And the motto is...

So, June is rolling by, and I am spending more and more time lost in my own little world.  Just before the weekend I was beginning to lose a little hope; I was letting everything get on top of me - the one thing I said I wouldn't let happen!  So, after a couple of days away from everything looking after my little man while his Mommy took some rest time, I gave myself a good talking to and put myself back on track.  

I am still doing the Ab Challenge thing, though I openly admit that I do not see any difference, and I swear it was devised to kill me - but out of pure stubbornness I will get to the end!!  My next move is to seriously crack on with my second book, and get some more copies of the first out into the world, and I also have to continue hunting for a new job - wouldn't it be awesome if someone decided they wanted my book in the mean time and it set me up for being a writer :)  Dreams are only dreams while ever we believe in them!  And despite how often I take the mickey out of myself for wanting to be a writer; I do believe in it, I do believe that it is possible!  I make jokes to keep the disappointment at bay every time I receive a 'no'.  

As for keeping up with my spontaneity, I think Sammy, Vicky and I took the biscuit for that the other day!  After a mess up on my part at the cinema, we were at a loss for something to do... So what did we decide on?  Normal people would have looked for another film, gone bowling instead, gone home and watched a DVD... Us...

We found a way into the fields in Ulley and went to see how close we could get to a windmill!  It was extremely spontaneous and very childish, but that about sums us up, especially when we are all together!  We trudged through the crop fields, panicked only a little when we heard the police helicopter above us, and managed to get right up to them - though we refrained from climbing the steps as we figured that might be pushing our luck a little too much!

After we had a taste for rebellion there was no stopping us - we didn't want to go home, so we had to find something else to do to entertain our childish sides!  What did we do?  We found a park of course!!

 Vicky went straight for the see-saw thingy and nearly face planted the floor - who'd have thought that these things weren't built for adults...

Sammy enjoyed making action shots...






And me... well... I saw a challenge... and went for it!

And I totally made it - Granted it was very ungraceful,

but I did it!

So, I will continue to keep my head up, and not let this crappy situation in my life get me down - I will come out on top of this... 'When one door closes, another opens' and all that, a little bit of wisdom from Alexander Graham Bell!

More randomness to come - I promise - and a Vernon update - but for now, I am going to go and enjoy what remains of this glorious sunshine.

Louby x

Well hello June - when did you sneak up??

This year is definitely flying by and taking no prisoners!  June already eh??  Well I managed to do what I said last time, and I think I have already covered at least half of what I have done this month!  It has to be better this way, less to put in one blog, and less of my crap to read  in one go!!  Win:Win all round I think!  

So here goes, let's start with the Resolution things - I have done a whole month of no Take-Aways!  When the family have had take out, I have been a good little girl and gone and made myself some tea - and felt tons better for it.  This month was supposed to be no crisps, however, having not checked the list to see what I was supposed to be avoiding, I had a bag of crisps at lunch time... so I am going to swap July and June over, and do no sweets this month, and crisps next month!  

I'm afraid swimming went down the drain a few months back -it was far too much faff for very little fun or results!  So, now the weather is picking up, I can get back out on my bike... I am going to change my Rother Valley route from last year to Ulley Reservoir!  Much further, and some good hills... and no I have plenty of time on my hands, I can get out when the weather is nice!  I also want to get back to Horse Riding, as the weather has been a bit up and down for that recently too.  Need to get active, the nothingness is getting me down and I really want to get myself out of it!  I am starting with the craze of the 30 month ab challenge which I saw on Facebook a while back.  It has taken over the nation for June, so I figured 'why not?'  I started today, and did ok, I have picked one of my favourite tracks to work out to!  'We Own It' by 2 Chainz!  And away I went!  I can't guarantee I will be this positive about it by Day 30 - I will keep you updated!

Calendar is courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/events/1426424270959723/?fref=ts

and is in no way mine.

As for the rest of my ideas for the new year - I am on my 19th book of 22 weeks according to Instagram :)  I am hoping that I can bring the number back up as I was averaging out at one a week near the beginning.  So hopefully, with the warm weather and some free time, I can get a wriggle on and get caught up a bit :)

Vernon is still enjoying his exploration of the world and since you last heard from him on here, has been to the Liverpool Empire Theater with me, Mum, Sammy and Auntie Arri to see the Lion King on stage.  Which for the record, was absolutely awesome!  I would definitely recommend going to see the stage show!  It is a must for the bucket list!  The insanity set in pretty much as soon as we got in the car, and after arguing with a set of google instructions, we soon cracked out the Sat Nav whilst trying to take car selfies!

We had an awesome time and cried a lot, and took some fun photo's of us all out together!  It was nice to get out as a girl's day and spend some time out having fun!  The best part about it all - Mum had no idea!  We got her all the way there and to the building before she realised what the big surprise was :)  And she cried!

 I have also seen another stage show this month, thought this one was some what cheating as I saw it at the Cinema!  Vicky and I went to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.  An excellent book, and a stunning performance - I would definitely consider seein it live if I ever got the chance!  Definitely a fantastic interpretation of the story!

The only other big adventure Vernon has seen this month was our trip to see the Lair of the White Worm on Friday with Pete!  
Yep - we went up there >>>

Vernon got front row seats on the front of my bike, and after a lovely cycle out into the countryside in Staffordshire, we climbed a cliff to go and explore the cave and have some lunch.  


Then cycled some more.  Covered fourteen miles in total, plus the ground coverage on foot.  Was an awesome day, and a lovely spot :)





I rounded off May with a trip to the seaside yesterday with Tara.  We took Rolo for his first ever trip to the beach!  And boy did we have to walk a long way to find him some beach to play on!  I'm still not sure if we could really count it as a beach - but it was sand, and we found shells - what more do you need?  There was no sea - it was miles away!  And with it being peak season times now, dogs aren't allowed on the main beaches, so maybe he will have to go again in the winter when he can go run on the beach and splash in the sea!  After the hike out to the end of the beach and back, we found a nice little spot in the sun to have a mini picnic :)
Was a good day, even saw the sunshine for a few hours!  Was plenty warm enough - and that's saying something for the coast!

So, May has been a bit of a mixed bag... June is going to be better!  I won't let anything drag me down, and I will keep finding the fun to be had in life!  Keep track of Vernon on Instagram with #vernonsadventure and see where he ends up, and me in general :)  I have been a little Instagram happy with this #99happymoments thing going on... You lot must be sick of seeing what I get up to lol!

Till next time, which I'm sure will be some random boredom when everyone is at work!
Louby x

Live your life your way!!

Well if these last few days have taught me anything, it's that life is too short to let anything or anyone get you down!  For those of you that have been reading for a while now, you will know just how hard I have worked this year to get here I am today - I have kept an upbeat attitude and stuck to my New Year's Resolution through thick and thin.  I'mm not going to lie, there ave been some times when it has been difficult, but I refuse to let others determine my life for me.  I promised myself that I would live my life for me this year, that I would do the things that made me happy!  Well, on Thursday something in my life took a serious tumble and completely floored me!  I gave myself a few hours to cry it out and then I gave myself a good, hard talking to!  The way I looked at it was that there was absolutely nothing I could do to change it, so I would not let the people involved run all the things that I had worked so hard to build up around me.  It's done, and now it's time to move on - one door closes, ready for another to open!  That is how I have to look at this!  

So, I spent Friday doing what I do best when I am not 100% and I cleaned!!  My room looked awesome by the time I was done.  I went shopping with mum and then come Friday night I got ready with Sammy to go out.  Yes it was Prom Night at Climax!  And I think rightly deserved - we had an awesome night!  I was determined to have a good time, and I think I definitely deserved a drink or two!  Sammy and I got all dressed up in our frocks, and the others all had their shirts and ties on :)  We had a good night, there was no doubt about that!  

Sammy even wore her Tiara from when she was Prom Queen :)


There was some cheesy dancing!




I got to see Maxie again - Long time no see!  And now I remember why :p Only joking, was ace to see her again!

I ended up a little worse for wear - but hey, I think I deserved it!


And by the end of the night there were a series of really strange selfies :) I think I just attacked everyone with the camera on the way out lol - Always the sign of a good night with me and Sammy!

After I had woken up and sobered up the next morning, it was time for the trip to Horncastle to spend the Bank Holiday with Momma and Sethy :)  The most effective therapy I've ever known!  All it took was his little arms around me when I got there to affirm my belief in everything would be ok.  We took great pleasure in destroying my badge and had a good giggle about it too.  We all spent the day in Skeg on Sunday, and the sun even came out to play making it so much better.  As always, we played in the arcades, and we made it onto the beach with ice cream.  Vicky even bought me a kite for a second attempt at getting one to fly.  We managed to get this one airborne, and I have never been so excited lol, how sad?  I've never been able to fly one before; I've always struggled to get them in the air, never mind keep it there!  Totally did it though - and have photographic evidence to prove it!  :)

It stayed up there for ages too :)

And then to round off the Bank Holiday weekend, I spent yesterday with Tara, catching up on lost time.  It's good to have some old friends back in my life - I hope they stay there!  We went to the pictures to see Blended, a good choice to say it was very spur of the moment - and ended the day in Pizza Hut!  I hope I speak for both of us when I say it was an awesome day, and good to get to spend some time together :) If not then I say it for me - I had a good day, and realised just how much I missed her in my life!

So, here's to getting my life back on track again... starting with some submissions today!  Let's see if that open door could have anything to do with my story!

Till next time :)

Louby x

A visit to Wonderland

I know it's been a while since I wrote on here, and I'm afraid I don't even have a decent excuse!  I've just been too lazy :) But I will make up for it.  I am currently laid on the garden sofa under the gazebo in the sunshine - what a place to be eh?  I love this tie of year, the weather is finally starting to pick up, I can crack out the summer wardrobe, although mine is seriously on the low side - I feel a shopping trip coming on!!  Everyone is happier; the sun seems to lift everyone's mood :) and that is definitely a good thing!!

Anyway, back to the point - I spent the bank holiday weekend up at the caravan with Vicky again :) I spent the Friday night accompanied by Batman and Rainbowdash at the school stay awake and over a hundred kids!!  We had an awesome night - that ended with a few people getting pen on their faces because they dared to fall asleep - myself included!!  There were games, some cheating, a midnight movie (Frozen of course with a kick ass sing-a-long by the kids and staff alike), lots of sweets and a lot of screaming!!  By half past seven in the morning when Vicky came to pick me up I was buzzing a little to say the least!  

We headed home for my stuff then set out straight for Flanborough - the plan - to keep moving all day so that I didn't fall asleep! I didn't do bad to say I was working on around 36 hours with only about an hours sleep!  I made it through most of the day, playing nicely at the beach and then after we got wet at Thornwick and had to head back to the caravan to get changed... well I never resurfaced!  At about five in the evening I crashed!!

After a full night's sleep I was raring to go though and we spent the next two days being complete kids!  We played in the sand, yes 'we' - my childhood hatred of sand is disappearing quickly as I'm getting older and I spend just as much time on my hands and knees in the sand as Vicky does - she does still dish out the orders though and we made an awesome sandcastle on Bridlington beach!!
We went crabbing and played in the arcades ad just generally had kiddie fun :)  


We went to Thornwick and explored the Bay all over again, always finding something that we didn't find before.  Vernon was of course with me and enjoyed getting wet feet!  We even found a dragon egg :)  but it was a bit big to carry back up the cliff side so we had to leave it safe in the Bay.
On Monday we went back to Hunmanby Gap and played on the beach there - we built awesome sand ducks that took bloody ages I'll tell ya!  Vicky had fun drawing in the sand too - she finished up with a beautiful tribute to Elkie :)  While she was doing that, Vernon, Felix and I were playing in the sand, Vernon even got buried!!

After an awesome weekend it was back to work for four days :) 

 Then came the weekend... I got a text about going to Corp by the one person that I struggle to say no too!  Now if you've been reading long enough then you will know of my hatred for Corp, but I rounded up my sister and Tara, and headed out for a night out!  And to be fair - it was pretty awesome!  There was a lot of stupidity and fun, and the case of the cone and 3D glasses that went missing from my car!  But it was a great night - especially compared to the last time I was there!  

 

But to top it off, I got to see my Soldier, and he made my whole year!  He knows why, and so do those who know me well enough!  

So - here's to Wonderland!  Because that's where I am right now :)  I am the happiest I have been in a long time and it's all down to him - if you're reading this Solder, never forget it :)  

And today - is my Mommy's Birthday :) so now I am off to enjoy the sunshine and have a BBQ and fun times to celebrate with her.  Then she has an epic surprise coming on Sunday to celebrate in style because she has the most awesome daughter's ever!!  Love you Mommy xx

Til next time, (and I promise it won't be as long this time)

Louby x 

Doesn't time fly...

Wow, how the time goes quickly - where is this year going??  It doesn't seem five minutes since the last time I was writing one of these for the end of last month!!  I pulled off what I said at the end of the last one though - I most definitely upped my game - I have so much to write about for this month that I have no idea where to start.

Well how about I start with some of the things you already know... If you're following me on Instagram then you will be familiar with 99happymoments :)  Yes, I followed the craze and of course put my own little twist on it - I have managed to post every day, and I am trying hard not to repeat ideas too, so for example, I used the pretty blue sky as one of the days, I won't be using it again; I kinda want them all to be a little bit different.  Challenge accepted!

The beginning of April saw Vernon getting a new friend -Vicky fell in love with a hand made bear when we went to Arrow Farm and walked away with Felix :)  From then on the two (and us of course) have had all sorts of fun getting up to mischief and being as random as possible.











I posted briefly, about what was (up to that date) the most spontaneous I had proven to be, when I went to Cleethorpes, and was very impressed with myself at how little planning and thought had gone into it :)  Terry and I had chips on the beach, played in the arcades and went for a walk on the sand.  Vernon sneaked along too of course and got in some photos - although it was Terry who photo-bombed him, not the other way around...  We even laid and looked at the stars for a bit and Vernon had to get snuggle in my hood because it was getting colder. 

The following adventures are in the last blog post - My trip to Horncastle to see Momma and Squeak, my horse riding antics, of which I haven't done any more yet as the bruising on the bottom of my back has only just disappeared, and the most amazing act of spontaneity yet - the trip to Bolsover Castle!

The day after we went out again - a little more planned, but not by much - and visited Kirkham Abbey - a beautiful little set of ruins out in the middle of nowhere!  We even managed to score a decent day weather wise and enjoyed playing on the ruins.  Vicky even found a hill to roll down!

The second week of the Easter Break was spent decorating at home - we painted all of the ceiling, white work, walls and skirting boards in the lounge, stairs and landing... My sister and I both made the decision that when we move out we plan to move to bungalows after discovering just how painstakingly annoying painting skirting boards on the stairs can be... and i managed to get white paint on my elbows - how you may ask??  I haven't got the faintest clue!!

Then to round off an awesome holiday - it was Whitby Goth Weekend... Vicksy and I (and Vernon and Felix of course) went to the caravan for the weekend and spent Saturday in Whitby enjoying the scenery, costumes, and even the weather!  Granted it got a little blustery as the day went on, but it still wasn't horrible. 

On the Friday we ended up in Scarborough where Vicky played in the sand while I wrote in it :)

On the Sunday we went to one of my favourite places in the whole world - Thornwick Bay :) my little piece of heaven!


We spent ages down there, time just disappearing while we enjoyed the weather, sat on the cliffs and watched the sea.  We played on the rocks, went climbing, and had a rest on the beach at the other side :) an awesome way to spend a Sunday morning in my opinion!

After Thorwick we went for a drive and went looking for another beach - Vicky had been to Hunmanby before but never made it down as far as the sand, so we went to investigate :) I even got my toes out and went for a splash in the water - My God it was cold I'll tell ya!!
I wrote in the sand, because I could, and nearly killed Vicks trying to get us both in the photo!





And Vicky played in the sand too of course - she started building a sand snail, but unfortunately, and much to her disgust - the water crept up on her before she was finished!  I'm sure there will be a repeat, further away from the sea next time! :)

Anyway, this was only supposed to take ten minutes and then I was going for a bath - not sure I can be bothered now - that was ages ago!  One thing I have decided from today - I need to update more on my antics throughout the month so that I don't have as much to write at the end... 

Keep your eye on Vernon on Instagram at vernonsadventure - we are off to play again for the bank holiday weekend :) and I hope you're still watching #mycrazyreadinghabits :) my latest book - Macbeth.  The year 10's at school are doing it in English, and as I had ever read it before, figured I probably should so that I know what I'm rattling on about!

In final news - this months stay away food is Take Aways!  Wish me luck :)

Love ya's,

Louby x