Matthew's questions

1. What is something mum always says to you?
Matt: I'm nice
Ry: not going to say it.

2. What makes mum happy?
Matt: Me doing the right thing
Ry: I'm not going to say it.

3. What makes mum sad?
Matt: When I am doing the wrong thing
Ry: I said, I'm not going to say it! {insert massive just-woken-up tantrum here}

4. How does your mum make you laugh?
By tickling me

5. What was your mum like as a child?
I can't really answer that one because I don't know it.

6. How old is your mum?
31

7. How tall is your mum?
10 metres

8. What is her favourite thing to do?
going to Dreamworld

9. What does your mum do when you're not around?
play games with Ryan

10. If your mum becomes famous, what will it be for?
Singing (WTF?? Bless him anyway)

11. What is your mum really good at?
Washing

12. What is your mum not very good at?
Playing computers

13. What does your mum do for her job?
Ummmm, I don't know what you do.

14. What is your mum's favourite food?
Lasagne

15. What makes you proud of your mum?
Getting me a good toy on my birthday (nice try, buddy)

16. If your mum were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Mr Tickle

17. What do you and your mum do together?
Have a little chat on the way home from school

18. How are you and your mum the same?
We both like eating passionfruit

19. How are you and your mum different?
I'm smaller & she's bigger.

20. How do you know your mum loves you?
By hugging me

22. Where is your mum's favourite place to go?
The zoo

I have no imagination

Please feel free to join in, I won't bother tagging you. Just bold the things you have done.

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited The Great Barrier Reef. Better than that, I used to live there.
5. Stood under the stars in the outback, the real outback – think Uluru. Not Uluru, but definitely outback.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to the Gold Coast’s theme parks – anyone, you take your pick.
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sung a solo. Good god, NO!
11. Bungee jumped, jumped out of plane, been paragliding or hang-gliding, hot air ballooning – you get the idea, you’ve been hundreds of metres about earth in a seemingly flimsy contraption. Does the Giant Drop at Dreamworld count??
12. Visited Melbourne.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Had a child. Raised a child. Worked with children.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Been to the Snowy Mountains.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Visited the Brett Whitely studio in Surry Hills, Sydney.
20. Slept on an overnight train or bus.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Been backpacking.
23. Taken a mental health day.
24. Been buried in sand with just your head and toes sticking out.
25. Held a possum, kangaroo or koala – or any other native Australian animal.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Been in a fun run.
28. Been on the Blue Mountain cableway.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Played, or watched, summer cricket.
32. Sailed, kayaked or canoed our beautiful waterways.
33. Seen the Daintree.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Visited an Aboriginal settlement or mission.
36. Learned a new language. Well, part thereof, I guess.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Toured the Sydney Opera House.
39. Tried rock climbing (indoor or outdoor), abseiling or just simple bush walking.
40. Visit Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art.
41. Been to the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
42. Sunbaked at Bondi.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Broome.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance. Twice now. Eek.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone fishing.
49. Seen Tasmania’s old growth forests.
50. Been to the top of Q1, on the Gold Coast. - Keep meaning to, haven't got there yet...
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Driven the Great Ocean Road.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Norfolk Island.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Guide biscuits.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma.
65. Gone jet boating. Jet skiing?
66. Visited Port Arthur.
67. Bounced a cheque.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Australian War Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Federation Square.
74. Been on the Murray River.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Travelled, or climbed, over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Three Sisters at Echo Point, Katoomba.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited St Mary’s Cathedral, in Sydney.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Been to Hermannsburg.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited Parliament House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating. Not singlehandly, I've helped though.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury. I keep turning JD down - I really should do it one day.
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Saved a pet.
95. Been to the site of the Eureka Stockade.
96. Swum in The Whitsundays.
97. Been involved in a lawsuit.
98. Owned a mobile phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.
100. Read an entire book in one day.

Another tag

Tagged by the Mother of All Ships.

1. Where is your cell phone? Currently in my handbag, under my desk.
2. Where is your significant other? At work I believe (and if I find out otherwise...grrr)
3. Your hair colour? Blondey / browny. Ever so attractive.
4. Your mother? Is starting to decline and is very set in her ways. Lays the guilt on thick.
5. Your father? Dresses badly, has a moustache and talks to freaking everyone. Likes to tell embarrassing stories about his children.
6. Your favorite thing? At the moment, my kitchen.
7. Your dream last night? I don't think I slept long enough to dream last night. All I can remember is changing the smallest boys sheets because he refused to go to the toilet before bed.
8. Your dream/goal? Ditto to Mothership. "To live to see my children grow into happy and healthy adults."
9. The room you're in? I'm at work in our delightful office.
10. Your hobby? I like to sew.
11. Your fear? Surviving my children.
12. Where do you want to be in six years? A lot richer than I am today.
13. Where were you last night? At home, doing domestic stuff.
14. What you’re not? Able to complete a task from start to finish.
15. One of your wish list items? A bigger house.
16. Where you grew up? Canberra.
17. The last thing you did? Went to Medicare on my lunch break. I like to live dangerously.
18. What are you wearing? Brown skirt, black shirt & attractive black cardi. It's cold in here.
19. Your TV? Is not a plasma, much to T's disgust. It's also on way more than necessary.
20. Your pet? Two girl dogs - Bundy & Ollie. (waiting for the comments to start...)
21. Your computer? Is probably infested with viruses but I love her anyway.
22. Your mood? Will be much better come 5pm.
23. Missing someone? My 3 boys.
24. Your car? Toyota Prado. Outside, semi-clean. Inside - disgusting.
25. Something you’re not wearing? Make up.
26. Favorite store? Ikea at the moment.
27. Your summer? Will be spent in the air cond. I wish we had a pool.
28. Love someone? See question 23.
29. Your favorite color? Blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? About 20 minutes ago.
31. Last time you cried? Matthew's very first school concert.

Simone

I presume I would have been about 7 when I saw my tooth fairy in the flesh for the first time. I was grocery shopping with my mother and when we got to the check-out, we were served by a young girl whose name tag indentified her as "Simone". I remember thinking she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and imediately decided she must have been a fairy - more specifically, my tooth fairy.

Tonight I am going to make my debut as the Tooth Fairy. I only hope I look half as good in my Woolworths uniform as Simone did...

A little trip down memory lane

Love that eyebrow - he still gives it to me on occasion.

We stumbled across some old photos of Ryan last night that we'd forgotten even existed. Awww, so cute.

I really ought to get the boy a photo album so we can admire his pictures more frequently. The poor kid suffers badly from "second child syndrome"...

My best friend

Many cheers to Ellie for providing me with a topic to write about after 2 weeks of stagnation.

My best friend and I have known each other since we were 12. We met in grade 8 (she was a boarder also) my partner in crime ever since. For ease of reference, I shall reduce some of the more interesting points of our (extremely) complicated friendship down to dot points:

- She has two beautiful children, Boy 6 & Girl 5.
- We never acknowledge each others birthdays.
- We actually haven’t spoken IRL in better than 12 months and rarely by email.
- She has moved to a town 3 hours from me yet neither of us have bothered to make contact again.
- She taught me to smoke.
- I taught her to burp (but I’m still better at it than she is…ner ner)
- At her 18th birthday party her mum smacked me on the bum and sent me to bed because I was very drunk.
- She is the most unflappable person I have ever known. Nothing stresses her. Ever.
- She’s extremely generous and would do anything to help anybody out of a jam.
- She is however bloody hopeless with pets. She once ran over her own cat in the driveway.
- Every night before going to bed she has have a cup of black tea with sugar and a cigarette.
- She’s one of those annoying people who are completely coherent the moment they get out of bed whereas it takes me ages to work out what the hell is going on when I wake up.
- She was my lucky charm at school. I would never get caught doing something naughty if she came along – if she wasn’t there I was invariably in hot water.
- We once walked from school to town to go to friends birthday lunch. We arrived soaking wet because it seemed like a good idea at the time to frolic in the sprinkers outside Oxley’s on the River along the way.
- In grade 11 I promised I would be able to make her hair a lovely lustrous shade of black by dying her hair with Magic Silver White. I threw the whole bottle in for a more dramatic effect and managed to stain her face and hands purple for the next two weeks. I still don’t think she’s forgiven me for that.
- She was once nicknamed “Truckie” by a male friend of ours. (I really hope she’s not reading this – I will be in a world of pain for disclosing that particular titbit).

I’m not big on this tagging thing. I’m pretty sure I only have 3 regular readers who have blogs of their own so I am running rapidly out of tagees. So, Jenn, Candi and Amoir, take pity on me and consider yourself tagged. The rest of you, go get yourself a blog so I don’t look so lame.

Monday memories - week 3

My mother recently located this photo of me doing my GI Jane impersonation. I was 20 and joined the Army Reserves. T & I lived in Rockhampton at the time and I had to travel to Townsville to my recruit course - this photo was taken minutes after my Passing Out parade. I was officially a Private.

This photo is actually really hard for me to look at. My father was thrilled beyond all belief when I told him I was joining up - we are a military family from way back and my brother had never shown any interest in enlisting. It was not long after that T & I moved back to Brisbane and I joined up with the Transport company at the Enogerra Barracks. I had just suffered some ear problems when our platoon was made to told we would be taking on what was affectionately known as "Heartbreak Hill" - a gruelling 2km run up a steep moutain. Needless to say I didn't make it and with my ego left in tatters around me I did what I do best. I quit. Dad and I have never officially spoken about this decision however I do know for a fact that he was shattered.

Monday Memories - Week 2

Like Ellie, I am actually lying when I say this weeks photo has a memory attached to it. It seems neither myself or my dear parents can actually remember anything related to the interesting item in this photo (which IS NOT my Holly Hobby undies, just in case you are wondering). Friends and neighbours, I'd like you to focus on my footwear...

The first three or so years of my life, I wore correctional shoes. Apparently. Can anyone remember why I wore these Gump-esque appliances? No, they cannot. Did anyone think to retain them for sentimental purposes, along with the staggering collection of 1970's baby clothes that simply had to live on? No, they did not.

You will be pleased to know they did however carefully save every one of my big brother's baby teeth. Second Child Syndrome, do you think?

Monday memories - Week 1

Starting Grade 8 - 1990

It has been suggested by the lovely Ellie we liven up the pages a bit by subjecting ourselves to some humiliation. The next few Mondays will feature a photo and blurb of a moment/object that we remember well and share some details about it. In honour of our boys recently starting school for the first time I have chosen a photo of me about to trot off to boarding school at the ripe old age of 12.

Firstly, this photo was staged by my mother. It isn't actually the day I was going off to school but one of the days leading up to it. It was taken at my Nan's house, in front of her frangipani tree. (The tree itself holds a special place in my heart but I'll talk more about another day.) I remember being enormously excited about venturing off to school - for months I had been packing and repacking my stuff in giddy anticipation of the big event. I can't rightly recall why I was so excited, after all I was moving thousands of kilometres away from my family, my home and my friends but I suspect it had a lot to do with feeling very grown up and embarking on a big adventure.

My first day/night went well. I went from having all my life only one older brother to play with suddenly having 30 other 12 year old girls with me morning and night. Playmates on tap - I was in heaven. I only remember one afternoon of tears about 3 weeks in to the term when the enormity (and probably permanence) of the situation hit me other than that, I was hooked. Boarding school rocked. Good thing too because I had another 4 years of it to get through... ;)