Phew!

I’m exhausted! It has been a very busy two days, the first two work days I have done back to back. In many ways I can’t complain as they have both gone very well, and Alex and Tim have coped OK, but I am shattered because I haven’t been sleeping very well, and it isn’t really because of Alex either. Yesterday I had a meeting with my boss to discuss our immediate plans for a grant application and spent time with all my students, followed by loads of time internet searching for the information needed for this grant application. It was a lot of brain work to try and remind myself of all the information I knew really well 6 months ago and to catch up on the new facts about wound healing and the different signalling pathways involved in it. One of my students showed me some of her recent work on endothelial cells (blood vessel cells) and fluorescent markers and produced this rather beautiful picture.
Yesterday evening was wonderful, Alex was so happy and chirpy and we spent a merry hour playing before I fed him and put him to bed following which I made a couple of phone calls to family and then played around with my photoshop Christmas card before having some food and collapsing in front of an episode of Crocodile Hunter. Don’t you just love this cheeky grin!
Today was another work day and I have found it much harder going, mainly as a result of lack of sleep. I am still working on the grant and have a rough outline of how this will go now so am feeling happier about it. There is just one major section to complete in terms of new information and then I will have to ensure that the rest is fully up to date. Hopefully, all being well, I should be able to get a good first draft to my boss in time for our meeting on Wednesday next week. The highlight of my working day, however, was going out for a Chinese meal at lunchtime to celebrate Sheila going off on her maternity leave. There were 12 of us in all and we gave her the card (the one I made) and she loved it which was very nice. This was also a breakthrough for us as a family as it was the first time that I didn’t go home at lunchtime to feed Alex. When I phoned Tim he said that Alex had taken 4floz of milk from the bottle (with a cup teat) at lunchtime as well as his morning meal of a banana and an afternoon meal of baby rice. He has done so well and I am so proud of him.

This evening I have played with Alex, fed him, bathed him and put him to bed and am now having a little mooch on the net before collapsing in front of the TV with dinner. I have also had the delight of receiving 5 ATCs in the post in the past few days. These three are from the Alphabet swap that I am involved in on the CM&PC forum. G is for Girly is a wonderful ATC in pinks and purples with handbag, dress and shoes from Dawn Martindale. H is for Helicopter is from Kayleigh (aged 7) and I just love the textured sky and fluffy white clouds. I is for Indian Squaw is from Frances (Kayleigh's mum) and is a beautiful picture.

This ATC is from Lottie Middleton who joined the CM&PC forum at about the same time as me, I love the way the Singer sewing machine advert is mounted over frayed material and is glazed to make it look older.

This final ATC is from Janet Matthews and is my first alcohol ink swap. She has used the alcohol inks over foil into which she has drawn the leaf shape and them embellished with autumnal peel offs. I simply love the colours of autumn so this ATC is made for me. No time or energy for my own crafting today but I have high hopes for tomorrow.

Love to you all,

Caro

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