The end of November

I can't believe we're almost into December already. In some ways this year has gone sooo fast, and I guess in other ways I can't wait for it to be over.
But anyway, this month I have....

I posted 27 times (including this post). Which isn't quite every day, but is pretty good going I think.

Started dating a lovely guy (and that's all I'm going to say about that!)

Finally got a new car.

Had a flat tyre on new car already.

Had some fun with friends and family.

And lots of other stuff that I'm too tired to say right now! Good night, and goodbye November. Hello December!

I'm sleepy

But we're still in November, so I had to write something today.
I've gotta go to bed now, but I'll take a pic of my car soon, promise.

New car

I have a new car. Well, new to me. It's a Vauxhall Astra, and it's mine! It had to have the MOT and some work done on it today, but I'm going to pick it up tomorrow, and get the tax sorted out, and I'm sorted!
Thank you to my mummy for putting up with me sharing her car all this time, and to Little One and Little Flower's parents, who are now the ex-owners of the car.

Thanksgiving Thursday

I am thankful for lots of things...

I'm thankful for my friends and family, who have stood by me this past year, rejoiced with me in my weight loss, loved me and picked me up when I was down, and have generally been amazing (yes, this is going to be one of those soppy posts, so deal with it!)

I'm thankful that I'm part of a great church, where it's all about Jesus.

I'm thankful that I have a chance to share in the formative years for Little One and Little Flower. I love watching them grow and change, and the excitement that the world around them gives them as they learn more about it.

I'm thankful for the kiddo's parents, who are in the process of selling me their second car. (More details to follow when it's all gone through and sorted).

I'm thankful for my blog readers who put up with my ramblings, and even comment occasionally ;)

Su

Su is my friend. She's a real-life buddy, but we also spend a lot of time chatting online on facebook. She's a lovely person and always looks out for her friends. I am privileged to know her and have her as my friend :)
(one day I may remember how to spell the word privileged without having to refer to the spellchecker for assistance).

I want to celebrate Thanksgiving too

Disclaimer: Although I vowed to write a post yesterday, I never promised to post it. The first two paragraphs of this post were written yesterday, but time restrictions and wanting to expand further meant that I saved it as a draft to work some more on it today.

This week all across America people will be celebrating Thankgiving. Native Americans, Pilgrim Fathers and all that jazz. Ok, so it didn't happen here, but why shouldn't we get to celebrate it anyway?

Although, having been in Texas in time for Thanksgiving last year, and seen the Christmas decorations go up in full force the day after, I'm actually quite glad that we don't have 'The holiday Season' quite as explicitly as they do in the States, and although there are Christmas lights up in Walthamstow market and places like that, it's likely to be a little while longer before they start appearing in/on/outside of people's houses around here.

Anyway, whether or not Thanksgiving is there as a marker to tell Americans when to put up their Christmas decorations, I would like to suggest that being thankful is certainly not a bad idea. I guess in this country schools and Church of England churches would often celebrate Harvest Festival, but since I'm not currently spending much time in either a school or a C of E church, I pretty much missed out on that this year. So instead I'm going to write my own Thankful Post. And since Thursday is Thanksgiving, and there is also the pre-existing bloggy idea of having 'Thankful Thursdays', I'm going to publish that post on Thursday. I invite you to join me, and write a quick post about what you're thankful for this year, where-ever you live.

I vow

to write a proper post with content and more than one paragraph tomorrow.

London at Sunset (Wednesday 19th November 2008)

I got nothing to say

so I'll say nothing.

Give Peas a Chance

I'm sorry to follow a picture post with another picture post, but I just have to show you what arrived through my letter box today (let's face it, I'm not really sorry at all, but I have to at least sound a little polite!)
I bought this t-shirt from Cackle on etsy.

'prize!

'Prise (surprise/prize) is one of the most used words at the kiddos' house. It can be used as in this context, to say 'boo!', but also in the context of "I went to the toilet by myself, now daddy will bring me home a 'prize".

Today

Tracy commented that it's not post something interesting every day, it's just post every day. I guess part of me doesn't want my readers to have to wade through pages of 'sorry, I have nothing interesting to say but I'm going to blog anyway'. After all, I write enough of those type posts as it is, even without managing to post every day.

I think the issue at the moment is finding the balance between baring my soul and having everything out there, and not telling you all anything at all. It's bad enough to figure that out when it's just you and your life that you're referring to, it becomes even trickier when you try to take other people's concerns into account. (Which is a very subtle hint about why I haven't been blogging much recently! Less subtle now that I've pointed it out to y'all)

Life is still plodding along, well in some ways it's galloping, and in others it's a snail's pace or going backwards (yep, that'd be referring to my weight loss, but I'm trying to turn that around!). Actually, you know I haven't done too badly with blogging this month. It's the 17th today, and this is my 16th post of the month, and some of those posts had real content!

Random extra thoughts added at the end, just for kicks:
Did I tell you I did finally buy some new shampoo?
I saw the fox again last night, so it hasn't died of poor health yet. It still doesn't look too good, though.

No time to write a proper post

It seems I'm failing miserably on this blog interesting things every day thing month. However, life is good, I am very happy, God is good. I think those things are sometimes more important than writing a blog post every day. And hey, maybe I'll blog again tomorrow.

what to blog, what to blog...

so many things to say, so little brain power to write them.
I'm still recovering from my icky cold, and have a pretty impressive cough that's still hanging on. I'm hoping it'll go soon, because it's driving me mad.

This week I plan to actually stay on track with my diet, start job-hunting and car-hunting with a vengeance, get better and have fun. I'll let you know how all that goes...!

From the sublime to the...

I love you

I started writing this post lying in bed yesterday afternoon and it was really good. Unfortunately there is no wire direct from my brain to my blog, and I was too tired to get up and type it there and then. Given that I'm still feeling pretty icky, I'm not sure how much sense this will make, but I'll try my best. I'm sorry if it just turns out to be sentimental mush. I blame the fact that I'm tired and ill!

Three of my favourite words at the moment are "I love you". They're wonderful to say, and they're wonderful to hear. Before you all start saying, "hey, stop, wait a minute, are we missing something?" let me explain.

One of the things I've been learning this year is to love myself. And I really think that I'm actually beginning to get there. I don't look in the mirror and think I'm ugly, rather I look in the mirror and think "who on earth is that?", but that's another story! I'm more confident about myself and my thoughts and feelings. I'm beginning to find my voice.

Dealing with depression and illness has definitely showed me that there are a lot of people in this world who care about me. People who will go out of their way to tell me and show me that they love me. Having in the past always been better at caring for others than receiving, I've been in the situation that I couldn't do it for myself, I needed to rely for a bit on the support of other people, and I'm so glad that I did. It's shown me again how important friends are and how much I love mine.

So here we come to it, the reason I love to "I love you". I want to tell my friends and family how much I appreciate them. For example, when Little One (the 3 year old I child-mind) tells me that he loves me, I reply "I love you too, Sweetheart", I want him to know that he's important to me, that I valued him, that I like spending time with him. The same goes for my friends and my family, I want them to know for sure that I love them, I don't want them to wonder what I think about them.

I don't know if that makes any sense at all, but that's why I say "I love you". I'm saying it because I value you, you're important to me, I want you to know that I care.

why going back to bed seems the right thing to do

I have a couple of wonderful blog ideas floating around in my head. And I'm talking proper meaty content. Unfortunately I feel like I'm also floating around the room with the ideas, which is not exactly the best mental state to be blogging in. Therefore, I will go lie down, and leave you with a picture of my feet.

Enjoying Autumn

A post about nothing

I am exhausted. I have nothing to say, and I haven't uploaded the photos I was going to post, so I will just spend a little time saying nothing at all.
Decent posting will return soon.

I am actually

alive.
I've just had about 20 minutes online total this whole weekend. Which means I've failed in my plan to blog every day, but it just wasn't physically possible.
I'll try to catch up tomorrow.

(and if you're thinking that it's a little premature me telling you I am alive when I've only been gone from my blog for 2 days, then let me just tell you that I've had 2 people text me to check I was ok cos I hadn't updated my facebook status or been anywhere online since Friday evening!)

Fireworks!

One of the kids at the party playing with a sparkler (and me experimenting with the 'firework' setting on my camera)Me with a sparkler
Fireworks!
Party was fun; great food, pretty fireworks, and I got a sparkler (that made the little kid in me very happy!)

I am beautiful, in every single way

There've been lots of changes in my life over the last couple of years. Losing weight being one of the most obvious, but there have also been changes in the way I think and the way I see myself.

I know that my mental image of my physical appearance still has some catching up to do. I can see a photo on someone's camera, or (like at church the other day) projected up on the screen at the front, and I still don't recognise that that's me. Maybe one day I will, but in the meantime I get some nice surprises!

Mentally, I'm still adjusting to my changing body shape and to the way that people around me react and interact with me. (Like the guy I know from school who saw my photo on facebook and told me I looked kinda hot!) One of my good friends tells me I'm beautiful and that I should tell myself that daily. Sometimes I believe it, sometimes I don't.

I was just walking home from the post office, dressed in scruffy jeans and the biggest ugliest raincoat you've ever seen, but all of a sudden I just felt beautiful. Life is good. I like being me, I like what I see on the outside, I like who I am on the inside. Heck, I'm blowing my own trumpet, but yeah, I *am* beautiful, and I like it :)

I can't fail at the first hurdle

I'm trying vaguely to blog every day this month, except I haven't told you that because I don't want the pressure of having to do it, except I just did tell you... oops.
Well anyway, the problem today is that I have too many things I want to say, and I'm too hyper to say any of them properly.

I have a post I've been thinking about for a while about race, but if I write that today it'll look like I'm jumping on the 'first black President' bandwagon (whereas actually it's been going around in my head for ages).

I could also just give you silly photos, but I did that yesterday yesterday. So that's a bit boring.
Instead I'll just go
bounce bounce bounce
and leave it at that.

Until tomorrow my dear readers.

keep on smilin' thru the rain, laughin' at the pain

Little One is slightly confused about the name for a zip. He says "zap me please, Debbie'.

I must always say the same thing to Little Flower when I get her out of the buggy "Would you like to come out?", because now when we wants to get out she says to me "mout! mout!" (rhymes with out)

It's been a busy few days...

On Thursday I met DebbieBoo and Justyna up London and we wandered around lots and saw some really cool stuff. This is Tower Bridge.On Friday I met my friend Sarah in London and we wandered around and had lunch together. In the afternoon/early evening I helped out at our church kids party (alternative to Halloween), and then dropped in to see all the folk who'd dressed up in posh frocks and stuff to go to see the premier of James Bond.

On Saturday evening I met up with a bunch of people and some of us had fun making our own fireworks (guess how I got this shot!) and generally mucking around and having lots of fun!

Somewhere around the 700 mark

The post counter says that this is my 707th post, however I know that it includes draft posts, and I have several of those sitting around, waiting to either be given a new lease of life and released on the world (like the post I threatened to write all about sex), or to be quietly deleted at some point in the future.

Therefore, I've decided it's time to celebrate this blog getting to 700 posts, whether we're almost there, or actually there, or maybe just over there.
So, happy 700th post.

For your reading pleasure, 7 random facts about me and my blog.

1. I am proud of myself because I have been in possession of a poppy (well, I'm actually on my second one, because I lost the first at Victoria on Friday) for almost a week, and the poppy is still attached to my coat. Which means that I haven't taken it off, removed the bits of paper and started chewing it yet. Yes, I disgusting habit, I know, but to be truthful, that's what's happened to most of the plastic poppies which I have ever owned.

2. I would rather eat fruit cake batter than fruit cake once it's cooked.

3. My blog gets around 50 hits a day. Many of these are through people googling the lyrics from a certain Bugsy Malone song.

4. I have no idea just how many people who know me in person read my blog. All I do know is an awful lot of people have mentioned that they do read it. I have solved the mystery of discovered who my stalker is, and I do know her in person. Hmm, I'm having trouble making this sound like a random fact about me and my blog, but it is a random fact, ok? (How about a de-lurk if you do read my blog, whether you know me in real life or not!)

5. I have almost finished the bottle of shampoo that I hate. This means that when we go grocery shopping tomorrow I need to make doubley sure that I buy some, and pick up shampoo rather than conditioner!

6. I sometimes forget how old I am. It was easy when I was 25 - that's 5 squared, after all. Now I'm 26 I just get confused. I keep thinking I'm 28. Seems like I'm trying to wish my life away!

7. I can't think of a seventh random thing about me (It's all random!) If you know me, how about sharing one about me in the comments...

Isn't he just adorable?!

This was on our way home from the park. He stopped by the public phone box, picked up the phone and started this beautifully complicated imaginary conversation about going to a party. He's definitely turning into a 'big boy', as he is not remiss to remind me about a hundred times a day.
"Debbie, I'm a big boy, cos I do big boy things, but 'Little Flower' is a baby"