10 Special Moments in My Life

I had a restless sleep last night where I kept waking up every half an hour then dozing back off again only to be wide awake from about 3.30am.  For some reason, when I’m awake in the middle of the night, my thoughts always go to the bad times in my life.  So when I eventually got out of bed I was feeling a little down.  As I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day in a depressed mood, moping around in my dressing gown and munching my way through a whole packet of chocolate chip digestives I thought I’d write a blog post that focused on the special moments in my life, the ones that stand out to me as being my happiest or proudest moments.   I’ve picked 10 of them to share with you.

My Wedding Day

Hubby and I were very young when we got married, he was 21 and I was 23.  I can’t believe how young we look!  I don’t think there are many people who can say they’ve been married for 32 years … jumping ship when things go wrong seems to be the normal thing to do these days.  I’m not saying we’ve never had bad times, of course we’ve had our ups and downs but I’m very happy we stuck with it as our relationship is stronger now than it’s ever been.  Yes hubby I’m being soppy and I don’t even care 🙂  So our wedding day has to be one of my special moments.

My Children Being Born

I’d always wanted a son and a daughter and that’s what I got, in that order.  I didn’t take to motherhood easily, raising children is probably the hardest job in the world but the pleasure they bring you far outweighs the toddler tantrums and the teenage dramas!  I recently watched some of the family videos I hadn’t seen for years and it was such a laugh to watch them at their birthday parties and their reaction to hubby dressed as Mr Blobby.  It was also interesting to find a home video I’d never seen before.  My son had borrowed the video camera one night when he was 15 and he and his two friends filmed what they were getting up to … hilarious!  My son kept telling his friends “you do know my mam and dad are gonna watch this”.  Priceless memories.

Graduating

I left school at 16 and went straight into secretarial work.  Well that’s what girls did in those days.  But I always wondered if I had it in me to do a Degree, so at the age of 32 I went back to my local college and completed a Degree in Business Management … I got a 2:1 and was extremely proud of myself.  I have to say I also enjoyed the social life that came with it … even though I had two small children and was fitting in temp jobs here and there I still managed to have a good time.

Having my eBook published

Before I became a Reseller I ran my own social media marketing business for about 7 years.  As one of my marketing strategies for my business I decided that writing a book would position me as an expert in my field.  So 365 Social Media Tips was created in about two weeks.  It was a huge amount of work and I felt great satisfaction when it was finished.  But then I wondered if maybe a book publisher would be interested so I contacted Brightword Publishing (owned by Harriman House) and they said they’d be delighted to publish it as an eBook.  I was over the moon … or ‘buzzing’ as my daughter would say.  It went live in March 2012.  It’s way out of date now but I’m still getting about £20 per year from it!  (Please DON’T buy it!).   It didn’t make me a millionaire (maybe a 500-aire) but I am just so proud that someone thought it was good enough to publish.

Speaking to an audience of 70

Another marketing strategy for my social media business was to become a public speaker on the subject.  I was both delighted and terrified when a local business expo organiser invited me to give a 30 minute seminar at one of their events.  With a lot of help from a friend (who is a public speaking coach) I was ready to go when the day arrived.  When I stood in front of that audience of 70 business people, with a microphone in my hand and a slideshow behind me I was still terrified.  I’ve probably never pushed myself as much as I did that day.  Once I started speaking it just flowed and I’m so pleased I moved out of my comfort zone to do it.  It was the first of many.  The video of the first part of this seminar is still on YouTube … if you’d like to watch it click here.

My Children’s Achievements

You muddle your way through bringing your children up, there is no manual but there is a ton of troubleshooting to do along the way.  So when they’ve grown up, left home and are doing well you feel a sense of achievement yourself, a feeling you’ve done something right.  My son landed the job of his dreams a few years ago, he’s an audio director for a games company which means he’s the one who puts all the sounds on computer games.  My daughter had a tricky few years when she was a teenager which led to me taking her out of school and teaching her at home.  When she eventually became a beauty therapist and got a job in Bermuda I was gobsmacked!  She worked out there for 10 months.  I’m so proud of everything they’ve both achieved.  Yes I’m being soppy again.

Grandchildren

My daughter decided to settle down and start a family when she got back from Bermuda and I’m now a very proud grandma of a two year old grandson and we have a grand-daughter due this week!  Being a grandma is one of the best feelings in the world, it keeps me young and brings more special moments than I could mention.

Our Trip to America

When our kids were growing up all of our holidays (when we had them) were usually camping holidays, and while I loved them it was fantastic when hubby and I got the opportunity to go to America last year.  You can read all about our trip to New Orleans and Las Vegas here.  It was a holiday we’ll never forget and brought us lots of special moments.

The Jelly Ring

Hubby is not the most romantic person in the world but sometimes he does surprise me.  One Christmas a few years ago he presented me with a gift.  I unwrapped it to find a shoe box … hmmmm I thought.  I opened the shoe box to find lots of shredded paper and in the middle of it a ring box ….. oooooo I thought.  I opened the ring box to find a jelly sweet in the shape of a ring.  He then gave me a voucher for a jewellery shop so I could go and buy myself the ring of my choice.  It’s probably the most romantic thing he’s ever done and I love that jelly ring (which I still have) as much as I love the ring that I bought.

Family Dinners

One of the things I really look forward to are our family dinners when hubby and me, our two children and their partners … and now our grandson, get together for a meal and a drink.  Sometimes we go out and sometimes we gather around our dining table and I love it.  It’s great to have everyone together and there’s usually lots of laughter.  Maybe at the next one I’ll get the home videos out!

So after feeling very miserable when I got up, this exercise in remembering all the special moments in my life has really turned my frown upside down 🙂  Next time I wake up in the middle of the night I’m going to read this post to remind me how good life is.

What would be in your special moments list? … let me know in the comments.

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