Getting Lost

Yesterday I had a very scary experience whilst in town with the kids. We were walking along and the kids like to be able to walk by themselves and so Hannah was up front - by a little bit but I could see her - and Josh was to the side of me but I kept looking that way to check he was OK. I then started moving over to the side to go into a shop and when I checked to make sure I had both children I couldn't see Joshua.
It was only a couple of seconds but he was gone, so I called for him but no reply, I called again but no reply, I couldn't see him so I started running around shouting his name with increasing panic in my voice. I grabbed Hannah and was holding her whilst trying to find Joshua. Someone asked me how old he was. 3 yrs old. Others stopped and looked whilst others realised I wasn't joking, I seriously couldn't f ind Josh. After much panicking some shoppers found a boy on his own, crying. I don't know the details as I wasn't where he was. At first I couldn't see him and the shoppers were saying "over there", I was saying "Where" and eventually I found him. A kind lady with her children offered to look after Hannah whilst I ran to Josh. I hugged him tight and relief poured over me in the form of crying. And the panic - where was Hannah, screaming "Where's Hannah" and someone who knew me from when I worked at the pizza shop (I vaguely recognized her, but recognition is not a strong point when in the midst of panicking) calmly told me she was "over there" by the shop we were going into. Relief. Back together. But OMGosh, my heart was pounding and I was still shaking and kind lady gave me a hug.
WoW what a scary experience, the most scary part is knowing it only took a couple of seconds for Josh to get lost but (maybe, not sure of time) 5 minutes to find him. I don't know whether he followed some one else or just carried on walking. I'm just glad I can sit here and blog about it knowing they are both sat on the sofa eating chocolate cereal and are safe.

The Nativity

The BBC put on a production called The Nativity which was about the aforementioned Nativity. It was a four-part program and was very interesting. Putting artistic license to one side it was very though provoking.
Mary was a young girl (said to be 16 in the film) and pledged to be married in a time when committing adultery would get you stoned to death and was very much frowned upon. Her & Joseph appeard to be happy, presumably having only met through her parents wishes, they talked, got on well with eachother and Joseph was mad about Mary. Mary was visited by the Angel Gabriel with the news she would have a baby but she was still a virgin. I think Mary was very brave to accept what was happening to her. She must've been very scared. How did she tell her parents, Joseph and her friends. It would surely be scary to be pregnant in our modern day but 2000 years it must have been a hellish time. The story goes from the visiting of the angel to Mary & Joseph travelling to Bethlehem with Mary being ready to give birth. There is nothing said about the in-between 9 months. What must have Mary thought? Did she doubt her ability to do this job. What about all those that didn't believe her. Did her parents believe her? It was quite a job to ask of Mary, to go through all the accusations and no-doubt name-calling, the scandal that the pregnancy would've caused. I've never thought about this side of the nativity. We tend to think of the infant nativity that our children perform in school, but it couldn't have been that nice. What did Joseph think. In the film, right up until the end (the birth) Joseph was racked with the pain of what he thought had happened. Mary's betrayal of him. He was a man of his word and as he said to Mary's parents he'd see that she was safely delivered to bethlehem. As Mary went into labour, Joseph couldn't watch and I sat there in pain for Mary having to go through the labour with a stranger and will Jospeh to 'see'. To go to Mary and comfort her. Right at the end he did and you know that his heart knowledge had finally travellled to his head.
I think it was very brave of the BBC to put this produciton on - certainly in times where christians cant be seen to be offending any other religion. It has made me think about the 9 months between the visit of the angel and the birth of Jesus and how brave both Mary & Joseph were in following God's plan.
If Mary hadn't off said yes to God would he have carried on anyway or would there have been a plan B?

Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat (apparently)

It is 3 days till Christmas and as ever I am completely organised. I am not the type of person that has presents still left to wrap, presents to collect from the postal depot, still waiting for things off ebay (not majorly ruin your christmas things) and presents to collect from another part of the country whilst the roads are icy and snowy. Nope not me. Miss Organisation is my name. Haha
So there we are, everything I am not the type of person is really me. Oh dear. It happens every year. Although progress has been made in the planning dept. I stesarted putting some money aside for presents in October so I had a few pounds. Having said that I like the saving side and am going to continue it throughout the year. Whether I will ever be organised is something not to hold your breathe about.
I feel like I'm starting to wind down a bit now, school has finished and Hannah was fortunate enough to get two snow days extra as she wasn't due to finish till Tuesday this week but the weather put a stiop to school on Sunday night. I have only a shift on Christmas Eve and then will be off for 6 days (hopefully, have yet to see the rota). December has been busy, working, school nativities, Hannah's extra clubs that she goes to and I'm left feeling like when will I ever get on top of the house work. Washing is a continual mountain needing to be done, plus the hoovering and cleaning. Arrrghhhhh
I shall be glad of some rest. I'm not opting for extra hours at work till the schools get back into the swing of things as the kids have been farmed out enough in recent weeks.

Christmas - I am looking forward to seeing Hannah & Joshua's faces when they open up their big presents and see the look of delight when they realise what we have bought for them.
I have had a few presents from Pete already. He, sadly doesn't really do surprises and doesn't think he buys good presents but he does when he puts his mind to it. He's bought me some stuiff for running so in the new year I can really concentrate on my half marathon and a book on London so I can work out what to see & do when we go (hopefully half term).
Spending some family time with everyone.
Hannah got us to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus the other day on the walk back from work, so we'll have to do that on the day.
Resting, relaxing, quality family time. Woo hoo.

6 miles today

Untitled 11/23/10

My training route today. Gonna add a little more each week or so.

Marathon training continued

I went out for a run today. I thought I would go past my daughter's friends house to drop off what she had forgotten to take to school with her and then continue on my way. I wasn't sure where I was going to go but just kept running. I am more of a fair weather runner and have not kept on top of my fitness, as of late I haven't really been doing much running or exercising so as I was running along it seemed to get harder but I carried on regardless. Along a straight, long road. I had thought about this route a little but considering last week I only ran 3 miles I should've perhaps thought a little more about where I was going. It turned out to be a 10k run. Not bad considering how much I haven't run but I could tell that I have lost fitness (and put on weight) recently. If only I could bank it. I've done three hours exercise this week add that to my previous 2 hours and keep it so that in two weeks time when I've done no exercise I can just bring my fitness level back to where it was. I was 10 minutes over my personal best for that distance so a bit more running is needed. I just have to push myself to do it. I'm not a madly in love runner but more of a enjoy it once I get going, but have to motivate myself to do it kind of runner. Oh well, at least I can bank 1 1/2 hours of fitness levels.

Marathon training

Well Half-term is over so I have no excuse not to go out running. I think I am one of those unfortunate people who have to exercise in order to, at least, maintain my weight otherwise looking at food I seem to put weight on. It's quite depressing really getting on the scales only to discover the digits only move upwards not down so I have decided for the moment to relieve the scales of their job and use my clothes as a guide to whether I am putting on too much weight. So far so good.
Now that the kids are back in school I went running today - with cough and cold. I think there is a reason why your supposed to not exercise when not feeling 10% but still I went anyway. I decided to stop at work - not for a Big mac - to get my hours sorted for next and as i couldn't get them on the phone I thought I would run out that way. It was only a short run today which was good as I wasn't feeling great. I think also part of that is loss of fitness. Fitness is something that needs to be attained and cant be kept. We have to jeep working at it in order to maintain it. So having done not a lot of exercise in the past week or so I did rather feel it today. Still the training has started. 2.73 miles today, and some core muscles training at the end. Aerobics on Thursday which will be my cross-training and then hopefully get out on Sunday morning. Watch this space.....

Reading Half Marathon

Well as the title says, I have signed up for the Reading Half Marathon. It is on March 20th 2011. A great way to celebrate turning 34. When submitting the form you have to predict your finishing time so they can place you in the correct zone. I have gone for 2hrs 30 mins. I had a finishing time of 75 mins for my 10km race in June and the half marathon is double this. I realise that doesn't automatically mean I should double the time but seeing as I have never ran this distance before its a base to start from. Hopefully, with training I should be able to loose some more weight and therefore with carrying less weight should be able to go faster. I shall be looking into some training programs and eating plans etc to help me reach my challenge.
Went for a run today and did 4.85 miles and managed to shave off 2 minutes which doesn't seem a lot but it requires a lot of energy as you have to go slightly faster but for more longer periods of time.
Here's to training for the next 5 months.