What is it with gadgets? I've been off line for over a week, a man had to take away our computer and take everything off, restore it to factory settings, put it all back together and charge us £125! It seems it was virused beyond belief, even though we have anti virus protection and firewalls and all that stuff.

So now we have it back with AVG and Firewalls and all that stuff and I'm assured that it won't happen again..... hmmm!

Adding to the gadget thingy, we have had a connection between the new tv in the kitchen and the one in the bedroom which has sky multi rooms, only its never worked properly and I have complained to sky on more than one occasion and they have replaced the box - twice and told me to buy a new skart lead (?) and they have just replaced the box again. Fine, well not really, then it messed up the remote eye and that had to be redone, fine, well now the sky is not working any better than it did originally. I keep telling them its not the box, it must be the cable, they should pay me to solve their problems.........

Grace went to clinic on Tuesday of last week. She was a little under the weather with a cold, but apart from a bit of a temperature and horrendous conjunctivitis, she has managed to battle through it. Her sats were 92, and her lung function has gone from 45% to 78%. I can't tell you the relief that we saw on the Dr's face. He is happy that she has stablised at her last two visits and hopes that it will continue. Funny turns still happen from time to time and we are supposed to be checking her BM levels, but so far i've messed it up every time.....back to gadgets again, but the one time I was ready..... Grace ate a pear whilst I was doing the prep grrrr!

We haven't been out much this week, although we did go horse racing yesterday to Warwick, we still don't have a disabled badge which meant we had to wheel the wheelchair across the race track (car park and entrance are on opposite sides) very humorous, Marks brother was shouting "3-1 the field!" and trying to take bets on Grace.

Obviously conjunctivitis being as infectious as it is, she hasn't been to school all week and yesterday was her first day out, and her eyes were much better. This morning they were back to gunky city again so hopefully I can get it cleared up over the weekend in time for school.

She is having a teddy bears picnic for her birthday. This entails taking 6 children to Build-a-bear workshop, choosing and stuffing and dressing bears, and returning home to sit on a blanket in the kitchen and having a picnic with them, whilst Mummies have a glass of sparkly and some nibbles! We found the prospect of splitting them up into two cars a bit daunting as the B.B workshop is a half an hour drive away.......................... so we hired a limo and we get free fizzy pop!

I must be crazy, or lovely, one of the two?

New year, new start

There have been some major changes in our household and the New year sees some of them put into effect almost immediately.



Firstly 'Dave' the wheel chair. So far we don't know if this has made much of an impact on Grace as we haven't really been anywhere of great distance, but the short very uphill journey to school in the mornings has been far less stressful. The first day back to school was a little scary for Grace, she was very self concious of being in a wheel chair, she kept saying "what if everyone keeps asking me why am I in a wheel chair and don't have a broken leg?" I told her to tell them that she had broken lungs and it made her laugh even though her legs were visibly shaking on the way because she was so nervous.

As the days have gone on she has become less worried by the whole situation.

Mark is hoping to make a career move early this year so lots of new territory to cover. I am nervous but hopefully things will be good.

Grace is due in clinic on Tuesday, she is a little off colour, but nothing major. the course of cipro finished Tuesday and she has gone back to azithromycin. The tummy pain has started all ready so I know that it coincides with azithro as she hasn't complained at all over christmas about tummy pain.

Getting Grace back to a early bed time routine has proved very difficult. She hates to be alone with her thoughts and gets upset and crys when left by herself. We have put some credit on her phone and told her to text us from upstairs if she is concerned about anything in particular, so she does, regularly, mostly to say she is feeling rather unwell and it would help if she could come downstairs to take her mind off things or could someone go up and lye with her.

As part of her Make-a-wish request Grace was asked if she could be anything what would she be? Her reply was - to be a spy, and she is certainly obsessive about spies and spy gadgets...............




Some more spywear for Christmas to add to her collection...................

What a crazy month

In the last month we have crammed in so much stuff that I am struggling to remember what we did.

It started with the Christmas Pantomime only days before we drove to Manchester and spent the day at the Trafford Centre before going to our hotel where we stayed over night so that we were ready to fly off to Lapland the following morning.

Lapland was the most incredible place I have ever been and found myself wishing I could have stayed for the whole of Christmas. Lots of factors caused me to lose a vast amount of weight - oxygen problems, and illness for the Grace and Mark and Adam getting into trouble in school. this all made feel that if the airline said "Sorry you can't fly" on arrival I would have gladly said "ok" and gone home. I am so glad that it never happened and that I discovered what an amazing place it is.

The scenery is breath taking and beautiful, you just have so much fun falling about in the snow and it wears you out so much just getting into your snow gear that after dinner and a couple of glasses of wine its a fight to stay awake past 8.00pm!

Seeing Santa was unbelievable for Grace and unbelievable for us to see her little face, it has definitely given me a taste of skiing and winter holidays...... If you thought like me and didn't know what all the fuss was about, then I'd give it a try.

We returned and had two mad days trying to catch up before Christmas day arrived, and that also went by in a blur. Before we knew it, it was New years Eve and we went off to Warwick for the horse racing. I think I ended up about £6 down on the day, had a couple of short priced winners and blew on the donkeys at the back of the other races.

We saw the New year in at Marks parents house and as per usual I returned home fleeced from card games and slightly the worse for wear (champagne and baileys - but not in the same glass).

Grace had a wheelchair assessment on 2ND January at 10.30 and before 11.00am we had left the building with a new addition to the family...... and Grace has named her new wheelchair 'Dave.

We have had a fairly quiet end to the week except for yesterday when we went to see High School Musical on Ice which had been planned for some time and gave Grace a chance to meet up with some school friends before her return to school tomorrow.

Generally she is quite well at present and has a clinic appointment next Tuesday, but after a week back at school we will be able to assess a little better how she is doing.

I felt although healthwise it hadn't been a good year for Grace, she definitely had a good year of memories to treasure, and just thinking of Lapland fills me with great memories, what a way to end the year.

Sadly all of the weight has gone back on because I have been so relaxed and eaten so much food over Christmas.... so back to the gym tomorrow and a Happy New year to all!

2008

Happy Newyear!

I can still hear fireworks at this unearthly hour.

It has been an eventful year.... sometimes very tough and very sad, but hopefully we will draw good memories from it and it will serve to make us stronger and fill our hearts with love and make us smile once again.

Happy Newyear and raise your glass to many special people that we loved and lost....... You will be forever in our hearts