A new year and a new start! My head was in a whirl during the last few months - first my mum then my father-in-law to be had strokes, luckily both only small ones and they are doing well now. We decided that at the ages of 84 and 82(them, not us!), if we wanted to have our respective parents present at our marriage, we had better bring the ceremony forward. So on 25th November 2006, we had a lovely, moving ceremony at our local church with both families and our closest friends present followed by a great family party at a local resturant/pub. Even had karaoke in the evening and a fun time was had by everyone.

Our kids - his 2 and my 3, all adults, met for the first time and got on like the proverbial house on fire, his daughter even said she'd always wanted sisters and now she had three! At least all the girls got on - hopefully his son will eventually come round to the fact that his dad is now happier than he has been for years. We did have a good long chat, for the first time I might add, (me being the scarlet woman that his dad met after his parents broke up) and he seems to have accepted the idea at last! His daughter is a sweetheart and is perfectly prepared to accept me as her wicked stepmum and have fun with her new sisters.

My own daughters have taken hubby to their hearts, they all adore him and treat him like their dad, even to the point of all having a few drinkies and loads of giggles, then all pulling my leg - talk about ganging up on Mum! I'm so grateful that they can see what a good, loving and loyal man he is, even if he does drive me batty sometimes. They all had a whale of a time at Christmas, trying to pull the wool over my eyes and playing practical jokes.

He's also developing his own healing abilities, which his parents repressed when he was a kid because anything of "that sort" is frowned on up here in the North-east - you might end up in the local psychiatric ward if anything of a psychic nature is detected by your parents. When his mates realised he could take pain away from them when they hurt themselves, he was mocked when their parents remarked on it to his and quickly learned that you don't talk about that sort of thing to parents up here! He's surprising strong for someone who has denied their abilities and learning daily that the only limitations are in his own head. His awareness of spiritual matters is growing too and he surprises himself sometimes by anticipating events or knowing who is on the phone before answering it, he was a bit spooked at first but hey, he should be used to it by now with me!

The business is on hold for the moment, as we were let down by the person who was supposedly going to build our website, so we are having it professionally built with the help of Business Link, who have granted us a percentage of the final fee. Watch this space, as hopefully we will be going live by the end of February.