STUCK FOR CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS?

No problem!

Later on this week I'll be showing you what I bought for everyone in my family AND how I managed to only spend £25 per person and still manage to get everybody some lovely things.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Maisie

To the woman my husband loves,

If you are reading this then it must be true. He loves you, without a shadow of a doubt or else he wouldn't have given this to you. I can only hope that you feel the same way about him that he does about you. I wanted to write this letter because I wanted you to know one very important think; I'm so glad he's found you. I only wish I could be there some how to meet you, and maybe in some ways I am. Outside of my husband and my two beautiful children, you are the most important person in the world to me because I am gone and they are yours now. You need to take care of them; make them laugh, hold them when they cry, stand up for them, and teach them wrong from right. The though of you it gives me hope. Hope that Alex remembers what it feels like to be young and in love. Hope that Josh finds someone to fish with again. Hope that Lexie has someone to help her on her wedding day. 

I hope that one day my family will be whole again.

And most of all hope that somehow I'm there with all of you, watching over all of you.

I just watched 'Safe Haven'. I've seen quite a few reviews but its all about the plot at the end (which I won't ruin for you). I read the book and I enjoyed the plot at the end, in fact in the book it made me sob and I think that's the sign of a very good book. Give the film a chance if you don't like reading, or give the book a read if you do! It's a Nicholas Sparks book so they're all pretty similar in genre. If you've read one and enjoyed it I'm sure you'll enjoy this one.

That's all for now; Maisie.

HAPPY FIREWORKS NIGHT!!! (4 days late)

I know fireworks night isn't meant to be the biggest celebration but in our family it usually is. As everyone in my family has their own families now it's usually just me and my dad on holidays but on firework night most, if not all, my immediate family and their families come round to celebrate with us. We end up spending too much on fireworks but we have an amazing time.

This year things didn't go as planned and it was only me and my dad again. Because of this we were reluctant to go buy expensive fireworks so we got a set of 17 fireworks from Lidl for £12.99. Ha, it was better than nothing and it was fun to laugh at the pathetic ones.

Whats your favourite holiday and how do you celebrate it?

Click here to see a 'video' of my fireworks. It's on instagram so sorry for the rubbish quality and video-taking skills!

MAISIE'S UNIVERSITY FRESHERS TOP TIPS (1-5)

These tips are based on university freshers who live on campus, in self-catered, en-suite accommodation. Although they may also be useful for others in different accommodation.

1. No matter if you think there's a high possibility that you won't get into university still apply for your loans, accommodation etc. and work your way through UCAS because even if you don't get into your choices you could get in through clearing. I got onto my first choice course, at my first choice university, after receiving EED in my A-Levels. Anything is possible! If you don't complete these steps, and you do end up getting in, your life will be so hard. I only just got my first installment of my student loans last week - almost 2 months after everybody else! You may also not be lucky enough to get into accommodation at the university and that will make your life harder, especially if you live far away!
2. When you first move into your university accommodation only bring the stuff you know you will need on a daily basis. Everything else you can get next time you go home! Obviously if you live far away and you've hired a van then bring as much as you like...you might just have to take some stuff back home. This tip is important because you don't know how well equip your room will be for storage, and you don't know how big it's going to be. You could bring a whole moving van of stuff and are only able to move quarter of it in! If you bring your essentials with you, you can then make a list up until when you next go home of the things you've been wanting or needing and you will also have a better judgement of whether or not it will fit!
3. Buy a recipe book. I personally have "Nosh For Students" by Joy May. This book is really good, as it's all set out and it's specifically for students. It has all different recipes which you can experiment with. In the corner of each page it gives you the information of how many portions it makes, how much it's estimated to cost, how long it will take to cook, how long it will take to prepare etc. it's really good and I would really recommend it. It also has simple information like how to cook pasta or rice, and how to store things in your fridge and for how long. Buying a recipe book can help you with your budgeting. As a student you're going to have to shop in places like iceland or with vouchers in big supermarkets whilst also buying their own brand stuff. By getting a recipe book you can choose what meals you're going to have that week and make a list of the ingredients you're going to need to buy. This will help so that you don't go hungry but you also don't waste your money on pointless things that you won't eat or aren't very nutritious so won't fill you up. Be sensible and remember that if a meal makes more than one portion thats more than one meals worth - you can put it the fridge and heat it up the next day! By doing that you will only need to cook 3-4 days a week!
4. Save up. You may get a job along side your uni work, but you're going to be at such an advantage if you come to uni with a good amount of money in your bank account. If you do have money don't waste it. Come the end of your first half semester you won't have much money left and you'll have wished you had taken my advice.
5. Be considerate. Don't go into university with the mind set on "I am who I am, I'm not going to change, everyone has got to deal with it" because you won't be very popular with your housemates. Make sure you take into consideration that you share the flat with other people - the kitchen is a shared area, don't leave it in a tip. The night time is meant for sleeping, if you know housemates are in and they're trying to sleep don't bring the party you've been to back with you! Everybody has to change to make allowances for other people, that doesn't mean change your personality, just try to overcome your bad habits like leaving your dirty washing up in the sink that everybody wants to use! They're not going to clean up after you, it's your responsibility now.

WHAT COURSE AM I DOING?

I am currently at university studying for a BA (hons) degree in Early Childhood Studies. 

In my first semester I am currently doing the units:

• Child Development
• Critical Reading and Writing
• Sociology
• Staying Safe

These units will take me through until the Christmas break and when I come back in January I will have four different units to study.

Each unit is graded differently. Child development has an exam. You receive the exam question 2 weeks before the exam and you can take a page of A4 notes - with 300 words on - into the exam with you (pretty handy for me as I suck in exams). Critical Reading and Writing has a 2,500 word essay to be handed in. I have already written 1,000 words and have handed them in to be marked in order to see whether I have written them okay! I didn't get any guidelines for this essay so it was really difficult - hopefully I get a first (here's to hoping). Sociology is based on an essay and a presentation. You present your findings in your essay to the whole class and then write a 2,500 word essay about your findings - it's rather complicated and we haven't really discussed this very much yet, but it sounds like it could be fun. Staying safe is my favourite unit, it's very interesting. It's graded through a 2,500 word essay you have written based on a case study you've been given. As we're studying early childhood studies our case study is based on the possibility that a child has been abused. It's not a real story but obviously these things happen and our lectures are taught in a way that's good to learn how to deal with these things in a professional environment. 

So far I would really recommend this course. It's a three year course and at the end of it it opens up a load of choices for you to go on and do within the early years settings. For me personally I'm going to stay on at university for a fourth year and do a PGCE to become an infant school teacher.

Thank you for reading

xo

UNIVERSITY FRESHER - HELP?!

This is only going to be a short blog post. It's currently 02:53 in the morning and I am so tired but my insomnia is stopping me from sleeping so I thought I'd write a blog post to say how my first half of a semester has gone.

Nobody ever said that life at university was going to be easy but I didn't realise it would be this hard. It's not just the work - in fact that's only a small percentage of what's hard - but you have to change so much in order to fit in with your flatmates. Don't get me wrong I think my flatmates are lovely people but I really do clash with one or two of them and it's not been fun. It's especially hard when you pluck up the courage to slip in the problem you're struggling with into a conversation and they turn round to you and say "well you'll just have to get used to it, no one's going to change their ways". Well I think that's completely bollocks, I've had to change my ways a lot so I should think that everyone else should too - be considerate.

The lectures side of things has actually been quite interesting. I'm glad I'm doing this course because I enjoy it. If I didn't enjoy the course I would probably have left university by now. It is a lot of work and it's completely different to anything you've been used to at college or school it's different. It's easier in the way that you're doing something you've chosen to do, you are more than likely to enjoy the course so you're more than likely to do well in it. This isn't to say you're not going to have to work hard. In the first semester (which is basically a 'term') I've already had to write three essays with the word count of 2,500 words and I've also had to prepare for an exam. The way they give you the essays is a lot different to getting coursework at college or school too! I got given my first essay question, got told to use at least 10 references to different sources of information and to get on with it - no guidelines! Throwing me into the deep end or what?

Your life at university isn't going to be a walk in the park, it's more like a sprint and climb along an agility course. You may fall off the balance beam or get tangled in the climbing nets but just take your time, climb back up and start again - you will get there.

The hardest thing for me so far is definitely making friends. This has always been a hard thing for me to do. The best thing for you to do when you start university is to be yourself. You don't want to start off this new part of your life as someone else - if people don't like you then screw them. Focus on your work, do well and leave the haters behind you because you're going to go far in life. I have four people that I can call proper friends from university (not including Amy who will be my best friend forever) but I still don't know them well. They've accepted me for who I am and I've been myself from the beginning so that's the best place to start.

If you're nervous about starting university remember that everyone is in the same boat as you. It's a new environment with new people doing a new course, everybody is the same! Just remember, you all have one common interest and that's your course, so you're more than likely to come up with a few good acquaintances during your time at university. Good luck.