Chick's Place - Running, Writing and kids

A quick post

2006-07-30T15:57:00.000Z

To say I completed the Race For Life 5k at Holme Pierrepoint today. :D Didn't beat my last time, but that is a long rant about the organisation and other 'runners' that I won't go in to right now.

But thank you to those who have given to such a great cause.

I have reached my goal of £50, but any other donations are gratefully received.

Which reminds me, I need to add a quick Thanks for sponsoring me to...

Sheila,

Thanks

The aims - update

2006-07-20T10:54:00.000Z

1. Quit smoking - I will do this, I have to do this. It just isn't going well. Unfortunately I've been looking at nipping out for a cigarette as a break and I've yet to find something to replace that need.

2. Finish Dormarth (NaNo novel) and get a copy for myself from LuLu - Was abandoned, but after talking to someone about it (thank you Funk) I've become determined to finish it once again. Only now it's a novella, not a novel.

3. Completely finish 'The Dullest Book Ever Written' before this years NaNo - As I've mentioned in a previous post, this book is now this years NaNo novel. Title will change, but all ideas are coming along nicely

4. New addition - I have a few short stories I've been working on. I want to get 3 short stories out to mags before the beginning of Nano this year.

5. Take 2 holidays - first one taken, second one completely paid for.

6. Do the Race For Life at Holme Pierrepoint in under 28 minutes (July). In training, although training has gone a little squiffy over the past few days due to heat, work and little ones first birthday. Off to gym again tomorrow though. No idea whether I will manage it under 28 minutes as all training has been done on the treadmill, which doesn't give an accurate view of times. For one, I know I can run easilt at 13km/h, however, I avoid doing that speed on the treadmill. I have been doing some speed work (hopping/short strides, then long strides) and I'm happy with my progress. So we shall see. I just hope the weather isn't too hot!

7. Begin running and train for Derby Dash (BHF). Yes, that one didn't work. Should have joined the gym sooner :p

8. Save up for luxury spa break (the full works) with mam - sorted. Will be going for my birthday.

9. Get under 70kg - did, went up a little, tiny bit, now back under. My main thing now is to make sure I continue exercising regularly.

10. Go white water rafting. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to be achievable this summer. But, I am still aiming to at least have a slip of paper which entitles me to a rafting experience by the end of this year.

Another addition...

11. Do the Hearts First Walk - High Peak Trail Winter Challenge Walk 2006. That's a 17 mile walk through the Peak District. "A 17 mile hike through Derbyshire's Peak District from Cromford Meadows, near Matlock, to Hurdlow, six miles south of Buxton. The Trail, a former railway line, crosses the limestone plateau of the White Peak with dramatic vistas, woody knolls, mysterious mounds and stone circles, and is a haven for rich animal and plant life. 17 miles may not be a marathon but in November in Derbyshire it's a serious challenge. Take up the challenge and you'll experience the camaraderie and good humour of over a thousand participants determined to get to Hurdlow and support the BHF"

More Sponsors!

2006-07-20T10:51:00.000Z

Thanks to

Jenny,

Helen,

and Louise

a further £15 raised

Sponsors!

2006-07-12T10:10:00.000Z

Just a quick note to let you know the paypal button has been updated to accept donations for the Race For Life. Although paypal does deduct a little, I will add that deduction to the total. So whatever you give is the amount that will go to Cancer Research.

I am grateful for any donations made, 1p upwards, no matter what you can afford. You can also go directly to my Race For Life page by clicking on the link to the right.

A quick thank you to those who've already sponsored me :D

Jenny

Mum and Dad

Chris

and

Neil!!

Thank you all.

Fundraising to date - £25.50

Getting back on track

2006-07-11T06:49:00.000Z

Excuse me for a moment, but I'm very, very pleased with myself.
Earlier in the year I took part in [url=http://paulenesjournaljourney.homestead.com/WHO12wk.html]Paulene's 12 week challenge[/url], The first one of the year as things got pretty busy and I couldn't commit to the one happening now. My goal was to get below 70kg. Which I did. My weight crept up a little, but not really concerned about that as it was just a few pounds. I then joined the gym just over a month ago. Weighed in my induction at 73kg and had all the normal twinges that you get when you start running again when you're unfit.
Anyway, my motivation has been a 5k run at the end of this month. I've done the [url=http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/victoriacoupe]Race for Life[/url] before my kids were born. I managed to do it in 28minutes. So my aim has been to beat that time. To do so, I've been keeping my training to 30 minutes and watching the distance gone in that time go up. Yesterday I found my comfortable running speed on the treadmill and managed 3km easily. 19 days left and my aim seems to be achivable!
Also, I weighed myself this morning. I've made no alteration to my diet, but with just exercising I'm at 70.2kg. Yet more woohoos!!

Too much to do

2006-06-03T10:06:00.000Z

Right now, I'm listening to Arctic Monkeys. I should be doing some work though.

A few things have happened since the holiday and things have been pretty hectic. Desperately trying to get on top of things in the house, but it's impossible! Everywhere needs decorating and recarpeting. Did manage to lay the tiles and paint the stairs though. Even if terracotta paint is really pink and looks awful.

Went to see Divine Comedy at Wulfrun Hall on the 18th. He does seem to have lost quite a bit of enthusiasm for gigs, which doesn't make for a good night out. Bit of a diva too. It was alright though and at least I can cross them off my list. Was just a wee bit shocked when the woman asked me for £6 for two cokes. LOL

20th - Our wedding anniversary. Hubby was on a late shift so, I went along to our 10 year school reunion. Shame more people couldn't have come. And also a shame that a certain somebody cut my night out short.

31st - Went out to see the Zutons play at Rock City. An excellent night. Even a decent support act, which makes a change. The Greats lead singer was very.. energetic. Jumping around with her own unique style of dancing. The Zutons were fantastic liv, put 100% into their performance. The only down side was the whining woman stood next to us. Constantly complaining about things, but when her other half offered to leave, she said no, I don't want to ruin your night. Too late, love.

Kids are just dandy. Adeline going through a bit of a whiny stage, but not too bad. Ellie is just fantastic. Very special girl.

Had my gym induction yesterday. A bloke with nicer eyelashes than any man should be allowed weighed me and did my height and worked out a programme I should be doing to get fit. So, it's five minutes on the cross trainer, 5 - some wierd thing i can't remember the name of (a stepper thing), 5 - treadmill, 5 - cycle, 5 - rower, 5 - some other stepper thing. I love the rowing machine, very good at that one, but the rest ick. Don't like treadmills, I said I don't like treadmills, still got put in my training. In his credit, instead of making me run on the damn thing I have to walk 5.5kph at 10% gradient. Going for my first proper workout there before work today. Half an hour in the gym then for a swim. I'm glad it's right next to work, that should encourage me to actually go, won't be able to make excuses that it's out of the way or anything. The only thing I could complain about is the bloke did the programme so I'm near the desk for most of it, I'd rather be able to hide away in a corner somewhere until I get my fitness up.

Been on holiday

2006-05-15T08:10:00.000Z

It's been a little while since I've posted here. So a short update, or a long one...

Got back from my holiday in Wales (Pembrokeshire) on Saturday. The weather was beautiful, the cottage fantastic, the swimming pool superb. Everything about the holiday was perfect. Except for a bull trying to gore us on the first night. Farmers should put a sign up warning walkers when there's a right of way through their field. It was dark, so we didn't see it until we were quite close.

Just chilled out really, went to a farm park, a zoo and Pembroke Castle. The rest of the time we spent on a beach or in the swimming pool. My parents came along too, but they just spent time in the cottage reading a lot of books. Which meant they missed most of the sunshine as it was misty in the village for a couple of days. That's the only problem with getting a cottage so near the sea.

Adeline kept climbing out of her cot on holiday. Something we've suspected her of doing at home, but we've never caught her. So, the second night we put her to bed in the double bed and she slept there the rest of the week. I took one of her cot sides off last night to see how she does and we'll be buying her a bed in a fortnight. that's something I've been meaning to do for a while, but we haven't got around to it yet.

Tonight, I'll be moving her bed to somewhere else in her bedroom. Tomorrow night I'll be putting Ellies cot in there and on Sunday, we'll see how they get on sleeping in the same room.

Ellie was still waking up in the night. But she's all better, no problems with teething or anything. We think that she is stirring in the night and wanting us because she can see us. So, on the last night of the holiday (my parents went home a day early) we moved her into a different room. Since we've been home, she's been sleeping downstairs. there hasn't been any crying or problems so far *touch wood*. So she'll sleep downstairs, in the travel cot, until Saturday. Saturday night, me and the girls are stopping at my parents as I am going to my school reunion, which is just up the road from them.

The holiday was fantastic for getting me writing, wrote a short story and a few little scenes. Not sure if they will ever be used. They were more to just get me writing. I wrote every evening so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I know kids grow up quick, I just can't believe how quickly. There are no babies in this house anymore. Which is good. Never been a baby kind of person. I never coo over babies, maybe a 'look how tiny that baby is, aww', but that's more a comparison as ours were never tiny. I mean that literally, not just that I can't remember them being so small. They just were both big babies, both quite long. They'll both be tall. Adeline seems to tower above other children her age.

Adeline is to start nursery soon. I'm going to ring up the nursery to go and have a look around in a short while. Not that there is much choice round here. We have one that is a possibility, so if we don't like it then she won't be going to any. We're going to be signing her up for a class or two at the local sports centre and we take her to the park to play quite a bit, so it isn't as though she will miss out on any interaction if she doesn't go.

I've given up on running for now. I'll still do the race for life, as you can walk the 5k rather than run it. But, it's just impossible to find the time to run. The morning's are a possibility, but this means getting up an hour earlier and as I don't get in from work until quite late, it isn't as though I can go to bed an hour earlier to make up for it. I was planning on running in the evenings once they got light. But how stupid was that plan? Around here! I must have been mad. So instead, I'm going to learn Wing Chun and sign up with a gym. Luckily, work is right nxt to a gym, so if I get hubby to drop me off at four, I can't get out of exercising before work. Even if it's just going for a swim.

But is it art?

2006-04-17T09:20:00.000Z

I strayed from Scribe's and visited a few other writing forums. There is one thing that has become clear. Writing is not an art.

How can it be? Any other form of art you can do for pleasure. Just because you enjoy doing it. You can garden without wanting to enter competitions, you can carve or sculpt just because you enjoy doing it, you can paint without wanting to sell any. Any other thing that could be called art, you can do for pleasure alone. But not writing.

To be a writer you must want to be published. You must consider it work, you must follow the guidelines, include only a certain amount of characters in the first chapter, you must not include certain words in your writing as you will be considered illiterate. Doesn't matter if they are in the OED, they are not words.

Art is open for interpretation, you can have two people look at the same piece of art and it will invoke different feelings and interpretation. Writing must be read only as the writer intended it. You will be loosing out if you see any other meanings, read it in any other way than the author intended.

Most of all, writing is hard work. If you write, then you may only do so with the intention of being published.

This attitude saddens me. It annoys me. Worst of all, it puts me off writing.

If you write and get published, then fantastic! A colleague was saying how her friend has just had her stories accepted and has been paid to write a couple more books in the series. That is brilliant. She has been able to give up work and concentrate on something she loves. Because that is the point, she enjoys writing, that is why she does it.

That is why I write. I enjoy it, I like making up these other places, people, events, the story. If I choose to use a word in the correct context, then I will, regardless of whether it will make another writer's eyes bleed. I feel sorry for these people who place so much of themselves in language and the correct usages. So what if a lecturer is talking and writing on a white board and makes an error. It doesn't matter and certainly should not make your eyes bleed.

If someone does not rank prologues as highly as you, then so what, write one if you want to. Write because you enjoy it, but do not expect everyone to hold your work in as high esteem as you do. It won't be the end of the world if someone skips the prologue to start at chapter one, neither will the reader's life be empty or meaningless for doing so.

If someone is a 'beginner' when it comes to writing, why is the attitude to them different to someone starting out in photography or paiting? Why in other forms of art are people allowed to ask questions that only a beginner would ask, but not in writing? I don't ask this question for myself, but I have noticed an attitude from so many people who claim to be 'expert' writers towards newbies. Some people just need that little bit more help. Some people truly want to do it, but are daunted and struggle to come up with those first concepts. Instead of having a go and saying they shouldn't need their hand held all the time, or worse, that they should not be trying to write a novel, give them advice on how to come up with the ideas themselves. Just because someone doesn't know everything about grammar, does not make them illiterate, neither should 'illiterate' be a word that is used quite as freely as it is to describe people. It should not be used as an insult.

Most of all. Write if you enjoy it, if you don't, then don't. Write with the aim of completing the story and enjoying the journey. IMHO, you should never write with the sole purpose of being paid and published, even if you are already an established, published writer. If you want to do something and get paid for it, there are other jobs out there.

It has also made me think about the other things I do solely for pleasure. No where else have I come across quite so many people who have such an elitist attitude towards a hobby. I can cook because I enjoy it, I don't have to be aiming at opening a restaurant. I can be an amateur photograher, without wanting my pictures to be in an exhibit. I can run because I enjoy doing so. Even when I went onto the RW forum to rant about a piece in RW, nobody blasted me in their reply. I went on because the piece claimed everyone had time to go running. If George Bush had time and Madonna had time, you had time. I had an issue with this. Madonna has a nanny to look after the kids. George Bush also has plenty of time. They both have the money to hire people to help them fit running into their lives. I posted my rant and my situation. When do I run? Yes, I do find the time, but not regularly. One person said it would be easy, I just need to get up at 5am to go out. All well and good, but when I don't get home from work until 11pm, running on 5 hours sleep is not a good idea.

I went a little off track there. Though I'm sure I've made my point. Of course there are people like I've mentioned in all walks of life, but never have I come across quite so many. Even from non-writers, you must be writing to get published, to get some money from it. Never has anyone assumed I want to go in races or run the London Marathon. Even people who have seen my drawings have never assumed I want to sell them. So why is it the complete opposite in writing?

Needless to say, I won't be visiting the other writing forums again. I don't think any amount of persuasion would get the members to get their heads out of their backsides and lighten up a bit. I'm sure if they read this, it would makes their eyes bleed, they would only notice the errors within my sentances, rather than the message I'm trying to get across.

Conkers

2006-03-31T15:38:00.000Z

Well I got my day out. We all headed to Conkers, a local interactive centre. The indoor bit was really good, lots of interactive things for Adeline to have a go at. Giant creepy-crawlies, mainly stuff on nature and recycling, things like that. Ellie wasn't too impressed with the tunnel after the 'treetop experience'. It was quite dark and the tunnel was one of those where the walls turn around you, so that you think the walkway's moving. She soon perked up again though once we got out.

Adeline went running towards this tree that was inside the centre and suddenly came to a full stop. I got a bit closer and realised why. The floor around the tree was glass so that you could ee the roots below it. Adeline had stopped just above the sign. She took my hand and I led her futher towards the tree so that she could see she wouldn't fall through it.

We went outside for a little look at the water play area outside and around the marsh bit. There were loads and loads of frogs. Coupling up and dipping in and out of the fresh frog spawn.

It's definately spring now. It was great to just stay on the bridge and watch the frogs. The swans on the lake were doing their mating dance as well. Very beautiful.

Back indoors for lunch. We must be one of the few parents that have to try to persuade our children to eat unhealthy foods. They had very little choice for kids, so I'd bought her a fish bits, smile potato things and beans. I got myself a burger meal with salad and chips and hubby had a baguette. She took one bight of her meal and decided it was yucky. So she ended up having all our cucumber and salad stuff and a few of my chips. Stupid of me though, for some reason I was sure that beans would be green beans, which she would have eaten. Baked beans are yucky, fish fingers and chicken nuggets are yucky. Burgers are definately yucky. White bread is yucky. The list goes on and on. Spaghetti bolognaise is yummy only if it is long spagetti. Peppers are yummy, cabbage is yummy, cucumber is yummy, celery is yummy, all fruit (except kiwi) is yummy.

We went on the little train ride to the play areas. Adeline's walked loads. And no tripping over today either! Then back and once around the lake. We found a little bit with lots of musical instruments. Wind chimes, metal pipes and stuff, "my turn, my turn!" :D She loved seeing just how much noise she could make with each one.

We were really lucky with the weather, although really windy, it was warm and sunny. We only had one very short shower. We sheltered in this hut thing on the side of the lake. It had a bench running around the inside and open at the front so you could see over the water. In the middle of the benches was a lovely carved throne. I told Adeline she could sit in it and be a princess. "No princess, no hat!" Roughly translates as, "I couldn't possibly be a princess without a crown." So guess what she went for in the gift shop ;)

As soon as we got home she rushed into the kitchen to get her dressing up princess dress and mummy's pink sequined slippers. I'd love to know where she gets her energy from. Me and her father are about ready to drop!

What a day!

2006-03-27T22:17:00.000Z

This morning we had the poo. Adeline decided the floor was better than the potty for it. She went right by the side of Ellie and Ellie got there before Mummy. Luckily only her hand! No carpet shampoo and not enough wipes to clean things up. Phonecall to parents - "Help! Need stuff from shops".*1 I wouldn't have minded if that had been an accident, but it wasn't. So Adeline received her first ever punishment. I didn't shout or raise my voice at all. Just told her it was really yucky, she shouldn't do it and said it wasn't nice for Ellie. Then sat her on her chair at her table and told her not to move. No tantrum or anything and she stayed there until Nana and Grandad turned up. I cleaned it up as good as I could, bathed them both before my parents arrived. To be honest, I'm quite proud of her, despite what she had done and telling fibs about who had done it*2, there were no tears or tantrums, she just sat quietly and did as she was told until the grandparents turned up with supplies and I was able to clean things up properly. After that she was amazingly cheerful and we played alot.

Then, 12.30, hubby got back from work early. I'd left the front door unlocked and saw a shadow through the crack in the living room door. I was certain for a moment someone had walked in. Not expecting hubby I was a little scared. God he gave me a fright. He got back early as he's got the dreaded tummy bug. i've managed to avoid it so far, finger's crossed I don't get it.

Then, at 3, I took Adeline for a walk to the shop to get some cola for hubby. Wellies on and ready to splish-splash in the puddles. We got about half way to the shop and *whack*, Adeline fell over on her face. Blood everywhere! Many tears! Picked her up, rushed home, straight to kitchen. Hubby not good when the girl's get hurt, he frets. "Is it a hospital job?" He asked before I'd even managed to get to kitchen to clean things up. Cold water on a cloth showed it to just be her lip, and no deep cuts. Got her a drink and a straw and sang to her, bleeding eventually slowed and we could see it was a graze. Tears came to a stop so new coat, cleaned it up, strapped her in pushchair (she's not been in the pushchair for quite a while now, but I wasn't risking her tripping again and she wasn't going to let me go to the shop without her) and off to the shop. Came back with a toy car and a Fimble's magazine.

4pm. Realised how late it was and that we had to pick up some essentials from supermarket before work. Rushed round, got ready for work and off we went.

Hubby is now off work until Saturday. Here's hoping his stomach bug doesn't last the whole week.

*1It's not often I do phone my parents up for stuff. Don't want to seem like spoilt daughter who always gets her parents to run around after her. I think in the past 2 and a half years my parents have babysat only a few times (6 I think) and ran around after me two or three times. In fact, it's often them saying we should go out more and stuff so they can help out more than we ever ask.

*2 Dadda had done it, apparently. I'm sure I mentioned in another entry that she'd pooed and took her nappy off in the cot one morning. I got there, "Mummy pooed". She can be quite contrary sometimes as well. Red isn't red it's pink, purple isn't purple it's pink. She knows full well it's red or purple. "Do you want spaghetti?" "No s'getti". Spaghetti is her favourite. LOL.

2 stories, 20 minutes

2006-03-27T13:30:00.000Z

Had a lovely bath and came downstairs with a couple of ideas. In fifteen minutes I had typed a scene for my next novel. A nice 1000 words(ish). That was in short form as well as I just wanted to get the bare bones down. A bit of dialogue and a bit of description of what was happening. Not put in the MC's reactions or described the place itself or owt yet.

I also had come up with an idea for a short story so I've done the entire plot outline for that.

Dormarth update. My fifth chapter finally came up for critique at Critique Circle last Wednesday, unfortunately I haven't had that much time to crit other peoples work what with one thing or another so I've only had three crits so far. These should be enough to go on though as there doesn't seem to be much wrong with them. One thought it was really good, but hadn't read the other 4 chapters so didn't know what was happening in the rest of the story. The other two thought it was good but would be better if the scenes were placed elsewhere. Got good feedback on the proposal scene so I'm happy with that. I'll start pulling the whole thing together soon. Then I can finally expect to see a change in my word count thingy on the right :D

My girls

2006-03-26T09:33:00.000Z

Luckily they both seem to have got over the tummy bugs properly now. It's just working out why Ellie is getting up during the nights these days. I would be tempted to say company, but she's either been poorly or teething for most nights. Last night hubby got her up at around 1am. A bad dream apparently, I was completely zonked so had only a vague memory of him going to get her. I'm beginning to wonder whether she is just becoming used to getting up in the night. But then her top teeth are due through and are obviously causing her discomfort at times. To be honest, I think part of the reason she keeps getting up in the night (aside from teething and tummy bugs) is that she is in the same room as us. There's nothing we can do about that though. Not yet. It seems like quite a while since she had an unbroken nights sleep, I'm sure it's not really that long ago though.

She's doing great at the minute though. She's feeding herself milk, she uses dada to call either me or dad, adda for calling Adeline. She's babbling alot of different noises now as well. This morning she got up at 8, when I sat up to look over at her she was stood up, holding on to the cot sides. This is her new trick and she's been trying to pull herself up on everything. I can't believe she's nearly 9 months already. She'll be cruising soon and getting ready to take her first steps. *sob*

By the end of month eight a baby typically:
Chews on objects - done for ages
Reaches for utensils when being fed - has done since she started on solids
Turns head away when finished eating - too right
May sleep between 11 and 13 hours a night; takes 2 to 3 naps (may vary) - takes 2 naps goes to bed at 7pm, gets up 7am, minus about half an hour if she gets up in the night.
Rolls all the way around - eh? I'm sure babies do this from earlier than 8 months
Sits unsupported - done for 2 months
Gets on arms and knees in crawling position - has crawled for about a month and a half.
Has specific cries for various needs - rarely cries, lets us know she wants something by calling us or coming to us.
Babbles enthusiastically - too right
Tests gravity by dropping objects over edge of high chair - definately. Also likes to keep putting things in mummy/daddys hand or 'feeding' mummy
Responds to own name - has done for a while
Has different reactions for different family members - yup
Shows some anxiety when removed from parent - nope. Happy and contented child.

Well, skipped to month 12 as she has already reached all the milestones. There's just 4 milestones in month 12 she's not achieved. I remember why i stopped even glancing at the milestones now. Same with her weight though. She's not been weighed since she was 1 week old. I really don't see the point when there is obviously nowt wrong with her weight. Plus I couldn't be doing with any of the nonsense we went through with Adeline. We took her one week and she'd not put anything on since her last weigh-in. Why not? Because she'd had a stomach bug and it was really hot weather. Her appetite just wasn't there for a couple of days. We'd kept up with the fluids and got her to snack whenever she would so we were pretty laid back about it. The HV had a go at us and said we must take her back the following week to make sure she's putting on again. It wasn't as if we were the only parents there who's child had gone off food during the hot spell.

Adeline had her first trip to the cinema on Friday. To see Chicken Little. Weather was absolutely awful and she was getting a bit fed up of being indoors. She got a bit bored and ran around the cinema instead. Luckily me and her were the only people in there. The film was quite dull though and, apart from Fish, had no characters or anything to really hold your attention anyway. She did enjoy a couple of the adverts at the start though, Ice Age 2 in particluar as Ice Age is her absolute favouritist fillum. Ans she really enjoyed running around the cinema so not a complete waste. ;)

Taking them to Conkers at some point this week. I can't wait, just need to find out what shifts hubby is working and not working (he's owed two lieu days). We've not been to Conker's before. Last time we were near we looked at the price and went I don't think so. They've got a new indoor soft play area and Adeline's that little bit older so she can enjoy the rest of it now so it should be good.

Sort out

2006-03-25T11:11:00.000Z

One job down. I managed to get through and sort out my clothes. Quite a few bits have been chucked out and the clothes that haven't fitted for quite a while have been rescued from the top shelf. One thing I'm a little confused by though. My weight is certainly not at the lowest it's been. I'm in the correct weight range and healthy and everything, but at 69 still I'm certainly not at my lightest. Yet I'm at my thinnest. I tried on several things in a 14 that were too big. I've kept some because certain times of the month I become bloated and the last thing I need is to have trousers or skirts which are tight.

This makes me wonder what is pushing my weight up. My chest is certainly bigger than pre-pregnancy, so this probably accounts for a little. But I wonder how much my apron weighs. I wonder what my body would now look like if that could go. Not that I could afford an apronectomy anyway, but it's definately annoying to know that underneath this excess skin is a stomach which is thin and becoming toned. It would certainly be nice to be able to wear some knickers that aren't belly warmers. *sigh*

Oh yeah, changes to blog page. My info for the BHF race has now been taken down and replaced by hubby's sponsorship page. As nobody has asked for a refund all sponsorship money has been transferred to his. He will definately be doing his bike ride. It's next month and is a 30 mile ride across the Peak District. Might sound like a doddle but there are some killer ascents in that 30 miles. Already been looking at what I can sign him up for next year. Alzheimers charity organises quite a few events that look really good. Next year should allow us more time to do things like that. Luckily the only charity event I have left this year is the Race For Life at the end of July. Even if I don't manage to do the training required or have a really rough couple of days leading up to it, I can walk as much as I need to.

Lots of smoke

2006-03-23T13:40:00.000Z

You could see the smoke from everywhere in Derby. I was working but we guessed it would be coming from Sinfin. I was just hoping it wasn't anywhere near our house.

Luckily the fire started after the school day, "It is thought to have spread across 23 classrooms, kitchens, two computer rooms and a big lecture theatre. " Made one of our visits a little tricky, but the police let us pass. I'm trying to upload a photo but I don't think it's going to let me. Here's the link to BBC News.

So a little drama in an otherwise mundane day? No, yesterday was not mundane. For the first time in adulthood, I fitted into a size 12!! More precisely, a couple of size 12 things. I was certain I'd be wanting size 14 stuff yesterday, but I saw this skirt I really liked at Tesco. Not only did I really like it, it was on sale, down from £25 to £6. But not in a 14, which is why I bought it in a 12. It fits perfectly.

I was much in need of clothes as most of my wardrobe is too big. Not really my kind of fashion in the shops, but I've found a simple solution to this. As well as my brown size 12 skirt from Tescos (did I mention it's a 12?:P) I went to Matalan before work, bought a orange stripy skirt and a pair of light lilac jeans. I got a plain cream, plain red v-neck t-shirts and a green v-neck long sleeved top. A khaki green shrug. Oh yeah, and I promised myself a denim jacket once I got back to 69kg, I managed to get a lovely fitted one for £18, unfortunately still had to buy a 16 and is still a little tight around my chest, but I don't tend to do jackets up anyway. I'm hoping some new, better fitting bra's may help a little..

Anyway, the solution to my taste in fashion not being fashionable at the moment. There is still loads of boho jewellery out there. So I've bought 3 necklaces and 3 pairs of earrings. Of course, shoes as well.

This is quite an achievement for me, I've only really bought for necessity for quite a while now. I worked extra shifts last month as I knew I'd need a new wardrobe. So all I need to do now is go through all my other clothes and jewellery and chuck out what needs to go. Should be easy enough.

The other bonus that's happened this week. Hubby received a letter from the bank.

"As a result of a recent review, we've discovered that you are due a refund on your loan protector insurance policy, following the closure of your personal loan. I've arranged for £234.00 to be credited to your account..... As a gesture of goodwill, your account has also been credited with £24.52 as an ex-gratia compensation payment...."

After we both read it a couple of times and decided it was real, we were quite shocked. Firstly, we had no idea any mistake had been made, nor that we were owed money. Secondly, because NatWest actually owned up to this. We're considering having the letter framed. ;o)

Hobby writer

2006-03-19T09:41:00.000Z

I'm quite lucky I see writing as a hobby above all else. That I'm not fussed about becoming published yet. Every time I think we've settled into a routine, something comes up.

This time it was poor Ellie. She was very poorly the past couple of days. She had the stomach bug that's going round and about 18 changes of nappy and half a tub of sudocrem in the 24 hours she was at her worst. Managed to keep up her fluids in that time, yesterday though, she really didn't want anything to eat or drink. Today she's slept in and guzzled down a bottle of milk as soon as she got up. She's playing at the moment and obviously much better. :D

But it has made me realise that I am pretty laid back and this is a good job really with my girls and everything else.

Today I'm still pretty tired after getting no sleep Friday and my race for the BHF starts in approximately one hour. Needless to say I'm not participating in this one. My apologies to those who sponsored me. Your sponsorship money will be transferred to hubby's BHF event next month. If you sponsored me through paypal and want a refund just email me.

Oh, my brain isn't working... urm, what else was I going to type?

Oh yeah. Came up with an idea for a short story the other day. This one'll be a bodice ripper (as me mam calls them). So, when I get chance, that's my next writing to do. I should have all the crits I need for Dormarth in the next week or so, so I want to get a rough draft for this short down and then back to editing.

Oh yeah, I've started up my own book club. I searched round for an online one I liked the look of but nothing caught my eye. Hopefully, other people will want to join. I joined the local real one a while ago, but the first three months were all blokey political thrillers clancy, green, silitoe...... the only book in the lists I really enjoyed was Across the Nightingale Floor (a YA book, though you might not guess it from the content, sex, numerous deaths, beheadings, torture and cruelty). I still have a look through the lists but haven't read any of them since. Chicken's book club I plan to pot up four books a month from different genres as most of the online book clubs just seemed to be one a month and often from the same genre.

Have more to say but time is against me.

A woman with a plan

2006-03-09T21:05:00.000Z

I have a plan re: writing. Kind of borrowed from Richard Herring. He has a warm up page. He writes daily in his blog for half an hour in the hope that would put him in the writing frame of mind for the day.

Now my plan is this. I've started up a new blog, that one's a fictional one by a fictional me, Lenore. This is so, if I feel nothing particularly noteworthy has really happened to me, I can switch to Lenore and who knows what might happen in her blog ;o). Hell, it's worth a try isn't it? First step was to put in my little prologue to my next book. Where Lenore is the main character. The prologue was originally the first chapter. I just found myself writing madly one night and that rough draft is what I came out with. Since then, I've planned and thought up alot of ideas I really like. At first, chapter one became the prologue, just to set the scene. Now it's unecessary and has been cut completely. So, into Lenore's blog it can go.

Then, I can try and post in there and put myself into writing mode. :D Well, that's the plan...

My reading -

I've discarded The Promise Of Happiness, as I just couldn't get on with the writing style. I've now began reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which is much better. in fact, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read some more now.

Woohoo!!!!!

2006-03-08T11:16:00.000Z

Well, after the trip to Newcastle, where I drank and only ate out (mainly chips), I've still lost 1kg. Which brings me to *drum roll* 69kg. My target weight! Now for my height, 54kg is the lowest end of the BMI, but I'd look ill at that. So, I'm just trying to work out whether to set a new goal of 60kg, or just get fit and concentrate on that goal instead. I'd be happy to just get to under 10 stone (63kg). I'll probably just play it by ear the next month. I still have 4 weeks of Paulene's 12 week challenge.

The weekend was fab.

It was a bit of a rush to get the train though. Got stuck in traffic, get close to the train station but the car behind us has loads of smoke coming from under the bonnet, driver seems oblivious to this, so I got hubby to pull down a side road out of her way and walked the rest. Just get there in time for the train. The train before mine had been cancelled, so our train has twice the amount of passengers that it should. I just about manage to get on but spend 1 hour crammed right next to the door. Next hour I spent standing in the aisle. The last hour, I got to sit.

I sat next to this stereotypical ornithologist who was traveling up to Newcastle to give a talk on how speckled eggs are not speckled because of camouflage, but his research has shown it's something to do with calcium, and the speckles make the shell harder. He was a very enthusiastic chappy, who liked to giggle. His article's out next month in British Birds apparently. Oh, that reminds me... must find out what the bird at Carsington was...

Anyway, had a great night out. Just to Wetherspoons for dinner and a drink. Then to Gotham Bar, and finished the night off at the Lounge. Had a bit of a dance at the Lounge, which may have balanced out the calorie intake a bit ;)

Got back to N's had a little sleep. Woke up at 7am and felt a bit bemused all morning as there was nothing to do! No nappies to change, no breakfasts to make, nothing to do. Very strange. Even if the kids are out and I'm at home alone I have a long list of things to do. Not used to this sitting round and doing nowt. We didn't head back to Newcastle until after 1. Then it was a quick tour of the art gallery before we met up with K.

N made me laugh at this point. Me - 'Where's the tourist info?' N- 'I dunno, I'm not a tourist.' She's been living there about three years and has never been to the art gallery or any museums. I ask you. That's the first thing I do, check out what there is to do. It's not a bad one, a nice Henry Moore piece in there. We concentrated on going round the temporary exhibit, I can go back and look at the permenant pieces another time. Some good portraits, some I thought could have been done better, they just looked like snaps and the lighting wasn't great on some of them. This was one of them,
I don't mind Tracy Emin's work. We went to see an exhibition of hers in Paris. But, I don't like her. So, I'm afraid my reaction to this one was 'ugh!'

Train was on time all the way and even got my prebooked seat!!!

Sunday we went out to Carsington Water, a walk out to the island. Adeline loved the snow. She even tried to make her own snowballs to throw at Daddy :D Sunday roast at the restaurant and then over to the birdhide. Adeline was a charmer as usual and attracted a lot of attention. She even barged in on a group having lunch and got a couple of grapes off a woman. *rolls eyes* she just has to smile at people and gets what she wants. I've lost count of the amount of times I've heard people say 'wow, look at her eyes'. It's great, but she gets away with murder and of course mummy and daddy are evil sometimes because we're the only ones who tell her no. She is a star though and her eyes are very beautiful, she's got her dad's eyelashes, so she'll never need mascara. I've only seen eyes like hers in disney films :D

Friday

2006-03-02T07:52:00.000Z

Work tonight then off to Newcastle tomorrow. Got new shoes (brown, velvet wedge with amber/brown sequins on them), a new top which is lovely, red and a little figure hugging. Could do with some tape for it though, else I'm going to be showing off my bra. A bigger handbag, brown suede-type thing, it should fit everything I need for whilst I'm up there. I kind of feel like I should be wearing the boho top N bought me for Christmas, but it'll be far too cold.

It's pretty strange though. I don't go out that often, not for a night out. In the last year I went out to see The Magic Numbers at Nottingham, then went out for my cousins 18th. I've not been out with K and N since K's 21st, about 5 years ago!!! But, at the moment, I am going up to Newcastle on Friday, then it's someone's leaving do on the 10th, me and hubby have agreed to go out for a night next month, then my cousins 50th birthday party, then my school reunion!
I'm really not used to this whole social life malarky.

I wish we were still living in our last house. This is a hell hole. If you want to go for a walk/run round here you have to go down the side of very busy roads. Especially with Rolls Royce, you can't even get a quiet road at 5.30 in the morning. Then you've got all the wasters round here. I can't even take the girls on the local park. It's covered in fag ends and broken glass, if it's not got a load of kids effing and blinding while sniffing aerosols. Oh yeah, if you want drugs, the phonebox next to the park's the place to go. The bus is a no no, unless you can manage to carry baby, pushchair and toddler onto an antique bus, that's after carrying them all for 10 minutes because you can't just wait til the bus pulls up to take the pushchair down. The bus driver certainly won't wait for you to do it. Taxi is a no no, expense and no way of transporting the child seat the other side of the journey. So the only choices are these. Walk down a busy road for 40 minutes, hop on a pushchair friendly bus. Or walk for 30 minutes to get into the country, though this path is only passable when it's dry and not overgrown with weeds. Or walk for 50 minutes to get to countryside, knowing full well you're going to have that walk back with a knackered toddler.

Sorry for the moan, but the last couple of days have been bright sunshine and it's been really frustrating we've not been able to get out anywhere. Today looks like the weather's going to be great again :-( You just know the weather's going to be crap when hubby's off.

Pancakes!

2006-02-28T08:30:00.000Z

It's not like I'm not allowed or that I don't have pancakes any other day. But I always look forward to Shrove Tuesday. Will be in the kitchen shortly, making pancakes for me and Adeline.
This year I'm going to savour them even more as puddings/cakes/sweets is what I am giving up for lent. Fruit for puds only.

My aims for this year.. update

Quit smoking (I will do this, I have to do this. I have to quit so I can afford driving lessons. Will be sending off for my provisional the end of this month and begin lessons after my May holiday.)
Finish Dormarth (NaNo novel) and get a copy for myself from LuLu (It's coming along well. Slight change to this though. I want it finished just before the end of September.)
Completely finish 'The Dullest Book Ever Written' before this years NaNo (Not anymore. Tis now this years NaNo novel. Planning only until November 1st. If I finish Dormarth early, then I'll be sticking with short stories until then.)
Go white water rafting (Not until summer!)
Take 2 holidays (1 fully paid for, 2nd - deposit paid)
Do the Race For Life at Holme Pierrepoint in under 28 minutes (July)
Begin running and train for Derby Dash (BHF) (See other posts :o(.)
Save up for luxury spa break (the full works) with mam (Will be October I think. For my birthday again, like last year. We're going to Virgin Spa instead. It's only £99 for the full works and makeover so it's no longer something I need to save for.
Get under 70kg I reckon I've achieved this. I was 70kg exactly last week, but I forgot to weigh myself when I first got up. I had two drinks and some fruit before I weighed myself today and it said 70kg.
Give up coffee and tea It's been 3-4 weeks since my last coffee. I now drink water, green tea, herbal tea or an occassional diet cherry coke. The only alcohol we drink is wine, have no reason to give this up and don't want to anyway! :-P
Move by Ellie's first birthday Very probably. We'll be moving out of the city. Hubby under orders to open a savings account to save up deposit and month's rent.

Poor excuses

2006-02-28T00:16:00.000Z

I have no excuses for not running lately. It's just pain laziness and crappy weather. I have been doing lots of reps of the stairs (running up and down them), crunches and the other exercises I manage to combine with playing with the kids. So who knows, I might have improved a little next time I do actually go outside for a run ;)

Today has been divided between ranting and raving at the telly/newspapers and some lovely one-to-one time with Adeline. Hubby took Ellie out whilst he paid the few bills and went to decathlon. So I decided that me and Adeline should do some painting. Not something that's really possible with Ellie around. She painted a few things then began to do hand prints. I quickly switched to only green paint so we ended up with lots of hand print leaves. Which have now made a little tree. It looks really good :D Then we both had salmon and poached egg for lunch, followed by bath time. It was a fab day. I've also bought Adeline some flash cards. The front has pictures and the letter on and the back has the word on. She can recognise some of the words and even copied out the word 'dog' onto her etch-a-sketch thing.

Ellie is great, she still goes to bed at 7, but lately she's been crying to get up around 10pm. I'm not quite sure why, so we'll give her another week and see if we can work that one out.

Writing is going pretty well. I might withdraw from Critique Circle after the next chapter comes up. Don't get me wrong, they've all been fantastic and very helpful in pointing out things I didn't spot. I just have a couple of grumbles with the place. First of all, few people seem to check where you are from before pointing out all the 'spelling mistakes'. Personally, I'll check where the person is from and if anything still seems to be incorrect, I'll check with an online dictionary. If it's still wrong, then I'll comment on it. Second bug bear, I have stated that Dormarth is hobby writing. I have no interest in trying to get it published, in fact, I don't want to try and get it published. I have no idea if half the 'facts' in it are correct, I have no idea how police forces work, and I don't care enough to go research them. I just like the story itself and am writing it for me. Mainly because I can take the time with it to work out my strengths and weaknesses in writing. It's a practice novel, if you like. A practice run before I begin to write my next one. But, people keep saying, 'I don't understand why you would go through this process if you don't want this published' or 'you should rethink things and send this out for publication'. It's nice to get the compliments, of course it is! But, why can't people leave it be? The main thing is, I've got what I needed from the place. I now can recognise my weaknesses. I've compiled a check list of them and I can go through the rest of the chapters with it. It'll be quicker that way as well. Then I can hubby to proof read and spot the things that don't make sense ;o)

Anyway, been so busy enjoying my day, I forgot to eat before I went to work. Got back at 10, absolutely famished. I fixed up a salad to have with a piece of dab. Dab is disgusting, chucked it away before it touched my lovely salad and opened a tin of tuna instead. Right now, I'm just making sure all food is settled before I head up to bed.

I have tomorrow evening with hubby (yay!) then work on Wenesday and Thursday, then up to Newcastle on Friday! Just hope weather improves slightly, otherwise I'll refuse to leave Wetherspoons :P

It's all gone a bit pear shaped

2006-02-18T19:16:00.000Z

What a crappy week as far as exercise goes. Been at work 4 evenings this week. Every one a late one, that combined with Ellie getting up extremely early (4.30 and 5am) each morning. Well, let's just say I'm surprised I'm still functioning in a coherent manner. I'm sure you'll not be at all surprised to hear that running just hasn't happened this week.

Never mind, tomorrow is Sunday. I will go on a run tomorrow, I promise you that.

In the mean time, I have been able to achieve a few other things this week. Like put my first two chapters up for critiquing on Critique Circle. Not done too badly. Mostly things I just can't believe I missed. And of course, pointing out every missed full stop (which each person who has done this has had a polite note saying please refer to my opening comments. Where I said please do not point out every missed full stop. I know there are some missing, but as I have absolutely no intention of getting this published, I've not proof read it really closely. Or words to that affect.) The other thing is some of it doesn't translate, while I thought it was obvious what beaters were, especially when the word was immediately followed by a description of the line of police officers 'beating' the undergrowth looking for evidence. Jamie also does not translate, I know it as mainly a male name, and it's feminine to Americans. really things I need to try and get out of the habit of, using the word 'had', and 'and'. I head hopped quite a bit, something I did know about but forgot to change.

One major thing. I am apparently very good at characters, but not settings. This was completely lost on me how to improve my descriptions until someone said think of your settings like characters. Now I know. The light bulb turned on ;)

:lol:

Awake, just about...

2006-02-09T06:39:00.000Z

I went for another run yesterday morning. Didn't do too bad, but didn't do great either. We had no milk in, so I couldn't have something before I went. Running on empty not the best idea. I've started on the official running training. Which is great, but I struggled a little. I think it's stopping after a short time and walking then starting running again. Where I can run 3 minutes non-stop with no problems at all. I struggled with running 1 minute, walking 1 minute, running 1 minute and so on for 20 minutes. Tomorrows schedule means I'm running 2 then walking 2, hopefully that'll be a bit better. I've been getting up early to do them at the minute. I remember the comments I used to get when I started running last time. People seem to remember running about loads when they were kids and think it's easy. When it's not if you haven't ran for quite a while. Good thing though, decided I have no chance of running well while I'm smoking, patches purchased.

Re: BHF 5k. We took the kids for a play at Markeaton Park yesterday. The signs are up for the race, the woman is out putting leaflets on peoples cars for it. Yet, no sign of my participant pack. Chris has had his from the BHF, for his Peak Ride in April. :o( Emailed them. It does kind of put me off doing it, there's a midweek 5k the wednesday after and I'm tempted to do that instead.

Ellie had her first go in the swings yesterday. She loved it. A few firsts for her the past few days. Car seat has been replaced with a forward facing one (Adeline's old one as she's had a new 'big girls' seat). And she is no longer in her moses basket at night. After quite a bit of procrastination, we finally got around to buying cot bumpers. She's not overly impressed with being in a big cot. Cried for a bit the night before last, then was up at 5am this morning. Very, very early for her, and for me. But it could also be because she's teething. Her bottom, front teeth have come through (13th and 23rd Jan), but I think the top ones are coming through now.

Once the kids were in bed we had a lovely 3 course meal. Each course low fat low cal of course. Had scallops with a mozerella, green leaf and mango salad to start. That was with a homemade grilled pepper salsa. Then Thai beef stir fry with papaya. Yum. We got a phonecall when we were having the main course. Happens every time me and hubby have a nice evening together and forget to unplug the phone. You can guarentee they're never important. Turned out it was just me Mam wanting to pop round for a cuppa today. Phone was then unplugged and we were left in peace to enjoy the pudding (weight watchers not very nice toffee thing) and a nice glass of rose.

Todays plan. Take washing out of machine, go for bath when hubby and Adeline get up, tidy round, chuck hubby out for his bike ride. Mam and Dad due round at 11.30. Do something with the kids after lunch, cook dinner the go for work...

8lb lost, 5lb to go

2006-02-06T08:58:00.000Z

This is the one week I thought I wouldn't have lost anything. But it turns out it's the week I've lost the most. How did that happen then? Pizzas + chocolate + sweets from work. Hmm, no idea. But does bode well for me reaching my target weight. 5lb to go and I'll be under 70kg, which is my first target. The rest I'm not overly concerned about. I'm within my normal weight range so it's more toning up and getting fit I need to be concerned about now. The running should sort that out nicely :D I should reach my target well within the 12 weeks of Paulene's 12 Week Challenge but I'll continue to tell her my weight each week, so I know I'm not putting on. If I loose more, no problem. A tiny 54kg is still within normal weight range, 8 and a half stone. I'd look ill at that. As long as I look healthy.

Who started the rumour that nurses uniforms are sexy? I never feel so frumpy as when I'm in my uniform and now I have to start wearing it for work again. *sneer* It just needs ironing. I have my horrible flats out ready, I do have to find my name tag though, and get some photo id. Next month I may hav to do some lists for evening service. I think I'll have to take a trip to the market and see about getting a tunic instead of this awful, unflattering dress.

Bought my neices birthday present yesterday and I guess we'll have to take it round to her before work today. Mam's birthday next week so I'll be out to get her a present at some point. Know exactly what I'm getting her, either a Calamondin Orange or Buddha's Fingers, to go in their conservatory. So I guess it's best I leave it until last minute. My track record with house plants isn't good, don't want to buy it and kill it within the space of a week (believe me, it's possible.)

Running training

2006-02-05T09:32:00.000Z

Worked out I'm far from behind in my training so pretty chuffed. 1st official training session for the British Heart Foundation is on Tuesday. Each Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday will see me out running. Then once the Derby Dash is out of the way, I'll step up to intermediate training and do the Derby midweek run with Running With David in April. Hopefully will pop in a couple more 5ks before the race for life at Holme Pierrepoint in July. Once that's done it gives me 2 months to prepare for a 10k in September. Wow, it'll get me fit if nowt else.

I'll need to start running as well. My Dad's gone on a KitKat buying spree for the wrappers and has a load for us. All out of their wrappers and in tin foil. Bless.

Looking forward to holiday now, will be ready for it come May. Working extra to earn a few extra pennies. That on top of writing and looking after the kids is knackering, but the amount I work is going to go down alot after the holiday. I'm thinking of working a couple of nightshifts, especially Saturday nights when possible. That way the ammount I earn won't go down to much and I won't have to work as much as if I worked day shifts.

Submission!

2006-02-03T15:27:00.004Z

I sent a short story off. I'm so pleased, don't really mind if it gets published or not, for me to send something off for someone else to read is a huge step.

Also popped chapter one of Dormarth in to Scribe's workshop for critting. Whoever reads this probably won't think it's that big a deal, but believe me it is for me. I think it has helped that I don't care about Dormarth. i want to finish it, but I'm no crime writer, so if it get's pulled to bits, so what? In fact, it'd help a great deal. Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it in there in the first place. Oh yeah. word count changed to show what is finished, have a lot more words than are showing on the word count meter, but some bits still need changing, so only when I've finished a chapter am I going to add to the total.

Communication

2006-01-28T11:01:00.000Z

When you're in a long term relationship, communication is key. I'd forgotten to remind hubby I was going for a run this morning. He must have gotten up, switched off the alarm before it went off. The only time I woke up was when he came upstairs to say goodbye at 6.30. So I've missed todays run. I am pondering going for a run when he gets back from work, but it would be a bit of a rush. Would have to go out straight away, get back and have a bath, get ready and leave for work myself. Hmmm, perhaps getting up tomorrow morning would be the best bet.

Yesterday saw me decide 100% that I would not be going back to work as a nurse, nor will I be renewing my registration with the NMC. Well done the NHS for loosing yet another nurse. I just can't do it, the negatives far out way the positives. I would rather work for less money and more satisfaction, actually change things. I still have a few years to decide what I want to do, at the moment I'm perfectly happy doing what I am doing.

Not written anymore but the last couple of evenings I managed to finish decorating the bathroom and last night i took the pushchair, highchair, and bouncer apart and cleaned them all. So not completely wasted my free time! I also paid my entry into the Race for Life in June at Holme Pierrepoint, hubbys entry into the Peak District Bike Ride 2006, paid for buggy board and friction tape. Bought myself a lovely coat, and much needed make-up, though not impressed, should stick with cheapy stuff, seems to be better than the 'named' brands most of the time. Have had hair cut and dyed.

Oh yeah, if anyone wants to sponsor me for the Derby Dawdle Dash (it's the 5k dash part I'm doing). You can do so by either going to my sponsorship page at BHF or through paypal and I will pass the money on. The links for these ways are to the right.

First steps..

2006-01-26T07:20:00.000Z

No, not my youngest, me. I went out for a run this morning, finally! A few things were putting me off starting but have sorted them out. First off, I like to have hard proof of my upcoming race, I have received nothing as yet from the BHF. It's been a while since I signed up so I emailed them, they sent me back a reply saying they hve yet to receive the stuff from the printers, but I should get it through the post within the next week. Ho hum, not overly impressed but it is a small charity run. A short letter from them would have been appreciated though, even if they couldn't send out the race pack yet. The second thing was my trainers. As I said my feet have changed since being pregnant and new trainers were definately in order. Yesterday we have a trip to decathlon and I bought a new, lovely pair for the bargain price of 35.00. I also measured my feet whilst I was in there, before I was pregnant on was a 6 and the other a 6.5. Now one is a 6 and the other is a 7! No wonder I had to try on so many before I found a pair that would not slip off the heal of one but not be too tight on the other.

Anyway, my run this morning. Set alarm for 6am, did some warm ups and out the house at 6.40. Walked 5 minutes, ran for 3 (!!!! yes 3! without stopping!) walked some more ran 1 30, walked, ran 1 30, walked and lastly, ran fast for 1 minute. So a grand total of 7 minutes running, I got back at 7:05. Not the most ideal route but there's no such thing around here. Alot of traffic from Rolls Royce, but a short little back and forth route. This I hope to be able to run all the way there and back [and I will do it].

Dormarth has been reborn. A brand new plan has been written, a couple of new characters and a couple more plot twists. I have a target date to complete each chapter and should have my new chapter 1 finished today. Wrote another 1000ish the other day. Once I've finished chapter one I'll put my new word count on here.

take care all xxx

Dormarth

2006-01-20T14:20:00.000Z

*sigh* scrapped it, salvaged what I could. Have new aim of *drum roll* February 28th. My word count is going to be above. No matter how crap it is after February that's it. No more work on it, going to get mycopy off Lulu and concentrate on my newest WIP. By the way, the post below was started on Wednesday but got finished this morning. Just in case you realise the time and post content made no sense ;o)

History

2006-01-18T18:10:00.000Z

May is going to be a busy month... Cousins 50th birthday do, holiday, our first wedding anniversary and school reunion so far. Have got Nat to come with me hopefully, but I'll definately try to pop in. I had a browse through Friends Reunited. Not had a proper check who is on there for a while. Without naming names, they really should do a short 'how not to come off as a completely ****er' course for writing the profile. Some people I considered dropping a note, read their profile and thought uh- nah don't think I'll bother.... Have to add to this in a bit...

Ellie had decided it was nap time. Where was I?

Oh yeah, not that I've got in contact with anyone that day. Not paid the subs. End of month I will. If anyone from there stumbles across this place.. feel free to get in touch.

I finally got my CDROM. It looks like it was worth the money. Not had chance to trial it out properly. But so far the timeline feature is an excellent bonus!

Exercise... Proper exercise not going to well. Finding it difficult to have the time. Had few crappy nights sleep so haven't been getting up early as intended to do my workout. As for running, what can i say? I just haven't been. What I have done is a load of cleaning, kept up with cruches each day (easy to do this as it can be a game with the girls), took the girls out and had races with hubby. Payday in a week so will be buying my new trainers then from sportsshoes.com and then will feel a bit more confident about going out for a jog.

It's amazing how hectic things can be, even if nothing is actually achieved. Well, obviously not achieved nothing at all, but nothing big, nothing from my checklist. Just the normal day to day things take so long and make things hectic. It's amazing how much planning you need to do just to check a bath in the morning. Today I have managed to get two loads of washing done (on my third) and had a bath. That's it. Sounds like nothing at all. But put in breakfasting/feeding/changing/playing with/reading to kids, rescuing Adeline from inside the fireguard... Even this is being written in between shovelling pear and apple pudding into Ellie. My post lunchtime plan was to take the girls out for a walk, unfortunately hubby has took the car to work which has both pushchairs in the boot :o( So what is my plan instead? I can bet that by the time I have changed the girls, got my next load of washing out to dry, washed the pots and tidied round, wrote the shopping list. By the time I have done all that and everything else that crops up inbetween, hubby will be home. So it'll be get ready, go shopping, go to work. Then home and bed. You can pretty much guarentee if my days been hectic it'll be a late night at work. If I am wrong, it'll be come home and watch the Mighty Celt then bed :D roll on sunday!!

1 down

2006-01-16T12:59:00.000Z

I lost 1lb. Well, 0.6kg not bad. In fact I am quite chuffed. Especially as I've had treats still. Weight watchers and slim fast ones. Hubby lost 1 kg. So yay to us! Slimfast isn't going too badly at all. Only been on it a couple of days but not feeling hungry on it at all. The hot chocolate is quite nice as well. Cut coffee down to 2 cups a day. Will now be taking it down to just one in the morning. Found that camomile tea isn't too bad so doing okay for keeping my hot drinks. Much needed this time of year. Especially when I get in from work in the evening. Can sometimes spend 50 minutes at the bus stop, even with gloves you feel the cold.

Still not had my CDROM! Did receive a short email from them saying they'll check what is happening today.

Got my how to write book very quickly. It came Saturday, it looks quite good. Making my way through it.

At the moment hubby is out on his bike getting very muddy and I'm cooking a sweet and sour chicken meal for me and Adeline. Smells lovely. Eating early afternoon seems to be working quite well.

Worked out cheaper ways of doing the things I want to do this year. Virgin Spas day package is cheaper than Moddershall Oaks and it'll be easier for me and mam to get to and from so it'll be there this year. White water rafting will only cost £40 so that's easily achieved.

Stopping smoking. Have cut right back, only smoked 5 yesterday. They are doing some stop smoking things at the library in town so I'll be popping in there for a bit of advice. I need to start getting up a little earlier so I can fit in exercise before the kids get up. Then that's the early morning cigarette conquered.

Best go serve up dinner....

Buggy Board

2006-01-13T12:57:00.000Z

Have made the decision to purchase a buggy board at the end of this month. Wanted to get one as soon as Ellie was born but as they're £45 from Boots juwe decided against it. This morning I took the girls for a quick walk, Adeline was mucking about pretending to fall over. I ended up standing her on the back of Ellie's buggy, wasn't exactly balanced so it was tricky to push, but she's too big for a pushchair now and hates going in one. I've seen some buggy boards alot cheaper on Ebay so I guess we'll be getting one.

Got the reciept for my payment to welsh country cottages! Just to got pay for the rest of it. Am so pleased with the place, just hope it's as nice as it seems. It's only 320 when we're going, with an indoor swimming pool with that. In the summer hols it goes up to nearly 800! Needless to say we're going to make the most of going on holiday outside of school holidays for the next couple of years. It'll be two years in September when Adeline starts school. It seems to be creeping up on us a bit too quickly. Hopefully, no, not hopefully. We will be moved somewhere better by then. I want her to go to a decent school. She is extremely intelligent and I don't want that wasted by going to a school with a load of kids who swear and are used to being around drugs and the like. I don't want her to loose her enthusiasm for learning. She's not even 2 and a half yet and loves to try to write letters and numbers, she can count, tell the time when it's something o'clock, draw recognisably.... If we had the money to send them both private I would.

I'm being put off what I am writing at the moment as Ellie has just this moment woken up and ha a huge smile on her face. Her cold went on her chest and last night coughed up a load of yucky phlegm in her sleep. Scared us to death, rushed her in the bathroom and started running the hot tap, the steam got a bit more up for her. She seems much better today though. :D They're both a little snotty though, but their temps are down. My eye, which has got infected, the tear duct swelled up yesterday. It's gone down a little bit, I hate, I mean really hate eye drops. Nevertheless, I have been putting them in my eye every two hours. It doesn't get any easier though.

Exercise today, apart from walk to shop... I'm going to do the Carmen Electra dvd again tonight, once the kids are in bed. That way hubby can join in. He's off for the next 4 days (long weekend + lieu day) so I'm hoping to get us out for a couple of runs. Depending on when he goes for his bike ride and weather. Then we'll be starting on Slimfast to try and shift those few kgs. Still got skelton key to watch, it's been sat in the player for the past couple of nights as we keep finding things to watch on telly.

Still not received writing CDROM! Sent another email asking whether it has been sent yet. I don't really trust their 'item ready for dispatch' emails. Especially as I've recieved 2 of them in the past two weeks. :o(

Ordered a how to write and sell your novel type book from Amazon. Only cost 1.80. I'm pondering childrens writing. Would love to write books my own kids could enjoy but I wouldn't even know where to begin. Perhaps when my kids are older and I have more of an idea what they enjoy.

continued..

2006-01-12T12:57:00.000Z

Well, I managed to do it. I have left the pots in favour of exercise which was a good plan. Ellie slept through mummy attempted salsacize (not a good idea to try from a magazine). Energy used to do this, virtually nil, abandoned. Did 16 reps of 9 different toning exercises. They went okay, resistance tube a bit long for many of them so it was a bit tricky having the grap the actual tube or wrap it around my hands. Once completed decided I needed a bit of cardio so dug out my DVD. I haven't tried this one before. It was the 2nd one from the Carmen Electra ones. The first one is good exercise but obviously not appropriate to do around Adeline. This one is just a get fit one with no striptease routines. It is very good. I can definately tell I've done it and it is appropriate to do around Adeline. I managed 25 minutes of it, so not the full program, but that plus my toning exercises made up the 30 minutes I needed to do. I also had the added bonus of a personal trainer during them. Adeline made herself comfortable and joined in by sitting on my stomach or back for many of the exercises included in the routine, making them harder to do and giving an even better workout. This also kept me motivated as it kept a smile on my face whilst she ordered me about ("Up!... Down!") :oD

I've also found I can get train tickets quite cheap to Newcastle. Strangely it is cheaper to get two single tickets Derby-Newcastle, Newcastle-Derby, at £9.50 each, so will cost £19 all together. The cheapest return ticket is £60 something! Don't understand that. But it'll mean I should be able to get up there and see my friend .

It's been 10 years since we finished our GCSEs at Merrill and someone is arranging a reunion. Doesn't seem that long ago! A bit torn over whether to go but as hubby is on a late I might take the kids over to my mam and dads and pop in. That's unless hubby swops shifts, it's taking place on the same day as our 1st anniversary so of course I'll choose doing something with hubby! For now though I'm planning on a night out for us the friday after, hopefully there'll be a decent band on to go and see or something on at the theatre...

12 week challenge

2006-01-12T11:21:00.000Z

In limbo right this moment. Waiting for the postman before I start the housework. Should be something I need to sign for coming today so don't want to miss him.

Was blog hopping yesterday and came across http://paulenesjournaljourney.homestead.com/paulene.html have sent in my details and weight on the 9th. Thought I may as well be trying it alongside some other people rather than all by myself. I don't have too much to loose really, only 5kg. I know it will be easy done, I just need to cut out the crap and do a bit of exercise. It's just getting motivated...

Damn it, was expecting 3 things to arrive in post today, not had any of them.

Anyway, to loose the weight. Slim fast helped last time I had to loose weight, just to kick start me anyway. So I'll be trying that again for a couple of weeks, just to get me in the right direction. Then it'll be back to just eating healthily. Loads of veggies instead of potatoes. My weight would probably come off without any alteration to my diet if I just started exercising regularly. This week's not exactly gone to plan due to my lack of sleep. However, there's only been one day I haven't done my half hour exercise. Yesterday I did alot of dancing around the room and playing with Adeline, so I am counting that, it certainly felt like exercise anyway. Todays half hour exercise will be in the form of... Well I'm not entirely sure yet. I am going to go switch the washer on, wash up the pots, feed the girls... I'm hoping Ellie is ready for a nap, Adeline's going in her highchair to eat and then do a little colouring... if Ellie does have a decent nap then I am going to get some exercise done then, as well as a walk later on. I wish I had the opportunity to sign up to a regular class of some sort. Hubbys shift pattern means there is no day of the week he is definately off :-(

Well I'd better go get started.

Yuck

2006-01-10T15:09:00.000Z

After a mammoth 3 hours sleep last night I feel like crap. My lips tell me I'm run down, for the first time in 10 years I have mouth ulcers. All along my top and bottom lip, I look like I've had surgery it's so swollen. Both girls poorly so it's 4 hourly calpol and vicks for them and pills, vicks and bonjela for me. Needless to say I did not complete my training today. I did do it yesterday though and I will do it tomorrow.

Paid for deposit on holiday cottage today so will definately be going away twice this year. The second time is over to Norfolk for my brothers wedding, Adeline's the bridesmaid so no chance we'll be missing that one. Never been to the Norfolk Broads before, so that's somewhere else to cross off the list. Made two conscious decisions about holidays. Firstly, the kids are too little to appreciate taking them abroad at the moment. Too far to travel, too much hassle. Yeah, sure you can get pretty much anywhere quite quickly via plane. But I'd rather have the choice to pull in somewhere, stretch our legs, get a bite to eat, sort the kids with no pressure. Having said that, the second decision about holidays is this. There is too much I want to see in the UK to be bothered about going elsewhere just yet.

Still waiting for my CDROM from EBay, starting to think I'm not going to get it. Doesn't matter too much at the minute. Want to finish Dormarth before I start using the CDROM for my next novel. I just hope it turns up before the end of the month (my deadline for completing Dormarth).

Hubby wants to do a bike ride through BHF in the peaks. I'm going to be signing him up for it at the end of the month. He's (fingers crossed) going out for the day on his bike at the weekend. It'll do him good, it's been quite a while since he's had the opportunity to just go off like that. It was quite nice last summer. Whenever he had a long weekend, we'd go pick me mam up and me, Adeline and her would have a nice wander round somewhere, whilst hubby went off into the Peaks to ride. Hopefully we'll be able to do that again once the weather improves. Which reminds me, should ring him up and remind him to swop a couple of his holiday days around.

Running training

2006-01-09T06:56:00.000Z

Todays the day I begin my training. The 5k fun run (Derby Dawdle Dash) is on 19th March....

The problem is, with working with sick people, some of them nasty germs have got through. Had to get up over an hour ago, not because the kid were up, but just because there was far too much phlegm. So running is a no no. I will still be going out for a fast walk though. I am determined to run around the 5k without a walking break. Which shouldn't be too difficult.

Before my eldest was born I trained for the 5K Race for Life in Nottingham. Got an injury, did absolutely no training for the month before, but I still did okay on the day. I decided to take things steady, run the first K, walk the second, run the third and see how I did. The crowd was so amazing they kept me going for the last kilometer. Even if I was in absolute agony at the end, I still did it in 28 minutes. Which is very respectable.

After my youngest was born I tried to start training again. I had no motivation to carry on and I was sick of being in pain. Whatever the injury I had before is still there a little so that is definately something I need to try and help this month. One thing I have worked out is that my feet have grown a little during pregnancy, and while size 7 fit me easily to begin with I know I should be wearing bigger to go running in. So that's the first thing. Then I need to work out how to eleviate the risk of pain. When I was pregnant last time I had the same pains I got from running, by the last month I could bearly walk and, some days, could not stand up. SPD, Symphysis Pubis Diastasis. Which has meant absolutely, definately, no more children for me!! I'm not going through that again. That coupled with two gorgeous, perfect girls. You couldn't find an improved version of my youngest, she is a very happy, smily, contented sole. Slept through the night from pretty much day one. Not even six months yet and sleeps from 7 pm until 8 am (ish). ....

Anyway, went off the subject of running. My plan is this (modified only slightly for flu virus)
week:

Walk (fast) at least 30 minutes a day for the next 7 days. Do a little jogging as and when I feel like doing so. But this week pretty relaxed, just getting myself used to going out.
Walk fast for at least 35 minutes 4 days. Every other day at 30 seconds running, 2 minute walking, 30 seconds running. Which should just be loosening things up until payday. By week 3 have new trainers.
Week three, continue walks. Every other day do 1 minute run, 2 minute walk. Go for leisure run (ie with kids in pushchairs and muck about with husband v wife races) on one of the days at the end of week 3.

Thats my plan for now.

How my other new years res are coming on

1. Quitting smoking. Have cut down, planning a no smoking day tomorrow. See how that goes, have 2 consecutive days no smoking a week after... if I get to 3 days in a row that'll be it, I can quit.

2. Dormarth progress. On final draft. Completely scrapped last few chapters. Decided its a novella. Just need to write the final 3 chapters again.

3. Leaving until finished Dormarth, but do have a few more plans for it jotted down.

4. Rafting isn't until summer anyways

5. Provisionally booked one hol, paying deposit tomorrow. Going to Wales (yay!) Pembrokeshire (double yay!). Hopefully prove existance of puffins to hubby ;D

6. Signed up to raceforlife.org to be sent info when this years site is up properly

7. See above. Just a little note. If you do go to the british heart foundation make sure you put the .uk at the end of http://www.bhf.org.uk If you don't you end up somewhere dodgy!!!

8. Saving up as from payday this month.

So why this blog?

2006-01-08T12:05:00.000Z

These are my New Years Resolutions. The first time I have made any.

Quit smoking
Finish Dormarth (NaNo novel) and get a copy for myself from LuLu
Completely finish 'The Dullest Book Ever Written' before this years NaNo
Go white water rafting
Take 2 holidays
Do the Race For Life at Holme Pierrepoint in under 28 minutes
Begin running and train for Derby Dash (BHF)
Save up for luxury spa break (the full works) with mam

Like I said, the first time I have made any New Years Resolutions. More aims for this year I suppose as none of them began from New Years Day itself. This year promises to be fantastic. Eldest will be 3 in September, and my youngest will begin walking and talking and all the rest of the milestones between 6 and 18 months. I wanted to keep track of everything that I want to do this year somewhere, so here is my blog. Please feel free to leave me comments.

:oD

Vicky

3rd time lucky

2006-01-08T11:14:00.000Z

Having tried runboard blog and the hotmail web one I thought I'd try a 'proper' one. I feel I'll need it this year. Alot planned. For now I'd just like to say hi to anyone who stumbles across this. Off to play with it now :D