Sunday Smile Sermon - 27th July

I've just got back from Ambrose Barlow mass with my Nan & Granddad and it was lovely seeing some friendly faces. A lovely lady, a mother of a girl I went to Primary School with, came up to greet me as she came in. It was so lovely of her and so nice to see her too.
Gosh there are a lot of alter servers that were there today, I remember being up on that alter whilst I was at Ambrose Barlow primary school, so many years ago! I have to admit though, there is a serious lack of girls up there these days! Get your daughters up there people, letting the team down!

So the things that made me smile the most this week. Hmmm, well I've started writing a book! I have plenty of time on my hands, so it's not that hard at all. Although, I'm hoping it goes well, it could be pretty boring. I don't know anyone who edits & publishes books, I think I'll need to contact a few people once it's nearly finished.
I'm hoping to have it all done by Christmas! I have written the first 2 chapters and I have bullet points down for the next few - with a little help from my sister - it is an exciting idea to have it published! :D Although the content seems a bit boring to me, I'm sure it will be interesting to others. I've had an interesting life I guess, not as normal as it seemed at the time.

So I'M GOING TO IRELAND! It feels like I'm a kid on their summer holidays. Each year we would go on a trip to Ireland visiting family in Leitrim and Antrim. Now my mom is living there, it will be lovely to see her again. I'm hoping to get my new leg in time, however it is highly doubtful.

Anyway, this week of smiles… Monday Alex came home with me and stayed for a couple of days. I love having her around, she is a great help to me. The tables have seriously turned with the big sis, little sis though. She is the one look out for me and before I was the one looking after her. Well, I say that, but I guess she would be the sensible one on a night out. :/

So Tuesday, Katie came to mine in the afternoon and we went for a walk, just around the block, it was SO hot! Wearing this mask & pressure garments really doesn't help with the humidity. I can't wait until all of this is off!

Wednesday, I had a meeting at the Maltings for a leg fitting. The suction socket needs several adjustments, I had to dash off before the meeting had ended though! I had another one to attend with my Occupational Therapists. I will not be getting the leg in time for Ireland, which is such a shame! It will be something to come home to anyway. So dashing off to a meeting with Alex & Katie OTs for an assessment on my short term memory & concentration. Hmmm, it didn't go that well to be honest! I would be shown a route of things to do and then I would have to do it. Which sounds like ABC to be honest, that's exactly what I thought when shown the task. But it was harder than I thought and my concentration is pretty bad. I really really hope this improves ASAP! I've ordered a lot of herbal tablets to help with the mind. They have been added to my drug dispenser so hopefully they will kick in and do me some good.

I had a bit of a hussy fit with Go Daddy, I contacted them on FB & Twitter, slagging them off for not helping me. And they did eventually help me out. My blog is now feeding through to my website. So I do apologise to them for being in such a mood with them. I do have a short temper as well as a short term memory loss. But I've had that all my life, I can't blame the crash for that! 

I'm sorry Go Daddy!!! :)

Apart from all of that, not that much went on really. I'm very excited for the trip to Ireland next week! :D I won't be blogging while I'm there, so I'll let you know how it all went, in a couple of weeks.

I'll crack on with my book though! I have asked the people I will be mentioning in the book, for their permission and they all kindly got back to me with a yes, so it's off we go! hehe I'll be half the way through it soon, so fingers crossed you'll be reading that, instead of this, in no time!

If you know any book editors or publishers, can you leave a comment below this post with their contact details please. Or message me on FB.

Alice has just left after her lovely visit. We had a good old natter and I can not wait to see her in her new pad! It will be so lovely visiting all of the O'Riordan's in Shirley once I'm driving again too! Fingers crossed that won't be long. I'll definitely be driving to the O'Riordan's and all my other pals in no time, with a few signed books of course ;)

Peace for now xxx

Sunday Smile Sermon - 13th July

Well hello everyone! :)

I've been naughty today! I loved waking up in my own bed in my old bedroom, so much so that when my nanny J woke me up at 10am to go to mass with her, I just stayed in bed and enjoyed the moment. hehe. When she got home and we had a cup of tea together, I did wish I had gone with her. It was a different parish though and I wasn't pulled to it.  Ambrose Barlow bird me ;)

So, my appointment this week for my leg fitting at the malting was bloody canceled! That didn't make me smile! I had gee'd up to ask for a running blade and everything. I did bump into lovely Louise whilst I was there waiting for dad to come back and pick me up, so I told her I really want to run (as if it was my dream to be that active) and she was like. yes Kel, we'll get you running again in no time. Don't worry. YES! The seed has now definitely been planted, I will be running on a blade in no time!!

Alex, my OT, popped round to see me and I told her all about my new aim in life to be a para-olympian runner on my new trendy blade, I went on about it so much that I forgot to ask her about my driving! I had it written in my dairy - "RDAC - ASK ALEX OT ABOUT DRIVNG" Just like that, all in capitals, but no I forgot. I can't wait to be driving again! I will be up and down the M6 visiting people. I've got another meeting with Alex and Gerry, my phycologist people, so they'll be able to tell me there and then if my concentration and memory is now stable enough to drive. I personally think is it, but just like everything else, I'll have to wait and see what the "professionals" have to say on it.

I was meant to see Katie on Thursday, the OT lady who I normally go for a walk with, but I ended up, some how. going to Anna's nan's house for pasta. She does make the best pasta dishes though, this wonderful sicilian lady - "Cosi saporita!!!" I just googled that. ;)

So, Friday! I have in big bold letters with hearts and stars around it, " CHARLOTTE'S WEDDING!!!!" I didn't feel up to the social event with my mask and things on, so unfortunately I didn't make the big day! I did however send a very cute carved box with Mr & Mrs Hilton written on it for them to fill with lots of lovely memories :) She looked absolutely gorgeous and I'm gutted to have missed it all, all my love sent to the gorgeous couple!

Saturday nanny J came up to Tettenhall to see us and we all went out for a lovely meal in my new favourite restaurant The Cowshed. Its a place I went to with Margaret months ago and have said we should really go there. They all loved it too, so it was a good shout from me. I went back to Birmingham with Nan and went to sleep in my old bed. It was so lovely waking up in my old room this morning! :)

So, halfway through beginning this blog post, the lovely lady Michelle McCarthy came to see me, we did a little introduction video for her documentary with a few questions that she had written down for me to follow. My nan found a review from the police on the stage of events that night, so to begin with I just read from that. Then I delved into the injuries I have at the moment to deal with, the details on how my life has changed, the treatments that lay ahead of me and the future plans I had. It was all very interesting and I just nattered on, I don't see how any of it will be interesting to anyone else but hey. See how it goes, she's left me with a video camera to record different events that occur during my week. This will be like my video diary and will be edited to fit nicely in the documentary that will be aired for her Masters. It will be interesting to see it all at the end and will be nice for me to keep and follow my own progress with even more smiles on my face.

I'm currently reading my dairy on the events ahead of me next week sipping a little bit of red wine in my nanny's kitchen. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, seeing all of my girls in a get together over some nice grub in a new place in town, I've forgotten the name of it now. But anyway, I will be telling you all about my week and how my meal was. I have very little down for next week so my post next Sunday will probably be just a review on the meal I had Monday! :)

Peace be with you.
Amen x

Sunday Smile Sermon - 6th July

A massive thank you to all the people who brought me into Glastonbury in style! Thank you guys! 

As you may have noticed, last week I didn't mention Glastonbury at all, that was because it upset me to have been missing it, the first time I have ever missed it since I was like 16 or something, and of course last year when I was in hospital. So it was very upsetting. This is a sermon of the things that made me smile, and that wasn't one of them last week, so i didn't mention it. But now, I did get there in some way, my website has been graffitied all over the place! This made me smile!

What a glorious day, sat outside in the garden today having my breakfast. very lovely! Not so lovely was my return into the house for a spoonful of cocoanut oil! Yuk! It's suppose to be good for the brain so I thought I should start making it a daily spoon routine, God, it is hideous!

Anyway, that moan is out of the way, now onto my smiles for the week. Well Monday I woke up in my little bedroom at my Nanny & Granddad Durkin's. I had a lovely weekend with them, I enjoyed going to mass with them too, it was nice to see a few familiar faces from the parish.

So I gathered all my things up ready to go and nan kindly bandaged my leg a bit, I had a sore patch on it from grazing at the top of Leonard. I can not wait to get my new leg, where it is much easier to walk on and isn't rubbing into me, it will be a bit prettier too, hopefully, I think Leonard's being replaced with a new sexy lady leg, he will be so jealous! haha Granddad dropped me home once I was bandaged up and ready to hit the road.

On Tuesday, at 11am I went swimming with Anna. It was quite busy, loads of people there, some sitting outside in the sunshine. The sun shining in on the pool really made me feel like I was on holiday. I had a lovely chat with Matt Kirby, talked about a running blade, I'll be talking to my prosthesist next week about it.  I really want one! ASAP! I will go for a leisurely jog in the sunshine, with that leg and my healthy eating, my fitness will increase and I will be back to normal in no time!

So on Wednesday, with the running blade leg on my mimd, I tried to call The Maltings to talk to my prosthetist about it, no joys though, I will have to have some patience and just wait to talk face to face next week. Theres no stopping me there though, I emailed Ottobock about the new leg with a good knee. One that I saw on their Facebook page, I am constantly looking for improvements and I like having my mind set on things and then seeing them through. At 2pm I went swimming with Anna again, it's addictive after a while.

Thursday, Anna woke me up around 11ish, we went shopping in Waitrose, I got loads and loads of fish! :) With the weekly swimming and healthy eating I feel myself getting fitter and healthier day by day. We then had a lovely smoked mackerel dinner. Then at 2pm went swimming again! 

Spoke to a lovely girl Jemimah, who contacted me on FB, she messaged me saying;

"I am a journalist and write for women's magazines. I am looking for someone to put forward for the Cosmo Woman of the Year award, and your friend Meegan Walker mentioned you! I don't know anything about your story, but if you are interested you might be able to email me a little bit about yourself and then we can go from there? Many thanks! Jemimah"

I had a chat with her on the phone and she will be doing a piece about me in the mags. I'm looking 
forward to it, although Anna wasn't so eager. I think it's all very exciting, and with this along with the documentary I'll be doing for Michelle's Masters, and the book I will be starting to write soon, hopefully. I will be palling with the likes of Simon Cowell in no time hehe.

I'm joking, that's not my aim in life! I just want to get better and help anyone else out there, who may be down and who needs a smile on their face. If I can smile, then why shouldn't you. This is all very interesting and it will be good for me to have a look back at in a few years when I'm much better, just to see how far I have come and how well I have grown into my old self.

Friday, Anna and I left the house early in the morning to drive to Manchester and pick dad up from the airport. I had really missed him! Bearing in mind, a week feels like a year to me at the moment, for him to have been away for 3 weeks, it really has felt like 3 years since I'd seen him last. When we got home, Anna and I went for a lovely massage! :)

Saturday was a quite day, we went for a swim again, of course, but apart from that, it was pretty quiet. I have been playing on my iPad, doing the memory games and exercising that big muscle as well as the fitness and healthy eating, my brain is the most important muscle in my body and that needs plently of exercise too. There are loads of good memory games that my friend Lauren downloaded for me a while ago. I am getting into these daily now, although I am ridiculously competitive, even with myself, so I'm nearly at the Gold medal stage with most of the games now. I would love to download some more games, although I have to put Lauren's itunes password in to download them, and the woman is a workaholic! She is hardly ever free, if you are reading this, please get back to me woman! 

Fitness! GREAT! Swimming 3x this week, intend on doing the same next week too. Eating healthier, getting healthier, working all the muscles in my body. even the brain, with iPad games for memory fitness.

So that's my week, very busy with lots going on. Healthy eating, healthy living. Everything is improving and it can only do more so. Next week I will have seen my Prosthetist and nagged at him for a running blade, I will have seen Michelle and be given the documentary camera. I will have eaten 7 hideous spoonfuls of coconut oil, YUK! and eaten lots of fresh fish. That is my plan for the week. I'll let you know how I got on in my next sermon of smiles. Keep smiling people!

Peace be with… Amen.