birthdays, injuries and teeth

Had a lovely birthday.  Loads of lovely pressies - people are so kind to me.  Didn't even wake up until 0845 and Rick brought me a cup of tea in bed.  Then the four children at home piled in and we sat in bed while I opened my pile of presents.  Lots of running stuff, including a Garmin (wow - I really am a runner now) and lovely thoughtful things from the children.  Another thing which Rick bought me was a book by Jeff Galloway named "Marathon - you can do it"!!!!!!  I set myself goals when I have a birthday and one this year is to do more running.  Other goals are more personal but as usual include weight loss and growing as a Christian.
18yos was supposed to be serving at a breakfast at the hotel where he works but his shift was cancelled so he was able to be at home for my birthday, which was really nice.  Missed the other two boys though.

We went out for a lovely walk along the sea shore and took tomato soup and french bread with us for our picnic.  Unusually it was a really nice day - it's normally pouring down on my birthday.  The only thing to put a slight damper on the day was that Rick fell on some rocks and got a deep cut in his hand which bled quite a lot - I had to walk back and get the car and pick them up at the side of the road and drive home to dress it and put some steri-strips on it.

The coast line we walked on was really stunning - the tide was just coming in.  There are little islands dotted around too which make it really interesting. We also walked up a little hill with a viewpoint on top and could see all around.

 Rick managed to loose the ball over a fence and we had some fun retrieving it as the fence was electric!

 Here is a picture of Rick's wound after it had been dressed.  Will take a little while to heal!
This morning I spent another morning with the District Nurses.  Probably the last time I will wear my student uniform.  I enjoyed it although if I worked in the community I think I would really miss the buzz of a ward. The children and Rick seem to get on well with the work while I am away - 7yos managed 7 pages of maths this morning.
                                                

Anyway - the hard work will be finding a job.  This evening 7yos came home from his choir practice with two wobbly teeth - one fell out just after he had gone to bed.  He is a dramatic little chappy and was really chuffed that he had lost another tooth.  He has a concert with his choir in two weeks which will be the first time he has sung in a choir concert.

early birthday and flooded carparks

Nice day today.  Did quite a bit of work this morning then the children went to the textile workshop to make some Christmas presents.  We found a nice recipe for some sweets we can make as presents too.  I made pumpkin soup for lunch which was nice.  Just after lunch 18yos arrived for a couple of days.  He has come to make an early birthday tea for me as he won't be here on my birthday.  He also brought me some flowers - I am so spoiled.  Just now I am sitting writing this while he lays the table nicely and makes my favourite meal.  Not often I get to sit down while tea is being prepared as usually I am making it!

When he arrived 18yos told us that there was a lot of flooding in the village.  We went and looked out of our second floor window to see that the river has burst it's banks and flooded into the car park and the paths around and all over the fields.  Rick went out for a run later and saw that the two footbridges and the road bridge over the river were closed, there were three cars submerged and some of the houses on the other side were flooded.  There are police everywhere and a "flood response unit" sitting in the square.  All the rain we have had, plus the water flooding into the river from the hills was just too much.  All very dramatic.  7yos and 11yod were sent home from orchestra early as only 8 children had arrived because of the flooding.  Some of the children at the school won't be able to get home at the moment because the flooding outside the village means access to some of the places in the hills is impossible.

wood and windscreens

What a busy day today.  Saturdays are often jam packed but this one just seemed to have so many events in. This morning 11yod and 13yos went to swim club as usual at 8.30.  I got up and went for a 6.2 mile run which was lovely in the late autumn sunshine.  While I was out my nephew and 7yos went to see my parents. I asked 7yos if he wanted to come on his bike while I did my run but he didn't want to leave his big cousin alone going to Nana and Grandad's - I thought that was very sweet of him.  We had a relatively early lunch and our nephew left to get the ferry to where he was staying overnight. We decided to visit our allocated woodpile in the forest this afternoon to bring back a trailer load.  The children (and a friend) enjoyed travelling in the trailer on a bit of the forest road.

While 13yos and Rick loaded the logs onto the trailer the other three children and I went looking for pine cones for some Christmas craft we have in mind.  We found lots of small ones which will do and the children had a great time playing for a while. The cones are currently drying in front of the log burner.  I love the forest!
The big spoke in the wheel (or log in the window) was that one of the logs was quite long and almost touched the back window so when we drove around the corner to leave the logging area we heard a tremendous bang as the log had pushed in the back windscreen!  It had shattered everywhere, mostly inside the boot.  So we had to drive home with no back windscreen.  Bit frustrating but at least no one was hurt.  It can't be fixed until Tuesday as the nearest windscreen place the insurance uses is 70 miles away and they have to send away for it.   We had fun when we got back home, taking off the canoe racks and I cautiously edge the van in under the alley way, with Rick hanging off the back to lower the van so that it didn't scrape along the top of the gateway!  At least it is out of the way of the wind and rain in there and should be safe!  Fun and games

We did some more practicing tonight for our singing tomorrow night, and arranged lifts as we can't use the car.

Shoebox Service

We went to the Operation Christmas Child shoe box service this evening at the Church of Scotland.  It was really good to see all the shoe boxes people had prepared and to see so many local groups performing a song/act etc.  13yos was helping with welcoming people and sorting shoe boxes and his youth fellowship did a really good clip at the end.  They used luminous gloves to mime to the song "Who am I".

11yod and 7yos sang with their Tuesday Bible club group...........

....... and also with their junior youth fellowship, which was a much bigger group

Today was also Save the Children charity day and our dear friend Aunty Myra bought the three children Pudsy Bear cup cakes in a local cafe and dropped them in at lunch time.  It was a lovely thing to do - we appreciate her very much.

Here are 7yos and 11yod with the cup cakes at lunch time today. This evening it was also good to have my nephew arrive for a couple of nights.  We don't see him very often and it is nice when he comes (not least because we get to pinch a little of the chinese takeaway he brings with him)  This visit was particularly exciting for the children as he brought Christmas presents from my sister ready to go under the tree.  

Birthday and Christmas - fabulous present

Had a wonderful early Christmas and birthday present yesterday from my parents-in-law.  A new laptop to replace the one which died in August.   So now no more using everyone else's computers.  I am so grateful!!!

Haven't run for a couple of days as my hip has been a little sore.  Hope to go out in the morning and do 6.2 miles and then do a forest run on Sunday morning.   Bit behind schedule on the running front. Did a lot of walking around the village yesterday - walked 7yos to his choir, 11yod to her pantomime dress fitting, then walk back home for 15 minutes, then walk to a meeting a 7yos's choir, then walk up to the swimming pool to pick 11yod from her swimming club.  It is good to be busy -  Been doing quite a lot of sewing as trying to get some presents made for Christmas. 

On Wednesday we travelled 50 miles to the nearest ice skating rink as there was a home education group meeting there.  The children really enjoy ice skating and it is always good to see their home educating friends.  There were a number of new families there which is nice. It's always good to see everyone.  One of the families have parents who are also runners and they are in our running club.  The mum was telling me that she has entered her first ultra marathon next year - the Highland Fling, which is one that Rick has run twice.  I am really impressed.  It's a great day out, even if you are just supporting and I hope she has a really good time.

Rain, rain and more rain

Many times I comment that the reason we live in such a beautiful part of the world is because of all the rain we have.  Rain contributes to natural beauty in so many ways - swollen rivers, varieties of greenery, tumbling waterfalls, and the amount of wildlife which live in the area.  We have certainly had our fair share of rain over the last week and the forecast is for more.  Rick went out for a run this morning with his running buddies into the forest and came back soaking.  We were going to go out this afternoon and gather some pine cones but it is really pouring down now and getting dark already so we will go another day.  We have a Christmas present plan for our pine cones!
The children are watching a nature programme at the moment - there are so many good programmes on made these days and we really like the nature ones.
If the rain keeps up as heavy as it is I may not run this evening as my leg is quite sore today - not sure why but might be as well to rest it for a few days.

The above is a photo of Rick (in the middle) with some of the other running club members at the 10k he ran on Saturday when he managed to get his 10kPB.  Think this is before the run as they don't look sweaty enough for after.  

head torches and barbed wire

Went for what was supposed to be a 4 mile run in the dark this evening but it ended up being a 1.5 mile run and a 1.5 mile walk as my running friend tripped over some barbed wire and wood which had been flung onto the bridleway.  She was very fortunate not to hurt herself anymore than a scraped nose and bleeding lip and chin.  We walked home as she was a little shaken.