5 years in 5 days...

and so the end of May approaches very fast with only 1 more day left.  To my surprise I wasn't as anxious as I thought I would normally be in May.  Although I did glance at Caitlyn's legs this evening in the bath wondering why she had bruises.  I know they are in all likelihood just from playing, but it is an automatic reaction questioning things like that.  I don't think it will ever change.

In some respects it is hard to believe that in 5 days it will be 5 years since Bianca was diagnosed.  Can it be 5 years already?  It seems a bit unreal at the moment.  Although at times the memories are vividly clear.  Sometimes I look at her photos where she had no hair and it doesn't seem that it was really part of our lives.

Of course other times it hits me right in the face, but I look at her now and think, wow, what a long way we've all come.

Sometimes I wonder how we were strong enough to just keep standing, but I suppose a person is always strong when they need to be even when they don't feel all that strong.  We didn't really have a choice.  It was the only option available to us.

One of my favourites...

Am not feeling inspired to write anything, but I thought I'd share this Youtube clip.  It is one (of many) of my favourite songs and I just love the message in this one.

Hope your day is going great!

A very wet, windy and cold Sunday :-(

It has been raining here the whole day.  It is rainy, windy and cold.  I think there is absolutely no doubt - winter has arrived :-(.  I am so not ready for winter.  Good thing I am able to go to the gym now because going out for a bike ride in weather like this is not exactly my idea of fun. 

Speaking of gym, my left calf muscle is really sore today.  Not sure if it is the leg presses I did because my right leg is fine or if this has partly to do with the leg cramps I kept getting on Friday.  Not fun and I really hope this is not the start to a new leg injury.  The other injuries took forever to clear up.

Recently our home computer crashed.  This means the hard drive and everything on it is lost.  Gone.  Nowhere to be found.  Thank goodness that Terence has a good setup because we didn't lose our photos and things.  This is the computer I usually use to download photos and video clips and make up little clips for Youtube.  The scary thing is we had no warning.  I got back from picking Terence up, we heard a really weird sound and then the next minute it was all over.  So a good reminder to all - back up your important things.  It is not worth the risk losing things like photos and other important things you might have on your computer.

Last night I had a really weird and very vivid dream about a friend I had when I was still at school.  Not sure why I dreamt of this particular friend, but what the dream confirmed was that even though I am Afrikaans, I am dreaming in English.  I know this because at one point I wanted to tell him something but Bianca was right there and I didn't want her to know what I was saying so decided to then change the conversation over to Afrikaans.

Tomorrow I am taking Bianca for an appointment at Kenepuru hospital in Porirua.  It will be an ultra-sound.  In 2007 Bianca had kidney stones and as a result there is a bigger gap in the something, something, something and so this is really just a check more than anything.  I think after this one she probably would not require it again for a while.  I'm not in the mood to drive all the way to Kenepuru though and hopefully the weather tomorrow is nothing like it is today.  I'm also really hoping they don't run late with our appointment - for one I can think of other more fun things to do rather than be at Kenepuru hospital and for two Bianca is meant to drink something like 6 glasses of water about an hour or so before her appointment - if they run late will not be fun for her at all.

How was your weekend?  Did you get up to anything special?

This and that on a Saturday

Yesterday was the weekly swim session again and it was hard work as always.  But as I'm often told No pain no gain.  Val is good though and I really enjoy her sessions.  We were 4 in the session yesterday.  Towards the end of the session I got a leg cramp that was pretty uncomfortable so not sure what was up.

This morning Terence took the kids to the mall to buy a birthday present for Rose's daughter Lily's birthday party.  While they were there I went off to the gym for about an hour.  Spent mostly time on the bikes and then also did some leg presses or whatever they are called.

Got home for a quick lunch, wrapped presents and then Caitlyn and I set off for the party and Terence and Bianca went to Bianca's netball match which unfortunately they did not win today.   The party was great (exceedingly noisy - as you'd expect with a 6 year old birthday party). 

With the end of May fast approaching I need to start planning Bianca's birthday party for next month.  Bianca has a few ideas and I have some options that I am looking at.

It is hard to believe the end of May is right around the corner.  This year is going just way too fast I think.

A quick update

I'm still here and am briefly stopping by for a quick update.

• Earlier this week I finished some training manuals as part of the part-time position that I have recently been offered.  It was really interesting to do something other than housework for a change and the I received really positive feedback so am absolutely thrilled.  

• Yesterday I went out for a bike ride and it was incredibly tough.  Granted it was a hilly ride, but the mindset wasn't quite there and my legs acted up a bit.  I did do about 18km in total so am pleased given the circumstances. 

• Yesterday we also had a power cut from about 9am to 3:30pm.  When I came back from my bike ride I wasn't feeling all that great so decided to go have a short nap.  Because I was freezing I thought I'd switch on the electric blanket. At some point I wondered why it wasn't heating up and then "of course it needs ELECTRICITY".  Then I thought I might make myself some toast and remembered "it needs ELECTRICITY".  Funny how you suddenly only want to do things requiring electricity when they cut the power.

• Cailtyn had her hair cut.  She actually decided to snip off some of her own hair and when we asked her why she did it she said that she wanted it short.  So Terence took her to the hairdresser last weekend and she got her hair cut.

Before

After

And that's it for now.  Sorry, not all that interesting.  How has your week been?

Taking a bit of a break...

I am sorry.  I am so far behind catching up with comments, but I have just not been in the right frame of mind the past week to sit down and blog and read updates.  I will visit soon, I promise.  Right now will be taking a little bit of time off from blogging, but I will be back soon.  I promise :-).

I hope you are all well and keeping warm where you are.  It is freezing here at the moment and to think winter is still about 12 days away.  It is going to be a cold one this year I think :-(.

Things I know today...

• I hate waiting.  I have no patience at all.
• My mind is much fitter than I will probably ever be - it never stops running :-).  This past week it must have completed a marathon :-)
• I must remember these two posters that I found on Facebook as I work towards the 90km cycling I will have to do the end of the year. 

  

How was your week?  I'm glad we are at Friday already.  Will need to cancel my swim lesson tonight as I have something else I need to work on, but will make up for it with a gym session with Rose and Denise tomorrow morning.

A rambling reflective post

It's been a distracting few days.  I've had a lot of thoughts just constantly running through my mind and last night I was convinced that I probably fried half my brain with all the thinking I've been doing.  But that's just me really.  My thoughts like to multiply and then run in circles around my head. 

I was thinking today how lovely it would be if we somehow had a crystal ball that could just give you answers or tell you where a road might lead or tell you what the outcome of something might be.  I know that things usually happen as they are meant to, but it doesn't always seem clear at the time.  But I suppose that's life really. 

I was thinking today how much life is like a butterfly.  We start off as caterpillars quite comfortable in what is familiar, but sometimes it is time for change and to achieve that change is hard, potentially uncomfortable, it is filled with the unknown, might seem scary and risky, might even cause some hurt (don't really know if caterpillars feel hurt when they change), but the fact is you can't become the butterfly if you are not prepared to take that chance.  There is no way the caterpillar would know the outcome or even what the change might be other than it requires a transformation.  Staying a caterpillar might seem the safest bet. After all the swan plant he lives on is familiar territory.  What he knows might feel safe, but unless he takes the risk and undergoes his transformation he will never get to spread his wings and discover the rest of the world just waiting for him.

It's funny how when you are doing something that is lots of fun like spending time with a special friend for instance that the time just goes by so fast and yet, when you are waiting for something to happen time just drags so incredibly and frustratingly slow.  I was thinking that the other day and how weird this concept really is because it is not that time really moved faster or slower, it is still moving at the same speed. 

But anyway, there is no real message or purpose to this blog entry.  Just a bunch of thoughts thrown together...  At least the rain stopped and it is nice and sunny today (although freezing - I think we are going to have a really cold winter this year).

Catching up...

The last few days I've had quite a bit on my mind and so haven't really been in the right frame of mind to blog and am a bit behind on leaving comments - sorry!  Nothing to worry about though.

A big thanks to Sam and Amanda for their generous donations to our chosen charity that we are supporting through our very big and very crazy goal.  We are trying to raise lots to make a difference to kids dealing with life-threatening illnesses and if you are able, would really appreciate it if you could sponsor us.  Every little bit makes a big difference.  To sponsor us, click here.

On Saturday Rose, Denise and I went to the gym.  We did some or the other cross-trainer thingy that was really tough on my legs and then we did a virtual ride.  Effectively almost like a spinning class but it was just the 3 of us with a DVD instructing us what it wanted us to do.  Coped pretty well until the DVD instructor asked us to stand up and cycle and boy did my leg muscles burn!  We finished our gym session with a brief treadmill session and that was pretty much it for Saturday.

Sunday and we had our session with Lynley again. She is very good and we enjoy her sessions!  Sunday's session was learning to cycle really close to others and to develop our reaction times.  I struggled.  Big time and for most of it looked like a very drunk person.

The girls spoilt me for mothers day and later on we went out for lunch. 

Today it is a pretty cold and rainy day.  John, I think the rain you talked about recently on your blog came over here - can you please take it back?

Hope you are all having a good Monday so far!

Friday swim session

Tonight was our swim lesson again.  Both Rose and I were kind of dreading what Val might make us do and earlier today I did consider maybe skipping, but then changed my mind.  After all I'm working on my fitness for our crazy half ironman goal that we are working on.  If you haven't yet read the entry you can click here. Would appreciate it if you are able to sponsor my team as we are hoping to raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation in New Zealand. (Click here to sponsor us please).

So we got there tonight and Denise was already waiting on the bench and she then said that Val wasn't there, but that another coach was instructed to tell us what to do (insert panic here).  I know Val works us hard, but at least her torture is familiar...  The coach then came, smiled at us and put up this big board that simply said "I'll be back next week to inflict more pain" and a whole list of what she wanted us to do and actually it wasn't all that bad.  It was actually a really good session.

Of course next week she'll probably make up for missing out on torturing us tonight :-).

Scream if you wanna go faster!

It is true. I have finally lost it.  I am absolutely utterly crazy.  But that's okay at least crazy people can make others laugh and that must be a good thing. I was a bit surprised though when I told Paul as I fully expected him to fall off his chair laughing, but he was really supportive.

So today I will share with you first of all what it is, then why.  Because I'm sure some of you will instantly ask "why???".  So if I may ask that we keep all questions for the end please...

Team "Scream if you wanna go faster" is Denise, Rose and Me.  Or is it Denise, Rose and I?  I can't quite remember.

From left to right - Rose, Lea, Denise

The three of us have decided that later this year we'll be entering a half ironman event.

...

Done laughing?

We'll be entering this as a team and so one of us will be doing a 2km swim, one of us will be doing a 90km bike ride and the other a 21km run.  At this point in time I have been assigned the 90km bike ride.  Yes, typically I don't put 90km and bike ride in the same sentence and I have a lot of work ahead of me to make the distance, but more importantly to do it in a half decent time.  I don't expect to win or anything, but I don't want to take forever doing it and I most certainly don't want to be the first person in ironman history pushing my bike during the race (with my luck that will be the precise moment the whole of New Zealand's tv and newspaper reporters will right there).  So I have a lot of hard work to do in the next 211 days.  Or rather 209 days as day 211 is the actual event.  It might seem like a lot, but I'm sure it will go much faster than I would like.


Why are we doing it?  

Well I suppose because we only live once and we may as well do something crazy while we're at it.  Doing it as a team is certainly more manageable than doing the whole event all by ourselves.

It wasn't really something that we planned to be honest.  After getting rather hooked doing the Kapiti Womens and Palmerston North triathlons Rose and I suddenly found ourselves looking out for other events to do.  As a joke I'd sometimes send her links to ironman events - because how crazy is that?  Then the next moment she replied "why don't we do it?"  and I was like "what???!!  Like in seriously???" and she was saying that if we did a half distance one as a team it could be done.  Maybe I had lack of sleep or something that night, I don't know, but the next moment I agreed.  So our next step was to get our third team member and so Rose emailed Denise with a "this might sound like a crazy idea, but we were wondering..." and Denise then replied with a "I guess I'm crazy too so I will say yes".  And so here we are, 211 days away from our half distance ironman event...

There is another reason we are doing this too...

We will use this opportunity to raise money for the Make-a-Wish foundation.  It is another charity close to my heart.

If you had one wish today.  Just one wish - what would it be? 

Having had a child who fought a life-threatening illness I know that for these children and their parents the one wish is that they would get better.  All other dreams and goals and wishes have to be put aside for a long long time, maybe even forever, because right at that moment nothing else is more important than helping your child get better.  I'll tell you one thing - it is probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done.  There were many nights I left the hospital to go home with Caitlyn, tears streaming down my face as I desperately prayed and begged that Bianca would not be taken away from us.

For Bianca her life revolved around hospital stays, unpleasant procedures, horrible chemo that not only affected how she felt, but it "stole" her hair and changed the way she felt about food.  And it is all about the numbers - 830 days of treatment.  117 days "living" at the hospital in a tiny little hospital room often in an isolation setting where she wasn't able to leave the room, 650 days of chemo, 47 blood product transfusions and so many more things. 

But Bianca is one of the lucky ones.  She is off treatment and doing well even if she is not yet considered cured.  Even if we are at times still picking up the pieces.  But she's doing well.

Many other children are not as lucky.

The Make-a-Wish Foundation helps grant special wishes.  When your child is that sick, you do not always have the luxury of time or other resources to help make their dreams come true.  For many children - they will never again have a chance to do something other than getting treatment for a horrible disease.  So for one moment The Make-a-Wish Foundation helps a dream come true, helps brighten a child's life.  Helps them forget about the illness they are fighting, the medicines they have to take, the side effects.  It helps lift their spirits and helps them believe in magic again when they have lost the innocence all children are supposed to have.  It gives a special moment in time when you cannot be sure you will have many more moments in time.

When we were right in the thick of things Bianca's special wish was to meet Suzie Cato and I will never forget that day.  Bianca's face lit up and you should have seen the excitement and the wonder in her eyes.  (To share in this day, click here).

So Rose, Denise and I will be doing our half ironman event to help raise money for the Make-a-Wish foundation.  We are "dreaming big" for kids who might not have any dreams left anymore in the hope that we might make a special wish for a special child come true.

Please will you sponsor us and help us reach our goal.  We've created a secure fundraise page (click here)  You can use a credit card.  It is a secure site.  The same site I've used to raise money for the Child Cancer Foundation and every single cent raised will go directly to Make-a-Wish.  Alternatively let me know and I can let you have bank details and reference details.

Please sponsor us and help us reach this important goal.  Every little bit will make a big difference!  And in exchange we will do the biggest thing we've ever done and keep you updated on how we go along.

Wednesday update

I've realised something with our cats.  The latest thing for them is to catch a mouse and then leave it half-eaten right where it is so easy to just step on it.  Now either they belong to the cat mafia because all these mice are decapitated or they are just fussy and mouse bottoms don't do it for them.  Really disgusting and I wish they'd make their point somewhere else out of sight.  Sigh!  Cats!

Yesterday Caitlyn's tooth fell out at school.  She was so incredibly excited and in the car wondered out loud if maybe the tooth fairy might bring her $20.  When I tucked her into bed last night and her tooth was safely in the little tooth fairy box my mum made years ago I asked Caitlyn what she thought the tooth fairy would do with her tooth and she said "turn it into money!"  She then said "I'm a bit nervous" and when I asked her why she said "it's my very first one".  So yes of course this morning there was loads of excitement when Caitlyn realised the tooth fairy did indeed come in the night (although didn't leave as much as $20...).

This morning I signed up with the gym so that I can still keep up the exercise on days when the weather might not play along.  I'm waiting to hear back from one person and then I'll be able to share a particular goal I'm working on (but you'll have to be patient just a little bit longer...).

Today I went to observe a training session for this new job that I've been given.  My new boss was training somebody to use the Dragon Speech Recognition software on her computer and while I have heard of it before it was really fascinating to see it in action.  I couldn't stay for the whole session, but what I saw was really great!  I have a lot to learn though, but I'll get there.  Today's session also made me realise just how much I take for granted in my life.  So much of what I simply take for granted, others do not find as easy or straight-forward.

Today and the last few days have certainly been days of realisation and understanding for me.  All good though...

Internet problems

Yesterday and today I've been really sore after Sunday's session with Lynley.  If I wasn't sure I had muscles there, now I know and boy are they screaming at me!  I was going to tell you this yesterday except our internet went down in the afternoon.  Oh no!  What will I do without the internet???  Was rather frustrating because I spent over an hour on my cell phone (thankfully a toll free number) before the service provider finally answered and I was able to discuss it with them.  They kind of made a vague promise that sometime today it might be back up and running.  Urgh! 

Everybody who knows me will know just how good I am at waiting for things... okay, okay you can stop laughing now.  Truth is - I hate waiting.  I have no patience and want things to happen now.  But last night I had no option but to sit and wait it out.  Of course that's also when I suddenly thought of all these things I wanted / needed to do.  There were some things I wanted to email Paul about (about one of his favourite movies (I think) that I ended up watching), I wanted to touch base with Rose on Skype, read up on some stuff and of course all of that needed the internet.  Sigh!  How did I cope before our internet days?

This morning couldn't come fast enough and finally just after 9 got hold of the service provider who told me that they didn't know just yet when exactly we'd be back online. 

And then finally around 10:30 we were back online and all sorted out.  So what did I do?  Came here to get my internet fix and to tell you about my internet troubles. 

It's lovely to be online again :-).  So what did I miss???

The ostrich and the temple lunge

Training session this morning with Lynley and it was a pretty tough one.  Well not tough in the sense that we run long distances because it isn't that kind of session.  We met at the Raumati Beach car park and then did a short jog as a warm up until we got to the Raumati Beach school netball courts.  That's where the fun started (ha!)  When I left this morning I thought that maybe I might ask Lynley to take some photos, but after today's session probably best I did not take the camera along :-)

These sessions are aimed at getting us to have a better running posture and to kind of think about what we are meant to be doing with our feet and arms and shoulders and so on.  So we did quite a few running drills feeling rather silly because of course it is right by the road where I'm sure we were pretty visible to whoever came past.  One of the things we did made us all look a bit like ostriches and another made it look like we were doing some kind of funky dance move from one side of the court to the other.  Others just pretty much confirmed we suck when it comes to coordination.

Then it was time to do core strength exercises and let me tell you doing a core strength exercise is nearly impossible when somebody says something hilarious and you end up laughing.  One of the things we had to do was hold our hands above our heads and then do lunges from one side to another.  I commented that it must look like we are doing some or the other yoga movement and one of the other girls then said "yes we can call this the temple lunge".  That's not what Lynley heard... so was rather hilarious in the end.  I think by the end of it we will have a whole lot of new exercise terms that we will be able to introduce to other athletes...

So between Val and the swimming on Friday and Lynley and the run skills today I think my arms and legs are not too happy with me right now. 

The rest of today will just be fairly low-key.  A few things to do around the house, some admin things to catch up on and I've been listening to some of Paul's songs he sent me before and right now am stuck on a particular one.  That's kind of how it goes for me when it comes to music - depending on my mood, I tend to get stuck on one song that I would listen to over and over.

Hope your day is going well.  What are you getting up to?

A great way to end this week

Today started at 3am for me.  At 3am Looey (the cat) moaned to go outside (we lock the cats in / out so they don't bring mice in) and not long after Prince Charming (the cat) loudly moaned as he wanted to come back in.  Then not long after Miss Caitlyn Anne came wandering into our room and I had to get her back to her room.  So of course by then I was wide awake and finally by 5am just got up.  I had quite a few things on my mind anyway, but later in the day I found things certainly much more positive and I've had a really good chat with a special friend, which was really good.  So in contrast to yesterday - today was great!

I can now reveal a bit more of the meeting I had yesterday.  It is funny how things have a way of working out when you least expect it.  I feel very blessed indeed!

When Bianca was diagnosed I had just received a job offer.  One I thought would open doors for me.  Except 2 days after getting the offer I had to email my new boss to tell him that I would not be able to work for them anymore.  Suddenly I had to put aside all my plans, dreams, goals and it was hard.  I didn't feel as if I would ever have opportunities again.  After we moved back to Wellington I haven't been able to look for something because logistically it is hard with kids sometimes - getting them to and from school, sort their after school activities, hospital appointments and so on.  So the time hasn't really been right and I figured that when my mum moves here later this year I'd get my chance (Ellie, my mum is actually going to move here from South Africa and live with us). 

Then recently Terence got talking to somebody on the train that he regularly travels with who was telling him about this lady who might be looking for somebody to help with their business but on our side of Wellington.  Long story short, I had a meeting with them yesterday - we both liked what each of us were sharing and today I was sent my very first work. 

I'll be a part-time contractor which is great because I'll be able to fit all of this in around the kids and other things I need to get up to.  Since 2007 the one thing that's given me meaning and purpose was to help make a difference.  Do something to help others.  And suddenly I find somebody who is looking exactly for that - somebody who wants to help and make a difference.  How neat that all of what I got up to - shaving my hair, funrazor, helping at SPCA and so on is exactly the kind of thing they are looking for.  It is effectively doing some admin, some training and some IT-related work, and it is supplying and working with people with disabilities be it that they are blind or have visual impairment or learning disabilities.  So I am extremely excited that I'll be able to use my work background, but still be able to make a difference.  If you want to read more (click here).

Swimming tonight and boy did Val work us hard tonight.  I think my arms are going to be rather stiff and sore tomorrow.  We're a nice group at the moment and unfortunately Paul wasn't able to be there tonight, but he did say he would be there again next week.

And that was pretty much my Friday in a nutshell.  A great day today!  How was your day?

And so May arrives...

complete with all the expected feelings just as it has been the last May and the May before that and every other May since 2008.  The month leading up to the time when everything changed way back in 2007.  Since then I hate change!  I find comfort in routine, find comfort in knowing what is coming.  Of course you can't avoid change.  It happens all the time.  People change, situations change, circumstances change - I just really don't enjoy change.  I suppose because it betrayed me way back in 2007, it abused my trust. 

Although in saying that change sometimes can be a good thing, I know that and even though I'm not quite sure just yet of the outcome, the meeting I had today showed me that change can be positive again.  I met the most inspirational lady today who is extremely passionate and it was refreshing meeting somebody like her.  More on this a bit later on.

The meeting today was a highlight.  The rest of my day, not so much.  Kind of like the weather.  One moment up, then down, mostly feeling sorry for myself.  And then my friend Rose sent me the sweetest message on Facebook, that she was thinking of me and came across a video clip that reminded her of Bianca.  What a lovely song! 

Thank you so much Rose!  Your message means so much to me!

Bullet-point Wednesday

• Today I got busy, lost track of time and by the time I thought I'd go out for a bike ride it was too late and nearly time to get the girls.  I really don't like that it gets dark so much earlier at the moment as it does limit things quite a bit.  

• I had a call from Statistics New Zealand and not quite sure why we were selected for them to come and do their survey about 3 months ago, but now it seems every 3 months they'll be checking up on us.  I spent around 15 minutes saying "yes"..."no"..."no"..."nothing's changed" ..."yes" ... "no" ... "no" ... "no" ... sigh!  Honestly what a waste of my time!

• Had an interesting phone call resulting in a lunch time meeting tomorrow afternoon.  Not sure exactly what the outcome might be, but I had some really positive feedback which was nice to hear.  More on this possibly later.

• Caitlyn had her very first cheerleading session today and loved it.  Absolutely no tears.  They all looked so cute and this is a class specifically for 4 - 7 year olds.  Very low key and they won't be doing any competitions, but they are learning the same kind of skills.  Caitlyn's session was for an hour and Rose and I waited around to watch and spent the entire hour listening to a one year old screaming his little head off because he didn't want to be inside the enclosed area and his mum didn't really bring anything to entertain him.  I kind of wished she put him in his pram to take him for a bit of a walk which probably would have been much nicer for him than spending an hour in the area they were sitting.

• The kids thought it was Christmas as I handed out the things that came in my mum's box and they've had the best time this afternoon playing with the little toys my mum's one friend sent.  They are so spoilt.  

 How was your Wednesday?

A cold and windy Tuesday

There is another blog entry that I want to share, but there is one bit of confirmation I need to wait for.  Hopefully tomorrow. 

Today was cold and windy.  It is going to make my training sessions rather "interesting" now with winter just around the corner.  I definitely don't like the cold.  This morning I went out to do my bike ride and ended up doing 35km at an okay pace.  At several points it was a real struggle with the wind coming from the front and by the end of it my legs were not too happy with me.

Bianca had her first netball practise today and boy was it freezing waiting for her.  I figured since we had to leave for swimming straight after it would be a good idea to wait for her.  Caitlyn had a lovely time playing with a little boy who was there with his mum waiting for his big sister who was also at the netball practise.

Swimming was great and both girls enjoyed their lesson.  They are making good progress and both have really good teachers.  With Caitlyn especially we no longer seem to have tears and I'm glad she is finally at the point now where she is actually enjoying it.

Not yet sure what tomorrow will bring, but this was our Tuesday in a nutshell.  Hope your day was great!