse than that, his black box for his insurance detected him doing 48 mph down Cranes Farm Rd (which is a 30 mph limit) and therefore notified him via email that this is dangerous driving and that they were cancelling his insurance. The annoying thing about this is he was only 2-3 months away from getting his first years no claims bonus. So I have had the stress of having to cancel his old policy (before they could cancel) and then sort out some new insurance so that he can still get to work and college! 

On the plus side he has now had Tina's Fiesta for nearly 10 months and up until this week I think he had only washed it once or twice (through a car wash, never by hand). Yesterday was the first time since owning the car that he has actually bothered to clean the car himself. This was  only because he bought one of those spray guns with the foam cleaner from Tik-Tok and was keen to try it out. I have to say it actually works really, really well and when fitted to my old Karcher jet wash it brought his car up beautifully clean. Needless to say I will probably be pinching that off him for my car as well! Let's hope with his new toy he actually keeps the car clean now and that this wasn't a one time novelty for him.

It has only taken 10 months for Josh to clean his car by hand for the first time.

He bought a new foam sprayer gun with foam cleaner from Tik-Tok to clean his car.

So whilst I say he cleaned it by hand, he really cleaned it by spray gun and hardly touched the actual car.

But it did work very well and I will no doubt be using this as well.

High Standards of Science Work!

How amazing is it to get sent home a letter like this from Holly's Science teacher. So proud of how she is killing her first year of Secondary School.

Suns Out, Pea-Shooters Out

The clocks have changed, the days are getting longer, and last week we briefly saw a glimpse of the sun. With our summer holiday now locked in and booked Brandon is determined to get a base tan before we travel this year. So at the first sign of the big yellow disc in the sky, he had his little pea-shooters (can hardly call them guns) out in the back garden.

Sun's out, pea-shooters out.

Sod's law we had one good day of sun and now it is overcast again!

Lea's 40th Birthday

On Good Friday the family descended on Min and Lea's gaff in Suffolk to celebrate Lea turning 40 on the 8th April and also to celebrate Easter. It was really nice to catch up with everyone and enjoy the very nice Easter spread of food that they put on. We took a box of little mini Easter egg's which we used in their garden for a little Easter Egg hunt. We ended up doing it twice and weirdly ended up with more than 18 eggs which were originally in the box!

Me, Lisa, Nicky and Min.

Then another Bro/Sis picture with Brandon, Holly and Josh.

One of the seniors of the family (Auntie Nicky) being dwarfed by Josh and Brandon.

Always got their bloody phones in hand!

No college or Tesco's for Josh and thus we even managed to drag him out for the day.

Easter Cycling at Hadleigh

Easter weekend and we finally had some nice weather with blue skies and a bit of sunshine. Holly has been nagging for a few weeks now to go over to Hadleigh Olympic Mountain Bike Park so with the weather the way it was, Sunday was the perfect opportunity.

Holly had a good cycle around although she seems to have got much more cautious that I remember from previous visits! Me, Tina and Brandon enjoyed a nice walk in the fresh air and then stopped in the café for a coffee and some lunch. Meanwhile Joshua was at home enjoying a rare Sunday off of work (probably in bed).

Brandon braving some rockery to get a picture by the Olympic rings from 2012. Hard to imagine they cycled down this!

The good old over under tube is still going strong from the 2012 MB course.

There is something quite rewarding about riding this little bit of the track.

Holly enjoying some cycling at Hadleigh Olympic Park.

Holly's Year 7 Spring Report

And just like her older brother Holly seems to be excelling in her Year 7 Spring report as well. Despite her anxiety and dyslexia issues she has been rated 1's and 2's (with 1 being the highest you can get) across the board in ALL subjects including the ones she dislikes. How can you ask for more than that?

Brandon's Year 12 Spring Report

I think I have mentioned previously how pleased we have been with how well Brandon settled in to 6th form and seems to be really motivated (more so than in his year 11). Well his Spring report pretty much confirms this as he is on track for a B in his Sociology, C in Economics and a Distinction in his ICT. So the girlfriend and learning to drive doesn't seem to be a distraction and he is still achieving good grades which is great to see. If only he knew what he wanted to do after 6th form!!! 

Home Economics - Smoothie Project Winner

So Holly has now started home economics (or what ever they call it these days) at school and last week made a nice little pasta salad which she had for her dinner one evening. As a small breakout group they also had to design and come up with a brand and the marketing for their own healthy smoothie. To do this Holly's team surveyed other students to get an idea of flavours, colours, prices and then developed their smoothie which they then had to make in class. She brought it home and I have to say it was pretty damn good, a tad on the think side (more like a yoghurt) but very tasty and nutritious. Her group did so well on this project that she was awarded a certificate.

Holly with her certificate as the winning group for the smoothie project.

Beauchamps Year 7 School Swimming Gala

Really nice to see that even in senior school Holly is still representing the girls in the school swimming gala and recently competed in a district school gala in both individual and relay events. The individual wasn't great for her as she was put in a breast stroke race which isn't one of her strong ones. But then her school smashed the relay and ended up receiving a medal for their efforts. Well done H.

Holly with her swimming medal from the district gala representing the Beauchamps girls team.

Joshua's College Work Experience at Ford Dunton

Last week Joshua completed 1 week of work experience for his college course and since he is studying engineering I managed to secure him a position in the tool room in the Ford Dunton Fleet Workshop. This was such a great opportunity for Josh to experience a real engineering center and to learn some new skills. Over the course of the week he got to do some sheet metal fabrication and they also taught him how to weld. In fact one of his tasks was to make a name plate where the name had to be written in weld material.

I also had the opportunity to drive Joshua around the high speed track in an all electric MS-RT Transit. He was pretty impressed at us doing almost 80kph on a banked corner and then experiencing the acceleration of an electric vehicle on the straights. We had one minor incident on one of the banked corners where a flock of pigeons were camped out on the track and had to make a quick exit as I came around the corner. Most of the flock cleared the vehicle, but one unlucky bird just clipped the windscreen! 

I really enjoyed taking Joshua to work with me and spending some quality time with him last week, in fact I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it this week. We managed to meet up for breakfast in the canteen each day and then we met again for lunch which we usually followed up with a walk where I would show him different parts of the site. He had no idea how big the facility was as all you see from the main road is the front offices and none of the labs, workshops and test facilities behind the office blocks.

Joshua seemed to really enjoy the week and it has made him realise that there is a difference between working in something you enjoy as opposed to having a mundane, repetitive job. To date his only work experience is his part time job at Tesco and that has him doing exactly the same thing day-in and day-out. Even he admitted that a 7-8 shift at Tesco seemed 2-3 times longer than a full day at Dunton because the work at Dunton is more varied and interesting.

Day 1 and Joshua joins me at Dunton to start a week of work experience.

Over the course of the week they taught him how to weld and one of his projects was to make a name plate.