The Ginger Ninja

Last year(ish) we gained some wonderful new neighbors .... I'm sure the old ones were ok, but never really got to know them. About the same time, we started getting visits from what can only be described as a furball, a somewhat scrawny slightly dirty ginger cat, who thought nothing of sitting by our glass back door, stalking us. By this point the girls were begging for a cat with a passion not unlike Lennie in of mice and men, although there was never a suggestion to call him George. I digress, whilst heading to the car one day our neighbour came to chat, we discussed the scruffy ginger mess, who turned out to be a refugee living in their garden. They had brought him from their old home because he had no one to care for him. Turns out our neighbour is seriously allergic to the mass of Weasley coloured fur, and so they welcomed Beths suggestion that we look  after him. Much grumbling ensues on Cris's behalf, but the  following day he was provided with food bowl, treats and a brush. Now remember we were told he was a stray, so I fully expected to come out of any attempts to brush him with life threatening injuries, the first sign of a hair brush a noise erupted, not unlike that of an old 250cc bike, and the scruffy mess melted, and flopped onto his back..... Stray , my a**.
So the fur balls name is Mickey, and since he appeared, Amy has a new floppy teddy bear to drag around. Theo has a willing Conversation partner, who answers back with a wide array of tones, and Beth has a purring hot water bottle, even Cris who curses and protests can be caught feeding him treats and making space at the end of the chair.
Mickey has adopted us one and all, and makes it clear daily what an effort it is to keep us in line.

Time

I remember sitting watching a really irritating tv program when Bert was young, one of the songs "Time flies when your having fun" has done far too good a job of sticking in my head, it pops out at inappropriate moments and ambushes my consciousness. Once again its too long since I tried to organize my thoughts onto a page. Amy and Theo are upstairs pretending to be going to sleep and making enough noise to wake the dead. Bert is out with her boyfriend (yes you did read it right) and his parents at the cinema.
We finally saw a geneticist recently, she confirmed the suspected diagnosis of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, for that one moment sat there as she talked us through everything, I wanted to cry, I wanted to curl up into a ball and make the world dissapear, then I looked at my wonderful children and realized crying would do no good at all. So now as mummy protector of the realm, chief in charge of "there there" and kissing things better, I am fighting my way through mountains of information, looking for a way to make the pain go away for my Bert, almost 16 but still my baby.
Bert is waiting for her 2nd GCSE result, which she gets the day before my birthday,I hope for her sake she has done well, but regardless of grade I am the proudest mummy alive, for every day she puts me to shame, every time she fights through a wall of pain and anxiety which threaten to overshadow her sweet gentle nature. She cares for her brother and sister on the days I have to work, making life as fun and magical for them as I would if I could be there. We have just returned from our annual jolly to Cornwall, where each day Amy and Theo got to be secret agents, searching for clues and finding missing agents, each day getting a reward which could be anything ranging from a teddy bear or a yo-yo to a midnight feast. All of this made possible thanks to weeks of preparation by a big sister who could not love her siblings more.
The development of a boyfriend has been an amusing one, Jack is a gentle giant who protects and loves my baby so much that I find myself thinking every girl should have a Jack for her first boyfriend. Jack has taught Amy and Theo to climb tree's, he has helped Bert look after them when I was busy, he now openly acknowledges that the girl of his dreams came at the price of a new brother and sister.
Life is a rollercoaster atm, were a lot of the time the bad seems to be overshadowing the good. But as I have always done, I look for a positive in every day, the freezer defrosting and spoiling all the food inside whilst we were away has given me the opportunity to clean it out. Taking on more hours at work means I no longer have to work nights.
Amy is about to start her final year of primary school, and I watch with masked amusement as she tuns everyday into some fragile looking beauty, with her waist length hair, and bright blue eyes, my amusement is fuelled by our constant battle to convince her to wear appropriate underwear, or sit like a young lady. Even though she is going to a reasonably large secondary school I still find myself thinking they won't know what happened when hurricane mouse gets there, I just hope they are not waiting for another Beth!.

Well I start work at 7.30 so I best sleep, anyone reading this, have a good evening, and keep smiling.....

If you have a moment take a look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehlers%E2%80%93Danlos_syndrome

Shells

Well Hallo there:-)
 Its been a while. How are you ? Things change, time moves on. Last time we were here, I was taking on the world via the cubs. Last night  I held my last meeting as Cub Scout leader, a little sad but as they say "when one door closes" , somewhat ironically as I sat here once before, I am just about to watch the ever entertaining jezzer.
Life is still the metaphorical roller coaster it once was.  Let's see......My amazing Beth, last year she gained her first GCSE A grade, aged 14 an amazing result, although she was happy, she was not amused because she was one mark off an A*.......bless her (an A mind you.....pretty incredible). We had our rug dragged out from under our feet recently, a visit to the hyper mobility expert in Bath opened up a whole new can of worms, the diagnosis we have worked with for so long has been changed, we are now looking at the possibility of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.... A very different and much more complicated prognosis, apparently her lovely soft skin is possibly a symptom of something much more serious. But as we have done before we will do our best, we have a long way to go, lots of testing, genetic profiling, physiotherapy and a whole herd of specialists. After chatting with an old friend with a far closer view of EDS than anyone should have to experience we are looking at "smart crutches", if Bert has to use crutches long term she will have the best. Amy.... Wow ok, my little blonde loony is growing up. Still the gentle caring, self sufficient creature, she is getting taller by the day, and tbh if she gets any thinner she may well dissapear, and yet she eats more than the rest of us. Yesterday she took part in a trip to Bristol university as part of a gifted and talented trip, her talent... Drama, are we surprised ?..... I think not. I was lucky enough to watch a show at her school, she was part of a student created version of "walking in the air"..... Cue music and little girls swirling around the stage, Amy and her best friend are stood at the side of the stage wearing onesies.... Then the singing begins... A voice which while untrained, held notes that professionals work to achieve, she looks at me and grins, and my heart melts. This little creature so undemanding and easy going revealed a talent which left me wishing that I could sign her up for stage school tomorrow.... Watch this space. My Theo-lump.... Dear god why does no one tell you about the difference between the sex's? My little man is now heading at breakneck speed toward his seventh birthday, school reports state he is good with computers and mental maths, his handwriting isn't great so as a result he uses computers to complete his written work.. Incidentally he excells at IT, now there's a shock:-)  his teachers tell us he would benefit from being better organised, I think I may be guilty there.. Never mind lumpy we can be disorganised together. Monday will be Theo's day, if all goes to plan hopefully its a day he won't forget, but shhhhhhh right now its a secret:-)
Other parts of life rise and dip, but my 3 amazingly beautiful completely unpredictable creatures continue to amaze and baffle me, they make my heart swell so much it could burst on a daily basis. Summer comes (its Britain ok!) This is our time of year, picnics in the park, walks up the tor, feeding the ducks and a million other small things that fill memories.
Take each day as it comes, grasp it with both hands and never let go, because otherwise one day you might look back and find its left you behind.
Enjoy this beautiful sunny if freezing cold day, as jezzer would say, I am for today out of time.