Well, after my brilliant 6am start last Monday there has been no running since.  No excuses other than laziness I'm afraid.  On Tuesday last week Nick and I got dressed up in our finery and went off to Edinburgh to have a cup of tea with the Queen....and a few thousand other people.  We had a lovely time and the weather stayed kind to us whilst we enjoyed our cucumber sandwiches, salmon blinis and delightful petit fours.  The one downside was that we were not allowed to take any photographs so it will just be a memory for us and  not one we can share with you. 

The rest of the week was spent doing very little until Friday when I found myself back at Ninewells Hospital....thankfully not for me this time though, Nick had been having a 'sports day' at work when I got a call around 4pm to say he had hurt himself (no drama - not badly) and could I go and collect him from the hospital.  Turns out he had been playing dodgeball - badly I assume -  and had dislocated his pinkie so had to go for xrays and to have it put back in its correct position.   

On Saturday Lily was very excited as Emily was arriving with her mum and aunt, their flight was delayed due to bad weather in the US so they finally got to us around 4pm and it was like the two girls had never been apart.  Very sweet.

Colleen, Emily and Wanda

On Sunday we had a sightseeing tour of St Andrews and then went out to Zizzi's for a delicious dinner before walking home via the Lade Braes.
All too soon it was Monday and Nick was back to work and Colleen, Emily and Wanda said their goodbyes and set off on a whirlwind tour of the UK.  The beds are stripped yet again but there's no rush to make them up again just yet.  Tom, Lily and I are having a restful day and then will host our Texan cousins tomorrow for the day.

Well I have finally had my final blood test and my results showed my hcg levels back down to 1 so that's good news. It's funny to think I could have been sitting here nearly 14 weeks pregnant.
Scary thought.
I managed out running 3 times last week and whilst I'm not going to be winning any races anytime soon at least I am back out there.
Nick was down at Waddington from Friday until Sunday evening for the Waddington Airshow and Tom & Lily finished school for summer on Friday.
We had a fairly relaxed Saturday and spent Sunday at the beach with Angela, Amber & Daisy. It was a glorious day, the beach was very busy and we all had a great day out, unfortunately it was spoiled slightly for Ang & Amber by getting sunburnt. Ouch.
So today is the first official day of the school holidays - no making of packed lunches for me, thank goodness. Instead I got up extra early, 6am, and went for a run before Nick went off to work. A good start, hopefully I can keep it up throughout the summer.

On TuesdayI went back to Ninewells for my final blood test but alas my hormone levels had still not returned to below 5 and were at 20 so I have to go back again this Wednesday which will be exactly 7 weeks after my operation so fingers crossed it will be my final visit this time round.
On Wednesday Craig, Bernice and Christopher arrived for their visit and luckily the weather stayed kind for them too. Craig & Nick managed a round of golf on Thursday while Bernice, Christopher and I mooched around town doing the sights (again!) Then we met up with the boys for lunch.
On Friday the Stallards left around 8am to go north for a bit of a tour around Scotland and I'm pleased to say it looks like the weather has held for them. I was in school all morning helping out with the cycling proficiency test and then came home in time for lunch and a relax on the couch for the rest of the day.
I did a bit of gardening on Saturday (which was long overdue - we have the untidiest garden in the street - but then we are one of the few houses without a gardener!) while Nick was in work overseeing stuff about the Armed Forces Day and then today we went out for lunch since it was our anniversary and we had a £25 voucher for The Rule which I had won at the school fair a couple of weeks ago.

I'm all caught up with the washing and the beds are all made up for our next set of guests, who thankfully don't arrive for a couple of weeks so I have time to fully recharge before it starts all over again.

JoAn & Molly arrived safely on Friday night so on Saturday it was a sightseeing tour around St Andrews. We started off with coffee and cake up at the Castle Course for the panoramic views - unfortunately the weather was awful so the view was too. After that we drove into town and parked by the golf course and walked along the Scores. We visited the Museum, the castle and the cathedral and climbed St Rule's Tower. After all that walking and climbing it was time for an ice cream at Janetta's before commencing our tour round and about the town centre including visits to shops for some retail therapy.
JoAn & Molly took Tom & Lily out for dinner at Pizza Express later on whilst Nick & I went to the Fairmont Hotel for the Midsummer Ball with Ailsa & Andy Primmer and some other friends. After a champagne reception we went through to dinner and as it was a fundraiser there were envelopes on the tables to put your donations in. So we duly did this then put our envelope in the big one in the middle of the table and propped it up and continued chatting away until we were interupted by the smell of smoke - yes I had managed to set fire to the envelope, luckily we managed to salvage our envelope but the big one had a large hole in it so had to go in the bin. You can see the charred top corner and water in the top right corner below. So that was a good way to

break the ice at our table. From there on in we had a great time, the food was delicious, the wine was flowing and the auction was a great success, sadly we didn't win anything and I had a fairly impressive hangover on Sunday. To make it better we all went out for morning coffee and bacon butties and then had a round of golf on the Himalayas putting green.

It was a beautiful day and helped blow away the cobwebs.

We went over to the Swilken Bridge afterwards for a classic photo and I think that's the first time I have ever stood on the bridge in all the years we have lived here.

All too soon it was Monday and the bedding has been washed and is outside drying, the towels are in the machine at the moment, the girls have gone back through to Edinburgh and I am turning the house around in time for our next batch of visitors arriving on Wednesday.

Once again we haven't been up to much recently so not a great deal to write about. One weird thing happened last week though. The Dr who was on call when I was in hospital phoned me up last Thursday and asked me to do a pregnancy test as she hadn't had the pathology or maybe it was histology results ( i forget) back yet. So I did a test and it shows up pregnant. So of course all sorts of things go through my head and I'm now thinking it might be nice to have another baby after all. Of course when I go back to the Early Pregnancy Unit on Tuesday and give blood they do another ultrasound and there's definitely no baby hiding anywhere but I still have raised pregnancy hormones so have to go back yet again next week for another blood test to make sure they are down to normal not pregnant state otherwise it might mean I need to have some sort of small investigative surgery to see what the heck is going on in there. So my hormones are all shot to pieces at the moment and I'm a bit fed up with it all.
On a happier note the weather has been lovely all week and I have friends arriving tomorrow for the weekend. Joan Adams is arriving, along with her cousin Molly. They have been sightseeing in Edinburgh all week and are coming to us tomorrow just in time for the weather to turn wet and altogether less conducive to taking in the beautiful sights of St Andrews. I have been busy cleaning and tidying the house up (which lets face it, really needed it) but haven't managed to tidy the garden up quite so well, it's still a bit of a mess. oh well, we can't be perfect all the time can we?

I've been taking it easy the last couple of weeks so there's not a great deal to report really. On Monday I drove a few of us girlies round to Emma's for a girly night in. I ended up announcing it was time to go home at around 1am. So Tuesday I was understandably shattered. I can only imagine how the drinkers with small children felt like. Then on Wednesday it was book club and I was driving again and decided home time was a slightly more civilised 1130pm.
On Thursday it was the Scottish final of the K'Nex challenge which Tom and Rachel were in so it was an early start as we had to drive to Haddington for 10am. We had a great day out but

didn't come back with the winning trophy. The grand final was to be held in London (all expenses paid) so it was a bit disappointing not to get through. 2 teams out of 52 got chosen to go through so they did very well to get this far.

Nick has been a bit under the weather this week coming home at the unheard of time of 6pm on Wednesday and going straight to bed and then Thursday & Friday he got home around 7pm and had a bite to eat and was in bed for 730pm both nights. He seems a lot better now but it looks like Lily might be coming down with whatever it was.
We had Greg round yesterday for the day and today we went out for lunch and a walk along the beach. The walk got cut very short however, because it was so blooming windy again. We had a lovely lunch at The Russel Hotel on The Scores. I recommend the lasagne.

This is my pavlova that I made yesterday, it was delicious and there is a slice leftover in the fridge which I may have to share with my dear husband - luckily it is a fairly generous slice.

On Saturday 30th after Tom had finished up with Space Camp for the day we headed off up the A9 for a couple of nights away at Feshiebridge. We arrived a couple of hours later only to discover someone was in our room! So after a bit of confusion the warden at Feshiebridge invited us to stay at his self catered accommodation instead. Luckily it was just about a half mile further along the road and was lovely. http://www.tigh-tuithe.co.uk/ in case you are interested. So with the bags unpacked it was time for dinner which involved a barbecue so Lily & I left it to the men to get on with that while we sorted out the rolls, salad etc.
On Sunday we went off for a slap up breakfast in Aviemore before arriving at Landmark for a day of outdoor activities which included water slides and high rope walking. After all that it was time for a more genteel activity

and so we visited the Frank Bruce Sculpture Walk on the way back to our cottage and had a pleasant stroll around that - although some of the sculptures were a bit creepy.

Monday dawned and it was yet another beautiful day. Unfortunately it was so nice we had to cancel the sailing that we had planned and just go kayaking instead.

All to soon it was time for home and back to the daily routine of school and work. Well for a couple of days anyway. The children had Thursday off school due to the elections and then Tom stayed off on Friday after his cough had returned with a vengeance (something to do with swimming in the loch in Scotland in April/May and not listening to his sensible mummy). We're not in Bama now boy.

Mum & Dad came up for the weekend and on Saturday I went out for a 7 mile run before breakfast and was then knackered for the rest of the day. Later on Dad & Nick went for a round of golf and then a drink at the R&A afterwards while we went to Cambo for the Tulip Festival and a walk down to the beach. Then on Sunday we pottered around, Nick watched a Wolves match on the telly and we prepared lunch - Mum & Dad were finally going to stay for lunch but as soon as the meal was over they shot off back home at speed!!

Dad had brought some tomato plants up for me so he had planted them in the greenhouse for me now I just need to look after them carefully.

I had been complaining of stomach pains all weekend and my mum had been out and bought me laxatives as we all thought it was just a bit of wind (albeit quite severe wind pains) or constipation. Anyway I was still sore on Monday and Tom was still coughing away so he stayed off school again and we both moped around the house all day. I realised I needed to go to the dr's so managed to get an appointment around 4pm so trotted off there and got more laxatives and an anti spasmodic for the stomach crampy pains. Tom went back to school on Tuesday, I went to work but was still a bit sore and unable to laugh properly or walk at my normal pace. So Tuesday night I start to google on the computer and come across a website for 10 signs of an ectopic pregnancy and they seemed to fit in with my symptoms so I shot off to Morrisons and bought a pregnancy test. Wednesday morning dawned and with it a positive pregnancy test result. Yes, that was the first shocker of the day. Phoned the docs and got back to see another dr and she did another test and then phoned the hospital. I was going in at 12.15 for a scan. Drove over to see Nick at work to update him on what was happening - I have never seen him look so shocked in all my life.

So to cut a long story short 7 hours later I was going into theatre to have an emergency operation. Turns out I was 6 weeks pregnant and it was in my left fallopian tube and had already started to bleed out when I went for my op so I was really lucky that we caught it before it became a really scary emergency. Now I am home being well looked after by my lovely husband. Ironically I do now appear to be constipated though :)