SS blog challenge #32

Haven't done one of these for a while so I thought it was about time to try again. (Comments in italics are added by me...who else?)

This blog challenge is easy (for some maybe!) .. Enjoy.

Countdown List

10 Things I Want to Do Before I Die:

• See my children grown and happy
• Watch my grandchildren grow up
• Get back to a healthy weight
• Travel overseas by myself
• Scrap all my important photos
• Learn sign language
• Get over my fear of heights
• Make a positive difference in a child's life (as well as in my own children's lives)
• Visit the houses I grew up in (in England, Fiji, Singapore & Hawaii)
• Learn to play a musical instrument .. properly!

9 Places I Last Spent Money:

• Amazon.com
• Big W
• Woolworths
• Southern River Pharmacy
• Laker's Tavern
• Caltex
• Creative Memories
• Just Scrapbooks
• McDonald's

8 Sounds I Routinely Hear Around My House:

• "Muuuum" from any and all of the boys
• Wii/PS2/Playstation/computer game sounds
• Laughing
• Arguing
• The washing machine
• Music
• Doors slamming (no-one seems capable of closing one quietly around here!)
• Kettle boiling

7 Real Restaurants Where I Last Ate Out:

(Not sure what is meant by a 'real' restaurant but I'm assuming a place with table service, real tablecloths, metal cutlery and alcohol. In which case, I haven't eaten out since last year's work Christmas party!)

• Atrium @ Burswood (aforementioned Christmas party)
• The Pasta Bowl in Margaret River
• Nicholson's Bar & Grill
• and that's about it! Sad huh?
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6 Things I've Recently Scratched Off My To-Do List:

• Pay bills
• Order Becky Fleck Sketch book
• Tidy scrap area
• Bake some snacks for the boys
• Check boys' summer school uniform for sizing
• Make doctor's appointment for Alex

5 People I Don't Know (or haven't met in person) But Would Like to Hang Out With:

• Lita
• Cowtown Stacy
• Kaye
• The Pioneer Woman
• Frank from Postsecret

4 Songs That Make Me Happy (or feel more upbeat):

• Annie's song - John Denver
• I'm yours - Jason Mraz
• Can't touch this - Ricki-Lee Coulter
• These are a few of my favourite things - Julie Andrews

3 Things I Hate To Do:

• Clean toilets
• Look foolish
• Deal with arrogant people

2 Things I'm Really Good At:

• Being positive (for other people!)
• Retaining (useless) information

1 Bad Habit:

• Procrastination .. "Procrastinators of the world, unite .. tomorrow."

SS Blog Challenge #22

"In honour of Father's Day and since mine has been on my mind of late: tell me, what is the greatest lesson you ever learned from your father?"

Even though Father's Day over here in Australia isn't until September, I decided to do this challenge anyway.

My Dad taught me so many things it's really hard to pick just one.
He was forever telling me to:

• "Have confidence and just walk into the room like you own it."
• "If you believe in yourself, everyone else will too."
• "You never know what you can do until you try."
• "You never fail until you stop trying."

And my personal favourite:

• "The impossible takes a little longer."

But as great as all those things were, the most important thing he taught me was to take care of those you love and make sure you tell them you love them before it's too late.

He was the person we could always turn to in times of need or pain but also in times of joy. Dad would help us fix the problems or be happy for us. He was a rather no nonsense man who wasn't prone to sharing his feelings easily.

In the week before his death, he was more concerned about how my Mum was going to cope than his own pain. He called my sister and I into his hospice room and asked us to take care of each other and Mum. It was only when he was close to death that he realised how much my sister and I needed to hear him tell us in words how much he loved us. He had always shown his love by doing things for us and I know now that that was just his way of expressing himself but it was heartwarming to hear the actual words. "I love you and I'm proud of you and the person you've become."

So don't leave it until the last minute. Tell those near and dear to you that you love them and do it often .. even when the kids are embarrassed by it, they secretly take it to heart and keep it there. What better gift to give your child?

SS Blog Challenge #15

Life Lessons - When was the last time you had a life lesson -- one that made you feel "BETTER" about "YOU"? It doesn't have to be a life altering lesson; it can be something small, it can be something very minor, but it must be a life lesson. And it must be a GOOD life lesson. What was it?

I don't know if this quite fits the challenge but I realised today that I am lovable and am doing a pretty good job of being a mostly 'single' parent (dh works away for two weeks out of three).

I went to pick the boys up from my Mum's house (she had them overnight and watched them today so I could have the skin cancer removed) and when I arrived, they all, even Alex, came running to give me a hug and tell me how much they missed me. They were only gone from 6:30pm last night to 4pm today but they missed me.

I had been beating myself up most of the night last night for yelling at them and just generally being a "bad mum" yesterday afternoon, but that was all forgotten. So I realised that I mustn't be doing such a bad job after all and that they do love me .. even if they won't pick their clothes up off the floor!

SS blog challenge #14

Blog Challenge #14 - "There's no place like home"
This week tell us about the places you've called home. Have you lived in one place all your life? Tell us about it and why you've chosen to stay there. Have you lived in many places? Where have you lived and what have you done to make each place feel like home? What has been your favorite place to live and why?

Wow, where do I start? We have lived in so many different house (and countries too) that all I ever wanted to do was put down roots and stay in one place.

I was born in Mackay, Queensland but moved to Cairns at a few months old. Then Dad was posted to Singapore when I was about two. After that, we went to England (where my sister was born), then on to Fiji, which is where I started school. Then we headed back to Australia, stopping in Cairns, Qld for a few months, then on to West Aus. Once in WA, we only moved 3 times before we settled in one house for the rest of Dad's year off. Then it was back to Fiji for another two years and into another new house. Another year back in West Aus, Fiji for 18 months then Hawaii for a year. Apartment living was a real eye-opener having only ever lived in houses with backyards! Once I hit high school, Mum and Dad made the decision to stay in one place, Maddington in West Aus.

Then I moved out of home with my now husband to Cloverdale, Thornlie and Maddington (housesitting for his parents while they travelled the countryside). Six months after we were married, we moved into our own home in High Wycombe where we lived for 7 years. The opportunity arose to buy the house we're in now (Huntingdale) so we jumped at the chance (twice the size of the old place for not much more). This is the place I've felt most at home; the most "permanent" place.

Dad was in the merchant navy and was posted all over the world. I can see, as an adult, that we were lucky to be able to go with him, but as a child it was really hard to always be the new girl in the school. I hated moving and always having to start over so I've tried to ensure my kids don't go through the same woes.

Even though I hated all the moving, I loved living in Fiji. Maybe it was just the ages and stages I was at at the time, but it was a really good place to be a kid. Ultimately though, home was wherever my family was and still is. Family makes a house a home.

Favourite things

Lita challenged me to do an ABC of my favourite things so here goes:

A: Agatha Christie - the author. I love immersing myself in her books with all their twists and turns.
B: Books - I have a need... a need to read!
C: Chips - Tasty Jack's plain salted ridge cut chips.
D: Donna - my name. It wasn't always this way (used to hate it with a passion) but I've grown into it.
E: Escalators - anything to save my knees from those stairs!
F: Friends - both "real" and the "internet axe-murderer" kind.
G: Green - one of my two favourite colours. (Blue is the other one).
H: Home - my sanctuary from the hustle and bustle.
I: Ice cream - rum and raisin in a cone with choc topping (the kind that goes hard .. YUM!)
J: Jeffrey Archer - another favourite author.
K: Kids - love my three boys (most of the time!)
L: Laughter - "You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing".
M: Music - no particular genre. Just whatever I'm in the mood for at the time.
N: Nature - I like watching the seasons change .. just don't like weeds!
O: Organisational stuff - things to help me get a bit more order in this chaotic world.
P: People watching - love to sit in a busy mall and just watch the people go by.
Q: Quiet - need more of that!
R: Reminiscing - love looking through photo albums and re-living all those experiences.
S: Scrapping - enjoy the process as well as the end result.
T: Tools - got to have the right tools.
U: Useful information - all those little facts to store away.
V: Vices - chocolate & books.
W: Wet weather - love listening to the sound of the rain on the tin roof.
X: Xanthophyllic leaves - autumn leaves that have turned yellow (and many other shades)
Y: Yolk - A fried or boiled egg with a runny yolk and warm toast to mop it up with. Yum!
Z: Zoo. I really enjoy going to the zoo (any zoo!) and just watching the animals.

SS blog challenge #12

Blog Challenge #12 - Getting To Know You

Copy and paste the following section into your blog and answer as best as you can. You can elaborate (I hope you do), you can post pictures, you can be deep, you can be funny. Whatever you choose -just be honest.Second part of the challenge - post a picture (from this week) of you at your computer. Don't worry about cleaning up - just post and have fun.

1) Right now I want: to hire a cleaner. The house looks like a bombsite!

2) I wish I knew how to: be myself. When I work out who that is, it might become a bit easier!

3) When I want to indulge myself, I: read a book or three with a cup of coffee and some good shortbread biscuits.

4) You’ll never see me: skydiving, bungee jumping or walking on anything high that I can see through. Yep, I don't do heights!

5) A childhood memory that I love: having lunch on Dad's ship. He worked for Cable & Wireless as an engineer on several of their ships and we got to go on board for lunch on Sundays if the ship was in port. All the kitchenhands, who were big burly Fijian guys, used to make me extra poppadums and save me the mandarin oranges from the condiments tray for sweets. I still love mandarin oranges to this day!

6) 2 things I do every single day: hug my kids and do laundry.

7) Happiest moment of 2008, so far: No one single moment stands out, so my happiest moments would have to be the times when the kids and I are all happy and laughing at the same time.

8) Describe yourself in 3 words: knowledgeable, introverted, caring

9) 2 scrap related goals for this year: finish 2006 & 2007 family albums and get up-to-date with the boys' baby albums.

10) You have $40 that you MUST spend on yourself – what do you do with it? Buy a new book, or some scrapping stuff. Then again, I've never had a manicure so I might do that instead.

SS blog challenge #3

"When the phone is ringing, the doorbell is going off, kids are yelling, laundry is overwhelming and dinner has burned and you sit down to a cup of tea, where do you let your mind go?"

Somewhere .. anywhere .. far, far away!

Seriously though, I don't seem to have a particular "happy place", more like happy times.

The ones I've been thinking about the most lately is the family holidays we had at the Paradise Point Motel in Fiji, when I was about 6 years old. It was right on the beach and they had a great pool with a log across it, that I used to walk across pretending I was some jungle explorer, while Dad used to be the crocodile in the water trying to pull me in. There was a juke box just outside the reception area that took 5c pieces and I spent almost all of my 50c pocket money playing the Kiss song "I was made for loving you baby". Probably not the best song for a 6 year old to be listening to but oh well! Everytime I hear that song, I'm transported back there.

Overall, I think I just go to a "place" where things were easier. I probably go back to times spent in Fiji as a child more than anywhere else, but I also go back to teenage years with the flush of first love, first real kiss and no real responsibilities.