Happy New Year to each & everyone of you x

Well, it's nearly the end of this year and the start of the next, cant wait. I've got a feeling it's going to be a very happy, healthy and productive year for me & mine, roll on 2012.!!???!!
2011 had many low points for me and my family, along with massive high ones too. There didn't seem to be any middle ground all year. Just as I wanted to give up because things where getting too hard, something good happened and it restored my faith in humanity once again. The low points all involved my baby boy, Christopher, who's 10. It all started before Christmas last year with tests on his congenital heart defect to see if his next heart operation was within sight. Then after Christmas there were more tests on his heart followed with the devastating news that we'd been waiting for for 9 years, he needed more surgery. He was then placed on his surgeons waiting list. On the 13th July 2011, Chris, Millie, Alex, Christopher and myself set off to Alder Hey Children's Hospital at 6am, as Christopher was the first and only surgery case of the day as his operation was going to take roughly 6 hours. We all kissed him off at the theatre doors just before 9am not knowing that for the next 6 weeks he would struggle with one complication after another and we would nearly lose him on a few occasions, bless, the thought of what he went through still haunts me and makes me cry. He went to theatre 6 times in 6 weeks, it was heart wrenching seeing my baby struggling to cling onto life and all I could do was watch. In the end we stayed at Alder Hey for 6 immensely stressful weeks, the only things that got Christopher and myself through was the love and support from our family and friends. I thank you from the bottom of our hearts and I will never forget, you all know who you are. That had to be the lowest time of our lives along with finding out about Christopher's serious heart condition at 32 weeks pregnant all those years ago.    
We go back to Alder Hey for more tests at the end of January and hopefully they will reduce some more of the drugs he's taking. Christopher is doing really well at the moment and getting fitter week by week. He's back at school but not back to doing all his hobbies yet and he still gets very tiered out. It's amazing to think things could have been so different. With all he went through in those six weeks it is a miracle he's pulled through and lives to tell the tale, oh and show off all his war wounds too lol.!!!!
All the high points of 2011 also included all our children. Millie, 15, is steaming ahead with her discus and her first competition of 2012 is in May and it's at the Olympic Village in London, very exiting stuff. Her coach tells us that her current distance puts her 2nd in the country in her category!!!! , amazing since she's only  been doing it less than a year, she now has to train at Wigan Harriers twice a week from January. I'm one very proud Mummy, she's so inspirational.
Then there's our Alex, 14, she's been picked to play and train for the Lancashire Girls Golf Team, she's also astounding her Daddy and me. She now has a lower handicap than her Dad  hahaha, it's a family joke!
I also had more surgery earlier in the year. I had a thigh lift to remove the hanging extra skin I had around my thighs after losing 14 stone in weight. The operation then left me with numerous infections in the scar tissue. I needed to go back to hospital a few times for extra treatment and intravenous antibiotics. On one occasion,  I had to stay in for a week and it was Millie's birthday and I missed it, I was gutted. I hate letting my family down but there was nothing I could do about it as I was very poorly and running a temp of 39.6!!!!
The exciting stuff about 2011 for me involved getting about doing lots of media thingy's and my charity/fundraising work, that will carry on throughout next year, doing even more!!!?  As for the moment, I'm homing in on my fitness and running abilities, as it will soon be April and that's when me and my hunk of hoo, Chris, are competing in the London Marathon for my charity, Ronald McDonald House Charities. So over Christmas I've still kept my running and spinning up, as my goal for January is to drop a stone in weight, run for an hour everyday apart from Saturdays with a 10 - 15 miler every Sunday !!??!! My goal is to run the whole 26.2 miles of the London Marathon without stopping and in under 6 hours- I'm hoping!!??!!??  That's an hour for every week we stayed in Alder Hey with Christopher over the summer.
There's only a few hours to go until 2012, so I'd better start getting ready, as we're taking the kids to the pictures then it's early to bed, then early to raise with an early morning jog on over the tops of Longridge past the Golf Club ?? That should set us up for 2012??. 'HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE' fingers crossed it's a great year for us all. Also, a big thank you to all my chocolate brownie customers, old & new for helping me build my business up over the last 2 years. I had the best Christmas sales to date with some new corporate orders too, i really do appreciate you all. My motto  for the year is - 'KEEP FIT-KEEP HAPPY', you can have your cake & eat it! ♥ Just ♥ x

It's Christmassssssssassssssss!

Well the big day is nearly upon us and i'm getting very, very exited indeedy!!!. I feel really bubbly inside and I keep shouting at my children 'it's Christmasssssssssss' lol. I just love it!
In last weekends Sunday Times, Michael Winner mentioned me and my famous chocolate brownies and raved about them again, bless, he just cant seem to get enough of my brownies. We're still in contact quite regularly with phone calls and e-mails, he likes to catch up on news about the children and how little Christoper is getting on post-op. I think Uncle Winner's a big softy deep down, bless.
I've been totally over indulging this past weekend, we've had 2 Christmas do's to go to and you cant not treat yourself every now and  again, can you!!?? So today I've been to the gym and ran for an hour on the treadmill, in between baking my Christmas brownie orders. It's the last day tomorrow for sending brownies through the post, but I'll still be delivering locally up until Christmas Eve, then we're all off to the Trafford Centre to shop, shop and shop. I just love the Trafford Centre, it's such a top place and has everything under one roof, bonus! We always give our children a Christmas Eve present, just like my Mummy & Daddy use to do. But this year now they're a little older we've decided to give them some money in a stocking and we've called it 'just for fun', so when we go shopping that day they'll have money to treat themselves along with Christmas money from my Mum & Dad. My Millie is already planing to head straight to that shop Holister, the one that's pitch black and you cant see the clothes or prices, kids eh!
It was my hunk of hoo's birthday at the weekend too. I certainly spoilt him lol! He loved all his presents especial the strawberry pavlova I made for him instead of a cake. Top tip- after you've whipped the double cream to fill the pavlova with, add 3 crushed up crunchie bars and mix in, wow it makes such a fabulous addition to the cream, it works so well, then top with strawberries and a crushed Cadbury's flake, so easy!
Well, off to Wigan with Millie now for her discus training with Wigan Harriers. We've just got her Para-Sports fixture list for next year and in May she has a competition at the Olympic Park in London, wow we're very exited. There's a possibility that if she throws very well that day, she might make Team GB for 2012 hahaha, I can't contain myself, more exited than Millie herself, must be my age.  ♥

Christmas is a coming and this bird aint getting fat!

Well just got back from the gym. Done 1 hour 10 minutes on the treadmill and I didn't fall off once, result! I am proper lethal on those things but now that the weather Up North is pretty rank I'm finding the only way I can run is at the gym, I know it's a complete cop out. I am finding it a lot easier than road running though. Anyways April will soon be here and I'm setting my goal for the London Marathon to run the whole 26 miles without stopping, eeeeek! If you knew me you'd understand that I'm no gym freak or a natural athlete, I can take exercise or leave it but I do know it is the way to a healthy lifestyle and it also helps to keep my weight down. I'll always be a re-covering foodaholic after losing 14 stone in weight nearly 2 years ago now. These days I do understand my body and how to maintain my weight/health because believe me it's only half the battle losing the weight, one of the hardest things is keeping it off, that's why so many people regain the weight they lose after 'dieting'. If anyone is reading this and interested in losing weight and getting fit, my advice would be to choice an activity that you enjoy, half an hour 6 times a week, building up to an hour. When I first started losing my weight I would go for a long walk nearly everyday, in fact that was my chosen activity and I lost 10 stone by just walking and cutting down on what I ate. I didn't join a gym or do any other exercise, so it can be done and it doesn't have to cost anything. Get some tunes on your headphones and lose yourself in your music. I've found it's become my escapism and it also helps me mentally with life's day to day problems. It's my 'ME TIME' and now instead of it being a chore I love it and miss it when I cant.

'It's Christmasssssssssss'

well haven't I been lazy lately, hmmmmmmmm maybe too busy to blog more like.
Best early Crimbo pressy we all had was Christopher had a heart M.O.T back at Alder Hey last week and his consultant was really pleased with him, he's off one of his drugs and hopefully early next year they will drop another and then he'll not need to got back to hospital every week, fingers crossed.
Well Great North Run done & dusted, now onto the London Marathon in April 2012. Just got our places through our charity Ronald McDonald House Charities, training has begun, eeeek!
Just finished and sent my first corporate Chocolate Brownie order of the season, I couldn't sleep the night before, but it all went off well. If anyone's interested my website to order from is:-  http://www.browniesbyjustineforrest.com/ they make excellent presents and are also good for a family treat.
Well all the decorations are up in the Forrest Home and the children are starting to get very exited indeedy. We still have one believer among them which is our ickle Christopher who's 10. I think he might know but isn't letting on because he's unsure lol, very funny. He's always asking me Santa related questions, bless!
Today I've just decorated our Christmas cake which looks fab, I've been feeding it with rum since October so I'm hoping it has a kick when we finally eat it, which will probably be around February because there's always so much to eat at Christmas our cake always seems to get left till last, i dont mind because it does look pretty standing on our kitchen top.
I've also been busy between baking brownies, looking after the family and doing a few interesting promotional thingys. One of them is going to be printed in Chat Magazine coming out on 28th December, I have a feature article which I really enjoyed doing.
Well here's to another very busy brownie baking week and I promise I will keep up with my blogs from now on.