Looks Like Life Goes on

This is a really difficult entry for me to write. On the 5th August we announced to friends and family that we were pregnant. We hadn't told anyone we were trying to conceive because of the fact that I'm now 43 and we didn't think we could get pregnant let alone so quickly. It only took us about three months which I guess is pretty good considering we had been using birth control for eight years. I always felt after our youngest was born that I needed just one more child, always felt one was missing. Maybe my biological clock was ticking, maybe it was the fact that having our fourth child was pretty much as a near perfect experience as it could be.

Anyway, so we got pregnant and excitedly awaited our first scan in the middle of August. The talk from the instant we knew about the pregnancy was twins. People thought I was crazy when I spoke about the babies, expect one friend who teased me endlessly about the fact that there could be twins. The joke turned into reality at our first scan. There was indeed two babies! However from the outset it was obvious that one twin was a little smaller and a little slower than the other. We saw clearly twin A, she was brilliant from the start. Twin B showed signs of life, but despite that there was a shadow of doubt. A second scan reassured us a little that twin B was still there but again he was still measuring small and slow.

When we were due to go for our third scan on the 9th September I was nervous. Something was upsetting me but I didn't know what, assumed it was just the fear of losing the small twin. Nothing prepared us for both twins being dead. It took the wind from our sails seeing both babies motionless on the screen, our dreams crumbled right before us. The buzz, the excitement that us and our children shared just gone in an instant. My life as it were would never be the same.

So 'they' the hospital advised us to wait a week and see if the twins would be miscarried without assistance. I knew they wouldn't but had to go through the motions anyway to keep everyone happy. A week on, yet another scan showed no change and no signs of the twins coming away, they wanted to stay in my belly, with their mummy, forever. It was so difficult, there was me with my pregnant round tummy containing two dead babies.

The following morning, now eight days on, I was given misoprostal or cytotec as it's commonly known. I took four of those darn pills and went home to miscarry. Hours later I took to my bed with incredable pains, after giving birth naturally four times I could describe these pains as being harder than labour. A short while later I started bleeding. Miscarriage sucks let me tell you. The bleeding didn't stop, and the pain got worse as time ticked by. A while later the bathroom floor was covered in red and I was getting weak. My husband called the hospital, next thing I knew I was in an ambulance with sirens and flashing lights and my blood pressure dropping to an unsafe level. They worked for five hours to stop the bleeding, I was pretty much just laying there staring into space ... horrible. They had a theatre ready for surgery, I had panic that I was going to be left unable to have more children, it scared me. The surgeon came down to see me in resus and decided I was too ill to move, as I was bleeding profusely, and she ended up removing the babies there and then without anaesthesia. That moment, the pain, it will never leave me.

Now, I am sad, every day I cry. My husband and I are going to try again for another baby, we had set out to have a child. Getting pregnant again will not replace my twins but it will out us on the path to feeling joy again, can you understand that?

 

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Nothing In Sight

I'm really sad. Sol's surgery the first week looked great. Sol's eye healed well and she looked fabulous. On day eight I looked at her and her left eye had drifted outward. Then a while later it happened agin, and again. Her vision tests indicate that her sight is considerably worse than before the surgery and she has a certain amount of double vision. Gutted, to say the least. Unfortunately there's not much you can do, it takes a month before you can see the final results and its only been two weeks.

 

Please keep Sol in your thoughts.

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Made It In One Piece

Well, it's over. The surgery for Sol that is. All those years, all that worrying and it feels like strange that its finally done. Sol did great, she's a little trooper. We arrived at 8 am and she was anaesthetised by 9am. The surgery lasted 90 minutes and it took Sol another hour to come round. There wasn't a single tear, no complaining, the medical staff all commented on how she's been the best behaved child they have operated on in a long time. :D

 

Her eye looks surprisingly good, the white is red and sore looking but there isn't the bruising that I was expecting. To be honest I am not sure what I expected, whatever it just went really smoothly. The orthoptic person said they are very happy with the results.

 

At the weekend, prior to Sol's surgery we took a little trip into Bangor to the marina, and along to the splash park. Hardly weather for splashing but the children had fun all the same. It was nice to do something fun before Sol was in hospital, not knowing how long Sol would be laid up for instigated it too.

 

 

Oh, and totally off topic ...

my apple trees have gorgeous blossoms right now.

 

 

 

 

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Waves And Eyes On Me

Today was busy! Mags had an English exam to go sit in the city. We had to leave around 7:30am in order to beat the morning rush. I had been wondering the last few days what I would do with the other children while we hung around waiting for the exam to be over. There wasn't enough time to drive home then go back up again, and there's only so much time you can kill with three youngsters in tow. I decided to take them swimming. The pool I chose for them had a wave machine and it's a lot of fun. We spent 90 minutes in the water, I swear we were all wrinkly when we got out. This was the first time they had experienced the wave machine and the children are now all very eager to go back again as soon as possible.

 

Apart from the fun stuff I've been having a few thoughtful moments this week. Sol has surgery next week to straighten her eyes. It's been a long road. Sol has been left with a blind spot in the centre of her left eye and some other difficulties with her vision. So I was thinking, wondering if I was doing the right thing by permitting this surgery to go ahead. What if it goes wrong? What if her eyes turn out wards after the surgery, and that is one of the main risks that has meant it's taken so long to make the decisions to operate. All this while I am a member of a forum which discusses such issues. The adults who had surgery often need further surgery, this scares me. But the biggest emotional tug of all are those who never had surgery, those people whose parents either didn't push for it, or couldn't afford it, or were simply too frightened like me ... those people are the ones who have the regrets. I can't imagine spending years hiding your eyes by dipping your head low or wearing your hair across your face - I do not want that for my daughter.

And as if someone spoke to me while I was having these thoughts I came across these photos of my little girl, these photos are the deal breaker for me. We have to try, at least give it our best shot. What do you think?

 

 

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Nose No Trouble

This has been an eventful week indeed!

Our poor wee puppy got bitten by another dog. The other dog was a Blue Staffordshire and decided to take a dislike to Olivia while I had her out for a walk. The other dog bit Olivia and left a nasty wound on her nose.

She bled profusely and for a few minutes it was really hard to stem the bleeding. The children were crying and the owner of the other dog was absolutely mortified that this had happened. We had to take Olivia to the vet and sadly they were unable to do any plastic surgery as the flesh had been torn away. The vet gave my pup antibiotics and an anti inflammatory pain medicine to assist the healing process. It could have been a lot worse, I know we are lucky. It was also an awkward situation, however I am thankfull that the lady was happy to pay the vet bill, otherwise things would have been really different to deal with.

A few days on and my puppy's nose wound has dried up a bit and the swelling subsided. If anything it looks worse but it is healing well despite that. Olivia will always have the fleshy curly part of her nostril missing, I guess that's going to be her bravery story.

 

 

 

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Sun, Sand, And The Wetlands.

What a busy week it has been for me, for us all really. Last weekend the weather was pretty good and we spent a few days on the beach. Not sunbathing beachy stuff, but dog walking and playing in the sand weather. The puppy loves the beach too which is just as we'll considering we live a two minute walk from the sand.

Sadly on the way back from the beach last Monday Sol had a bit of an accident. We were almost home, maybe 30 yards from the house when she walked into a wall and hit her mouth. She badly broke one of her front teeth and hurt her mouth considerably that she couldn't stop crying for quite some time. Lucky for us the emergency dentist was on hand and we were able to get seen within about half an hour of the accident happening. They repaired Sol's tooth with white resin like material and she went back the following day for x-rays. It is left with this repair on it, which actually looks pretty good, and we have to watch for discolouration incase the tooth dies. Sol is fine about it now, but I am still a bit upset at the damage.

Yesterday we went to the wetlands, we've been before and it's not really advanced much since it was created three or four years ago. Still the wildlife must like it as we saw a few birds and came across a frog. The frog was just sitting in the water, we picked it up but didn't realise it was spawning till we got it out the water. Amazing though.

You will see in the photos that Sol is wearing a patch on her eye. The patching has been ongoing due to various eye problems that she has had since birth. She patches three hours a day now and it's an essential part of her treatment even though it isn't nice to look at. Sol is having surgery at the end of the month to help the cosmesis of her eyes, is going to be milestone for her and probably a traumatic time for me. It's taken many many years to get to this stage in her treatment.

 

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January Round Up

I need to take stock!

I have spent a fair amount of time sick in the last 12 months. There's been ups and downs, a few hospital trips and a lot of soul searching. I have neglected my friends, online and real life. I've not gone to my groups or meetings, avoided social situations too. It's been tough. I have been trying to get better I think I am almost there now, I think. Physically I still have a few issues, like but I'm feeling a lot better emotionally.

Since my last post on my blog there's heaps that's happened, oh and I forgot to mention we have a holiday abroad a few months ago too. I need to share photos, it was pretty good, I guess better late than never.

We had a heap of work done on our house too. My house is 100 years old and constructed with solid walls. Of course nice as that is the walls were cold and attracted condensation. This lead to dampness which was not fun to live with. We had the whole house dry walled! This is like an extra wall and cavity added to take away the cold walls. I have to say its made an amazing difference already, we turned the thermostat down too and I am looking forward to lower fuel bills. We swapped the kids bedrooms around while we had the rooms empty, I think we've made better use of the rooms.

Another big thing that happened is that Sol was ill. She was admitted to hospital with bleeding from her bowels. She had three weeks of being under the weather and suffering from tummy bug symptoms. Her diagnosis - camplyobacter! Where she got it from we have no idea, all we know she was sick and lucky for us we didn't catch it so I could stay with her.

Christmas was okay, we'll actually it was painfully ordinary and boring. The kids all got bicycles so they had a lot of fun, other than that nothing happened.

Okay I shall catch up with everything else when I can.  

Round Up

This last week has been a bit quick for me, I can't believe so much time has passed so quickly.

 Sol had yet another eye appointment, she got to spend 80 minutes in the presence of a doctor who did every test imaginable on her.  anyway her eyes are not worse, in fact shes only two levels away from being the legal level to be able to drive when she is wearing her glasses so this is positive news.  The centre of her left eye is ow blind but apparently this is 'okay' as far as things go.  The centre blindness is a preferable outcome to some of the things that she could have with her conditions.  Anyway, another test in eight weeks then hopefully she will get another opportunity to get in front of the surgeon who first saw her. 

Seb spent several days building and playing with rockets.  We had witnessed the international space station pass over head several nights running and that inspired him enough to make this magnificent creation.

Sol didn't want me to be lonely when she went to sleep in the neighbours house, so she left me her favourite toy, Lorraine, to cuddle and keep warm.

Toni decided she was going to throw a Hula Party one afternoon and made this paper grass skirt. She forgot about the coconut shell bikini top so decided to keep her clothes on.

Anything, But Not Nothing

The round up of a week of weird happenings.  I guess it wasn't exactly a week that was exciting or even worthy of a blog post, but here goes.

I ended up at the dentist another two times with my bridge.  It came out, then it came out again 12 hours after it was fitted.  Then, another attempt at having it put back in which lasted a few days instead of a few hours my dentist decided that my bridge was distorted or my teeth have moved.  So I get the absolute pleasure of being numbed up this Wednesday for an hour to have new bridge preparation work done.  My previous bridge was a maryland bridge which involved very little prep work, but this time I wont be so lucky and will have to have the neighbouring teeth crowned.

My birthday was a non event. I don't want to moan about a whole lot, but it was a 'nothing' day.  There were no gifts, or cake from my other half. I was so annoyed by it all I didn't even out my cards up, its as if my birthday didn't happen. I wasn't asking for extravagant gifts, just a little token and a cheeky little note would have done.  A cupcake with a candle on it, perhaps, anything but not nothing.

I did treat myself to getting my nails done with a little bit of nail art on my two ring fingers.

Kearney Village & St Cooey's Temple

Well, we had planned on going out for the day to escape the triathlon crowds in the village.  It was also to be a little birthday picnic lunch for me, you know two birds killed with one stone.  The weather yesterday was glorious, the news reported that it was the warmest day this year.  Thinking today would be the same, and there was a distinct blue colour to the sky early this morning we loaded the car to set off.

About half way down to Kearney village a chilly mist drew across the water and by the time we got there the children were shivering.  We were well equipped for paddling in the sea and sitting on the grass eating lunch.  The swim wear and rugs stayed in the car.  We did mange a quick look around despite the cold feel to the air.

Plans of paddling abandoned, we headed on our way down the coast.  We came across a little temple with some holy springs St Cooey's Wells.   The temple was fascinating to walk around, there must have been many people who have visited over the years either out of curiosity or for spiritual reasons. There were coins pressed into the bark of the trees and ribbons tied to the branches around the holy wells.The children decided to try out the holy water for themselves.

It's the weekend

Saturday afternoon doing laundry is hardly what you call exciting.  With the country gripped in a heat wave you'd think we'd be out on the beach or something like that. Instead other half is trying to fix the rotten, leaky roof on our boiler house before the next rain is due.  As for the next rain, well that could happen anytime as we barely go 48 hours without a shower or two, more often than not it rains every day.   

The last few days have been a real mixed bag.  I'm still reeling over Sol's surgery cancellation too.  She has an important appointment on the 28th of this month so we will do nothing before that date. However I've been checking out the private hospital and discovered one of the ophthalmic surgeons on the list there is the one that originally said he'd operate on her.  It's funny that, I would bet that if I find a few pounds laying around somewhere and take them to him, he would have her operated on that very week.  Anyway it's a real possibility right now but I am just taking a few days to think about it all.

What Can Go Wrong Will

I do not like to continually moan, nor do I want this blog to be an outlet for my whinges.  But ...
Today merits a moan.

Sol was to have surgery this week on her eyes.  She has poor vision and her eyes have a tendency to drift inwards and upwards.  The poor vision can never be fixed but the eye appearance can, or so I thought until today.   We were at her pre op appointment and they cancelled her op.  Her eye test today showed a deterioration in her vision, and despite all my efforts to get the surgery they just won't do it.  I asked them to redo their tests today, as I was unhappy with the validity of the first test.  I was right in doing so as the second test showed better results but they still weren't enough to sway the surgeon.
So we came home very disappointed and frustrated as we've been on the list for this operation for 13 months.   Now we are back to square one, Sol needs three eye tests that give the same results before she will be considered for surgery again.  Each test will be two months apart and only then will she get put back on the surgery waiting list.  Meanwhile we keep on patching and praying.

My further moans are of frustration.  I was at the dentist today with my bridge that had come out twice in as many weeks. Dentist visits are not of my list of fun things to do, let me tell you.  Well, less than 12 hours later my bridge is out a again. I am guessing tomorrow morning I'll be back in the hot seat again with a strange man's fingers in my mouth.

I am going to go and get into bed before anything else can go wrong today.

Round Up

The last couple of weeks have been a blur of going out every day for some reason or other. I'm not sure if I could recall it all and publish it here on my blog.

Easter was interesting, we spent almost every day that week out soaking up the sun. We spent a day in Kearney Village flying the kids kites and had a very tasty picnic. Two days on the beach and several other days just out and about, we hit the town of Portrush too. The children all have a little colour in their cheeks now and me a healthy glow.

Other things were GCSE exam papers, three of them to be exact and now a stack of revision work for the eldest child's next three papers. Once the 27th May is here that will be the last exam for a few months. I am wondering what subjects he will sit next - its a real toss up between doing three more GCSEs or a couple of AS/A levels. Mag also got the results of the six GCSE papers he did back in March, 3 of them he got 100% on, one was 98% and the other two were in the high 80s. Not bad for a 14 year old kid who doesn't go to school.

We have been busy planning out foreign trips, we have two weeks travel coming up and another couple of weeks in the pipeline including a possible trip to the USA on the cards.

Sol has had problems with her feet, well she always did. As a baby Sol had what was called Positional Talipes, in other words her feet were real bendy and curved inwards. This was caused because of her laying breech in my belly for the whole time she was in there, once she was born she has a real tendency to lay with her feet tucked under her. She had a little bit of physio and wore boots to try keep her ankles straight. The last few months I started to notice her feet turning in again. I called the hospital clinic where she was registered before and they wouldn't see her, they said it was acceptable that her feet turned in again despite her history. They suggested that Ryan Giggs the footballer has feet that turn in and because he does its okay for Sol to have that too. What the F***, Ryan Giggs has millions of pounds and a full medical team at his beck and call, and further research shows that he actually gets treated for his foot problem.
I wasn't going to accept this, after all we neither have a million pounds nor the skills of a footballer. We ended up going private and she has been diagnosed with pronation, in most cases pronation turns the feet outwards but in her case they went inward. This un-natural curve in her feet had her hips misaligned so she had to have them manipulated and is now having to do special excercises. A long time ago talipes was treated with ugly boots and frames - Sol is very lucky now to be able to have orthotics made to wear inside her shoes. They are sort of like insoles but actually have a heal and are moulded in a certain way so her feet are shaped properly. She has had them for a few days now and I can already see how straight her ankles are compared to before. 

Where have I been?

Where have I been? I know, I know, it has been forever since I last updated the blog. I have ran out of excuses, there are none! I was just dead lazy and I got even lazier when I thought of all the other times I apologised at being lazy and reading other blogs where people do the same thing.

I wont apologise, I am here ... I am posting again, for now. Just accept that if I refrain from posting I am either being lazy or I am super busy, or having a crisis in my life, or out socialising far too many hours, or having a baby (probably not but maybe the rabbits are having babies again), or feeding the dog ..wait I don't have a dog. Oh, I don't know, maybe it is raining!

Before & After

okay okay ...

I am rubbish at blogging.

I have zillions of photos and its going to take me a few days to post everything I want to. I seem to spend my days apologising to people in real life and in the blog world about my tardiness. I have been so busy; decorating, coping with a 'little' issue regarding one of my children's health just now, exams and my own health. I have to get a couple lumps removed and got surgery in two weeks time. Looking like nothing sinister but will know for sure once they are removed and tested.

With regard to the decorating, it has been a nightmare couple months. We took out the fireplace in our dining room and blocked that up. What we didn't realise is that the chimneys were blocked from above and blocking up the fireplace was a huge mistake. So we got a damp patch that then once ventilation bricks and holes were added into the chimney it took two months to dry out.

The fireplace before



The fireplace after - behind the the sofa. The main wall is decorated with a red colour, I need to get complete photos done. I haven't got my floor finished, and I also want a large canvas photograph of the kids on the wall but its live-able now and definitely more than passable now.

Boats, Robes, Teeth.

Well the last couple of weeks have flown by - once again. Here's a round up.

Well last blog update I had shared that other half had got himself a little boat. He was so keen on getting out on it he managed to get the boat insured and a tow bar fitted on the car in less than a day. It is a pity that he wasn't so quick and effiecient at doing DIY. The only thing that held him back was the fact we had only two life jackets ....so we got some decent ones from eBay. And now its just a matter of towing the boat down to the harbour and launching it.

The view from the harbour.


Here's Mag all ready to sail!


Here's the boat ....

wait ..... wait.... its not

this is the boat!

Okay I have to add in this photo, I forgot to share it in a previous blog. This is Seb on his Boys Brigade award night receiving his badges.

This photo, which I took on my phone camera at Mag's insistence. Mag was tickled by the "wide range of trolleys" on offer at Tesco. Well that is what the sign says but I am not sure that there are many to chose from.

The tooth fairy visited Seb last week...

...and this again this week. Poor boy can hardly talk, he has a big lisp thing going on, its quite funny.

The robes we got for Toni ... they are installed and are looking good. We got them from Starplan, in fact my other half was so happy with them he 'let' me go order some more for our bedroom. So I went and ordered two x 2 metre robes for our room which will really help a lot with storage space. They will be delivered and installed in July so we need to get our skates on and get the room decorated ... we never do things by halves in our house.

Just now we have a little room which is actually like a box room, but it is used for clothes rather than a bedroom or anything else ..the room is kitted out with large 'built in' robes and we have all our clothes and bedding in it. Well getting the robes for our bedroom means it will free up some of the the robes in the little room we have, and in turn I can utilise that room for something else. Long story here, but we have an extension in the pipe line with a utility room, so I am going to use this little room for a utility room and that creates an extra room when the extension is done. PHEW are you still with me, because it sounds so complicate, it isn't really.

Exams, Freefall, Bump & A Birdhouse. How can they all be in the same blog post?

Well a week has gone by and every single day I had planned on writing a few lines to update everyone. So here it is all those few lines condensed into one post.

Monday the 1st of March was pretty much a study day for Mag. The nerves were increasing and I could see that he was starting to worry about the exams the following day. There came a point where I had to tell him to put his books away, enough was enough. I have no doubts at all in Mag's ability but seeing him get anxious like this makes me wonder how children cope with doing ten exams all at once. Well I guess they do, as I did it myself when I was a teenager, but looking at it from a parents perspective is a different issue.

Tuesday, exam day! I took Mag to the school where he was sitting his exams for doors opening and was greeted by the exam officer who showed him where he would be sitting both his exams that day. The morning exam started at 9:30 and he seemed pretty relaxed about it all. Mag was home for lunch then back in again for the next exam at 1:30, after that I had an informative chat with the exam officer to discuss what is next. It was an interesting day to say the least, its been almost three years since Mag had been at a school and I guess it would have been strange for him.

Wednesday was a 'down' day! I had to laugh because what I call a down day is when you do nothing of major importance; rest, watch TV, just hanging out around the house. I posted on Face book that this is what we were doing and everyone sent HUGS. I didn't have the heart to say that I didn't need the hugs, just thanked everyone instead.

Thursday morning I met up with a couple of home educating friends and their children at Indiana Land in Dundonald. Between us we had ten children and the whole place to ourselves which was good. Unfortunately for Mag he is too big to play there but he did get a couple of sneaky goes on the free fall slide. As for the girls, there was three seven year olds lined up along the top of the free fall with the colly wobbles was an amusing site. The mums all stood at the bottom shouting encouragement and each one stepping to the edge then jumping back. I am not sure if I would have done the free fall slide, but they all did it in the end.
At lunch time I had arranged to go have lunch with my friend Lorraine, which we did and had a great afternoon. I didn't want to leave to come home and I think the two of us could have chatted very easily for another couple of hours.



Friday was our day at the science museum, W5. We needed to get out the house again, we have spend a lot of time studying and doing 'school' that this last while so it was well deserved. The day was good except the fact Seb ran into some perspex in the afternoon and ended up going to the children's hospital. He was okay in the end, but left with a nasty bump on his head.



Oh and I almost forgot ... Ashley made a bird box, what do you think?

Getting ready

Well it’s the 4th of December! Don’t roll your eyes thinking I am stating the obvious will you!

I haven’t updated my blog site for so long people are beginning to think I have fallen off the face of the Earth. So here I am with a summery update for everyone, especially those who asked.

Anyway, there was a series of mini catastrophes happening such as the car breaking down while I was travelling at speed (we were ok), and the roof leaking in, and the car breaking down again, and needing repairs done at our other house and, and, and …oh there is a list.

My eldest child has been working incredibly hard lately, he has finished all his GCSE maths work and is finally ready to do his exam. That exam itself pretty much organised though forms still have to go in but the school who have accepted him are dealing with that. Mag’s first GCSE paper is in February so he has two months to revise and get everything up to scratch, if you take away time at Christmas it really isn’t that long. We have started the practise papers with him, he got an A this week, it was a low A but its still and A and shows that there is room for improvement. He is confident that come February he will be getting an A*, and of course I am really proud of him. The following academic year he will do his sciences exams and contemplate doing the advanced maths exam but we will see how it’s all going in a couple of months as there is no real rush for all this. Anyone who knows Mag will understand why he is doing these exams, he is a bright boy who has always excelled at everything he has done.

I am trying to get organised for Christmas (who isn’t?), and I am going to officially give myself a week off from cooking apart from the main event. We don’t have Christmas dinner on Christmas day usually, it’s just too much as I like to spend time with the kids and not slave over the proverbial hot stove. So I have spent several days cooking, baking, freezing, then cooking some more, vacuum sealing and freezing some more. I now have two weeks worth of prepared food in the freezers, everything from sausage rolls ready to go in the oven to lasagna that just needs finishing off and I am not going to let anyone near it till Christmas week. It feels good, and I have to say I do feel slightly smug about that fact too. Then I decided to get all of the presents done, which they are almost. The cards have yet to be written; I have written a few envelopes and will slip the cards in later. Now back to that week off ……… if only the laundry fairy could come in and do that for me then I would be all sorted.

Blogging from Salou

It was a long day yesterday, probably one of the most tiring I had
experienced in a long time. Anyone who knows me will know I have been
wrestling with a flu for the last fortnight. Due to restrictions
imposed on our country anyone with swine flu symptoms will be refused
flight travel. Swine flu is contagious until day 7 of the illness so
I figured I would be ok.
Come hell or high water I was getting on that plane. Doped up with
three sorts of meds I managed not to start coughing till we were
flying over France, so there was no turning back.
The early start was okay, 5:30 found us on the road. We reached our
hotel 1:45 Barcelona time. The afternoon was spent lazing in our
apartment. We all came alive at seven at night!
There was a medieval restaurant just out side the hotel, that was as
far as our weary legs would carry us that night. Food was good and
two of the children were put in the stocks, literally. We checked out
the entertainment, the beach by night and the supermarket - I think we
will be happy here.
This morning was lovely we booked half board today and the breakfast was
Buffet style with much as you could eat of every single food you can
imagine. So the nine pounds I lost while I'll is going to go straight
back on again. I will let you know what dinner is like later LOL.
Tomorrow we are going to Portaventura the theme park, the kids are
bouncing with excitement and we still gave two weeks to go of this.
One final comment will be an apology from me to everyone reading this,
apart from making you jealous I have to say all spelling mistakes will
have to stay till I get home and run the spelling and grammar
checker. Blogging from an iPhone is easy and suits me fine, but the
keys are small and the spell check does not do English I think.
Sent from my iPhone

OINK OINK

This blog post is going to be short and sweet.

You see, earlier in the summer I was convinced I had the swine flu, really I was sure of it LOL! I was so sick and barely could move for 3 or 4 days - gee I thought I was ill!

Well it seems Swine flu is back, this time for real! I have been sick for 6 days now, I am hoping tomorrow I am going to be on my feet. It started last weds, after Toni and Mag had been ill the previous week. Sore throat, fevers, hot, cold, unable to move without pain, nausea, iffy tummy, hacking chesty cough, wheezing, cant sleep, cant eat (not eaten for 4 days), useless in other words! I have been laid on the sofa for the whole time, watching my family get on with life, watching the laundry pile up and feeling more grossed each time I approach the science project in the bathroom sink .... oh other half did clean it yesterday at long last. That was before he built up the new rabbit hutch (its huge BTW) in the dining room need I add so I could sit and read the instructions out to him (I got the photos on my phone to prove it, I will add them in later).

We have all had this illness bar other half now so he is the ticking time bomb waiting to go off, so far symptom free apart from a sore throat the other day.