First 'normal' Saturday for a while ...

Today kind a feels like settling back into an old pair of slippers.  A normal Saturday for me; a run with the pooch, cleaning, washing, gardening and pottering until Henri gets home - sometimes I slide in a good girly lunch or coffee to keep me sane (talking to just the dog all day is not the same as actual human contact!)  Henri always works a Saturday as that's the busiest day for his barbershop and being that it's called Henri's (we are acutely aware that name is not quite as inspiring as he'd hoped his shop name would be but it did make sense as he's so well known....) and he is always being asked for personally.  It's a good money day (thank God!)  For the last 2 weeks or so we've had exciting events to go to;  a wedding and our anniversary and I've had Henri for the whole weekend on each occasion.  We are back to normal today and I am undecided (although it's only 9am) whether I'll enjoy having my Saturdays back to 'get' straight.....time will tell today I guess.  Fingers crossed my friend will call and we'll have a coffee catch up which will distract my mind from feeling like I have to play at being a domestic goddess (or try) all day! 

In the meantime I have already run 2.6km (disappointing BUT all x country and that's my hardest terraine - love that those words sounded like I am a professional runner, not so, am absolutely shocking but i do like to run on a bit of bouncy road when I force myself out four times a week!) stripped the bed, washed the linen and have it drying on the line.  Breakfast was healthy and an espresso will hopefully spur me on to wash the car (groan, am already making excuses; am sure car washing is blue job).....we'll see as I am dying to pick my book back up - am finally reading the last installment of the Twilight series and am hooked - should probably be reading something a little more highbrow than teen lit but it's a guilty pleasure!

So, entertain me -what are you all up to today?........

Challenge: Get through the day without any tears or temper tantrums???!!!!

Doesn't sound like a bad challenge does it?  Well that my friends depends on whether the raging PMT has left my body......I managed to hoist my heavy body out of bed this morning and somehow go for a 3.4km run in just under 25 minutes.....not bad especially as I added to the pain by strapping 2.5kg weights to my wrists!  The thought process behind this is that surely if I do still have PMT then by running first thing I change all my thoughts to positive by sheer fact that I ran constantly in that much pain for that far (even up the killer hill)! and if I return to the 'normal' happy Loretta then I will have completed one of the many challenges I have lined up for the goddess in me today. 

Today I intend to leave work 2 hours early to make up for working very late on Tuesday.....I need to do a shop - the challenge here is to keep it to just £50 however, I am shopping at Waitrose! - I need to paint toe nails - read - cook a great meal (even though I have a sneaky suspicion my pa is going to spring a surprise visit - it's date night but he won't bother about that nonsense!) for Henri as he has been a bit battered over the last two days!  Today is hot so I am absolutely sure it is very domestic goddess-like to stylishly arrange myself on one of our Monaco loungers and soak up some vit D! Ahem.

Feeling amazingly positive (even though I had to turn round and go back home after arriving at work as I forgot to leave out the paperwork for the accountant to pick up....only lost the plot a little bit by using just a few of the stronger expletives!!! Come on though wouldn't you?) and ready for the day ahead.....the sun is shining and it's warm.  Lovely.

Wednesday challenge complete....

Whilst I didn't set the challenge this morning regular readers of the blog will know that today is the day of the mid-week clean!  It's done.  It took a near miracle to get it done but it is!  Thank goodness, with dinner on today is finally nearly over.

Day from hell.  Firstly, I have PMT.  Who elses gets it as bad as I am about to describe?  First off I start by gettting a bit grouchy for no reason at which time my husband handily tells me that I have PMT and I want to scream at him for pointing out the sodding obvious.  I don't, I just breath "I know, from here on in you can do no right - please don't try."  He knows.  He tries.  He always gets it wrong.  Well of course he wouldn't get it right I HAVE PMT! The grumpy bouts take over the good times and I become a different person.  I swear PMT for me as I hurtle towards 37 without having had children is getting worse and every month I want to rip my womb out to end the misery as I know it's closely followed by toe curling pain for two days (thank God for small mercies - 2 days, lucky me).  Yesterday I was not happy but today woah, didn't want to get in my way!  Today at work was debt collecting day.  At least the PMT bad attitude was put to good use!  I was healthy and took a scrummy salad to work for lunch but PMT dictated I walked 10 minutes to the shop to get a Star bar to ruin all that and add to the PMT bloat.  Then, my wonderfully patient PA thought it would be a good idea to buy me chocolate covered popcorn - which I ate and didn't really taste.  Now I feel horrific; bloated and gross.  The extra load of calories is what carried me through the mid-week clean.  What hasn't at all helped is having to sort out Henri's end of year paperwork as well today.....WHY ARE MEN SO UNORGANISED???!  I remind myself that he is a barber not a businessman but by God it's testing the PMT patience-if there is any.  The best thing about today if you can find an up side is when familiar male business associates ask me how I am I have taken  the delight in telling them that I do indeed have PMT and they've got off the phone so quickly they have barely said goodbye!   Mwahhahahha - glee as I embarress them (only I will be the embarressed one when the PMT raging through me leaves my body in the next 24 hours)!  Bet Henri is really looking forward to getting home tonight - could be why he's somewhat late.....do you think???!!!!!!  Bless him.  Good bloody job he loves me.........some bloody goddess that makes me! 

Question: how do all you beautiful goddesses deal with yours?x

Our anniversary weekend in pictures!

Awww..... every weekend should be an anniversary weekend .....it was pure heaven.  Here's some of what we got up too punctuated with laughter, scrabble (yes, thank you I won!), fun walks with Digby, a HUGE delivery of flowers from Tot (she's so sentimental in all the right ways - hence being the friend she is; the flowers were the flowers that were in my wedding hand tie....damn she's good! MWAH!), opening cards galore, an impromptu lunch with friends, opening our presents to each other (finally I got my top notch expresso machine that I've been dreaming about for years - am Italian it's just not right I didn't have one (!!!) and Henri got an Armani watch) movies, no hassle gardening, no baking disasters as didn't even try, cuddles ..... won't go on..... here you go:

Checking out our year long rings...x

Meeting at the church at exactly 12.30pm - the time we got married.  I was however, 20 minutes late this time!  I was scouring the florists to find the same flowers I had in my hand tie - lost track of time!  Whoopsie! x

At the altar - the very spot we were announced man and wife in!  Not sure why I look unhappy in this picture - maybe because I just finished blubbing at the great memories!!  Yes, yes we are both soppy! xxx

Back to the venue for lunch xxx

The last plants went into the Italian Garden - these little beauties will grow into bushes and protect the other plants from the wind on the corner - forward thinking!  Sooooo great to see this project finished now! Challenge totally complete!

Enjoying our first BBQ of the summer season after the thing had been jet washed to within an inch of it's life - Digby and I took cover inside to avoid getting sodden!

All in all it was a splendid weekend of doing nothing really but importantly; I did nothing with my husband shut away in our own little world.

Back to work with a bit of bump this Tuesday though ....... and so the working week begins with deadlines and a a training session to host! .....x