My name is Lynn and I am an instagram addict :-D

Sitting pretty :-)

A waterside pub, two lovely relatives, a couple of drinks and then a walk back home along the river <3

Olympic shiny moment and Ollie the giant :-)

The Olympic torch came to the area today and a friends son was carrying it part of the way.

I picked up lovely Nephew and we headed into town. I parked out of town as I was slightly nervous of getting into town and finding it too busy to park.

We found out that wasn't the case and could probably have parked right near where we ended up standing!! Oh well, we got a bit of excersise walking in ;-)

Kevin's story is so inspirational and he truly deserved this moment to shine :-) 

Kevin's nomination story

Kev has Cerebral Palsy. At school in the 800 mtrs race he used to get lapped by his peers at the 200-300 
mtrs mark but he still finished the race. He always loved football but was never very good at it. 
He used to go to EVERY training session but when it came to picking a team Kev was always left on the subs
 bench & only got to play for 5 mins at the end if the team had a comfortable lead.

Kev is an absolute inspiration to everyone he meets. He has overcome adversity in the most positive way. 
He has gone from wearing splints on both legs till he was 7 yrs to doing a Psychology Degree and gaining 
the BPS prize in his 3rd year as while he was doing his dissertation he was also training for the 
London Marathon (which he completed in 4 hrs & 42 mins) & he was a student ambassador 
& he looked after a man in a wheelchair for 12 hours a week all in his 3rd year at uni.

He now works for People First as a Health Fascilitator encouraging adults with learning difficulties to 
have a fitter & more active lifestyle by assisting them with diet and fitness regimes. He got this job by
 thinking up the project then writing a funding bid where he got £300,000 from the
 BIG Lottery to fund a 4 year project.

He will always go that extra mile and nothing is too much trouble to him. He has just got engaged to Sarah
 & says he is now complete. He would be a very worthy candidate to carry the torch &
 he would be so honoured to be chosen.

Kevin and Sarah <3

Kev and his Brother and great buddie Ryan.

Kev and Milly.

Moment to Shine :-)

It was great to be a part of it and to support him and his family. 

We trecked back to the car and made our way home,  dropped Alex off and headed home to get some food before heading out again.

Alan had been due to work late and meet us in town but someone else did it for him and he got home in time to take us. I was so pleased I wouldn't have to drive again! I woke at 7.30 this morning with a migraine, took pills and went back to bed but it never really lifted . So tiredness, a lingering headache and the effect of the pills combined meant that my driving today has been diabolical! 

Alan drove and we had no problems getting into town and parking. 

I do get myself worked up unnecessarily about these things...

Whilst Milly and the drama group had a final rehearsal Alan and I hung around for a while then headed to the indoor venue the Solstice picnic had been moved too.

A stroll past the village hall and over the river.

Ollie the Giant arrives.

Ollie wanted to be a swimmer in the Olympics but was too big for the pool so had to consider other options. The group had collaborated in making the song and Ollie was carried using a harness that Geoff wore and sticks controlled by some of the group. The others sung and joined in doing the actions with Ollie :-) It was very entertaining :-)

The group then headed back to the Theater and Alan and I ambled back to meet them munching on some chips :-) 

Milly had been quite anxious this morning as she didn't know what the routine was but after the rehearsal she was much happier and enjoyed the whole experience :-)

The weather was also much better than forecast and we stayed dry on both outings :-) 

Cakes, Heifers, Olympic torch and soggy Solstice celebrations.

The week so far..

Monday...

A quiet day at home. I spent time in the morning doing a lot of Ebay wrapping so I could get over to the part time post office within the two hours or so it is in the village hall.  

Hammock time for Milly.

She is creating some wonderful stories after many, many months where she hasn't written one... Some are being recorded on the laptop, some are simply told to us. She has been leaving tasters of some of her stories as her facebook status. Drawing is also back on the agenda and she is spending time drawing the characters she writes about.

The hammock - snuggled under her duvet - is where her stories are formulated.

That night Milly and I watched My Sisters keeper on TV and cried buckets :-( 

We only caught the last hour or so and put it on our love film list to watch again.

Tuesday...

Was my meditation group meet up. 

We didn't meditate as one of the girls -  lol! we are all of an age but I still think of us as girls :-) - had to leave early and it never feels right with one of us missing. We had a good natter and - as is always the case - I came away feeling uplifted. I am so lucky to have this group in my life :-)

Mum had come to look after Milly and they made fairy cakes. We were going to visit a family friend and I had promised to take cake! 

After lunch and a chat with Mum I made a casserole to cook slowly in the oven so I wouldn't have to cook tea when we got in. 

We had a lovely visit with Hazel and caught up as it was a while since we had seen her. An added bonus was that her son had decided to sell his Buffy the Vampire Slayer videos and Alan had given Milly some of his birthday money so she could buy them :-)

She is now the proud owner of the whole Buffy series and the Angel series. Just have to find somewhere to store them - videos take up a lot of space :-)

Wednesday...

The plan today was to go swimming with friends. For various reasons they couldn't make it and it had to be cancelled although we were invited to go along to theirs for afternoon cream tea :-) 

So a slower start to the day for us which was actually welcome. I managed to clear some paperwork and get some jobs done before waking Milly - as requested - at 11.

I also made some Butterfly cakes to take with us.

It was lovely to See Maria, Jamie, Millie and Devan. 

M had had an eventful morning as a herd of young heifers had toppled the fence and came to investigate her garden! They were all milling around the fence -  temporarily repaired to keep them from visiting again ;-)) - and I couldn't resist taking a photo. This one was particularly interested in us ;-) 

After a couple of hours we headed into town. I am getting more used to driving Persephone but still struggle a little with the gears... 

Walked into Sainsbury and Milly spotted Amy and Molly so she abandoned me and went off round with them to do their shopping and we met up again at the tills :-)

Home for tea and then a discussion with Alan about the best way to get into town to see our friends son carry the torch tomorrow. I have an inability to visualise a route unless it is a road I travel regularly - to be honest I can have difficulty even if I do travel it regularly!  I am taking Alex and Milly in to see Kevin run with the torch. He has overcome so much and it will be great to support him. Still not sure where we will be parking or how close we will be able to get. Should be interesting! 

We should get home in time for a breather before setting off again as Milly goes to Drama. There are a number of things on in town tomorrow as The Cockermouth festival falls on the same day as the Olympic torch procession. There are bands and street performers. The plan is for them to perform amongst the crowd with a giant they have made with wood and plastic bottles. They have had little time to prepare as the group leader had a death in the family and only have a 20 minute rehearsal before they go out tomorrow so Milly is a little anxious..

Oh and it is forecast to pour down all day. 

That might just put a damper on the solstice picnic by the river we were hoping to attend.

 Let's hope they are proved wrong.

So yet another town that will be chocka block with the whole main st closed off....

Plenty of opportunity to test my driving and navigational skills :-) 

Instagram, friends on holiday and sleepover slip up....

I have been playing with Instagram and really enjoy creating different images. The one above was taken at Maryport Harbour where we had been sitting eating fish and chips with Liz, her Mum, and the kids who were on holiday here. Milly was acting coy and I love her pose. Unfortunately it is not as clear as the original and is not showing at it's best on here :-) 

These pictures are of the girls at a play park on the way to meet with Liz at a Butterfly farm to spend some time together before they went off with Milly to spend a night with them in the caravan.

The weather has been fine for most of the week and the girls have had three sleepovers at ours and one at the caravan so they have seen a lot of each other. Paddling in the sea, lots of bouncing on the trampoline, and lots of walking in the fresh air add up to a very pleasant, busy, but tiring week. 

The last sleepover last night was suggested by me.. I knew the girls would love to spend the night together and really wanted to provide that for them. The two nights they had spent here on Mon/Tues had gone well and giddiness wasn't overwhelming ;-)) However after 5 full on days together, late nights for them and me and an afternoon of swimming for us all, it proved to be a step too far :-( 

 Extreme fatigue and consequentially low tolerance to noise ( me) extremely giddy and noisy ( them )  temper ( me and Milly )  irrational threats ( me ) and tears ( Milly ) brought on due to exhaustion and anger at me - aided by a less than sympathetic response from Alan - meant a rather messy end to what had been a lovely week.

There has been a calm de - brief over fish and chips tonight and we have all accepted our part in the debacle and discussed ways it could have been handled better :-)  

A couple of relaxing days on the Agenda this weekend to recoup :-)) 

A...Amy...B...Beacon... SEA :-))

Holiday sleepover with Amy began with a trip to The Beacon Museum.

After our last couple of visits with Milly had wanted to take Alan so he could play the space invader game. As he was on holiday it was a perfect opportunity to take him :-)

A great day out and back home for a sleepover. 

As we were walking around the harbour they had decided they wanted to go to town so they could swim in the river... It was cold but they were confidant they would be ok to go in. Alan was taking  Beauty and Socks to the vets for their yearly jabs and the girls went in to town with him then wandered down to the river. They did actually go in but paddling proved to be enough so they returned home with Alan. 

Home for tea and then the usual giggles...

Then - much later - what has become a new tradition of eating freshly cooked baked potatoes by Milly for supper:-)