Saturday 29 June 2013

Rollercoaster of a week

It's been a week and a half!  It was always going to be a busy week - last week of nursery for the Dude, the husband finishing up too and getting ready to go on holiday on Monday.  Things got a little bit more stressful last weekend when it became obvious that our cat, Jack, wasn't eating very much. 

To cut a long story short, after a trip to the vet on Tuesday, she confirmed what I kinda knew.  The cancer which was discovered last November, and we thought had been removed, had returned as she felt lumps in his liver.  The option of medication was discussed but initially we needed to have his bloods checked and scan his liver to establish the extent of the issue.  So Thursday morning off he went, still not having eaten anything substantial since the previous Friday, and after 2 hours we got the call back to say it was bad news.  Medication might have improved his liver function for a short time but it wasn't going to do anything about the tumours.  So we put our Big Girl & Big Boy pants on and took the decision to have him put to sleep.  He was 14, his has been with us longer than we've been married.  It feels strange sitting in the livingroom and him not being here. 

This all happened the same day that the Dude had his nursery graduation (I know it's a bit daft but good for the kids) and the school Headmaster did his last nursery graduation speech as he has now retired, it was a great speech, very much from the heart!  So Thursday was the day for emotions!

Looking forward to getting away for a few days next week to switch off and recharge my batteries.  We are off to a caravan park near Dumfries and as long as it doesn't rain EVERY day I'll be happy.  I was trying to think early of something to take with me to work on next week and I suddenly remembered I have still to finish this
I started working on this cross stitch a very, very, very, VERY long time ago.  So long ago it moved house with us (& we moved in 2005!) and it's still not finished.  So as it was bought because it reminded me of Jack, it seems only fitting that I finally finish it off in memory of him now.  (& thank god I've got new specs so I'll be able to see the bloomin' stitches lol)

Sunday 23 June 2013

Something to Think About

I came across a link the other day an a parenting forum I am a member of which really made me think.  The discussion was about someone not having many photos of them and their baby.  Mainly due to the fact that the mum doesn't like getting her picture taken and also that she is usually the one behind the camera in the first place.

This made me think about how many pictures I have of me with Little Miss (2 I think?) and with the Dude (probably about 3/4?) and this link made me realise that I need to stop being so self conscious about photos and capture our lives before time marches on and the moments are gone with very little record of them.

So with this in mind, this quote sums up my thoughts for today :)

Friday 14 June 2013

Starting over

This week I rejoined Weight Watchers (again!).  Not really with the goal of losing baby weight, if I'm honest I've pretty much lost the majority of that, aside from about 4lbs.  No, I haven't really been at a healthy weight for some time (read that as most of my adult life - I can pretty much pinpoint the exact time frame where weight became an issue but that's a tale for another day).  So this time I've joined with a different goal in mind that previous attempts - wedding, to not feel as frumpy, blah, blah.  No this time I'm looking at the long term health aspect of being as overweight as I currently am.  I am very much like my mum's side of the family and very conscious that this side has had significant health issues and don't live particularly long (my mum passed at 48, her mum at 66 & her dad at 56).  It's probably a bit of a morbid view on things, but although all the health issues have been unrelated, I do believe that we follow a bit of certain path in life, healthwise, and that path is affected by your mother's family history.  Whereas my dad's side of the family go on for ever (he's about to turn 70 and still works in a supermarket bakery 24 hours a week, his mum was 82 when she passed and his dad was 6 weeks off 94 when he died last year).  So I am determined, not only to lose weight successfully in the long term, but also increase my overall fitness.  Getting out with Little Miss in the pram and walking the Dude to and from nursery is helping to build up my basic level of fitness, especially as there is a hill between us and the school, but I need to do more. 

So with that in mind I am giving serious consideration to doing the Edinburgh MoonWalk next year.  I've done it once before, the full 26.2 miles, and it was hard but I probably only did 6 months worth of training.  If I start now, and encourage a few friends to do it will me, that's all the motivation I need.  The icing on the cake is raising money for Walk the Walk charity, who are funding the building of new Maggie's Cancer Care centre at our new local hospital, which is due to open next year.  Oh yeah and I'm 40 at the end of next year and want to tick a few things of my mental 'do before 4-0' list :)

With all this in mind, this quote rings very true for me today




Wednesday 12 June 2013

Interesting

Combination of fabrics here ..
Really not sure what I think of the blocks so far, but 4 down, 20 more to do!  It is definitely scrappy that's for sure.  Can't wait to see what it will be like finished but I'm thinking it will be more on the 'fugly' side of things, but that's cool, everyone needs a 'fugly' quilt I think.  Honestly we all do :)

Quote for today, perfect for anyone who gets out of the wrong side of the bed!!!!



Tuesday 11 June 2013

Nice surprise

(or really dodgy memory, depends on how you look at it!)

I mentioned in this post that I was starting the Scrappy Round the World Trip quilt that blogland has been going crazy over for, well longer than I've known about it.  I'm always last on the scene with these things.  Anyhoo, I knew I'd chosen my fabrics, cut them into strips and had started to sew them together.  Now a little time had passed since I'd done that so I was CERTAIN that I still needed to sew the long strip together but when I finally got my butt in gear I discovered this .....



I've already done that (yay), (I've made one block just to get an idea in my head what my materials look like - it's VERY scrappy!)  Next was cutting the long strips/tubes into 2.5" strips/tubes and then unpick the short strips/tubes so that the blocks have the 'step' look.  Now that all the loops have been unpicked I need to sew them together.  That is tonight's task, well starting them.  Got 24 blocks to do and I seriously doubt I'll get them all sewn in one sitting.  Especially as they need pressed first and I've got to get the ironing stuff out then I really do the slightly large pile of ironing first.  At least then I can sew relatively guilt free!!!

My other minor obsession at the moment is Pinterest.  I (heart) Pinterest, doesn't everyone?  Currently my Pinterest obsession is the quotes section.  Some of them are funnies, some of them are motivational, some of them are inspirational.  I'm planning that I'll share one on every blog post.  (I was going to say daily, but really who am I kidding thinking I'm going to blog every day, need to be realistic here!?!?!)  So here's today's little bit of wisdom. 
Go on imagine it.  It works if you are upset or really annoyed, you'll laugh I promise.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Times they are a-changing!

Has it really been a month since I last updated anything?  What a quick month it has been!!  What I have been up to in the last few weeks. 

Well the Dude had a birthday, we now have a 4 year old who won't let me call him a baby :( 
His actual birthday was a Sunday but the festivities basically started on the Friday as he got a new 'big boy' bed which involved a complete rearrangement of his room, so it was sort of like a new room.

 Testing out his new bed for bounciness (goodness only knows how long the mattress will last!!)

Saturday was taken up with a small birthday tea party with family and this year I attempted a Rainbow Cake, really it should have looked something like this but I was happy enough with the results.  I do really, really need to work on my icing skills - fondant icing is not my friend!!
 Then on Sunday, the Dude's birthday, he got to choose what to do.  So after opening presents - surprise, surprise he opted for a trip to DeepSea World to see the 'sharks & fishes'.  It was our first proper outing as a family of four!  After seeing all the fish we headed over the Forth to South Queensferry for a meal at Frankie & Benny's or as it's now known, thanks to a slip of 4 year old tongue, 'Funky & Benny's'.

 (birthday boy with Daddy - who so hates getting his photo taken)
Other than birthday celebrations, both kiddiewinks have had chicken pox - Dude much worse than Little Miss - at least they've had them so (fingers crossed) that should be it over and done with :)

Missy Moo is 15 weeks today :o  She is coming along great guns, started chatting in the last few weeks which is great (not so much at 2.45am but at least she doesn't scream the house down at that time!).  It's great to see how similar she is to how her brother did things but so different at the same time.  She's definitely a happy little soul, my little smiler.