Im back

Im here, blogging, at long last. I think this is the longest break ive ever had from blogging, its not really been intentional, there are just always other things that need done and blogging is the first thing to go. My return to work probably coincided with my blogging hiatus. I work 25 hours a week as a project coordinator for a charity and that, along with 2 kids, a husband, 2 rabbits and all the household 'stuff' pretty much fills all my time. I just logged into my Bloglovin' account though and i see many of the blogs i follow have also been on a bit of a break too. Funny how that happens!

Lets see if i can remember some things that have happened since i last blogged back in June.

-We had the hottest July i can remember and i spent a fabulous week at our church camp in the glorious sunshine. Arriving at camp in shorts and vest tops at 8am and still in the same leaving at 10pm at night is unheard of for me. This is Scotland! It was really great.

-On the 11th August our family increased by 2. We got bunnies! Here are Hippy and Hoppy :)

- Matthew and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.

- We went away to Centre Parcs in the lake district and had a lovely time. I even had time to read some of a book *gasp*

- I got glasses for reading and using the computer, which has made me feel like im getting old.

- The jogging group I started in the village where i live celebrated its first anniversary!

- I finished some stitching! Caleb's nursery class has 3 teachers and i thought id stitch for them all. These actually took me a lot longer than i anticipated but they were finished in time.

Lizzie Kate design

The back

In parliament

I have no good reason as to why ive been away from blog land for over 2 months! Im trying to think back and recall anything particularly blog-worthy but there's nothing, life has just been really busy!

In May we spent a week on the beautiful isle of Arran. We can see across to Arran from where we live and its only a 30min car ride then an hours boat crossing but we've never been, despite having wanted to for years. It didnt disappoint! Beautiful scenery, idyllic beaches, tranquil little villages. We loved it and will definitely go back. We will climb Goatfell one day when the boys are old enough to walk that far!

This month i went back to work having been off now on 'maternity leave' for 2 years. This week (my 2nd week in the job) i got to down to London and amongst other meetings, attend a reception in the House of Commons!!! I've stood outside the Houses of Parliament loads of times and had the usual tourist photos under Big Ben etc but i have never been inside on 'official business.' I was pretty awestruck!

Getting organised

The school year has just begun and im thinking about the end already. I bought this chart to stitch for Caleb's teacher. Knowing how long it takes me to stitch anything i thought i'd just get organised and start now in the hope that it'll be stitched and finished into something by the end of June :) I can do that, right?!

I haven't posted in a few weeks mainly because we were without internet at home for over a week. I sure realised how much i rely on it; for food shopping, paying bills, contacting friends....i was lost without it!

Lets see, what have we been doing...

I ran another 10K race and got a new PB! 60minutes 7 seconds. Im documenting it here so i dont forget. I have no more races planned until May now.

We took a long weekend break to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary back at the beginning of the month. We travelled just an hour over the water to Drimsynie and had a nice wee time together. The views were beautiful and it was nice to break the cycle of the norm! 4 days was enough though, we started to feel a bit cooped up in the caravan with 2 small kids.

I completed my Jogscotland Jogleaders training and i am now qualified. I have started up my own business called Just Jog and am starting my first running group on Monday. Lets hope some people turn up! See my previous post for the link to the facebook page, go like it :)

I have some work on the horizon which i am super excited about; some sessional work with a charity that encourages active/healthy lifestyles through jogging. Totally perfect for me! Ive had a year off now and im ready to do something else. 1 or 2 days a week would be good.

Caleb is enjoying his new nursery and ive made a great new group of mummy friends there. We've got lots of social things planned in the next few months as a group; dinosaur digs at the science centre, a disco/party night for us mums, a party with Santa at the famous toy store Hamleys for mums and kids. Its gonna be great.

Its my baby boys 1st Birthday 2 weeks today!! Where has that year gone? I am having a 1st Birthday party lunch for him and other wee baby friends so i need to start thinking about that.

So thats about it. Apologies for this rather bitty post, ive written it over the course of about a week, adding a few lines here and there. Have a good weekend :-)

Summer wrap up

We've made it!!! *cheers* The end of the summer holidays. I am so very very glad. That was a long 7 weeks trying to entertain two small children. Caleb needs to go back to nursery; he's bored, Aaron annoys him and his behaviour has gradually deteriorated through the course of the 7 weeks. Last week was a hellish week i have to say (he wasn't well). He's excited about starting his new preschool nursery and seeing his friends. I am excited to be getting back into a routine and not having to come up with morning and afternoon activities day after day (he's only there 9-11.30, but it's a great help!)

After saying all that, we have had fun and kept very busy.

We spent a lot of time:

At various parks

Out walking

In the garden

In the sunshine (there was some sunny weather!)

A few trips (to Loch Lomond and the Fire Engine Museum)

And to the local soft playcentre (which made a small fortune through July with all the wet weather)

Of course we also spent a lot of time at friends houses (i'd have been lost without my friends Bev and Becky this summer), had people over to play, got to know our neighbours better and spent time with family.

This week Matthew is away on business so im prepared for a busy, exhausting week ahead but at least every morning will be tantrum-throwing-toddler free! Now just to off load the baby somewhere ;-)


p.s Do you know how hard some of your blogs are to comment on? The settings are crazy and the cryptic word codes impossible to read at times!

6 months today!

Well this little boy is 6 months old today! He has started solids, has 2 teeth, is so smiley and we love him to bits! Its amazing how much development there is in the first year of life. Happy half Birthday Aaron!

We were away over Easter. We spent a few days with good friends in a lovely house in Wootton Bassett. 14 adults and 8 children! Normally its just us ladies that meet up for weekends away so it was lovely to have a family weekend this time and let the kids all get to know each other!

My friend organised lots of fun activities for the kids; den building, bonfire building, a scavenger hunt, an easter egg hunt. It was great! 

All that outdoor living has put us in a more outdoorsy mood and when we got home we went and bought a Chiminea so we could have some mini bonfires in our back garden. Caleb and DH had good fun collecting and chopping wood from the forest behind our house. 

Just a few days of the Easter holidays left now before the nursery school runs start again. Its been a good Easter!

Away for a week

Tomorrow we are off to Center Parcs in the Lake Distrcit for a week and i can't wait! This is our accommodation.The last few months have been hard going with the pregnancy and work stress and getting our place up for sale so a break from the everyday norm is just what we need! We're hoping to do lots of biking and swimming amongst many other activities. Caleb's going to love it. Im looking forward to quiet evenings watching films, reading and stitching (no wine unfortunately). I wanna finish that birth sampler for my nephew.

Advent Blog

I had a lovely weekend away with the greatest friends ever. We did venture out for a wee wander into the nearest town (Clitheroe) on the Saturday but we mostly stayed in the beautiful cottage, in front of the log burner and ate and drank and caught up on life. Followed by some compulsory tv viewing (Strictly and Xfactor) whilst eating a curry. Good times. My friend Sal (in the black coat) and my sis (in the white coat) are both pregnant so we had a little baby shower for them too which was fun.

You may have heard of NoBloPoMo? Well,my friend Lori has invented DeBloAdMo which stands for December Blog Advent Month. It's basically a Blog Advent Calendar. "Post every day in the month of December until Christmas one special idea you can do as a family, a couple or a group of friends. Of if you're really clever, post a wee thought each day about Christmas or something." I think i'll try and do this! Feel free to join in :-) Let me know so i can follow your posts though!

Home from hols

We're home! Had a fab time in Florida. We were in Orlando, doing the disney thing and Dad had hired a villa for the 7 of us. It was super hot and we had a storm nearly everyday but they never lasted long. It was great to have hot sunny weather and access to our own pool and just be away on holiday and have a break from "normal" life.

We were dreading Caleb on a plane. He's 17months and rarely sits still. However, he was an angel! We were pretty gobsmacked actually. On the way over he stayed in the seats the whole time (didnt even try get into the aisle), played with his toys, entertained the people behind and played with the window blind. I dont know how we passed 9hours but we did. On the way home (a nighttime flight) he slept most of the way!

Matthews family came down from Canada to visit which was great. His mum and dad babysat a few days so we could go and visit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Caleb got to meet his cousin Luke for the first time and it was great. They got on so well, it was so cute. Caleb changed a lot on holiday, grew up even more. He speaks really well and comes out with all sorts of hilarious things, i think he was copying Luke (who is 3).

Im sure there is loads more to say about our holiday. Jetlag is a killer though....our sleeptimes are totally messed up. When mummy and daddy are shattered Caleb is wide awake and vice versa. Cant get him into bed before 1am. Its hard going. Hoping things return to normal soon!

Off to Florida

Life has been really, really busy recently...in a good way though! Just thought id check in and say hi...and bye. We're off to Florida tomorrow for 3 and a half weeks! Cant wait to be there, dreading the long flight with a little boy who never sits still! Wish us luck

See you in July :)

1960's

Like my costume? Went for the Jackie Kennedy look. Was a fun night! Here i am with mum

Next weekend should also be fun. 15 girlies away on a hen weekend. Ive organised this so im hoping its good. We're camping (in caravans) in Stratford upon Avon. So excited, these are my best friends from way back and we always have a great time together!

Holiday

We have been home from our holiday in the Lake District a week now but i have been too busy to blog about it. Caleb seemed to get bored of crawling after a week once he found that pulling himself up onto everything was a lot more fun. Which has in turn led to a lot more head bangs. My days are filled chasing after him.

Anyway, back to our holiday. Its always a gamble with the weather holidaying in Britain. Our gamble paid off. We had beautiful weather. We spent the first 3days at a cottage in Appleby with 8 of our friends. Then we spent 6days at a caravan near Grange-over-Sands just the 3 of us. It was great. We visited most of the places around Lake Windermere.

The famous Beatrix Potter House

Windermere

Coniston (my favourite place)

Ambleside

We had a great time. I'll post more about it again no doubt, for now i have a child climbing up my leg wanting fed

Crawling

My 7 month old baby is crawling and wow, crawling babies are hard work. He's been dragging himself around for months but as of Saturday 29th he is properly crawling and dont i know it! Ive discovered 1) My house isnt child friendly 2) My floors arent clean 3) My child has a lot of energy 4) You can spend a fortune on fancy toys but the box it came in always ends up being more fun. I spend my time at home constantly repeating; Watch your head (as he bangs it on yet another wall) Watch your fingers (as he opens and closes another door/drawer), No Caleb, Nooo Caleb, Nooooo Caleb . I cannot leave him for a second! All that aside, it is great watching him get around and discover new things. He loves it, you can see the pure joy on his face as he moves from room to room!

I was hoping he wouldn't crawl til after our upcoming holiday. We leave early Saturday to go to the Lake District. 4days with some friends at a cottage in Appleby and then 7 days at a caravan just outside Windermere. I am so looking forward to getting away. It'll be good to have a change of scenery and forget about chores and everyday routines.

In stitching, ive started something new; Bent Creek Snappers. Im stitching all the months on one long piece of linen.

And here's where i left off on Mary (told you i'd get bored soon enough)

5 year anniversary

The bad blogger returns for another sporadic post!

Saturday 6th September was our 5th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going up north to stay at this beautiful guest host in Fortwilliam. Fortwilliam is the town located at the foot of Ben Nevis.

I have to say i have never been to the highlands before and i never really appreciated just how amazing Scotland is!! We were totally in awe of the scenery and didnt want to leave! I took this shot on route there at Glencoe. Imagine living in that house?!On Saturday we travelled further North to Mallaig and to Morar to see the "white sands of Morar" and wow this was the highlight of our trip. Look at this beach! It was incredible. My Canadian DH kept saying "i cant believe this is Scotland."Thats the islands of Rum and Eigg in the distance. And here we are on our anniversary, a bit older and wider (LOL) than we were on our wedding day 5 years ago (more wedding pics can be seen here)

A favour to ask...

For those of you that are regular visitors to my blog, you will know that i am in a LHN Round Robin that the lovely Donna set up Heartfelt Friends RR Above is a picture of my RR at present. Isnt it lovely?! I think its on its way from Donna to Edgar at the moment. Anyway, one of the stitchers has pulled out and i was wondering if anyone out there in blogland would be willing to stitch one of the squares for me and of course a wee gift will be stitched for you in return :) I have already stitched one of the squares (its partly complete at the moment) so dont really want 2 stitched by myself seeing as its about friendship etc The theme is LHN designs and my only specification is that the square has to include a house! Anyone willing? I understand if not but i would really, really appreciate it if someone is willing!

Last night i finished Gilmore Girls season 7. Ive had the boxset for ages but couldnt bring myself to watch it knowing it was the last ever season! I liked the way it ended, although i think Rory should have stayed with Logan. I did cry at the end but maybe that was more to do with pregnancy hormones that anything else LOL

I realised i never posted any pictures of our holiday back in June. We flew to Portugal but we were actually staying over the border in Spain. We had a great week. The hotel was gorgeous. It was situated right on a golf course and was nice and peaceful. We relaxed the whole week - i read a lot of books! The weather was perfect. Here are some snaps

Mum and Dad to be:
Have a good weekend. Its a local holiday here which means i get Monday off woohoo!!

Here but away!

Just thought i'd log into my blog to say im still here! Ive been sick but am feeling better now. We're off to Portugal today on holiday so i hope to be back around when we get back!

Big thanks to Kathy for the Prairie Schooler chart you sent me! That was really kind of you and i love it!

Hope you are all well, look forward to catching up on my return xxx

Off to Dorset

Its May bank holiday weekend and 8 of us girlies are off to Dorset on the South Coast of England for a long weekend. We go every year and it's great fun. This is what we stay in (picture of 2 of my friends from last year). My sister and i fly down to East Midlands airport tonight, stay overnight with a friend and then the 3 of us drive the rest of the way tomorrow, about a 4 hour drive. We're booked into a Spa on Sunday which will be nice. Hoping to hire boats another day (weather permitting of course) and we go out every night. Fun! Speaking of fun...you'll never guess what i started last night? Tap dancing lessons!! LOL. Havent been tap dancing since i was about 5! I went with my friend and her mum and it was great! Wasn't sure if i would enjoy it or have enough rhythm but it was fine! Will definitely go back next week.

Been another busy week with little stitching but here's some slight progress on EMS Rose Sampler. I find this one hard to put down!

Have a good weekend!

Visit my 10K webpage www.justgiving.com/cherylthomas

Back from Bath

I havent posted in a few days as we were away down south in Bath for my friends wedding. The wedding was on Friday and the weather was lovely for it. It was a very traditional English wedding in a beautiful old church with the reception in an old converted barn. The bride arrived in a horse and carriage.

We were staying with DH's aunt and uncle. On Saturday we spent the day in Bath. I have never visited Bath before and i must say, i love it! It is a very beautiful place and i really want to go back another time as we didnt have time to do everything we wanted to.

We spent time at The Roman Baths. The water is hot spa water. The place dates back to about 4AD

We also wondered round the shops and other parts. I love these buildings. So grand! Ive recently read Jane Austen's Persuasion which is set partly in Bath and you can totally imagine being back in those times when you visit these areas.

We had a great time but were up at 5.30am this morning for our flight home so we are pretty tired today! I hope to post again later in the week with some stitchy pictures. I started the EMS Rose Sampler i blogged about last time and my PS exchange for Anna should arrive any day now!

Catch up

Thank-you so much for all the birthday wishes. I had to spend most of my birthday travelling down to Birmingham (about 6hours away) for my best friends 30th birthday party. It was a fun party but a long way to go for a few hours! I got some great pressies for my birthday - clothes, an exercise bike, £45 worth of DMC (bought in Canada coz it's so much cheaper), perfume, the new Delia Smith cook book, money....i did well for myself!

Anyway, life is busy busy because this weekend i have to travel back down to Birmingham for another friends hen weekend. At least last weekend i could share the driving with my DH but this weekend i'll be on my own. Its been all go recently, back from Canada on Wednesday, back to work on Thursday then all these weekend trips. I dont think im over the jet lag yet because ive been up since 5.30am and i am never normally up before my alarm which is usually 7.30am!!
Anyway, speaking of Canada...we had a great time and im glad i decided to go in the end. Thank-you to everyone who asked about my ear. It was a wee bit sore on the plane but nothing too bad. It is still hurting now and again so i'll go the doctors soon to get it checked over.

Canada was lovely and snowy with blue skies. Not this mushy, wet snow and grey skies that we have here at the moment. It was a very different trip as most of our close friends over there have had babies in the last year! Very weird! So it involved lots of oooohing and aaaahing and day time activity and not much after 7pm LOL We were staying with DH's brother and his wife and our adorable nephew. He had his first birthday when we were there which was great! Here is DH with him and here is our familyFun times! Ive now had my fix of Dill pickle lays, Tim Hortons maple dip donuts and swiss chalet for another few months ;-)

There's basically been no stitching recently. I have to do the finishing on my Tea Time Exchange piece for the SBEBB this week and then i have to finish stitching the PS exchange im doing with Anna I am way behind on blog reading, i think theres over 500 posts in my google reader but i'll get there, bear with me :)

The most gorgeous gift!

Im home from Canada. Just been back a few hours so im shattered and dreading work tomorrow! We got back in record time, the flight was only 5hrs 40 mins. The screen said we were cruising at 975 km/hr so must have been a good tail wind. We had a great time and it was so great spending time with our nephew who had his 1st birthday whilst we were out there. I will post pictures in days to come.

Ive just logged on quickly tonight because i came home to the most amazingly gorgeous gift ever!! It was from Marie for the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club. It's my birthday on Saturday but i couldn't wait to open it. When i did, i was completely gobsmacked. Wow, Marie made me the most incredible gift and was sooooo generous. I couldn't believe my eyes!! I have taken loads of pictures to show off Marie's incredible work

She stitched this PS design called The Needle's Eye (notice our initials at the bottom)

and finished it like this

and included so many other gifts (sorry about the blurry picture) As you can see there were: DMC floss, Dinky Dyes floss, Madeira silks, a thread cutter (will be great for travelling), scissors, 4 PS charts, an Omnigrid, 2 packs of needles, linen (2packs), cards and coffee! I am completely overwhelmed by Marie's generosity. Ive never visited her blog before so will definitely be checking it out soon. I can not imagine how much time and effort went into this gift. Marie, i am so grateful and will treasure your beautiful gift.

My jet-lagged self is off to chill out for a while. Im fighting the overwhelming urge to go to bed right now because if i do, i know i'll be wide awake in the middle of the night!