Sleepless nights - and not in a good way!

Now. I'm very lucky indeed. I have managed to find not only one, but two good men who have decided that they'll spend the rest of their lives with me. Granted, the first one didn't last too long, but hubby no. 2 seems to be holding in there just fine!

Hubby no. 2 loves me very much and I love him very much, which comes in handy when you're married! Each night before we go to sleep is the time we'll lie in bed and chat about the day - what annoyed us, what amused us - you know, general chit-chat. Usually it will end up with us both in fits of laughter at something that happened to the other, or some stupid thing we said to put our feet in the proverbial....

Lately, the hubby has taken to singing to me in a very silly but amusing (to me) strangely falsetto voice. Since he speaks with a very deep voice, it is something to behold. I think he takes his inspiration from Peter Sellers in one of the Pink Panther films, where, at the end of the movie, he is singing "Come to me" in a bad French accent with lots of vibrato. You know, going for the clumsly lover routine! He does this, you'll be glad to know, not to woo me but to make me laugh! He succeeds.

Well, he succeeded until last night! The song he has been singing of late is Liberty X's "Just a little" which starts with the line "Sexy. Everything about you so sexy". Imagine in a falsetto voice with vibrato and you might start to get the picture! Now, after the laughter died down we said goodnight and I began to say my personal prayer. Guess what song kept going through my mind? You got it in one! Imagine trying to have a serious conversation with Heavenly Father and having that song go round and round in your head!!

All night!!! Could I sleep? Could I heck as like! I last looked at the clock approaching 2am for the third night in a row! I'm sleep deprived and have nothing to show for it!!! Grrr....

Signs of spring?

Am I losing my mind, or are signs of spring beginning to creep in? The past couple of days have started out foggy, but that has burnt off and we have been left with glorious sunshine and (reasonably) warm temperatures!

Isn't it great?

Added to that is the bizarre, but annual, desire to clear the house of any junk and just give it a thorough clean and tidy through!

Every day as I look out of my office window I can see the wonderful and gloriously quirky daffodils nodding away as they sway in the breeze. It makes me happy! I love these wee flowers! Next on my list of things to look out for will be the budding of the trees and the cherry blossoms in the courtyard! When they are out in full bloom I know it'll be time to get the tent out of storage and dust off the barbeque in preparation for our usual spring/summer adventures!

I find spring a beautifully optimistic season. The days are getting longer and warmer, the flowers begin to bloom and the trees burst into life again. It reminds me that life's trials are temporary and though at times, it may feel as though I'm trudging through the winter muddy slush with my toes frozen and the bottom of my jeans wet and filthy, spring is always just around the corner. The trials will end and there will be a respite - a time to recuperate and recharge before the next lot of buffeting wind, rain, sleet and hail settles in.

So, go on - take a deep breath, smile and be happy. Enjoy the moment!

March madness

I write this today through a haze of lost sleep, so it'll be tough task for me to notice any spelling errors! See, I already caught myself out 4 times already in the space of 2 sentences! It's not good!

Anyhoo, we travelled to Scotland this weekend just past to attend my brother's birthday party. I can't believe I'm old enough to have a brother at 40 - that means I'm next!

So, an uneventful journey was followed by a pretty eventful Saturday. My poor sister-in-law was getting pretty stressed about it and had put in a heck of a lot of work, and just as we were all thinking of getting organised, she had to be taken to hospital with a potentially very serious problem, which looks as though it was sorted in time, thank goodness!

So, we were all at the party and a good number of people turned out. News filtered through about my sister-in-law and it did put a bit of a dampner on it because naturally, our thoughts were with her, hoping that she'd be ok. That meant it took a while to kick into gear, but when it did, it did! It's been a long time since I've had that much fun at a party and what was really nice was that the hubby really let go and had a blast! He surprised everyone there 'cos they've never seen that exuberant side to him. He was FUNNY!

A couple of days later, we're home, even more broke than before and shattered, but we had a great time! Just what I needed to take my mind off March.

Wishing life away...

I'm not usually one who likes to wish my life away. Generally I like every season I'm in and try to make the best of whatever situation I find myself in. I'm more of your 'but on the other side it's good because..' kind of person. This has helped me through more sticky and problem situations that you'd ever believe.

The only exceptions to this rule are the months of February and March which, for me, are emotional roller-coasters.

Roll on April!!

Highs and lows

This last couple of weeks have been quite difficult for us. We have both been struggling with various things that have been going on in our lives and it has made for an unhappy Jiffy and hubby. We've been fine with each other, don't misunderstand me, but just within ourselves there's been room for mood improvement!

I have been very thankful over the years for the mission I served many years ago (although it seems like yesterday!). Mostly because of the great spiritual and life lessons it taught me. A great blessing to come from it is the friends I made along the way. I have been blessed to have great friends all my life, but there is something to be said for living with someone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help your lesson-learning abilities.

Yesterday, I was feeling pretty down about things and as I was just about to finish work, I noticed that one of my companions was online at the same time I was. I thought I'd just say hello and have a quick chat before finishing up. What it turned into, however, was both of us laughing hysterically at the mad and surreal things that happened while we were serving together in the land of the windmill and the brussel sprout! I have rarely been as thankful for the insane things that happen in my life as I was yesterday because it gave me the first real laugh I've had for a couple of weeks!

Now, Sister Lawson, you can SLEEP!

What a weekend!

We had a rather delightful weekend, just past. On Friday night, Ken's brother and sister-in-law came up to visit us and Ikea! We had a really lovely evening with them and enjoyed our chin-wag that went later into the night than we had intended! After a bit of a slow start to Saturday morning, we all made the journey to Ikea. Ken and I spent a couple of hours wandering round the store with them and then we all went to the restaurant for some dime cake and drinks. That's when we had to say our goodbyes. They were planning another assault on the Swedish store and we had to start our journey to Donegal where we were planning to stay overnight.

The journey itself was uneventful, for a change. I drove the entire way while Ken slept almost the entire way! 2 1/2 hours later we were pulling into the drive of our favourite wee B&B - really, we love the place! A lovely evening and night were spent in Donegal.

On Sunday, we awoke to glorious sunshine. We haven't seen too much of that lately! On account of it being such a splendid day we thought we'd make the most of it and go for a drive through the county. So, off we headed. We travelled northwards and through the most rural parts of Ireland and found some beautiful and remote spots. Luckily Ken had his camera so we could capture some of those places and moments. It took 8 hours from when we left the B&B to get home and we were both very tired, but I wouldn't have missed the opportunity for the world. Really, how could I not want to spend time in a place I love with the person I love?

Idiotic me

Because I can, on occasion, be a complete idiot I find myself eating a bit of humble pie. Stupidly, after falling out with my friend, I let my frustration and anger surface in a most inappropriate place - my blog.

It was stupid, thoughtless and potentially very hurtful; no matter what the issues are/were with my friend, she did nothing to deserve the public lambasting she got from me.

Rest assured, I have seen the error of my ways, sent her an email to apologise and deleted the post.

What can I say? I am a redhead with the temper to match and sometimes lack the sense to take a moment and think before I act.