Dinner Gong
More for me to keep than for anyone else to be interested in … makes me quite happy that communication skills and keyboard skills are all coming along perfectly well in this household 
Who needs a dinner gong when you have Yahoo Instant Messenger?! Reproduced with permission
usedcarspecialist: hello Anna – what are you doing up there?
cheeky_monkey_anna: playing on my computer
usedcarspecialist: what are you playing? anything interesting?
cheeky_monkey_anna: Neopets
usedcarspecialist: is Joe there with you? What would you both like for tea?
cheeky_monkey_anna: is there baked beans Joe says
usedcarspecialist: no, sorry, we haven’t got any baked beans and anyway you had baked beans for lunch!
cheeky_monkey_anna: OH!
usedcarspecialist: Can you think of anything else you’d like? Otherwise it will be sandwiches and fruit!
cheeky_monkey_anna: That sounds nice mmmmmmmmmm
usedcarspecialist: So what would you both like in your sandwiches?
cheeky_monkey_anna: joe would like cheese on tos
usedcarspecialist: tos?!!
cheeky_monkey_anna: sorry
cheeky_monkey_anna: i said sorry!!!
usedcarspecialist: what for?!
cheeky_monkey_anna: i was going to write joe would like cheese on toast not tos
usedcarspecialist: What would you like?
cheeky_monkey_anna: peanut butter & butter please
usedcarspecialist: Okay, can you come down in five minutes then please?
usedcarspecialist: I’m making it now 
cheeky_monkey_anna: thanks
Unfortunately the kissing smileys Anna included after her last line haven’t come out in the blog!
Have had a fairly boring and rubbish day here, as we had to deliver a car over 2 hours’ drive away. All was fine until we discovered (almost there) that the windscreen washers were blocked and not working at all, of course we were powerless to do much about it by that point, so it felt really bad to hand over a car in a less than perfect condition, as we really do try our best to have things perfect usually. At the moment work is so quiet, it seems that all we’re dealing with on a day to day basis is expensive warranty claims, so it’s a bit depressing all round really.
Highlight of the day was meeting some home ed friends at Moors Valley Country Park (loved the place, shame we didn’t have time to explore it) – we managed to meet up in time for lunch together in the restaurant, wish we could have stayed longer afterwards but we had to rush back – another time maybe
Day 4 of the Jesse Tree – the story of Noah’s ark with a picture to match. Huge excitement here as the children have opened the plastic wrappers on their advent calendars (a now traditional pressie from Grandad and Nanna Lorraine) in preparation for tomorrow and I’m wondering how long they can resist the temptation of raiding them …
November 30th, 2005 at 20:50
WOW!! No worries with Anna’s spelling then and her typing speed must be good
November 30th, 2005 at 21:52
Couldn’t you just have shouted? Or am I somehow missing the point?!!
December 1st, 2005 at 0:29
rofl!
am contemplating a blog expose rather than face to face communication, but not sure if have guts!
December 1st, 2005 at 7:19
In response to Esther’s suggestion, yes, that is the Thomas way, but I think a calm online conversation brings much-needed peace and quiet to a house with 3 kids. And I have to say I’m impressed with Anna’s skills too!
December 1st, 2005 at 9:15
I agree, that is a much better way than shouting!
December 2nd, 2005 at 1:24
But what you can’t tell is how long did it take from the initiation of the conversation to them sitting down to have lunch????
December 2nd, 2005 at 22:49
Ah, so that’s how to get her to answer P&m, tell them to offer her food!
December 2nd, 2005 at 23:06
have they pinged her recently? she’s had a computer free phase, and has just got back into neopets … but only sometimes … I despair, she can’t actually stick to anything, just like her father …