Mrs McEnaney!

It's official, I am now a Mrs! lol

This is just a quick post cause I can't really be bothered to write about everything and post pictures yet, I will do that after honeymoon and, lets face it, probably after we move house!

We had a fantastic day, everyone has been commenting on how fun it was and how much they enjoyed themselves. We got a lovely day (it only rained at about 8pm when we were all inside) and the castle was absolutely beautiful. I didn't see how it was decorated until I walked down the aisle, but it really was more than I could have hoped for, thanks to our friend Deborah who did all the flowers and setting up of the castle.    

I was picked up in a 1947 Rolls Royce, previously owned by the Princess of Monaco (mad, I know), so the drive to the castle with my Dad, then on to the reception with James was extremely comfortable! Was practically a leather sofa on wheels lol.

I knew absolutely nothing about the piper we had (one of James' pupils from Arran :) ), and although I knew there was a car coming for me, I had no idea what it was. I also didn't know for certain what the first dance song was going to be...

The evening wasn't the traditional set up. We didn't have a table plan, we didn't have a 4 course dinner, we had about 130 dinner guests and they all heard the speeches and ate from a buffet of haggis, neeps and tatties or jambalaya (actually in most cases they had both). The speeches were absolutely fantastic, kept above the belt apart from 1 joke by the best man which had everyone in knots.

After that we cut the cake then had our first dance to John Martyn - Couldn't Love You More (utterly beautiful) which was performed by our friends Ciaran and Ian. The band (The Tatties) did an amazing job! I'm sure they enjoyed themselves too, and 2 members are our very good friends so that made it much more personal. They didn't play any Queen on James' request lol, but more soul and motown than they normally would. We also had another friend DJ for us, as we thought he did an amazing job at our engagement party.

It's been so nice to be able to pull friends in for jobs here and there, and I really don't think we could have done it without their generosity. My Aunt Rosemary made our cake as our wedding gift as well so that was excellent and looked great!

As I say, I'll post pictures another day, but I wanted to write something just now while it's more fresh. Our friend Sharon videoed the whole ceremony (which lasted 13 minutes btw!) and the speeches, as well as other parts of the day. She also drove James and her partner/best man to the ceremony lol.

I couldn't have asked for a better day. I danced my ass off, feeling like I might die off a few times in the process, and drank too much white wine. I was hungover yesterday and only started feeling better after a roll and sausage followed by a chinese, oh, and a sleep.

I'll report back after the honeymoon. We're off tomorrow night to stay at James' Nana and Papa's house as it's close to the airport, then Tuesday morning at 8.30 we fly to Tenerife South, before hopping on a ferry to La Gomera for 2 weeks! Woop!


PS not as quick a post as I thought, but not exactly an essay either! lol

Almost Mrs McEnaney

Tomorrow is my last day as Miss Ruth McDougall. By 3pm on Friday, I'll be known is Mrs Ruth Jay McEnaney. Weird!!!

Everything is all set. I have my beautiful dress, my bridesmaids are stunning as ever, and we're all beautified and ready to go. As is my mum, who is new to the world of spray tanning and visiting a salon in general lol. I think she's been enjoying being pampered though :) James' kilt is ready, as are the other guys' and I think they're all feeling ready now too. Although since yesterday, James has become quiet and is adament he isn't nervous...I think otherwise!

My hen weekend was great! We went to the Stirling Highland Hotel for a spa day, had a 3 course meal in the restaurant then out for cocktails in Stirling. We stayed over in the hotel and spent Sunday outside the castle then in a bar watching the tennis with more cocktails! I had a back massage and a manicure and felt very relaxed after about 3 hours in the spa pool. It was far too hot and made me struggle to breathe at times, but it was worth it lol. We were lucky to get there though, after my friend's brother managed to beach his car in my garden! Hard to explain, but he had completely blocked the driveway and couldn't move forward or backward. That was pretty stressful, but thankfully my neighbours were having work done and the guys came and jacked the car up about 5 times onto a pile of breeze-blocks so he could get out.


James and a couple of his friends went camping to Tighnabruich and had a great time! Came home stinking and knackered, as you would expect. He's having a BBQ tomorrow with all the guys, provided the rain stays away long enough. 


Speaking of rain, the forecast isn't great for Friday. Who'd have thought you'd have a washed out wedding in July....*ha*, but hopefully we'll get a window of dry to take some photos outside then we can get on with the party! Woo!


So, seen as it's my last time, I'm gonna sign out properly


Miss Ruth Jay McDougall  

Busy busy

I've been off my 3 months of orals now for about 3 weeks and have felt pretty crap since about 3 days of being off them. Lungs are not cooperating how I want them to and I've been tired to the point I've been bursting into tears over nothing and just generally being a bitch to be around. This hasn't been helped by the addition of crazy hormones, and it would appear I'm sliding over into "hormones make me feel soooooooooo much worse than normal" territory which I've managed to avoid in my chest so far. I'm used to it now with my tummy, but if I could've got away with sleeping constantly for 3 weeks there I would have.

However, I have so much to do that I'm just having to get on with it! Next week I have 3 ABRSM exams to accompany then the Arran high school show to do for 4 days, then back on the earliest ferry and straight into  teaching last lessons before my own pupils exams and then accompanying another 2 exams the next week. All that, and then the next week is hen do, and the following week is wedding bells!

I'm excited now. Yesterday, mum and I confirmed the hair appointments and all the stuff at the salon, like waxing, nails, possible tan, make up...the list goes on, but I STILL don't have my dress. Phoned the shop yesterday and they basically fobbed me off and told me they'll contact me when it's in. My personality doesn't do well with this, I want it to be in now and that's it. But mainly because I know I'm not here next week so that only gives me 3 weeks to do 3 fittings.

Anyway, what else is happening? Oh, we managed to organise a house on Arran, yay! We get back from our honeymoon on Tues 31st July, then move over there on Mon 6th August. I'm gonna need another holiday after it. That gives us about 1.5 weeks to try and get semi organised before James goes back to work. Role on October holidays.

I would imagine I won't be posting on here much in the next couple of months, but I'll try and update when I can, and when I can think of something to say. Hope everyone is doing well

All change!

I'll start with the biggest news, and most of you have already heard, but James got a permanent teaching position on Arran, so we are moving! AGAIN. How many times can 2 people move house, seriously, it's ridiculous. This will be the 4th move in 3 years. Nightmare, but hopefully we will be able to settle when we get there. A bit of concern over where we're going to live, and whether we will need to rent at first rather than go straight for a mortgage, and property on Arran is super expensive. A 2 bedroom ex council house would be under £100,000 anywhere else in Ayrshire, but on Arran you're talking £150,000.

Only 8.5 weeks til our wedding! Exciting.

Today I had another appointment with psychology. It was good, we always laugh our way through it, but really that's more me laughing out of nerves, but it's actually nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Today she actually put a name to what's going on - Generalised Anxiety (with obsessive-compulsive tendencies). Fun. Basically when my levels of anxiety are higher, my obsessive behaviours get worse, but they don't take over enough for it to be classed as obsessive compulsive disorder, and they don't necessarily happen every day. Next session will be interesting because she's going to talk me through mind games and techniques to help me cope when I can't get to my piano (as any time I feel myself starting to stress I go straight to the piano as a distraction).

Don't think I've got a whole lot more to talk about, so I'm off!

life in general

This is coming a little sooner than planned, but I've only slept about half an hour so far tonight (it's 3.45am) and can't see me getting back down any time soon.

So, James was home for 2 weeks over Easter break, which was great, we were really busy catching up with friends, organising wedding related stuff and trying to enjoy our time together. We went out for dinner to Ichiban and ate sushi etc which was lovely :) We ate takeaway a couple of times and just chilled out. House is  a complete disaster zone as a result but hey, who cares. On Tuesday we ended up getting through 2 bottles of wine by accident and I ended up crying for ages after trying to keep the emotions of the week under control.

I had my first appointment with clinical psychology last week. It went quite well I think, but I'm told I have a significant amount of stress in my life and I worry about so much at once, so I'm going back next week to chat about coping mechanisms. She thought I might only want to see her a couple of times, but you just never know what could come up, so I'm just taking it as it comes.

I gave in on Thursday and phoned CF team to be seen on Friday as I was knackered, in a bit of pain and just generally feeling pants. Lung function was down a fair bit, crackles, blah blah, you know the deal, so was sent to xray which was MOBBED and completely insane. There were people in gowns all over the place lol. Anyway, Dr said xray was much better than Feb, that the antibiotics for the pneumonia are obviously working. The inflammation has reduced but a whole bunch of "fluid" has taken it's place. My chest hurts a lot when I cough and keeps getting really tight and wheezy so I can't get the stuff out, so after a chat with physio we came up with a new routine and I might go and see them again this week. How I'm fitting this routine in twice a day (or lets face it, once and then a shorter session later on) I don't know!

So I need to work hard this week if I want to stay off IVs.

I feel this could start getting boring and my brain is switching off. I'm off to doss infront of Big Bang Theory again seen as my tummy won't let me sleep.

Hope everyone is keeping well x

Loss

After the loss of another friend this week, it's feeling a little more difficult than normal to stay positive. CF can really be a nasty piece of work at times. The feelings I wrote about in a previous post just come flooding back when the life of a friend ends. I suppose it's only human nature to want to suffer for your friends and family instead of watching them fight for their lives.

Alan Crowther, you will be sorely missed by so many. You have made such a big impact on peoples lives and we all feel proud to have known you. Breathe easy xxx





I'll post an update about me and life in general another day.

gone but not forgotten

This morning I attended the funeral of my good friend. After spending 4 months in hospital it all became too much for him, and after fighting so hard he passed away on the 31st March. It still feels somewhat surreal to me, even though I was there this morning and saw his body being put into the ground...it just feels like it's all happened far too quickly.

If anyone reads this, please do not say anything publicly on facebook about his death as that is not what he wanted. 

James Hunstone, 17th April 1979 - 31st March 2012. Breathe easy now xxx