Stop growing now, I tell you.

I am the mum of 2 girls.  Over the years they have caused me great joy and also, tremendous sadness and grief.  This past 12 months have seem them grow; physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally.  We are coming to the end of our summer break and all of us have had a good time. 

My youngest is lanky and has nearly managed to be as tall as me.  :)  She is cheeky, clever, strong-willed and determined, to give her a few adjectives.  If you can capture her imagination and interest she just flies away and the sky is her limit.  Over the summer we decided to introduce a 'reading after bedtime' routine.  It has encouraged her to read books and she would even say she 'sort of' likes reading now.  She has spent hours playing at the 'Olympics' and devised many different sports that she has won gold in all of.  Her big sister is going to Senior School in September and she has had to adapt to what that means; no longer will they do everything together and TJ will have some privileges that she will have to wait for.  Her love of animals continue to grow and she has had the wonder of visiting a number of farms this August.

Our eldest might be physically smaller but everyone knows she is the eldest.  She can hold her own in any company and is learning to speak her mind.  Her independence has grown enormously as she has gone to church camp and spent a day at a riding stables.  An abiding memory I will have of her is saying 'Trot on Millie' to the horse that is refusing to do what it is told - TJ can make her.  Her love of books is as integral to her as breathing.  She is facing the massive change of Senior School with amazing strength and excitement (exactly the same characteristics she showed when we first adopted her - brave).  She can be the most amazing helpmate in any task and is often by our side helping out.  

My girls are the best of friends and worst of enemies.  That can change in a millisecond but this picture encapsulates how they have been this summer (2012).

So thanks girls for this summer.  I pray that God will continue to be with you and that you continue to grow in all ways as you are doing now.  I am sure that we will have our moments (we are red-haired for goodness sake) but it is a blessing to be regarded as your mum.

London 2012

The Olympics is over and I am missing it.  I enjoyed it and was proud of all the medals Team GB won, the most for over 100 years.  Hopefully, we will do as well in Rio. :)

My mum, put me on to this.  A montage of audio clips from the Olympics with some of the words from 'If' by Rudyard Kipling.

I am now looking forward to the Paralympics which starts in a few weeks time.  Unfortunately, I will be back at work and will not be able to watch it quite so much as the Olympics that have just finished.  Should be good though.

Let me recommend one for you.

Today was quite a day.  It included dropping off one daughter at a camp, visiting a Christian music festival, spending time with relatives and eating lots of bad food.

I also had to phone up the Tax Credit office to update some facts and figures.  I was, however, able to make the lovely operative's day when I knew what she was studying at University.  I managed to get the one person who was training to be a Cardiac Physiologist!  So my 'interested in anything medical' head was able to be really fascinated as she told me about the Echo scans, ECG etc she was learning to perform .  My 'patient' head could not believe that I cannot get away from Cardiology.  The funny thing about all of this is if I was not having the procedures I would love to watch what was going on as the structure and workings of the human body are totally amazing.

Oh, and in the course of the phone call I picked up yet another recommendation for a different 'top' Cardiology Hospital. :)  Life is funny.

Beautiful

Yes folks, it is official.  I have beautiful coronary arteries.  My aortic valve is somewhat dodgy, a little hole will need fixing and I may need a Stent (due to another birth defect), but I am proud to say I managed to get a room full of medics gush (excuse the pun) about my coronary arteries.

I managed to get through the angiogram without jumping off the table; the sedation gave me a warm "sitting in the sun"-kind of feeling (lets not talk about the 2 day long "electrical storm" that came afterwards as the drug worked its way out of my body!!).  Now I just wait for the results of all the tests and for an appointment to speak with the Cardiologist.

In the meantime I have to wait and not be tempted to give my Coronary Arteries a workout by running.  For the moment I will live vicariously through the Olympics.