Skip to main content

Moving up

So the summer holidays are drawing to a close and when we look back it seems to have flown by again. I've just dropped Izzy off at Aran's party and her old school mates look so grown up - you hardly notice it when you see them week to week but my goodness its obvious from month to month.




This week I've been off work and we have had such a lovely time. It seems to have been really busy - but my current mind-set is to take every opportunity to catch up with people as we just don't know what's around the corner.  This is stating the obvious but 2 weeks ago we said goodbye to 2 old friends - somewhat more distant than in the past but still both fondly remembered. The most emotional for me was to attend the funeral of my university friend Karen. It was a huge shock for me - Karen was my age with 2 young daughters and I remember her as someone so full of life. We had known she had been unwell for a long time with MS but it was cancer that got her in the end - crept up whe everyone was focused on the MS and took her so quickly. Glenn also said goodbye to one of his old friends from his days in London. Jack had beaten cancer once and was doing well, then as with Karen, was struck down and passed quickly. Two good, kind people - life doesn't seem fair. So as I said - we've been giving thanks for being happy and healthy and making sure if there is an opportunity to stop and catch up with friends, we take it.


Our jaunts this week have included a trip to Somerset to see everyone - always a treat. Glenn stayed at home to dog sit, he's always happier doing quick trips and seeing people on his terms, so we took 2 days and managed to squeeze a lunch in with old work mates from Bristol on the way down. The girls complained that 2 days "is not enough", and Abi in particular complained that she'd "rather go on my own Mummy, I get to do more" but regardless of this we had a lovely time. The weather has been great this week - well timed for once - and so Mum and Dad even got us into the Leat hand-dredging for pond weed. I notice I was neck deep in water and they were on the side or in waders! The girls procrastinated for a bit and then jumped in but I will admit that after an hour it was too cold to stay longer. A job best done in small amounts we agreed.


We managed to balance the time nicely between Mum & Dad's and Amanda's. When we went to Amanda's Ben tried on his 'big' school uniform for us - he looked so lovely! How can that little roly-poly baby boy be ready to go to secondary school already? I feel like all I ever write about here is how fast time flies but its so true! We chatted about the stage he's in - passing from primary to secondary with all the growing pains that brings. He's had his first run in with social media which ended a bit poorly, bringing up the question of how do you let them grow up and experience some of what is out there at the right time? None of us want our kids to be the odd one out, but yet neither do we want them growing up too fast and getting hurt. I guess our job as parents is to try and steer the line with them and be there to pick up the pieces when they inevitably fall. They do come through the other side. We popped in to see Kerrie in her new house on our way home. She's all settled in, happily nesting while Ryan is in the US for a few weeks. I hate to admit it but she's also in a new stage - watch out - there may be the sound of more little feet in the years to come!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...

Cough, cough

Izzy - can't do a photo without rude finger gestures It's fair to say that the last couple of weeks have been rough. I managed to get the cough Mum had a while back and it has been horrible! Both Dad and Glenn seemed to get a very mild version of it but Mum and I got the full dose and I can safely say that it has been a stark reminder of just how bad a viral infection can be. It also illustrates the whole Covid experience - some get it worse than others. For me it has meant that for over 2 weeks I have had the worst cough which has left me unable to sleep properly. I still can't sleep lying down fully, and have to be propped up on pillows on my back which is not my favoured sleeping position! It has also meant that Glenn has spent the last 10 days in the spare room because I have been coughing so badly he is unable to sleep in the same room. Thank goodness we didn't all have it - we'd have shaken the house to its foundations! It has also meant that I have been exhau...

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...