Holidays!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Kielder Forest for a few days with some great friends and kids. We went last year and had an amazing few days and looking forward to doing it again with a slightly different bunch to last time. Thanks to Kerryanne for posting links to her blog I decided it was time to resurrect my blog properly! So much has happened since last year. J lost his PCV licence and is now on a car licence renewed annually due to medical reasons so that meant he lost his job driving the buses. After a few months of work with them again in the summer selling tickets ended up unemployed again in August. After a lot of talking he decided to go to college to retrain as an electrician. That means with neither of us working we're totally skint. Sold the car last month, we decided it was now a luxury we couldn't afford any longer. On the upside, I've already lost 4lb and we are all fitter! We both applied for jobs last year and got nowhere. After a few months there weren't even any jobs going to apply for. I tried again before Christmas and got one interview but with J at college trying to sort out childcare around me working and him studying was going to be a ballache. Almost impossible to get anyone to have an almost 17 year old who can't stay home alone for very long. We do get direct payments to help get a carer for R but it's only 3 hours a week so that wouldn't go far. I decided that I'd look at going back to education - last schooling was GCSE's in 1988! I've signed up with the OU to take a level 1 certificate in Health and Social Care starting in October. It could lead to a degree in the long term or I may do this one and maybe a level 2 and then get a job, who knows. E finally made up her mind what she wants to do, she finishes college in a couple of months. After much dithering about doing nursing she decided she wants to do that but not work in a hospital so she applied to Learning Disability degree courses at a few uni's. She got an offer from Northampton and provided she gets the grades she needs she'll be heading 4 hours away in September!! So proud of my big girl :D R is finally settled in post 16 at her school. Took a bit of settling in but she's blossomed so much lately and really grown up. Still often hard work mentally with repeating questions and so on but she's lovely. Her school is moving the 14 to 19 students to a new building on the site of a local secondary school in September and she's been involved in a joint project with that school and her classmates that has gone really well. After lots of teamwork exercises and lots of talking about potential problems they had a weekend away at Brathy. She's now been invited to the other school's school council meeting as a representative of her school to give a presentation! J is pretty good - I think. Ups and downs are pretty much daily and sometimes hourly but he isn't worrying me too much lately. He has closed windows quickly a couple of times when I've come into a room so I guess he's been web browsing things he'd rather I didn't see but it's not ongoing. Just wish he'd be more open if he's pondering and searching for stuff. At long last we are getting long term support. He has had a social worker for a few months and through him I now have a carer support working from Making Space who drops in often for a cuppa and chat. They also organise carer get togethers for people caring for someone with mental illnesses which is lovely. No need to explain things when you get chatting! I also got a carers grant which almost paid for a years membership of a local hotel gym and pool which I started last week. Here's hoping with all the walking, swimming and going to the gym there'll be less of me by the end of the year. I've lost 2 stone since J was in hospital. My size 24 jeans were tight and last week I bought a pair of size 20 straight jeans and they fit! I don't even have to undo them after eating and when sitting down! Time to wander off to bed I think, up earlyish tomorrow to go into town to pick up a hire car for our holiday and buy S some new trainers.