Thought for Today

If you know someone that is fighting to survive, or you think that they may be loosing that fight, get in touch with them.  Help them.  Be there for them.  Get them in touch with someone who can help. Visit www.pieta.ie or some other support services.  Tell them that their life is worth fighting for.

Mental health is everyone's problem.  Mind the people you love. Reach out to those that seem a little lost. Or, if you feel lost, just ask for help. 

Thought for the Day

T Minus 14 Days

Oh Holy Moly... There are only 14 days to go.  As I type this I am squeaking.  It's embarrassing.  Every time I think of the wedding, I get over excited and squeak. I want to jump up and down and squeak away to my hearts content.  Which is great! Once I am in the privacy of my own home.  But if, for example, I am sitting in the office working away quietly and then a wedding thought pops into my head, well, it can get a bit awkward!

Himself is back from his stag.  It was a three day affair (longer than the planned wedding celebrations I'd like to point out) and I think they sort of broke him.  Not physically. But possibly emotionally.  He hasn't been right since he came home.  He's a shell of a man! Three days of drinking has taken it out of him, although surprisingly, as we have gotten closer to the week anniversary of the "Best Weekend of his Life" he has started to wish he could do it all again.  There's rumblings of repeating the weekend next St Patrick's weekend. As long as there's no Mankini, I think it would be fine!  Yes, Mankini. A Mans Bikini. It's not a pretty sight. I don't recommend you even google it. But they put him in a Mankini.  I saw a picture, full frontal of course, and the image is forever ingrained on my memory. It's not a happy memory....

Lets not think of such dreadful things!!

While himself was off having the best weekend of his life, I was also having a pretty damn good time.  My wonderful friend Bianca and her beautiful Mum Allison came ALL the way from Australia to celebrate our national holiday with me.  Well, to be fair, it wasn't just for that, they are also seeing a little bit of Europe for a couple of weeks, but I like to think that everything is all about me. At least for the next 14 days!  We drank and ate and danced and I showed off my lovely dress.  It was great fun. 

So as I am running out of weekends, it is full steam ahead for the next two weeks.  Mostly with meeting people for lunch, getting nails and eyebrows done and all sorts of lovely lady things! Isn't it wonderful?

Woohoo! We're nearly there!

Happy Mothers Day to my Mum

Today is the day that children all over the UK and Ireland dedicate to their mums.  It's the day where mum's get breakfast in bed, home made cards (sometimes even when the child is a grown up!) and get spoiled by the children they made.

I have a particularly amazing mum.  I know that I am quite biased on that front, and you will probably argue that your mum is the best, but I don't care. I know that my mum IS the best.

She is one of the most beautiful women I know.  She is kind, loving and forever selfless.  She has always put the happiness of me and my siblings miles and miles ahead of her own.  She is a quite and unassuming lady that would never fight or argue. But if she thinks for one second someone is attacking her babies, she will change quite quickly into a fighter. She is supportive in everything I do, even the mistakes.  She taught me to stand on my own two feet, believe in myself, even when she didn't always believe in herself.  She helped me to become compassionate, thoughtful and tried very hard to instill in me 'think before you speak'... not necessary the most successful lesson learned, but I still try.

My mum is wise and compassionate.  She would walk the earth a million times over to make someone she loves happy.  And she taught me to do that too.  She taught me that loyalty and respect for others were the most important qualities in a person, apart from manners.  Manners cost nothing but are worth everything.  She also taught me that it is easier to forgive someone than to hold on to the anger and bitterness caused by a grudge.

As I prepare to get married, I realise that while my mum is just another lady to most people, she's the most important lady I have ever, or will ever, know and I would be much less a person I am today but for her.

So today mum, while I can't be with you to spoil  you, I would like to say a huge thank you.  Thank you for always wiping my tears, making me laugh, standing beside and behind me when I need it, pushing me forward and leading me on. Thank you for being my friend, but more importantly, thank you for never letting our friendship get in the way of you being my parent. Thank you for shaping me into the person I am and instilling a sense of loyalty, compassion, respect and ambition in me.

Happy mothers day.  You are, without a doubt, one of God's treasures.  I love you.

Thought for today

Thought for Today

Thought for the day

True true!

Still in Recovery

My Hen party is over! Super sad face! I can't believe it went so quickly, and I'm still in recovery! I am not as able as I once was!

I did not stop smiling from 1245 on Friday the 1 March until... Well, I am still smiling actually!

On Friday my wonderful mum and little sister arrived and we had lunch with my grandmother and then came home to my house to get organised for my big night. My very talented make up artist (yes, mine! All mine and willing to share) came to do some tans and eye lashes - two things I have none of! And to sort out the caterpillars (or hitler moustaches if you speak to one of my bridesmaids) I call eyebrows.

We opened wine while we waited our turn and I made dinner.

It was lovely having my mum and sister meet with my bridesmaid and another of my closest friends and have them all getting on.

Then it was my turn to get my tan done! Oh Jesus I don't know what came over me! She had the tanning tent up and ready to go and told me to get stripped and hop in and she would just fix the gun and get started.

While she fiddled about with the tanning gun, I got stripped! And I mean it, I got stripped! The poor divil turned around to spray me and was left with the image of me with my back to her, arms out, legs akimbo and my big bare white arse mooning up at her in all it's glory!

As I said, I don't know what came over me! It's not like I've never had a spray tan before! And you know the worst bit? I didn't even notice till she started and I thought "something doesn't feel right". And then when I realised what I'd done, sure I couldn't tell her to stop and wait till I put my ninnies back on! So I let her continue while I tried not to shake with laughter!

Awkward is not the word!

But naked tanning aside it was a lovely start to my brilliant weekend!

My bridesmaids arrived laden down with bubbles and badges and veils and sashes! I was dickies up to the nines and have once again concluded that every outfit should have a veil!

The girls did a wonderful job! The venue was beautiful the food was amazing and the lady that taught us all to dance to Proud Mary was hilarious!

I am very grateful to my wonderful ladies and can't wait till we all get together again for the wedding!

A big thank you to all that came and helped me feel incredibly special!

A very special thank you to my almost 85 year old grandmother who also helped celebrate! I was very proud to have her there in all the hen gear and laughing and joking with everyone! Definitely a special moment to have a grandmother in a hen party tie listening to you answering some pretty darn embarrassing Mr and Mrs questions!!!

Here's me dickied up to the nines! And one of my nana with some of my beautiful aunts and my mum!

Here's to the next 27 days flying in!!!

Eyes Wide Open

Two Saturday's ago was a learning weekend for me.  Some might say an eye opener. 

I had the pleasure of taking care of my darling Buns for the weekend.  For those of you who don't know who the buns are, they are my two year old twin godsons (one is an honorary godson the other is an actual godson).  They are beautiful.  Their names are Connor and Aaron, or according to Aaron, Connor's name is Baby and according to Connor, Aaron's name is Gannon.  They also have a dog that's been called Penny for the last 19 years but is now suddenly KiKi!

This is the first time I've had the pleasure of the two boys without their wonderful Mama on the scene to keep things ticking along smoothly.  Oh holy mother of god!

These two are crazy.  They are wired to the moon and every other planet in our solar system.  They are funny and affectionate.  They are busy.  Very busy.  They don't stop talking all day long (something they have clearly picked up from their mother, along with a temper that could demolish a living room and it's contents!). They have the funniest little accents and are obsessed with car washes.  All they talk about are car washes.  Until they see one.  Then they are afraid of it and they cry.  As I said, eye opener!

The biggest lesson I learned that weekend will stay with me all the days of my life. And probably Aaron's too.  I think to say myself and the child are traumatised is an understatement.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.  You know when you get a few minutes of quite and your mind wanders? Well mine wanders to "The Incident"...

I have been quite proud of the fact that I had managed to make it loving these two little people for 30 months without once every having to change a number two nappy.  It was an achievement I thought.  And I accepted that if I had them for the weekend, I would at least have to change 4 of them.  Thinking that 1 number 2 per day per child was an acceptable quota. It's not. I felt like I changed about a billion of them.  If I didn't know any better I'd say their mother told them to hold on for dear life until I came and then let loose.

Anyway, I digress, "The Incident".  When I dressed the Aarron bun, I put a vest and t-shirt, Jumper and Jeans on him.  It was a little thermal vest that I tucked into his jeans.

Mid-afternoon it was nap  time. So I brought them up to bed and put them in their little cots in their lovely bedroom and said "night now" and ran down the stairs looking forward to a cup of tea and some quite time. I could hear them talking to one another "Hello Carwash", "Bye Bye Car wash" etc.  Then it changed to "Bye bye yuk". I thought Aaron was saying bye bye truck. He wasn't. He started to cry. I went to him. I wish I hadn't.

When I got upstairs, I realised he was actually saying bye bye yuck because in the middle of the bedroom floor was a nappy.  Not an open nappy, it was sitting there are if it was on the arse of an invisible child.  Still done up in perfect shape.  I thought, damn it, he's after going for a pooh and taking off his nappy.

Thats not what happened.

The nappy was clean.  He was still saying bye bye yuck.  I couldn't piece together what I was seeing.  I couldn't make my brain understand that he had somehow wiggled out of his nappy and had clearly pooh-ed but where?  Then I saw it.

Yes, you guessed.  Aaron wasn't alone in his cot.  He was accompanied by a number two on his blanket.  I heaved. I couldn't beleive that I would acutally have to touch this.  I assume that when you have had a part in making the arse that makes such a mess you are less inclined to wretch.  I had no hand in this process and therefore I nearly vomitted all over the place.  Way out of my depth.  I told him that this was all very uncivilised and things needed to change.

I got the place cleaned up. But naturally, the Aaron Bun was as traumatised as I was and he refused to nap.  And in turn, the Connor Bun decided that he wasn't napping either. So we all went downstairs and I dreamed of a pooh free day!!!

Moral of the story? Never ever ever put a nappy wearing child in a vest that doesn't button between their legs.  Ever....