Sad news...............

Today was a bit of a flat day despite Chris's birthday. My Mum phoned to wish Chris Happy Birthday, but afterwards she told me that her Sister, Aunty Doreen, had had a severe stroke on Tuesday night........she was found by her gardener yesterday, who saw her through the door...............she was lying in the hallway with the telephone.............so had obviously tried to call for help.....

The stroke is severe...it happened in the left part of her brain and so it effects the right side of her body...............today when Mum called the hospital they said they hadn't been able to wake her yet.........so she's unsconscious.......

They have said that people with a stroke this severe often don't recover and we should expect the worst.

It all left me in a very melancholy mood.......I sat and looked through all my old photographs........remembered how Doreen and I used to write to ecah other and how she always encouraged me to read as a child.........she bought me 'Swallows and Amazons' which I still have, and my gold butterfly bookmark. I spent my 18th birthday with Doreen and her husband John and Doreen let my ex stay with them while he was attending conferences in London............

My Mums youngest sister died someties around 1988 from cancer.......and Doreen is her oldest sister......their other sister Pat is in poor health too...............

I guess its like facing the fact that my parents are getting older too.......that I'm getting so much older.....and with Chris becoming a teen today too its about how fast life is going.............much MUCH too fast................I only have one Grandparent still alive now............

Anyway its been a bit of a mixed bag today...happy that my Son is healthy and strong and happily becominga teenager................sad because we may soon say goodbye to another family member..................

And thats the strangest thing of all I guess......when you emigrate and you don't see family very often...if at all......you picture them as you saw them last.......you forget they have aged and changed so much................

Anyway, I am thinking of my cousins Anne and Philip....I can't imagine what they are going through...their Dad died justa few years ago and now they are losing their Mum......

On becoming a teenager...............

So Chris turned 13 today............I asked him how it feels to be a teenager and his response was.................it feels OLD!!! lol.

One of the little gifts we got him I felt was especially important for a teenager...a bottle of happy pills!!! Too funny! It's a jar of yellow candy but they're called Happy Pills...so now when he gets grumpy I can annoy him by telling him to go take a happy pill ;)

He chose the cake especially.....he's wanted that cake for ages.......he's very patriotic - for both countries which is kind of nice!

My Nephew who is 15 called and chatted with Chris for ages this afternoon and then my sister called back at midnight her time to say Happy Birthday too.

So today was a quiet family day.....and he is celebrating properly next week with his friends as he is taking them to a movie but the one they want to see isn't on until next week.........

I still can't believe CHris is 13...I sat for ages looking through my big box of photos...the ones still to be scrapbooked.......and there are a lot of Chris as a baby...................it seems like yesterday. Time is just going too fast.

oops...............

Duh, I'm such a blonde! I've completely forgotten where I put my body..............



(Actually this head kind of spooked me out yesterday lol...I was sitting in the front yard while Sam was playing in the sandbox when I saw this head between the steps of the front porch...the dogs must have chewed Barbie up and dropped the head down the gap.....was so weird seeing just a head looking at me lol!)