Funny how a few words...

can make all the difference. Yesterday, I was feeling down. I had the end-of-summer blues (not that you'd know we'd really had a summer from lots of the weather lately!) , I was unhappy about my work situation and was bothered by some jealousy and insecurity issues that I suffer with. I was all ready to write a blog post about it when for some reason, I changed my mind and instead searched for positive and inspirational quotes on the net. And that's when I came across this little gem:



"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." (George Bernard Shaw)



And that was when it hit me. I can be whoever I want to be - it's my choice. I can choose to get depressed about my work situation or I can keep on applying for jobs and keeping up with my professional development with a positive attitude, knowing that the right job will come along. I can choose to let my feelings of insecurity in my friendships get the better of me, or I can remind myself that my friends have chosen to be my friends for valid reasons, and be the positive and happy person that hasn't made an appearance so much lately. I can choose to see the autumn, and the new school year it brings with it, as a stressful and uncertain time, or I can choose to see it as a clean slate, a fresh start where I can make the most of opportunities that come my way. I can sit and wallow about the things I don't have or I can be thankful for the things that I do.



It's my life, my choice, my chance to be the girl I want to be and I'm determined not to let it pass me by this time!

25 Random Things.......

Thought I'd do something a bit different today, so I'm going to post a list of random things about me! There's going to be 25...one for each year of my life lol!

1. When I was born, I weighed 6lb 12oz, which was the same birthweight as both my mum and dad.
2. Bad spelling, grammar and punctuation drives me insane...I have an urge to cross out misplaced apostrophes!
3. I'm scared of lots of things...in particular thunder and lightning, fireworks, loud noises in general and deep water!
4. I love lime flavoured sweets...the green fruit pastilles, starburst and skittles are all my favourites.
5. I have worked in the same primary school I attended as a child.
6. I have a bit of an obsession with even numbers... I try to send texts that have an even number of characters, buy an even number of things when I go shopping etc.
7. I have lots of books but very rarely read one all the way through...I tend to skip to the end and then decide there's no point in going back to the beginning!
8. I went to an all girls high school and didn't have a boyfriend until I was 17.
9. I am a real procrastinator...I leave most things until the very last minute!
10. I had to have my ears pierced 3 times as the first 2 times they got infected and I had to take the earrings out and let my ears heal.
11. Other than the UK, the only other country I've ever visited is Spain.
12. I always wanted to be a bridesmaid as a little girl, but I didn't get the chance until last November, by which point I was a not-so-little 24!
13. I loved horses when I was little...but when I actually got the chance to ride a pony I hated it!
14. I once wrote a letter to Jim'll Fix It asking to meet Desert Orchid (a racehorse I was obsessed with) but I never sent it.
15. I used to be a real early bird...now I rarely get out of bed before 8 if I'm left to my own devices
16. I love murder mystery shows on tv and I have boxsets of Murder She Wrote and Agatha Christie's Poirot.
17. I love the smell of the wet ground after it rains.
18. I've wanted to be a teacher off and on since I was a little girl but I also had phases of wanting to be a paediatrician, lab technician, forensic scientist and lawyer as I was growing up.
19. I'd secretly love to be a private investigator but would be terrible at the job as I'm an awful liar and am not always that discreet or subtle!
20. In everyday life, I'm not always that confident...but I love being on stage in front of an audience :-)
21. I taught myself to read just before my 4th birthday, and used to tell my nursery teacher off when she missed parts of a story out to save time (I bet she loved me lol!)
22. As a result of my reading ability when I was young, researchers from a university visited my school to do reading tests on me.
23. I seem to pick up lots of bits of random information which come in handy for pub quizzes!
24. I have terrible hand eye co-ordination and seem to be able to hurt myself in a huge variety of ways...these are probably both down to the fact I have dyspraxia (a co-ordination disorder)
25. I am a naturally messy person and hate tidying my room...but love the results whenever I do!

And that's my 25!

Busy, busy, busy!

That's what the last couple of days have been like, and probably what the rest of my week will be like too! Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons this week, I'm volunteering at a children's holiday club where I'm doing drama and puppet sketches as well as helping to supervise a group of children. I've been involved with the club for the past few years, and enjoy being creative and working with the children, although, as it's a church run group, I sometimes find some of the religious songs a bit much! (I was raised a Christian, but would describe myself as an agnostic now)

Yesterday was an especially busy (and long!) day for me as I had to be up at 6:00 so I could get ready and make my way to the train station to catch my train to Leeds for the course I was attending. Luckily the train was on time and my journey was very straightforward. The course itself was absolutely fantastic. It covered "behaviour for learning" and "managing pupil behaviour" and it gave me lots of useful ideas which I'm definitely going to put into practice when I go back to work next month. Plus lunch was provided, which always makes for a good day lol! The only bad thing about the whole experience was getting caught in a heavy rain shower whilst waiting for a taxi to take me back to the station after the course had finished!

I'm just going to finish off with a random thing that happened today. Sometime while I was at the holiday club this afternoon, a massive branch fell off a tree on the pavement outside my house! The stem of the branch got impaled on our next door neighbour's railings and the leafy part fell on to our neighbour's car which she parks on our drive. My dad phoned the local council for them to come and remove it, because it was too heavy to do manually but despite the fact they said it was on their "Urgent" list it still hasn't been removed yet! My sisters also took some pictures of the tree (our neighbour is away) ...they might come in handy for insurance purposes in case the car turns out to be damaged. I'll leave you with just a couple:

Am I getting really old...??

because it's not even quarter to ten and I'm yawning my head off! I'm seriously debating signing out in a minute and going to bed, which would usually be unheard of for at least another hour, even when I'm in work. Although I have got a very early start tomorrow, as I'm heading to Leeds for an all day behaviour management course and I need to catch the 7:36 train (eek)!

Night night! :-)

Letting go is hard to do... :-(

I know I should let go, but I can't. I know I should accept the fact that things just aren't the same anymore, but instead I'm clinging on to the bitter end. I've tried to find a replacement, but there doesn't seem to be the right one out there for me. What am I talking about?? A relationship? Well, maybe, but certainly not with a human being or even a pet. To confess, I'm talking about...my shoes.



My grey marl canvas hightops and I are reaching the end of our road even though it pains me to admit it. It was love at first sight, and my attraction was only heightened when I saw the price tag (they were another Primark bargain!). Since then, I've worn them at almost every available opportunity and I'm not honestly sure how I managed without them! However, the love I've got for them means that they're quite literally being worn to death! The soles have got cracks in and the stitching at the back of the right one is coming undone :-( I've searched for a replacement pair, but Primark don't seem to sell them anymore and I'm not sure where else to look. I'm also wary as the soles of lots of hightops and pumps can have a really strong smell of rubber and I definitely don't want a pair of shoes that will stink the place out lol!

So for now, I'm stuck in a difficult situation. I don't want to stop wearing these shoes, but know that every time I do, they'll just get that bit more damaged until they eventually become unwearable. And that's a day that I really don't want to come :-(

More happy things! :-)

Again, I don't have the energy to write a long post...maybe it's because I seem to have been doing all my blogging late at night recently :-(

Anyway, as the title of the post suggests, this is going to be another of my "Gratitude Lists", where I say what's made me happy today. So, in no particular order, here they are:

• Visiting Knowsley Safari Park with my mum and sisters. It was great to go on a day out with them and to see the animals up so close...the lions were literally walking right by our car at one point! Even the fact it rained for half the time didn't spoil the trip!
• The lipsticks that I ordered from Beauty Outlet Direct came today. They look promising so far, and I'll do a proper review once I've tested them out.
• Watching "The Kevin Bishop Show" tonight. I don't know ho'w I completely missed out on the last series, but I love this one. It's soooo funny! :-)

And one random annoyance: I'm unhappy that my wardrobe door that's fallen off decided to hit me in the back this morning. I'd just got something out of the wardrobe and (thought) I put the door back correctly. Then I turned around and...smack, I felt it catch me and hit me pretty hard :-( It's not the first time it's happened, but it seemed to do it with more force this time!

And finally...it's the weekend :-) (although I don't get quite the same buzz about it when I'm not working!) Hope everyone has a FAB one! :-)

Things that are making me smile today :-)

This is only going to be a short post...I don't really feel like writing much today! So without further ado, here is my list of the things that are making me smile today:

• Wearing some of the new clothes I bought on Tuesday... I always feel better when I have something new to wear!
• The sun coming out today...I'm glad the weather cheered up from the rain this morning :-)
• All the books I wanted for school being in stock
• Bumping into someone I'd not seen for a long time and having a chat with her
• The prospect of grabbing a coffee with one of my friends later
• The fact that the Brits are doing quite well in the Athletics World Championships...being completely non sporty makes me even more in awe of how good these athletes are!

So all in all, it's been a pretty good day! :-) Hope it's that way for everyone else too!