IT'S NEARLY HERE......

....and although the house has been decorated for a few (!) weeks now, things really HAVEN'T gone to plan!

Mum arrived last Friday with Kirsty and HER Craig ( now that WAS part of the plan!)...bags were unpacked and it started to feel a lot like Christmas...I went off to the Charity's Christmas bash at night and arrived home just after midnight having had a lovely evening. 

Imagine my surprise when I walked through the door to discover MY Craig in the house (he wasn't due until today.... and here the best laid plans start to unravel). He had travelled back from a business trip to San Jose and when he and Kirsty looked at each other shiftily when I asked if this was him here for Christmas, I knew all wasn't well: he had come to tell me face-to-face that that he had to be in JAPAN the day after Christmas!!

To say I was upset is an understatement...not much sleep was had as I tried to come to terms with this turn of events. By morning I had pulled myself up and, realising that it wasn't the end of the world (well, not quite) took myself off to a Charity event I was involved in:

I left the troops to shop for the Christmas Dinner we were now having on Sunday ( 'cos Kirsty and HER Craig were going back on Monday to have Christmas with his family-part of the original plan!) 

After a lovely day, I came home about 6pm to discover that only my Craig was at home- the others having gone to see the new Star Wars movie. We had just finished eating and sat down to watch the final of 'Strictly..' when the phone rang....it was Kirsty to say that mum had had a bad fall and they were in an ambulance being taken to hospital! 

To cut this long story a bit shorter the end result is that mum has fractured her humerus, is in a sling, is in agony and can't get out of bed without feeling sick and dizzy...I have to add here that I am a dreadful nurse and that she is a dreadful patient!

Craig left this morning to go back to Germany before flying on to Japan and I am now trying to imagine how Christmas Day is going to be...in some ways this whole debacle has taken away the focus from dad not being here this year, though believe me he is still much missed.


I sincerely hope that YOUR plans have not gone quite so badly awry and that your Christmas is filled with the love and laughter of family and friends....i know that in the midst of this chaos I will!

Thanks for dropping by!
Take care of you
Alison xx

ME ON MONDAY....

....late, surprisingly enough!

Monday saw me spending quite a bit of time in the car,

between general chores and then taking Mum and my sister down to the airport...... Fortunately the chap who had been assigned to give mum Special Assistance through the airport turned up very quickly, so there were no prolonged farewells; my sister was filling up with tears ......she returns to NZ tomorrow, so there's no knowing when we'll see each other again ....I can only imagine how many tissues she'll go through this week!!

The weekend?....trying to keep mum cool- she found the heat very tiring, so spent a lot of time indoors sitting as close to the fan as she could get,reading. We managed a visit to the Mall (yes, we DO have a mall, which blessedly has AC!), a trip to the coast on Sunday evening-which of course meant a visit to the ice cream 'parlour' and lots of dips in the pool for my sister and myself throughout the course of the weekend.

Waving to SIAN'S little band of 'Monday wavers'...and of course to everyone else......hoping all's well wherever you are in Blogland!

Thanks for dropping by!
Take care of you
Alison xx

Posted with Blogsy

TODAY

Craig and I were married in 1980, and fora few years we were our own little family of two.

In 1985, with the birth of Stuart, we became a family of three

In 1989 we became four, when Kirsty was born (I can't find any pics of the four of us when she was a baby, but here we are a few years later)

Twenty years ago today we became (at least on earth) a family of three again...in my mind Stuart is still very much part of us...his memorial stone reads:

A GIFT FROM GOD

LOVED BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM

ALWAYS IN OUR THOUGHTS

It says it all.

It hasn't been easy, but since Stuart's death we vowed that Kirsty's life wasn't to be adversely affected by that one event.... that in itself kept us afloat in the early days....and I hope she feels that we have been faithful to that vow.

So today I want to put in writing that I am grateful and feel so  blessed to have had both our children in my life...believe me, whoever said 'a  mother's  love never dies ' knew what they were talking about.

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

A SIMPLE MOMENT ...LOOKING UP AND DOWN

A 'double-duty' post today...in conjunction with HELENA'S weekly photographic meme 'LOOKING UP AND DOWN' and ALEXA'S monthly meme 'SIMPLY A MOMENT'


WEDNESDAY JULY 17......9.30PM

I have just finished power-washing the patio and come to sit down with a glass of  chilled wine. I suddenly become aware of the smell of Jasmine...at this time if night in the heat of the evenings, the scent is all pervading; it draws me outdoors and I end up sitting with my feet in the pool- which is at a perfect temperature to cool me down. There are a few birds twittering in the trees and the little bat which lives in the tree at the bottom of our garden is flitting back and forth.

Boo comes and joins me and starts to drink from the pool...I can hear hear her little pink tongue lapping the water greedily (and yes, I DO make sure she has plenty of fresh water- she just prefers pool water!)...she comes and lies down next to me and settles herself.

I have my IPad in my lap...I have just been looking on Facebook at my youngest brother's recent messages.....there are problems and he is so hurt and angry...we are all trying to support him, but yet again I realise how far away I am.....at the same time I am grateful for social networking used properly!

As I look upwards, I am aware of the darkening night sky and the half-moon becoming more prominent in it...it's a perfect sky tonight.

 As I watch, Boo makes gentle snoring noises beside me..... suddenly a dog barks in the distance....Boo leaps up and dashes down the garden, joining in as she goes...time to take her inside for a little while  before she drives the neighbourhood mad! 

LOOKING UP

LOOKING DOWN

I hope all those in the UK are beginning to acclimitise to your unexpected burst of hot weather..and that life is being kind to you and yours. wherever you are in Blogland.

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

HELLO MONDAY

This week I'm saying:

HELLO to the May Fayre  being over....(sigh of relief!)

HELLO to having raised over 5000 euros!!!!.....making it WELL worth the effort!

HELLO to getting to BOTH Keep Fit AND Line Dancing...I  have managed to get to one or the other recently, but not both

HELLO to realising that my two brothers are capable of more than any of us (including them!) thought...dad's back in hospital and they are really keeping on top of his care and what can be put in place to make life easier for dad and mum ,when he gets home.

HELLO to being grateful for social networking...FB allows my sister in New Zealand, my brothers and myself to 'talk' without having to repeat the same things to each other constantly

HELLO to getting a package put together for SIAN'S GREAT BIG SWAP OF VERY SMALL THINGS (I honestly haven't forgotten, Cheri!)

HELLO to maybe..just maybe......getting some scrapbooking done this week! 

HELLO to trying not to feel guilty for getting on with my life, when I know how poorly my dad is

I do hope there are good things for you to be saying HELLO to this week!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

SIMPLY A MOMENT

It's 10.50a.m. on Saturday 17 November and I have just sat down with a cup of coffee, after having my 'in-laws' here. My FIL and his wife (who is NOT my MIL) rang to ask if they could come and shower here- they live fairly close by and had been without water for 24 hours.

As I sit listening to Josh Groban singing Christmas songs and looking at the ironing board....which has been in the same position since yesterday in the hope that I may actually DO something with it!...

.....I am pondering upon the fact that they didn't just use boiled, bottled water to wash, like everyone else does when they have water problems, when I am distracted by Kirsty and her friend Imane (who we picked up last night) looking through my 'baking cupboard'- they are checking for ingredients for some cupcakes they plan on making later today. There is much hilarity as they discuss what toppings they want to make for said cakes.....it makes me smile to hear their banter, and I am grateful that Kirsty has always had good friends around her, both in Spain and in the UK. As they go to get their shoes, Boo works out that they are about to go out and I can hear the little bell on her collar jingling as she follows them down the hall.

 I go back to pondering the water situation.......most people here keep spare bottled water in case the water DOES go off ; it is not a totally unknown phenomenon here! All it takes is some roadworks to be taking place and for some odd, inexplicable reason we lose water for half a day or whatever! 

The girls leave, and poor Boo has been left indoors with me...she jumps up to her spot at the window (on top of the sofa-back, which is wrecked by said activity!) and cries as she watches the car reversing out of the driveway. When she jumps down, I know they have gone so I let her out...she will now sit like this at the gate till they come home.

Ah well...my coffee is finished and that ironing calls....

Hope you've had a good weekend!

Thanks to ALEXA for the inspiration to 'Share a Moment' every month

Thanks for dropping by!
Take care of you
Alison xx

ALL GOOD THINGS......

.....must come to an end and,sadly, SUSANNE has decided to wrap up her IN GOOD COMPANY party!

For the last year, she has invited us to make a layout or card using her chosen 'manufacturer of the month'....I have joined in most months (Jenni Bowlin caught me out!) and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of- some months- coming up with a LO using just one sheet of paper and some embellishments!

Susanne has likened it to deciding what party dress we'd like to wear...and allowed us to wear our own choice of  designer for the last party. Given that I like me a bit of 'MME', I have used a selection of their papers...and come up with this

My sister was determined to have a photograph of herself, me and our two brothers taken, as it is so seldom we are all  in the same place at the same time.

I used this sketch  from SCRAP FRIENDZY, designed by one of their ex -DT members KATHY

Thanks again for having hosted these 'parties' Susanne! 

Hope you've all had a good weekend...it's been a bit rainy here, but not to the extent it was forecast.

Thanks for dropping by!

take care of you

Alison xx

MIA

Just a quick post to say that I may be missing for a few days...having suddenly and unexpectedly had to take a trip to Scotland.

I had a phone call yesterday to tell me that dad had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia...I have seen him tonight and he is comfortable, but certainly unwell. Added to that, he and mum are due to move house in the next week or so.....but the new place still needs some work doing to it. As a family we feel it's important for them to get moved in as soon as possible, so it's 'all hands on deck' to make that happen.

As a result, I'm going to be here for about ten days.....I'll be lurking round the usual blogs, but maybe not commenting as much as usual!

Hopefully normal service will resume soon!

Thanks for dropping by!
Take care of you
Alison xx

Uplifted!

A very quick post to say thank you to everyone who left a comment on Saturday...they were all so very much appreciated, and I was able to go into Stuart's birthday feeling very uplifted.


We have survived another anniversary, with the love and caring thoughts of family and friends as always...not forgetting our memories!


Thanks for dropping by!
Take care of you
Alison xx