Real ambulances & toy ones too!

This morning I told Robyn she could bring down her playmobil box from her bedroom. It’s not something I allow her to bring downstairs very often because of all the tiny pieces. I trust Robyn to look after it in her bedroom but Katie having a free reign with it spells disaster!

The girls have just spent over an hour putting people in the campervan & driving them around, also putting poorly people in the ambulance and taking them to hospital. Both of these things are very topical in our house at the moment as my parents are currently touring France in their campervan and on Saturday we had the unfortunate experience of an ambulance trip to hospital with Katie.

Katie had been having some trouble breathing on Friday night and so I took her to the emergency doctor on Saturday who in turn sent us to the hospital. I had no transport since Anthony had gone away to a wedding so we were forced to go by ambulance. When we got there we were put into an isolation room and the doctors and nurses who came into us all had to be masked and gowned because of the Swine Flu precautions.

A doctor and then a registrar listened to Katies chest and said there’s nothing untoward there. The breathing trouble was due to congestion in her throat as her tonsils were a bit swollen.

Diagnosis: Suspected swine flu. We were sent away with some Tamiflu and ordered to stay indoors for 5 days. Thank goodness for toys that don’t come out very often, when they do come out its like a brand new toy which is guaranteed to keep them amused for a while!

Testing

Testing putting borders around photos… thanks Mel xxx

Cousins

In the last week my sister and my 11 year old nephew have moved up to live in the same town as us and mum and dad. It’s wonderful to have them close again. Robyn is chuffed to bits that she has her beloved cousin living so near. He is with us alot at the moment with mum and dad being on holiday and my sister working in her new office.

I’m smiling as I type this because I’m looking at my girls and my nephew playing together on the living room floor. They get on so well together and you can just see the love that they share between them.

A Poem

I stumbled across this poem by Mother Teresa this evening and it brought tears to my eyes. It is exactly the way that Granny Mary lived her life. At her funeral the priest spoke about how she lived for other people & how she never judged anyone. There were so many people at her requiem mass. Everyone had been touched by Mary at some point in their lives and wanted to pay their respects to a wonderful lady.

Spread Love

Spread love everywhere you go:
first of all in your own house.
Give love to your children,
to your wife or husband,
to a next door neighbor . . .
Let no one ever come to you
without leaving better and happier.
Be the living expression of God’s kindness;
kindness in your face,
kindness in your eyes,
kindness in your smile,
kindness in your warm greeting.

Mother Teresa

Learning new things

I have been thinking about enrolling on a course to learn a new skill for a while. I’ve been teaching myself to sew but the sewing courses that are around are not at a convenient time for me so I got looking at the Open Universtity courses.

Lately I have been very inspired by the photography of some good friends. Mel & Becks are wonderful photographers and both have given me tips on how best to take and edit my photos.

I looked at the T189 (Digital Photography: creating & sharing better images) course online and finally printed the forms off and filled them in. I got my letter back last week informing me that I am registered on the course that starts on 1st October.

I am very excited about the course, but also apprehensive. I only have a point and shoot camera and although the course requirements tell me that it will be fine I keep worrying that the other students will have much better SLR cameras and I will be rubbish in comparison.

I’ll not be able to afford a new camera before the course starts but it is my mission to save every spare penny I have to be able to get an SLR. Christmas money, next years birthday money too if it comes to it.

Here are links to Mel and Becks’ blogs. I love their photos so much.

Sucked in

Apologies for my absence from blogging. I have been well and truly sucked into Farm Town, an application on Facebook.

I struggled to see the attraction at first but persevered. Now I have a well planted farm and I am finding myself spending every spare minute tending to my crops and earning money so I can expand and buy new assets. If only real life was so simple!

I’ll be bored of it soon, I promise!

It’s a play day

After our sad few days I’ve had a pretty constant headache so I decided yesterday that today would be a quiet play day to allow myself to relax with Katie.

This morning Robyn got up complaining of a sore throat and said she’d like to stay at home. I figured that she needed a quiet play day too so duly telephoned the school to inform them she wouldnt be in.

At 10am Robyn announced she felt better so she went upstairs with Katie and came back down dressed as a ballerina. This morning they have also bounced on my bed, rolled around the floor, played with the train set, done some colouring and had a picnic lunch on a blanket in the living room.

Katie is now having a nap while Robyn is lazing around on the floor with a book in preperation for the afternoons activities. We always go to a family service at church on a Monday after school. This afternoon we are all taking some food and having a party to celebrate the end of term. It happens to coincide with Granny Marys birthday today. She loved both lazy play days & parties xxx

 

Our Granny Mary

Today is a sad day. Granny Mary passed away during the night and I’m left feeling very empty. The world has lost a wonderful person. Heaven has gained an angel.

Rest eternal, grant unto them O Lord,
and let light-perpetual shine upon them.

May they Rest in Peace – and Rise in Glory.

Sports day

Sports day was one of the events in the school year that I used to dread. I have never been very sporty and unfortunatly one of my senior schools was joined onto the leisure centre. School had full use of all the facilities. Gah!

I used to manage to get through a rounders match at school by ensuring I’d be out as soon as possible & therefore spend the rest of the time sat at the edge of the field making daisy chains! If I was on the fielding team I’d strategically stand  where I knew the ball was very unlikely to land so that I could stand still for as long as possible.

When it was netball I took a similar approach… always being goal keeper meant that I was confined to one end of the court so didnt have to run very far. Jumping around a bit when the other team tried to score was about all that was required!

Cross country was my idea of complete hell. I can remember the course we had to take like it was yesterday. Round the athletics track once, round the small bike track, round the big bike track, down the side of school and behind the leisure centre, along the back of the netball courts & hockey pitches, up the side of the art block, round and along the English block, along the mound and back into the school entrance to the leisure centre. Once back at school you had 5 mins to shower and change before going to your next lesson. There was never enough time to get dry properly so I’d end up damp and uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

Swimming on the other hand I used to enjoy. No running involved you see! I even used to take up the chance to go swimming at lunchtime once a week. I still enjoy swimming now. I’m not terribly good at it but I always find it quite a relaxing experience so long as its an adult only session!

Yesterday was Robyns sports day. She told me yesterday morning she was going to win a race for Granny Mary and she excelled herself! My wonderful daughter won 4 out of 6 races, something that I could only dream of! After school we walked through the park to see my mum and dad. We passed the ice-cream van and so I rewarded Robyn (and myself & Katie of course!) with a lovely creamy 99 with raspberry sauce.

Football Star!

Number 1!

On her way to victory!

Sad times

We are currently struggling to come to terms with the fact that Robyns Granny is dying.

Granny Mary is Robyns biological fathers mum. She is the matriarch of their whole extended family. She holds things together and people go to her for help when they are stuck knowing that Mary will do whatever she can to help and make things better. When Robyn goes away to “stay with her dad” the reality is that she stays with Granny. Granny does all the looking after while her Dad doesnt do a fat lot. He takes her to the park, to McDonalds but doesnt do any of the night times or the day to day care.

Robyn is the apple of Marys eye. She has 4 sons. None of them are married or even in a stable relationship. Robyn is the only girl in the family and she is the grandchild Mary thought she would never have. Robyn & Granny Mary are like two peas in a pod, best friends.

In the 6 years I have known Mary she has done so much for me. She was there when sometimes it felt as though nobody else was. I feel as though I’m about to lose a huge part of my life.

I have just had to email over a letter for someone to read to Mary telling her all the things I should have said a long time ago. She is a wonderful woman and will be sadly missed by so many. With the email I sent the following pictures. I hope she can find some comfort in them.

Katie – July ’09

Robyn at Morecambe – June ’09

Robyn at Butlins – May ’09

Robyn & Katie sharing a moment – May ’09