I am so lucky

What a week.


We ended last week with a steam train fiesta and have certainly made the most of this beautiful weather this week. 


We spent Monday morning playing hide & seek amongst some of the evergreen shrubs at Nymans National Trust thanks to Tony finally finding the membership cards which had been misplaced over the summer. Once again I came home with a pushchair basket full of leaves, acorns and other assorted forest paraphernalia. Monday afternoon was spent mostly reading Charlie & Lola books at Nicolas and just generally relaxing. 


I am sure I spent all of Tuesday in my car, but it must only feel like that. After a lovely morning at Bumps, Babes & Tiddleypeeps promoting the Santa Special with Imogen, I swapped children with the childminder and we toddled along to the Dentist. Isaac was so good. He sat in the chair and opened his mouth beautifully so that the dentist could look at his teeth. He also got a certificate for having very clean teeth. After that we went and got Imogen back and went to our next NHS appointment for Isaacs pre school booster jabs. I was so proud. He watched the needle going in for the first one and then as the nurse was removing the needle a trickle of blood ran down his arm. He was not happy at this point and snuggled in ever so close. But he walked out of the doctor not screaming like the child we had seen earlier. Back into the car we headed up to get Vicky for an evening of chat and catching up. 


After Pre school & Jungle Tots on Wednesday morning, we headed out to Debbie's for more chatting and relaxing. The kids just played to nicely and I have to admit I started craving Debbie's house. It seems so idyllic living in the country and being surrounded by nature. It is something I have always wanted and one day I will have it!!


Thursday bought more Pre School for Isaac and a chance for cake with Imogen in the morning followed by the garden. I cannot believe how hot it has been. Nicola & her girls came around and were swiftly encouraging the children to play and leave mummy alone so Nicola and I could just sit and chat making the most of the beautiful weather.


Friday morning was the start of what is going to be a long 6 months. I went to the hospital to get my blood taken. After the comments by the phlebotomist (who will henceforth all by known as phleb's) about an interesting coloured blood form ('oh i've never seen one like this before' & 'I hope theres nothing serious in this') & the actual blood taking. I bled remarkably fast this time. I wandered along to The Olive Tree Cancer Centre which is just on the hospital campus and was lovely. I am waiting to hear from them now about being able to access some counselling about some of the issues that I cannot address on a public internet account & also some rather lovely looking complementary therapies.


Isaac hadn't been at preschool on Friday as they had an inset day so following a trip out to the Garden Centre to participate in 'The Worlds Largest Coffee Morning'  courtesy of Macmillan we headed to Horsham to grab a lift with Father in Law to a field in the middle of Surrey to see Tornado pulling the Pullman. It was then a quick dash back home to get changed before collecting Imogen and heading to .......Yeah thats right, the Bluebell Railway for more fish & chips. 


Here occurred one of many surprises this weekend has thrown at me. Tony had got a cake for me including candles so we had a little celebration just before the train got into Kingscote. After we got off the train and went on our ritual walk to see the engine, surprise number 2. Tony had managed to arrange for me to have a ride on the footplate while they ran the engine round for the return journey. I think this sparked something in me. I love riding on the trains with the kids, but don't do it for me. However I loved the heat & the noise in there and it did make me think that maybe in the future I would like to maybe drive one ( & I could if I did the required hours with the Bluebell)


So to Saturday. We went back to Nymans for their Green Living Fayre and had a lovely morning collecting things so that the kids could have made clay creatures (except that we left it to late to go back and make them, so now I need to buy some air drying clay so we can do them at home.) We also discovered that Imogen LOVES cheese and spent a lot of time in the food tent so Tony could chose some cheese for a picnic later on. 


The picnic wasn't a great idea - cheese, brownie & apple juice does not a picnic make. But we hadn't been very prepared and didn't realise how late it had got. 


Once we left Nymans we went back to the Railway to try and get some photos of the trains at West Hoathly as there is a lovely stretch of track just after the train comes out of the tunnel.


We rounded off the day with an indoor BBQ as we couldn't manage to get the gas BBQ reconnected!!


And I think Sunday deserves a post all of its own!!!!