WARNING - This post may contain real content

It's come to my attention that although I've promised proper content, and updates on me and all that jazz, I never actually got around to writing them. So here I am. Feel free to switch off and do something less boring instead if you so desire.

Mini recap for anyone who's new around here, or forgotten, or wants a minute to go and put the kettle on before they come back and resume reading a couple of paragraphs down. Hmmm, where shall I start?

Last November I went to Texas to stay with blest and her family for 3 months. A week or so before I came home I had a cold, or so I thought. I arrived back home at the beginning of February, and was pretty much ill for the next 6 months. It was a throat infection, then a chest infection, an ear infection, and then another chest infection. The doctors threw 6 or 7 courses of antibiotics at me, and although I got a bit better some of the time, I always got worse. In, I think, July someone (the consultant I saw at the hospital) finally got the crazy idea that maybe the general antibiotics weren't working, and we should possibly do a test and give me type-specific antibiotics. The test results came back showing that yes, the infection I had was resistant to most of the antibiotics they'd already given me, and suggested something else to try. My doctor put me on those for 2 weeks straight, and they finally did the kick.

That was about a month before we went on holiday to Wales for a fortnight. By the time we went away I was back to being slightly under the weather again, and occasionally still coughing up nasty gunk, but I've kinda got to the point that unless it drags me right down again, I've had enough of going to the doctors! When we got back from holiday we went straight to do a weekend running kids work for a church camp. I managed to sprain my ankle on the very first morning. That was the last weekend in August, and it's still recovering now. I've been having some physio on it (thanks to a private arrangement with a friend of mine!)

I've also been battling depression, and have seen my doctor and talked with people at church. I'm going to be meeting with a counsellor (arranged through my doctor) next week for the first time. I am feeling a lot better - I think actually just talking about it helped me to feel better, somehow, but I'm going to see this counsellor anyway next week, and will see how it goes.

So, yeah, that's a little bit of a recap... so where am I now?
Right now I'm still battling a seemingly constant cold, but it's pretty mild, so I just ignore it. I got back on my treadmill for a couple of sessions this week, and that felt soooo good. I think the fact that you just have to walk meant that I wasn't stopping to think about how I put my foot down, and actually when I got off, my ankle felt better. I'm not up to the speed I was at before, but given I've pretty much had a two month break, I'm sure I'll build up the strength and stamina again. (I'm still not really able to run at all becasue of my ankle, but eventually I'm sure I will!)

Jobwise, I'm still childminding, looking after Little One and Little Flower two days a week, and I jsut started doing some one to one tutoring with a little girl from church. Starting up tutoring again reminded me that I do like children, after all (I was beginning to doubt that!) and my background of working in the education system. Soooo, I'm thinking about focusing on doing that, and hopefully building up a bit of a clientele. I'm also looking into what courses I could do to further my knowledge and give me some more useful qualifications.

Other than that... I've been enjoying the stepped up pace of things in the 20s+ group at church, and especially the chance to get to know some exciting new people :) Oh, and I'm still feeling pretty hyper today ;)