So 2016 came to a close

So 2016 came to a close, we had ups and finished on a huge down.  But I'll get to that later. 

Mid-December saw grandchild number 3 born, a girl, Aleyna Grace, daughter to hubby's eldest son.  So over the moon with her, she's little darling.   Here she is with proud Grumpy and Nanna at one day old.   Mike is sooooo not comfortable holding wee little ones.  It was a quick hold for him and then quick, someone else's turn! ha.

Then we had the Christmas Parade for our little town.   I was part of our CWA 'float' - we dressed up as reindeers (plus I had Lucky the rein-dog) oh boy, he owned that parade like a boss.  Marched himself down the middle of the road in his little reind-dog outfit !   Look, truly he loved it, he's smiling right!!??    Heck it was hot in those reindeer outfits!

We got to meet Santa too!

Well it helps to have husband's in high places.

Mike drove Santa's golf buggy.

Lucky Santa made it to the Carol's in one piece, as the practice run the night before

Santa fell off the end of the golf buggy as Mike took off.

Mike and I took part in the special Christmas Eve parkrun, so much fun, 

all dressed up with my friends.    Again, rather hot!

I did my usual Christmas run round the streets in town, Santa hat and all.  

Lucky came with me.

I think he saw Santa when I took this photo, what do you think?

Mike piked on me this Christmas, he stayed in bed!

I did my usual colour co-ordination of my gift wrapping.

Lo and behold anything that wasn't in the colour scheme of black, white or silver.

It went on the chair beside the buffet.

I love my little wooden Christmas tree sent to me by my US friend Kathie.

Then what I had been waiting months for.

My bestie Sonia came for a visit with hubby and son.

So excited.  We just pick up where we left off.

It had been two years since we'd seen each other face to face.

Yep, it was REALLY like old times.

I haven't had my tenor horn out for donkey's years.

We spent some time in Warrnie, and didn't capsize.

We really were so cute in our sailing gear!

Alright so we weren't over our head.  

I don't think we were even over our waist.

Love this pic I took of Daniel.

New Years Eve we went into Parkrun.

Plans were to walk and talk.

But we did do a few runs for the photographer.

And my grand tally for the year was added up.

However it wasn't all fun and games.  Over the past few months Bo Bo had started losing weight again.  She'd take two steps backwards, one step forwards, but slowly got right down in weight.  Mike and I made a conscious decision that this was going to be her time.  We wouldn't put her through the trauma of nights away in hospital again.  As long as she was holding her own and not in pain, we would let her live out her time.

But alas on New Years Eve we had to make the heart-wrenching decision to say goodbye to our girl.  She wasn't coping, she had stopped eating again and her slight frame could hardly hold her as she struggled to get up.  With many many tears Mike and I made the call that broke our hearts and we said goodbye to our love of 14 years.  Our beautiful girl who came to us as a stray kitten, faithful to the end, she went to sleep gazing deep into Mike's eyes.  I'm crying as I write this, I don't think I'll ever be able to think of her without a painful lump in my throat and pain in my heart.

Goodbye sweet girl.

We loved you so.

This photo from a few years ago when she was look magestic.

The things I put up with!!

Sooooo last Sunday was a 5km Charity run with proceeds going to "Steps for Aaron" in turn going to Brain Cancer Research.  Aaron was young local man who recently passed away from Brain Cancer.  The family have arranged a walk from Melbourne to Portland each year raising money for Brain Cancer.   So in turn our brains trust from the Aths Group decided to dedicate our charity run this year to "Steps for Aaron".   Just on $1000 was raised by those wanting to run or walk from the Flagstaff Hill car park around the foreshore and ending back with a victory loop round the little lake at Flagstaff Hill.

After such a dismal day on Saturday, I don't think the temp rose from 7 degrees, with wind and rain all day, we despaired about Sunday's run, but despite the cold it was a brilliant day with perfect running weather.  Of course Mister-Fair-Weathered-Running-Man had to wear long pants, long sleeved shirt and his jacket during the run.

And as what happens strangely enough with our Warrnie girls, we tend to rock up at these events wearing matching outfits.  Crazy but true.  Leah was the only one of the crew there this time but look!  Great minds think alike.  Of course wearing our Aths Club shirts, but who knew the long sleeved yellow was going to be part of the ensemble too!   It never fails to make me giggle when this happens.

I was happy with my run, but like usual no matter how fast I think I'm going, the pack always goes faster.  It wasn't a handicapped race, it was all off at the same time.  But all good.  At the out and back I passed Mike while he was still heading out, and I saw him limping.  Ouch, shin splints.  But he said he was okay - one minute walk, one minute run.  He was paying the price of not steadily running throughout winter.

He got back to Flagstaff Hill (which for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a maritime village from yesteryear) and as he was the second last runner back ... hooray, he beat a heavily pregnant woman wheeling a pram!! we yelled out to not worry about the lap round the little lack but to take the shortcut.  Oh no, the man was doing the full course.

Chugging his way to the finish line...

Oh and ever the Showman (you can't ever call Mike shy, that's for sure) he drops to his knees at the finish line and crawls through the witches hats.  Oh dear!

After catching his breath, having a drink and then everyone dispersing, he spotted the Undertakers at the village and had to pose for a shot.  See what I have to put up with??????

On the way back home we popped in to see the grandkids as we had to drop something off.  Yeah yeah, any excuse.  What's the best thing on a cold winter's day?  Grumpy getting warm snuggly cuddles from Saxon.  :-)

And the look that Codan is giving his Grumpy here is just priceless.  Yep Codan, Grumpy loves you too little man.

That's what it's all about really, leading healthy lives so we live a long time for these little guys.  With a third grandchild due in December (yep thought I'd drop that one in) a little cousin for these two, I wonder what this wee one will be.  ANYONE WANT TO GUESS????    ;-)    I'm pretty good at hints!

Why we do this thing called running ??

Well I guess I'm going to comment on why *I* do it.  And maybe I can speak for hubby too.  See this little guy.  He's one of the big reasons why I wanted to lose weight.  I got to be a nanna year before last, now we are Nanna and Grumpy to both him and his little brother.  So we want to make sure we are around for a long long time to watch them grow and learn and become fabulous young men.

I just long for the day I go to his school sports and Saxon says to his friends and he points to me ... "that's my nanna, she runs marathons".  How cool would that be?  Well I still have to get to the actual marathon stage, but to a young kid a run to the shops might be classified as a marathon so I'm not going to split hairs here.

So back to this little guy here.  We had a family gathering as his great grand dad plus his mum were having birthdays.  And when he saw both of us when he got there his eyes lit up and he said "nanna" for the very first time.  I near on melted into a puddle on the floor.  Then he points at Mike and says "gumpy gumpy gumpy".  And the more he saw us getting excited, the more he said it.

What a great day.  So yep THIS is why we both want to get fit and healthy and yes the running is a major part of that, it's keeping us young.  For this little guy.  And all the little guys in our lives that come after him.

So roll on Sunday and we had an Aths Club meet.  6km.  It was chilly, but perfect running conditions, no wind, overcast, and there were about 70-odd taking part.

One of my friends wrote on facebook that we are aging backwards.  What a kind comment.   This pic was actually taken after the run, let me roll back a bit.

Today was going to be the day, I really wanted to go all out with this run.   Being a handicapped race, Mike was off on zero, he took off with another girl and I actually had a handicap again, I was off on 3 minutes.  Soon enough I overtook the other lass and after a while I caught up to Mike, and I could see he was struggling with his jacket.  My fair weathered runner wanted to run with his jacket on which he soon got hot, and he yelled in answer to me as I ran passed that it was slipping around his waist so he had it tied over his shoulders and it was flapping just like flipping superman.  Yes the jacket happened to be red.

Well I ran my heart out in this race and I got to the bollard to turn and no one had passed me.  As I headed back in the direction of the clubrooms I saw some runners coming up and there were some high fives and call outs, but still I was in the lead.

Back along Pertobe Road and almost to the roundabout and a chap passed me.  Hmmmm, was he a recreational runner out for a morning run or part of the club, I didn't recognise him.  Until he called out to me "do we turn here".  Darn, he was one of us.  I was in second.  Back to the roundabout and crossed the road and a lass passes me.  Gaaah, into third spot.   I got all along the dirt track all the way back to the clubrooms ready to do my lap of the oval, and then an avalanche of runners took me over.  I had held them off until about the 5.3km mark.   Ecstatic doesn't even come close.  Especially when I saw this ... Wooooo hooooo!  

So waiting as other runners came back to the clubrooms and then the lap of the oval and then I saw Mike.  He was getting what I call the "Sally treatment".  We have a super fantastic runner in the club who is so motivational and just a wee bit scary!!  But she will often run with some of the runners in the last lap if she sees them struggling, calling out to keep going, catch the person in front, don't stop, faster faster.

Well Mike was running with Sally until she broke off in the final sprint and arms over his head he started flapping his coat like Superman.  Oh yes!

Through to the end and over the line big smile on his face.  And then he drops to his knees.  Everyone thought he was a hoot and still carrying on (as he does!), except I could see he was struggling for breath and wheezing and quickly found his asthma pump in his pocket.  Things turned a wee bit serious for just a moment.  A few quick puffs and a drink of water and he was okay.  But heck he scares me when stuff like that happens.  

And best part of Aths Club is catching up with my running mates.  Don't ask me why I'm standing like a dork here, I think my feet must have been glued to the ground.  Got to love our club colours hey, recognisable from both the front and back.

Best thing I ever did was join Aths.  Keeps me running all through winter with no excuse. 

When boys go camping...

This is the result!

Hmmmm.  I get this message sent to me... "Slight accident. Sliced to the bone, but reckon I can glue it back together and avoid stitches :-) "

Smiley face indeed!  I freaked and rang him.  Silly man, reached into a container for some lollies forgetting he had put his newly sharpened knife in there so that it didn't slice anything.

Well that worked a treat didn't it!!

He was playing it cool and said they bandaged it straight away and he was fine.  Fine my arse! I demanded to speak to one of his mates to get the proper story and what hope do I have.  Mallee says "Don't worry Carol, he's okay, we'll take him to the hospital if he needs it ... or bury the body, either way we'll look after him!"

Gaaaaah!

A week old today !

Sooooo this post has nothing about running or racing (except how my heart raced last Friday when I set eyes on my new grandson).  I got the absolutely thrill and pleasure and honour of being there at the birth thanks to my gorgeous step-daughter and partner who asked me to photograph the event.  Nothing gory, I promise, all very tasteful.

Oh boy it was hard, emotional, seeing her in pain, seeing the little one come into the world, the room was so dim, so I've had to photoshop the heck out of these.  But here's a couple of photos.

Welcome to the world Codan.  We are under your spell already.  And my step-daughter T, how beautiful does she look straight after giving birth, radiant!

I love how his little arm is almost reaching out and holding onto his daddy.

Proud Grumpy!

I think if I never take another photo I'll be so happy I got this one.

Three generations.  And a look of absolute love.

Oh and one of me just after he was weighed.

No one in the delivery room knew how to work my big girl camera

so iPhone to the rescue!!  

Codan is already looking at his nana.

So over the course of the five hours I was there I took, oh let's just round it down to 200 photos and call it even.  (I am having the good grace to blush here!)  But it's the photo you don't take you regret right??

End of Jan!

What a great Saturday we had yesterday.  Headed into Warrnie to buy a shovel! ha.  Well the man had some vouchers to spend and Bunnings was where he wanted to spend them.  So shovel bought and in the boot (goodness hope we didn't get pulled over, they may wonder!!) and then a very special time was about to be spent.

Stepdaughter no. 1 asked me to take maternity photos for her.  Now I am by no means a photographer, I am a complete happy snapper and like to take photos of  'moments' of family members, but when she asked how could I refuse.  I told her I have no idea how to pose people, etc. so maybe we would just let it happen  Except leading up to yesterday she would send me photo examples and really wanted somewhere like farmland hay that kind of thing, where she was in amongst a paddock.  Well all the farms around here have slashed their hay with fire season on us.  Honestly if I saw a paddock that looked like what she wanted from here to Warrnie, I would have knocked on the farmer's door and asked to use his paddock, I was getting desperate.

But .. my run Friday night along the promenade and what do I spy.  Yes there is beach on one side and seaside scrub on the other of the promenade, but there was one area that would be perfect, close enough to one of the areas where parking was just beyond so not much of a walk for the girl.  It was a done deal.

So here are some of the photos, don't cast too much of a critical eye, there are weird shadows and the sun was too high, but you know, they are happy with them and that's all that's important, it's documented this very special time in their lives.

   

   

Little Mister was more interested in the bike riders along the promenade!!

Despite Grumpy in the background behind me doing everything he could to distract him.

   

So after that was done and dusted the happy family went on their way and I was chuffed with myself as to getting that done.  Mike and I got ourselves changed, well we were half in our running gear anyway, so decided to make good use of the beautiful day and the lovely running tracks around the Warrnie foreshore.  I had 9.5km to do on my plan and Mike was up for it too.  We had a great time.  We ran, we talked, we walked, we took photos (or I should say *I* took photos much to Mike's chagrin telling me to hurry up and keep running).  But really how beautiful is this area.  So so lucky.

Stunning views along the running track, it truly stops you in your tracks (literally).

Middle Island where Oddball looks after the penguins, or at least other Maremmas, not specifically Oddball from the movie.   Mind you I've finally watched the movie thank you to a friend's DVD she loaned me.  Terrific!

Yes it's all very orderly along the foreshore, keep left!    

Although we kept going after Thunder point which I've never done before and it was more trail like.

     

We ran as far as Shelly Beach, go us!

And then the spoils of victory!  A sensational lunch at The Pavilion.  I had a coconut poached chicken with papaya salad, and nuts.  It was AH-MA-ZING !!!  Mike had a salt and pepper calamari.  We both deserved it.

So while we fed our faces, I was truly ravenous, we checked out the map as to where we'd run - yes you can see we covered a bit of coastline for sure.  

My 9.5km ended up 10.3km due to Mr. Hard Taskmaster!

But my goal of 100km per month is on track - yay!  Cut it fine, but still got there.

Goodness knows how I'll go in Feb with less days.