EXTRA SPECIAL PARENTS

Extra Special Parents Newsletter February 2007

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 11:05:23 +0100

Newbies

We have had an amazing 18 new members since the last newsletter, so please welcome hayley77, alba, jadiesmum, mary, sixmum, jamboqueen7, nancyc, ND, wwwpanfife, Carly, Angelapaterson, lynniex, weebo, angmumof2, riseandshine, Tace, Rorysmum and kate/jonny.

For those of you who haven’t already, please introduce yourselves in the Introductions Forum. It would also be helpful if you posted a bit (as long or as short as you like) in the section relevant to your child’s’ condition so that you can find other parents who are dealing with the same things, and so new members can find you too.

If you’re having difficulty finding the right place to post, you can either email myself or GBro or post on the forum and someone will be able to help.

Remember to also register on ESP2, this is the separate forum GBro created especially for you to show off your photos.

First Official ESP Meet

Plans are starting to come together for the 1st ESP Meet in April. We are organizing a group get-together at Alton Towers for Saturday the 14th April. This is the last weekend of the school Easter Holidays. Details of local accommodation are posted should you need to stay over due to distance.

I will hopefully be making a group booking with Alton Towers which will enable us to get cheaper entry tickets.

I know it seems like a long way away yet, but its only 10 weeks and believe me the time will fly past.

We also hope to start organising some regional meet-ups across the country for the summer time.

So, to register your interest and find out how the plans are progressing you will need to register on the ESP2 board if you haven’t already done so. Remember to use the same username as the one you use for the main ESP board.

ESP Shopping

During January I have been updating the ESP Mall. For every purchase made by using the links in the ESP Mall, ESP will receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, these small amounts help us to keep ESP running. The New Yellow Moon catalogues should arrive any day now, so please let me know if you’d like one. You can join together with friends and family to place and order for their terrific art and craft supplies and of course ESP receives a commission cheque twice a year.

Spreading the Word

If you would like to help spread the word about ESP we can provide you with posters, flyers, and business cards. I am also in the process of producing information pamphlets. Again, just let us know your requirements and we’ll get them sent off to you.

Competitions

The next milestone is 45,000 posts and as it’s a big milestone again, it will be a big box of choccies up for grabs. Terrimumof3 managed to get the 40,000th post in the wee small hours of the 31st January and will be getting some foot-pampering goodies in the post soon.

The caption competition of 5th January was won by Heather., 15th January was Rachel who wins a pen, 22nd January was won by Terrimumof3 who wins a car-sticker, and the 29th January was won by HollyJ. Could Holly and Heather please let me know which of the prizes they would like.

Topofthetree won the January Trivia Challenge – well done. Please let me know your name and address to send your prize.

The February Trivia Challenge has now started and there’s plenty of time to join and win the title for February, as you know there’s another big box of choccies for the month’s highest score.

For details of all the current competitions, just go to Competitions & Quizzes Forum

Birthdays & Celebrations

Birthdays and Celebrations for February are:

Suzy's son Ieuan's will be celebrating his 9th birthday on the 2nd February

4th February is Kelly’s birthday (can Kelly’s mummy let me know who she is please)

The 7th February is Helsxxx’s hubby Steve's birthday

Mrs G is 36 on the 9th February

On the 12th February Caren’s daughter Jade celebrates her birthday

Terrimumof3’s son Joseph’s 4th birthday is on the 15th February

Badgerplace’s wee angel Billy’s birthday is on the 18th February

Ray, Terrimumof3's hubby has his birthday on the 20th February and Sophie’s 2nd birthday is also on the same day.

Mumof4 (Nikki) will hit the big 30 on the 25th February

Helsxxx’s son Dylans 4th Birthday is on the 28th February

Remember to add all your family’s special days to the ESP calendar so we can all help you celebrate.

Our latest addition to the ESP site is our message board for kids – ESP Kids.

It is designed for children who have special needs and also for children whose siblings have special needs. Sometimes it can be hard for children to talk to their friends or family when special needs affect their lives, this is sometimes the case regardless of whether the child has a condition themselves or whether they have a brother or sister at home with a condition. Often their friends just don’t understand. But at ESP kids they can talk to other children in a similar situation.

We have the same adult moderators and administrators monitoring ESP Kids that monitor ESP so you can be assured that your child will be safe as possible.

We have also tried to make it fun by including safe links to child friendly sites where they can do fun things like colouring in.

Have a great February everyone!

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/forum.php?forumid=121293

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 11:17:52 +0100

Well done you, you’ve reached a monthly milestone on ESP

Check here for a thread in your name

for those who haven’t been on the site for a while, I will be deleting members who do not post every 30 days

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

Happy chipper night in ....... Smiler

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:51:50 +0200

ESP Newsletter w/e 17th September 2006

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:46:37 +0200

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We have had a whopping 13 new members join us in the last week – so a big ESP Welcome to Katherna, eleanor, whitedolphin, BabyBlue, sjc1985, Shaz, Samantha Brown, jenandgeorge, emmygirl, sssueee, donna2512, nikki and mummygilmour. If you haven’t already, come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

ESP RULES

We only have a few simple rules for members of ESP, most of them are to ensure the online confidentiality of our members – you can find them here. Our system disables accounts that haven’t been used for a certain period of time. If you haven’t posted on the site in a while this may have happened to your account. This is a safeguard against trolls and other unsavoury elements who visit sites like ESP for “amusement”, so all we ask is that you post now and again to keep your account active.

The administrators can re-activate disabled accounts manually, so if you find your account disabled please get in touch with either wiccababe or GBro.

Also, please remember to resize any photo’s you post, and especially any pictures that you use in your signature – signature pics should be no bigger than 200x300 pixels.

ESP 2

Our sister site, ESP2 is steadily expanding, and we now have special sections for your Holiday and Occasions photographs and stories; including birthdays, holidays, weddings and achievements. As well as a section for your birth stories, be they funny, scary or downright outrageous.

If you haven’t already registered on ESP2, please remember to use the same username as you do on the main site.

COMPETITION WINNERS

We can announce that the winner of the 17,000th post was mumof4 (Nikki) who wins a wee box of choccies and so did Georgiesmummy for the 18,000th post – well done ladies!

The next big box of chocs will be for the member who makes the 20,000th post, but as that is a little way off yet, there will be mini chocolate prize for the 19 thousandth post. As always, it makes no difference if it is your 1st or 500th post, but you have to be in it to win it.

The September ESP Trivia Challenge is well under way, but there is plenty of time for all of you to play for a chance to win.

The winner of the caption competition (9th Sept) was mumof4 and (16th Sept) was Georgiesmummy

For details of all the competitions, just take a look at the Competitions & Quizzes forum

CELEBRATIONS

This week’s special occasions:

Children’s Hospice Week and National Eczema Week both started on Saturday 16th September

Rilith’s daughter Holly-Marie is celebrating her 1st birthday on Wednesday 20th September

Cernskaz's son Ro'ane is celebrating his 1st birthday on Thursday 21st September

Smileybird63's son David is celebrating his 5th birthday on Friday 22nd September

Sueby and Taff's are getting married on Saturday 23rd September, and it is also Cat 1975 6th wedding anniversary

And Sunday 24th September is Emma and Neil's 6th wedding anniversary.

Remember to add all your special occasion to the ESP Calendar.

FIND A FAMILY

So that we can support as many parents and carers as possible, it would be extremely helpful if you could all make a short (or long if you have the time) post about your child(ren)’s condition(s) in the relevant forum (I have attached a list of conditions and where you can find them on the site). If you haven’t been able to find parents and carers with children who have similar conditions to your children it may be because you and other members just haven’t posted yet.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about just have a look at some of these threads Willow’s Story – Anal Atresia, Daniel’s Story – Cerebral Palsy, foregut dysmotility affecting the esophagus and down, or Rilith's thoughts.

If you’re not sure where to post just let me know and I’ll see if I can help out at all.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

ESP Newsletter w/e 10th September 2006

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:18:28 +0200

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We have had 9 new members join us in the last week – so a big ESP Welcome to ramsbottom61, keford, aussiecath, jo123, Sharri, k8nite, Tricia, James, jolace. If you haven’t already, come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

E.S.P. MEMBERSHIP

The administrators can re-activate disabled accounts manually, so if you find your account disabled please get in touch with either wiccababe or GBro.

ESP2 EXPANDING

If you haven’t already registered on ESP2, please remember to use the same username as you do on the main site.

LET'S SUPPORT EACH OTHER

If you’re not sure where to post just let me know and I’ll see if I can help out at all.

COMPETITIONS

I am chuffed to announce that the winner of the 16,000th post was Terrimumof3 who wins a wee box of choccies

The next big box of chocs will be for the member who makes the 20,000th post, but as that is a little way off yet, there will be mini chocolate prizes for the 17, 18 and 19 thousandth posts. As always, it makes no difference if it is your 1st or 500th post, but you have to be in it to win it.

The September ESP Trivia Challenge has just started, so there is plenty of time for all of you to play for a chance to win.

The winner of the caption competition (2nd Sept) was flump_02

For details of all the competitions, just take a look at the Competitions & Quizzes forum

CELEBRATIONS

This week’s special occasions:

Wiccababe’s eldest, Scott is 7 on Sunday 10th September

Jamiesmum's 5th wedding anniversary is on Wednesday 13th September

Continence Awareness Week starts on Monday 11th September

Children’s Hospice Week and National Eczema Week both start on Saturday 16th September

Remember to add all your special occasion to the ESP Calendar.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

Newsletter September 06

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:13:27 +0200

I have attached an up to date list of the disorders and conditions that we have information about, on Extra Special Parents. This list also shows you where to find each disorder or condition on the site.

Please take a look and let me know if you know of any conditions that we do not currently cover.

It would also be incredibly helpful if you could post a little bit about your children’s’ condition in the relevant section, this helps other parents to find families who are in a similar situation.

Over 80 members haven’t yet posted on the site, and one of them could be able to help and/or support you.

Help us to help you.

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

ESP Newsletter w/e 16th July 2006

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 10:14:55 +0200

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We have had 12 new members join us this week – so a big ESP welcome to maisie1977, flump_02, mumsy, finners19, natalie, NICOLA, TRISHA, 2fordan, rhian, Leanne Davies, allansmum, & ambernectar. If you haven’t already, come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

COMPETITIONS

Congratulations to Nikki (mumof4) for getting the 11,000th post.

The ESP Trivia Challenge is proving very popular with some of you, and there’s plenty of time to get great scores racked up for July, with a big box of choccies up for grabs for the highest scorer.

Adam (daddy2josh) won last weeks Caption Competition and a new one will start on Sunday so get those clever and funny captions in.

NB: all outstanding prizes will be posted out this week – sorry!

CELEBRATIONS

We have no birthdays, anniversaries or any other celebrations on the calendar this week, so remember to post all your family birthdays and celebrations on the Calendar and we will help you celebrate

SHOPPING

YELLOW MOON brings together the best value arts and crafts, educational products and craft ideas under the sun! EVERY time you buy from YELLOW MOON (either online or from the catalogue) Extra Special Parents receive up to 25% cash-back (excl. VAT and p&p). So, the MORE you buy the MORE they receive! SHOPPING on-line with YELLOW MOON is a rewarding experience. Not only is Extra Special Parents rewarded with a cash-back, but you’re rewarded too with a 5% discount every time you order £45 or more (excl. p&p) before 31st August 2006! Just remember to quote our source code SEX10033

We also have an affiliate agreement with the following online retailers: AMAZON , The Kids Window, Letterbox, PC World, The National Lottery, Books Direct, Ann Summers and Knickerbox so that any purchases you make through the links we have provided will result in Extra Special Parents receiving a small commission.

Our other affiliate scheme is with eBay, every time you use the link and bid or buy it now, we receive a small commission, and if you don’t have an eBay account and sign up via the link we also receive a small commission. EBay is the world’s most popular auction site, where you can pick up some terrific bargains for yourselves and your family and also sell all that stuff you no longer need.

TELL YOUR STORY

Some of you know the reasons why we started the Extra Special Parents website; how isolated we felt and how difficult we found it trying to find information and support for Willow’s congenital condition. We have been in touch with a press agency to tell our story to raise awareness not only of Willow’s condition but to promote ESP to more parents and carers who have had the same difficulties.

The agency has very kindly offered to hear stories from any of our members, if you wish to tell your story. If your story is printed in any of the newspapers or magazines, the agency will secure a payment to you for your trouble, usually in the region of £200.

Extra Special Parents is a closed forum, and non-members DO NOT have access to any posts you make, and we do not pass any of your details to anyone without your express permission.

If you would be interested in telling your story please email wiccababe and I can give you more details.

ESP 2 - SISTER SITE

The ESP forum has sprouted arms and legs over the last 6 months and so Graham has set up a sister site ESP2. At the moment it’s for photos of all our extra special mummies, daddy’s and other family members as well as a Hobby Corner. If you haven’t already joined ESP2, just click here and register using the same username as you use on ESP. And watch out in the coming months for more additions to the sister site.

WEB AWARDS

We have managed to win a number of Web Design and Website Awards lately, so we are very proud to show them off on the Awards Page of the site. We would also like to thank all of you who have voted for us for some of them.

Have a great week everyone

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

ESP Newsletter w/e 9th July 2006

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:25:04 +0200

THIS WEEK ON ESP

We have had 13 new members join us this week – so a big ESP welcome to callybrac, carney souter, coriryan, storm, mameskis, Langoustine, pix1677, longegirl, mummyhardy, lozzasangel, magicmum, annasmum, babyheart. Come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

ENTERTAIN THE KIDS THIS SUMMER

The long summer holidays have already started in Scotland and are almost upon those of you elsewhere and I bet you’re all dreading them lol. One thing we have found is a great help during times when the weather isn’t great is a craft box – start saving those empty loo rolls and egg boxes. We have set up an account with Yellow Moon for you to buy excellently priced craft supplies and toys, we have catalogues so if you would like one for you, your family and friends to browse just email wiccababe with your address and we’ll get one off to you. YELLOW MOON brings together the best value arts and crafts, educational products and craft ideas under the sun!

EVERY time you buy from YELLOW MOON (either online or from the catalogue) Extra Special Parents receive up to 25% cash-back (excl. VAT and p&p). So, the MORE you buy the MORE they receive!

SHOPPING on-line with YELLOW MOON is a rewarding experience. Not only is Extra Special Parents rewarded with a cash-back, but you’re rewarded too with a 5% discount every time you order £45 or more (excl. p&p) before 31st August 2006! Just remember to quote our source code SEX10033

We also have an affiliate agreement with AMAZON so that any purchases you make through the link we have provided will result in Extra Special Parents receiving a small commission. Amazon is a great value online retailer of Music, Books, DVDs, PC & Video games, Electronics & Photo, Home & Garden and Toys & Games. So save money on their great deals and help ESP at the same time.

EBay is the world’s most popular auction site, where you can pick up some terrific bargains for yourselves and your family and also sell all that stuff you no longer need.

TELL YOUR STORY

Extra Special Parents is a closed forum, and non-members DO NOT have access to any posts you make, and we do not pass any of your details to anyone without your express permission.

If you would be interested in telling your story please email wiccababe and I can give you more details.

ESP 2 - THE SISTER SITE

COMPETITIONS

A huge congratulations to Emma (Emne) for getting the 10,000th post – and for the great timing of getting it on our 6 month anniversary of ESP going live.

And commiserations to all our other members who nearly made it.

The ESP Trivia Challenge is proving very popular with some of you, and there’s plenty of time to get great scores racked up for July, with a big box of choccies up for grabs for the highest scorer.

A new Caption Competition will start on Sunday so get those clever and funny captions in.

CELEBRATIONS

This week is National Transplant Week

Dannii and Daddy2Josh will be celebrating their 4th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday 13th July, here’s to many more years of happiness together.

Remember to post all your family birthdays and celebrations on the Calendar and we will help you celebrate

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

We recieved a few more Awards

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:07:49 +0200

We have been promoting the site to other award schemes this month at to date we have recieved 5 more, I am dead chuffed as one of them was specifically for Debbi. Now I know the awards are for the site, but Debbi deserved a special mention as she does all the research for the site, sends out all the emails and welcomes everyone as the arrive....... so here they are.

ESP Newsletter week ending Sunday 2nd July

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 11:21:18 +0200

COMPETITION UPDATE

The ESP Trivia Challenge for June was won by Sabriel with a very impressive 183 points – well done Sabriel! A big box of choccies will be winging their way to you this week.

A brand new tournament has now started for July, so get your brains working and have a go. There’s a new set of questions every day in July, so the more often you play, the more chances you have of winning the monthly tournament. To have a go just visit the ESP Trivia Challenge

The big posting competition is upon us, the race is now on for the member who makes the 10,000th post. As with all our competitions, it is open to every one of our members and it doesn’t matter if it’s your 1st post or your 1500th post. Just get posting and see if you can win our huge box of choccies, for details just visit the 10,000 post thread.

We also have our weekly caption competition in the competition section, where you can win a pen, key-ring or fridge magnet. We will post a new photo every week and you just have to come up with an amusing caption – easy-peasy.

AWARDS GALLERY

Graham has spent a bit of time this week setting up the Awards Gallery for all our winners, so take a look here and if you’re lucky too you could be up there.

ESP 2 - THE SISTER SITE

Graham has also spent quite a bit of time setting up a sister site for ESP, imaginatively called ESP2 lol.

He has done this as ESP seems to be sprouting arms and legs and we wanted a place for you to put faces to names. This is where all you mums, dads, uncles, aunts and grandparents can post photos of yourselves.

As it’s a separate board, I’m afraid you will need to register again to log in, but it’s completely free and only takes a minute, please use the same user name as you use on the main board so we don’t get confused.

We have great plans for ESP2, so keep visiting as I’m sure it won’t be long before it starts to fill up too.

ESP ANNIVERSARIES

For a bit of fun, we have started to celebrate all those little milestones in your membership of ESP, so if you’ve been a member for a month, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 months we’ll be posting your name up in the Celebrations Section.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Remember to post all your birthdays and special occasions in the Calendar

This week we will be celebrating Cernskaz’s Birthday on Wednesday the 5th July.

Sabriels hen party in Blackpool is today, so have fun Sabriel, can’t wait to see the photos.

This week is Metabolic Disease Awareness Week and Twins Triplets and More Week.

We will also be helping our friends in the States celebrate Independence Day on Tuesday 4th July.

HINTS AND TIPS

Add all your hints and tips for other parents and carers, we already have some great tips on recipes and bums, but we can never have too many hints and tips. We would especially like to see more tips on things to keep kids of all ages amused over the long summer holidays, as I’m sure we are all familiar with the “mummmmmmmmmm, I’m bored” syndrome lol.

If you have any hints or comments on holidays, please post them here, and also tips on claiming benefits or support agencies we would also welcome those too.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

If you’re having any technical difficulties with the site please let us know. We have tutorials on how to upload, resize and post your photos, as well as avatars and signatures and other technical difficulties you may have.

But if you’re stuck you can always reach us by email to wiccababe or GBro or on MSN messenger using wiccababe@btopenworld.com

Have a great week everyone

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

Extra Special Parents Newsletter week ending 25th June 2006

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 12:02:49 +0200

BIRTHDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS

This coming week, starting Monday 26th June is National Deafblind Awareness Week

Chloe celebrates her 6th birthday on Thursday 29th June (lennysmalls daughter)

Calarr is getting married this week at Gretna – can’t wait to see all the photos!

To get a mention in the newsletter and in the Celebration section of the site just post your special occasions in the calendar.

We have also started recognizing your own special ESP anniversary, so check out the Celebration section for your own special mention

GAMES AND FUN THINGS

We all need some way to unwind and have a laugh, and we have a huge fun section on ESP for that very reason. The How well Do you Know Me? Thread has certainly shown me some amazing things. Some of the longer running threads like Gimme 5, Guilty or Not Guilty, Slapped or Saved and Love it or Hate it have become fast-paced and are also a great way of increasing the post total for the posting competition.

There’s also a whole lot of fun things to do courtesy of LuckyLeprechaun and Sabriel, find out what your Famous Last Words would be, which Muppet you would be or What Animal You Were In a Past Life, some of the answers might surprise you lol

PRIZE COMPETITION TIME

Firstly the posting competition is well on its way again, at the time of writing we just have 266 posts to go before we reach 8000 posts, the prize is a huge chocolate medal from Thornton’s so get chatting. As with all our competitions, it is open to all our members and it doesn’t matter if its your 1st post or your 1000th post, you have as much of a chance as everyone else. You can post anywhere on the board, about anything at all.

BUT YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT, TO WIN IT!!

There’s just a week to go until the end of the ESP Trivia Challenge, but its still plenty of time to get in some winning scores. It’s a general knowledge quiz that’s set at the easy level and the highest scorer at the end of the month wins either a large box of chocolates or an alternative if they prefer.

Our third competition is the Caption Competition, which always brings a smile to my face – your sense of humour always cheers me up. The current competition ends tonight at midnight (Saturday 24th June), but there’s a new one every week with your choice of a pen, fridge magnet or keyring up for grabs.

DEBATES AND OPINIONS

We have a mix of recent news items and general topics to debate and express an opinion on, I have added an article that was in our local newspaper about a young lad of 18 with Autism and would really like to hear your opinions and comments.

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS

As always we are here to help with any problems you have with the site, we have tutorials on how to add photo’s, avatars and signatures. We are always on hand to help with anything. If you have lost or forgotten your username or password just click here and fill in your email address and your details will be sent to you.

Have a great week everyone

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

ANOTHER AWARD ....WOO HOO !!!

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 01:03:30 +0200

WE WERE AWARDED A GOLD WEB PRESENCE AWARD YESTERDAY, SO WE MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT........ MANY THANKS TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND AFFILIATES FOR ALL THEIR HARD WORK AND INPUT.

COWGOMOO-WEBAWARDS

KEEP THE GREAT WORK GOING PEOPLE, AND KEEP SPREADING THE WORD ........

ESP Newsletter week ending 18th June 2006

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 00:54:09 +0200

A to Z of ESP

Some of you may have noticed I had a bit of a late spring clean on the forum this week and tidied things up a bit. A few things have been moved around and I’ve tried to make sure that all the conditions are in the most appropriate categories. Because things have been moved around a bit I thought I had better make up a new A-Z, which I have attached, to make it easier to find things. As always though, Graham and I are here for any questions you have and we will do our very bet to help in any way we can. The A-Z is made up in PDF format so everyone should be able to open it, if you don’t have Adobe Reader you can download it from Adobe here.

THE DATATBASE CAN BE DOWNLOADED, HERE

BIRTHDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS

Sunday 18th June is Fathers Day, let us know what all the daddy’s got for their special day, or how you made it special.

Happy 8th Anniversary to Dianne (badgerplace) and Raymond on Tuesday 20th June.

Sunday 18th June also sees the start of Learning Disability Week, and Monday 19th June is the start of Child Safety Week.

Remember to add all your important birthdays and anniversaries to our Calendar

Well done to Jennie for running her Race for Life in 50 MINS AND 34 SECONDS!

COMPETION UPDATES

Terri won the 7000th post competition and her chocolate will be posted out on Monday, along with all the other prizes that I haven’t managed to send out yet.

The ESP Trivia Quiz is shaping up well for June, but only a few of you have tried your luck at it. There’s still plenty of time to get your entries in and the member with the highest score at the end of June wins a big box of choccies (or an alternative if you don’t like chocolate). So far Bigmumma is in the lead again, with Terri in second place, Emne in 3rd, then Lennysmall, Sabriel, Pauline, mandyt, Nikki, pam74, jennieG, melanieknox and Mitchell.

The winner of the caption competition ending on 17th June will be announced on Sunday 18th June.

And the new caption competition ending on 24th June starts on Sunday 18th June.

The new posting competition is for 8000 posts, and we’re already well on the way with 7232 at the time of writing the newsletter. So get posting all your news, appointments and updates, join in the fun in some of our games and if you haven’t already said hello and introduced yourself, go for it – every post counts!

Have a great week everyone!

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

Parent of the Year Awards

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:49:30 +0200

Practical Parenting are currently running their annual Amazing People Awards.

Two of the categories: Midwife and Health Visitor of the year I have written about in the Health Professionals - Worthy of Mention section

The other 3 categories are:
Parent of the Year - This award celebrates ordinary people who've done something extraordinary for their families

Birth Story of the Year - Giving birth is always amazing - we want you to tell us why your birth story was even more incredible than you'd ever imagined

Business Parent of the Year - If you know someone who has turned their parenting experience into a product or service for other mums and dads write in now

We were kind of hoping to get a few votes for the work completed so far this year, but it may be a little early, but still a great way to highlight the site.......

To nominate someone, write and tell PP why in no more than 200 words, entry coupon in June issue of Practical Parenting, and will probably be in the July issue also, closing date 18th August 2006.
Of course you can nominate yourself too......... or a worthy cause

Extra Special Parents Newsletter

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:41:50 +0200

Week Ending Sunday 11th June 2006

CALLING ALL MEMBERS, OLD AND NEW

The Welcome section of the board is especially for you! Those of you who haven’t already introduced yourself, please come and tell us a little about you and your family here. You will find that I have already opened a thread for everyone, so just look for your username. Show us your pictures is the place to show off pictures of your family, because we all love putting faces to names.

It’s also a good idea to familiarize yourself with the rules of the site.

Also in the welcome section is Technical Support, a place for you to ask questions and get answers about the technical side of the site, for instance; how to upload photo’s and get your avatar etc. And New Additions is where we let you know about new things we have added to the site. If there’s anything that you would like to see or a condition you would like me to research please let me know in the Feedback Forum.

COMPETITION UPDATE

Bigmumma is the winner of the caption competition that ended on 10th June.

The caption competition for this week ends at midnight on Saturday 17th June, get your entries in.

The target for the posting competition is 7000 posts, less than 400 to go. And, as with all our competitions, it is open to all our members, regardless of the length of time you’ve been with us or the number of posts you’ve made.

The ESP trivia challenge is proving popular, and there’s still loads of time to enter as it runs for the whole of June.

FUN AND GAMES

The Fun & Games section is always very popular with our members. Probably as it’s a place to unwind and have some fun and get away from our daily lives, if even for just 5 minutes of the day. We have a new getting to know you game that you might not have noticed yet. And also Nikki’s (mumof4) photo game which works along the same principle as word association, but with photo’s. And if all of those seem like a bit too much hard work in this heat, then there’s always the Love It/Hate It, Slapped/Saved, Guilty/Not Guilty and Gimme 5 games.

THE MARKETPLACE

Graham has introduced a new section called the Marketplace for you to post all your items for sale or swap, things you just want to give away if you’re having a clear out, or things that you’re looking for. All we ask is that there are no illegal items or services offered. And of course if you want to post any links, please remember to run these past me first.

NEWSFLASH

Graham has installed a new newsflash system just below the logo on the main forum index page for keeping you up to date with important days and weeks of the year, for instance this week is Diabetes Week.

BIRTHDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS

This week, we are celebrating Cernskaz's hubby Andy's birthday on Tuesday 13th, Wednesday the 14th is Flag Day in the US, Thursday 15th is Bug Busting day - head lice beware! And of course I’m sure there is no need to remind you that next Sunday 18th June is Fathers Day.

Remember, to get a mention in the weekly newsletter and also on the site, post all your important dates on our calendar

Have a great week everyone, and remember not to spend too long in the sun.

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

Newsletter Week Ending 4th June 2006

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:02:59 +0200

Congratulations to mumof4 (Nikki) for winning the 6000th post competition

Congratulations to Tallgirl for winning the caption competition for w/e 27th May

Congratulations to Rilith for winning the caption competition for w/e 3rd June

Congratulations to Bigmumma for winning the May ESP Trivia Challenge

This weeks Caption Competition is now open – the closing date is midnight on Saturday 10th June

We’re now running the race for the 7000th post, so get chatting everyone.

There’s a new ESP Trivia Challenge Tournament for June, so get that brain working.

Let us all know about your appointments and updates, keep up with how everyone is getting on.

We have added a new section to Physical Disorders; Paralyses, which includes Hemiplegia and Alternating Hemiplegia.

Monday 5th June sees the beginning of Down Syndrome Awareness Week

Tuesday 6th June is Bluebell Day in recognition of Postnatal Depression

Tuesday is also Dannii’s birthday so Happy 21st again Dannii.

Remember to add your family’s special days to the calendar

Have a great week everyone

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

New May Newsletter

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 08:55:32 +0200

Hi folks, our new May newsletter is available for download at the following address if you feel like a read ......cheers for looking

all the best

Graham & Debbi

NEW POSTERS AND FLYERS

Tue, 30 May 2006 10:46:21 +0200

NEW POSTERS AND FLYERS ARE NOW AVAILABLE WITH THE NEW LOGO INSERTS, THEY ARE AVAILABLE IN ALL SIZE FORMATS, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD AND PRINT OFF FOR DISTRIBUTION, THANK YOU FOR YOU HELP.

TO DOWNLOAD:
CLICK ON THE IMAGE,
ON THE RIGHT HAND PANEL, YOU WILL SEE "ALL SIZES"
THIS LETS YOU DEFINE WHICH SIZE YOU WANT TO SAVE.
ABOVE IS "PREVIOUS / NEXT" THIS WILL TAKE YOU TO THE NEXT POSTER / FLYER.

ONCE AGAIN WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE.

GRAHAM AND DEBBI

Weekly May Newsletter

Sat, 27 May 2006 15:38:14 +0200

Extra Special Parents Newsletter w/e 28th May 2006

Well done to everyone for slugging it out on the 5000 posts competition, which ended with a dead heat between Terri and Dannii. Big box of chocolates are now winging their way to both of you.

Competitions

For those who missed out, there are 2 other competitions running at the moment:

The ESP Trivia Quiz is running for the whole of May, so not long to go now. The current positions are 1. Bigmumma, 2. Emne, 3. Hels, BUT theres still time to enter and win. The winner will be announced after the quiz closes on 31st May (this Wednesday) so get your thinking caps on.

The weekly caption competition for last week closes tonight at midnight (27th May) but you can find the new one here for this week, which ends at midnight on Saturday 3rd June.

Birthdays & Celebrations

We don’t have any birthdays or celebrations on the calendar this week, but if you have any please post them here and we can help you celebrate.

Monday 29th May is the Spring Bank Holiday in the UK and is also Memorial Day in the US.

A couple of thankyou’s…..

Many thanks to jennie-jack-oli for her great contributions in the tests section, a super guide to tests and procedures that your child(ren) might have to go through.

Many thanks to daddy2josh and Dannii for your generous donation, we will put it to good use with our ongoing campaign, sending mailshots to special schools across the country.

And last, but by no means least, a BIG thankyou to all of you for spreading the word about ESP, and for posting when you can. Without all of you, ESP wouldn’t be the place it is.

Staff Changes

We have made a minor change to our staff, as most of you already know Graham (GBro) is the ESP Chairman and technical expert, I am the ESP Secretary/Treasurer and info & research person, and up until now we have been greatly assisted by our 2 moderators Rilith and Mumof4.

Nikki, (mumof4) has had a wee change to her status and is now The Cucumber. (lmao)

So please join us in congratulating Nikki on her change of role.

Have a great week everyone

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

May Newsletter Update

Sun, 21 May 2006 12:00:45 +0200

Extra Special Parents Newsletter, week ending 21st May 2006

Competitions

5000 posts!!! At the time of writing this newsletter we have 4736 posts, so only another 264 to go. I can promise a large box of choccies/sweeties or an alternative for the member who makes the 5000th post.

Last weeks caption competition (the one with the fox) was won by jennie-jack-oli, her prize is on its way. This week’s caption competition (the one with the tall girl with the high heels) was won by Terrimumof3 with “now let's make sure we get the right one, is it the drink or the cake to make me smaller”. And there’s a brand new caption competition now, the closing date is midnight on Saturday 27th May.

The ESP Trivia Quiz has proved to be popular and there's still plenty of time for all our members to enter the monthly competition. There is a different quiz every day and the highest scorer for May will win a prize.

New Conditions

We have added some new conditions to the site along with information about the appropriate charities and organizations including: Usher Syndrome(see under chromosomal, visual and hearing), Visual & Hearing Impairments and GM1-gangliosidosis. If you need an up to date list of all the conditions we cover, please email me and I’ll send you the alphabetical list

Birthdays & Events

This week is Cancer Prevention Week with Fruity Friday this Friday, it’s also Walk to School Week, so if you can – leave the car at home.

Suzy’s son Sam is celebrating his 14th Birthday on Monday 22nd, have a great day Sam!

Nikki’s (mumof4) daughter Chelsea is celebrating her 6th birthday on Tuesday 23rd, have a super day Chelsea!

Hels and Steve celebrate their 2nd wedding anniversary on Thursday 25th – here’s to many more!

Leanne (lennysmall) and Scott celebrate their 6th wedding anniversary on Friday 26th – many congratulations!

And last but by no means least, Suzy’s son Ollie is celebrating his very 1st birthday on Saturday the 27th – have a wonderful day Ollie!

Remember to add all your important dates to our calendar.

Introductions

For those of you who haven’t introduced yourselves, please take a look at our Introductions section

There should be a thread with your name on it (note there are 5 pages), so don’t be shy.

Rules & Regulations

In order to make the forum a safe, friendly place for all our members please make sure you post when you can. We understand that all our members are busy people and can’t always find the time to visit the site, but for the safety of all our members we will disable accounts automatically if you haven’t posted in the last 30 days. After that accounts will be deleted. I’m sure you all understand that this is to discourage lurkers and trolls. If you try to logon and find your account has been disabled or deleted but you wish to remain a member then please email me. For more details please visit the rules and regs section

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

New Willow Compilation

Sun, 14 May 2006 12:03:49 +0200

My Photo Art of Willow

Click on the picture for the bigger version

May Newsletter

Sat, 13 May 2006 12:23:37 +0200

ESP newsletter week ending 14th May 2006

Competitions

Congratulations to Emne on winning the first weekly caption competition.

There is a new picture every week and the funniest caption wins a prize, this weeks competition closes at midnight on Saturday 13th May so get your entries in here. And a new one will start on Sunday 14th May.

We are well on our way to reaching 5000 posts so please take a look here for details.

And our last prize competition is a monthly one; the highest score for May will win a prize on our Trivia Quiz.

New Stuff

I have opened a few new sections this week – things are expanding rapidly….

I decided to expand the Feeding Issues to include Breathing Issues and Other Ports, due to so many of you members dealing with various things like ventilators, O2, and Port-a-Caths.

As the majority of you members have been pregnant at some point, or are again or for the first time, I have also introduced sections for pregnancy complications that you may have encountered. Please let us know your experiences here.

Live Chat

Many of you have expressed an interest in a regular Live Chat, so please let us know here when would be best. In the meantime please visit the Chat room between 9pm and 11pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Birthdays & Events

We wished Skye (lennysmall’s daughter) a Happy 3rd birthday this week – I bet Skye loved her Dora cake.

Sunday 14th May sees the start of National Epilepsy Week and National Smile Week, as well as it being Mothers Day in the USA, so Happy Mothers Day to all our US members.

Monday 15th is the start of National Allergy Week.

Dianne’s (badgerplace) other half Ray is celebrating his birthday this week on the 19th, which also coincides with them moving – poor lad won’t have much of a chance to celebrate.

Also, good luck to Taff, Sueby’s other half who goes into hospital for his operation on the same day.

If you have anything you want to include, please post it on the calendar here.

Photos

Graham has done a very simple tutorial for those of you who don’t know how to post your photos on the site here.And if any of you need help with resizing your pictures please let us know – email them to us at GBro@extra-special-parents.org or wiccababe@extra-special-parents.org and we can sort them out for you.

Have a great week

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

Extra Special Parents

ESP Newsletter1 6th April 2006

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 22:05:13 +0200

Little Angels

We have added a new section this week called Little Angels, which contains a section for Terminal Illnesses & Disorders and a section for Other Little Angels. We introduced this category after all the requests we received from those of you have lost children due to stillbirth or terminal disorders. A few of you have already shared your heartbreaking stories, and we hope that you all find it helpful.

Membership

At the time of writing this newsletter, we have 95 members. Word is spreading fast and it can only be a good thing. The more members we have, the more likely that you will find other parents that are going through similar problems or triumphs as yourself. We have also added a new link at the bottom of the forum index page for the Up for Downs website.

If you haven’t already noticed there is a large area at the bottom of the index page with links to websites that we think might be useful for our members, please take a look, and remember to tell them where you got the link.

Suggestions

We are always looking for ways to improve the board, and we appreciate any feedback from you – our members – about how we can do this. If there is anything you would like to see on the board, please let us know here You could be looking for a condition we haven’t included yet, or something else you want to talk about.

Deregistering

There are still a number of longer tem members who haven’t posted, unfortunately members who do not post within 60 days of joining are automatically deleted. So if you wish to remain a member of ESP, get posting. The easiest way to overcome any shyness you have, is to post in your own special Introduction thread We have started a new thread for each of our members – so just have a look for your own name (there are 4 pages).

If you find that you have been deleted and you wish to remain a member, please register again using the join here button.

Debbi & Graham

The Management Team

CONGRATULATIONS RILITH

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 12:37:13 +0200

Well done Rilith for reaching the 1000th post ......... chatterboxes united ...

You will shortly be recieving a small token of our appeciation through the post ....... dont eat them all at once now y'hear.

Graham & Debz

Missed out Newsletter from April

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 12:07:31 +0200

Extra Special Parents

Hi there and welcome to the ESP newsletter for week ending 2nd April 2006

Lost your username or password

If any of you have lost your username or password details the easiest way to get back on to the site is to click on FAQ's at the top of the page, the third last question gives you a link so you can enter your email address and the info will be emailed to you.

Geography & Finding the site

Our polls need updating, so those of you who haven’t already voted, please do so on Poll 1 you don’t have to worry about posting any personal information, we’re just looking for general geographical areas. This gives us an idea of where we should be concentrating our promotion efforts.

Poll 2 asks how you found the ESP website, this also helps us to find out which promotion strategies are working and which need to be changed.

Another important poll is Poll 3 where you can tell us what the board is missing. A number of members have been reluctant to post because we didn’t have a category that was relevant for them. We can easily rectify this by adding extra categories, But we can’t do this without your help.

User titles

When all of you registered on the site you picked a username and password. When you make a post on the board your username and avatar appear on the left hand side of the screen in a wee box that also includes the following:

your user title; Only administrators can change this and we have standard user titles which are based on the number of posts you have made e.g. ESP Learner Driver, ESP Gold Member etc If you want to change your user title to something more exciting just drop us an email.

a link to add that member as a Buddy; this allows you to add any member to your Private Message address book

the number of posts you have made, the date you registered on the site, and up to four buttons.

1000 Posts

The race is on to see who will make the 1000th post on the board. For more information please take a look at the The race is on.... There will be a small prize for the winner. I will contact the winner as soon as I can after the 1000th post is made to get their postal address to send out the prize.

If you have any queries on anything about the site please do not hesitate to email us.

Debbi Robertson & Graham Brockie

Information and Administration Manager & Technical Manager

wiccababe@extra-special-parents.org or GBro@extra-special-parents.org

APRIL NEWSLETTER

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 11:55:38 +0200

Extra Special Parents

Hi there and welcome to the ESP newsletter for week ending 9th April 2006

WE HAVE A WINNER

Well our very own self confessed chatterbox - Rilith won the race to make the 1000th post on the board. For more information please take a look at the The race is on.... Rilith won a box of choccies which is finally winging its way to her (sorry for the delay Rilith – I kept eating them lol)

I’m sure we could run another competition for the 2500th and 5000th post – details to follow

BOOST FOR ESP

This week we have received a very generous donation from the Piper Bravo platform Welfare Committee to help us with the costs of running and promoting the website and the rig operator Talisman Energy UK has very kindly agreed to match the Piper B’s donation. For those of you who don’t know, Graham is one of the Chef Managers on the Piper Bravo platform. This will help us immensely in our quest to promote the site nationally and further afield.

GEOGRAPHY

Poll 2 asks how you found the ESP website, this also helps us to find out which promotion strategies are working and which need to be changed.

NEW, NEW, NEW

National Plagiocephaly Awareness week ends on the 9th April and we added this condition to our Physical Disorders section here

So far we dont seem to have any members with children who have this condition, but we have posted a little information about the condition itself and the support organisations we have found who deal with it.

Graham has spent a good bit of time this week redesigning the whole website; the home page has been redesigned to include the ESP Forum, Blog, Guestbook and promotional items. We have posters and flyers available to download in the promotional items and we also have available ball pens, fridge magnets and key-rings.

We also have a few new topics in the Debates section, thanks again to Rilith for opening some very interesting subjects, Im sure all of you have an opinion one way or the other on at least one of them, so dont be shy, let us know what you think.

? ? ? ?? ?

If you have any queries on anything about the site please do not hesitate to email us.

Debbi Robertson & Graham Brockie

Information and Administration Manager & Technical Manager

Lost your username or password

Mothering Sunday

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 16:42:17 +0200

We hope you all enjoyed a relaxing mothers day today

Advertising & Expences

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 01:43:14 +0100

Debbi spent most of last night thumping out letter to prospective sponsors, as the site is now starting to cost us money, not a lot, but if it keeps ongoing the way it is (not that I want it to stop) we are going to inccur costs for postage & paper & ink.........

We look forward to the challange ahead, and hope you all still support the site the way you have been

Many thanks to you all

Warm Wishes to you all

Graham & Debbi

xx

Weekly Newsletter 26/03/06

Sat, 25 Mar 2006 00:55:44 +0100

Hi everyone

Welcome to the ESP newsletter for week ending 26th March 2006

This has been an extremely busy week for us on ESP, there has been a huge amount of work behind the scenes. We have had a few requests for additional forums, which we have added; Global Development Delay , Spinal Muscular Atrophy , Tourette Syndrome , Congenital Heart Disease , Leigh's Syndrome if there is anything else you think we have missed out please let us know, and if your children suffer from any of these conditions please tell us your story.

We are also continuing our endeavours to promote the site, and are getting a very promising response, and A BIG THANK YOU to all of you that are passing the word round for us.

Graham has started our own Blog, where you can catch up with all the latest news and view the latest newsletters. There is also a section for photo’s and video – we’ve uploaded a heartwarming little clip of a family of quads laughing at their dad – I defy any of you to keep a straight face.

Now that we have 64 members and counting we need to get the Calendar filled up so we can help you celebrate. Just click on the date and enter all your important birthdays, anniversaries etc.

We only have 18 votes on the Where do you live? poll so if you haven’t already please vote, I know we have at least 4 members in Wales, for instance, but according to the poll we have none. So make sure your area is represented. The other current polls are lacking in votes too, the How did you find this website? poll helps us to see where our promoting is working and what we can do to improve. And the What would you like to see? poll and thread helps us to keep the whole site relevant for all our members.

If you’re just looking for somewhere to rant or let off steam we have a Soapbox – and if you want to complain about someone who makes your life harder visit our Bad Apples forum. If you really want to tell us how you feel, you can give us your opinion in one of the Debates

And if you just want to chat, tell us some news etc, come and tell all in General Chitchat or sing the praises of a helpful soul in Worthy of Mention , and have a laugh at all our terrible jokes

Remember if you are having any problems at all, or questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Email us

Have a great week

Debbi Robertson & Graham Brockie

Administrators

Extra Special Parents

Website Basics

At the top of the page you will find several links, which I’ll explain;

Join Here is where you would have registered to join the site, or where you should click if you are not already a member

My Account is where you can change your profile, add pictures, send PM’s (private messages) to other members

Search is where you can search the site for a thread, topic or other member

FAQ is the Frequently Asked Questions, we have tried to cover as many of the common questions as possible, if you don’t find what you’re looking for there then please email us

Admin Only is for administrators of the site to manage the website – this is where we make little tweaks and improvements

Calendar is where you can add all your important birthdays, anniversaries and hospital admissions so we can all wish you well

Guestbook is where you can say a quick hello and let us know what your thoughts on the site are

Live Chat is a live chat room where you can talk to other members in real time if they are online at the same time, its best to make a date for this

Our Blog is where you can catch up with all the latest ESP news, pictures etc

Recommend Us is for letting others know about the site, just complete your email address and the email addresses of your friends