Wow it has been a while.
So here we are in Plymouth. What a different place from London! Plymouth is the size of Pietermaritzburg almost, so I felt at home here from day one. Settling in has taken a while for all of us, but I think we have finally found our groove. Here is a picture of Scout on our very first morning...
We live in a lovely part of Plymouth, called Derriford. Ironically it is right by the airport....but I think there can be no comparison between the air traffic here and at Heathrow! We are also right by the hospital - very fortunate, but more of that later! - and a great nursery school which Scout has started attending 2 mornings a week.
Being at school has been so fabulous for Scout's growth and development and she has become such a little person. Her talking is phenomenal, and we are now able to have long chats with her; and much to her delight we now understand her very specific instructions to us! She has also started singing, with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star being the tune of choice. We were driving back from town one evening and this angelic voice started serenading Adam and I from the back seat. What an awesome memory moment for us to stash away!
On the beach in Cornwall
On Dartmoor, with some of the ponies.
Scout's first day of nursery
The other love of my life has also finally settled into Plymouth. Adam just missed being deployed to Afghanistan, so for a few months we held our breath waiting for the official word, and when we were told that for now Adam doesn't have to go, we gave a big sigh of relief. Saying that though, the little boy in my husband is desperate to do another tour again. When you ask Marines what it is about going on tour and why they want to so badly, the answer you get nine times out of ten is simple: this is what we are trained to do!! That statement really hits home - it makes me feel incredibly proud to be part of a Military family where men are willing to lay down their lives for a country that doesn't seem too bothered in supporting them.
Adam has now officially finished his qualification - we are so proud of him! But it is a constant learning process and he is kept on his toes with the studies. With most of his Company out on tour, there are very few chaps left on base and I think Adam is finding it too quiet, but boys being boys, those left behind find ways to occupy themselves!!! Be it powerboating or poker.....
Adam has also decided to dip his toes into the triathlon field and got his new bike last week - what can I say? Santa came early to the Stone Home! I must say I am very impressed and I think he is going to make a handsome devil on the triathlon field!
We take advantage of being so close to Dartmoor National Park and go for long runs on the weekend - I think pushing Scout in the buggy as he runs really aids Adam's training - well that's what I tell him!
We have just celebrated Adam's 28th Birthday and we were so thrilled when Sean, Vix, Snows and Nicola came down from London to spend it with us. We had such a lovely weekend, and made us realise how much we are missing our friends, and just how special they are to us!
I have also completed my Childminder qualifications and all the bits and pieces that go with it, so for now I am staying at home to be with Scout until she is at school and I can finish off my studies full time at university. Being a childminder has proven to be a bit of a waiting game....which I am so not good at!....it takes a while for word to get around and after nearly three months am feeling a bit despondant as I am still waiting to take some children on, but as my friend Jill said , look at it this way.... every extra day that you have with JUST Scout it a blessing. How wise my friend!
I have also decided to get back into my running with a view to perhaps trying a half marathon ( baby steps! ) at some point next year, and am spending my free time running all over Dartmoor - am always a bit cold and muddy though! Today I would have made the pigs proud I was so caked in mud! I wish I could say a change in scenery inspired Ads and I to become fit but it wasn't our doing. My dear brother-in-law came to visit and anyone who can run like a zillion Comrades as well as 100-mile-marathons, firstly deserves a nobel prize..and to be taken notice of! So Grant, thanks buddy for being such a great inspiratoin to us, and we are planning that last Comrades with you!!!!! (Four years should be enough time to train right?!?)
Sadly I had a set back just before Adam's birthday, after an evening jog I got home and slipped getting into the shower - down I went with a shriek and a solid WHACK as my arm hit the edge of the bath...breaking my radius quite spectacularly - never mind the scalding from the hot water shooting out the shower!!! Adam had just put madam to bed, so it was a case of bundling her up in blankets and setting off to A&E - conveniently just round the corner! After 4 hours of being poked at and x-rayed, I walked away with a mighty fine cast! Scout loved every second of being up past bedtime and enchanted all the doctors and nurses! So dear friends - hence why I write this as a one armed bandit!! well, you live and learn ; and never before have I heard the words from my husband's mouth saying to me that it is OKAY to boss him around!! If I had of known a broken arm was what it took, perhaps I would have tried it earlier!!!
Now for those of you who know our blog from before, you may notice I have changed it a bit. I have had a New Years Resolution early -Ads was given a wonderful book by Lu and Grant which I have had a chance to read at last, called Babylon Zoo by Lawrence Anthony about saving the animals from Baghdad Zoo when the war kicked off - I found it so awe inspirinig-what a great man. I have taken some lessons from him about believing we are more in this life to achieve than we think.
I have always felt that newspapers are so sad, they just report the sadness in the world and I think we should spend more time looking at the goodness that falls by the wayside - so I have decided in JUST ONE JOY A DAY! I am going to stop taking life for granted and look for just one joy each day, and any more I find that day are just a bonus huh? Let me know your joys too please!
So my joy for today is this:
Scout made cookies at nursery today, and boy when I got her home and sat her down with her cookie and a babyccino ( frothy warm milk ) , she was in such bliss and on a chilly day like today it was just what we both needed for our souls!
