Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Final Post...

On here at least ;)

You can find the new blog at http://www.darkstorm.co.uk/grete/

Hope to see you there! (Don't forget to update any RSS stuffs!)

Friday, October 10, 2008

Heeeeeee!

So Tony surprised me with a Bamboo One Wacom Tablet - something I wanted to mess around with for ages. I don't have any drawing ability but had messed around with cat cartoons since I was a kid and decided it would be the perfect thing to try. Here it is!




Thankyou Tony!!!
From Comics

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Wiifit wheeee!

SO.. Tony surprised me the other day and bought me (us) a wii console, which I have wanted for aaages. Just the basic unit that comes with the wiisports game and it's a lot of fun... and active! Both our right arms are on the achy side now. Might have to consider changing hands a few times ;)

Anywho, the wiifit phenomena has intrigued me. Gimmick or actually useful in getting fitter and some weight off. Anyone who knows me, also knows I have serious weight problems due to several factors including a badforme(tm) food habit. I also don't have much confidence so find it very hard to go to a gym or well, be out of the house around people (they are scary!).

Tony surprised me (that's getting to be a habit there dear!) again and had rung round various places to see if anyone had the wiifit in stock and dispatched me to ToysRus as they had just gotten a delivery. That was a surreal experience in itself but I digress.

Got it home, set it up and did 30 minutes of exercises without my mind realising it (my body is another story!) and it was... HYSTERICAL. I haven't done 30 minutes of intense exercising in a loooong time and it was neither boring nor tedious.. just FUN. I also know now just how bad my balance is ;)

Time will tell if it really does improve my level of fitness but any exercise at all coupled with my diet has to be a good thing. And above all, anything that can make me laugh until I cry HAS to be good ;)

Wiiiii ;)

Friday, August 01, 2008

Lolcat!

Tony made this CUTE Lolcat for Icanhascheezburger which is our favourite laugh your ass off site.

It's FIZZ! (in case you couldn't tell) ;)

funny
moar funny pictures

Sooooo....

Tony informs me it's been too long since I've posted anything. He's usually right ;) A year isn't long is it?! It is? Bugger :)

Tony and I are fine, the cats are insane but great and make us laugh daily with their antics - (I so wish I could draw, I'd make a webcomic about them).

We just celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary (10 years?!) and usually we are doing well if we both remember the month let alone the actual date ;) So it was nice this year to both remember and we did the card thing. Then Tony made me cry by ordering me a gorgeous arrangement of Roses with a Helium Balloon and *gasp* CHOCOLATES! Best. Husband. Ever! I don't think he expected me to burst into tears and then blubber all over him but that's the price he pays for being awesome to me ;)

Just a few words on marriage (have a snooze if you want) ;)

Over the years it has not been plain sailing. My mental health problems have caused a lot of grief for both of us (mostly for Tony coping with a very sick wife) and my self-destructive tendencies could well have ended it for us. Tony stuck by me however, through everything me and my illness threw at him, until I realised I could trust him implicitly and no matter what I went through, he would be right there supporting me. That's not to say he didn't get angry at times, at being helpless to 'fix' me and watch me hurt us both in my messed up determination to make everyone hate me as much as I hated myself.

As my treatment progressed and I was able to mature a bit (OK a lot), it got easier to deal with and as my understanding and attitudes towards myself changed and I calmed down, I hope he began to see a lot more of the 'real me' rather than the 'sick me'.

I couldn't have done any of it without him and I hope I am there for him as much as he has been there for me.

*soppiness alert - this is not a drill*
I love you Tony, thankyou for the last 10 years, be mine always? :)
*soppiness alert over*

In other news, I have to say a HUGE congratulations to my sister and brother in law on the birth of their third child - Welcome to the world Charlie! I got to meet him last weekend and he is SO cute and has MAD hair ;)

That's about it for now, will try to blog again before another year passes ;)

Monday, October 15, 2007

New Arrival!

It's finally happened, I have a new Furbaby!

First off, thanks SO much to Tony who loved me enough to indulge my need to have another furkid.

I felt a huge gap when Squeak passed on, we had such a close bond and I loved her so much. I love my darling Bubbles just as much, but she has never needed the level of affection in the way that Squeak did. She also bonded with Tony more than I (they are so cute together!).

So I had been getting increasingly broody and emotional because I had all this love to give and Bubbles just didn't need or want it. She even got quite grumpy with me when I tried ;)

I recently joined a fantastic online forum called Catsey and it helped talking to other cat nuts and to see the pictures of their furry babies. One of the ladies on the message boards fosters cats for the CPL and had a cat in called Fizz. I loved the look of her picture as she was uncannily like Squeak but as she had been reserved to go to a home, I thought nothing more of it.

Last week, the lady contacted me and asked if I was interested in her as 2 home offers had now fallen through for poor Fizz. After talking it over with Tony, we arranged to go and meet her and if she liked us, we would bring her home!!!.

I went into her pen and she leapt up onto me and I was smitten ;)

She is everything I was looking for :) She is 4 years old, spayed and half Burmese. It makes for a wonderful mix of affection and chattiness and she chirps at you if you merely look at her ;)

Bubbles is doing better than I expected. We've had hissing and a couple of paws lashing out (but nowhere near each other) and they seem to be getting on better each day, I really hope it continues to improve as time goes on. I remember when we first had Bubbles and Squeak was in situ and not impressed at all. They had some quite spectacular arguments and in time they sorted themselves out and tolerated each other, so on the whole, this has been a much better experience, please let it continue to be!

Fizz is a bundle of energy and affection and takes flying leaps at me when I am sitting in the computer chair. My shoulders and back look like a well used pincushion right now so we are trying to train her to be invited up rather than just leap at me when I don't notice. She understands 'NO' thankfully so hopefully it will take. She likes climbing everything too which we haven't had with Bubbles since she was a kitten so again we are trying to establish boundaries early on.

Tomorrow she goes to the Vets to have her first set of injections. The final set are given after 2 weeks and then she can start going out. She has seen Bubbles asking to be let out and is doing the same thing already ;)

That's about it for now, I will finish with a pic!




Hi I'm Fizz!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Psych Appointment

Well today I had another Psychiatrist appointment. The last few have not been good for various reasons and I was ready to throw in the towel.

I didn't expect it to go any better this time but oddly it was very good. I'd decided already to accept some courses I had been offered - Confidence / Self-Esteem and also an Anxiety Management one. The last few times it had been brought up, I had panicked at the thought of having to go to an unfamiliar place and meet strangers and just couldn't.

Just lately I feel I have been progressing again. I've been getting out and seeing friends again, been feeling the desire to get out too which I haven't felt in a long time. Ok it's only once or twice a week but better than once a month. My mood has been low but I have also been quite positive about things and that led me to the decision to see if I could gain some insight from these courses. Maybe deciding it for myself rather than it being pressed on me made the difference.

The psychiatrist thought about changing my medication since I was still getting these low moods but I honestly said that since they didn't last any where near as long as they used to, I could cope with them and also felt that in general they kept me fairly stable. I felt he was listening to me and agreed to keep things the same as long as I felt I was 'OK'.

We had a chat about Dysthymia in general and how having a positive outlook and be willing and accepting new things to try makes all the difference. I know the tablets won't cure me but they will help me to have a quality of life I am relatively happy with.

I seem to have had a stair like progression throughout the years with my illness. I climb a step then have to wait a while, until I get used to it and then feel I can progress again. I really think I have taken another step.

Anyway, enough introspection, here's a lolcat :)



Thursday, September 06, 2007

Normality resumes

Feeling much better now, I do tend to panic when I go down like that, out of fear that it will be another deep and long bout. Thanks so much to my great friends for their support and hugs and to my wonderful husband Tony, who is always calm and reassuring and *always* there for me. I really can't thank you all enough.

So here is a Lolcat ;)