RIP

The downside of having a large extended family is that as they age, bad news comes with almost every phonecall home. At least that's how it's been for the last 4 months.

My dad had 88 first cousins, who all married and most had several children which makes for a very large family. We obviously are not really close to them all but we are to many and at the end of the day in our family, "family is family".

Another family member has passed away, sadly from asbestosis, the same condition that my uncle has.

The treatment that we were hopeful of for my uncle has failed and he is declining quickly. He starts another treatment next week.

Gran had a fall trying to escape from her nursing home and broke her hip, she has just had a hip replacement. She fell again trying to escape the hospital and had to have another surgery. She didn't look like she would pull through but they found out she was anaemic and have treated that. She has improved and she should be back at the nursing home this week.

She no longer knows who I am and gets upset trying to remember. The best I can do now is to write and on better days, my family will read her my letters.

Not a positive post, I know. I am having difficulty finding a positive tonight. I'll try again tomorrow.

Good idea at the time

I didn't have a partner at kickboxing last night, actually, I deliberately held back in the hope that I would get the trainer. When you box with the trainer, you don't have to hold the pads so you get to do double the session. I thought it was a good idea at the time.

I had a great session, was totally exhausted and felt on top of the world.

Today, during my weights session, I was thinking that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, and now having walked around the shops for 4 hours and lead my own group class tonight, I am pretty sure it was not a good idea!

Would I do it again?

Without a doubt. :-D

The Money Tree

A little one of these would be nice right now. I don't need a huge one, just a small one to keep me going.

Travel Bug

I think I caught a Travel Bug when I was in tropical Cairns.

Ever since I got back, I've been thinking of all the places I want to see. A lot of these places I used to think about before I had children. I'm sure when the mummy hormones kick in, they include a huge dose of Travel Bug anti-biotics because I haven't thought of these places for a long time.

I would love to go to Russia, Prague, Canada, Alaska, Singapore, Hong Kong even back to the UK to see my family.

Jon didn't come home for lunch today, it appears that he is at the Pharmacy getting another course of Travel Bug anti-biotics. We're not going anywhere for a while. :(

Good job Sydney summer is on it's way! :)

My lines tell my story

I don’t spend much time in front of the mirror looking at myself, with three children it’s just not a priority to spend a long time there. However, over the last few months when I am there,  drying my hair, I have to admit that the lines on my face were starting to bother me a little bit.

I’m getting older, obviously, but I was starting to think about how I would age, would I look older than my years? I guess getting copious amounts of emails from deal of the day type websites offering many a treatment to preserve my youth was not helping.

Today though, I felt different. Today I celebrated 16 years of marriage to my fantastic husband (I really should tell him more often that I think he is amazing).

Today I have been thinking of the day we got married and about our time together when we were younger and before we had children.

In front of the mirror I started to see those lines in a different way.

My lines tell my story.

My lines explain 

• that I have been happily married for 16 years
• that I have 3 beautiful children
• that my son is nearly 12 and turning into an amazing young man just like his dad
• how many broken nights sleep I had when I had the joy of breastfeeding each one of them
• all friendships I have enjoyed and the late night parties (obviously in the past now)
• the trips away to remote cottages with friends and lying on the grass looking up at the stars and singing loudly to Oasis until the stars disappeared and the sun began to rise
• the countries I have been lucky enough to visit
• the stress and worry that my extended family have caused, though I am still blessed to have them in my life
• the wrong decisions I have made and the lessons I have learned from them
• the countless hours spent waiting in Doctor’s surgery’s because my child is unwell again
• that I lived and loved the 80’s and everything about them
• that I watched Charles and Diana get married on live TV

My lines show that I have lived a wonderful life, that I have wisdom and maturity and experience and without my lines I am just a 20 year old with a minimal life story to tell.

How dull would that be?

Happy Anniversary

16 years ago today on the beautiful Caribbean Island of Barbados I married the most important person in my life.

My gorgeous husband

With my dad

Family and friends

I am pretty sure I love him even more now than I did then. xx

I am grateful for.....

I am grateful that my children are in holiday club this week and lunch is provided. As a result of this I am extremely grateful that I do not need to make 15 sandwiches this week.

This weeks run!

This week I felt better prepared mentally for my Saturday morning run. I'd told myself all the right things

• You're doing it for you and no one else
• You are improving every week
• Just give it a go
• You can do it

When I got there, my trainer had hurt his ankle and couldn't do the run. Instead he sent us on our 4km time trial, a whole two weeks earlier than we were supposed to do it, apparently! I had no idea, this was the first time I had heard of it.

I knew that the park we train at, or rather start from is exactly 4km if you run two laps, and it is more undulating than hilly so I wasn't feeling too bad about it. I was also beginning to think that feeling a bit flu-y might be in my favour, at least I could improve next time. See always the positive!!

Then he told us the route. And guess what - it wasn't 2 laps of the park, it was half the park and then up a massive hill and then on the way back, up another massive hill (conveniently avoiding acknowledgement of any down hill bits here).

Off I went, keeping up with the front pack until my shoelace came undone and I had to re-tie it. From then on I was playing catch up.

The result, I ran 4km quicker than I have ever done before (when not on a treadmill). Of course there is still room for improvement but I am pretty proud of my efforts.

When we had all finished, there happened to be 30 minutes of the class left. No early mark? Nope! SPRINTS!! 25 minutes of SPRINTS!! My legs are so sore.

I did manage a slow 4km run today though. Must be crazy! :-)

So ok, that wasn't the actual hill, but it was close - honest!

Choices

One of the things that I have tried to teach my children is that we work hard not to get great exam results or to be top of the class but to have choices.

I want them to be able to choose how to live their lives. At the moment my son seems to think he wants to work 2-4 hours a week and own a couple of porches!!

Well Callum took me at my word and is now in the very, I was going to say lucky, but it's not luck that got him here, it was hard work and dedication. He's in the position where he has been offered a place at a Selective High School, he's been invited to interview for a scholarship at a private school and still have the option of two local high schools.

The choices that Jon and I now have to make about our son's future are pretty tough. There are pros and cons for each school.

We had a meeting with his teacher this morning that provided a little more clarity but we are still not 100%.

I'm not sure I like choices anymore.