A week ago Saturday I was really excited to have my mum coming to visit and stay for a whole week.  With my family living 250 miles away, we don’t get many opportunities to see each other and when we do it’s usually only for a couple of days.  I picked her up off the train with Miss M and Mister B who were really excited to see their Nanny and greeted her little basket of flowers.

The next day being Mother’s day, we visited our local Prezzo restaurant for lunch – always a favourite with us, where Mum and I were given a complimentary glass of Prosecco on top of the bottle of wine we had just ordered – not that I’m complaining of course!!  We also managed a quick photo opportunity – the perfect shot for Mother’s day with three generations together.

Miss M couldn’t wait for dessert to get her bambinocino – the little teacup full of frothy milk, sprinkled with chocolate and Mister B couldn’t wait to get stuck into his chocolate ice cream.  We went for a short walk outside after but the wind became very bitter and icy that we soon headed home to relax.

The next day was my birthday and having taken the day off work, I got to spend a relaxing day with my mum, meeting a friend for lunch and then off home to spend the evening with my children.  My dear Miss M had sneaked to the shops with Nanny the day before and chosen me a gorgeous sparkly fairy birthday cake – bless her!!  And for my work colleagues I baked some chocolate cupcakes with some pink swirly icing, plus a few extra for us – yummy!

That evening while sat on the sofa our cat Twinkle curled up beside us and as she rolled on her back we noticed a large opening on her stomach – almost like a large ulcerated patch which looked very sore and weepy.  The next morning I took her straight to the vets only to be given the dreaded news that she has a large tumour and required surgery the next day!!!  Arghh – my poor baby!!  I left her in the capable hands of the vets and waited patiently until the following day.

The next day I found out the tumour was malignant and the cancer was worse than expected but they had removed as much as they could and we can only wait and see what the future holds.  At the same time we also took the opportunity to have her thyroid removed as she was currently on medication for this that we were finding hard to administer.  I went and visited Twinkle and she looked well considering although it was heartbreaking to see an enormous scar down the entire length of her stomach.  Due to a drain being attached to remove fluid she needed to be kept in a cage so we felt it best to leave her at the vets until the drain was removed especially with us being away from home at the weekend.

On Friday Miss M came home from school with the Head Teacher’s Award certificate for “Excellent reading and writing”.  We were so proud of her and she was so thrilled to be given it.  I’m sure all the phonics e-books we’ve been practising at home have helped!

On Sunday we had to travel the 250 mile trip back to my hometown for the sad event of my Nanna’s funeral.  Having lost all four grandparents in the last 3 and half years, it has been pretty tough going and with this being the last it really is the end of an era and I can see the dynamics of the wider family changing.  It’s poor Miss M’s 4th funeral and she only turned 5 in January although I have to say that both Miss M and Mister B were impeccably behaved during the service and Miss M even shed a few tears – bless her!!

On returning home late Monday night having travelling straight from the wake, we were all very tired.  Poor Miss M woke in the night having been quite ill in her bed – poor thing.  I put it down to the constantly snacking throughout the journey and she seems ok since.

Tuesday morning I had just dropped Miss M at school when my mobile rang.  It was the vet, who explained that although he has removed the drain, poor Twinkle is still weeping a fair bit from her wound so it is best to leave her with them for a couple more days.

I hope to visit and bring Twinkle home again tomorrow, I’ve missed her and look forward to giving her lots of cuddles for the forseeable future. xx