Weekly Wisdom

When the one in whom you believe in 

Puts their faith and trust in you,

You've found the one and only love

You'll share your whole life through.

Love

3 Years

Three years married to this amazing guy today and they've exceeded all expectations - a car, a baby, a house and another baby on the way...who knows what the next years will bring but I'm looking forward to finding out.

A Special Lady

Last night, after fourteen weeks in hospital, my beloved grandmother lost her fight for life.

While I'm heartbroken at this loss, I'm trying to focus on the fact that she's finally at peace and no longer in pain.

As she often told us, she lived a long and fulfilling life - she would have turned ninety-two next week. 

She was born, the second of eight children in a tiny two bedroom terrace in Morley in 1923 to a Yorkshire miner and a Scottish housemaid.

She got away from working in the mill by joining the army at the age of seventeen. She travelled the country and lived it up in Bristol, attending lots of dances with soldiers from America and France.

After the war she married, left her husband and ran away to London for six months. She moved back to Leeds where she met and married my grandfather, leading to the birth of my mother some years later.

They moved around a lot including a stint in Blackpool before moving back to Leeds for family. Sadly, grandad died when mum was just a teenager.

Grandma met her third husband Ken shortly before I was born and married him soon after my sister was born. They often looked after us and took us all over in school holidays. They also enjoyed lots of holidays in Jersey.

Ken passed away in 1999. Four years later, she was diagnosed with cancer. At age eighty, we all feared the worst but she fought it and won, albeit with lots of support from friends and family.

She applied for her first passport at eighty-two to visit me in Barcelona for my twenty-first. She got on swimmingly with tapas, sangria and Spanish waiters. When I came back from Spain, I moved in with her. We had our rows but at heart we were the best of friends. She helped me learn my panto lines and I helped her finish crosswords. Despite the age gap, we had lots in common.

When I moved to Germany and met Nico she took to him too. She visited us three times here and danced into the night at our wedding.

She became a great grandmother in 2010 and now has a grand total of five great grandchildren including twins (which four of her siblings were).

She struggled with dementia in later life but always retained her fighting spirit and cheeky temperament. After a fall in August, she never fully recovered. 

She could make friends anywhere - even the hospital nurses came to visit her in their own time when she moved hospitals.

Even having read about her eventful life, I can't give you more than a glimpse of the kind of woman she was. She supported us all through everything. She had a big heart but she told it straight.

I know she was proud of us and I know she's still with us in so many ways. I hope to honour her by living a good life and keeping her memory alive.

Weekly Wisdom

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Inspiration

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BBQ time!

On Saturday, we had some friends over for my birthday and Nico got out his new barbecue to make us some delicious chimi churi steak and roast potatoes to go with his homemade tzatziki.  It was delicious!!

I love this photo of him on the balcony, grilling away because the heart says it all - my love, embracing his love of cooking.  It was a fantastic weekend.

Inspiration

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Currently Loving...

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Continuing one of my 2013 projects, here are some things that I am loving this month:

• Lighter days and marginally warmer weather.
• Getting to grips with my goals.
• Special events - wine tasting, kale trips, pancake day, Valentine's day...
• Hot lemon and sage tea to fight off this cough / cold that I'm not loving.
• Wedding plans coming together now that the invitations are out.
• Disney
•  Nico's delicious projects.
• Pete playing with his new toy!  He's become very athletic:

Happy Valentine's Day

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One Little Word

Around all my favourite blogs this month, there has been a bit of a common theme (apart from the monthly goals) and that is 'one little word'.  I did this last year as part of my goals journal and actually it seemed to make sense.  For this year, it wasn't hard to decide, it almost feels too obvious but my one little word is going to be 'Love'.

It fits in in so many ways.  Of course, we are getting married this year so that is a big reason but also, I want to focus on our relationship and not take Nico for granted.  It's also not just about that kind of love.  My new diary even has the quote 'Do what you Love and Love what you do' which is going to be my motto for the year, if not life and I want to focus every month on the things I love; especially this month which is dark and dreary and gets people down, me included.  So here goes:

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This month I love:

• my amazing fiance for coping with my stress and mild panic attacks about the wedding already.
• my best amiga for always being there.
• the fact that the days are starting to get lighter (I don't normally see this until February).
• my job - especially the pupils and colleagues who make me smile every day.
• Skype catch ups with the BFF in England.
• getting back into German literature in style with Tintenherz (like Harry Potter for bookworms).
• getting creative again with wedding planning projects as well as others.
• the snow!  It means that cycling through the park at night is no longer scary as it doesn't get dark!

To my love...

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Congratulations!

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A big well done to my wonderful boyfriend as today he becomes a Beamte - that is like a civil servant.  After years of studying and working hard it's all paid off and he has a lot more job security now - well done Nico!

Two Years - Update!

So on Wednesday we had a lovely, romantic day in.  The weather was not playing along so we didn't get out.  Nico made me a delicious and healthy English breakfast after presenting me with this very cute chocolate heart (check out the ladybird!)  We forgot about Weightwatchers for the day and treated ourselves to lots of nibbles and plonked ourselves in front of the box to catch up on some of our favourites.  It was just what we both needed.  Nico loved his present from me - the photos of us together of the last two years and we both loved our lovely ornamental berry heart from our good friends Loreto and Ed.  Most importantly, we spent the day looking back over the last two years and being grateful for what we have and how lucky we are.

Two Years!

Today, Nico and I have been an item for two whole years!  I don't know where the time has gone.  We will be celebrating somehow, depending on the weather as we have the luck to be off work every year as 3rd October is a bank holiday here.  I'm really grateful for the amazing last two years, and hoping I'll be lucky enough to have many more with this wonderful man.

Love...

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