of this year.

This evening we we will go here

I hope I can face the year ahead as fearlessly as my little boy faces these waves. And I wish that for many of you too.
Welcome 2010.
With lots of love

So I'm a little stiff and sore
in, ahem, all kinds of places.
I didn't get to go as fast as I would have liked mainly due to ALOT off walkers I had to battle my way past on the first leg of the run.
But I LOVED it.
The atmosphere was amazing. It was hard work. It was fun.
And I'm signing up for the half marathon for next year.
For those of you who are interested it took me 1 hour and 21 minutes to complete 12km. I can hear you doing the mental maths, I don't run fast, but I can cover long distances at a steady pace.
And one of the big lessons I learned from these past ten weeks is that when it comes to my fitness, there are no excuses.
If I can keep up a training regime whilst supporting my dad through major heart surgery, through my children having swine flu and you know 3rd degree burns, as well as working both full and part time, well you can too.
The fact that I coped with all those things is probably because I was getting fit.
I remember starting and doing two kilometers nearly killed me. But I persevered.
This isn't a call to arms by any means, but I urge you to find a sport you love or if you can't find one you love, instead find one you don't hate. And do it.
Because we all have struggles in our lives. And we all need time out. And sitting on the couch eating isn't the way to do it. Trust me on this. It has its place, but tragically, it's a very small place. In fact my doctor would say it has no place.
Seriously.
And I have to tell you, there are some BIG hills on this run and one of the things that kept me going was reciting the names written on the flower on my tshirt in my head.
Remembering them, and remembering you.
It gave me a reason to keep going and for that I thank you.
And now, in what is the ONLY time you will ever see my rear view
Kinda pretty don't you think?
The flower I mean....

Over the past ten weeks it has rained here alot. I know this for an indisputable fact.
Why?
Because chances are I've been out running in it.
And many, many times as I've panted up hills or woken up the next morning with my muscles screaming at me, I've wondered why I was doing it.
But I had a very good set of reasons.
1. Health
2. Weight loss (4.5 kg thank you very much)
3. Remembering precious souls.
Sunday morning is race day.
Again I want to thank Lauren for this idea. Sticking to this running training is what has kept me healthy and whole during some trying times recently.
I'm seriously considering training for a half marathon for next year because this has been so good for me.
And this is the picture I had transferred onto the back of my shirt for the run on Sunday. Hope y'all like it!
I'll be posting a more in depth story about the run afterwards, though you can follow me on Twitter as I send regular updates throughout the morning!
Wish me luck (and energy and speed)


ETA if anyone would like a copy of the sunflower, please let me know and I'll happily email you the JPEG xxxx

Disclaimer: My husband asked me not to blog tonight, because I am a tad upset and sleep deprived so there is every chance I may delete this post.
Or not.

So this week I was given the pleasure of being a guest commentator for a women's fashion magazine. It was fun. They sent me pictures of various celebrities dressed up in their Sunday best and I critiqued them in a witty and caustic way. Well I thought they were witty.
And so they were published and I felt very proud. Because I myself am not fashion forward, or even fashionable. My favourite item of clothing is a pair of overlong velour sweatpants that I would wear 24/7 if I could. Only the pained sigh of my long-suffering mother stops this from being the case. For her, I wear jeans instead.
I was critical of these celebrities as one can be, safe in the knowledge they are unlikely to read or even care about my opinion. In fact, being sarcastic was fun.
My attitude has always been, well if you are well known you have to put up with the good and bad side of fame, because you asked for it.
Now I'm not famous.
I'm not well known.
But I've realised people are talking about Rory's Garden online.
Now alot of it was lovely.
But some of it was not.
And the people saying those things and taking shameless advantage of the goodwill of those of us tending his garden probably didn't know I would ever read what they wrote.
But I did.
And it stings.
And truthfully as I sit here tonight I don't know what to do.
We've asked people to respect the few rules of our garden. My brother has toiled night and day and I've put in alot of love as well.
So I could conceivably crawl into a corner and cry. But I won't.
Instead we will continue to honour the memory of my brother. Because remembering him and all those precious babies and children taken too soon is why his garden was created.
And I hope people will remember that too.
And I know that sometimes words have a huge power to wound, and sometime we don't realise that. If I'd known that before I did my guest fashion commentator spot I wouldn't have said that Heather Graham's hair looked like she'd been attacked by wild birds.
I'd have just said "birds"

It occurred to me as I was driving home from work for the second time today twice in one day, don't ask! to wonder what Mrs Spit had for lunch. I mean, what do Canadians eat for lunch? I apologise if this is a woefully ignorant question. Is there a national dish? Should I try it?
And then I wondered if The Unproductive One was having a good day, not an okay one, but a good one.
I thought of Stacy missing her precious Isaac.
And I thought of Bec and hoped she wasn't going through OHSS and I hoped that Mr Small hadn't yet found a way to unlatch the front gate and run outside.
I thought about my friend Liz and hoped she was having a lovely birthday and that the flowers I sent her arrived safely
I hoped that word of Rory's Garden was spreading and reflected on some of the beautiful emails we have recieved about it.
Such were the meanderings of my mind today during my drive home.
And this is what I want to know.
What did you do today? I just want a snapshot, a sense of what you did or didn't do. What you ate and how you felt about your day.
And by this I mean you who take the time to read my blog. Because maybe I didn't think specifically of you today, but I probably did yesterday, or I will tomorrow.
And so often I wonder.
Often at bedtime after story time has been completed my small ones will say: "Tell me about your day mummy."
And so my friends, tell me about your day.
I'm listening.
xxx