We are famileeeeee

I got the shock of my life today. Literally - I wasn't sure if I was going to die laughing, die crying or wet myself with shock. Nothing quite so dramatic, however it turned out that I did quite a bit of laugh/cry/shrieking.

This is my cousin Nat. Who shall forever be known as 'My Coniving Cousin'. After many failed attempts to get together last year with our children we ended up having a wonderfully, drunken, hilarious phone call last week where we spent at least 20 minutes of the 90 minute laughing so hard that we only squeaked and spoke in tones in between life threatening roars of laughter.

It was properly refreshing. We hadn't caught up much over the last few years - 4 years since I last physically saw her and very intermittent phone calls in between, but still - I could feel her in my heart. She is and always has been one of those people I carry around in my heart. It was wonderful to speak with her again and laughing like that - in that 'oh god am I going to ever breathe normally again' way...well, it's not everybody that has the ability to do that for you, you know?

After that phone call, unbenownst to me, Nat decided she MUST visit us...and so the wheels of deception began...

...one week later, (today...KEEP UP!) I walked down the Water of Leith to (I thought) meet my husband for a very unusually spontaneous lunch at the Roseleaf. It took 45 minutes to walk from my flat on Ferry Road to the pub (okay, okay - we bumped into a friendly face or two en route AND stopped to feed the duck, but still - it was a very long time to take for a very short walk.

When we finally arrived at the pub I opened the door, looked round the corner to find Bry and instead...there sat my beautiful cousin Nat and her 3 fantastic children. I don't think I'll ever be able to describe the feeling I got from walking into the pub and seeing HER.

I could go on a total love and hearts and flowers rampage but I shall spare you. At the end of the day I am one blessed individual to not only have this fantastic woman in my family but to have her so close that she will work out a way to sneak herself and 3 children up the country on a train to shock the crapstix out of me of a Friday afternoon.

Lucky. It's not often I would describe myself as such but you know what? People like Nat - the remind me just how lucky I am.

Yep. I'm one lucky mother-flipper.

WHAT AN AMAZING DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!