100 Days of Happy - Day 6

Celebrating Christmas with a dear friend but embaressing myself ... hic!

100 Days of Happy - Day 5

Its been a funny old Christmas really with the boys growing up and my family in decline.

I found some old photos on my computer and they really filled me with happiness at the memories of years, people and animals gone past.

A very relaxing day surrounded by my pets feeling so full of food I could burst!

Thinking of Christmas past.....

The dolls house my mum made for me out of cardboard boxes. The detail she added was phenomenal along with the furniture she made for me.

Creeping downstairs with my older brother in front and my younger one behind, trying not to wake our parents, overcoming obsticles my mum had put in the way supposedly to stop our dog Patch from getting Santa but really they were to try and keep us in bed.

Such happy memories.

100 Days of HAPPY Days 3 and 4

I didn't get an opportunity to write up my blog yesterday so I am combining days 3 and 4 of happy.

Day 3 of Happy (Yesterday)

Christmas Eve

I was relieved to have completed all that I could for the Christmas festivities. I thoroughly enjoyed giving out gifts especially the ones I had made. I receive great pleasure in giving. I felt a bit sad though because losing mum and my not feeling well this year meant that I didn't make what I wanted too.

Wrapping gifts for my boys made me happy. Don't get me wrong.... I really don't enjoy wrapping but doing it for them makes me happy. I enjoy putting quirky messages on J's gifts and then arranging them just so.....

I took a great deal of pleasure in writing up my review for a blaster which I received via Amazon vine. I asked a special little boy to use the blaster on the condition that he produced a critique. This boy is 9 years old and the most sociable, chatty, engaging boy you could ever wish to meet. I honestly didn't expect a huge amount of detail.... but just look at this wonderful picture and write up.....

Day 4 of Happy (Today)

Christmas Day

So many things to make me happy today, just where do I begin?

The wonderful gifts given to me in love which have brought me alot of joy because of the thought, care and love behind them. 

Spending a couple of quiet hours with my J and watching him open his gifts.

Spending Christmas morning with cheeky Cola, even getting wet in the rain didn't dampen my spirits.

Watching my rabbit Bolt run around the garden for hours.... jumping, binking and generally loving life. During this time he was accompanied by some garden birds, a very busy male blackbird who kept jumping at my honeysuckle in order to retrieve berries then hopping over to the lawn to pick up worms. Some other birds flitted here and there. What amazed me was the fact that none of the birds were afraid of Bolt who continued to hop around the garden. I also didn't think that he had noticed the birds but he must have because he purposely went to investigate the honeysuckle where the blackbird had been feasting.

Cuddling with my dogs Pickles, Wilbur and Snowy..... Giving them their own Christmas dinner once we had finished ours then coming into the room to find them sleepy and content.

I am sure there is alot more happy to experience today but so far its been lovely.

Merry Christmas to you all. Bless you with healthy, love and joy now and always.

Lets Get Back to Normal

I am glad 2011 has gone, what a horrid year thats been, not just for me but for those I care about too!

Once I have kicked off this germ I am going to start my diet again and now my pain is under control I will be running again too.

I am considering entering a 5k road race in Llandudno on 7th April, just to give me something to focus on. I find I work better when I have something to aim for. Also, apparently you get and Easter egg when you cross the line so I can't think of a better incentive.

I am feeling alot more positive the last day or so, I have several things to look forward to and to aim for.

I have also accepted that its going to take some time to get the "old" me back and maybe I will never ever be that size 8 again but who cares? Its only a number, I just want to be fit and healthy again and I will do it!

Apart from the bugs Joe and I had, Christmas has been good. Very strange but good.

2 days and Counting!!!

I have been fighting a viral infection over Christmas. One thing I have noticed since cancer, I just can't fight off infections the way I used to.

I must admit that today I was very upset, couldn't stop crying. I just want to be the Sara I was before I had cancer. Since 3 years ago next month my health seems to have been in a steady decline. I have never in my life been so fat, unfit and unhealthy. I feel so ugly all through.

Today I did wonder what the point of it all was, I really couldn't see what quality of life I have anymore. I really did lose my fight today.

So I thought about Mike Peters, I thought about other friends, had a good cry, a good moan and then came back fighting!

This year has been a difficult one for me on a lot of levels. You would have thought that 2009 or 2010 would have been worse but having finished the radical part of cancer treatment I am suddenly plunged in at the deep end tryind desperately to stay afloat.

On January 5th 2011, Poppy was run over by a tractor and died in my arms. The memory of that day haunts me. Her head looking up from the road looking for me, scooping her up into my arms, our eyes connected, she relaxed because she was with me and she died. That was the start of a terrible year.

On 14th May I lost the lynch pin of our family, my Auntie Heather. Very suddenly at the age of 65. She has always been a part of my life, always been there for us all giving support freely. Such a kind and loving person with a wicked sense of humour, I still can't believe that she is no longer with us.

I was let down by people I thought were my friends this year too. They told lies about me and attacked me on FB without due cause. If those people have the audacity to read my blog then you know who you are and shame on you.

I would refer to yet another Mike Peters song at this point so take heed and listen if you dare.



"I've been accused of being things I'm not......"

On top of this I have had a couple of cancer scares coupled with excrutiating back pain which has led me to give up my running, walking and riding.

The year finishes on the note it started.

However, in January I have a scheduled bone scan which is purely precautional, I have an orthopedic appointment to look into my back problems and my mammogram which I hope will declare me 3 years in remission!

The pain killers my doctor has prescribed me are working so once this stupid infection is gone I am hoping to be climbing the rosy slopes to good health!

See you in the new year!

Merry Christmas 2011

Well, I can't believe that another Christmas is almost here. The planning, preparation, saving, legwork, computer work that goes into making it a splendid festivity is culminating in tomorrow.

So as we celebrate the birth of Christ tomorrow I give thanks for everything that I have been blessed with in my life..... my family and my friends who give me the motivation to tackle each day, my animals, my faculties and most of all I thank the surgeons, nurses, doctors and scientists who have made my recovery possible.

My Christmas wish is to have a 3 year remission score next month.

So thank you to all of my amazing friends who have kept me smiling and coping xxxx

Here's to many more Christmas'

Money! Money! Money!

In my life I have been poor, I have been comfortable but it looks as though I am heading for poor again. All I hear on the news is plans to cut services, increase tax, cut pensions. I never believed I would see fuel at £1.30 a litre and the cost of food is crazy. Every time I do my shop the prices have gone up.

I am lucky to have lived frugally as a child and my mum showed me how to create a meal from nothing. Don't get me wrong, I never went hungry and we always had a decent meal to eat but we didn't have crisps, biscuits, sweets and things like that which people these days see as an essential part of their store cupboard and mum always made food from scratch so no tinned or convenience food, it was far too expensive.

Everything seems to have an expensive price tag and as we move into frugal times the expectations we have created during the comfortable times are still in place. This leads to discontent, a feeling of injustice, anger even.

So now, as you read this try to think of what is important in life...... really important!

• Health for me is important because without it you can't enjoy life to the fullest
• My children through them I have learnt valuable lessons in life
• My husband who is my rock
• My mum who is my mum (enough said)
• My family
• My animals who bring me such joy and sense of purpose
• My friends who give me more support than they ever could realise
• My faculties

I could really go on but you can see in my list that I haven't put anything materialistic in there.

So as we approach Christmas, a time which puts dreadful pressure on us to spend, spend, spend. Shall we just try to readjust our expectations. Look at the real meaning of Christmas. Ok, so you might not be religeous but you can still look beyond the religeous aspect of Christmas and look into the meaning. It is  a celebration of the end of winter and the coming of light..... it is a time to show love and appreciate to those who are important to you and most of all, it is a time to celebrate life.

If somebody is kind enough to give you a gift, don't just accept it. Look deeper into the gift... the fact that the person who has given it actually wanted to gift you, the fact that they have taken the time to produce this gift and wrap it for you. If you are lucky, they may have even MADE the gift for you.


So the message from this blog is... we are living in difficult times and things are set to get worse before they get better. However, you don't need lots of money to be happy, you just need to change your expectations and perceptions and look to what wonderful things you have in your life and be content with them.