I also began to learn how to Hula-Hoop in April thanks to a friend who is currently undertaking a Hula Hooping course and learning how to do tricks etc. I however have decided to do it more from a fitness point of view in order to help strengthen my back and core muscles, as I have had a problem with a couple of my discs for years now which I have to have adjusted and kept in place on a monthly basis by a Chiropractor. I have to say that I was beyond useless when I started and couldn't keep that hoop up at all, but now with a bit of practice I have managed to do over 600 spins! I have been doing it on a daily basis and am trying to do at least 200 each way, with some days taking more practice than others! Below you can see my sparkly hoop!
It was also around this time that I found a curious critter on the kitchen wall that I thought I would share with you, as you can see below it is a Lady bird with no spots!
By this point mid April had come around and with it bought a friend's 18th birthday and a Baby Shower which we had a fab time at! We played games including; "Where's My Dummy" which was similar to "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" accept you had to try and aim to get the dummy in the baby's mouth, "Guess How Many Dummy's Are In the Bottle", "How Big Is the Bump", and we also had a quiz to do on nursery rhymes as well as making predictions as to when the baby would be born and how much it would weigh etc. We also watched her open her many presents, and there were so many! I am pretty sure that this baby now has more clothes than it could ever wear, including the gorgeous Joules baby grow and star musie that we got him as you can see below.
After this weekend came my birthday week, which I decided to take off from work in order to relax and get some jobs done. It did however not turn out this way and was instead extremely stressful, so I found myself needing a holiday from my holiday by the end of it! This was due to the fact that being that I had some time off I thought that it would give me a good opportunity to move onto tiling the bathroom. Two words never again!
Having never tiled before I started on the Monday thinking that it may take me until maybe the Wends to complete, and being in the zone that I was on the first day I ended up working through from 10am in the morning until 4:30am on Tuesday morning. Yes I am mad and there was a lot of Red Bull involved, but I figured that the more that I did the quicker I would get it done so that I could do the other jobs that I needed to catch-up with on my week off. However it did not end up this way I did it all day every day, day after day. On Weds I came to grouting the tiles and even though I had used the right grout I found that even though the glass tiles were fine, it reacted with some of the untreated stone tiles for some reason making them bleed into the grouting and making it look a rusty colour around them. The tiles weren't meant to be treated before they were grouted so I have no idea why it did it, but the only solution was to stop wiping the grout from the tiles whilst wet as this was making it worse and to wait to get it off when dry by sanding which made it an even bigger job. By the end of Thursday and after a day and a half of sanding I finally cracked and my hubby came home to find me in a sobbing mess!
At this point I was knackered, aching, had lost skin off of my fingers where I had been sanding so much, had no nails left and was generally frustrated that there was still no end in sight and that I hadn't got the chance to do anything else with my week off, or enjoy the lovely weather that we had had that week. So in a bid to console me my hubby presented me with an early birthday present which consisted of the gorgeous bunny necklace that you can see below. I loved it so much and was even more impressed that the hubby had gone to the effort to choose and get it for me, as he doesn't tend to do things like that very often.
My mood was also eased a little more by my early birthday present to myself turning up, which consisted of some lovely Joules wellies that you can see below. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them about a year ago but didn't really need them at the time so I left it, but when I came to buy them they typically didn't do the style anymore despite having done them or something similar for years! Que plenty of internet searching and the only place I could find them was in America! But luckily being that they had been reduced over there I managed to get them sent over and even with the fees and import tax paid no more that I would have done for then here. It only took a couple of week for them to arrive and I am over the moon with them! They are so very me and will be replacing my last Joules ones ready for Download Festival next month, as after four years my last ones have had it!
St. Georges Day was on the Sat and with it came my 28th birthday! I had a well needed chilled out one on the day with a lovely family lunch before heading out with the girls in the evening to let my hair down watching a rock band, having a few drinks and then dancing the night away! It was a lovely day and I was thoroughly spoilt! Below can see some of the lovely gifts and cards that I received many of which were naturally bunnified!
After having a chilled out one on Sunday where I was recovering from the night before came Monday and I was back to work again. I spent my days off that week resuming and finally finishing the tile sanding, then all that was left to be done at this point was for me to add the corner tiles. It was a bit of a slog getting back into it again but it was also good to know that I was so close to finishing.
On the Sat of that week both the hubby and I were bought down to earth with a bump after receiving the devastating news that a friend from my hubby's friendship group had sadly passed away after tragically being hit by a car on the afternoon before at the age of only 30. It didn't help that I found out at work on my lunch break so it was quite a shock, and a shock that we are still feeling now. Unfortunately as of yet there don't seem to be any answers as to how it happened but I hope that for his family's sake that we get some answers soon. He was such a lovely outgoing bubbly guy that had been through a lot in the last year but still had a wicked sense of humour regardless. I still can't quite get my head around the fact that we are never going to see him again, and will always remember his infectious laugh and smile. On that sat night we and others from his friendship group went out for drinks to reflect on the events and remember him, as we knew that that is how he would want us to do. Once again makes you realise how precious life, friends, and family are.
After the events of the day before it was then lovely to treasure a day around family on the following day as my Godmother and her family were over from Australia for the first time in three years, and some family friends also travelled down from Norfolk to see them. We all went out and had a lovely meal and catch-up and got to see just how much their boys had grown up. Luckily it was a lovely sunny day even though it was pretty chilly, but it was better than the weather that they arrived to a couple of weeks prior which consisted of more winter like temperatures mixed with April showers, hail and a brief snow shower at the end of April! It was sad to see them go again but hopefully it won't be as long until we see them again.
This almost brings you up to date with all the goings on around here now, with the exception of last weekend which was another very busy one! On the Sat I had a rare day off of work to go bridesmaid shopping for my best friends up and coming October wedding. It was a gorgeous day that finally felt more like the spring and even summer like temperatures that we should be having! We spent the day traipsing streets and shops of Guildford looking for suitable dresses in the style, four shades, and budget that we were after. However this proved to be much more difficult that we had thought, especially since she wanted one of the dresses to be burgundy as it is not really the time of year for finding that colour. Unfortunately despite out extensive search we didn't come away with anything on the day but we did have a lovely girly day out together. We have however sorted the dresses out since, as she has decided to go for a style of dress that we all loved on the day but that only came in a nude pink/mink colour. So we are all now going to be wearing the same style and colour.
After spending the day shopping I then had to rush to get back in time to go straight out to a family meal for my sisters birthday, which was then followed by some yummy summery cocktails in a local bar.
Sunday then saw my hubby and myself being up bright and early to go to Croydon for a meet up with his family that I haven't seen since before Christmas last year, and I also finally got to meet our now seven week old Niece for the first time! She is just gorgeous and is thriving despite her relatively low birth weight from being a few weeks early. She is in fact now turning into a lovely chubby little baby and has nearly doubled her birth weight already! It was such a gorgeous day that we spent most of the day out in the garden having a BBQ, on what turned out to be now the hottest day of the year so far! I also got to meet the other new additions to the family that day being a couple of puppies named Ralph and Rusty, one of which belonged to my hubby's brother and the other to his sister. They were just gorgeous and loved playing in the garden with each other and the kids. Needless to say that as lovely as it was both the hubby and I were knackered by the time that we got home after our action packed weekend.
Also this week the friend who's baby shower I mentioned at the beginning of this post gave birth to a beautiful 7Ib 12oz baby boy named Tobias on Friday, after a long 32 hour labour! Mum and baby are thankfully doing well even though they are still in hospital at the moment. He looks just like his Daddy and I can't wait to meet him!
Thanks for bearing with me and my ramblings in another long post! I hope that you have all had a lovely week and weekend! The weather had been gorgeous here again today despite a cooler blip in the week, but the hubby and I have been taking it easy today as this is the first Sunday that we have had free in a long time! x
