Teacher's Pet

I haven't got time to finish my CF Clinic update tonight, but while I'm busy catching up on tonight's Sky+ed Dancing on Ice, I thought you might like to see these photos I took tonight while Seren was doing her reading book ...

She'd just showered and washed her hair (on her own, with minimal assistance from me - she feels so grown up now!) and I'd blow-dried it and it was lovely and golden and long, and she wanted to leave it down around her shoulders tonight, with just a clip in the side.

Ssssh ... I'm reading ...

Concentrating

My absolute favourite photo. My beautiful girlie.

Teacher's Pet

Don't know where she gets that lovely complexion from, it's certainly not from me!

Smiley girl now she's finished reading for tonight

And look what my little Teacher's Pet got in her spelling test ...

It was a special sponsored spelling test, to raise money for Childline, which you'll hear more about tomorrow ...

Night night!

Making Time To Blog

"Sorry, blogging has taken a little bit of a back seat over the past week, because I've been on a bit of a writing roll with my 2nd novel, and I've been re-doing my synopsis and query letter for my 1st novel, ready for submitting it to another romance publisher as well. So poor old Bloggie's had to wait! My submission is all ready to be posted now though, so tonight I'm making time to make a start on an update blog. Hopefully I can remember what's been going on with us since last week!"

Erm ... I wrote that on the 2nd February, and all I did was write that paragraph, and upload the photos, and I haven't touched this post since! Oops! Now it's 4 days later, and again, I'm trying to make time to blog. Quite a lot to catch up on though, 12 days, so I doubt I'll finish this post tonight either.

Anyway. Here goes ...

As it was 12 days ago, I don't remember much of what happened on Tuesday 26th January, although judging by Twitter, Facebook, and my organiser, the kids went to school, and we had the boiler repair man round to 'fix' our rattling boiler.

Up until he arrived, the suspicion was that the diverter valve might be causing the problem. The repair man disagreed. He said that when the boiler was installed, ten months previously, it had been programmed/set up wrong, and the heat was turned up to maximum, which was unnecessary, and the flame inside the boiler was too short, and was flickering on the sides of whatever it's in, and causing the rattling noise. So he altered the settings, and it seemed to be fine.

He also said that because we only have single radiators, not double ones, that our boiler isn't reaching peak efficiency, which could be something to think about for the future, and he said that the thermostatic control on the radiator in the downstairs hall isn't working anymore, so when we have the boiler serviced in March, we should have that replaced, which is a quick and relatively inexpensive job.

So we thought all was fine then, because all the radiators were lovely and warm again, and the temperature in the house rose to a comfy level, and the rattling had disappeared. Hmmm.

The next day, Wednesday, the kids went to school again, and I started feeling rough, as if I was getting a cold, so Adrian took the kids swimming on his own. Dylan was rather chesty when he came home, so we gave him some extra treatments.

Thursday 28th, the kids had school again, and I was supposed to be going to the dentists, but as I was in full on 'cold mode', I doubted he'd want to be looking into my mouth and risk getting a sneeze in the face, so I cancelled again. It seems as if it was an adults-only cold, because Adrian had it as well, but the kids mostly escaped it, which is of course, fine by us! So I curled up on the sofa and sewed Seren's new badge onto her Brownie sash for a while.

Seren's new Brownie badge, which she earned during her sleepover in late November

Seren had her dance class that night, and I went to Slimming World.

Friday, the kids went to school again, and I was supposed to be going to visit Adrian's Nan, but because her bone marrow is full of abnormal cells, her immune system is compromised, and so me going round there full of a cold was a big no-no. So I just called her instead for a chat once I got home from picking the kids up from school. While I was on the phone, she let slip that she has been hiding a nasty chesty cough from Adrian's Mum, and that she's been up all night every night, coughing up brown gunk.

I did tell her that I wouldn't tell Adrian's Mum, but knowing about her compromised immune system, I just had to inform Adrian's Mum, just in case. So Adrian's Mum said she'd keep an eye on her.

And look at what the kids came home from school with! ...

Seren's 3rd star chart of the school year, so she got a commendation letter from the headteacher through the post the following day. And Dylan's is a certificate from his teacher for being a big boy and being dropped off at the classroom door every day that week! One proud Mummy here!

That night, Adrian was very pleased to finish a little project he'd started earlier that week ...

The artist and his work

Bumblebee the Transformer - doesn't he look great?!

And then, later that night, while I was watching 'Sweet Home Alabama' on DVD, the town was given a thin blanket of white for the night ...

Looking Wintery

This shot is a little dark, but I love the way the high winds had blown the snow against the wall

On Saturday, Seren was most excited to be off to see a pantomime (Aladdin and the Magic Camp, I think it was) with her Brownie pack. I spent most of the day curled up in bed tapping away at my laptop keyboard ... ie, writing! And oh, was I ever on a writing roll! I churned out about 3,000 words!!!

Although I did find a little time when Seren got back from her pantomime, to squeeze in some cake decorating. And yes, we did decorate it in the bedroom, on the bed, on a tray. Lazy me!

Seren mid-decorating (no, she didn't go to the panto in her pj's, but I didn't want icing sugar all over her Brownie uniform, so she changed out of it, and her pj's were to hand)

We also 'decorated' some biscuits. Well, drizzled icing over them anyway, because they were a little small for icing properly

The sugar version of alphabet soup

The cake Seren decorated. It says 'Mum and Seren', and then she wanted to put the alphabet around the outside. She still had space when she got to the end, so she started again, hence there being one and a half alphabets on there

On Sunday, Seren and I went to church and then I dashed to Asda, and then while Adrian took the kids to visit his Nan (I still had my cold, so couldn't go) I stayed home and wrote my Christian blog.

Monday was fun, as after I'd dropped the kids off at school, slipping and sliding in the frozen slush, I met up with Suzy and we slipped and slid to her house for a morning of coffee and chatting, which was great! That afternoon, I did housework, and then Seren had Brownies that night, and I got a little more writing done.

Tuesday, once the kids were off at school, I went to the AGM of the local NAS autism support group. And I volunteered to be their committee secretary! It seems to be the most 'official' committee that I've been secretary of so far, but then, the NAS is a UK-wide charity, so I'm guessing it has to be more 'official' than the local pre-school and nursery committees I've served on. I think my role will possibly be slightly larger and more varied in this committee too, which should be fun! And committee meetings certainly sound attractive! They're held at committee members' houses, and they're combination meetings and curry nights! And we also have a group night out booked for the end of the month! And that's a lot of !!s for one paragraph.

Wednesday, the kids had school again, and then had swimming in the evening. They both did really well! Seren swam a whole length on her back while holding a woggle, and she even had a go at swimming on her front without a float! And she started working on swimming on her front while holding a woggle and practising breathing with her head to the side. She really needs to wear goggles though, because she gets water in her eyes when she swims on her front and then stops to wipe her eyes mid-swim.

Dylan did well too, practising picking up rings off the pool floor again, and his teacher also had him stand next to a hoop, bob down under the water, and come up again inside the hoop. His teacher this week was very young though (I mean around 15 yrs old), and wasn't too great at keeping him focused or getting him to work hard, so he didn't do much swimming. She was trying to get him to kick with his legs straight instead of bent, but he wasn't having any of it, and she didn't have the age or experience to encourage him properly. But he still had fun though!

The session ended a little abruptly when another pupil upchucked in the pool, and everyone had to get out, but there were only a few minutes left of the session anyway. And then afterwards, while Seren was getting changed, one of the younger instructors gave Seren an old pair of her goggles, a junior sized pair with a fixed bridge, which should fit Seren more comfortably than the pair I bought her before, which she refuses to wear. How kind was that?!

When we got back, the darned boiler started rattling again that evening! And unlike last time, by the end of the night, we'd lost heat downstairs, but still had heat upstairs. We were NOT happy.

So first thing Thursday morning, I rang our boiler installer, Andy, again, but he said that there wasn't anything he could really do at this point, and that we had to ring the boiler manufacturer. So once I'd dropped the kids off at school, that's what I did.

And I spoke to a rather un-lovely woman at the manufacturers, who looked back over the report from the previous visit, and said very coldly, that as the previous engineer had stated, the problem is an issue caused by the installer not installing the boiler correctly, and to do with our 'rads' (radiators. I had to ask her what she meant.). I said that that was not what the previous engineer had said. He had said that the settings had been adjusted, so that issue was fixed, and that the issue of the thermostatic controller on one radiator wasn't a pressing problem, just something to fix at the service in March.

So I disagreed. She then disagreed right back at me, saying that the report from the engineer said otherwise. I asked her what exactly the report said. She said she'd have to get the manager to ring me back and read me the report. Even more coldly than before. So I asked her whether he'd be ringing me back the same day. Her voice had turned distinctly icy by this point, even though mine was perfectly amicable. She said he was busy. So I said "Okaaaaaaaaaaay. Thanks then." Think their customer service skills need updating. Or maybe she was just having a bad day. Bet she was warmer than I was though.

I decided to skip going into town that morning and running my errands, so that I could wait for the manager's call and write down exactly what the report had to say, so that I could tell our friendly installers.

Thankfully, however busy the manager may have been, he managed to find time in his busy schedule to ring me back a mere 90 minutes later, and he was a whole heck of a lot more pleasant than icy-phone-lady!

He never once mentioned the previous engineer's report (hmmm, how odd ...) but wanted me to talk him through the 'symptoms' of the problem this time. I talked him through exactly which radiators were totally cold, which had the slightest hint of heat, and which had about 50% heat. He could hear the boiler rattling over the phone, and he had me press a few buttons on the front of the boiler, and he ended up deciding that the problem was probably the actuator head, whatever that is. Again, no mention of installer error or radiator issues. He said that it sounds like the water is being heated okay, but isn't being distributed around the system properly, something to do with this actuator head, and that he'd send an engineer round to fix it asap.

So again, I had another phone call to wait for. The wait wasn't so long for that call, but it wasn't an overly positive call, as they said that the earliest they could have someone come round to try and fix the boiler is MONDAY! FOUR days away! I did stress that we have no heat downstairs and minimal heat upstairs, and two kids with cystic fibrosis in the house, but she said that they just don't have anyone in the area at all until Monday. Great. I was NOT impressed. At all.

And neither were our boiler's installers. They were very disappointed to hear about the after sales service we've received from the company, and although they said ours is the only one of the many many boilers of this brand that they've fitted over the past year or so that they've had a problem with, they were angry that the company weren't taking responsibility for their faults, and were trying to palm the problems off on the installers.

As the installer man said, none of the other boilers they've installed have had problems, so clearly they're not doing it wrong, and also, the boiler worked just FINE for 10 whole months, so surely, if it was a problem with the installation, it would have malfunctioned before now. Ugh.

Once I'd grabbed a quick lunch, it was time to pop round to Adrian's Nan's for a visit. I took a book with me that I'd bought her. It was one she used to have before, but couldn't find, and it had been playing on her mind for ages, so I tracked it down on the internet for her, and she was very pleased with it! She looked ever so thin though, and her cough was awful. She said that a nurse had been round and listened to her chest, pronouncing her lungs clear, suggesting that it was more of an irritated cough, but it really was troubling her. She couldn't eat her lunch for coughing, and on times, couldn't speak for coughing. I suggested some simple linctus, to soothe her cough, which she let me talk her into in the end.

But despite the cough, and her obvious ill health, we had a lovely chat for a couple of hours, and I've promised to visit her again soon. I had to dash to go pick the kids up from school just before 3 pm though, and then when we got back home, it was a rush to get Seren fed and dressed ready for her dance class. I popped into Slimming World briefly, when Seren finished her dance class, and then it was home again.

Dylan had a nasty chesty cough that night, and he asked twice for his inhaler, at about 4 pm and 6.30 pm, which seemed to help in the end, but I was glad he had clinic the following day.

And I think I'll have to leave that update there. I'll update about clinic etc tomorrow hopefully.

Busy Days, and Sober Thoughts

Saturday was a bit of a weird day. I was up late on Friday night, reading a Dean Koontz book in bed, so I didn't get to sleep until about 5 am gone. Adrian woke me up a bit later to tell me that he had to go and pick his Mum up, to take her to the hospital to bring his Nan home. The doctors didn't want her to come home, but she insisted. So home she came.

So me and the kids spent the afternoon together, playing with a combination of Transformer toys and Littlest Pet Shop toys, which was an odd combo!

And Dylan had a surprise when I opened a parcel which arrived that day. He is NUTS about Transformers at the moment, and loves 1) watching 'Transformers: The Animated Series' (but NOT the films!), and 2) playing with his new Transformers Animated Series toys. So he decided that he wanted to spend some of his Christmas money from Nannie Kate on a 'Starscream' Transformer, which we had to order off the internet.

And it arrived on Saturday afternoon ...

He was chuffed!

One happy little boy!

I was feeling really low on Saturday, because I'd spoken to Adrian's Mum on the phone, who had updated me on Adrian's Nan's condition, and things aren't looking good. She definitely has abnormal cells in her blood, and in her bone marrow, and in the nurse's words, is 'very poorly'. They didn't want her to go home, because she's so unwell, but they have to weigh up the risks, because her bone marrow isn't able to function properly, so she's vulnerable to infection, and so hospital isn't necessarily the best place for her.

But Adrian's Mum is very nervous about caring for her mother at home, having already nursed her father through the end stages of leukaemia in 2001. She has been given a local cancer helpline number to ring if she needs support, and I have offered to support her all I can.

I assured her that whether she needs someone to sit with Marge so she can have a break; an extra pair of hands to help care for Marge; company for sitting with Marge; or someone to help discuss the medical side of things, whatever she needs, I am more than willing to help. Adrian's Mum doesn't have any siblings, or any other relatives nearby, and Adrian's Dad works all day, so she's pretty much on her own. And now the kids are at school full time, I'm pretty free during the day, apart from the normal chores which I could fit in at any time, so I can help out with whatever Adrian's Mum and Marge need.

When Adrian finally got back from settling Marge back into her flat, we chilled out for a while, and then he took the kids out for tea, as they'd missed him all afternoon and wanted some Daddy-Time.

We had a really busy day on Sunday! Seren and I went to Church in the morning (which I'll blog about tomorrow hopefully, on my other blog), and then when Adrian picked us up, he dropped me off at Asda to do a weekly shop, while he took the kids home to give them their lunch. Then when they picked me back up, we popped home and Adrian dumped the frozen food in the freezer, and then we dashed round to Adrian's Nan's flat for a visit ...

Marge, Adrian's Mum and Seren

Marge definitely looked better than I expected, and was generally in good spirits, talking about lots of positive things, but she was very breathless, and has lost quite a lot of weight. She seemed to get a lot out of our visit though, and the kids LOVED seeing her. I've said I'll go back on Friday afternoon and spend some time with Marge and Adrian's Mum while the kids are at school.

When we said goodbye to Marge, we popped round to see Adrian's Dad at his parents' house, and then when Adrian's Mum got back from Marge's, we all had a chat together. We didn't get home until about 7 pm, so it was horribly late for a Sunday night, what with having to get everything ready for school the next day.

As soon as we got in, we got busy giving the kids some tea, doing their evening treatments, and getting their homework done. Seren has been GREAT for her homework so far since she's been back at school! Far less drama! Last week, she had some 'speech marks' homework, and this week was Maths, pictograms, and she did it all by herself! Yay! No tears or tantrums!

Once the kids were in bed, Adrian cooked us a wheat-free, Slimming World-friendly roast dinner, while I gave the front room a good clean, and packed the kids school bags for the following morning, and then I got these shots of my lovely blooming birthday flowers with my new camera ...





Once Adrian had gone to bed, I started watching a film I recorded on True Movies, the Sky channel which usually plays made-for-tv American dramas. I have become a little addicted to the channel over the past couple of weeks, and I was watching one film the other night, called 'Cry Rape', and during one of the ad breaks, a film about a little girl with CF was advertised.

The film was called Alex: The Life of a Child, and I Sky+ed it on Sunday afternoon and started watching it on Sunday night. I knew it wasn't going to be easy viewing, because the film makes it clear from the first few minutes of it that Alex died from her CF, but I just had to keep telling myself that she passed away in 1980, a year before I was even born, and so there have been INCREDIBLE advances in CF care since then.

I got to the part where she was starting to get really sick, and ... well. I just had to turn it off and go to bed for a big cuddle with Adrian. Of course, Adrian wouldn't want to watch the film in a million years, so I didn't go on about it to him, although I did jokingly say that the actor taking the part of Alex's father had a somewhat 'interesting' physio technique, as when the actor tipped 'Alex' upside down, he was patting her stomach, rather than her lungs! And I never saw a single Creon tablet the whole movie! So I had my cuddles, which helped.

This morning, Dylan was due to have his port flushed at school first thing, so I put his Emla cream on around 8 am. He wasn't keen on having it on though! He was sleeping peacefully when Adrian went in to wake him up, and he said "Morning Dylan!" Dylan said "Daddy?!? Wot you doin' in here?" Adrian said "Well, it's time to get up Dylsie, time to get ready for school." And Dylan said "No, it's NOT Daddy! I don't want to go to school, I'm trying to sleep!"

Hehe.

So he wasn't overly keen on getting up, having his port cream put on, or having his teeth brushed. We had some tears.

He was fine once it was all done though, and he was a good boy for his morning routine and for walking to school, and he actually let me drop him off at the door, instead of going into the classroom with him!

Since he started full time school in September, the routine has been that I'll go into class with him, put his meds bag on his teacher's desk, put his book bag in the book bag box, then go out into the hall with him and make sure he puts his gloves in his pocket, hangs his hat, scarf and coat on the right peg, and then puts his lunchbox on the trolley in the right section. Then we'll have a goodbye kiss and hug, and I leave once he's gone back into his classroom.

But now the kids in his class are going into their second term, it's time for them to be dropped off at the door, and so for the first time today, we had to say our goodbyes at the door. And to my amazement, he was fine! None of his usual "But I don't want to go to school Mummy, I will miss you!" in a sad voice with his little arms wrapped around my neck in a big hug. Just me saying "Okay, see you at 9.15 for your port flush!" and him giving me a backwards wave. Big day.

Once I'd dropped him off, I sat in the foyer and waited for the nurse to turn up. She was due at 9.15, but got delayed, and actually arrived at 9.30 am, by which time I was getting a little bored of staring at the walls, lol!

Dylan's teacher brought him down to the staff room, which is where we flush his port, as there's no-one in there at that time of the morning. I did wonder if he was going to play up for having his port flushed this time, because of his reluctance to have his Emla cream on this morning, and then, he didn't even want to take his jumper off. Once I'd convinced him to take it half way off, he was happy to take it off, and then took his t-shirt off too, phew!

Then came the tough part. He was perfectly happy to look through his nurse's box of toys, and keep himself occupied while she prepped his port flush, but once it came to sitting on my lap and having the cream taken off and having his port cleaned, he wasn't happy.

We distracted him with playing with the cleaning stuff (it's like a pad of antiseptic liquid on a stick, and it works sort of like those sponge shoe-polishing things, but it can only be used once, obviously), but when it was time for the big long needle to come out, he wasn't having any of it.

I tried to hold him, but he kicked and wriggled and screamed and cried, and we had to stop frequently to re-clean his port after he got it dirty again. We tried telling him that his port was thirsty and wanted a drink; that I'd get him a present for being brave; that it wouldn't hurt; but nothing worked, he was getting hysterical. We kept calming him back down, and asking him to sit still, but he'd say "Okay, okay, I'll sit still, but no needle, okay? Don't you touch the needle. I don't want the needle."

But with Dylan, just finding the right trigger words will reassure him. Then I had a brainwave. He'd been fabulously, incredibly brave for his swine flu jabs, and so I thought it might help to remind him of that, so I talked about how he sat so still on the nurse's bed and had his injection and was very brave; and at that point, he said "Okay, you do it gently, and you do it slow."

And so we promised to do it gently and to move slowly, and that worked an absolute treat. He chose how he wanted to sit on my lap - sitting on my right leg, facing to the right with both legs draped over the right side of my right leg - and I didn't even have to hold him, I just stroked his arms (so that I was in position for if I did suddenly need to grab his arms) and he watched as the nurse flushed his port. He didn't tense up, and he didn't even flinch as it went in. And he watched the liquid going into his port. And he was fine.

It's amazing the difference just changing my words can make.

That is one of the more difficult aspects of caring for the kids' CF. Making them do stuff that they don't want to do, when I fully understand why they don't want to do it, and know that I wouldn't want to do it myself.

Things like port flushes, or flu jabs, or gent levels, or Seren getting IVs (Dylan's port makes his IV experiences much less traumatic generally), or nasty tasting medicines, or having to make Seren have her physio even when her chest is hurting and she's terrified of choking on her gunk during times of infection, or trying to encourage the kids to eat or drink when they're not feeling well and eating and drinking becomes a chore rather than a pleasure.

I seem to spend so much time pushing them. Pushing them in ways that most other parents just don't have to push their kids. And, like literally countless times before, I sat there this morning in the staff room, comforting an hysterical Dylan, wishing that I could just let him off the hook, make it so that he didn't have to have port flushes anymore. I wanted to stamp my feet and scream that it's not fair, just like the kids do.

But I didn't. Because while it's acceptable for Dylan to say that, as he's the one going through it, and for Seren to say it when she's the one going through it. It's not acceptable for me to say that. Certainly not at the time. At the time, my job is to help them through it, to support them, and encourage them to dig deep and find a bit more strength to get through whatever it is that they're scared of. And they do me proud every time. I honestly do have the best children in the entire world.

And so once his port had had it's drink, and had stopped bleeding, Dylan got dressed again, gave me another hug and a kiss, and skipped happily off back to his classroom, and I walked on home. I just had time to put the physio bed away and clear away the morning medicines, and grab some breakfast, before my friend J turned up for a chat.

The conversation mainly centred around pregnancy, babies and post natal depression, because we met at a post natal depression support group, after we'd both had our second children, and now J is expecting her third. Babies and pregnant women seem to be everywhere lately!

J stayed until around 1.45 pm, and we had a good long chat, and then after she'd left, I had to dash to get some housework done and grab some lunch before I had to go get the kids. Once we got back home, Dylan chilled out, alternating between watching tv and playing with his toys, while I dashed about getting Seren's tea and getting her ready for Brownies.

And then when Adrian came home from work and took Seren to Brownies, I ended up falling asleep on the settee for nearly 3 hours! Oops! I ended up waking up around 8 pm, so I got to see the kids before they went to bed, and I had a bit of a giggle with Seren. She came home from Brownies with another badge, this time in recognition of her one night sleepover before Christmas, so I've got to sew that one on now. And tonight, I paid the last instalment for her three night sleepover in the Spring, so that's that sorted too! Phew!

She's had a little bit of a cough tonight, and she said she'd had a runny nose at school, so I think we'll need to keep an eye on her, and I definitely want to do her saline nebuliser tomorrow, in case there's any gunk building up again. When I asked the nurse today whether any progress had been made about getting Seren some DNAse, she said that the local consultant might want to wait until Seren sees the specialist before they decide whether or not to give it to her.

Erm, hello? She doesn't see the specialist until 8th March! It's only late January now! She might well have had another bad chest by then! Ugh. When her chest is bad like that, saline just doesn't cut it. It helps, but not enough.

Anyway. Once the kids were settled in bed tonight, I did some laundry and ironed the kids' school jumpers ready for the morning, and after Adrian and I had something to eat, once he'd gone up to bed, I finished watching Alex: The Life of a Child.

And yes, it was tough viewing. Especially as Alex reminds me so much of Seren, and as she was only 8 when she passed away, it was so easy to draw parallels. The little girl who took the part of Alex did an incredible job in her role, and to see her gradually fading away was very tough. But as much as I could empathise with the emotions Alex's parents were feeling, I could feel this twinge of anger, or resentment, or whatever, that they were really just actors, that they immersed themselves into this role and could then go home at the end of the day, and at the end of the film. It wasn't really their real lives.

Although obviously, it was really Frank Deford's life, and Alex Deford's life. I've seen on Amazon that it's possible to buy the book the film is based on, and I think I'm going to buy it. I don't think it'll be an easy read, anymore than the film was easy viewing, but for some reason, I just feel I need to read it.

So I've finished the film now, shed my many tears, blogged some of my emotions to clear my head, and now, at nearly 3 am, I guess I'd better go get some sleep.

We have the boiler manufacturer coming round tomorrow to take a look at our rattling boiler, and hopefully they can sort it out, because it's not heating downstairs properly, so we've been shivering tonight under blankets. Upstairs is warmer, so the kids have been fine in bed, but it's been cold down here.

Night night x

Back to 'Normal'

Now my birthday's out of the way, things are getting back to 'normal' around here ...

Seren went to school laden down on Tuesday morning, because she had swimming at school for the first time this term, and she was going to a friend's birthday party straight after school, so had to take her friend's birthday present and card, and some extra Creon tablets.

So I dropped the kids off, came home and did some housework, and then started writing out some thank you cards for our Christmas and my birthday presents, and then the team arrived from the childrens hospice to 'score' Seren to assess her for respite care of her own.

Three members of the care team turned up, and asked lots of questions about our family, Seren's schooling, after school activities, recent health history, current medications and treatments, and current symptoms. At the end, the care nurse asked if we'd be interested in the kids having their respite weekends together, if Seren gets allocated any nights at the hospice.

I said that we'd discussed the possibility of that briefly, but that we'd need to find out whether Seren will be allocated any nights first, and if she does, how many she'll get, because if she, for example, was allocated 8 nights a year, and Dylan currently has 12, then it would totally confuse Dylan that sometimes Seren would be staying with him, and sometimes she wouldn't. And that might end up with him not wanting to stay without her.

And so at that point, the care nurse said that he will be going back to the panel (who will make the final decision) and recommending that Seren does get respite care of her own, and that she should be allocated 12 nights a year, so that she and Dylan can stay there together, and Adrian and I can have a total break.

Wow. That would be so weird! To be honest, I'm not sure how I will feel about it, if it happens. Especially if they go to the hospice together for a three night stay! No kids with us for three whole nights! I don't think we've ever both been away from the kids for longer than one night before. I know that it would be great for the kids to have that fun time at the hospice, and I think the time to ourselves would be invaluable too, but ... the thought of it is definitely weird.

It was weird just picking Dylan up from school that afternoon too, because Seren went to her friend's house for her birthday party. And it threw Dylan as well, and he got a bit stressed towards the end of our walk home, but he was fine once we got home, and he and I chilled out and spent some time together.

When Seren got home from her party, the kids opened the belated Christmas presents the hospice team had left for them that afternoon ...

Seren and her parcel

Dylan opening his Hot Wheels racing track and cars

Seren with her present - HUGE Hannah Montana blanket!

On Wednesday, I dropped the kids off at school, and then came back home to do some more housework, and to wait for the gas man to come round to get some details about our boiler. It started rattling again on Tuesday afternoon, and so I rang them up, and they arranged to come round on Wednesday morning to get some details and to set up an appointment with the boiler manufacturers.

That evening, it was the kids swimming lesson, and they were very excited. I got these photos of them while Adrian was getting ready to take them to their lesson. I had planned to go with them, but I was feeling a bit rough, so I stayed home and sewed a button back on Seren's school skirt, and sewed her new badge on her Brownie sash.

The kids spinning around in the front room

Posing

Dylsie-boy

The kids had a great time at their swimming lesson, and attempted their first certificate! It's the first time either of them had attempted it, and Seren did really well! She almost managed to swim a width with a float, without stopping, and she managed to get the rings off the bottom of the pool, and put her head under the water. There was one more task that she had to do, and she didn't quite complete the full width, but her teacher said she nearly passed! Yay!

Dylan is GREAT at getting the rings off the floor of the pool, and has no problem whatsoever in putting his head under the water, believe me, but swimming the width of the pool is still a little way off yet. He's definitely getting there though!!!

Thursday was another houseworkey type day for me, and I felt okay in the morning, but by the evening, I was starting to feel rough again. I did manage to get some writing done though, for the first time in ages. I finished re-working my synopsis of my 1st novel, ready to re-submit it. Now I just have to finish re-working the query letter!

When I picked the kids up, they both flaked out as soon as they got home ...

Chillin'

Dylan and his Optimus Prime Transformer

Seren had her dance class that night, for the first time since late November, and she was SO excited to be going back!!! She was totally buzzing! I got this photo of her when she got back (yes, I am enjoying getting to know my new camera!) ...

My little dancer

When we rang Adrian's Mum last night to see how Adrian's Nan, Marge, was getting on, she told us that Marge had the results back of her bone marrow sample, which showed some abnormal cells, so they had moved her to the Cancer ward. The doctors hadn't said anything else, and so we were unsure as to what was going to happen next, apart from more tests, but things weren't looking good, and we were all very worried about her. Lots of prayers were prayed last night.

Today didn't start too well, because when I dropped the kids off at school, I realised that I'd forgotten to bring something in for Dylan to take to 'Show & Tell'. His class just started doing a 'Show & Tell' on a Friday afternoon, and today was going to be the first day, and I felt awful that he didn't have anything to bring in. Bad Mummy. So I made sure that I put a reminder on my phone, so that I definitely won't forget next week.

Today has been another houseworkey day for me again, and I was feeling rough again this evening, so Adrian was a total star and did the kids treatments for me, so that I could be quiet for a while. Adrian's Mum rang again tonight, and said that the doctors totally shocked her today by saying that Marge might be able to go home tomorrow!

That came totally out of the blue, and apart from Marge having had an endoscopy test done, we still don't know what on earth is going on, what is actually making her ill, what they are going to do about it, and what her prognosis is. So things are all still up in the air at the moment.

And so are our plans for the weekend. If Marge is discharged from hospital tomorrow, then Adrian might take the kids swimming tomorrow, and then, once Marge has settled back into her flat (which is on the first floor, so how on earth she's going to manage the stairs, we just don't know!), we can see if she's up to visitors on Sunday after Church.

If Marge isn't discharged, then we hope that she'll be feeling up to having some visitors tomorrow at the hospital (although I doubt Dylan will be able to stay long, as on that ward, kids are admitted at the nurses discretion and he doesn't cope well in those sorts of situations!), and then Adrian might take the kids swimming on Sunday afternoon.

He's also busy painting Bumblebee (the Transformer) on Dylan's bedroom wall, and we're hoping to get re-started on doing up the hallway next week, as nothing's been done to it since last Spring!

Next week is looking pretty busy so far, with Dylan having his port flushed at school first thing on Monday morning, and then I've got a friend round for a chat in the afternoon, and Seren has Brownies. The boiler people are coming on Tuesday, and I am hoping to get into town to maybe spend some of my birthday money, not that I know what I want yet, but I definitely want to have a browse. Wednesday the kids have school and swimming, and then on Thursday, it's school for the kids and dentists for me, and then dancing for Seren and Slimming World for me in the evening. And Friday is a non-uniform day for the kids at school, to raise money for the Haiti earthquake victims.

Really hope we can get to see Marge soon, and that her doctors will have more positive news for us soon. I'd appreciate it if you could keep her in your thoughts or prayers for us.

Here's a few of the photos I've taken with my new camera, just testing it out. These are only taken on 'auto', I haven't fiddled with the settings or anything yet, but already they're so much better than with my old camera. I'm considering sending my old one back to Olympus to see if it's faulty, because there's only 0.1 megapixel difference, but the difference in the quality of the photos is immense.

My new ornaments

With my flowers from my parents

The Stragglers: Two presents Adrian ordered which turned up late. Another Willow Tree ornament, and an USB SD card reader.

Seren's new Brownie badge

:o)

Being Spoilt on My Birthday!

The morning started like any other, except I slept through my alarm and woke up a few minutes late, then had to rush to get the kids ready for school, and Dylan was going soooo slow, and then he nearly spat toothpaste all over me, but we got out the door okay and we weren't late for school. Phew!

When I got back home, I took a few photos of my decorations, which Adrian had put up the night before ...

Balloons,banners and bunting

Banner

Balloons and bunting

And then I spent almost two hours rushing around doing the last bits of housework (we got a lot of it done over the weekend, Adrian worked like a nutter and got tons done on his own!), so I just had to put the ironing away, tidy up, and clean the kitchen. Still ended up taking a while though, and then my parents rang to wish me Happy Birthday, so it was 11.30 am before I sat down with my breakfast!

I treated myself to some wheat-free crumpets, but they weren't great. Edible, but not great. So I ate them while watching Dancing on Ice on Sky+ and then I opened my birthday cards. I certainly did well for cheques! I had one off my parents, my grandmother, my brother, and a family friend! I was very pleased because I was planning on putting the money with my Christmas money, and getting a new camera. :o)

So after a quick rest, it was time for the bit I'd been waiting for ...

Decorating my cakes!

I had a wheat-free chocolate cake, wheat-free muffins, icing sugar, and a variety of cake decorations which didn't contain wheat.

The 'before' shot

After!

I was so pleased with how it turned out!!

My cake

Once I'd finished the cake, I iced the chocolate muffins and decorated them too ...

Yum!

Group shot!

My cake decorating efforts!

By the time I'd finished, it was pretty much lunchtime, so I had some lunch, surfed the net for half an hour, and then it was time to go get the kids. So I didn't actually have time for any writing, or even to just sit down in peace and quiet and chill! Oh well.

Once I'd picked the kids up, it was action stations to get Seren's tea made and get her into her uniform ready for Brownies. When Adrian came home, he admired my cakes, we wrote out a Get Well card for Nanny Marge, and then we were off out to drop Seren off.

Once I'd dropped Seren off, Adrian and Dylan dropped me off at Asda to get a birthday card and present for Seren's friend (her birthday was yesterday, like mine, but her party is today), while they ran some errands, and then picked me back up.

We then drove to the in-laws' house to drop off Nanny Marge's card, and they gave me some birthday presents, and then we had to dash to pick Seren up from Brownies.

When we got home, it was action stations again, and I got Dylan's treatments done while Adrian cooked the party food, and after his physio, Dylan gave me this card, which he'd drawn a bat inside of!

Dylan's very cute bat!

And I took a photo of the birthday 'girl'

And then, at last, the fun really started! :o) It was time for our tea party!

My presents from Adrian and the kids were waiting on the dining table

As was rather a lot of food, some wheat-free, some not. And of course, my cakes had pride of place!

Even Kitty dressed for the occasion in a new tie and party hat!

The kids couldn't wait to get stuck into the popcorn!

Then Dylan just pinched the whole bowl

Me at my tea party

Then Dylan decided he wanted some wheat-free cookies, he loved them!

And Daddy got silly with a pitta bread and some tomato sauce!

Then Dylan decided he wanted his chocolate muffin

And so did Seren!

He liked it. A lot.

Daddy had one too!

And one left for me!

Muffin monster

And then it was birthday cake time ...

Me and my cake

Dylan helped me put the candles on



And gave me a birthday kiss



I think my cake ended up looking like the Millennium Dome!

A very candley cake

Me and my 'babies'

Blowing the candles out together

Dylan was getting REALLY tired by this point, and asking to go to bed, so he quickly gave me his present ...

Helping me unwrap it

A Willow Tree ornament! It's called 'Imaginative Child'

And watched Seren give me her present ...

Seren helping me unwrap it

Another Willow Tree ornament! Called 'Kindness'

Aren't they beautiful?!?!

And then Dylan went up to bed. Seren stayed up for a while, and watched while I got these photos ...

Dylan's ornament - he sits just like this when he sits on the floor to watch tv

Seren's ornament - which is so perfect, because the little girl on the ornament is holding a cat!

And then Seren curled up on the sofa in the front room and watched some more, and Adrian took over the camera, while I opened the rest of my presents from Adrian and the kids ...

Some sweets

A really nice jewellery box - I was only saying on Sunday that I needed to get one!

Guitar Hero 5!!!

Monk, Series 1-6!!!!

A beautiful cross necklace from the children!

And the BIG present from Adrian. He slaved over the computer for hours choosing it, and stressed and moaned about it, but I had no idea what it was ...

A NEW CAMERA!!!

Close up

My lovely lovely presents

And my faaaaabulous camera! We tried it out, and the difference in the quality of the photos is incredible!!! The images are so sharp, and it does it all on 'auto' without me having to fiddle about with different lighting settings and rubbish stuff. Ohhh, I'm so chuffed!

By the time I finished opening my presents, and Adrian got Seren's treatments done, it was getting really late, so we just chilled out in front of the tv for half an hour, before going to bed.

So for a birthday which started out pretty ordinary, it certainly ended up being great! We had so much fun and so many laughs at our little tea party, and I just can't believe the lovely presents I got! And, as I was planning on using my Christmas and birthday money on a new camera, and possibly a cross necklace, I now have some spare money! Hmmmmm ....

It's My Birthday!

I'm preparing this post in advance, and scheduling it to post just after midnight on my birthday, and yes, it's totally frivolous, but I'm feeling low today (Saturday 16th) and so I want to do something silly to cheer myself up.

So, just for fun, here are some photos of my early life ...

One of the first photos ever taken of me, just after I was born, way back in 1981

Me as a toddler, in the back garden. My Mum took this photo. Apparently I was saying "Run! Run!" and pumping my arms to encourage Mum to run!

My lovely Daddy pushing me on a swing thing while on a caravanning holiday

THAT photo I mentioned in one of my Christmas posts. My Dad is sitting in the exact pose of the 'Father and Daughter' Willow Tree ornament they got me for Christmas

This photo was taken in the road outside our neighbour's house, by our neighbour, Les

Me and a stray cat we took in, called Digger

Me ready for my first session at Brownies! Bit of a difference compared to Seren's uniform, eh?

Me and my sister, Rhiannon. I was about 8 on here, so Annon would have been about 4. Mum took this photo into hospital with her when she went in to have our brother, Matthew, and she said everyone commented on how nice the photo was.

Me waiting to play my clarinet in a Pontins (I think) talent competition

And this was taken exactly 10 years ago today, my 19th birthday cake

Later today, I'll be decorating my 29th birthday cake, while the kids are at school. Adrian would have done it for me, but I am really looking forward to doing it myself. I've bought a small wheat-free chocolate cake, some icing sugar, and some decorative bits to go on top, and I can't wait to decorate it!