birthday, bots and a bad back

Today is my 44th birthday.  Evan has decided to celebrate it for me by travelling to Queensland and

having a rip roaring time at Dream World and White Water World theme parks.  I wont actually get to see him at all on my birthday.  Yesterday I handed him his spending money and sent him on his way to his mates place for a sleep over. Before he left he handed me a birthday present which I unwrapped.  It was a gorgeous purple necklace and matching earrings. 

I started the day in bed with a sleep in, can't complain about that.  Steve boiled eggs for breakfast and I made soy decaf ccinos for us.   Then we decided to hit up the beach for a walk with Ellie and the dog.  That was when the day started to take it's own course and not go according to plan.  On the way to the beach Ellie fell asleep in the car, thus skuttling the walk idea.  We still decided to drive onto the beach but decided to just hang around a short time to give the dog a bit of a run.  I figured that I would do a bit of yoga by the car to compensate for the walk.  I did a few rounds of salute the sun and a few warrior poses, not much really.   It's about as much as I get done at home when I get the notion to engage in a spot of yoga.  I am always full of good intentions, but struggle to find much time to devote to its regular practise.

There seemed little sense hanging around for too long and ruining our baby free time, so we jumped back in the car and headed home, via a quick stop at Coles.  I needed to pick up some Lucozade for Harry as he had been vomiting and suffering the runs for two days.  For all of its amazing claims on the front of the bottle: "isotonic performance fuel"; "Electrolyte drink"; "hydrates, refuels and restores better than water"; I was expecting the ingredient list to be slightly more exciting than what was essentially just sugar and water, glorified cordial, really.  Water, dextrose, maltodextrose, glucose syrup, acidity regulators (330,331), antioxidant (300), stabiliser (414), sweetener (955), colour (160a).  We had been the house of pestilence for a few days now.  Evan had a day off school on Monday, feeling very tired and sickly.  We blamed Sarah for bringing a cold home last week.  On Tuesday I came down with it and was extremely tired and achy all over.  I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday in bed.  Today I was finally starting to feel slightly better.....

Once we got home Steve set to making my delicious birthday cake and I decided to go shopping with Ellie. Mainly to get Ellie out of Steve's way so that he could perform his magic in the kitchen, but also because my parents in law Pat and Eric had sent me a gift voucher for Dymocks as a birthday present.  I figured now would be a pretty good time to go and choose myself a book.  When I arrived at the Plaza I parked the car in one of the furtherest parking spots with the intention of getting at least a little bit exercise seeing as I'd missed out on the beach walk.  I pushed Ellie in the pram to Dymocks and we went straight to the kids section.  There was a group of three little kiddie couches that I knew Ellie would just love.  So I unclipped her from the pram and lifted her out only to feel my back go ping.  Ouch.  I placed her on the floor and she immediately sat on the couches, lounging back and looking very pleased with herself.

Meanwhile  I was in great pain.  Any movement was causing twinges, so I sat on the floor with her for a while before I managed to coax her back into the pram.  Walking around the Plaza was quite uncomfortable, but I was hoping if I walked around for a bit it would soon ease.  I visited Woollies and Big W but the pain was not improving.  So I returned to the car, all the way over on the far side of the car park.

Sarah, Harry and Steve gave me their pressies when I arrived home.  A handbag from Sarah, a wallet from Steve and a book from Harry.  Harry's was accompanied by a beautiful poem:

Dear blossoming mother,

 

whose beautiful, green eyes

spark with love,

 

As flowers sprout so do you,

 

All the love in the world cannot

compare to yours,

 

So this is why we love you.

 

Very beautiful and touching, I just wish I wasn't in so much pain to enjoy it.  Who would have thought that a slight bend and twist that I do numerous times a day could inflict so much pain?  It left me feeling 104 instead of 44 and necessitated me spending the rest of the day and night trying to find a comfortable position in which to rest.  Sitting seemed to be the least comfortable, standing slightly less, and laying on my back the best, but only if I didn't need to move or get up.

 

We had take away Indian for dinner.  We were going to try out the new Ethiopian restaurant that had recently opened.  It reminded me of days back in Canberra when Steve and I were dating.  There was an Ethiopian restaurant that we went to a few times in Civic.  You had no utensils so had to eat with your hand (can't remember now if it was right or left).  With absent and sick children we thought we'd leave that experience for another day.  The Indian food was delicious and was only surpassed by the amazing love heart cake that Steve made for me.

Chocolate and Orange cake with syrup and dairy free ganache

 

I was very spoilt and well cared for by my gorgeous family and it would have been a wonderful day if I hadn't been rendered almost incapacitated by my back.  I even managed to rid myself of all my Evony accounts, so am officially free of the game.  Now that is an excellent feeling.  After about 3 years straight I can now turn off my laptops and rest them when they are not in use.  Before this they had been running bots for 24 hours a day seven days a week.  What a relief to not have to do that anymore.  Yippee, a very good birthday present to myself, no more Evony. YAY.