Murphy..who invited him?

You know Murphy is not a nice man at times. We had family dramas between siblings on Friday night that rocked my foundations. I worked on Saturday and I managed to old things in check until I was balancing the till, we had children running around yelling and in general making a lot of noise. Not being naughty but just being.

My side kick in my job came into the office and said "Hi, how are things?". I just shook my head and said nothing when she patted my shoulder, well that was it the flood gates opened and I sobbed, and sobbed, and, well you get the idea.

So I let out all the emotion that I had left from Fri night and was left feeling rather drained. I decided retail therapy was a good idea. DD wanted to join me. OK positive it is only 1 child and we can have quality time. Yes well, "I want"; "Can I have"; "MUM????X!!!!" Is it to late to get a refund on her (or him for that matter?) But that is OK I survived, managed to get me a nice outfit and the kids some new clothes and we enjoyed quality coffee and cake. Back to the car.

"Hello Murphy". The battery had died in the remote for the alarm for the car. OK we can look at this one of two ways. Yay for me, I rang Dave he was at home and could come to help. So we sat by the car in the sun reading a book until my knight in shining armour arrived, well a dusty work van at least. Could be worse.

Today woke with a rotten headache, I am off my antidepressant medication totally now. I had my last tablet on Thurs so I an having some withdrawal side effects that and hormones ohhh good mix, NOT. But this is alright I can get there. I check Sarah's hair head lice AGAIN no problem I love dealing with a 7 yo carrying on while I debug her hair again for the 5oth millionth time. We then go to a family do for Nephew B'day. Zach gets his nose out of joint and upset because the nephew will not share the Pstation and play a two player game. Kids are so much fun.

We get home and "Hello Murphy" Zach goes to make himself a milo, pours the milk in and, ohhh I don't think milk is supposed to have lumps like that. The fridge is ptttthhhhtzzzt. Positive, we have a beer fridge in the shed that works well and we do have money as stand by for savings.

I am surprised, a lot of small things are being tossed our way and in a not good way. For the first time in forever my mind set can cope with these things, yes I might melt a little, yes I might yell, and yes other non important things are ignored until I/We can cope with or attend to them.

I have decided that Murphy is not an invited guest but with him here in our life my perspective is sharper than I remember it being. Maybe Murphy needs to be here as I am coming off my medication to remind me life has curves, twists and bumps. I can laugh at Murphy as I can genuinely laugh at myself now..And a perfect statement I heard from dears friends reminds me,

IF THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT HAPPENS TO ME TODAY THEN I AM TRUELY BLESSED.

Saturday quickie

Just a quickie for all. Nothing like a quickie in the morning!!! I have not been doing alot of sewing of late but have been concetrating on my flowers for my Pinwheels and Posies BOM from Applewood.com this last while. I finished glue basting the last one last night. I shall then sit at my machine and sew the units together. The last block is due this month, so I am up to date with it all.....surely the age of miracles, oh you know the rest.

I have been busy with work and my fitness at TKD. I am more hands on at the NH with the computer these days than I am with the residents, so it is great for me when I get on the floor to do some "real" caring. Nursing would be great if it were not for the paper trail.

I have entered a marathon at the end of the month. My first one. It is the city to surf and I think it is 12km. I am not running, although my fitness instructor assures me I would do it easily. I am walking with a couple of my quilty friends.

Oh well my go and do teeth and get jumper on and go to TKD to do my Saturday job. I took this job as both the kids train on a Saturday, guess what they are not training so I get to go to work for me.

Heart String

I have made another heart string quilt. This one is for Jo a work colleague for my DH this time. Jo has breast cancer and will soon be undergoing either a lumpectomy or the more radical procedure of mastectomy, she is unsure yet of what is to come. I hope that this quilt will bring her some comfort.

The quilt was put together and quilted on my new machine. The blocks themselves came from Stephanie again. This quilt took longer than the one evening the other heart string quilt....3 days instead!!!

Weddings, birthday party, and my new toy

What a week I seemed to have worked almost non stop. In between juggling my 2 jobs, school holidays and my normal daily stuff, I helped a friend decorate for her boyfriends' 40th birthday party. Little did the majority of the guests know but there were to be an announcement to surprise one and all. First there was the "Thank you for coming, oh by the way we have just got engaged!!" and "Don't expect a wedding any time soon." Half and hour later walking into the room was the civil celebrant....."With the power etc...." and then they get married. The couples parents had no idea so there were a lot of screams, yells and tears. It was great night.

The only "down fall" of my busy schedule was that it prevented me getting intimate with my new toy
I brought myself a new Janome 6600p. I am still playing with it to figure out what it can do and I can do with it! But I competed my first project. I sewed a label for the quilt I have been working on and off for 2 years.

This quilt was made of scraps from my Bendigo signature quilt. Hundreds of scrap pieces joined together in long pieces, squared up then black borders placed around each block then cut on the skew. The quilting is a design the DH had played with using auto cad...just geometric shapes forming diamonds, stars, squares and kites.

Did you miss me?

The rain is falling outside, quite heavily too, I must get up and turn on a light but this is the first time in a while I have managed to get time in front of the puter long enough to side and update the blog. So I will and sit by the light of the monitor and continue to type.

Last weekend I have a get away with 9 other good friends. We went to Collingully, in Meckering, http://www.collingullycottage.com/, a wonderful "little" quilt shop with accommodation up stairs. We arrived around 330pm, after having to buy a new rear tyre in Northam, it had a 4" nail in the tyre that had eroded the inside away. Lucky to not have a blow out on the way, and of course the spare was in the boot, which was full with quilting essentials.

On arriving, after unpacking the car, I proceeded upstairs to put on my PJ's, of which I remained in all weekend!!! I showered Sat and proceeded to put on clean PJ's. Between us all we catered for the weekend, so every now and then we would get up reheat the next meal and then continue with the sewing.

On the weekend I manage to put together the majority of my scrappy oriental coins, need now to add borders. I then started to cut out the bits I needed to make the block for my Applewood BOM, "Pinwheels and Posies". I made 4 blocks of each. I then started to work on the Hydrangea flowers, 12 in total plus 72 leaves (not pictured).

I also stated to piece a bolster pillow that Lynley and I are working on. We will be working on it Saturday afternoon.

This last week I have started to decrease my antidepressants, I am hoping that I can come off them all together. My life style has changed a lot as well as my mental out look, and I feel that I am in a good place to try. I will have to go back to the Drs when I am on the lower dose to check my progress. At the moment I am alternating two doses to cut down, in another week I will be on the lower dose totally, should be interesting...that will be when I am hormonally challenged!!! Bring on TKD and the boxing bag!!!

Oh speaking of TKD I had grading two weeks ago and I am now a Yellow belt 2. Zach is a Red belt 1 and Sarah a Blue 2. David is a white belt in Kick boxing and has had his first lessons in the class....he was a little sore afterwards...oh I can empathise with that......I had days after I started fitness that I had trouble walking! The things we inflict of ourselves!!

Withdrawal

I have written about the retreat before. A month ago we had our retreat here in Perth. Lynley, Lyn, Stephanie and myself were the core committee for the retreat. Leading up to the retreat we were getting together weekly, preparing ourselves. Since the retreat we have gone back to having our fortnightly quilting GTG's.

I had been feeling that something was missing in the last few weeks. Finally put two and two together. I was missing my friends. Today we were all at Lyn's to help her make a quilt for a friends child, and we were all in the same predicament. It is amazing how small things that seem every day can make such an impact on your life when they are not there.

So this is to and for all my friends that have and continue to impact on my life.......sisters and family of choice.

Epic admissions

What a week. I feel mentally exhausted. I had a go at my dear DH last weekend. I spoke, nay, I told him off for his continuing lack of enthusiasm, or joy in life itself. His ease at irritation at the children, basically his overall apathy of life in general. He does not sleep well, nor does he look after himself.

I finally got an admission from him that yes he does have a problem with his general mood (depression) and he did need to do something about it. It has only taken me 10 years to actually have him admit this. I am so proud of him for finally admitting that he is fallible, unlike me!!!!! VBG.

The children had a tournament on Sunday to trial out for the State team. While they did not make the team they did get a silver (Sarah) and a bronze (Zach) medals. DH was talking to some of the other TKD parents and one of them mentioned to him that he should try Freestyle at TKD.....TKD with out the patterns and self defence component, more fitness and sparring. DH jokingly turned to one of the other DH's and said about joining and this DH (bless him) said you should give it a go.

Something sunk in, with the admission of depression and the encouragement from a fellow male, Dave has started Freestyle, he had his 1st private lesson on Wed and will have another one this coming week. The kids are over the moon that Dad is joining in, this is becoming a family thing.

On the not so bright side I went to see the Dr yesterday to see about a blemish on my breast, she found a lump, that was no where near the blemish. She did not seem to be too concerned but I am having a ultrasound next week with a possible fine needle aspiration if needed. I am not loosing sleep but when I am sitting quietly I am tending to worry a little. On the positive side breast cancer or cancer in general is not known within the family...........................Oh well at least I am busy for the next week, work, work, sewing, TKD, work and maybe a little cleaning!!