Well, I'm here, ....

.... but is anyone there?

I know I've been very quiet lately, but it's been due to ill-health unfortunately. It started with Mr Fixit developing a virus which gave him a temperature and a horrid cough for some weeks. Fortunately, he is virtually over it now. Then my father was ill again. This time he was confined to bed for quite a while but he is now making slow progress. Father was taken ill before we were due to go on our quilting retreat to Bridlington, so unfortunately I could not go. That was a shame cos I'd been looking forward to that and had projects planned, fabrics bought, etc. and I was really looking forward to the food. Still, that's how things go sometimes isn't it? Then, not to be left out, I decided I ought to have my annual chest infection a bit early this year, which has wiped me out for the past week. I'm getting better too and I can now talk again, but I'm still prone to coughing a lot.

One good thing about not going on the retreat is that my son and his family came up for a few days. They were here for Halloween, so here's a picture of young Mr D all ready to answer the door to Trick or Treaters.

and here's a picture of the pumpkins they carved

So all that means no sewing has been happening and if I don't get my act together soon, Christmas won't be happening here either.

So, what's my excuse ....

... this time for being absent from the blogiverse?

Well, last weekend I went down south to stay with my son's family for Mr D's 8th birthday.  We had a good weekend, but I must confess that pizza, birthday cake, chocolate brownies and cheese sandwiches did not do my diet any good!

When I got home I found that my father was not well, and Mr Fixit and I had to help him to bed.  He had a pain in his chest, and could not stand up or walk.  This happened about 10 days earlier too, but that time he fell and couldn't get up.  We called an ambulance that time who took him to hospital where he was kept overnight but they weren't sure if it was a heart attack or not.  This time, I called the doctor out.  It is still unclear what the problem was, but it was possible that he'd had a heart attack, but it was by no means clear.  Anyway, long story short, Dad has been in bed all week with the doctor coming in every day.  The doc now thinks he has had a virus or an infection of some sort.  I've been going in and checking on him, making sure he is drinking water, etc, all week.  Yesterday he felt better and got up for a short time, and Mrs Nomad cooked him some pasta and a light sauce, and he managed to eat some, so she is now taking credit for the fact that today he managed to get up and come downstairs, He is obviously on the road to recovery now thank goodness, but still needs a lot of looking after, so that's why I've been quiet again.

Proud grandmother post coming up ....

.... I have 3 grandchildren, The Professor, age 16, his brother, Chatterbox who is 12, and their cousin (who used to be known as Little Person when he was young, but he's too grown up for that now, so I think I'll refer to him as Mr. D.) who will be 8 on Friday.  Recently they have all made me feel very proud.

The Professor recently came 3rd in the whole of Britain in a maths challenge that all schools were involved in.  The funny thing is that he hadn't even told his parents he was in the challenge, let alone the results.  His mother only found out when she saw the award certificate in his room and asked him about it!

Chatterbox was selected by his school, along with a couple of others, to represent his school in a literary project, where they were going into other schools and talking to younger children about literary things. Afterwards his headmaster wrote to his parents to praise how well he had acquitted himself and to quote some wonderful comments from the other schools about him.

Mr D., pictured here

recently won a Leadership award at school. Doesn't he look pleased?  I know he was very excited about it. It is his birthday on Friday and I am going down for the weekend, which I am really looking forward to.