236: Results Day….

10 years ago this week I got my GCSE results. I remember because I was on the way to Soul Survivor with the church youth group, I also remember because my Mum phoned me to tell me my results (The problem with being on a bus with about 50 young people is that you can’t hear yourself think let alone compute what you’re being told!).

(Our results came in a brown envelope with our names on it rather than on a board! Click for Source)

8 years ago last week I got my A Level results, Yeah that wasn’t so good. I got my results and I knew they wouldn’t be great so I left school pretty much straight after getting my results – I didn’t want to hang around while everyone was celebrating their As and Bs. I got home and stood in the dining room with my results on the sideboard in front of me. I can’t remember how it exactly went down but I think my Mum asked me was I okay and that was it – I was mess of tears and stress. I’d heard all morning on the TV and Radio about how many people were getting great grades and they were exactly what they wanted – but what about me, I’d got Es and Us. The chances of me getting into university were about a billion to one or something crazy.

I pulled myself together and called Clearing and somehow got a place on my first choice course – it was a Foundation Degree with the option to do a third year to make it a BA (Hons) I was doing what I wanted to – I was going to university and I was going to get a degree, it wouldn’t take any longer than normal just it would have a different title for a little while.
4 weeks ish later I started university and met Kewey, LB and S.

5 years ago, I handed in my dissertation, turned 21, got married, moved from my Parents into a house with Chris, graduated and then unemployed, pretty much in that order in fact.

I had a few temp jobs then….

4 years ago I got the job I’m currently still in.

10 months ago I became a mother of sorts. At first it was a temporary arrangement but now it’s heading towards being all official. I’m a Foster Mum to a 13 year old.

Did I ever expect that life would go this way? No not at all. If you’d asked my 15 year old self was I going to marry Chris, I’d have probably told you, you were a little crazy. He was my best friend – wouldn’t that be weird? (It was only when I was in my late teens that it finally occurred – your best friend can be your boyfriend/husband too!!! It does happen!!)

If you’d asked my 16 year old self when I got those GCSE results what I was doing next I didn’t really know. My school were a bit sucky when it came to guidance and in the end I pretty much went along the list of A Level choices and picked what I wanted to do.

When I was at university in my second year I also studied for an AS Level in Sociology. I’m not 100% sure what it was that interested me about Sociology but I wanted to learn more and I was hooked. I think if I had the choice to pick my A Levels and university course knowing what I know now (but still have the same experiences and still meet the uni girls!) I’d probably pick something Sociology or Anthropology based – I think it would have been harder work but I think I’d benefit more in the long run.

For now I focus on being a foster Mum and helping Chris be the best he can be when it comes to The Fountain. Who knows maybe one day I’ll be able to go back to University and retrain – for now I’m here and I’m going to enjoy it.

235: Fostering: School Supplies

Earlier this week I ordered Our Sidekick’s school uniform – admittedly I probably should have started earlier but I wasn’t in the best of ways last week and I needed help to measure Our Sidekick as it was usually my Mum who measured me and my brother for uniform (and for my graduation gown!)

Something about that prompted one of the early scenes in You’ve Got Mail. Don’t ask me why it just pinged in there and lodged itself there – so I had to write about it!)

“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms.”

Okay so I’ve never been to New York, hopefully it’ll happen but for now you just have to imagine okay?

I have a weakness for pens and cute notebooks I can’t help it. I am doing my best to ignore them and just get the school supplies that Our Sidekick needs for school (which seems easier said than done right now!). I’ve managed to order some of his uniform and as long as it arrives in time then we’re okay – I guess if it’s not that simple I might have to consider a road trip to the company who sell the uniform and see if I can collect it, if it looks like Our Sidekick isn’t going to get it before term starts – then again maybe I have to ask my manager for a favour and see if I can book a collection of the uniform on our next day courier account (He’s sympathetic to the new parent thing but I think I might be pushing it a bit lol).

There’s another time when I think of You’ve Got Mail, When Chris starts talking about coffee I always think of this quote – I can’t help it! Then again I feel like I should replace the brand name in the middle with The Fountain. Is it possible to commit treason by thought? Then again that brings in a whole reference about George Orwell and the Thought Police. See this is just how crazy it is in my brain sometimes – I don’t know how anyone puts up with me sometimes lol.

234: Bedford Park Run. Wk2

Running

Found here

On Saturday I did Park Run again. I say run but between the heat and my ankle just being funky I pretty much walked a bunch of it – I still came in under an hour and surprised both JenJen and AndyL when AndyL joked about sprinting and then I went for it. I have no idea where it came from but i charged like a mad lady for about 50-100m and then slowed down. They were both surprised given that I attempt to do the 5k and I’m dying before we’ve even reached the 2k marker and yet I managed to pull this sprint out of now here lol. AndyL said that he thought he’d just have to jog or run to my sprint but he was almost going full pelt as well (Okay maybe he was exaggerating but I know I’m going at my full pelt when my vision goes funky – like the floor is bouncing lol)

I got home and collapsed on the sofa – I was knakered again – I’m sure it gets better eventually but I think I am a person who wants results straight away so I want to step on the scales in the morning and see that something I did the day before did make a difference and I’m heading for my weight target. But then like yesterday it hadn’t moved and I got really down hearted (which probably in a round about way spurred me on to go on Saturday and do what I could to run like a mad woman to the finish line lol. We turn the final corner and I can see the finish line and I go for it. We’d lost AndyL by the time we were getting to the finish line but me and JenJen were around near the finish line together I think. Then again by the time I got to the finish line I thought my lung might explode (Ah the joys of asthma! Hopefully with the weight loss my Asthma might get better too).

233: Dear Monday

Joining with Megan from Happy Day.

Dear CJ, thank you for getting me a glass of water during the worship time at church. It was so warm this weekend and I’m not entirely sure I’d been drinking enough. Normally leaning against the wall is enough to cool off but even that wasn’t helping yesterday.

Dear K, thank you for acting silly with me up the front of church when B asked for volunteers. I ended up playing Jesus in the sketch that we did about Jesus feeding the Five Thousand and thank you for rescuing my before I squished Little W. (Did you know it appears in all four gospels?)

Dear Big W, you rock my socks! You poked me in the back in church yesterday to tell me about your wobbly tooth – it’s your first one so you’re really excited – how did you get so grown up already?

Dear Zoza, you’re back in Bedford – I saw you arrive at church and I wanted to put down my guitar and hug you. Unfortunately we were having a run through and I couldn’t leave the stage but I came and grabbed you for a high speed hug just before I was called back to the stage again lol.

Dear Friends, I am so excited – my first post for HUGStronger goes live today – so stupidly excited (It goes live at 10am EDT – so that’s like 3pm BST). Be sure to read it here (Also read other posts by the team they are inspiring)

Dear CJ, (You get two letters a la Today’s Letters) I really hope you feel better soon, You’ve had to have gluten based foods this week before your blood test to prove whether or not you’re gluten intolerant. I need to read up more about it in case you are gluten intolerant or if you’re coeliac.

230: Fill In The Blanks…

Fill In The Blanks

(Joining with Lauren from The Little Things We Do)

1. The best thing to do on a hot day is hang out in the shade in the garden or hang out in the living room with the patio doors open as wide as they go.

2. The best place to be on a hot day is okay well it kind of depends on how hot we’re talking because heatwave hot here in the UK you just sit still and do as little as possible lol. Then again I work in an air con-ned office so it’s nice and cold even when it’s roasting outside!

3. The best thing to eat on a hot day is ice cream, ice pops or BBQ food – it somehow works – hot weather = BBQ Time.

4. Hot days make me tired and thirsty and sometimes grumpy because I get all of the above!

5. My go to uniform on a warm summer day is t-shirt and shorts. Today it’s a vest top with a blouse over the top so that I’ve got my shoulders covered (Something about working in a vest top is only when it’s really really hot and I have to be at work and even then I’d rather wear a T-shirt).

6. The scent that reminds me of summer is strawberries, the salty smell that you get at the beach and the smell of a swimming pool.

7. My favorite thing about summer is picnics in the park with friends, BBQs after work, hanging out chatting with friends and family in the garden while watching the evening come in. This year it was watching the London 2012 games. Roll on Paralympics.

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