Reborn

Having spent the whole weekend having my second migraine in 2 months I recovered today and took a major step forward, I actually signed up for a 1/2 marathon i just over 9 weeks?? Am I crazy?? Unrealistic??

I find that I have to take steps to improve my well being and that doesnt mean sit around "talking" about the next run but actually do one.

I have run a bit so am not totally out of shape but I will need to work on my distances to build me up from the 6 to 12 mile mark and this will need some dedication while i am on my vacation too. There are great running tracks in St Albans and Newcastle so that shouldnt be too hard.

I am also not going to be breaking any records but just standing on the starting line will be prize enough, so for now forget my under 2 hours and lets hope I finish!!

So...anyone want to stand up at the start line with me - register now!!

Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day for us was celebrated by having a little gathering, we had  Pat, Amanda and the kids as well as Dan and Loraine and it turned out to be a fun day, I was worried about the weather and the size of our place, would everyone fit in, I also planned a super easy menu so I didnt get too stressed.

Appetisers - Deviled Eggs, Chips and Dips, Nuts, and M and M's

Main Course - Pork Loin with Apple Sauce

                          Tomato and Mozarella Salad

                          Mixed salad with Blue cheese, walnuts and grapes

                         Potato skins with Blues cheese, sour cream and bacon,

Desert - Amanda brought a chocolate cake and ice

 cream and i made a multicloured Jelly

WE chatted, went swimming, played water guns (well the kids did) and eventually introduced them to the hilarity that is WII FIT and WII mario Kart, the weather was perfect.

at the end of the day we went to bed happy and very full!!

WE ARE FIT

Or maybe WII FIT, our latest in the band wagon, released today and as I currently type this Natey is currently trying to beat me at ski jumping, and according to him I should really see his number  - so hold on....           he just jumped 160m giving him a total of 201 for that round and he is now top of the leader board - wow,

This is an amazing contraption, I have done my strength, Yoga, Aerobic and balance items for today and I cant wait till tomorrow and see how I progress over a week or so, i amy even squeeze in a run before bed that will really get my heart rate up, although i will have to keep the sound down because if Nathaniel knows what i am up to he will want to join in.

My worst event so far is tight rope walking where I haven't even made it any yards at all before I fall dramatically of a very high building, and I guess my best well I got a few 3 stars but cant quite remember and it is amazing how it notices the obvious deficit in my left leg strength.

I will keep you posted,

off to wii......................we are totally hooked lets hope it lasts

Cutie the Salmon

Today we met and then sent our new salmon away into the waters,

Cutie (as nathaniel named him) was part of the release of 1000 Chinook Salmon Fingerlings!

After a BBQ sponsored by the Tiburon Firemen (yummy hotdogs) they then blessed the salmon using a Native American Ceremony.

Nathaniel was joined by his friend Franchesca for a wonderful time and we enjoyed the hot dogs too!!

Now we just have to wait on cutie growng big and strong and coming back to visit us sometime in a few years, it was really a fun even for the kids and hopefully will help the salmon family too

Any excuse......do we need one!!

The temperatures the past few days have been hard, but I cant say awful, if has been 108 2 days in a row which is 42 Celsius, hot hot hot.

Thank goodness for air-conditioned hospitals and shadowed apartments - they are hot enough.

Drink plenty and lather on the suncream and we will be fine as long as we can dip in and out of water,

So... any excuse to crack open a "hard lemonade" and have a water fight with natey, or a BBQ and swim in the pool we have done a lot of that the past few days and the next too....

California is a hot state and I am thrilled that we can experience some excellent weather and some fun too, the last time it was this hot was just before we moved and our bouncy castle almost melted (was too hot to bounce on)

On sunday we are attending a fun event for nathaniel - (I am just going for the BBQ)

so Nathaniel along with some of his friends can release 1,000 Chinook Salmon Fingerlings into the San Francisco Bay.

The fun begins at 10.a.m. when the Casa Grande Truck arrives with the fingerlings, that the students from Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, have raised from eggs from Chinook Salmon from the Feather River.  The Casa students will bring the fish to our waiting youngsters who will carry them to the bay, and start them on their way out to the Pacific Ocean.  How wonderful an experience that will be.

Have a lovely weekend

Finding a balance

With my up and coming trip to the UK I am determined (although maybe struggling a bit) to find a balance.

I want to explore a bit more and see a few things with Nathaniel, let him understand the UK a bit more. He is always happy for days out so I hope I can plan a "stress free" visit,

Planning wise I think I have broken up the trip well and where possible I would like to use public transport - because it is fun!!

I also have to admit that I cant see everyone as I just dont have the time (and I dont want to spend 3 hrs driving to someone's house for the day), that is selfish but every second counts in a visit like this.

I am excited about the trip, but Nathaniel is a bit nervous that his house wont be ours when we get back but i have assured him that it will - daddy will look after it,

I know we will have an amazing time and love seeing our FAMILY and FRIENDS

Oliver, Oliver, never before has a boy wanted more.....

That line was very relevant for the Audience on Sunday Afternoon's performance of "Oliver", except I would swap the words to "never before has a girl wanted more". I definately wanted more energy from that cast.

I was so excited at the prospect of me seeing the new production of Oliver that i arranged a picnic for our friends who wanted to support Simon, it was a very hot day in San Anselmo but we all survived un-sunburned.

It was sounding fantastic the song "food" was sung I would swear by 40 english children as they perfectly sounded for that song, the cast came on one by one, it was going well and then the first hiccough - Simon lost his voice as he was trying to sing his song - hardly idea but it happens, I thought he would be Ok as he had a scene in the parlor next and I was sure he would have some water up there (he sings about 4 consecutive songs) unfortunately he didnt and he lost it again, widow corney was played superbly by Amanda Conran, who vocally was strong and sent her lines right to the back of the theater.

Oliver ( Michael) was much better than I though although a very timid boy n

ormally he carried the role with power and conviction and did really really well, apart from Amanda there were not any really "stand out" singers but the acting was all excellant (even if the cockney accents were not really around!)

I felt cheated after the performance, you may think  - why do I feel I have to say such harsh things, but I have become used to better theater than I saw and this is only MY opinion, I am no expert, I just know what i enjoy and I felt that all I saw was a tried performance by a lot of sick individuals - not their fault at all, and I felt bad for them as I knew they had b

een rehersing every night that week till very late in the night, so they hard run out of energy and I know they could have done so much better.

I would see it again just to prove to me they have more in them than what I saw but at $24 a ticket, it really isnt an option.

So I am left disapointed but really hope they use these days to rest and come back and knock everyone's socks off for the last 4 performances!!

Break a leg to all the cast!!

Sight seeing

When you live in a place, I guess we take it for granted a little, we live somewhere - mainly because we liked the place.

For us having some visitors in town, this weekend gave us the perfect opportunity to re-visit some of our favourite places and also see some new ones.

The places we saw on our travels were - 

Napa wine tour

We visited many winery's and visited the town of Calistoga and Napa

San Francisco City tour

We visited 

Pier 39 and 41

Palace of Fine Arts

Legion of Honor

The beach

Park Chalet for a glass of wine

Took a trolley ride and cable car ride

Twin Peaks

Golden gate Park

Marin Headlands

Hooters

These were exciting and very much fun to do.

So your challenge for this week is to think about where you live and if you haven't been somewhere locally recently, make a date to - I know you will have a lot of fun!!

Palace of fine arts this was designed by Dale Chihuly (also designed the flowers at the belagio mum)

Boy Fun

2 boys demonstrating how much fun the wii can be, here they are having a boxing match.  The wii has certainly got our family off the sofa and started doing more physical exercise, something we can all so with.  We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our Wii Fit which will arrive in a couple of weeks and that comes armed with a personal trainer - how cool is that, they yell at you if you dont turn in every day!!

hahahahah

happy fitness day

Forever in our Hearts!

May 1st 2008, I awoke as normal and although feeling a little sick i was able to get up and check my email - come on everyone knows I am addicted.

That morning I read an email from mum that made me feel all numb inside.  Aunty Jean had died surrounded by her husband and daughters earlier that morning.  This is very hard to take in, despite knowing that she had been ill for about a year and a half and had coped admirably with all the treatment thrown at her. This news made me cry and cry.

Aunty Jean wasnt my "real" Aunty but I didnt have any real Auntys so to me she was "my Aunty",  She and Uncle Alex along with Katie and Janet (their daughters) have been our family friends for a long before I came about, we grew up with them around us, they were like another set of parents, Kind and generous and we were always welcome in their home, she now has 4 grand children which I am sure gave her much joy, but you cant help feeling she was robbed a little of life, at her age.

I will remember the many good times we had with her family, many of which involved food and drink and lots of Laughter  with all the kids hanging out together, and also of the trip the germany that I took with them.

The pain of her death can be made a little easier knowing she will no longer suffer but also with the fact we can all remember her as the person she was from Wife and Mother to grandmother, Maths teacher and most of all a very dear friend, we were VERY lucky!

Oh dear, what can the matter be?

That is the question I am asking myself, sick again, I know I need t take some action but for now, it is resting in bed.

It started on Tuesday with a sore throat and has progressivly got worse, luckily for me nathaniel was great letting me have a little sleep and even offering to make his own tea (an omlette), knowing that my saying no dont touch the hot things, was probably going to meet deaf ears I bounce out of bed and help him make that omlette.

Having an upset stomach at the same time has also made me focus on my diet and although for a long time I have suspected a lactose intolerance and sensitivity to types of wheat I have ignored the symptoms, so over the next few weeks I will eliminate wheat and dairy from my diet and slowly re introduce one thing at a time and see if anything happens, good or bad,

I will keep you posted