Scattered thoughts

It's been a bad day for both mum and me today. She's had the nausea and vomiting and lack of energy that she's been getting frequently from what we now know is the tumour (though I don't know if it's the Primary, the Secondary or both making her like that), so she's spent most of the day asleep (and getting the sweats from the tramadol which the hospital gave her for the pain, which is just the crown on feeling crappy anyway, I would imagine).

On top of that, the hospital have yet to call and tell us when the MRI is going to be, so there's a fair bit of sitting around twiddling thumbs and I'm really struggling with that. When mum's downstairs, as she is a lot, because it's easier for her to breathe and whatnot when sitting in a comfy chair down there than in bed up here, she has the tv on to what she wants, and has the volume up fairly loud, so as a general rule I'm happier elsewhere. In addition, I want my own space very much and so because of all of these factors I've been hiding out in my room (who'd have thought that at 26 and married I would be saying that again?) most of today. I ache from sitting on a bed or a floor all day.

It's also Monday, so I'm furthest away from being home again, and even though it's a short week as far as being away from Ben is concerned, I miss him, and it feels like a very long time before I see him again. I miss our flat, I miss our gerbils, I miss home cooking, I miss our companionable silences.

I'm sorry for the whining, I truly am. I'm very low, mood-wise right now and I just need to vent before it gets too much.

On the upside, I did the computery part of a tesco order for mum (she told me what was needed and I did the typing and ordering of the things), so at least one good thing has been achieved today. And I just remembered that I also called about postal voting, so I suppose that's two. And hopefully tomorrow will be better.

ETA: 12/07/11 No longer filtered

Our Christmas Tree has been up for a week now (a week today :D) so I thought it was about time I wrote an entry about it.

All the pictures of our Christmas Tree and decorations.

Last Saturday benc and I went and got our Christmas Tree from Wyvale Garden Centre. We got last year's tree from there too, and knew they had little tiny ones that fitted in (the limited space in) our flat. It's almost unbearably sweet, only two feet or so tall, and potted so it can be planted out after Christmas. Last year's ended up with foo and rahslowe being planted out in their garden. I believe no1typo has designs on this one and her garden. It's nice to know that they go on living after Christmas :)

( The tree was sodden when we brought it back... )

Once it was dry enough, on the Sunday, we decided to start decorating it. ( We started by getting out the decorations )

Next we ( tested our lights. )

These lights had been on our tree (also here with lights on)in the first Christmases we were at the flat (and first married), but as we accumulated more stuff, we could fit smaller and smaller trees in, so they don't fit round our trees now because they're so tiny. ( Instead we put them up round our window. )

Then we ( made sure the angel for the top of the tree was in good condition )

( and put the tree in its new home )

( Next we put the lights on the tree. )

Finally we ( put the decorations on the tree )

( A slightly shaky picture of the tree with the main lights off, and the room only lit by the window and tree lights. )

We're pretty much ready for Christmas now. Decorations up, Presents brought, cards posted (all before the posting deadline, with the exception of one for Canada - ah well, at least I tried ;)), Advent candle mostly burned, food brought. Feeling pretty pleased with myself now ;)

Have some gratuitous pictures of our Gerbils to finish :)

( A cool picture of Stan and (part of)Nibbler with the flash off, showing the movement of them, which I thought was quite cool. )
( Stan: )
( Nibbler: )

P.S. Happy shortest day of the year/Winter Solstice :)

I am currently suffering from pancake overdose, having had a three course pancake meal (started with pancakes with OJ and sugar, main was pancakes with cheddar cheese, pudding was pancakes with chocolate sauce and ice cream!) After that I doubt I'll be eating them again much before next Shrove Tuesday ;)

I spent the afternoon playing with my new camera, and took the opportunity to take lots of pictures of our two gerbils which we've had for about four months now but which I have not blogged about before.

Pictures of our gerbils, Stan and Nibbler. Stan is the caramel one, and named after a Canadian folk singer called Stan Rogers. Nibbler is the grey (and he does have red eyes - it's not just my crappy photography! ;)) and I named him. Which is possibly why he isn't named after a Canadian folk singer! I don't think they loved me very much for taking pictures though - after a while they went and hid in the back corner of their tank!

( Stan and Nibbler )

By the way, before anyone else pastes me the URL - I have seen the BBC's "Mormon" story about the Preston Temple/MTC. My response is at the bottom of this LJ entry for anyone who is interested.

Finally, a meme, stolen from hopeful_rose.



You are breakfasty, like a pile of pancakes on a Sunday morning that have just the right amount of syrup, so every bite is sweet perfection and not a soppy mess. You are a glass of orange juice that's cool, refreshing, and not overly pulpy. You are the time of day that's just right for turning the pages of a newspaper, flipping through channels, or clicking around online to get a sense of how the world changed during the night. You don't want to stumble sleepily through life, so you make a real effort to wake your brain up and get it thinking. You feel inspired to accomplish things (whether it's checking something off your to-do list or changing the world), but there's plenty of time for making things happen later in the day. First, pancakes.

It's great because it talks about Pancakes. On pancake day! Hurrah!