Five...

Pain, Pain, Go Away

I am in agony! I've torn a muscle in my left thigh...

To cut a long story short I had a bit of a back injury last Monday night so I took one of the muscle relaxants my mother-in-law gave me (don't worry she is a doctor and knows what she's doing!!!) before I went to bed. I woke up, to the sound of the front door ringing, got out of bed and took one step at which point I promptly fell to the ground... weird, thinks I, pull myself up to standing (I can stand) and thought no more of it until I took my next step and whooommmmp! Straight down to the ground. By this time the doorbell is ringing persistently, the children, Hettie in particular as she knows it's her birthday present, are shouting to tell me "it's the POSTMAN!!!" and I end up having to crawl to the top of the stairs on my hands and knees, pull myself up using the bannisters and manage, somehow, to reach the front door. At this point I am managing to walk, if a little hesistantly.

That was on the Tuesday. Wednesday meant back to work for me and a round trip drive of an hour and a half which played havoc with my left thigh and that evening I found it painful to get up and sit down so I cancelled work for the rest of the week as the thought of driving again (all that clutch changing) filled me with dread.

So today rolls around and guess what? I feel good and healthy for the first time in what seems like weeks (probably about 3 weeks at the least), no cough, no cold, no viral anything and so go back to work. Got home around 2:30pm with a long list of phone calls to make and knelt down to pick up my phone from the charger and rrriiiiiiiippppppp, pain so bad went searing up my thigh - it was so bad I almost passed out and felt physically sick...

Turns out I have badly torn one of my thigh muscles. I suspect I did at least some damage when I collapsed last week (due to an adverse reaction to the muscle relaxant I feel) and it was starting to get better when I did something it didn't like...

So no work for about 7 to 10 days... don't know whether to feel pleased or not about that...

Christmas Has Come Early

In the form of the arrival of my new MacBook! How beautiful is she? And something so beautiful needs something equally beautiful to be carried around in so look what arrived with it! I can't wait to unpack it and start to play. Yes, I know it's a christmas present but I'm not a patient sort of person and Richard knows this so I was allowed to get it early :D Oh, he so spoils me...

And if that wasn't enough to spoil a girl then today also saw the arrival of the shoes I decided to treat myself too with all the hard work I've been doing. Aren't they lush?

Treasures Found

I looked after the daughter of a friend on Tuesday and the children all decided to put on a fashion show. The only slight problem was that they asked if I would video it.

Yes, we do have a camcorder but the problems arose because firstly, I had no idea where it was, secondly, it would definitely have a flat battery and thirdly, did we have any mini-tapes for it?

The problems were all solved very quickly when firstly, I found it within 2 minutes of looking for it, secondly, yes, it was flat but I also found the mains charger within 1 minute of looking for it and thirdly, it had a tape stored next to it, one stored inside it and, whilst looking for the thing itself, I found a brand new unopened mini-tape somewhere else. We were set and ready to go.

The next hurdle I hit was trying to get the video from the handycam (very old now, well, in terms of ne technology) on to my Mac. After much trying I gave up on the Mac, installed the software for the handycam (which I also found - wonders will never cease!) and started to upload it to the old pc. But then, guess what? I found yet another cable and this one was the usb dv cable and lo and behold I connected one end to the handycam, the other to my Mac and voila! Instant movies.

After I had sorted out 'The Fashion Show' I turned my attention to the two other opened and looking used tapes. And I found a veritable treasure chest of memories from the early half of 2005. Wow! How my children have grown. Obviously I do know they are growing but they do it so slowly in front of you. These videos were in your face 'look how much I've changed, mum!'. We were living in Nova Scotia at that time and the videos were such a fab reminder of some of the great times we had. The snow, which I loved, the children quickly developing canadian accents, our home, such a fantastic house.

We've watched these videos over and over since, wallowing in the beauty of their littleness. Especially Noah. Noah was not quite 2 years old when we moved over and the cuteness (and tantrum) factor is off the scale. Here's one little clip I'll share with you:

6 Years Ago Today

God gave us this:

I can't believe that my baby is now 6 years old! We took him and 4 friends to see Wall E at the cinema and to PizzaHut afterwards. His verdict? "It was the best day of my life!"

Yesterday

The funeral for my brother was held yesterday. It went as well as can be expected but was a very difficult day for us all. The last 2 weeks have been very difficult with a lot of questions, 'what-ifs' and replaying of scenarios going around and around in my mind.

For some things I will probably never have any answers. I will never know exactly what events contributed to him finally feeling he had no other option but to take his own life. I will never know whether if I had called him more often it would have made a difference. He was troubled, he never really did come to terms with my dad's death, he did make choices in his life that weren't good for him. This was so final though.

It does seem that some weeks prior he had taken steps to try to turn his life around. He did make an appointment with a doctor. Said he needed help. Said he needed counselling. Said he wanted to stop the drugs. But the system failed him. 12 weeks later he had still heard nothing. Would it have made a difference? I'd like to think so. I know that I didn't see him as often as I should. But I miss him, miss knowing that he was there, however much in the background. I wish I had one more chance to hug him. To tell him that I love him no matter what.

I remember the cheeky little boy he was (I was 5 and a half when he was born). The accident prone little monkey, always up to something, who insisted that his full name was Matthew Mortlock Brett, not accepting the Brett should be in the middle. The boy who when his mates would use bad language in front of me would tell them off for doing so. The man he turned in to, the one who was not ashamed to kiss his mum, dad or sisters and tell them he loved them - not caring even if his mates were watching. A man who loved his daughters, his little princesses, and no matter what he was going through himself made sure to keep in touch with.

Time heals, I know. I've lived through this before when my dad died. But it doesn't take away the loss, you still feel it, it just becomes something you learn to live with.

Charity Begins At Home?

The old adage seems true... at least it does in our house according to Noah.

It was my birthday yesterday (thanks for the birthday cards and wishes, I had a lovely day) and the children woke me with cards and presents and singing.

All except Noah that is who came, literally with 'cup in hand', and announced that as of yesterday he was starting a charity. For himself!!! He is an avid collector of coins... he doesn't feel as if he has enough... and apparently he needs more.

The things this not quite 6 year old comes out with never ceases to amaze me.

Happy Father's Day

To Richard. Hope you had a great day and just one more 'little' thing:

Milk Rap

We both just LOVED this advert which used to be shown lots whilst we were living in Canada. Enjoy...

(Love the line 'We got the big bad Bessie with the M-I-L-K')

Rocket Envy

I know, I'm being a bad blogger (again!). In fact writing that I'm a bad blogger is starting to become a habit, so I suppose I should just accept the fact that I am a bad blogger, live with it and get over it. I am though going to commit myself to posting something at least once a week, that way I can feel that once I've posted once during a week I can forget about it and stop agonising over the fact that I haven't posted in over a week because I will have... if you get what I mean? LOL...

Anyway, not much of anything happening at the moment. It's a school holiday this week and wouldn't you know it? The weather, which up until recently has been pretty gorgeous has now turned not so gorgeous! I do though have plenty to do: Noah has decided to hold an Invention Competition:

Contestants: Mummy and Daddy
Aim: To invent something (make a model)
Judge: Either Kat or Hettie, he hasn't quite decided yet but he can't do it because he is busy...
Prize: To be made by Noah

Now, I have some stiff competition because, unbeknownst (don't you just love that word?) to me, Daddy was given the 'heads up' yesterday and has already submitted his entry - a rocket! Now, not to make me feel inferior or anything but I've already had it pointed out by my dear son that "Daddy's rocket is amazing! Look at the detail, mum!".

Not to be out done, I had to come up with something pretty quick, I promptly said that I was going to make a car. With moving wheels and everything.

Now, I'm not sure whether Noah's living under the illusion that I am so much better than I am or if, in fact, I should be flattered that he feels I am capable of achieving what he thinks I can because his next comment was "Whoah, can you make it with a remote control?"... What?... With a remote control? I don't think so darling...

Just A Quick One

I do have a couple of digi layouts to post but just need to resize them for web first.

But I just wanted to say that the people at Dolce Gusto have been at it again and have now come out with the Mocha variety! They've probably been around for ages but as I'm very rarely in a supermarket nowadays (I do nearly all my grocery shopping online don'cha know! LOL) I didn't know. but Sunday we popped in to pick up some bits after church and there they were, boxes of Mocha, calling to me. So I bought a box, brought it home and then... promptly forgot to have one!

But I have now remedied this, after just getting back from the gym and feeling like I deserve one :D

It was good! I have to say though that the Latte Macchiato is still my favourite. OK, enough about that I'm even boring myself now :D

Will endeavour to post some crafty stuff, and something more interesting, shortly.

Another Noah Gem

In future to just be referred to as ANG!

Driving back from his swimming lesson yesterday, it was a glorious early Spring evening and the sun was shining: "Hey, Hettie, if you look at the sun and then blink, then look outside the car, all around and blink, it's like painting with your eyes. It's really cool!".