Forgive me blog but I am still here

Truly!  Busy busy busy.  But you will forgive me when you see these photos of goodness.

We are grandparents!!!

Beautiful Saxon Michael David (the middle names a nod to the two grandpas) was born last Saturday.  

After having niggles during the day they got worse.  We were out at a dinner saying goodbye to some friends here in town and got a text message to keep our phones close and up loud!  Tab ended up going to hospital to check out the niggles and got admitted!  Then it all started happening.

Saxon was still breech but she really wanted to try a natural birth.  Aaron put out the call to the three grandmas as Tab wanted us in the delivery room with her.  But by then Saxon wasn't waiting for anyone.  Two hours after full labor started and Saxon was here.  And the grandmas all missed it by minutes!!! 

As it happened because of the breech labor Tab had 2 doctors and 3 midwives and the doctor said there wasn't enough room for us anyway.

A little after he was born Aaron floated into the waiting room and filled us in on the name and details.  Seriously Tab is superwoman in his eyes.  She didn't have time for an epidural and did it by gas alone.

About an hour after his birth we were allowed in, the three grandmas all crying happy tears and Mike.  What a moment to share with the new little family.  And how serenely beautiful she looks here, and how privileged I was to photograph this special time.

Absolutely gorgeous.

The room was dim so I needed to bump the ISO right up and was shooting at f1.4 hence the depth of field, but I think that adds to the moments captured here.  I took about 90 photos that night!!!!

Nanna and Grumpy are over the moon happy for the new little family.  They are home now and all is right in the world.

Run Forrest ... DNS

So I had Run Forrest yesterday.  Totally excited, looking forward to the run and the resultant festival afterwards.  We were out the door by just after 7am to drive the one and a half hours down there.  Had to take my car as Mike's is out of action, waiting on a part.  Today also marked 17 years since my grandpa passed away from pancreatic cancer.  I had planned to run with this photograph in my pocket.  Hold on tight grandpa we were going for a run.

We'd gotten as far as Camperdown, half an hour away, and the minute Mike hit the brakes there was a nasty grinding groaning sound.  Now my brakes have been making a bit of a sound but nothing like this.  Stopped the car, took off again and it was a horrible metallic sound.  Mike wasn't happy at all and at that moment I knew what was coming, we weren't going anywhere.  

He turned the car around on the highway and went off to a small road and got out to check.  He said the front left brake was red hot.  There was no way we were heading to Forrest.  We limped our way back home at about 60kmh and of course I cried the whole way home, big fat silent ploppy tears, and he was feeling bad too, kept saying sorry, which made it worse as he has nothing to be sorry about.  And even being a two car family we couldn't even take his car as it's out of action whilst we're waiting for a part for his.  Stuck.

DNS.  Did Not Start.  First time I've ever had that against my name.

Home, started unpacking, and still feeling in the miseries decided right, I'm already in my gear, at 10.30am I'm going to head out and run my 10km around town at the same time as I would have been doing Run Forrest.

It wasn't pretty, it was slow, but I'm so glad I did.  I took my grandpa in my pocket and we just ran and ran and ran.  

Although at one point I thought I was being stalked.  A van had followed me very slowly, there was some writing on the side but I couldn't make it out.  It would disappear and then reappear again.  Far out, it really was following me.  Then I was over on the other side of town and there it was again, slowly slowly inching it's way up the street, it turned and came up the service road after me.  I was at the stage of trying to work out fight or flight, what to do, then it passed me ... it was the Google mapping van!!  Oh that'd be right, my arse will probably end up on Google with it's own address code!  

And later on that night, a friend of mine sent me this.   Firstly he sent me a message to check if I'd had my concrete yet.  Concrete I asked?  He said yeah, to toughen me up a bit!  He knew I was disappointed about missing the race but told me I needed to start being super proud of myself and to celebrate how far I'd come, and be thankful about that.  I still went out and ran 10km, I don't need a medal to know I'm now a fit woman who can belt out 10km whenever I want to.

Yep, thanks Bruce, point taken!  Got to love the people who make me keep it real.

Still here, alive and kicking

I have been ridiculously busy and lacking in sleep, that's what's having a neurotic old dog suffering stages of dementia will do to you.  She is doing my head in.  She just wakes up in the early hours and wanders up and down and up and down the passageway.  I will wake and find her staring at the wall.  Mind you we keep a light on for her and have music playing so the house is not in darkness or quiet.

Then she settles and goes back to sleep and usually about an hour before my alarm goes off she starts all over again.  I get up, put her coat on her (because it's chilly now with Winter started) and she goes outside.  And just lays in the middle of the lawn.  No, she doesn't use the nice comfy dog bed with the big pillow up on the porch under cover, no she won't use a kennel, she just lays on the grass.  And at times in the rain.  That just breaks my heart.

So broken lack of sleep is doing my head in, because of course Mike doesn't hear it at all.  He used to say I would wake him up back when I used to snore, but he doesn't hear Molly.  Go figure.  Selective male deafness I think.

Work is busy, life is busy.  We had an unexpected visitor last weekend when one of my mum's longest friends was in the area on the way through on a caravanning holiday and called in.  Oh it made my heart sing.  Mum and Pam were childhood neighbours growing up as young children.  Now Pam is 69 and mum is 72 (I think) and their friendship is still strong.  Pam and Tom having three sons, I was always the daughter they never had and Pam was always my "second mother".  We had the best best morning ever.

And in amongst it all I've still been running.  I've been heading over to Terang for some different scenery of a weekend.  It's a very volcanic area around the south-west Victoria where I live, and there is an area called the "Dry Lake", which is the inside of a crater I believe from time gone by.  It's a 4.5 km loop so is good for two laps and a nice 9km weekend run, and is just wonderful, throughout the circuit that vista changes remarkably as you hit the different sections.  Running clockwise you start off in a bush trail, and you'd swear you were in the middle of the bush.  It smells nice too.

Then as you leave this area of the circuit you end up in country paddocks running in with the cows.  The first lap there were no cows but as I headed around for the second lap the cows had moved along the track grazing.  

There there, nice cow, you're mighty big up close, there's a good cow, let me pass!  I was ready to take off sprinting in case they charged!!

Through another gate, yes there are gates to open and shut all the way along this route ...

Then you head through the grounds of the nursing home.  Firstly it's really nice for them to allow runners and walkers through their grounds, and secondly I imagine the residents must enjoy seeing people run through calling out a cheery hello.   Not to mention what the sight of my sweaty Lycra tights must have done to heart rates! Hahahaha

Then through another gate and you head up a grassy hill to the top and then wheeeeee! down you go, that's the good part, along a track down the side of the hill down to the flat area below. 

Then you head past some paddocks with horses through a lovely straight stretch, which was bathed in the Autumn sun.

And back along the north side through an avenue of beautiful trees, where I was rained on by the Autumn leaves floating down, very magical.

Back up to the main road, and along to the start again.  Fantastic!  REady to do it over.  It's a great run and good training for running on different surfaces.

These photos are a combination of the last two weekends of long slow runs around the Dry Lake.  How lucky I am to have this area so close to vary my training.