Happy Holidays

I'm away now to the sunny south east for a couple of weeks. Happy holidays!

Good Service

A post by Bock just reminded me about this: we were all sitting eating lunch in our kitchen on Saturday. In my house every door and window is permanently open for kids to wander in and out etc. etc. Anyway next of all a DOG arrives into our kitchen and Tony nearly jumped out of his skin roaring and shouting and the dog bolted and headed for the front door which he had just come in. But instead of the door space which was wide open he went straight through the glass panel next to it smashing it into a gzillion pieces. Jeez he must have hit it some bang. Although it's probably not toughened glass as it's quite old it would still be tough enough to have taken many previous bangs from footballs, basketballs and the like.
Anyway we rang a glazier this evening at about 5pm. He called to the house at 6pm. He returned with glass at 9 and had the job done and dusted in about half an hour. No bother at all. Poor dog is alright but he has his paws bandaged. And no he didn't make a dog shaped hole in the glass either...

Great Quads Exercise

Get on a see saw with someone a third of your weight (a kid will do) and proceed to try and make their feet hit the ground each time until your quads ache. Never fails....

I'm back in Dublin for a couple of days and it's so miserable and wet here. I took the covers off the deck furniture yesterday and it has rained and rained (except for about 2 hours yesterday evening).

The kids are settling in great. We've done lots, been to the beach lots, been to forest parks, been fishing, been cycling, playing Buzz, all fun stuff! They had a traumatic day yesterday seeing their mum for the first time in months and the 11 year old girl was upset. We were going out last night to celebrate the Wicklow Round success so I was a bit worried leaving them. It worked out really well though cos I got my niece over who managed to give them a great evening making their own pizzas and playing games and they had much more fun than if I had stayed at home. It was great to come home and see a big smile on the girl's face. The 5 year old boy was fast asleep, happy as Larry.

Like I said we went out for a meal to celebrate Tony and Gary's run and thank the helpers and all involved. Photos here.
We're back in Dublin because Grace is heading to Killary adventure centre on Sunday for a week.
It's mad being at home all the time. I still haven't got used to not being employed. I think it still feels like I'm on my holidays. I'm sure that in September when they've gone to school I'll feel differently! It has been challenging already. The kids are brilliant, they are so good and happy and no trouble at all. It's just that the things that upset them are bigger than anything kids should have to worry about. I know the 11 year old worries about her mother all the time. We are constantly reassuring her that she has nobody to worry about any more, that her mum is getting help and all the siblings are being looked after. I think she is getting a little happier about this by the day.
If only the rain would stop and we could get out and od more stuff!!!!! Being indoors baking cakes is no fun for the 5 year old, he just wants to cycle all day long and play on his big tractor! It's mad having a boy!

Blogging Away

I'm off to a land far, far away where blogs and broadband don't exist. I tried to catch up this morning on them all and this is the last blogpost I'm writing.

So far today in case you're interested:

Team Geared Up
Ultrarunners
For Nine Pounds

And I squished all the photos out of the camera and phone (except the ones of the kids) onto my flickr page. Job done. I'm off to Wexford in the rain. Back Wednesday.

Back to Blog

Thanks for all your comments about the trip to France. I was disappointed with my run but glad of the opportunity to be there. It was a great bunch to be with and we enjoyed it. I had been unwell last week and maybe that took it's toll a little but who knows. If you're legs don't move fast enough that's all there is to it, no excuses.


That's me, no. 132 with Fiona, Trish and Alwynne. they're clouds below us, the photo was taken at the finish after the race (God I look grumpy!)

Myself and Tony had a great day together, just the two of us, on Monday. Half the day in bed half the day eating out in a quiet pub reading the paper, what could be better? ;-)

While I was away Tony and good friend Gary were making histoy by being the first people ever to complete the Wicklow Round; a journey of 27 peaks through Wicklow taking them 33 hours and 56 minutes. Our previous attempt had not been successful and I was sad to miss out on this one but so unbelievably delighted for them. I know how hard it was. More blogging about that here.
I haven't heard how the wedding cake went down but hopefully all went well for Audreys big day! It was great the L* (the 11 year old) was able to help me with it and she was there when Audrey came to pick it up so she saw how happy Audrey was with it.
The big moving in day for the fosterinos is tomorrow. I actually think it will go well with very few tears because the move has been slowly staged and well managed. I think the biggest tears will be from the other foster mother!

I'm just catching up with all the blogs now. Loving reading them all, getting round to writing stuff yourself is the time consuming bit isn't it?

Trip to France!

I'm off to France tomorrow for the European Mountain Running Championships and I haven't even packed yet! The wedding cake is made and iced and gone so I can at least relax about that. The kids have been milling around all week! Despite the rain we got to do some stuff including a visit to Dun Laoighaire pier last night which they loved, followed by ice creams from Teddy's.
I have to be at the airport for 5am so it's an early start for me. Better get started on the packing!

Catching Up with Myself

Audreys hen night was Friday. Photos to follow when flickr or my phone company get their act together. At least I got to go to the hen night. (Was blogging before about missing the wedding, small matter of a race in France).

We drove down to Cork on Saturday to see They Never Froze Walt Disney as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival. It was a two person play and the man in it had one of thos faces that could portray emotion with the slightest movement. He was incredible, you could watch him all day. He also had one of those voices that you could hear a mile away even when he whispered. We both loved it.

We headed to Cork City Sports then, I haven't been able to post photos to flickr from my phone yet. Don't know what's up there but I'd say it's flickrs' fault as it's never happened before. Anyway Saturday night we had a Chinese in Wexford and spent the night there. Oh to be kiddy free and spend the weekend in white jeans.

All is moving along really well with the "fosterinos" as Midget Wrangler has christened them. they had their first overnight last Thursday and that was fine. We fully expected a few strops from the 5 year old. You know the kind of strops that two year olds have just to see what they can get away with and we seemed to survive them so the visits since have been easier. They stay for two nights later this week so it's getting closer to full moving in day, July 12th. They seem happy in general. The 11 year old loves doing things that are crafty and project based which I think is brilliant. It's great that not all kids are obsessed with MTV and computer games!

And today involved getting wet and mucky in Marlay Park as we tried to play in the playground for the 25 seconds between each torrential shower. They also met Tony's Mum and Dad who are lovely and the kids thought they were great so all is good so far.

Not gonna blog about running this time....