Intro Blog

Hi, my name's Kirsty, I live in Hampshire, UK, am married with 5 kids aged 15 -23, all of whom are on the autistic spectrum to varying degrees, as are my hubby and I. We have our first grandchild on the way, due in June, which we're all very excited about. 

Radar 

Rosie

We also have 2 dogs, Rosie, a border collie and Radar a black lab. Rosie's a bit of a freak of nature, as they are from the same litter, born in the same sac so are actually supposed to be identical twins, but look like 2 completely different breeds! The mother was a pedigree lab who coupled with her own son, also a pedigree lab, and no-one can explain why Rosie came out a border collie! They can't be parted or they just pine for each other. Radar has epilepsy and Rosie can always tell when a fit is coming, which is good for us. They're getting on a bit now as they're 10 1/2 and Radar also has arthritis, so can't run around or play ball in the field anymore, which he loves almost as much as food! He's a typical black lab and loves food, playing ball and water. Rosie likes food, will only play ball if she's walked on her own and will only paddle in water unless you throw her ball into it!

Bella-Donna

Ozzy

As well as the kids & dogs, we have 3 cats. We got our eldest cat in June 2010 at 6 weeks old, after my beloved 15 year old Tilly-Anna had to be put to sleep after a long illness. I'd always really wanted a female silver tabby called Bella-Donna and was so pleased to find one. I went out and bought a pink bed, collar and loads of pink toys and she was SOO cute! However, 2 weeks later we discovered she was a HE!! I was really upset but we were all so in love we couldn't even think of sending him back, so spent hours coming up with a new name. In the end we chose Osiris, though everyone calls him Ozzy or Oz. He was really cuddly as a kitten and would always curl up on me, but after a few months he stopped and doesn't curl up on anyone. He's quite skittish and shy around people and stopped being playful until we got our 3rd cat. He can usually be found on his bed at the top of the stairs, and insists on a fuss whenever anyone walks past. If he's feeling particularly friendly, he'll put his front paws on your shoulder and rub his head all over yours, but beware, you'll get wet as he's a dribbler!

Our 2nd cat, Isis (Izzie) came to stay with us in November 2011 when she was 12 weeks old. She originally came as a favour to a friends daughter while she was between homes, but she ended up staying for good. She then surprised us 5 months later in April 2012 by having a litter of 6 beautiful kittens, when I thought she was too young to get pregnant! Izzie is quite a small cat, with a big attitude and thinks she's a dog! She has extremely fluffy black fur, with a small white bib and one white back toe. She's playful but vicious with her claws; climbs well, gets into anything and everything and eats almost as much as the dogs! She's always pinching food and you can't leave anything unattended if she's in the house. She's even run off with a half eaten sausage with the fork still in it, and taken chops from under the grill while they were cooking!
In her surprise litter, she had 2 pure smokey grey kittens, 2 pure white and 2 pure black. Unfortunately she had quite a traumatic labour, and needed a lot of help. Once they'd been born she wouldn't feed them so they had to be hand-reared. Giving them all names was opened to the children, my neice and the friends daughter. The first one born was the male grey and as he'd done really well to survive he was called Trooper, which meant the female grey was called Super! The white male was called Snowball and the female was called Wiggles as she was the most active. The black female was called Aconite, and we asked our then 18 year old daughter to name the black male and she called him Default Dave! By the end of the day they were born, we'd sold all 6 of them to friends and family! However, sadly, they died one after the other in the first few days, only the black ones hung on. Aconite's name was changed to Lister and I spent every night hand feeding them every 4 hours, but then we lost Lister at 2 weeks as well. 

When Dave survived, none of us could let him go, especially me, so he became our 3rd cat. At first he was really loving and fell asleep curled up on whoever had fed him (usually me) but as he's got older, it's very rare he'll curl up with anyone, although he does like a fuss and purrs as soon as any of us touches him, and he has a very loud purr. He's extremely playful but vicious like his mum and is hardly ever in, unless its really cold. As he grew, there was a bit of a power struggle between Dave and Ozzy, with Dave trying hard to be top cat, but Izzy soon showed them both who's boss in this house! 

What can I tell you about me? I'm 40, have ADHD and several OCD's, am really into history, murder mysteries, genealogy and crafting. I love reading and have a library/craft room instead of a dining room. I have a hugely hyperactive imagination that never stops, and have written some short stories, started a series of children's stories as well as several novels. However, I lose interest quite quickly, get bored with sticking to one thing at a time, so have never finished any of them, except one I wrote when I was 15, and I ended that by suddenly killing everyone as I'd got bored with it! I also have several other ideas for novels swimming around in my head that I haven't even started putting on paper yet, but am constantly thinking about and working on in my head.
My crafting really took off about 10/11 years ago when my mum-in-law taught me how to cross stitch. At first I was stitching small things and making cards with them, then I started doing more to the cards and was soon making cards without the cross stitch. I also like photography and as a way of displaying my photos I got into scrap-booking as well. In 2004 I created my own company, Celtic-Rose Designs, but never really tried to sell my cards, just made them to give my family & friends. Now money's tighter than ever, and with our first grandchild on the way, as well as having a ton of stuff to make cards with that's just sitting there, I've decided it's time to try and make cards to sell, so am currently building a website. On it I'll be selling cards, prayer cards, cross stitched bookmarks and I've recently started making jewellery as well. 
One of my other main interests, is genealogy. I find it so absorbing and its like being a detective trying to find out about all the different people, connecting the dots and making sure you have the right information. I started in 1993, when there wasn't much internet and most records were on paper. I stopped doing research for a few years, but got right back into it about 9 years ago, and have now taken several of mine and my husbands lines back to 16/1700's. Part of my husband's tree goes right back to the year 545AD as he's a direct and legitimate descendant of King Edward 1st! That branch has been so much fun to research, and with so many records now online it's been quite easy to find people, but takes a lot of research to make sure everything is true.
One of the things you'll find on my blog, will be entries with titles like "52 Ancestors: #1 name". This is part of a challenge set by an American genealogist, for people to blog about 52 ancestors in 52 weeks, so 1 ancestor each week. If you're interested in taking part, please go to her website; www.nostorytoosmall.com for details. 

Anyway, this is my first blog, so please be patient with me as I learn what I'm supposed to be doing, no doubt I'll make mistakes along the way! I hope you enjoy reading them.