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A huge running smile today as I woke up early so made it to ParkRun at Kingsbury Water Park in spite of my busy week. And I should perhaps try to run as fast as I can when I'm exhausted more often as I broke my PB a minute, aided by the Valentines pacemakers. Having ended up at the back I was not letting the 28 minute sign out of my sight and chased it down, overtaking with just under 1km

to go and finishing in 27:18 officially (although I made it 27:10) 

And to cap it all, a red rose and Swizzel sweeties at the finish! 

And more flowers from John on my return. Lucky girl! 

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A bright crisp morning; perfect for a run - 5.4 miles. And I did enjoy this morning's run. Far more than last Friday when it was out and back, and the wind was howling!

Jude's trainers arrived much to his delight.
I made it to school to retrieve my folder just in time before the building was locked up for the weekend.
Tea was delicious.
John came back from Budapest.

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I don't like it when John works away but there are advantages I guess.

Someone needs to finish the bottle of red wine he'd nearly finished - and the boys are underage.

And the boys don't like my delicious rhubarb and apple crumble which is only half eaten.

I get a whole bed to myself - which is good when you have an ankle that can't quite decide if it's comfortable or not.

I compensate by buying the boys treats - so frappuccinos all round this afternoon. 

And if he's away a long time, presents!

But most of all, it makes me appreciate how much better life is when he's around. 

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John is home - hurrah! And he's bought me back 'something Aussie' - in fact several things.

Made me smile when he arrived back ahead of time and brought me a cup of tea in bed. Followed by Isaac who had made the cup of tea!

The boys were given koala bears and boomerangs. Lots of smiles this afternoon as they tried them out in the Country Valley Park. Initial efforts weren't overly impressive but they got the hang of it. And then Jude threw hos boomerang into a tree surrounded by dense undergrowth and stinging nettles. 30 minutes of searching armed with my crutches as beating sticks and boomerang was finally found. 

And that made us all smile! Lots! 

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Decorated biscuits by Jude. 

Sunshine in the garden.

And beautiful pictures of Melbourne as John starts the looooong journey home. 

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Balloons courtesy of John tomorrow in Melbourne. 

Delicious lunch at Mum's. 

Didn't get soaked in the way home. 

Helpful boys. 

Used up all my elastic bands on bracelets and various embellishments for cuddly animals!

In bed by 10 and watching TV feeling snoozy. 

Night x

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https://twitter.com/johnjs8400/status/460462702142705665

It amuses me that John had to wait until we moved back from Switzerland to get his Nespresso machine. He managed to 'break' the (not Nespresso) coffee machine I bought him . Mmm! 

Still it is a thing of beauty so I bought him a pod holder to go with it. 

Had to smile today when Runkeeper sent me an email saying 

"It's been a while since we last saw you...Let's get you back out there!"

Yes, well. I would if I could!

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I am a smiley person, it's true. But I can be a grumpy person too sometimes and this morning I was feeling very grumpy. And cross. And fed up. 

And things didn't improve much when Liverpool were beaten, Johnny Brownlee was beaten and Dan Martin fell with 100m to go in Liege-Baston-Liege. 

What made me smile again? 

We sang "Crown him with many crowns" at church, we sang the proper words and we sang my favourite verse about God being creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime. Anyone who knows me well knows that this is very important to me. And that includes our minister Donald who commented in it as I left church. 

Secondly I discovered the picture at the top in a post about iPad apps, made especially for me. Thanks Erzsi! Sorry it took me so long to see it!

Then I couldn't fail to smile at the prize Mark Cavendish received for wining the stage in the Tour of Turkey. He'll get very bunged up if he eats all of those...

And then there was this picture someone tweeted earlier. 

Most of all though it was realising, prompted by some tweets, that I have two lovely sons and a wonderful husband, and that means I'm very lucky. 

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(Photo by Isaac) 

Bluebells (and a yellow weed I think!) by my swinging bench. Too dangerous to approach on crutches if I value my other foot so I'll wait until I can weight bear before having a closer look. 

Lovely tulips that I can see as John put them in front of the window! 

And finally John sent morning greetings from Mexico.

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Today I discovered that, as comfortable as a wheelchair may be, I hate being pushed around. And, if momentarily vacated by the injured party, said wheelchair makes a great gaming chair fora  tired 12 year old!
A churros stand in Solihull made me smile - I'll be back next time there's a market for more! As did Jude's face as he tasted his 'ginger latte' - so ginger that it burnt the back of your mouth.  We'll stick to your juices next time, Joe!
Sunderland's win made me smile broadly as did Jose Mourinho's post match interview as he is something else!

And this time last year...

I miss Zumba - and 'the girls!'

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A lovely sunny day reading in the garden - except when I had to come indoors to avoid burning!

John came home from Switzerland and promptly starting destroying things. 

And I found a new use for my massage roller.

Fracture clinic tomorrow...

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Smile 1 - I slept last night.
Smile 2 - Jude has arrived safely in Belgium.
Smile 3 - I haven't fallen over (yet) on my crutches.
Smile 4 - I've done lots of blogging and not been too bored today.
Smile 5 - flowers from John.
Smile 6 - lovely messages on Twitter and Facebook about my predicament.
Smile 7 - a parcel with new things including unifix cubes

Smile 8 - a new series of Only Connect

Smile 9 - a small monkey in a tabard keeping me company

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I love how my family make me laugh. Saturday lunchtime is usually a good time for giggles and the rugby gave us plenty of 'humour fodder' today, particularly when I started talking about Billy Sixtrees, unintentionally halving the size of the aforementioned gentleman's wood into a small copse. Incidentally I discovered when checking Wikipedia that Billy's dad is a tree surgeon. You couldn't really do much else with a name like that!

Fun also ensued in Marks and Spencer as John collected evidence of "M&S going downhill"

"This is why #m&s has lost the plot #hurtsmyeyes http://t.co/yvMDunvZFG"

...and Jude making amusing observations about the posters. 

"Woman in M&S annoyed about dropping her ice cream. http://t.co/pvWryKgsc3"

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Too tired to post last night so catch up time!

An early start was made better by this bag by the kettle at 6am! Thank you John x

More smiles as I tweeted with @MissJ0nes as we 'sped' (ha ha!) on the train from opposite ends of the British Isles to meet in York with others for a day of research (brain imploded with information overload!)

Great to see Thérèse and many other familiar faces in York - shame I missed Suzi though.

Good to be home after another rail nightmare - I am NOT travelling by train on a Friday evening again - and thanks to John for picking me up from Birmingham with Medjool dates to calm me!

However I did get a chocolate lolly from the guard who called me 'young lady'

Big thank yous from the boys for the chocolates I left outside their rooms this morning.  

And the new PPA timetable sees me teaching Year 2 - WA-HOOOO!

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A beautiful sunrise.

Isaac made lamb koftas for dinner - delicious!

I enjoyed teaching ICT just about all day even when I was teaching Spanish! And I enjoyed the smiles on children's faces; I know something's going right if there are smiles even when it's tricky.

Hula hooping in my assembly made me smile - I wasn't very good but a Year 4 boy was brilliant!

Looking forward to watching Les Mis on the way home from York tomorrow.

And John came home - whoop!!

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Good to be back in worship group, even if I did get hit over the head by an exuberant worshipping Barbara. Soon solved by removing my microphone from the stand and moving closer to Phil. Also meant I could read his large words ;)

And a very pleasing run on a sunny albeit cold afternoon. Having trouble breathing in the cold so I was very pleased with my average pace. Picture is the edge of the Country Valley Park as I sped past; that's flooding not a lake!

I knew Jude had a plan at lunchtime when he approached me with a smile on his face and eyelashes fluttering... sharing bags of crisps is not a problem for me, unlike John who ate an entire bag of M&S cheesy tasters all by himself.

Isaac's ability to balance his entire body in something akin to the lotus position on the tiny saddle of his bike is quite impressive and certainly causes a smile as I pass and wonder where the rest of his body has gone.

And John in cycling gear is always worth a smile ;)

Finally - this song is by someone I knew in youth group and last saw about 25 years ago! I like it - listen to the words (and they're below the video on Youtube too)

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The look on Jude's face as we discussed catheterisation.

The Pope is a cat-a-holic according to Milton Jones. And many other marvellous one liners.

The last of the Sprüngli chocolates.

Flowers from John.

All reasons to smile on a day at work that I can't say I enjoyed much.

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Sometimes I feel when I'm beyond tired and plain weary that I forget this and don't give my loved ones my best. So today I saved them my smiles (easier as I wasn't at work!)

I did some smiling this morning though at running/core, especially as I reached the top of Cardiac Hill without succumbing to a coronary!

I smiled this morning as Isaac, on instructions from his Dad, patiently popped upstairs every 5-10 minutes to make sure I hadn't gone back to sleep.

And Jude came home with great news from school about being made a Creative Arts Learning Ambassador at school. He's very excited!

 Bernard Cribbins on HIGNFY, singing, also made me smile.

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One of my favourite times of the year when I can bring out El Pequeño Petirrojo!

Utterly pooped so smiles are very welcome - a great afternoon with year 6 (like gold dust!), funny comments from year 3 and being called 'Tigger' by staff at WPS.

And 'the Panda taxi' fetched John from the station - that was funny!

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A run in the park on a chilly but lovely day. 

Watching the sky turn pink and orange. 

And singing Happy Birthday to two ofy favourite people (late but Jude couldn't face food let alone chocolate cake earlier!)