Over on The Gallery this week the theme is “Friendship”. I have 2 best friends and I feel truely blessed to have them both.
3 years ago today I married my soul mate. Here we are with our precious girls after we signed the registers in church…
The 26th May 2007 was THE happiest day of my life. I know it’s a cliché but it’s true. First and foremost Anthony is my friend…
But he is also my wonderful husband…
Happy Anniversary my wonderful Anthony. I love you xxx
See now I couldn’t mention friendship without talking about Lorna… I have known her for 14 years.
Here we are on the day of Robyns baptism…
Here we are on a rather drunken night out…
And here we are on my wedding day… did I mention that it was 3 years ago today lol.
We can go for weeks without speaking what with busy lives and living a few hours apart from eachother but when we do speak it’s as though we’ve never been apart. Friends like Lorna are very special.
So cheers, here’s to friendship and also to marriage. Long may they prosper xxx
Anthony is listening to some very cheesy music from the ’80’s this evening. Music from 1989 to be precise (I’m not sure why that year inparticular!).
In 1989 I was in my last year of primary school, we then moved house and in the September of that year I began my first year at secondary school. It wasn’t an easy time for me. I knew nobody at the school apart from my sister. I missed all my old friends and wished I could have gone to the same schools as them. I struggled to fit in at secondary school and started eating by way of coping with the stress I found myself under. Food became my comfort when I felt sad, and I did feel very sad.
While Anthony is playing these tunes from 1989 I’ve been singing along and logging into itunes and downloading a couple of songs. Richard Marx: “Right Here Waiting” is one of them along with Boy Meets Girl: “Waiting for a Star to fall”. Then he played Angry Anderson: “Suddenly” and tears filled my eyes.
Why?
Not because it makes me sad. It used to but not anymore. Now it makes me so incredibly happy.
When I (along with the whole of the UK I think) first heard the song it was while watching Neighbours (Wiki tells me in 1988, not ’89). Scott and Charlene got married and I was a happy 10 year old girl. The wedding on TV was between my two favourite characters. Jason Donovan was my hero and Kylie Minogue was playing a tomboy. I could relate to her. She was a mechanic and she wore trousers, not skirts. That was me!
I watched that wedding open mouthed. It was like a fairy tale. Every little girl dreams of getting married and the song that played in that episode stuck with me. “One day… one day”, I thought, that will be me. I will get married to the man of my dreams and it will be my very own fairy tale.
Fast forward then to when I started secondary school. Life was not rosy. I was that tomboy like Charlene in neighbours but there was no “Scott”. I was not popular and I pretty much hated life if I am honest. Like I mentioned before, I turned to food. I grew overweight which just made things worse. I was the already unpopular girl who was now fat. Oh fabulous. Two years later we moved house again and I started another new school. I already had no confidence and I was already fat. Fitting in was just never an option. I carried on the only way I knew… by eating and by putting my head down. I had a couple of good friends but there was never going to be a “Scott”. I wasn’t interested anyway. I knew nobody would be bothered with me so there was no point trying.
I used to listen to that song and cry because I had so much hope and it was all gone. I honestly thought my little girl dream would never happen. The song reminded me of all that I wanted but was out of reach. I’d never get that I thought.
Fast forward again to May 26th 2007. My wedding day. The day I thought would never happen. I found my “Scott” and he is the man of my dreams. When Anthony and I got married it was my very own fairy tale. Now I could listen to that song and cry tears of happiness, not sadness. My dream came true. The first verse of this song I keep harping on about goes like this:
I only dreamed that I would find,
A loving heart and open mind,
To see the real me,
And I hoped that you would be the one…
We had the song played at our wedding reception. It wasnt our first dance, it was too much of a song for me and not us. It is a song I will never forget. It is a song that reminds me to never give up.
Today has been pretty horrible. Anthony’s job is under threat. For regular readers of my blog you will know he was out of work for over 18mths until September. To say this is bad news is an understatement.
A wise friend of mine told me this: “Try to concentrate on what you want rather than what you don’t want!”.
On the same thinking this evening we have talked about the plus sides of being out of work.
Anthony will be here to help me with Katie when she is being difficult
We will be able to go out for some nice walks
We might not have much money at Christmas but have the chance of being together as a family
I will be able to go to church again on a Sunday as the time as a family won’t be so precious
If Anthony does keep his job he will probably look for alternative employment anyway. It will buy him some time so he wont be out of work. We have thought about offering to take the lease of the premises but that is something that needs very careful consideration. For it to work he would have to start from scratch with new staff.
Today I am thankful for:
My family who have been so so supportive today. My sister has offered some ad hoc work for Anthony
My friends who have tried to take my mind off things and offered hugs
Katie who has been a little star today. When I cried she said “Mummy doin’ cryin’. Love you mummy”
Robyn who has made me proud by learning all her lines for the school play
Anthony who is my rock. Together we will face anything that is thrown at us
“…All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well”: Julian of Norwich
I recieved a beautiful bunch of tulips from Anthony this morning. Tulips are my all time favourite flower. My wedding bouquet was made with tulips. I love it when they start appearing in the shops, it feels like spring is finally on its way.
Tonight we’re having a lovely meal just the 2 of us at home. King prawn cocktail followed by chicken in white wine and mushroom cream sauce with rice and then either lemon tart or lemon mousse, depending on time. I cant wait!
The girls have been testing my patience this morning. Robyn is off to her Dad’s for the week in an hour or so and is excited. Katie is picking up on the excitement but cant quite cope with it so there’s lots of strops and tantrums coming from her direction!
Anthony has gone out for a walk with my dad and friends to Hebden Bridge. Its about 4 miles from here and the walk is along the canal towpath. I wanted to join them but I needed to wait here for Robyn to be collected. When she has gone I’ll pop Katie in bed for a nap and grab some peace and quiet on my own instead!!
I found the word heart tool here. Its great fun! Have a go!
I have been prompted today to answer this question and thought I would share my answer in my blog…
What was it that made you think you could be with your partner forever?
When I met Anthony I was in a very low place… in the middle of a nervous breakdown. At first I gave him the runaround. I was too frightened to get close to him because at the time everything I seemed to touch just fell apart. I didnt want to jinx things.
Then I fell pregnant… I was in total shock, so was he. We’d only been together 3 months. What a difference from Robyns dad though… Tom left me when I was 6 weeks pregnant whereas Anthony assured me that he would stick by me. I knew then that he was special. We were just getting our heads around the idea of becoming parents together when I miscarried.
The way Anthony supported me and comforted me made me realise I had found the one. A week after the miscarriage Anthony proposed to me. We’d been together not quite 4 months. Of course then I fell pregnant with Katie and that just reassured me that we were meant to be together.
Anthony is my soulmate and I thank my lucky stars that I let my defences down and let us get close. We’ve been married for 15 months now and we are planning baby number 3.
We celebrated yesterday with a child free afternoon out in Manchester. Robyn is at her Grannys house for the week so after dropping Katie off at my mum & dads house we got on a train and in under an hour we were in the city centre.
We strolled round the shops without having to negotiate a buggy through crowds of people… what a delight! Funny how we still ended up buying clothes for the girls though!
Next it was off to the cinema but first we grabbed a drink of the alcoholic variety in the bar. We went and found our seats armed with popcorn and watched “21”… a good film!
Dinner was next… a chinese restaurant “YumYums”. Eat as much as you like for £8.95 each. We made the most of it… well it would be rude not to!
Then we went back to the train station where we watched some silly lads trying to fight on the platform. We were entertained by the afore mentioned lads (who had at first appeared to be so full of it) turn into sheepish boys when the police were called and started taking all their details. It was really quite funny!
We were home at a very respectable time of 9pm (we must be getting old!) so we snuggled up together and watched some TV. It was a perfect day.
Thankyou Anthony for a perfect year. I hope there are many many more to come :o)
I recieved a beautiful bunch of tulips from Anthony this morning. Tulips are my all time favourite flower. My wedding bouquet was made with tulips. I love it when they start appearing in the shops, it feels like spring is finally on its way. 
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