The miserable one's mum was told her cancer was terminal last week, the miserable one is being his usual non-communicative self, I know he's upset but I can't help him with this if he won't talk to me or anyone else for that matter.
The MiL was diagnosed in Feb with a recurrence of her eye cancer from 27 yrs ago that has metastasised into her liver, abdomen and lymph nodes of the abdomen, she also has a separate tumour on her buttock that is getting bigger every day. She is too weak for chemo and so is on palliative care, steriods to help her and pain relief, she has months to live but it has not been specified how many....
I have been finding comfort from the BF, his mum passed away last spring from cancer, he understands, when the BF's mum died I decided to stop wearing my wedding ring and any other jewellery that the miserable one had bought me or reminded me of him, he spends so much time upsetting me and the kids, just biding my time till the debts are paid and we can leave.
We are taking the guides to France in a few weeks, we have a really successful unit now, I took over when previous GiC's mum passed away suddenly in 2011. We had 8 girls, we now have 30! I don't know what we are doing but something must be right! The DD is now a young leader and she hates the ex-GiC and refuses to go to her ranger unit, she has started at a unit where we used to live, and is going with her bestest bud. She is rampaging through the Young Leader Qualification and is looking to take her senior section permit this autumn. Ex-GiC is shocked at how useful the DD has become, DD in turn is disparaging in no uncertain terms of the ex-GiC's ability to do nothing, and go early even when I have made sure that everyone knows what we have planned for a meeting and who has agreed to do what on the night. Frequently claims to not know what we are doing - yet she will have replied to the email saying this is what we agreed, is everyone ok with that? And then magically forgets what part she was supposed to be doing.
As for the France trip - she is bringing loads of crafts for the girls to do, even though we've got evening activities booked every night so they wont need to sit making fridge magnets, she asked me to take head and shoulder shots this week of all girls and then print out to 1.5" in height and take to France to put in the fridge magnets.....errrr no, dont think so, I've half the kids at their end of yr show this week and next week I'm running the parents meeting for France and organising a BBQ with presentations of certificates etc for all girls and 2 promise ceremonies, (3 of the dad's doing the BBQ for me but Mr Tesco supplying the food).
It was supposed to be the ex-GiC's retirement party, for 2 yrs she's said she'll finish this summer, now its here and she has decided she's gonna come back 1 week in 4 and work with the senior patrol (not told them yet!) so it's a presentation night BBQ instead.
I was speaking to one of the brownie guiders last weekend after parade and she said only reason we had 30 kids was because I was running the unit now not the ex-GiC, I dont think I am doing much different, but I have noticed that the ex-GiC shouts at the kids a lot, I try to do the hands up/shut up thing and before they have shut up she's shouting at them to be quiet when they were on the way to doing it and she wouldn't have needed to shout at all.
We had a camp a few weeks ago that was canoeing, kayaks and water sports, as well as archery and bouldering, the girls said it was the best camp ever, we joined up with another 2 units so had 48 girls in total and the DD was inspired by the SS members running the activities sessions, which is why she is now doing her SS permit!
So some things are really positive and others are really down at the minute......hey ho, that's how it goes I suppose.....
