S.O.S. Save Our Surgery

You may have noticed the little widget to the right. Some of you will have seen my links on Facebook and I apologise for repeating myself but this is a cause that really affects me and many people I know.


They are talking about shutting children's cardiac surgery in Leeds. You may remember that there were a high number of deaths during children's heart surgery at another hospital and this prompted a review. The result of this review is that the government will shut some of the 11 children's heart centres in the UK and make less larger centres with all the expertise in this area. Not a bad idea until you consider the impact...

There are 4 million people living within an hour of Leeds, 14 million within 2 hours. When 1 in 100 babies is born with some sort of heart defect, that's a lot of people...and Leeds is currently closing in 3 of the government's 4 alternative plans. Wherever these units shut it is going to affect people - heart patients, relatives, friends - but a quarter of the population? I am failing to see sense.

I have had a child in hopsital. Some of you may remember how ill Emily was as a toddler and she had to have lung surgery. A horrible time for us and the people around us, but what if we'd had to drive hours to see her? That is what these parents and families are facing.

And then today I got an email from my cardiac nurse saying that the government had refused to take into account those of us that are adults but see the paediatric cardiac teams due to our conditions being congenital (both my cardiologist and surgeon are paediatric, I look very silly in their waiting room!) when considering shutting these units. However, if the children's surgery ward goes then so do the surgeons, the cardiologists and the lifeline to people like me. In October 2008 I had an emergency operation in Leeds within 2 hours of them diagnosing my problem, if I'd have had to be transferred to another hospital, well....

So if you could click to the right and sign the petition? Whether we can change the government's mind I don't know, but I need to say I at least tried.

Thank you.

Come On, Follow My Nose!

We decided that this weekend called for a family walk and a bit of fresh air. I'd noticed a few crocuses out at work so we decided to head for flowers. We could have gone to my work but I doubt that would have been too interesting so we headed for Kirkstall Abbey as they always have carpets and carpets of flowers:

 Very pretty eh? Unfortunately the temperature doesn't match the view and it was blooming Arctic out there!

I do like the fact that we live near such an old monument like this:

 It's lovely to look around it and imagine what used to happen there. This time we didn't go in though, that cold air whistling through the ruins didn't quite appeal!

The kids had fun:

 And Xander took us all exploring on a bug hunt with his exploring kit. "Come on everyone, follow my nose!":

 Xander even made notes on what he'd found and drew pictures!

And collected, er, the stones the bugs lived on! Well I supposed it is more humane locking a stone in a tin than a living insect!

So, first 'spring' walk of the year. Hopefully they will start getting a tad warmer from now on, couldn't feel my hands when we got back in the car! We had fun though.

Thank You Heather and 'Lalan'!

This is a little message for some relatives we have over in Australia. My dad has spent the last few years researching his family tree and over the past year or so he and my mum have started flying round the world and visiting these long lost relatives. Earlier this year they went over to Australia to meet his cousin Heather, her husband Alan and all their family. My parents had a great time and said our Ozzy cousins were lovely.

So last week a parcel arrives at my parents house with presents in for my kids! How lovely is that? It had cost Heather a small fortune to send it too, and for kids she'd never met, I'm kind of liking her! So here's a message for Heather and Lalan (as Xander calls him!). Thank you so much and hope we get to meet you one of these days!

Oh and just a little extra. I think Heather and Alan feel sorry for us Brits not having our own kangaroos here, so they sent Xander a little kit to grow his own! And blimey is he growing! Here's the (yet to be named) joey on Saturday:

And here he is yesterday:

Don't worry, Joey has now been rehomed to something more accustomed to his ever-growing size!

Happy Birthday Em!

This weekend saw Emily celebrate her 9th birthday (insert 'blimey, where did the time go etc' comments!). Once she'd opened her presents she had a birthday banana milkshake breakfast:

 Then it was off to see her horse Jet with her new horseriding gear: a new hoodie from me and daddy and some super gaitors (those things on her legs, no I had no idea either!) from Nanna:

 After horseriding we went out for lunch with a few of her girlie friends from school: Anna, Miranda, Hollie, Shiwone and Hattie:

 How very grown up, ladies what lunch!

Saturday night she spent with Grandma and Grandad then I picked her up yesterday morning and we did what girls do best, we shopped! Emily had got some vouchers and money so we went and got her some jewellry and a couple of new tops. Then we came home as we had Ally, Steve and Elise coming down for a bit of a birthday get together. This meant cake and of course Em wanted a horse one. Could I find one? Nope! So again my addled brain had to be creative. Grandma made a chocolate brownie cake and I got out the chocolate and marzipan and created a horsey thing for her:

 And the obligatory happy birthday:

So, that's another birthday done. Next year we have our first double-digit birthday to celebrate, eeek! So thank you for all the cards and presents and happy birthday Em!

Love It, Love It, Love It!

Yay! The granny stripe blanket is finished. I have absolutely loved doing this:

 And loved all the detail in the border:

I think Em likes it:

And it certainly did the job last night:

I feel more granny stripe projects coming on! Meanwhile, go over to Lucy's Attic and look at some of her other beautiful projects, the woman's a crocheting genius!

That Girl!

One thing I think you can only experience as a parent is how you can be tearing your hair out with someone one minute and then be swelling with pride and love the next.

This Sunday I spent 5 hours clearing out the girl's bedroom. O...M...G..., it's like having a teenage boy. 5 bin bags of rubbish, 3 of recycling and 1 for the charity shop; I seriously don't know how she does it! So you can imagine what joy it filled me with yesterday morning when, after spending my Sunday sorting through Barbie shoes and broken toy parts, said little miss woke up with an attitude. All the way to school we argued, she lost horse riding, late nights and basically everything she possessed with her spree of answering back. 8.50 I drop her at school with a 'Bye Em', 'Yeah, whatever!'. 9am I'm sat in the hall to watch her assembly where I watched the former Miss Attitude get up in front of the school a model pupil and read out her literacy work for the head teacher's award. Bless her, she is so fab! So much pride and love for how hard my little girl has been working:

Hang on a minute, wasn't she the devil spawn just half an hour ago? Ah well, I'll forgive her!

As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs!

I just love the story I was greeted with when I got up this morning. Apart from having a wonderful lie-in until 9am (I have no idea what year that last happened in), it was just the best way to start the day.

Rob got up with Xan and noticed he'd gone in the kitchen, shut the door and had been in there a while. Rob went in and Xan was stood on his stool and had opened a box of eggs on the worktop and was bent over with his face an inch or 2 from the eggs. "What are you doing Xander?" Rob asked. "I'm talking to the eggs, they need cheering up coz they're cold and lonely." Xan replies. So Rob backs out of the kitchen, closes the door and leaves him to it!

LMAO, I just love that boy!