BORDER CROSSING BLOG BIRTHDAY RUN!

It's your birthday, it's your birthday, we gon party like it's yo birthday.
Well as it is Maid In Cornwall's birthday I celebrated in style - by going out for a wonderfully sunny long run today. The weather could not have been better, clear skies, slight chill in the air and a lovely 13 mile loop planned to take in the amazing countryside.
It has to be said I did not pick a flat route but when can you when you live in these parts?! At 4.5 miles the altitude changed from 150ft through to 500ft within 1.5 miles. Think these mud runs are helping my training so much as I just kept ploughing on up, neither wanting or needing to rest up.
I went along country roads, only saw 1 cyclist and no runners whatsoever. I did however go right past Avril's home @eightsmd and stopped for a quick chinwag! Then off up the mighty hill.
Views along the route were amazing:

No iPod, no running buddy, no distractions and I have to say I enjoyed it. This time of year is somewhat prominent for me as 9 years ago I grew from being what I can only describe as "the old Lara" to "the new Lara". A heart wrenching experience had to help me along the way and yesterday's anniversary never gets forgotten. It helped me to grow as an individual and helped me to understand alot about myself and my relationships with others. Basically it sent me back to my core, it was hard, so very hard.

Day's like today make you feel the simple joys, the joy of your body getting stronger, your mind overpowering those thoughts of stopping as you incline a tough hill and for the ultimate pleasure of just being. I have my family who give me so much love, support and joy. Two boys I am privileged to share my life with and a man who continues to encourage and support me in all that I do without stifling me. Friends who "get me", as well as a sister, nieces, nephews, in laws, mother, father & extended family members all near.
Blessed - me, yes I think so.

JANATHON - WAS GOOD WHILE IT LASTED!

Myself & Janathon were getting along just fine until a week or so ago when my neck randomly decided to go into muscle spasm overnight.
It has taken a week for me to feel "normal" again and able to exercise in comfort.
I'm afraid not only my neck suffered but my Janathon jogging, blogging and logging suffered too, I neglected you and now feel like I did you a disservice.

It was great while it lasted though, thoroughly enjoyed the encouragement and general support from other Janathoners on Twitter as well as the feeling of getting my training off to a great start. With my marathon on 6th May and a half marathon on 26th February and 4th March I was into my stride.

So even though I have not executed Janathon as it was intended I still feel I gave it my best whilst I could. The hardest part for me was the blogging each day, finding something of interest to say about my activity that day was sometimes harder than others. There were days when out on a run that I had the opportunity to show readers & twitter followers the gorgeous sections of our coastline that I have been lucky enough to run throughout January. I filled blog posts with the sheer joy of running our lovely North Cornish coastline.
There were days when swimming a mile in the pool could not be expanded much further than just documenting that detail.
Nevertheless I enjoyed the experience while it lasted, a short but sweet experience.

Today has been a weird one really, as I was taken to task by a parent whilst doing the school run (for matters relating to a PTA event I am helping to organise), missed my pilates class for one reason or another and then had to re-organise childcare for TJ as my mum could not collect him after saying that she could!! I did however get to have lunch with friends, celebrating Mrs C's birthday and enjoyed a wee Bucks Fizz - in the middle of the day I might add!!!!

All in all an early night is on the cards, looking forward to tomorrow as a long run looks set to come to fruition and it is MY BLOG'S BIRTHDAY!!!! It will be 1 year old tomorrow!!

1,2,3,4...........wowsers how did we get here!

My little man saw the arrival of his 4th birthday yesterday. Not like it was unexpected or anything, he had been talking about it non stop since his brother's birthday in June!!! Every conversation in the last few months has pretty much commenced with the words, "When I'm 4, I will..........." Why is it that when we are young we so desperately want to be older and when we are advancing in years we seem to hark back to our younger years?! C'est la vie.

It was a fun packed day, with a young boy who was so very excited by presents, by "the best party" at the local playzone and by being the centre of attention all day.

2008

2008

2009

2009

2010



Birthday 2011

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JT

Quite profoundly taken aback by how emotional I was feeling on Tuesday as my “big boy” turned 7. For some reason this changing of years from 6 to 7 seems like a huge leap, mainly for me. My sense of pride when I saw him come into our room at 6.30am to open his presents was magnified this year, his sheer joy at opening his presents whilst saying “ah thanks” for each one opened. I loved it when he said “you remembered when I said I liked that, thank you” made my heart just fill with deep love for this lovely boy.
I remember so vividly my pregnancy, birth and first moments with my eldest son. The pregnancy was an anxious one for us as we had to say goodbye to little Emily at 20 weeks gestation, 18 months previously. Due to being hospitalised during and after Emily’s birth, I was adamant that I wanted a home birth for this child, luckily the midwives in Bude were very pro home births and were well versed in home birth procedures and I had much faith in my midwife, Chris Edwards.
A 20 week scan unfortunately showed 2 anomalies at JT’s scan and I was sent to Bristol for further scanning, unfortunately this is what happened with Emily, as you can imagine I was an emotional wreck until we had some good news that they would monitor the cyst and his kidney development and would hope that it would rectify itself by the 30 week scan I was booked in for. Still, a tense 10 weeks past before we had the all clear and I knew that my baby was in the clear – phew!
I remember the home birth with happy memories, was a very warm day and I spent some time in the bath with the window open listening to the voices of people and life going by, little snap shots of that day stick with me. Mr T was there for me as and when I needed / wanted him, at times I just wanted to be alone and others just with Chris (my midwife).
Eventually after 14 hours, my little man arrived, delivered in the bathroom, which to this day causes much laughter with JT as he was almost born on the toilet!!

JT - 1 day old x

Just made me realise how lucky I am to have my two healthy boys and am privileged to be able to be part of watching these lives develop and have learnt so much from becoming a mother,  that I count my blessings a little more today.

A LITTLE CRAFTY

I have been procrastinating when it comes to sewing recently as there never seems to be enough time to just sit and start a project, let alone finish one. Last weekend was a rare occurrence but one that filled me with joy and when Mr T commented in a positive way I knew the girl had done good!! I love getting a lovely bit of fabric and working it into something I am proud of and that will adorn a corner of my home or someone else’s.

I was inspired by my recent visit to Rosemoor Gardens Craft Fair near Torrington, where http://aminnybouquet.co.uk/ was exhibiting her wonderful crafts, making me want to shut myself away in my room to explore the stacks of fabric I have accumulated. Last weekend I spent an hour at my much neglected and has to be said dusty machine - I know I should make a cover for it, that is project number 2!!!



Gorgeous fabric!




Trusted if somewhat dusty friend



This wonderfully vintage fabric was picked up in a charity shop well over 6 months ago.  In it’s previous life it was a set of curtains, but I had other plans for it!  It has now been re-worked and is going to be winging it’s way to a lovely little someone, sometime soon as there are what seems to be an influx of birthday’s in June. I will not show you the finished piece as it may be viewed by people who are going to be receiving, hence the photo of just the fabric itself, but what a fine piece of fabric it is!!

Not only is it Mr T’s and JT’s birthday’s, my father, my niece, my brother in law, many friend’s at the boys school and pre school have birthday’s as well as it being Father’s Day in amongst that lot. In order to keep ahead of the game, I was able to spend some time at the machine last weekend to check one present off the list – phew!  

CEL-E-BRATE GOOD TIMES – COME ON!

Oh what a night, or should I say nights!! A weekend filled with dancing, apple sourz shots, laughter, great food and catching up with old friends. The things that weekends are made for.

Friday night saw the girls coming over for some drinks before heading into town for yet more drinks and a boogie. We entered the Carriers Inn and immediately I was transported back 17+ years to when I frequented it every weekend and where Mr T and I had many happy memories as spotty and badly dressed teenagers who were having the time of their lives. We even managed to bag the very same spot that we used to “hang out” in, the window sill by the door was always the area that myself and friends would congregate – oh happy memories. Thankfully I believe my dress sense has matured somewhat but unfortunately the drinking seemed to demonstrate that part of me had not. Someone suggested Apple Sourz shots, to which my reply was “Let’s do it!” – oh how I wish that had been retracted, to my knowledge I believe there were 4 shots that past my lips – not big and not very clever I can assure you. Had a wonderful night and certainly felt nearer 17 that night than I did the following morning – less said the better!

Saturday night was another opportunity to socialise, a slightly quieter affair with a meal at Life’s A Beach with friends that we don’t see as often as we would like to. Beautiful Cornish baked crab for starters and a deliciously cooked Bass for main to celebrate Jamie’s 40^th. Lovely jubbly. http://www.lifesabeach.info/