Partner plus two!

A child can never have too many people who love them and want to help them succeed – unknown.
When you get into a new relationship one turns into two. Instead of saying ‘I’ you find yourself saying ‘we’ a lot. You become one half of a couple and suddenly you spend a lot of time as a two. Just the two of you.

Growing up that’s all you really know and experience. However, as you get older there can be more changed. Specifically, getting into a relationship with someone who has children from a previous relationship.

I previously wrote a whole post dedicated to my partner however, I can’t remember if I mentioned that he has children from his last relationsip, but he does! He has a little girl who just turned 5 and a little boy who just turned 4.

I’m not going to sugar coat it and say it’s really easy, because it isn’t.

You have the first worry of ‘what if the kid/s don’t like me?’ and then ‘If they don’t like me, what if their dad takes that seriously enough to break up with me?’ I honestly think that meeting your new partners kids is more scary and nerve-wracking than meeting their parents. I think this is because although they obviously love their parents and value their opinion of their partner, their kids opinions and needs are far more important to them and they have to take them into consideration a lot more.

In this situation I have been lucky, the kids and I get on really well and I have spent a lot of time with their dad and them so the bonding has been great!

Another worry and a subject that you should have a chat about with your partner is your boundaries in telling them off. I have had this chat with my boyfriend and he has no boundary for this apart from the obvious such as, he wouldn’t want me interfering when he is telling them off or he wouldn’t be happy if I allowed them to do something that he has said they can’t which is 100% understandable and I would never have even thought to do anything like that anyway.

For most part, I do leave the telling off to him. The only time I may say something to them is if they are touching something they shouldn’t and have been told not to, or if my partner has popped to another room and they do something I don’t think is right. Obviously, on the few occasions that I have looked after them by myself I have to take the control. Luckily, they are good kids and I think that the worst thing I have had to do is take a toy away for 5 minutes because they weren’t sharing and were arguing over it.

But this is definitely a great chat to have with your partner, as you don’t want to overstep the mark.

The hardest thing when your partner has kids is making sure they know that you are there for them but at the same time making sure they don’t feel like you are trying to replace their mum.

The last thing I want is for my partners children to think that I am trying to replace their mum. Of course, I know that I could never ever replace her. I wouldn’t want to replace her. However, I do still want them to feel like they can talk to me about anything, I guess like an auntie or a best friend in a way?

I think that it is important that, especially for his little girl, when she does come to visit her dad there is a girl figure there too. Maybe more so for when she is older, when she has started puberty and maybe has menstrual issues while visiting that she doesn’t feel comfortable talking to her dad about.

I remember a time when I wasn’t far into starting my period and I went and stayed round my friends dads house with her and during the night I came on. I got a little drop on the bed sheet and I was so scared and embarrassed because it was just her dad. He didn’t have a girlfriend at the time and oh how I SO wished he had! Luckily, I’d known them for years and was close to the family so when my friend told him while I was in another room he was extremely nice about it and made me feel so much better.

It is always so much easier to talk to a female about some things and that’s why I think it is important for kids to know that they have someone of each gender they can talk to where ever they go and that’s okay! As long as you make sure you make it clear that you’re not trying to replace anyone, there shouldn’t be a problem.

The same for when they are at their mums, while her new partner isn’t trying to replace my boyfriend as their dad, it is important that they know he is there if they need him – again, especially if there is something that his little boy would rather talk to a male about rather than his mum.

I have been with my partner for just over a year now and I am confident that I don’t need to worry about any of these things anymore. They are happy for me to spend time with them, play games and run around with them. They know that I’m not dads evil girlfriend and they know that I simply just want to be their friend.

No, it isn’t always easy. Like when their dad is busy, maybe in the shower/toilet or making us food and they will cry because they want him to help them instead of me or sometimes they won’t take me as seriously as they should but that’s okay! Plus, they make up for it with their cuddles and telling me they love me when they’re in their cute soppy mood.

Honestly, although at first it can be scary entering a relationship with kids involved, I wouldn’t have it any other way and I couldn’t imagine life without those two little munchkins using me as a climbing frame when they visit.

Xoxo

 

Ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend.

Best friends are the family that we choose – unknown.

Its no secret that the world would be a lonely place without friends to chat with, laugh with, have fun with, tell secrets to.

Friendship is such a beautiful thing. You meet a new person that you’ve never seen before and decide that you want them to be in your life, you want to spend time with them, to be there for them, to laugh with them and talk about anything and everything.

I feel like the love you have for your friends isn’t the same as the love you have for your family or your partner. Especially a best friend! When you love your family or your partner, you spend a lot of time with them and speak to them nearly every day but with a best friend you understand that you each have your own separate lives, you can spend weeks maybe even months apart and when you’re together again it feels like you were never away and that is a lovely thing.

The word friendship is very misused though. Although I talk to a lot of people at work, who I went to school with or people I just generally know, I can honestly say that I can count my true friends on just my hands.

There’s a huge difference between the people who talk to you just for gossip, use you for a boredom killer until someone better comes along, tries to make you jealous, etc and the people who genuinely love you and will always be there for you no matter what.

So yes, I have a lot of acquaintances and different people that I talk to but my true friends can be counted on only my hands – maybe even just one hand.

In the last year I have definitely come to realise who those true friends are. It can be so difficult to see which are your fake friends and which are your true friends. It can take a big event in your life to realise or it could also take small things to happen to help you see who are there for you and who are not.

You don’t have to be friends with anyone you don’t want to, no one can make you be their friend and you shouldn’t force anyone to be your friend either -seriously, why would you want someone to be your friend if they don’t want to? – as long as you remember that, then you can have a life full of laughter and happiness with the people you love.

If you notice any signs or have any doubts that a “friend” is being nasty, disloyal and just acting like a fake friend then cut them out your life. You do not need that negativity and you shouldn’t have to deal with it.

To leave this on a good note – to my true friends…I love you guy so much. I am always here for you and will always help you to the best of my ability.

Xoxo

Home is where the heart is!

One day you’re young and the next you have a favourite grocery store.

Guys, I have become an adult. I don’t even have to pretend anymore. I actually have to do adult things.

Don’t worry, I haven’t completely lost the child in me. I still have fun, do silly things, play games, play tricks and jokes on people and am pretty much exactly the same person I was before! But….I’ve flown the nest guys. I no longer live with my parents or the boyfriends parents or anyone’s parents!

So after a long and difficult few months trying to find a place that was affordable and nice looking we finally did it. We made it. We found our perfect little place and are doing everything to make it our home.

For a short while I was starting to lose hope and at times I wanted to just give up. I never really imagined how difficult it can be to look for somewhere to live. We looked at so many places on websites such as rightmove, zoopla, etc. Everywhere was either too expensive, looked horrible, too far away from where we wanted to be or a couple of places we found which was perfect for us we would enquire about a viewing but then would get a call to say that place had already been snatched up that morning.

It was frustrating. It stressed us out and I honestly can’t apologise to my boyfriend enough for being the monster I probably was during the whole process! He honestly is amazing and needs a medal for being able to put up with me. I have definitely been the home searching equivalent to bridezilla! Haha.

We finally came across a place that is in short walking distance from both of our work places, short distance from the main town and is perfect for us and two weeks ago we got the keys and moved in.

I love having our own home, our own space. We can come home and cuddle up on the sofa watching what we want, have our own rules, do what we want without worrying about anyone else. I love the independence, I love cooking meals for my love.

There’s just something about having your own place that makes you feel more relaxed.

I have also become a little obsessed with cleaning since we moved in! Which for anyone who knows me won’t believe it until they see it. But if there is a mess or even just a single dirty plate I can’t leave it. However, tonight I have left the kitchen in a mess but that’s because I have a headache and just feel crap but I am still laying here anxious about the fact there are things that need to be washed and can’t wait to clean the kitchen before work tomorrow!

Honestly, I do miss my parents a lot. After spending so many years seeing them pretty much every single day and sitting down to dinner with them, watching tv with them and just generally spending time with them it does feel weird not seeing them so much. However, I do annoy them by insisting they endure a phone call with me every day.

It is difficult suddenly having a big outcome for rent, bills, food, etc after not having much to pay for most my life and we know that this first month or two will be super difficult due to having to pay for furniture but it is worth it.

I am so excited to carry on making this place our home and making so many memories.

On another note, it was pancake day today! I had my pancakes with Nutella and whipped cream! They were delish. I hope everyone else got to enjoy some yummy pancakes today and are having a great week.

Xoxo

Happy New Year!

Midnight on New Year’s Eve is a unique kind of magic – Hillary Depiano.

We aren’t only entering a new year but also a whole new decade and that is scary! The last ten years has gone so fast!

The last decade was the biggest for me. I went from being a young girl to a young adult. I finished school. I went to college. I started the work life and have had a few different jobs. I’ve made friends and I’ve lost friends. There has been so many ups but also so many downs!

I could sit here and bore you with my life over the last ten years but I’m not going to do that. No one wants to read someone’s life story. So instead, as we are ending the year 2019 and entering the year 2020, I am going to bore you with a recap of my last year.

So here it is Katie’s life in 2019!

I don’t think my year could have started any better than it did! My parents and I were in Australia with my brothers, their partners and my newest, only niece! So I got to start the year surrounded with my family who I love so much! I also got to spend my birthday with them which was a really fun day! We went to a virtual reality room in the middle of Sydney and it was such a cool experience!

A relationship ended – a week or two after returning from the best time in Australia, my two year relationship ended. I will admit, it wasn’t on very good terms and it was a difficult time. My ex had travelled to Barbados to teach surfing while I was away and he is still off on his travels and has only returned for two weeks in between jobs! However, we have rekindled a friendship and have realised that we get along so much better as friends and I am glad we can have that friendship!

A new friend was made – Also at the beginning of this year I made a new friend. Back then I didn’t realise how much this single person would mean to me! In all honesty, at first I expected our friendship to fizzle out. However, I consider him as one of my best friends! He has been there for me so much, we have made so many fun memories and I’m so glad that my original thought of it fizzling out didn’t come true! I’m excited for the many more memories we make!

I saw the real Art Garfunkel at the Cliffs Pavillion in Southend – if you have read my previous blog posts you will know that I absolutely love Simon and Garfunkel. They are a duo from around the 1950s/60s. They went their separate ways doing their own things before I was even born and they are now in their 70s so I never ever imagined that I would have the chance to see any of them live. However, following their tribute show page on facebook I saw them post about Garfunkel doing a tour in England and one of the venues was one 15 minute drive away. As you can imagine I didn’t take a second thought before booking tickets and I didn’t even care that I had to go on my own because no on else I know are really a fan. This was in April and it was honestly one of the most amazing nights of my life. Although he is now 78 years old, he has definitely still got his amazing voice. He was joined on stage with his eldest son which was absolutely lovely and brought a tear to my eye watching them singing together. Although, if i’m honest, I had happy tears in my eyes for the whole night because it was such an amazing experience.

I moved house – at the beginning of the year I lived in Leigh-On-Sea in Essex. It’s where I grew up. We moved in with my Nan to look after her as previously mentioned in other blog posts and then in the middle of the year after my Nan moved in with my auntie,my parents and I left our hometown and moved to a little town in Suffolk. Admittedly, as much as I love the new house and area. I do miss Leigh and all my friends there. However, I do spend a lot of time at my boyfriends house in Essex so can visit easier.

I left one job and started another – So I was working in a Nursery near my old house which was a lovely job. Sadly, I had to leave that job to move to a whole different county. I was out of a job for a few months before finding a job in Five Guys. This is the branch near my boyfriends house so we can get a place together. Five guys isn’t a bad place to work. The other crew members are fun to work with and we don’t get too many bad customers. 

I saw busted live – When I was younger and Busted were about I absolutely loved them. I had all their CD’s, listened to them all the time. They were my favourite. I never got to go to any concerts though because no one was really into concerts enough to take me. When they broke up I found my love for McFly who I still absolutely love. I have been to a lot of their concerts as my brothers ex girlfriend loves them also and used to take me when I was younger. In my old hometown we have a little festival called Village Green and as Busted are newly back together they were headlining the main stage and my amazing mum got us tickets to go just so I could see Busted – I had waited like 14 years for this moment – even though she hates crowds because she is claustrophobic and isn’t into their music at all. I can’t thank my wonderful mum enough for coming along with me! 

I found my love – You all know this because I wrote a whole blog about him. But at the start of the year when my relationship ended I wasn’t very positive that I would be happy and find someone to call mine again. But then my wonderful boyfriend Matt came along and showed me that I could be happy again, happier in fact. He is my rock and is always there for me and I love him for that and a lot of other things too. With him, he brought along his two adorable children who I also love a lot. I am so grateful that they like me and we get along. I can no longer imagine my life without all 3 of them cuties. 

My family came over from Australia – I honestly can’t even think of a way to tell you how happy this actually made me. So my two brothers, their partners and my niece all live in Australia. Obviously, this means I hardly get to see them which breaks my heart. Especially as my niece is only a year old and although we receive pictures and videos from my family of her it isn’t the same as watching her grow in real life. So they came over in September and I loved having them here so much. We did some really fun things together as a family and times like those are extra special and I will cherish forever because they don’t happen often. I miss them so much since they went home and I can’t wait to see them again hopefully soon.

I went on holiday to Lithuania – I plan to do a whole blog post about this because I would like to give more details. In September my cousin got married to a Lithuanian girl and that is where they decided to have the wedding. So we all went over and enjoyed a lovely weekend celebrating their marriage with family and friends and then a few of us stayed on for another week to explore the country more. 

My beautiful little princess turned one – So as I mentioned before I have a beautiful niece. She is my only niece with no nephews either. I love her so much its unreal! She is the cheekiest little girl you could ever meet. She will look at you with the biggest grin on her face when she knows she is doing something she shouldn’t, she waves at absolutely anyone, she woke me up nearly every morning while she was here by hitting my face lightly, her smile when she sees me is the most adorable thing ever. In October, she turned one and it does make me sad that I wasn’t there to celebrate with her but I will always make it up to her for missing her birthdays, Christmases and anything else whenever I see her. The girl already has her auntie Katie wrapped around her little finger that’s for sure.

I got a Freestyle Libre – It is no secret that I have type 1 diabetes. I was diagnosed in 2010 and since then have had to prick my finger to check my blood sugars at least 4 times a day. It isn’t a quick process. You have to wash your hands every time, set up a new needle, set up the sensor, make your finger bleed and sometimes it bleeds for ages after. In April – I think – they started supplying Freestyle Libre to 20% of type 1 diabetics on the NHS. This means that you have a sensor with a needle on one side that sticks in your arm and is always in there, you have the monitor which you can scan it with and it will tell you what your blood sugar is straight away. It is all done within seconds. No more setting everything up, no more pricking my finger to make it bleed. They are super hard to get but luckily when I spoke to my diabetic nurse she decided I was eligible and put me on the waiting list. I was on that for about a month and got my letter to give me a training appointment. I love this little device so much and it has definitely made my life with diabetes a lot easier. 

One of my best friends came back from New Zealand – So one of my best friends from secondary school who I have known also since Primary school took off with her boyfriend and went to New Zealand. This was around August 2018 maybe? As much as we managed to video call and catch up a lot I missed her incredibly and finally she came home at the beginning of December and I finally got to see her pretty face for reals! I am glad she had an amazing time but I am also happy she is home.

Last but not least….

I started this blog – I posted my very first blog on the 23rd of January 2019. I managed to post weekly and then life got busy so I know I have done an awful job with keeping up with my posting. But honestly, when I manage to write I love it. Starting this blog has been one of my favourite decisions. I love writing and would like a job that involves writing and I hope to get there one day. This blog isn’t to get followers, isn’t for anyone else but it is for me to do what I love doing. Even if I never got any views I would carry on posting blogs as much as I could. Don’t get me wrong, I do love that people read my posts and I do get views and I am forever thankful for you guys who do read. 

So that’s it, a recap on my year in 2019. I know this was a long one but it is a whole years worth of news! haha. If anyone can think of anything I may have missed out please let me know so I can edit those events in.

My new years resolutions – eat healthier, focus on this blog more and be more happy and positive about things. 

I hope you guys enjoyed 2019 and have an even better 2020. If you have any new years resolutions too please comment and let me know what they are. We can look back on it in a years time and see which ones we did – or didn’t – stick to!

Thank you for reading guys and enjoy your week.

Lastly, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Who run the world?

GIRLS!

Do they though? sure, we can be powerful, stand up for ourselves and yes our bodies can do amazing things like grow a whole human being inside of us and push it out of our foof! But lets be honest, it still doesn’t put us above guys. We aren’t necessarily better!

I am all for fighting for equality and I think 100% everyone should be treated equally no matter what gender you are. The type of people that annoy me though are the ones who sit there moaning and complaining about the lack of equality and fight for it then as soon as something isn’t going their way they use the “but i’m a girl. You should be treating me better than this. I can get you done for harassment” excuse.

Girls should always stick together – In my opinion, this is partially true. Yes, it is always nice when girls stick together and have each others backs. But honestly, if I think you’re in the wrong or don’t agree with what you are saying or doing then i’m not sticking up for you just because you’re the same gender as me. Sorry hun!

Admittedly, I do get on with guys better because they aren’t bitchy. They usually just want a drama free life and its easy to get on with them. However, girls are also great …most of the time. I do feel like we generally are more kind-hearted and we probably do stick up for each other more than guys do. I am a part of a facebook group which is private so you have to be accepted into the group before you can see anything posted in there and it is an all girl group. Apart from the few unwanted rude comments you do see on some of the posts it is so lovely being apart of a group where girls help each other out and give advice and views on situations. A majority of the time you can submit a post asking for advice, asking for help or asking for support and you know that you will get the comments you need to make you feel better. It isn’t all just about helping each other and what have you but you also see a lot of posts just showing appreciation for loved ones and its amazing to see all the positivity.

The type of girls who don’t put others down through jealousy, who will compliment others even if they are a stranger in the street and who don’t glare at other girls just because are the best type. There is honestly no need for the bitterness and bitchyness just because that girl passing you in the street isn’t your friend or because your friends don’t like a particular girl even if you don’t know them yourself.

I know I should be praising my own gender and saying lovely things about us girls but to be honest, I have done well with saying the nice things I have said in this post. When I originally added the topic of girls to my list of what I can write about for my blogs I had the idea that there was going to be nothing nice said.

This is because in that moment of time I had lost all respect for girls for a second due to recent experiences. I felt completely attacked by girls I have never even met before, I had to set my instagram account to private which I didn’t want to do and I feel like I have to be weary about what I post on the aforementioned facebook all girl group. It was a shitty time because I just wanted to get on with my life and enjoy it. Most of the time I will just ignore it and let it slide but if you catch me on a bad day I will snap at little things.

Females are all things, they are psychos, they are bitchy, they are FBI agents when it comes to finding out information, they are princesses and queens, they are dramatic, attention seekers, they are so much more.

As a whole, girls are great. I’m not going to deny that. I just think that sometimes we need to stop and think …what will we get out of putting that person down for no reason? Do we really need to tease someone for their fashion sense just because its not something we would wear?

You don’t know exactly what others are going through, what happens behind closed doors so girls, just be nice, compliment another girl even if its someone you don’t usually talk to, let others know you’re there for them, be friendly, stay positive and smile.

Xoxo

I am back!

I am so disappointed in myself for abandoning my blog for a few months!

I don’t really have any reason other than life just got in the way.

So here’s a run down of my life in the past few months;

• My family came over from Australia for most of September
• We attended a family wedding in Lithuania
• I moved….twice
• I got a new job
• I saw the Simon and Garfunkel story for the fifth time
• I started Christmas shopping

A couple of these will get their own entry as I’d like to tell you all about them in more detail!

So, when I started this whole blog I lived in Essex with my parents and Nan who we looked after – if you’d like to know more about why my nanny needs taking care of then please go to my blog titled ‘Alzheimer’s sucks’ by clicking here – then it was decided that seeing as we took care of her for two years then my auntie would take her back to live with her for a while. My parents decided to take this chance to move to Suffolk where the house is a lot better, the town is smaller and quiet, it’s peaceful and I loved my room more than any previous bedroom of mine!

My boyfriend and I decided to take our relationship up a step and get our own place back in Essex so I flew the nest and left my parents in Suffolk which then brings me to my new job!

Five guys! – I won’t lie, its not my dream job that I plan to be in for the rest of my life. For such a sudden, quick move back to Essex I had to find a job asap. I admit, I hate doing the weekends, I hate the midnight finishes but it brings in the money and right now that’s what I need!

I don’t get as much time as before to be able to write and when I do have time off I feel too tired and feel like that would effect how I write so I will try my hardest to get back to weekly writing but I am sorry if I do miss weeks. Also, who knows what day of the week I’ll manage to publish my blogs so if you’d like to keep reading and not have to check back every single day then enter your email and subscribe to receive emails every time I post!

Also, guys!!! It’s November!!! The MIDDLE of November! Where has 2019 gone? It’s crazy! We are entering a new decade in just over a month! With that, I hope you all enjoy the last month and a half of 2019.

Xoxo

Podcasts.

I do love a podcast, I don’t listen to them as much as I would like to but do endeavour to in the future.

I mostly listen to ones that I know are going to make me laugh such as Hamish and Andy but I do like to listen to crime type ones too.

There is one particular podcast that I would like to talk about though because it is 100% my favourite.

Never thought I’d say this.

This podcast is hosted by Full House star, Jodie Sweetin and her best friend Celia Behar who is a life coach. These ladies are lovely, they’re funny, they’re beautiful.

Their first podcast was aired on the 10th July this year and they have aired every Wednesday since. I love to stay in the loop of the celeb world but to be quite honest, I am crap at it. So sadly, I didn’t know about this podcast until a few weeks after it had started. Although, this did mean that when I had finally found it, it meant I could binge listen to it. Now I have to wait a whole long week to listen to the next.

Never thought I’d say this is a parenting podcast. They talk about shouting at your kids naked, embarrassing their kids, being asked awkward questions, their kids and social media, a lot of things they never thought they’d say and so much more. They even talk about stories from when they were kids and their own parents.

It sounds like it might be a bit of a serious kind of podcast, right? Yes, they talk about serious topics but I honestly find myself laughing so much. They tell the most hilarious stories from their own parenting lives, even the awkward things their kids come out with that you hope your own kids will never do or say are so funny that you have to let out a loud chuckle.

Even though it is a parenting podcast I feel that everyone should listen to it. I don’t have children of my own but I do have them in my life and do find myself relating to some of their stories.

If you’re a parent, you should 100% listen to this podcast. You will find yourself laughing not only because they are genuinely hilarious but also you will laugh at how much you can relate and also, you will know that you’re not the only one who goes through awkward, crap or great times with the kids.

If you’re not a parent and plan to be, this will prepare you for everything to come.

If you’re not a parent but have children in your life, still listen because the scenarios and stories they tell can still relate to you whether its your friends children, your nieces, nephews, etc.

If you’re not a parent, don’t plan to be, don’t have children in your life, don’t give a flying hoot about anything to do with anything I have spoke about, still listen because its hilarious! Or listen entirely to hear Jodie Sweetins laugh. Her laugh honestly makes me happy and it is so contagious!

The Hosts

Jodie Sweetin played little Stephanie Tanner in Full house. This makes it slightly weird for me to listen to her talking about her children and swearing and what have you. I am currently watching Full House start to finish -as you know from my previous blog entry about the show that it is my favourite tv show – and I can just imagine her as this sweet little Stephanie. Don’t get me wrong she is still sweet/lovely but I am so used to watching her in the show that its weird imagining her grown up with her own children. Anyway, I love that she has done this podcast because she was one of my favourites in the show and I love hearing her stories and love getting to know her more. Jodie has two children who she talks about in the podcast – Well, obviously. It is a parenting podcast, duhh – Zoe who is 11 and Beatrix, 8. Jodie is an actress (again, obviously!!) and she also has a book which was published in 2010 called Unsweetined. I actually really want to read this book and it is first on my shopping list when I can afford luxuries!

Celia Behar is a life coach and the best friend of Jodie -they do explain how they became friends in the first episode of their podcast- Admittedly, I only know her from this podcast. However, I can already tell that she is a lovely, beautiful lady and definitely has some funny stories to tell! She has a masters degree in counselling, 12 years experience in vocational and psycho-educational counselling, 8 years experience in licensed mental health counselling and certificates in Child Abuse and Neglect, Violence Prevention, ABA Therapy, Co-Occurring Mental Health & Substance Abuse Disorders, and Ethics in Counselling. Celia also has two children who are also spoken about in the podcast. Harper, 12 and Loulou who is 7.

Links

If you managed to get through my awfully written blog and still would love to check out why this is my favourite podcast then please click on the links below to see why I wouldn’t be able to listen on public transport because I would definitely end up crying of laughter and looking like a fool.

Their podcast – Or if you have a podcasts app on your phone simply search for ‘never thought id say this’

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Unsweetined by Jodie Sweetin

I am yet to listen to this weeks as I haven’t had the chance to but I plan to listen tomorrow and I am super excited about this weeks because their guest is Andrea Barber who is another great woman who stars in the Full/Fuller house series.

I really hope you all give this podcast a listen and that I haven’t done too bad a job selling it to you guys.

See you next week.

Xoxo

Don’t go breaking my heart.

Thank you Elton John for giving me the title of this blog.

It is Wednesday 14th August. It is summer. It should be sunny and beautiful outside. This is England. It is not sunny. It is not beautiful outside. The day has been a grey one, the skies opened up and poured its watery contents upon us causing that fresh, sweet but earthy smell to linger. Paddling pools from the recent sunny days were left to overflow and indoor entertainment businesses became more popular. Today was not a nice day and this was exacerbated by the fact that I had to leave the house to accompany my mother to the shop to pick up some furniture and taking a trip to the shed at the bottom of the garden to use the dryer. But hey, at least the pluviophiles were happy today!

So, a miserable day calls for a miserable subject! Sorry guys. I will try and keep this one short.

When you hear the words ‘heart break’ what do you think of? A couple breaking up? yeah, me too. I think that relationships and marriages are the most common cause for heartbreak and the main thing that people associate with those words. Which is …well..heartbreaking!

While thinking about this blog I realised how many ways a heart can be broken. This horrible feeling is caused by so many different things. A death of a friend/relative/pet, a friendship being lost, being away from someone, even having to break someone else’s heart can cause your own to break. It is definitely one feeling that I wish I could put into ‘room 101.’

I have experienced it a few times over the last year. I have had to watch my nans health deteriorate, right at the beginning of the year my relationship ended, a week or so before that I had to leave some members of my close family behind as I came home from visiting them in Australia and around September/October last year I had to say goodbye to a family pet who I honestly considered my best friend. It is one of the worst feelings but most importantly I have come to realise that it doesn’t stay forever. I came across a good way of portraying the feeling of heartbreak:

It is like a cut on your body. The pain is at its worst at first but as the days go on it gets better. You may catch it and it may get sore again but times a healer. The pain starts to get easier to cope with until eventually it is gone. It may leave a scar, it may not but either way the pain that was once there, the pain that you never imagined getting better has disappeared – I don’t remember who or where I heard this from but whoever created this way of thinking I’m sorry I can’t give you credit but thank you!

I would like to leave this on a bit of a lighter note. During the creation of this blog I have been texting one of my best friends Amelia about this weeks subject and she just sent me a text including this lovely quote – without these heartbreaks we wouldn’t truly appreciate what we love.

I couldn’t agree more so thank you Amelia for that beautiful thought.

It is very doubtful but I hope that the rest of the summer doesn’t see a day like today again. I hope you are all enjoying reading my blogs and see you next week.

Also, I’m sorry if you now have Elton John stuck in your head.

Xoxo

Books. Books. Books.

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies..The man who never reads lives only one.

I love reading. Growing up I was never really encouraged by my parents to read books. I’m not annoyed at them for it and I’m not saying it makes them bad parents because they absolutely are not! I think that because they aren’t massive book readers themselves -Mum has always read magazines and dad reads books about his interests such as photography or composers – they never really thought about encouraging my brothers and I.

This does mean that I didn’t actually find my love for books until I was in the later years of secondary school but I have definitely made up for the years loss of reading. I tend to go through phases of going months without reading a thing and then I will take every chance I can get to read. I read a book in January and didn’t pick up another one until a couple of months ago and since then I have read 3 books and started a fourth this evening.

I don’t think that this is a bad thing because you need to be in the right mind to be able to really enjoy a book. I find that if you’re not in the right mind it just all goes over the top of your head, you read the same sentence/paragraph over and over without taking anything in and it makes it extremely difficult to really get into the book. So, if I pick up a book and find myself reading sentences 10 times and still don’t really know whats going on I simply just put it down and try again another day.

I love reading. I love getting to know the characters, the places and the lives of these people you will never meet. When I have gotten lost in the world of the book I am reading I never want it to end. I want these characters to stay in my life forever but I do also find myself getting eager to know what happens at the end. When I have finished a book and no longer have these characters in my life it feels like I have lost a crowd of friends like when you leave school and lose touch and I do miss them for a while.

I mostly read fiction but I do occasionally like to read non fiction, biography, autobiography, etc. If there is a book I want to read that is also made into a film I will refuse to watch it until I have read the book – although, I broke this rule when I was on a flight back from Australia in January. I have had a copy of ‘The Book Thief’ for years with intention to read it but just haven’t got around to reading it yet. I refused to go to the cinema to watch it but it was on the plane and my curiosity got the better of me – this is because I hate reading a book and only being able to imagine the actors/actresses and scenes from the film. I much prefer to read the book and let my imagination run wild with the descriptions of the appearances of the people and the places and then its exciting seeing how my imagination matches up to the film.

The quote that I included under the title is by an author called George R.R. Martin who wrote the Game of Thrones series. I am yet to read any of his work but I chose that quote because it is one of the truest I have ever come across. When I get that into a book I genuinely feel like I am living a whole other life and so far I have lived so many! I am super excited to live many more different lives through the books I read.

A great app for book lovers is one called ‘goodreads.’ You can scan or search for books and add them to 3 different shelves. ‘Read’ – for all the books you have previously read, ‘To Read’ – for all the books you would like to read and ‘currently reading’ – where you can add the book you are reading and update the progress by entering the page you are on and it will tell you the percentage of how far through you are. You can also set a reading challenge for the year and once you have clicked on “I have read this book” in the currently reading shelf it will go towards your challenge.

I could sit here and write about books for ages, about how my dream future house has a library inside, how I can spend hours in the book store, how I prefer books over kindle and even if I read on the kindle I will still buy the physical book but I am going to leave it here.

I hope this encourages you to read more and don’t forget, if you find yourself rereading sentences and not getting into a book, it is ok! Just go back to it another time when your mind is more relaxed.

Xoxo

Mooooooo.

No. Not as in cows! Sorry to disappoint 🙂

I have a new boyfriend! We have been together only 2 weeks but already he does make me super happy! He is really caring, loving, bubbly and fun to be around. He is also incredibly annoying and the biggest wind up you will meet but hey, aren’t all boyfriends? 

His name is Matt but he has the nickname ‘Moo’ – hence the title of this blog – which is a nickname he acquired from his family. I’m not entirely sure why but I like it so I have stolen it. This makes it easy when I’m talking to my friends because one of my best friends is also called Matt so it can get confusing if I don’t call him by his nickname. A couple of my friends know him as ‘Mafoo’ which is a nickname I chose.

The first question I know you all have is “how did you meet him, Katie?” – Well, I wish I could tell you some glamorous, romantic story about how we bumped into each other on the street or in a posh bar and locked eyes and instantly fell in love or something similar from those movies but no. It was tinder. I swiped right, he swiped right and then he sent me a terrible chat up line (sorry babe) and it went from there. This was a couple of months ago and now here we are, spending probably too much time together! (only because I think his weirdness is rubbing off on me haha).

One day we were sitting in his car waiting for his friend and I asked him if he had any suggestions on subjects I can add to my blog list. Matt being Matt, he quickly replied with “write one about me.” Of course, I don’t know why I didn’t expect that. Honestly, I don’t know if he was being sarcastic or not. He is one of those where you can’t always tell. I decided he wasn’t joking so here we are, a whole blog entry about my boyfriend. Hey Matt, I hope you’re enjoying reading about you! 

He is incredibly weird, but a good weird. He comes out with the most random things, has pleasure in showing me the weirdest things he finds on the internet, does weird things. He is a colossal wind up! He doesn’t just wind me up, I have received videos and pics throughout the day of him winding up his work colleagues who I totally feel sorry for! haha. In all honesty, it is sometimes tiring just listening to him talk because I spend most of the time responding with “What the actual f*** are you on?” but as he always reminds me -and actually his mum once reminded me too-  I chose him and have stuck with him even now I know how truly crazy he is. 

Truthfully though, I wouldn’t have him any other way. He is gorgeous, funny, caring, loyal, generous, kind, etc. Yes, I might sometimes sit there and think ‘please just be normal for an hour at least’ and I might consider pretending to be asleep just so he shuts up but not a day goes by that I spend with him and he doesn’t make me laugh and I love that. We do spend most of our day together laughing and having fun and that is much better than if he were normal and our days were boring. Hey, it means I can be myself around him too because no matter what I do, he can’t judge because it still won’t be anywhere near as weird as him.

Moo, I hope you have enjoyed reading this and just know that I will get you back and am not afraid to play tricks on you or wind you up back 😛

I hope everyone has a lovely summery August and a great week.

Xoxo