Pretty Paper Tales

Hi

It's me...I'm back....

It's defiantly been a while since my last post and so much has happened in my life, some bad but mostly very good.

I must admit I haven't scrapped a page in about a year, I can't believe it has been that long. Here's why....

Last June we decided we wanted to move house, we have been putting it off since 2005, I had moved into Martin's house when we got Married and we wanted something that we both could chose together.

Then came the mammoth job of cleaning out and boxing up years worth of clutter, then decorating the house just to make it presentable to put on the market - this took us till October!

We then put the house on the market and stated to look at properties to buy. We must have viewed 40+ houses, with only 2 that we actually liked. Meanwhile our house was having no viewings at all.

In November we decided to drop the asking price by £5,000 which seemed to have the desired effect as we had an offer that day, but it was another £10,000 below the asking price so we declined. We then had a few property developers come to view the house but as it was getting into December so the market was very quite.

After searching 'Find a property.com' every day for months, our dream home finally appeared. We called the agent to set up a viewing for the Saturday and as soon as we walked in to door we knew it was the house for us. Three big bedrooms (a craft room for me), a big living room, a lovely sunny conservatory, a big garden, a garage for Martin and a drive way. We fell in love, but with our house still not sold we were sure we would miss out.

At the same time as all this my Dad had been suffering with a sore mouth that wouldn't heal up, we thought he must be biting it in his sleep, so he went to the dentist, who referred him to the hospital to see if his bite was off. He went to the hospital in early December, and was told he needed a biopsy done, we were all in shock as we thought it was just his bite. After the biopsy and a hell of a week waiting for the results we were told the worst news, he had oral Cancer.

He was told it was operable and he would have the operation on 28th December, to remove the Cancer and also take away his saliva gland (to make sure it hadn't spread). Luckily after a MRI and CAT scans it hadn't spread to any other parts of his body. So he was very lucky it had been picked up so quickly.

So you can imagine it was a very strange Christmas with his operation hanging over us. The only fantastic news was that my Sister and Brother-in-law told us they were 2 months pregnant. So Christmas went by and it was operation time. My Mum, Sister and I went to the hospital to wait for him. It was one of the worst days ever, the stress and worry level was so high. We waited from 7am until 5pm without any news then finally he was brought back to the ward. It was horrible to see him looking so small in a big hospital bed with tubes everywhere. He put me at ease when I blew him a kiss and he blew me one back, I knew he must be OK. He started to recover very quickly and the Dr said they had managed to get it all and it had not spread. so after 10 days was aloud home. He would need to start 6 weeks of radiotherapy but that wasn't for 2 months.

So after all the horrible news of December, January brought more viewings and finally an acceptable offer on our house so we had a second viewing on our dream house, we couldn't believe our lucky that is was still available.We put in a very reasonable offer (top of our budget) which was declined so was decided to wait and see if they would change their mind. Then on Martin's Birthday at 9am we had a call they had looked at a house they liked and would now be able to accept our offer - we were over the moon.

My Dad was getting better every day, the only set back was his cheek did go very tight and he wasn't able to open it very wide so his Dr said he would need another operation to fix it with a skin graft but that wouldn't be until after his radiotherapy. During his time off work we got to spend loads of time together during the day as I don't work, so that was lovely. On 3rd March he started his radiotherapy, and I went with him. It's so weird to visit a cancer unit, you just don't realise how this disease affects so many people, of so many ages it was a real eye-opener and made me so grateful that he was now Cancer free.

Our house sale and purchase were in the hands of the lawyers and all going well but very slowly. My Sister found out she is having a boy - to be called Jake on 16th August.

In April my Dad finish radiotherapy, and in May had his next operation this was only an over night stay but left him with a scar as they had to take a piece of skin from his face to put in his mouth, but all in all a very small price to pay to beat Cancer.

On the 15th June, we finally exchanged contracts on the houses and moving day was set for 29th June. Then came the panic to pack up the last bits and get everything ready.

So that brings us up to date, here I am sitting in my lovely new garden in the sunshine, still with boxes all around me, but so happy.

I finally have to craft room I have always dreamed of (just need to re-decorate and fit it out) I have a nephew due in a few weeks and a Baby shower to host next weekend so I better stop typing and start unpacking.

Thanks for reading about my year, and hopefully some new pages very soon. I have a lot to scrap.......