tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3257221472758597022024-03-19T20:20:32.796+11:00Searching for sanityI come for the coffee, I stay for the padded walls and straight jacketssinglemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.comBlogger349125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-89535638012025578152017-12-23T02:00:00.000+11:002017-12-23T02:00:33.934+11:00December Fly on the Wall - The Month of Firsts and Lasts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
It's time once again for Fly on the Wall. In this month's instalment 8 bloggers are all joining up to show you what things would look like if you were a fly on the wall at their place. Below is a list of all participating bloggers, be sure to visit them all to see all of the fun.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/2017/12/oh-christmas-tree-oh-moving-boxes-fotw.html" style="font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="https://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://theblogging911.com/blog" target="_blank">The Blogging 911</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.gomamao.com/" target="_blank">Go Mama O </a> </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> <wbr></wbr> </span></div>
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So normally my Fly on the Wall posts are full of crazy quotes and silly fun, but this month if you'll indulge me just a teeny tiny bit I'd like to do something a little bit different. There are still one or two quotes, but the rest of the post is sort of a photo slideshow. You see normally life around here is pretty boring and uneventful but this month was different. This month we actually had things to do, places to be and for once I actually remembered to document some of it. </div>
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So to start December off Miss K had her very first ballet concert. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4UBF-s0FlsbIfZeJCbs2XC39o7Es-PLN0liNsG7B7olVkyj30I2zgJArR_NKT03IEsf7eJY6RxYoD2baoGcoFMn1gHlx-CniM2aI3fcfsZse-WQ3GBauncL1fHrtUKzlyk1INuq2o_G-/s1600/ballet+concert+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4UBF-s0FlsbIfZeJCbs2XC39o7Es-PLN0liNsG7B7olVkyj30I2zgJArR_NKT03IEsf7eJY6RxYoD2baoGcoFMn1gHlx-CniM2aI3fcfsZse-WQ3GBauncL1fHrtUKzlyk1INuq2o_G-/s400/ballet+concert+2017.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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We had a mad rush of dress rehearsals, stage rehearsals, make up practises, costume fittings and last minute panic. There were three performances in total over 3 days in front of audiences of at least 200 people at a time. Things were crazy to say the least.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB9p5ChHaQ9s8_W0IxfNvico4jlV4fc5z4pZm_Gt24kecPF6S6jXFz0uvnp-XpzHbWzVYaZ-zbywV3Ysiu14SHzo5zQqznqIWa_-U6EGD8PSeJWQ2vz5-8ZeYSmlntGMbRyaWo5F8uTGbU/s1600/Screenshot_2017-12-22-21-26-22.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB9p5ChHaQ9s8_W0IxfNvico4jlV4fc5z4pZm_Gt24kecPF6S6jXFz0uvnp-XpzHbWzVYaZ-zbywV3Ysiu14SHzo5zQqznqIWa_-U6EGD8PSeJWQ2vz5-8ZeYSmlntGMbRyaWo5F8uTGbU/s400/Screenshot_2017-12-22-21-26-22.png" width="225" /></a></div>
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To say I was a nervous wreck was an understatement. I watched my mum do this with two girls for over 15 years and she always made it look so easy. I sent the above text to Natalie on the second day of performances. It was the first time Miss K's father and I were going to watch her dance on stage, and I expected to be a blubbering mess. So there we all were sitting in the audience, ready for her to come on and the music to start. I grabbed her dad's knee for support and took a deep breath. Miss K came on stage and I was proudly holding all ugly crying back with the power of determination and the knowledge that I look like a raccoon if I cry with make up on. It was starting to look like I was going to be leaving the tissues in my handbag until I turned to look at Miss K's father and see him crying like a baby. So the tissues got put to good use after all, and I only teased him for several hours after the concert. </div>
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<i>Me: This is why I don't wash my car. It's been pooped on twice already in the space of an hour and now it's covered in bug carcassesses. Carcasses, carcii? What is the plural of carcass? Oh whatever, in any case the little buggers are all over my car right now.</i></div>
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Two weeks after the ballet concerts were done and dusted Miss K had her first ever piano concert to perform at. This was a lot smaller thankfully because I don't think I could have handled another massive production so soon after the first one, but Miss K again coped with everything beautifully considering she's never played the piano for an audience, plus she was the first performer of the whole concert so she couldn't even look to any of the other students to see how it was done.</div>
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<i>Miss K: Mum, high five. (pulls her hand away and dabs) DAB!</i></div>
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<i>Me: Did you just dab on me? You are so out of the will right now young lady.</i></div>
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A week after the piano concert Miss K had her first school concert, her class were dancing to a Justin Timberlake song and we spent weeks practising the moves at home together, so I was pretty confident that given the barrage of stage appearances she'd made by then plus all the practising meant we had this one in the bag.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIkgWJx0nI1TrbEPpu9kWofa7VzrIU8y44L3ly4eWWpQtF2A2ngb6DEilGOF7uhZG0VqUoX5e6gB3NCwow3czRw0CqnT64fNEoMjc4GFWl9eAtPsCEWWHGDPaJN6FX7Cc6Grxf3tz88Mf/s1600/fluro+costume+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1068" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcIkgWJx0nI1TrbEPpu9kWofa7VzrIU8y44L3ly4eWWpQtF2A2ngb6DEilGOF7uhZG0VqUoX5e6gB3NCwow3czRw0CqnT64fNEoMjc4GFWl9eAtPsCEWWHGDPaJN6FX7Cc6Grxf3tz88Mf/s400/fluro+costume+copy.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Miss K's costume for the school concert</span></div>
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<i>Me: I felt so awful, the announcer came on the mic and said the first song was going to be a Vanilla Ice medley, and I accidentally said "Oh no" really loudly. </i></div>
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<i>Nat: Worst mum ever.</i></div>
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<i>Me: I didn't mean it to come out. I even had to turn to Jason afterwards and ask if I'd said it out loud. It's not my fault though, they should have known that people there were going to hate Vanilla Ice. </i></div>
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Finally we had the last day of school for the year, which means that my little girl is no longer a preppy. She is now moving up to first grade and we have officially survived her first year of school. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dnOqM2Cw3hHzCEWti61qYj1jUiXN60H7CWb2NVYZrhF-reQUco1jSPqSF8nCOm3qPp8R-NeMLGDV1RfMJ2YWlbfRamUL6Njnzu8iYVrFHYEyNFAJRU_L9z3Uln37WM9z3YwXatqJ4HEL/s1600/first+day+of+school+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="288" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dnOqM2Cw3hHzCEWti61qYj1jUiXN60H7CWb2NVYZrhF-reQUco1jSPqSF8nCOm3qPp8R-NeMLGDV1RfMJ2YWlbfRamUL6Njnzu8iYVrFHYEyNFAJRU_L9z3Uln37WM9z3YwXatqJ4HEL/s320/first+day+of+school+copy.jpg" width="186" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_kurGK6S_9-eWflURYFSjv6wr6hKJ2fGW_er5YS1q0kakrDSJZPhXAWczLBPCnH4L8ehNwK8BE6uBxV1TEthyxqs8E3ogqIC0NQcncy3QIhZBr5A_rlMn-VEZrB5TrnB1O8H9y3Zm1a6/s1600/Last+day+of+school+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="288" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_kurGK6S_9-eWflURYFSjv6wr6hKJ2fGW_er5YS1q0kakrDSJZPhXAWczLBPCnH4L8ehNwK8BE6uBxV1TEthyxqs8E3ogqIC0NQcncy3QIhZBr5A_rlMn-VEZrB5TrnB1O8H9y3Zm1a6/s320/Last+day+of+school+copy.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Miss K on her first day of school and on her last day of school for the year. </span></div>
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I've been feeling a little nostalgic this past week and am already missing the good old days. Not least because I was helping in class every Friday for the majority of the year and her moving up means I no longer get to help out any more. It was a huge relief to get to see Miss K in class and know that she was actually coping perfectly with starting school and I will always be grateful to her teacher for indulging my panicking and letting me stick around for so long. I'm also very grateful she would pretend that I was helping out for Miss K's sake and not my own.</div>
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<i>Me: Miss K would you please hurry up and make your lunch. No, that's not making lunch that's recreating the opening scene from the Lion King with a plastic tub. </i></div>
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So that's it from me for the month. We are now in the count down to Christmas here and looking forward to the 5 weeks of summer holidays to go. I'd like to take a second to thank all of you for coming and visiting with me every month this year for our special brand of crazy. Don't forget to visit the rest of the bloggers participating and I will see you all next time. </div>
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<br />singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-55055582392773834172017-11-18T02:00:00.000+11:002017-11-18T02:00:22.452+11:00November Fly on the WallHello again my lovelies, it is time for the second last Fly on the Wall for the year. For any newcomers to this series what happens is a group of bloggers all join forces to share with you all the crazy and funny things you'd see if you were a fly on the wall in our houses this month.<br />
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This month 7 bloggers are participating. Be sure to visit them all and check out all of the fun.</center>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/11/the-dique-and-clique-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Baking In A Tornado</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/a-keto-day-omelette-with-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Spatulas on Parade</span></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://theblogging911.com/blog" target="_blank">The Blogging 911</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></div>
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Miss K: Mum can I have a choc chip cookie please?</center>
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Me: No it's too close to dinner time.</center>
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Miss K: Please? I want one.</center>
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Me: Too bad. Please stop nagging me.</center>
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Miss K: Mum can I have a choc chip cookie?</center>
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Me: No. I said stop nagging me please.</center>
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Miss K: I didn't nag because I didn't say please.</center>
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<i>We had a big thunderstorm come through the town yesterday. This is how my nephew Jakey responds to thunder.</i></center>
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Jakey: What was that?<br />Sam: That was just thunder.</center>
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Jakey: No, I think it's a bomb.</center>
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<i>I woke up one morning to Miss K making my bed while I was still in it. As it was still early I rolled over and went back to sleep until my alarm when off. When I finally decided to get up all hell broke loose.</i></center>
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Miss K: Mum, you messed up the bed. I just made that.</center>
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Me: Welcome to parenting sweetheart, where kids mess your shit up as you're cleaning. Pro tip though, next time don't make the bed while someone is still sleeping in it.</center>
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<i>I was helping in Miss K's class when one of her classmates dropped this gem on me</i></center>
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Connor: I'm going to copy Lachy's work because he's smart.</center>
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Me: Well I want to see you try to do this for yourself because I know for a fact there's a big brain in that head of yours.</center>
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Connor: No, I don't have a brain anymore. You wanna know why?<br />Me: Ok this should be good, why don't you have a brain anymore?<br />Connor: Because someone said something so crazy it made my brain explode and now it's gone.</center>
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Me: You're going to make my brain explode in a minute Connor. </center>
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<i>So Kim was in hospital this month suffering from organ failure, which you wouldn't think is a laughing matter. Kim didn't seem to get the memo that hospitals are serious however as the following story from Natalie shows.</i></center>
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Nat: When Kim was first admitted she was in and out of consciousness, and there was a heap of doctors around her at all times. One doctor in particular kept making suggestions for treatment options and he kept getting shut down. Obviously Kim was getting tired of it because at one stage she woke up looked at him and said "This is a house of learned doctors and you need to learn to listen." </center>
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Me: Seriously?</center>
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Nat: Yeah. She had the doctors in stitches apparently. They told her about it the next morning and she refused to believe them at first. It wasn't until more people kept coming up to her and telling her the same story did she finally believe them. At one of their conferences they discussed a decision they'd made that had worked, and one of the doctors said it worked because they were learned doctors. </center>
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<i>The epilogue to that story is that after several weeks of some very serious treatments Kim is finally better, her organs are working again and she was discharged yesterday to continue healing at home. </i></center>
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Nat: So Dave and I had an argument the other day.</center>
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Me: What was it this time?<br />Nat: He asked me to remind him to grab his drink bottles before we left to go home and I told him to set himself a reminder on his phone. Halfway home he remembers the drink bottles and he cracked it at me for not reminding him. I went off at him for not setting the reminder like I told him. I figured he realised at the time that was all I was going to do for him, I'm not his mother, and he's old enough to be doing this for himself now.</center>
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Me: I feel sorry for your poor children when you finally have them. You're going to be a mean mum.</center>
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Nat: What do you mean?</center>
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Me: You're six years old now, you're old enough to figure out how to get yourself up and out the door for school now.</center>
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Nat: Hey, blame the childcare industry. We're forced to foster independence in kids from a really young age.</center>
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Well that's all from this corner of the world, don't forget to visit all the other blogs participating today and keep the fun going.</center>
singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-34765818147740186312017-10-21T01:00:00.000+11:002017-10-21T01:00:00.190+11:00October Fly on the WallIt is time once again for everyone's favourite post, Fly on the Wall. In this series a bunch of bloggers join up to share all of the crazy funny stuff you would see if you were a fly on the wall in their home.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/p/blog-page.html"> <img alt="Fly on the Wall" height="150px" src="https://i.imgur.com/TBBXcgm.png" width="150px" /> </a> </center>
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This month 7 bloggers are participating, so be sure to visit them all.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/10/the-sand-and-witch-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></div>
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<a href="https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/kitties-strange-signs-and-love-fotw.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="https://www.bookwormkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://theblogging911.com/blog" target="_blank">The Blogging 911</a> </span></div>
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Me: What do you want for dinner?<br />
Mum: I don't know, something.<br />
Me: Well that narrows it down. Totally eliminates all of that nothing I was going to buy for you.<br />
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Me: Miss K get in the kitchen and make your lunch.<br />
Miss K: You have to come with me, I need you.<br />
Me: Why do you need me to be in the kitchen with you?<br />
Miss K: Because I like you.<br />
Me: Well I can't argue with that logic.<br />
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<i>My niece Eliza turned 14 this month, and we had teppanyaki to celebrate. One of the dishes we ate was grilled prawn legs, which is an acquired taste to be sure.</i><br />
Sam: Ever had a burger take a bite out of you?<br />
Me: No, but I've had a prawn kick me in the teeth now. Oh God, it's still kicking on the way down.<br />
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<i>Miss K went for her first interstate holiday during the term break this month, which included a trip to all of the super parks on the Gold Coast. She had so many stories to tell when she got back.</i><br />
Miss K: I saw a kangaroo and a koala and the bird with the blue feathers on top.<br />
Me: Do you mean an emu?<br />Miss K: No, not an emu, it was the bird with the blue feathers on top.<br />
Me: It could have been a cassowary I guess<br />
Miss K: No it wasn't a cassowary. It was the bird with the blue feathers. He gets chased by the wolf.<br />
Me: Are you talking about the Road Runner?<br />
Miss K: Yeah, the bird with the blue feathers on top.<br />
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Mum: So Nat had a weird dream last night.<br />
Me: Oh yeah?<br />
Mum: Yeah, she dreamed she was brushing her teeth, then she woke herself up by spitting into her own hand.<br />
Me: Well that's just...lovely.<br />
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<i>Miss K and mum were looking stuff up on the internet.</i><br />
Miss K: Granny is that you?<br />
Mum: No, that's a man thank you very much.<br />
Me: You might want to run away now little girl.<br />
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<i>On another day I was browsing Facebook when Miss K came and sat next to me.</i><br />
Miss K: Mum is that you?<br />
Me: No it's not me.<br />
Miss K: Who is it then?<br />
Me: I don't know, there are seven billion people in this planet kiddo, and a lot of them have the internet.<br />
Miss K: So is it Aunty Sam then?<br />
Me: Seven billion people kiddo. That is so much more than the ten people you know OK? We don't know who this person is.<br />
Miss K: Is it Nat?<br />Me: I swear to God my head is about to explode.<br />
<br />
Miss K: Can I watch telly?<br />
Me: No, you're banned from watching telly. You're banned from everything right now.<br />
Miss K: I'm hungry, I want dessert.<br />
Me: No, you can't have dessert, you're banned remember? You're banned from everything.<br />
Miss K: I'm not banned from being hungry though.<br />
Me: Yes you are, you're banned from being hungry too so knock it off right now.<br />
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Well that's all from around here this month, don't forget to check out all the other blogs participating and see all of the crazy things that have happened elsewhere this month.<br />
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<br />singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-86072669805009683822017-09-23T00:05:00.000+10:002017-09-23T00:05:59.501+10:00September Fly on the WallIt is time once again for September Fly on the Wall. In this series 7 bloggers are joining together to share all of the crazy and funny things you'd here if you were a fly on their wall.<br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/09/heads-up-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Baking In A Tornado</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/2017/09/do-you-know-how-to-drive-fotw.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spatulas on Parade</span></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://theblogging911.com/blog" target="_blank">The Blogging 911</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></div>
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<i>Sam was muttering away to herself one day while we were working.</i><br />
Me: Are you alright over there?<br />
Sam: Yeah, it's called interesting conversations with interesting people.<br />
Me: And the confused people who overhear them.<br />
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It was Father's Day in Australia at the beginning of this month, and Natalie decided to buy mum a megaphone as a Father's Day gift. She gave it to her a day early, while I was out visiting Sam. They then decided to pop in for a surprise visit to Sam's house, where mum walked into the house wearing a dinosaur mask and yelling into the megaphone "This is not a drill, I repeat it is not a drill, it is a megaphone." This would all have been hillarious were Sam and I not in the middle of a business phone call at the time. But we did laugh about the absurdity of the event afterwards.<br />
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I knew I was getting a good addition to this post when my little sister Natalie texted me asking if I was allowed to say coffee tits on my blog. The photo below explains why she needed to know.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvZM3_zlhRukHX_bbXEYfrPT8D_VdjqaJRI5H3slMmcOD7Lov54MjyPcSlfK-A-19gXUoEFkTTccqO4dZdXK8iSU5Iraqsy9Yjnl8DX-_6owwTPjQaKykWTzKBLLs2DyNcZPTShrchqUA/s1600/coffee+tits.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvZM3_zlhRukHX_bbXEYfrPT8D_VdjqaJRI5H3slMmcOD7Lov54MjyPcSlfK-A-19gXUoEFkTTccqO4dZdXK8iSU5Iraqsy9Yjnl8DX-_6owwTPjQaKykWTzKBLLs2DyNcZPTShrchqUA/s400/coffee+tits.png" width="225" /></a></div>
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So needless to say Nat has a new nickname now.</div>
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Nat: Dave bought me a new pillow, but it smells like that drink the cowboy.</div>
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Me: Well I guess that's a good thing as long as you like the smell of cowboys.</div>
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Nat: Dave thinks it smells like bamboo, does bamboo smell like alcohol?</div>
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Me: I...don't know what bamboo smells like. How is this possible? Mum, I've never smelled bamboo.</div>
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Mum: Seriously? You smell everything.</div>
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Me: I know. I guess that's something I have to add to the bucket list now. </div>
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Me: Do you have some scissors I can borrow?<br />Sam: Certainly. Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find.</div>
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Me: Marco and ye shall polo?</div>
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And finally, Natalie had to have an MRI on her back this month, and she very helpfully wrote down some of the thoughts she had whilst strapped into a giant humming tube. With her permission I am repeating all of her thoughts below. As someone who has had several MRIs I can confirm that some of these thoughts are the same ones everyone has whilst stuck in those horrible machines. </div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">T<span style="background-color: white;">houghts from the MRI machine.... story by Natalie </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm really glad I put on pretty underwear... this robe covers nothing! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could be in a dubstep music video. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is the machine laughing at me? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It sounds like the machine is saying "hahahahaha" let's see what else I can hear the machine saying ...:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Party party party"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Paddle battle"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Naaaaaaaat"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Joe"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Don't cry" </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Dub dub dub"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Wub wub wub" </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think someone is playing the theramin... they should make a cd of mri noises and sell it for Halloween parties. Some of these sounds are really creepy. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do I even have hands anymore? I can't feel them? I can't feel anything other than pain. I'm gonna have friction burn on my arms from the bed moving up and down... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">something is burning my arm... aaaaand now it's burning my leg</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course my face is itchy right now</span></div>
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And that's all from me. Don't forget to check out all the other blogs participating.</div>
singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-3646979215424328092017-08-19T00:00:00.000+10:002017-08-19T00:00:26.499+10:00August Fly on the WallIt is time once again for Fly on the Wall. In this series, bloggers join together to share with you just some of the insanity you would see if you were a fly on their wall.<br />
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This month 8 other bloggers are participating, so be sure to visit them all to see all the fun that has happened this month.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/08/always-in-your-mamories-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/2017/07/power-rangers-kitties-and-friends-fotw.html" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/2017/08/18/fly-on-the-wall-vacation-post/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.taylorlife.com/tuna-casserole-recipe-makeover/" target="_blank">TaylorLife</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://hercynfulthoughts.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Cynful Thoughts</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.eviljoyspeaks.com/" target="_blank">Evil Joy Speaks</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
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Me: If it's not broke...<br />
Nat: Buy a new one?<br />
Me: No, don't fix it.<br />
Nat: Oh right, I always get that one wrong.<br />
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Me: Miss K and I played tug-of-war with my pants today. I wanted to see if I could make them longer.<br />
Mum: As you do.<br />
Me: It didn't work unfortunately, I still have flood pants.<br />
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Nat: Tristan and I picked Ben up from work last night, and he was in a mood when he got in the car, he said it was because he'd had an argument with a woman at work about this "stupid plebcicle" When he said that Tristan and I both just lost it and started laughing. I had to explain to him that it was pronounced plebiscite.<br />
Me: Oh please tell me he was calling it a plebcicle during the argument. That would have just made it ten times better.<br />
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Dad: I don't think I impressed Kim's friend too much?<br />Me: Oh? Why not?<br />
Dad: Well I wanted a glass of wine, so I asked if either of them wanted a top up, and the friend did. So I asked her how many fingers she liked and both of them just started laughing. Shortly after that she found a reason to excuse herself for the night.<br />
Me: I told Kim there had to be a good reason why you can tolerate me more than her, and now I know.<br />
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<i>Miss K's school is doing a dress up parade at the end of book week. There have been many discussions over the past few weeks about costume ideas.</i><br />
Me: I think I'm just going to say I'm dressing Miss K up as Where's Wally for the book parade and then just not send her to school that day.<br />
Mum: That's genius. Then if they ask you where she was you can just say she was there the whole time, they just couldn't find her.<br />
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<i>My nephew Matty was pretending to clean me with a tree branch</i><br />
Matty: There you go, you're all clean. Oh, wait you'll never be really clean, you have a filthy mind.<br />
Me: Ooh burn. You're too young for that level of sass young man.<br />
Matty: Nope.<br />
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Mum: What's that on your butt? It's a chocolate sultana.<br />
Me: Oh that's where that went. I lost it last night and spent ages looking for it. Except I was looking on the floor. It never occurred to me to search my butt.<br />
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Eliza: Have you ever broken down the word assassination? Ass sass in nation. Nation is the best place to have ass sass.<br />
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<i>I was chatting on the phone with a friend Helen. Her daughter went to kindergarten with Miss K, and they're now both in prep together, so Helen and I spend a lot of time together.</i><br />
Helen: There, I've just washed my makeup off my face.<br />
Me: What? Did you just say you just put toilet water on your face?<br />Helen: No you drongo, I just washed my make up off.<br />
Me: Oh thank goodness.<br />
<br />
Me: Miss K thinks I have a magic butt.<br />
Mum: Well that's...special.<br />
Me: She kept putting things on my seat right as I was about to sit down, so I'd just palm them while she wasn't looking and she was convinced I was really making them disappear.<br />
Mum: Well one day she's going to find out your butt isn't magic at all, just really big.<br />
Me: Thanks. She was so disappointed when she found out her butt couldn't make things disappear, she just kept saying "I don't have a magic butt like you mum"<br />
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<i>Sam and I were regaling her two kids with stories of the stupid things we've done in the past.</i><br />
Sam: See this scar on my thumb? I worked in a restaurant when I was 17 and one day I chopped off the tip of my finger while cutting up the lettuce. I should have gotten stitches but the tip of the thumb got thrown out with the lettuce.<br />
Me: I had to get stitches once. I cut my arm open cleaning up the glass I broke when I drove through my lounge room window and ended up with 5 stitches in my arm.<br />
Eliza: Why did you drive through your lounge room window?<br />
Me: I was trying to do a 3 point turn in my driveway and the lounge room got in the way.<br />
Matty: How are you two still alive?<br />
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Sam: Remember that time we were playing Greek wedding with the kitchen tiles?<br />
Me: Yeah, I sliced my thumb open with one of the broken tiles.<br />
Eliza: What?<br />
Sam: The kitchen in the first house your dad and I lived in had these horrible, ugly tiles on the wall, so we pulled them down, and started smashing them together like the Greeks do at weddings.<br />
Me: And then we took sharpies and wrote swear words all over the exposed wall.<br />
Eliza: What? why?<br />
Sam: We were going to paint the walls anyway so we decided to have some fun since it was all going to be covered over soon anyway.<br />
Me: I think Brad even drew a few penises for good measure<br />
Sam: Except then we didn't end up getting the paint, and shortly after we moved out and left dad in the house with the swear words all over the kitchen. He had to paint it himself when he got sick of looking at it.<br />
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Well that's it for this month, I'll leave you with a photo of Miss K in her brand new ballerina uniform. We've started her in ballet this month to improve her balance and co-ordination and she's absolutely loving it. Every time I have to get her dressed for class she runs around the house in this uniform yelling "I'm a ballerina!!"<br />
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<br />singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-54138079761024755062017-07-22T00:00:00.000+10:002017-07-22T00:00:54.239+10:00July Fly on the WallWelcome one again to Fly on the Wall. The monthly series where a bunch of bloggers join together to share the crazy things you'd see and hear were you a fly on the wall in their house.<br />
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This month 8 bloggers are participating, be sure to check out all their links below to keep up the fun.<br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/07/kicked-by-karma-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado </a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.gomamao.com/" target="_blank">Go Mama O</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com.au/2017/07/orange-you-glad-drink-and-fotw-july.html" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Little Piece of Peace</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/2017/07/21/fly-on-the-wall-15/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a> </span></span></div>
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<i>Matty had some McDonalds chips and he was feeding them to some seagulls when he discovered that Finding Nemo was all a lie.</i><br />
Matty: They don't sound like they're saying "Mine" at all.<br />
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Mum: Miss K went to the toilet last night while I was in bed, and she's chatting to herself happily until she stops, and then goes "Ugh, not again." then went back to chatting.<br />
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Nat: I could always tell when my period was coming because my drinks of Coke would start to taste like hot dogs.<br />
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Miss K: Mum, what are you doing?<br />Me: I'm plucking a hair on my chin.<br />
Miss K: Is that cos you're turning into a boy?<br />Me: Run away now little girl.<br />
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Nat: Dave was walking out of the room the other day and I thought he said "I'm going to go to the toilet and blame myself." I started laughing at him and told him what I heard. He went to the toilet and then I heard him saying "It's all my fault somehow"<br />
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Me: Alright, I'm going to go cook dinner now.<br />
Miss K: I've already had dinner.<br />
Me: What? No you haven't<br />
Miss K: Yeah, I had a lollipop for dinner.<br />
Me: A lollipop isn't dinner.<br />
Miss K: Yes it is, I'm not hungry now.<br />
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<i>I was serving ice cream for dessert one night.</i><br />
Miss K: I love you.<br />
Me: Are you talking to me or the dessert?<br />Miss K: The ice cream.<br />
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<i>I was tearing the house apart looking for my shoes one day.</i><br />
Me: Miss K have you seen my shoes?<br /><i>Miss K starts giggling and runs out of the room. I follow her to her playroom where she is standing next to her toy box. Neatly placed inside her toy box were my shoes.</i><br />
Miss K: I hid them from you.<br />
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Mum: So there's a cleaning product at work called Speed. Tonight Merv came in asking for a mop and bucket to clean an area and as he was walking out I yelled out after him "I've got some speed on the top shelf if you want it." It wasn't until I finished saying it that I realised how bad it sounded.<br />
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Well that's all from around here, don't forget to check out all the other blogs.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-30947051997685394492017-07-06T14:21:00.002+10:002017-07-06T14:21:55.674+10:00Product Review - P'ure Papaya CareHello again everyone I am back to share another amazing product with you. As you all know I'm a sucker for natural beauty products. Especially when it comes to my daughter, I hate the thought of lathering her up with products full of harmful chemicals. So when I was contacted by the makers of P'ure Papaya Care I jumped at the chance to check out their products.<br />
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Phytocare is a company that makes 100% natural skin care products. Their products were created by a Daniel Baden, a naturopath with over 30 years experience in the industry, who has seen the long term effects that continued use of harmful chemicals has on skin, and he wanted to do something about it, so he started his own range of skincare products. The P'ure Papaya Care range has no petrochemicals in them at all, instead using all natural ingredients that are beneficial for your skin.<br />
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I was sent bottles of their papaya ointment as well as their vapour balm, and I was hooked from the beginning. The papaya ointment is so thick and creamy when you apply it, a little bit really goes a long way with this product, and even Miss K liked putting it on after a shower. You can feel the difference straight away once you've applied the ointment, and your skin feels so soft for ages afterwards. I'm not going to lie, I became a little bit obsessed with this stuff, and it got to the point where I had it sitting on my coffee table. so that any time someone new came into the house they'd have to ask about it and I made them all try it. This stuff is a definite winner, and with winter finally here I'm going to be keeping it in my handbag at all times now to help me battle the horrible dry skin I end up with every year.<br />
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The papaya vapour balm was awesome too. I wasn't sure whether we'd get a chance to try this one or not, but wouldn't you know it, Miss K and I both ended up with horrible colds shortly after my package arrived, which gave me the perfect excuse to give it a test run. The balm is made with eucalyptus and lemon myrtle, and to be honest I wasn't sure I would like that combination, but for some reason the smell reminded me of camping trips with my dad when I was a kid. (Normally dragging those memories up require three more months of therapy, but this time it made me feel happy) The smell is really refreshing which is always a plus for me, but more importantly the balm worked wonders on stuffy noses during the night and I slept easy knowing that I wasn't going to be woken up by two blocked noses at 3am. And because there are no petroleum based products in the balm either it didn't have that heavy greasy feeling you normally get with vapour rubs, which is part of the reason I normally just tough out blocked noses when I'm sick, but not any more.<br />
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One of the best aspects of these products is the lack of harmful chemicals. There is no petroleum based products in there, no artificial fragrances or preservatives, no nasty stuff at all. Just natural oils and ingredients. There is no palm oil, they don't test on animals and they are certified 100% natural, meaning the P'ure Papaya Care range is safe for the whole family to use. This product ticks all the boxes, and they are reasonably priced too, which is just the icing on the cake.<br />
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So if you suffer from dry, irritated skin and you're looking for a natural product to get your skin glowing again, check out P'ure Papaya Care today.<br />
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**Disclaimer**<br />
I received free products from P'ure Papaya Care for the purpose of this review. All opinions given here are my own and have in no way been influenced by P'ure Papaya Care or anyone else. Searching for Sanity is not affiliated with P'ure Papaya Care or their associates in any way.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-68093048534911388292017-06-24T01:00:00.000+10:002017-06-24T09:05:08.795+10:00June Fly on the WallWelcome back to Fly on the Wall. This month 7 bloggers are joining together to show you all the weird and wonderful you would see if you were a fly on the wall in their house.<br />
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Below is a list of all the blogs participating today, be sure to visit them all to enjoy all the crazy.</center>
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/06/the-napkin-says-so-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank"><br /></a></center>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/06/the-napkin-says-so-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com.au/2017/06/oven-smores-and-fotw.html" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Little Piece of Peace</a> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></div>
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Miss K: Mum you're a bandage.</center>
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Me: I'm a what?</center>
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Miss K: You're a bandage, a bad guy.</center>
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Me: Oh you mean bandit.</center>
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Miss K: Yeah. You're going to jail.</center>
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<i>I got a call from Nat one night and she was in hysterics. I had direct instructions that the story she was about to tell had to be included in this post. I'd be more embarrassed to share this story were it not for the fact that this is just typical shenanigans for my dad and Kim.</i></center>
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So Dad and Kim travelled with Nat and her boyfriend Dave into the city to help one of our nieces celebrate her 18th birthday. They caught a tram into the city square, but the line they caught can be pretty confusing, some tram stops are placed at traffic lights, and others are placed after them. It turns out the stop they wanted was one of the stops placed after the traffic lights, but they didn't know this. So the tram stops at a red light and announces the name of their stop, so dad and Kim head towards the automatic doors and wait for them to open, except they don't because the tram isn't at the stop yet. So in true Kim form she started to panic and frantically pull at the doors, the stop button, anything she can get her hands on with no luck. Dad tries the door too but given he's a 64 year old man and the doors are electric he was no match for them. Nat and Dave tried to explain to both of them that they weren't at the stop yet, but neither were in any mood to listen to her and just kept pulling on the doors. It took a stranger to calm them down and explain that they needed to wait until the tram actually arrived at the designated stop before they could get off the tram.</center>
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So that part was bad enough, and it had me giggling pretty hard already. However, while I was on the phone with Natalie as she told me this story she had to stop talking for about two minutes to laugh, because while she'd turned her back on the group to speak to me, Kim had wandered off on her own and mistaken some random old man for dad and was currently trying to pull this poor confused man back with her to join the group. </center>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Words of encouragement from mum on my birthday</span></div>
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So I turned 33 at the end of May, and I decided that the best way to commemorate the increase in my age was to spend a day playing computer and board games at Sam and Jason's house, coupled with large amounts of junk food. I always say growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional.</div>
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<i>Miss K and I were cooking dinner together one night.</i></div>
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Miss K: Mum, smell my fart.</div>
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Me: I don't want to smell your fart you feral.</div>
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Miss K: Ha ha, you already did.</div>
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<i>Miss K has a reading log she's meant to bring home from school every single night. One night it wasn't in her bag, and she told me her teacher had instructed her to throw it away. I questioned her for ages because I knew that wasn't something that her teacher would say but she was insistent that she was just doing what she was told. So the next morning I went to see her teacher...</i></div>
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Mrs R: I looked in my bin last night and found Miss K's reading log in there.</div>
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Me: Yeah, she told me you told her to throw it away?<br />Mrs R: Oh. Oh, no there was a sticky note on the front, and it was looking pretty ratty so I pointed to that and told her she could throw <i>it</i> away as she didn't need it any more. I guess I should have been more specific.<br />Me: Yeah, she's a pretty literal person. </div>
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Miss K's teacher is starting to learn just how literal Miss K is. However the work sheets she hands out aren't quite as sympathetic as she is. One sheet instructed the kids to draw a picture of a boy standing outside in spring. Sure enough Miss K translated that instruction literally and drew a picture of a boy surrounded by metal springs. </div>
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<i>Nat called me one day while I was at work with Sam, and after a short chat we ended the call, mainly because we both needed a bathroom break.</i></div>
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Me: Ok, I'm gonna go now, I'll be thinking of you while I'm on the toilet.</div>
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Nat: Thanks, you have fun with that, bye.</div>
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Sam: You two have a weird relationship.</div>
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<i>I was working on a drawing of a taco while at work one day, and I decided to give him a sad face.</i></div>
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Sam: Why does that taco look so sad?<br />Me: He doesn't want to taco-bout it.</div>
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<i>Cue me rolling on the floor at my hilarious dad level joke.</i> </div>
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Sam: So I was just having a dream that we were on the space station and we decided to play hide and seek, except something went wrong and you broke a window and we were about to get sucked out into space.</div>
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Me: Well it's a good thing that I woke you up then.</div>
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Sam: It is. Also if you ever do end up on the space station, please don't play hide and seek.</div>
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Me: Duly noted.</div>
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So that's all from this crazy corner of the world, I'm off to hunt out (or create) more shenanigans for next month.</div>
singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-31081346407828275852017-05-20T00:00:00.000+10:002017-05-20T00:00:10.234+10:00May Fly on the Wall<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">It is time once again for Fly on the Wall. The series that allows you a
sneak peek of all the crazy things you'd see if you were a fly on the wall at
our house. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Today 9 bloggers are participating in the fun. Be sure to visit them all
to keep the fun going.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/05/knock-knock-fly-on-wall.html">Baking In A Tornado</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/">Menopausal
Mother</a> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://eileensperpetuallybusy.blogspot.com.au/2017/05/fly-on-wall-may-2017.htm">Eileen’s Perpetually Busy</a> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/">Spatulas
on Parade</a> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/">A Little Piece of Peace</a> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/">Never
Ever Give Up Hope</a> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/">Bookworm
in the Kitchen</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://notthatsarahmichelle.blogspot.com/">Not That Sarah Michelle</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I have a friend Helen whose daughter went to kindergarten with
Miss K last year, and they've come to the same school as us this year. One day
I had Helen on the phone with me for an hour worried senseless about her
daughter's refusal to complete her school work and her attitude in general, and
all I could do was reassure her that what her daughter was going through was
pretty normal for a 6-year-old, and she shouldn't be so hard on herself. Not
even an hour after I got off the phone with her the school called me to let me
know Miss K had decided that day was the perfect day to go on strike and she
was refusing to do any of her work. I got the issue sorted out, but figured
this was just what Helen needed to hear to make her feel better. So, come pick
up time I marched through the school gates to Miss K's classroom, interrupted
Helen's conversation with some of the other mums and proudly yelled out</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">"You want proof all 6 year olds are assholes? my daughter went on
strike today." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Needless to say, my yelling got the attention of all the other
mums, so Helen had to explain why I was yelling about asshole kids, and then we
all spent the next 10 minutes sharing war stories of all the attitude we get
off our darling children. On the plus side, Helen felt much better by the
time the kids were finished school for the day. </span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Miss K and I were snuggling together in my polar fleece blanket.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: This blanket is made of polar bear fleas. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: Did you know Dave has never seen Robin Hood Men in Tights?<br />
Me: Seriously? Was he raised in a cupboard under the stairs or something?<br />
Nat: I think so.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLX58Xp_o7e5wk3mdojaM8HtNo_aIiRcdXTZfLxIzoyStlluFimDu_OAn9J-Zplx9JyEM5d-HVSETDbmqyVO2f7TIfSNAVsHi_lcqdZOS5YJMiz7aMBLJ8YuHWpd7kfFver6Zt-C8X7kJW/s1600/Text+from+Nat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLX58Xp_o7e5wk3mdojaM8HtNo_aIiRcdXTZfLxIzoyStlluFimDu_OAn9J-Zplx9JyEM5d-HVSETDbmqyVO2f7TIfSNAVsHi_lcqdZOS5YJMiz7aMBLJ8YuHWpd7kfFver6Zt-C8X7kJW/s400/Text+from+Nat.png" width="225" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">This is what happens when you leave my sister Nat
unsupervised for 3 days. Her answer to my question was 'bout 5'4"<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Miss K has discovered that she can whistle much to my dismay.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Miss K put your whistle in your pocket.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Miss K simulates pulling a whistle out of her mouth and then mashes her
hand in my face.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Did you just take my whistle out too?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: No, I put it in you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: That's what he said.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: What?<br />
Me: Never mind. Are you ready to go yet?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sam was complaining to me about someone talking crap about her to her
husband Jason.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Sam: Don't waste your time being nice to my face only to talk crap about
me behind my face.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Eliza starts laughing uncontrollably </span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Sam: What?<br />
Eliza: No, nothing, I just think it would be a bit hard to squeeze in behind
your face to start talking about you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Sam: Oh, yeah, it's behind my back, isn't it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Yeah.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: You have to marry dad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Nah, I don't wanna do that, he smells.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: If you don't marry daddy, he'll never be my uncle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Um that's not how that works sweetheart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: How do you make orange? It's yellow and red, right?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Do I need to make you watch Blue’s Clues again to learn
your colours?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: Did I tell you about the time I tried to make purple paint at work?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: No.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: So, purple is made of blue and red right? Well for some reason I
mixed green and red together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: So, you made a lovely shade of poo brown then?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: Yep. I just stared at it and was like wait a minute, you're not
purple.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">One day I was at Sam's place typing up a blog post while she had a nap
on the couch. At one stage, she sits bolt upright in her chair</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Sam: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?!?!?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I jump in fright and look over at her and she's staring into the
kitchen. I look in the kitchen and see nothing.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: What the hell is what?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">By the time the words have left my mouth she's lying back down again
asleep and I had to spend the next ten minutes trying to get my heart to stop
beating out of my chest. I still have no idea what she saw because she doesn't
remember it at all.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: I remember when you went through that phase where you wanted to name
all your pets foreign words for animals. Like you have a fish and you name it
fish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: Yeah, the problem with that was the only other word I knew for fish
was from an Asian language and it was literally just five or six fs. So, I
would have just gone around saying "This is my fish, ffffff."<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Text from Ady. Just call me Amy Farafella. Also, my
go to attack seems to be to accuse everyone of being high the minute they stop
making any sense to me.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Mum: So, the youngest cleaner at school is dating one of the students,
and she comes and helps him at work. Well she's been taking a lot of days off
lately to take care of her mum, and she's been warned she needs to start
attending more. Tonight, she's helping her boyfriend and she spots her
co-ordinator talking to someone else and she ducks out of sight. Five minutes
later her boyfriend comes walking down the path with a random bin he's not
meant to have, and no girlfriend to be seen. He was sneaking her past the
teacher in the bin. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The following conversation is related to the computer game Minecraft</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: The other night my pigs decided to form a pig centipede.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Ew, that's creepy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: Yeah it is, to say the least. Actually, to say the least would be
to say "eh".<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: And to think we used to have to pretend to laugh at your jokes when
you were a kid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: Hey! Maybe it was a good thing that worked.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Well that was the plan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Nat: Dave thinks I'm funny.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Dave grew up living under the stairs, of course he thinks you're
funny.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Sam: There's one important thing we forgot to consider when buying our
son a bunk bed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Oh yeah? What's that?<br />
Sam: How long it takes to get off a bunk bed when you need to vomit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Oh dear. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I'll spare you the gory details, but needless to say, my nephew didn't
make it to the toilet in time.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Sam A: I used to be convinced that my life was like a reality show and I
was the star.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: I used to think that too, but it made me really self-conscious when
I needed to pick my nose. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: Mum is my heart beating?<br />
<i>I put my head on her chest and check</i><br />
Me: It sure is kiddo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: So, I'm not dead then?<br />
Me: No, I'm pretty sure you're still alive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Miss K: Phew.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I help out in Miss K's class on Fridays. This is a conversation I had
with one of the boys in the reading group I take each week.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Connor: Your name is Grumpy Old Man Zucchini.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Oh yeah? Well your name is Disgruntled Pumpkin. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Connor: You're completely bonkers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Me: Yep.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;">Well that's all the crazy I can squeeze into one post for now, be sure
to visit all the other bloggers as they've all got their own special brand of
fun going on today too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-38598304880583101452017-04-25T21:30:00.000+10:002017-04-25T21:30:03.362+10:00Short Story ShorterCan you make a statement on any topic in just 7 words? It's harder than it looks, but apparently it can be done. I have never been known for my ability to keep things short and sweet, but I salute anyone who can, like former president George W. Bush who was able to sum up President Trump's inauguration in just 5 words; <i>"That was some weird shit."</i> What else needs to be said really?<br />
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So when the wonderful Karen from <a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/" target="_blank">Baking in a Tornado</a> gave me the opportunity to join forces with her and try to make our statements short and sweet I jumped at the chance. This isn't a new idea by any means, but that didn't mean we didn't have a heap of fun along the way. Credit must be given to <a href="https://coachdaddyblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Coach Daddy</a> who runs this as a regular challenge using 6 word answers, and was part of the inspiration behind us deciding to give it a go.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOrcCeU8Cd2Y57E_J2Dv-InyGpREAD0h3lhdjuvPuYl0Qlyq1X1fxoapbvRv4KEKmdRzAp0j2R_vwXYzdqEuN3nTKTAUwRQ2DtEIMt4XD_msMMhBp8GKFwppb1Odrq6NeCngLHsanOcqVN/s1600/551+-+Short+Story+Shorter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOrcCeU8Cd2Y57E_J2Dv-InyGpREAD0h3lhdjuvPuYl0Qlyq1X1fxoapbvRv4KEKmdRzAp0j2R_vwXYzdqEuN3nTKTAUwRQ2DtEIMt4XD_msMMhBp8GKFwppb1Odrq6NeCngLHsanOcqVN/s400/551+-+Short+Story+Shorter.jpg" width="338" /></a></div>
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So the idea behind this challenge is pretty simple. Karen and I each came up with a heap of different topics, and we each have to say something on all of the topics in 7 words. No more, no less which is quite difficult for both Karen and I. Be sure to visit Karen's website after this to get her take on the topics as well.</div>
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<i>1. April showers</i></div>
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Mean winter is on its way soon</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>2. Doing laundry</i></div>
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Is it legal to go naked yet?</div>
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<i>3. The joy of toddlers</i></div>
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You're saying I'm meant to enjoy this?</div>
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<i>4. Do you ever get enough sleep?</i></div>
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No, because I sleep with barnacle girl.</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>5. Could you last a day without internet?</i></div>
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I lasted 13 years so why not? </div>
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<i>6. Weekends</i></div>
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Still mean work because of my daughter</div>
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<i>7. What's your reaction when you see a spider in the house?</i></div>
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How long until Miss K starts screaming?</div>
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<i>8. How do you feel about getting older?</i></div>
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I just keep getting better with age.</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>9. What's your favourite form of exercise?</i></div>
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Does pushing my luck count as exercise?</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>10.Apply a parenting lesson to politics</i></div>
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Nappies and politicians should be changed regularly</div>
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<i>11. What is something you feel naked without?</i></div>
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My handbag, it stores my entire life.</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>12. What is the weirdest thing you have eaten?</i></div>
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Probably chicken feed pellets as a kid</div>
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<i>13. Your best parenting advice to new parents</i></div>
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It gets easier I promise, just breathe.</div>
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<i>14. Time travel</i></div>
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I'd go back and meet Oscar Wilde</div>
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<i>15. What would your superpower be?</i></div>
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Eyes in the back of my head.</div>
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<i>16. Dieting</i></div>
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Is for suckers, pass me the chocolate.</div>
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<i>17. What makes a best friend?</i></div>
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Someone who knows you inside and out</div>
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<i>18. What is your least favourite chore</i></div>
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I absolutely loathe having to do dishes.</div>
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<i>19. Which is better, sweet or savoury?</i></div>
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Sweets will always win in my eyes.</div>
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<i>20. What is the best invention ever? </i></div>
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Milky coffee - without it life is sluggish</div>
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Whew, that took more counting on my fingers than I am prepared to admit to right now, but there you have it. If any of you have alternate answers to any of the questions, I'd love to hear them in the comments below. Also don't forget to visit Karen's blog and check out her answers too. </div>
<br />singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-72701970369990126682017-04-22T01:00:00.000+10:002017-04-22T19:14:57.749+10:00April Fly on the Wall - Medical Woes up the Wazoo<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's time once again for Fly on the Wall. Today 7 bloggers have all joined forces to share with you just some of the crazy thing you would see or hear if you were a fly on their wall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.bakinginatornado.com/p/blog-page.html"> <img alt="Fly on the Wall" height="150px" src="https://i.imgur.com/TBBXcgm.png" width="150px" /> </a> </span></center>
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Below is a list of all the bloggers participating this month, be sure to visit them all and enjoy the hilarity. </span></center>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/04/voluntary-research-assistant-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/southwest-chicken-noodles-plus-april.html" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade </a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Little Piece of Peace</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Miss K got a nasty splinter in her big toe the other week, It was pretty deep, and to get the splinter out and the area cleaned up was no easy task, which of course Miss K objected to vigorously. Once I'd gotten the worst of the job done, and I'd had enough of having to make her scream I pulled her into my lap for a cuddle when she dropped a guilt bomb on me.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Miss K: There's a hole in my foot.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: It's not a hole, it's just a cut. I had to cut your foot to get to all the dirt honey. I don't want you getting an infection. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Miss K: There's a hole in my foot that YOU put there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The very next day she went to the park with her dad and they'd not been out the door ten minutes when he calls me.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ady: So Miss K's got a new injury.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: What happened?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ady: She kissed a pole and now she has a huge bruise on her lip.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: How hard did she kiss it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ady: I dunno. she came up to me crying and when I told her to show me what happened she just walked over to a pole and kissed it.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>When they got home Miss K very indignantly told me she hadn't been kissing poles, she'd been sliding down them and accidentally smacked her face. She was more insulted that her father would go around spreading such a false story about her than anything else.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">That weekend I was telling my little brother Ben about having to operate on Miss K's toe during the week</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: I get my surgery skills from dad. I still remember that time he got a nasty cut on his finger and gave himself stitches.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ben: That's nothing. One time while I was living with him, he cut the tip of his finger off, and I had to hold it in place for him so he could put a band-aid on it.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Nat and I were discussing a request she'd been given to pick our sister Kim up from hospital, which she refused because of back pain.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Well of course you can't go pick her up, you're in too much pain right now. You should be taking care of yourself right now, everyone else can bugger off.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nat: Well if it wasn't for Dave reminding me that I'm meant to be taking it easy right now and taking care of myself I probably would have jumped up and helped her without thinking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Well good on Dave for doing that. Give him a high five from me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nat: In the face?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: With a chair!</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">While visiting my sister Sam and her kids one day</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eliza: Does anyone know what Anatidaephobia means?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: It's the fear that you're being watched by a duck.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sam and Matty both laugh, thinking I'm being stupid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eliza: It's the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sam: How the hell did you even know that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: It's all my dank memes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum: One word of advice for you Erin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Ok.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum: Don't have kids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Thanks mum. It's six years too late, but thank you anyway.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">So my sister in law Sam had her gall bladder removed on a Monday, and three days later she and my brother Josh came over to our house for a cuppa.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Why aren't you at home resting?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sam: I don't know, I'm crazy like that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Most people would take surgery as an excuse to lie in bed for a week and do nothing but sleep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Josh: Well I keep trying but she won't let me.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Later that day Sam was complaining about how Josh stonewalls her when he's angry</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Josh: I need time to calm down so I can think about what I want to say.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Learn to meditate Josh, it makes it happen faster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Josh: I already do that every day. Oh, wait you said meditate not masturbate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Hmm, ladyfinger roll cakes</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum starts giggling to herself</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me; Oh grow up.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two young Mormon missionaries come to my house every week for a chat. One time they ended the visit by asking if I need any help.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elder: Is there anything we can do to help you this week?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: No, I'm pretty good right now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elder: Are you sure? we can mow the lawns if you like.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Nah, it's cool, I hire a local man to do it every few weeks, it helps the economy and I don't have to do it myself. But if you really want to help, there's a massive wolf spider on my daughter's trampoline that I can't kill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elder: Oh dear no, I'm terrified of spiders, I'll do anything except that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Then I'm all good for now, thanks.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Later that night</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum: Why did you ask him to kill the spider for you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: I knew he wouldn't do it. He's told me before he's terrified of spiders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: That's just mean.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Well the last time a missionary offered help I asked him to babysit Miss K for me so I could have a nap but that was just as terrifying a request apparently. </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before you get angry at me for picking on the missionaries, please know that he gives as good as he takes. This particular missionary is a young lad from Tonga, and because he knows I know absolutely nothing about Tonga he's always teasing me. That same visit, I was discussing my trip to Vanuatu when I was 20.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: It was amazing, I drank coconut water straight from the coconut.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elder: Oh my back yard is full of coconut trees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Really? That's awesome.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elder: No, not really. But I do drink coconut water straight from the coconut. It tastes better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Ohh ok. Well I saw banana trees for the first time too. I had no idea bananas grew in giant balls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elder; Oh my house is made from banana palms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Really that's cool.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elder: No, it's not really. But my back yard is full of banana trees. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: I don't know what to believe any more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: What is Maundy Thursday?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum: I don't know, why do you think I would know.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: You call yourself a Catholic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum: Look it up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: It's also known as Holy Thursday</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum: That's what we called it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: No explanation on what Easter Monday is about.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mum: That's when the chocolate's on sale. </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Miss K spent Easter at her Nonna's house in Melbourne this year, so I had to wish her a happy Easter over Skype on Easter Sunday</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Happy Easter baby girl.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Miss K: Buona Pasqua mama (happy Easter in Italian)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Buona Pasqua!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nonna: See, I told you mummy would know what you meant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Miss K: You said buona Pasqua mummy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nonna: When I first taught her how to say it, she kept saying buona pasta.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Were you wishing everyone a happy pasta Miss K?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Miss K: Yeah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">My little sister Natalie had to get an ingrown toenail cut out yesterday, and she's never had the highest pain threshold in the world, even with three doses of anaesthetic in her foot she could feel the toenail being cut out</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nat: I hate when they ask you obvious questions. At one stage I said ouch, and the doctor stopped and said "are you alright? is that hurting you?" I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from giving a sarcastic answer, as he had a scalpel to my foot at the time, so I didn't want to piss him off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: I don't blame you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nat: Dave hates it, because I'll always give him a sarcastic answer to his obvious questions, but then he's never holding a scalpel to my foot at the time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Me: Note to self, buy Dave a scalpel for his birthday. That way if he wants to ask you an obvious questions he can just threaten you with it at the same time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well that's all from this mad house for another month, don't forget to buzz on over to all the other blogs and enjoy the rest of the madness.</span></div>
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singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-83170133325804410742017-04-20T09:00:00.000+10:002017-04-20T09:00:33.741+10:00Product Review - Brightstar KidsMother's Day is right around the corner here in Australia, and with it comes the perfect opportunity to let the women in your life know how much you appreciate them. Whether it be your own mother, your grandmother, the mother of your children, or anyone else in between who has had a great impact on your life. Recently I was contacted by <a href="https://www.brightstarkids.com.au/" target="_blank">Bright Star Kids</a> and offered the chance to review one of the products from their Mother's Day range.<br />
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This was perfect timing for me, because my mum is one of the hardest women for me to buy for. I struggle every single year to find something that she will like, not because she is very picky, but because she never wants for anything, so gifts are always tricky.<br />
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Bright Star Kids sell a huge range of products, from personalised label stickers, wall art, and kids clothing, on top of their current range of gifts for Mother's Day, all of which are very beautiful, and I spent a good twenty minutes browsing their website before I went to the Mother's Day range, just drooling over all of their other products. When I got to the Mother's Day gifts I was overwhelmed by the range they had. There is something for every mum from a personalised family planner for the practical mum who likes to be organised to personalised drink bottles for the mum who likes to be hydrated. There's gifts that can be personalised multiple ways so you can get one for mum and one for Nan, and there's even gifts to celebrate a mum's very first Mother's Day. Choosing which product I was going to review was no easy task, but I finally settled on one of their tote bags, which I personalised with all of the grandchildren's names.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaa398qE2bMHUkliw7mYreUZO2H9aW155ms9O-mRnT0nk9jhIiE3MJc1DZC66n-Lhe4eya6YAuRSPQxxahUxIcLHBOeGQSbC3I98FjUvzVL3UrK0YHgxczktwoSjfSRD75YQxHM0HiN7dh/s1600/bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaa398qE2bMHUkliw7mYreUZO2H9aW155ms9O-mRnT0nk9jhIiE3MJc1DZC66n-Lhe4eya6YAuRSPQxxahUxIcLHBOeGQSbC3I98FjUvzVL3UrK0YHgxczktwoSjfSRD75YQxHM0HiN7dh/s400/bag.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
The purchasing of one of their personalised products is super easy. You pick the design you like, pick the colour you like and then add in the names. I loved this part, because none of my nieces or nephews call mum grandma, she's always been granny ever since my oldest niece Eliza was little, so finding somewhere that could make me a gift that said granny and not grandma was pretty exciting for me. I was also a little worried because I had 5 names to put in the banner, but they all fit easily, and it looks to me like there could even be room for more if necessary, so big families fear not.<br />
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When the product arrived at our door I was impressed yet again. The tote bag they supplied is super strong and sturdy, and made out of 100% cotton. The print job was perfect, absolutely no flaws anywhere, and the navy blue colour I picked was lovely and deep and really stood out against the creamy white cotton. The designs they have are simple and clean, but that is part of what makes them so striking. I cannot recommend them enough, and their prices are very reasonable too, so there is a gift there for every budget.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg20Yvk8z76m_0bdgh61HwU2HhpGVMAa8ln0l0rOxyOZ9etJOpck4u-lOxr-B1ZzaKim2wvTUvcMPs6qtXhBRGmyeLVjxAxorG0U7iI_ZQPR2OVTNOok0yaXcgD538gadTZX4hcCD6VRzYf/s1600/bag+model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg20Yvk8z76m_0bdgh61HwU2HhpGVMAa8ln0l0rOxyOZ9etJOpck4u-lOxr-B1ZzaKim2wvTUvcMPs6qtXhBRGmyeLVjxAxorG0U7iI_ZQPR2OVTNOok0yaXcgD538gadTZX4hcCD6VRzYf/s400/bag+model.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
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Elmo decided he needed to get a start on his modelling career.</div>
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If you would like to check out their range of Mother's Day gifts, you can find them <a href="https://www.brightstarkids.com.au/mother-s-day/" target="_blank">here</a>. As a gift for all of my lovely readers, you can save 10% off your store-wide purchase with the coupon code MUM10<br />
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Now I know it's not Mother's Day yet, but I let mum have a sneaky look at her gift, and she loves it. She's been bragging about it to anyone who will listen to her, so I promise you'll be able to find a winner for your mum if you check out Bright Star Kids.<br />
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**Disclosure**<br />
I received free products from Bright Star Kids for the purpose of this review. All opinions given here are my own and have in no way been influenced by Bright Star Kids or anyone else. Searching for Sanity is not affiliated with Bright Star Kids in any way.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-10442516469633299652017-04-11T11:43:00.000+10:002017-04-11T11:43:08.438+10:00Why I Started, and Why I can't Stop Volunteering - a guest post<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Last year I was contacted by a lovely lady Ashley Stafford, who is a volunteer with Treat Mesothelioma. She wanted an opportunity to share her story, as well as a chance to spread awareness about the horror that is Mesothelioma and she asked whether I would help. Below are her words, as well as a stack of very helpful links to further information on Mesothelioma for you to check out.</i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VL5SXtsTQMp7Xv-cI7sTGb-zvtUgEo98zFC530HxL3iWuLUoxo_sZ29osQQvPdkC88oSiiV9AwAMda1pkA2A62F7qjb3eoJWhsl2UCtcj2RJXJf0AkJj9sAvGbvEpmqsOR4TYSG31ScJ/s1600/Treat+mesothelioma.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2VL5SXtsTQMp7Xv-cI7sTGb-zvtUgEo98zFC530HxL3iWuLUoxo_sZ29osQQvPdkC88oSiiV9AwAMda1pkA2A62F7qjb3eoJWhsl2UCtcj2RJXJf0AkJj9sAvGbvEpmqsOR4TYSG31ScJ/s400/Treat+mesothelioma.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When my best friends dad, Rick Romanenko, was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, I saw a family get turned upside down, I was turned upside down. Everything that felt right, everything that felt in order was now backwards. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With general/common cancers, people always tell you to never lose hope and to always have faith that things will get better. Well, with mesothelioma unfortunately, there are no options or hopes for a curing miracle. When Rick was pronounced dead to this asbestos related cancer. It was absolutely the hardest thing I have ever had to witness to date and that is why I began volunteering and raising awareness. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before Rick, I had never even heard of mesothelioma, nor for asbestos for that matter. Except for the late television commercials or the radio ads from a </span><a href="https://www.treatmesothelioma.org/resources/mesothelioma-law-firm/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mesothelioma law firm</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. That was the only connection I had to this cancer, but one thing… one question… kept running through my head… </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why was he diagnosed in such a late stage of this cancer?</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I soon learned that mesothelioma is extremely difficult to diagnose because it commonly gets mistaken for the common cold. The reason for it’s usual inaccurate diagnose is because of it’s very mild symptoms. </span><a href="https://www.treatmesothelioma.org/mesothelioma/symptoms/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mesothelioma symptoms</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> include: </span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bad cough</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fever</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stomach aches</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Shortness of breath</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Loss of appetite</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Chest pains, etc.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you’d like to learn more about mesothelioma symptoms for each type of mesothelioma, please watch this video here: </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYEMwv95BmU&t" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video for Mesothelioma Symptoms</span></a></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-a5900867-5aa3-c362-059a-cd84cd7e67a1" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To me that just seems crazy. How can a terminal form of cancer have such mild warning signs? How can you I prevent this from happening again? I started volunteering. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I researched mesothelioma from a – z and realized the best way to save lives is to help them become aware of the </span><a href="https://www.treatmesothelioma.org/asbestos/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dangers of asbestos</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and all of its </span><a href="https://www.treatmesothelioma.org/most-common-asbestos-locations/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">most common locations</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. If a person knows he or she has been exposed to asbestos, you will know to be screened for mesothelioma. Given that you get screened annually and that it is completed by a mesothelioma specialist, you will certainly have the best odds to catch it in its beginning stages. Catching </span><a href="https://www.treatmesothelioma.org/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mesothelioma</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> early on can extend life expectancy by tens of years. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After months of volunteering, I have learned that there is something extremely gratifying about it. Every time I volunteer, I feel better and healthier mentally, emotionally and spiritually. In fact, volunteering has now become a part of me. I feel as though I get something positive back from every volunteer effort I complete and life around me just seems more complete. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every time I volunteer I feel happy because I know that I’m helping and restoring hope to the people battling mesothelioma cancer. I try my hardest to make them feel socially connected thereby warding off any type of depression and loneliness. As a person that has been affected by mesothelioma, I relate their experience with my past. Volunteers make those affected think about something else other than the present challenges.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> This is very important because it prevents the stress that is associated with mesothelioma from infiltrating into the lives of the affected and I feel happy doing it. Volunteering for and with others increases my social interactions and this helps in establishing a support system on the basis of common interests and commitment. Both of these are important in decreasing the state of depression that either party could be feeling. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The social connection that comes with volunteering makes me feel that I am part of my society. I feel emotionally connected to the people that I interact with. I also get a unique feeling of contentment. The more I volunteer the happier and content I feel. This enhances my own personal wellbeing while strengthening the emotional bond between my and who ever it is I am reaching out to. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Volunteering brings me a sort of inner gratification and peace. It gives me a sense of a meaningful purpose. I feel as though my life is finally balanced in the sense of what I give versus what I take from society. This world that we live in needs a sense of balance more than ever and this balance begins and starts within each and every one of us. That is why I won’t stop volunteering at Mesothelioma Treatment Community any time soon. </span></span></div>
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singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-59184439753858437192017-03-25T01:00:00.000+11:002017-03-25T01:00:37.011+11:00March Fly on the wallIt's that time of the month again (no, not that time, get your head out of the gutter) It's time for Fly on the Wall. Everyone's favourite series.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/p/blog-page.html"> <img alt="Fly on the Wall" height="150px" src="https://i.imgur.com/TBBXcgm.png" width="150px" /></a></center>
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For any of you not familiar with this, every month a group of bloggers join up and share all of the crazy, weird, and funny things you would hear were you a fly on their wall. Today there are 9 bloggers participating, so be sure to visit them all just to get a full dose of crazy.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/03/skip-pie-fly-on-wall.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://eileensperpetuallybusy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Eileen’s Perpetually Busy</a></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.gomamao.com/" target="_blank">Go Mama O</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bookwormkitchen.com/2017/03/24/fly-on-the-wall-march/" target="_blank">Bookworm in the Kitchen</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://kimberlyyavorski.com/whenigrowup/on-wednesdays-we-play/" target="_blank">When I Grow Up </a></span></div>
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Mum: I think I have that thing in my foot, that plantar...<br />
Me: Fasciitis?<br />
Mum: Yeah. That's what stops me from being able to stand up. I get this pain in the ball of my foot.<br />
Me: I thought you were going to say a pain in your balls then.<br />
Mum: Well I am a lady you know, I don't like talking about those things.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>A few weeks later...</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Mum: What's that fasciitis thing I've got in my foot?<br />
Me: Necrotising?<br />
Mum: God I hope not.<br />
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<i>I walked into the lounge one day to hear mum mumbling to herself.</i><br />
Mum: I'm just talking to myself, discussing my issues.<br />
Me: I know. To someone who cares.<br />
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Sam: Uranus is smaller than Earth isn't it?<br />
Me: Well I certainly hope it is. <i>(Dissolve into giggles like a child.)</i> One of these days I'm going to grow up.<br />
Sam: I'm not holding my breath. They've got a picture of Uranus here with rings around it.<br />
Me: Yes I'm well aware of the rings around Uranus. <i>(Further childish giggling)</i>. This is why I love owning my own business. If I worked for someone else I'd get in trouble for laughing about the rings around Uranus. I'm sure that would count as sexual harassment.<br />
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Me: Miss K, get that tea towel off your head and dry the dishes NOW!!!<br />
Miss K: This is not my favourite idea.<br />
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<i>I was complaining to mum one day after Miss K had been particularly whiny and defiant all day.</i><br />
Mum: Now you know why they called my mum a martyr.<br />
Me: I don't know how grandma did this with 7 kids.<br />
Mum: Hey! I did it with 6 kids, and one of them was you.<br />
Me: Yes, but I must have been a punishment for something mum, what did you do?<br />
Mum: Where do I begin?<br />
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<i>So someone tried to scam my little brother online, but luckily for him he was smart enough to check the scammer out and didn't end up losing anything. I was telling my little sister the story when this conversation happened.</i><br />
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Nat: It's getting harder and harder to scam people these days.<br />
Me: Yep, everyone is too suspicious, except for old people, they're still confused by all this new fangled technology.<br />
Nat: Yeah. That's why I think the parental lock needs to be something entirely different.<br />
Me: You mean like please confirm you are under 16 years to continue?<br />
Nat: Yeah. They could use questions about Justin Bieber to screen out the old people that would fall for any scams.<br />
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Nat: So I had my implanon removed today, but it was put in really deep, so they had to cut further in than they normally do. But once they'd removed it, they just stuck the cut together with sticky tape.<br />
Me: Bit of duct tape, she'll be right.<br />
Nat: They covered the sticky tape with gauze and I've already bled through it.<br />
Me: Why didn't they give you stitches?<br />
Nat: I don't know. Maybe it was too small a cut for stitches.<br />
Me: Well normally if it's too small for stitches they just stick some super glue in that sucker and send you home, but I guess in this case if it moves and it shouldn't, just fix it with duct tape.<br />
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<i>It's been nearly 2 months since Miss K started school, and her favourite thing now is reading. Lucky for us as she has daily reading homework, so if she hated it we'd have a nightly fight on our hands. Miss K and I were reading her school book one night when she came across the word animal.</i><br />
Miss K: an...im...al. Aminal.<br />
Me: Close enough.<br />
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<i>One afternoon I had an appointment scheduled with Miss K's teacher to check her progress. Miss K had wandered off with some friends and couldn't find me when she returned to the classroom despite my yelling and waving my arms over my head at her for five full minutes.</i><br />
Me: You finally found me. We're going to have to get your eyes tested kiddo, that took way longer than it should have.<br />
Miss K then went to her teacher<br />
Miss K: I'm testing my eyes. I couldn't find mum with them.<br />
<i>Needless to say the teacher was more than a little confused by this statement.</i><br />
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<i>Nat and her partner Dave went on holidays to Queensland a few weeks ago. Shortly after they landed I got a text from her</i><br />
Nat: Do you want to hear an embarrassing story about me?<br />
Me: Always.<br />
Nat: While we were leaving the plane I starte doing that excited dance with my fingers that Ben always does. Dave goes "what are you doing?" and I replied "when I'm excited my fingers just need to dance."<br />
Me: You're an idiot. Thanks for the story though.<br />
Nat: Dave looked like he wanted to run away from me. It just slipped out of my mouth like word vomit.<br />
Me: If only he knew just how weird it gets.<br />
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<i>Miss K's Nonna is coming down this weekend to visit. I got a call from Ady a few days ago to check some details as she's staying at our house while she's here.</i><br />
Ady: Do you want mum to cook anything for you?<br />
Me: Nothing springs to mind.<br />
Ady: She said she'll cook her chicken soup lasagne if you want it.<br />
Me: Oh my God yes please. Tell her I will love her forever if she makes me her soup lasagne<br />
Ady: Why don't you love me forever? I've cooked for you?<br />
Me: Oh please the only thing you ever cooked for me was fried dim sims and you set fire to my kitchen. Besides it's been years since your mum made me her soup lasagne. I'd marry her for that lasagne if I could.<br />
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And the biggest thing that happened this month was my baby girl turned 6! Her birthday was yesterday but because it was a weekday and she had school, we're having her party today so while you are reading this post, I will most probably be running around my kitchen like a headless chicken trying to get everything ready. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some panicking to do.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-48262222714679427162017-02-18T02:00:00.000+11:002017-02-18T02:00:08.558+11:00February Fly on the WallWelcome back to everyone's favourite series Fly on the Wall.<br />
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<center>
<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/p/blog-page.html"> <img alt="Fly on the Wall" height="150px" src="https://i.imgur.com/TBBXcgm.png" width="150px" /> </a> </center>
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In this month's instalment, nine bloggers have joined together to share some of the funny and crazy things you'd see if you were a fly on their wall. Below is a list of all the bloggers joining in today, be sure to visit them all and enjoy all the stories.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2017/02/fly-on-wall-spagheeeeettaboutit.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://eileensperpetuallybusy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Eileen’s Perpetually Busy</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade </a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Little Piece of Peace</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://dinoheromommy.com/" target="_blank">Dinosaur Superhero Mommy</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.clutteredgenius.com/fly-on-the-wall-february-2017/" target="_blank">Cluttered Genius</a></span></div>
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Me: Why is there a wet towel on the floor next to my bed?<br />
Miss K: I didn't crack an egg on the floor.<br />
Me: Did you crack an egg on my bedroom floor?<br />
Miss K: No.<br />
Me: Why did you crack an egg on my floor?<br />
Miss K: I was being a chicken<br />
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Miss K: I'm hungry.<br />
Me: Good. There will be plenty of room in your stomach for the meat and vegetables we're having for dinner.<br />
Miss K: I don't want that.<br />
Me: Too bad. This isn't a democracy. Welcome to my dictatorship. You may call me fuhrer.<br />
Miss K: I want a jam sandwich.<br />
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<i>Mum has requested we buy her an ancestry DNA test for her 60th birthday next year, and this is the conversation we had where she explained why she wants one.</i><br />
Mum; We could be vikings!<br />
Nat: You're desperate to be a viking.<br />
Me: I heard we could be bikies, and I was like you don't need a DNA test to become a bikie.<br />
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Nat: Have you ever said or heard someone say I'm not here to screw spiders?<br />
Me: No, I can't say I have.<br />
Nat; Apparently it's an Australian saying, but I've never heard it before. It's kind of the Australian version of no shit Sherlock or something.<br />
Me: Well I always figured it was implied that I wasn't intending to screw spiders, and that I didn't need to actually express my intentions when it came to spiders.<br />
Nat: I've seriously never heard any of my friends or anyone else say it before.<br />
Me: Well that could be because your friends are interested in screwing spiders, did you ever think of that?<br />
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Nat: Did I ever tell you about the time Ben broke the escalator at Doncaster?<br />
Me: Yes.<br />
Mum: No.<br />
Nat: We went out to a movie and went to Doncaster shopping centre for dinner afterwards. Ben was being smart and raced ahead of us to reach the escalator first, and when he got there he jumped onto the escalator and it stopped dead. The rest of us were on the floor in tears, we couldn't move.<br />
Mum: He's just adventurous.<br />
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<b>And now another episode of trying to have a conversation with Sam while she sleeps.</b><br />
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Sam fell asleep while trying to read a birthday invitation her son received. I decided to mess with her and walk up to her and randomly say "and mushrooms" She woke up shortly after.<br />
Sam: What does this invite say?<br />
Me: I don't know, I can't read it from here. Were you dreaming that you were reading it?<br />
Sam: Yeah, It had something about baby chicks, and mushrooms.<br />
Me: Yeah that last bit was me, I just wanted to mess with you.<br />
Sam; You're a bitch.<br />
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Sam: Dad was making me drink platypus milk.<br />
Me: What?<br />
Sam: Dad was trying to make me drink platypus milk.<br />
Me: He's such a dick. How did it taste?<br />
Sam: I don't know. I woke up before I got to drink it.<br />
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Mum babysits my nephew Jacob every Wednesday so that Josh and Sam can work. I came home early one day while he was still there and he and mum came out to the gate to meet me.<br />
Mum: Who is that?<br />
Jacob: Grandma!<br />
Mum: No, I'm grandma, that's Erin.<br />
Jacob: Erin.<br />
Mum: Can you say hi Erin?<br />
Jacob: Hi grandma!<br />
We then went inside where he donned a pretty sparkly tiara, then grabbed a toy saw to try to cut open our refrigerator with. And this is why mum loves babysitting Jacob.<br />
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<i>Mum's computer kept breaking this month, and I was complaining to Nat about it.</i><br />
Me: It's probably another virus. I keep telling her not to do those bloody online quizzes but she keeps going back to them. The next time it breaks I'm just going to buy her an Etch-a-Sketch instead.<br />
Nat: That should work.<br />
Me: Although knowing my luck she'd get a virus on that too, then I'd need to buy Norton's anti-virus for Etch-a-Sketch.<br />
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My big sister Mandy turned 40 last weekend. Dad went up for the trip, and with the gift he gave a card from him, my sisters Nat and Kim, and Nat's partner Dave. Except because he'd forgotten about Dave's name until Kim reminded him Dave's name was at the very end next to Kim's.<br />
Kim; It's funny because it looks like Dave's here with me.<br />
Dad: No, I was just doing the names in gynaecological order.<br />
Nat: Do you mean chronological order?<br />
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Nat: Did I tell you how the orthopedic shoes mum gave me went?<br />
Me: No.<br />
Nat: So I decided to try them out on a walk with Dave. But they were too tight on my toes, so my toes went numb, and then I started getting blisters on my heels, which then burst, so I was in so much pain I started walking like a penguin that had shit itself. In the end I took them off and walked home barefoot.<br />
Me: Oh well just send the shoes to the op-shop.<br />
Nat: Yeah I'm going to. I wanted to leave them on a bench but Dave wouldn't let me<br />
Me: He doesn't think homeless people would appreciate orthopedic shoes?<br />
Nat: Apparently not. Maybe he just doesn't want them to walk around looking like a penguin<br />
Me: That shit itself.<br />
Nat: Exactly.<br />
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And the biggest thing you would have seen had you been a fly on the wall at my place this month was my baby girl attending her very first day of school.<br />
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This day came way too fast for my liking, but Miss K is loving school so much, and has absolutely no problem leaving me to entertain myself for hours at a time. She's even gotten to the point where she wants to walk to the classroom by herself. I don't know whether to be proud or insulted.</div>
<br />singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-55503797749814293992017-01-21T09:39:00.001+11:002017-01-21T09:39:46.875+11:00January Fly on the WallHello again my lovelies, it is time for Fly on the Wall!!! For any of you unfamiliar with this series, today 9 bloggers have all joined together to share what you would see if you were a fly on the wall at their house<br />
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/p/blog-page.html"> <img alt="Fly on the Wall" height="150px" src="https://i.imgur.com/TBBXcgm.png" width="150px" /> </a> </center>
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Below is a list of all the bloggers participating today. Be sure to visit them all and share the love.</center>
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/" target="_blank"><br /></a></center>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://eileensperpetuallybusy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Eileen’s Perpetually Busy</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.gomamao.com/" target="_blank">Go Mama O </a> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade </a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Little Piece of Peace</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://dinoheromommy.com/" target="_blank">Dinosaur Superhero Mommy</a> <wbr></wbr> <wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.clutteredgenius.com/" target="_blank">Cluttered Genius</a> </span></span></div>
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<i>Nat and Kim were arguing about Nat's choice of contraceptive</i></center>
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Kim: Get rid of it, it's toxic.</center>
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Nat: I don't want to. What contraceptive do you use?</center>
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Me: Are you kidding? Her personality is all the contraceptive she needs. It's so effective I don't get laid.</center>
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<i>Miss K was playing with her old babyseat and I had to wrestle it off her so she would get ready for bed. She burst into tears and ran into the lounge to my mum.</i></center>
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Mum: What's wrong? What did mum do?</center>
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Miss K: She ruined my day.</center>
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Me: What did she say I did?</center>
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Mum: You ruined her day.</center>
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Miss K: No, you ruined my life!</center>
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Me: Oh honey if you think that ruined your life I've got bad news for you...</center>
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<i>I would have gone off at Miss K for being a drama queen, however I'm also guilty of using this line so it's simply a case of the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.</i></center>
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Kim: Oh god I'm ruining my skin.</center>
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Me: That's ironic because you're ruining my life. </center>
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<i>Kim was reading a warning from the CFA</i></center>
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Kim: There are hazardous fumes leaking from sealos on Waterloo road.</center>
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Mum: From where?</center>
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Kim: Oh, silos. Sorry</center>
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<i>Miss K came to me with a drawing of a bird and the word Ka written all around it.</i></center>
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Miss K: Mum this is a picture of an angry bird.</center>
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Me: Is it saying cacca? (Italian word for poop)</center>
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Miss K: No, it's saying "You stole my banana"</center>
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Nat: We were driving along a road with heaps of hay bales wrapped up in paddocks. Dave explained why they were wrapped up, and then I saw what looked like unwrapped hay bales, so I was like Oh look, there are hay bales they haven't wrapped up yet. Oh wait, never mind those are just sheep. Now every time we go past sheep Dave will point to them and say oh look, hay bales.</center>
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I was in a rush and trying to do Miss K's hair.</center>
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Me: There you go, it's not perfect but it will do.</center>
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Miss K: It's a little bit perfect though right?</center>
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On New Years Eve we went to Sam's house for a barbeque which has become a bit of an annual tradition. This year she had found a store that sold confetti cannons in the shape of pop cap guns, so she'd bought a heap for the kids to play with. I of course watched Miss K like a hawk, lecturing her on the correct way to use the gun and making sure she didn't do anything stupid, but it turns out Sam was the one who needed supervising, as she decided she needed to stare into the barrel of the canon as she was shooting it, and got herself right in the face with the confetti. </center>
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Me: Did you know it is possible to be allergic to a man's sperm?</center>
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Mum: Yes I did.</center>
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Kim: YES! I did know that because...wait a minute, never mind I'm just going to leave that story there.</center>
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Mum: Please do.</center>
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<i>I had just finished complaining to Miss K's dad that I had put out 15 bags of clothes to be collected by a recycling company and they hadn't bothered taking them when he told me he was just about to head to a second hand store.</i></center>
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Me: Did I ever tell you that you're my favourite stupid person? (Begin to bat my eyelids at him)</center>
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Ady: Don't flitter your eyelids at me young lady</center>
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Me: It's called batting you idiot, I'm batting my eyelids at you.</center>
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<i>I was reading a Buzzfeed article about Spongebob memes when a picture of a krabby patty burger pops up.</i></center>
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Miss K: What is that? Is that a Krabby Patty?</center>
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Me: Yes it is. How did you know?</center>
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Miss K: Mr Krabs sells them. It doesn't have pickle right?</center>
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Me: No, it's got pickle. Who orders it without the pickle?</center>
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Miss K: Me. I don't like pickle.</center>
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Me: Oh ok. So if I ever order you a Krabby Patty I have to tell them to hold the pickle.</center>
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Miss K: Yes please. </center>
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Well that's all from this corner of the world, be sure to visit all the other bloggers participating and continue the laughs. </center>
singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-52733016480297252802016-12-24T02:00:00.000+11:002017-01-02T15:40:45.299+11:00December Fly on the WallHello again my lovelies, it is that time yet again, we're up to the last Fly on the Wall for the year!<br />
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/p/blog-page.html"> <img alt="Fly on the Wall" height="150px" src="https://i.imgur.com/TBBXcgm.png" width="150px" /> </a> </center>
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This month 8 hardy bloggers are participating, all sharing the funny and crazy things you would see if you were a fly on their wall. Be sure to visit them all and enjoy the show.</center>
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2016/12/fly-on-wall-cooking-all-bad-stuff.html" target="_blank"><br /></a></center>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2016/12/fly-on-wall-cooking-all-bad-stuff.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Baking In A Tornado</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/2016/12/black-forrest-ham-and-gouda-sliders.html" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://dinoheromommy.com/2016/12/23/fly-on-the-wall-12/" target="_blank">Dinosaur Superhero Mommy</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.southernbellecharm.com/" target="_blank">Southern Belle Charm</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Little Piece of Peace</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://gomamao.com/2016/12/23/fly-on-the-wall-holiday-sentiments/" target="_blank">Go Mama O</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span><br />
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Kim: I can't wait to be able to get dressed without it being a song and dance.</center>
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Me: Then stop singing and dancing while you get dressed.</center>
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<i>My dad works for a local car yard, picking up cars they purchase from private sellers and other car yards. One day he had to pick up a hearse someone had purchased and bring it back to the yard. He stopped in to visit Sam and I while we were working.</i></center>
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Dad: Did you see what I drove here in?</center>
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Me: What on earth are you doing with that thing? People are going to think someone has died here. Oooh I know what you need to do, you and Sam have to run out of the house screaming, and I'll follow you out doing a zombie shuffle.</center>
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<i>Kim bought noise cancelling headphones, and proceeded to test them out while yelling really loudly because of course she couldn't hear her own voice.</i></center>
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Kim: These are great.</center>
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Me: No one cares triangle lady. What are you listening to?</center>
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<i>I then realised that of course she couldn't hear me.</i></center>
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Me: I fart on your pillow while you're at work.</center>
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<i>Kim realises I'm talking to her</i></center>
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Kim: What?</center>
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Me: Nothing. How are you enjoying your pinkeye?</center>
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Me: Other people sing in the toilet, my daughter beatboxes.</center>
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<i>I was working with my big sister Sam one day, and she'd had a rough night's sleep the night before, so she kept falling asleep at her desk. I kept waking her up and trying to have a conversation with her, but things never went as planned.</i></center>
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Me: Sam! Wake up.</center>
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Sam: I'll have a super mega shake</center>
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Me: What? </center>
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Sam: Sorry, I was dreaming I was ordering from McDonalds.</center>
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Me: I've never heard of a super mega shake before</center>
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Sam: Yeah, it was a new item on the menu. I was really looking forward to trying it too.</center>
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<i>Later on that same day Sam had fallen asleep again and I woke her up again</i></center>
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Sam: Where is my computer screen?</center>
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Me: What?</center>
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Sam: I'm meant to have two screens, where has the other one gone?</center>
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Me: Sam, your laptop is closed.</center>
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My little sister Natalie visited a chiropractor this month because she's had ongoing issues with her back since she was a child. Her stories of this visit made me incredibly thankful I've never had to visit one.</center>
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Nat: So apparently my eyes were stopping me from being able to use the muscles in my hands.</center>
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Me: What?</center>
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Nat: Yeah, but she fixed it for me by electrocuting my eye?</center>
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Me: What?</center>
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Nat: Well it wasn't a real electric shock, it was this weird pulsing thingy. When she figured out what was going on she said "I love this part because it makes me look really smart". She showed me how it worked by pulsing me on my thumb, then she got this really creepy voice and said "And now I'm going to do that to your eye"</center>
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<i>I called Nat after her second appointment to see how she went</i></center>
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Me: So did the chiropractor cattle prod your eyeball this time?<br />Nat: No, but she did it to my bottom.</center>
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Me: That means she owns you forever now I think.</center>
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<i>Miss K was mucking about on the piano one night, just hitting random keys to make a song.</i></center>
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Mum: What is that song about?</center>
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Miss K: It's called scary nights.</center>
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Mum: Gary Nice?</center>
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Me: She said scary nights mum.</center>
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<i>Kim and I were having an argument after she told Miss K that eating ice cream in hot weather would make her sick.</i></center>
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Me: Don't lie to her, she won't get sick if she eats ice cream now</center>
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Kim: Well I get sick when I eat ice cream in the hot weather so I just assumed everyone did.</center>
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Me: No one ever does anything like you do, you're a genetic reject, have you not realised that yet?</center>
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Kim: I think my feelings are hurt right now.</center>
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Me: Well get back to me when you're certain</center>
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Kim: Dammit I can't even stay mad at you now you bitch, that was too funny.</center>
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<i>Kim was picking up some shopping for me</i></center>
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Kim: How many do you want?</center>
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<i>I had a mouthful of coffee, so I just held up two fingers</i></center>
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Kim: Trois, ok can do.</center>
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Me: I want two. Trois means three you idiot. </center>
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Kim: Un, deux, trois...was just making sure.</center>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Motivational words for my little brother who finally got his learners permit</span></div>
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Well that's all from this crazy corner of the world, I will be back with this series in the new year, with hopefully lots more crazy to share.</div>
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singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-8197811363721774452016-12-17T12:00:00.000+11:002016-12-17T12:00:08.966+11:00Product review - My Baby GiftsI know that Christmas is nearly upon us, we are madly counting down the days in this house and the anticipation is almost killing Miss K. But today I want to talk to you about a gift that is perfect for any time of year, and that is baby gifts.<br />
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I was contacted recently by the website <a href="http://mybabygifts.com.au/" target="_blank">My Baby Gifts</a> about their range of gifts for new babies, and they kindly offered to send me two of their gift boxes to check out. I am always a sucker for baby stuff, and Miss K seems to be following in my footsteps, because neither of us can go to our local shopping centre without spending at least a few minutes cooing over the teeny tiny baby clothes they have there.<br />
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So My Baby Gifts sent over their <a href="http://www.mybabygifts.com.au/baby-gift-sets/spring-baby-girl-hamper?zenid=c83d64a748be9133b95f5d406c1bf79a" target="_blank">Spring Baby Girl Hamper</a> as well as their <a href="http://www.mybabygifts.com.au/nappy-cakes/pink-jamie" target="_blank">Jamie Pink Nappy Cake</a> and you should have heard the squeals coming from everyone in this house when they finally arrived. I was so excited to get to play with baby clothes again and my ovaries may have exploded at the sight of these beautifully packaged gifts.<br />
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The Spring Baby Girl Hamper comes in a beautiful white box, complete with magnet close and a beautiful white bow. Opening this one felt like Christmas had come early at our house. Inside was the most delicate gift set including two bodysuits, one short sleeve and one long sleeve, three sets of baby socks, a bib and a wrap. All of the items except the socks were a sweet pink and white stripe, with a white bow appliqued on the front, perfect for making sure your little one is the best dressed baby in town.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7XGocTsNzxFu9RSFqmBHYL_XjQDFhVd-RXNZYB03OhKn4SRJcGkjSbR7Gg7D4wkjghKsp60jrIlZzmHt4wMQlCNYDap9KxeGcjROnNEKlqB8SokaAcMJzlWu6myaDnrRkmcSiWWvu1LV/s1600/Nappy+cake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7XGocTsNzxFu9RSFqmBHYL_XjQDFhVd-RXNZYB03OhKn4SRJcGkjSbR7Gg7D4wkjghKsp60jrIlZzmHt4wMQlCNYDap9KxeGcjROnNEKlqB8SokaAcMJzlWu6myaDnrRkmcSiWWvu1LV/s400/Nappy+cake.jpg" width="372" /></a></div>
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The Jamie Pink Nappy Cake came with a beautiful pink teddy bear, three face washers and three pairs of socks all wrapped up in newborn nappies and kept together with a beautiful muslin wrap. Having attempted to make a nappy cake myself when my youngest nephew was born, I know how much skill it takes to make one of these look good (spoiler alert, I don't have that skill) so I was super impressed at how sturdy this nappy cake was, as well as how beautiful it was. It is the perfect practical gift for a new parent, but it was presented in such a beautiful way, it would be a truly memorable gift.<br />
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My Baby Gifts have gifts from as little as $10 so there is something for every budget. They even have personalised gifts available, as well as gift cards for that hard to buy for person. I may have spent over an hour browsing their website after I received these products, oohing and aahing over everything they sell and secretly wishing my little sisters would hurry up and start popping out babies so I had an excuse to buy something from this website,<br />
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So whether it be for baby's first Christmas, or for an expectant mum preparing to pop soon and needs some pampering, check out My Baby Gifts today and be amazed at their incredible range of baby gifts and hampers.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-89337528106828353482016-12-09T14:31:00.000+11:002016-12-17T12:06:15.864+11:00Book Review - Mum's the WordI've never been a big fan on books giving out advice on parenting. I've always felt that instinct is a better guide than a book written by some stranger who has never met you or your child but still feels qualified to tell you how to do your job. Books written by parents on their own experiences however are always a firm favourite of mine. Which is why I was ecstatic to have been contacted by two Victorian mums and asked to review their book.<br />
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Mums the Word is an essay based book written by two best friends about the ups and downs of parenting. From struggling to conceive all the way to the teen years no stone is left unturned in this book of tales from within the trenches of parenting.<br />
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I devoured this book in one sitting, forgoing sleep in order to continue prying into the lives of these two women as they struggled with the same things I have struggled with, and some things that I am yet to face. They shared their triumphs, their embarrassments, their horror stories and the things that in hindsight may not have been such a good idea. <br />
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Each of the chapters were fairly short and to the point, one of the reasons this book was so easy to get through in one day, as once I was were at the end of one chapter, I was all fired up and wanting more of their heart warming, often funny stories. This book gave a perspective that can only be had with experiencing the joys and hard work that is parenting. It was honest and charming from beginning to end and I finished the book feeling like I knew these women well.<br />
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The thing I found most amazing was the things about childhood that seem to be universal. Some of the stories these women told could have been ripped out of the pages of my own childhood, the games their children played, the fights for the front seat in the car, the sibling wars and the stress that is family holidays, all of which stay the same from one generation to the next. This gave me a sense of comfort, as I now know there is so much of my own daughter's childhood that I will understand, as it will be the same as what mine was, what these children's were, and what most children go through. I also loved the times I found myself nodding along with these women and saying "Me too" or more often "Thank God I'm not the only one who has done that"<br />
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I cannot recommend Mum's the Word enough. It is the perfect gift for any parent, or you can buy it for yourself so you can remind yourself you're never alone in your job as a parent, and despite how hard it seems in the now, it all works out in the end, and all too soon as well.<br />
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If you would like to purchase Mum's the Word, you can find it <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32768089-mum-s-the-word" target="_blank">here</a> as an e-book for any tech savvy readers out there, or to purchase a hard copy, all you need to do is email mumstheword@bigpond.com<br />
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**Disclosure**<br />
I received a free copy of this book in return for this review. All opinions given here are my own and have in no way been influenced by anyone.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-16857217604334803612016-11-25T12:15:00.001+11:002016-11-25T12:15:45.071+11:0010 easy cleaning jobs that your kids would enjoyHello again my lovelies, I have a guest on the blog today discussing getting your kids involved in housekeeping, so please make her feel welcome.<br />
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<i>Grace is from London, she writes articles related to cleaning, home improvements and parenting.</i><br />
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<b><u>10 easy cleaning jobs that your kids would enjoy</u></b></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Kids are better known with their
messiness rather than being neat or having cleaning habits. But it is not hard
to think of ways which can make cleaning joy and fun. You just need to choose a
job which will be easy for your kids. Nobody wants to do something that looks
like mission impossible. And it is very important to think of a reward after
all the efforts they’ve put in doing the tasks given. It is also necessary for
your kids to know that however easy the job is, it is important. This will make
them feel of great value. And at last but not least – don’t just give your
children to-do list. Do the work with them. Make them feel like they are
actually helping you, not doing your chore.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Now it is time to give you some
ideas for easy cleaning jobs that your kids would enjoy:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"> 1. Emptying trash. </span></b><span lang="EN-US">The most elementary thing and at the same time essential for a clean
house. You can teach your children how to divide the trash into different
categories – glass, paper, organic, so you can reach two goals with one thing –
to keep the house clean and to think green.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">2. Vacuuming. </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Fast and easy. May be the most preferable cleaning job in the house,
especially if your children have big imagination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> <b>3. Dusting. </b>The only thing
which may be difficult in this job is if you have a lot of souvenirs or
something else which needs to be moved out and then moved back. It makes the
whole work boring and there is a great chance something to be broken. So <a href="http://www.finecleaners.co.uk/end-of-tenancy-cleaning-mill-hill-NW7.html">cleaning
services nw7</a> advises you to keep an eye on your kids while they are doing
this task.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"> 4. Mopping.</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Doing something with water and soap balloons is always interesting
for children. And when it includes wet and slippery floor it could become great
entertainment. In this situation it is also possible somebody to get hurt so be
careful with this duty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">5. Doing laundry. </span></b><span lang="EN-US">The best thing in this job is that there is no age limit. The only
thing kids need to be capable of is passing things. What’s more, you can teach
your kids the different colours if they are at early age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"> 6. Folding. </span></b><span lang="EN-US">It comes as the next logical step after doing the laundry. If
folding clothes is still difficult for your children, they can fold only the
towels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">7. Wiping the
kitchen table. </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Show your children that it is easy
to keep the table and the floor around it clean if they wipe the table after
every meal. After that they may do number 8 in this list.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"> 8. Washing the dishes. </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Of course not if they are very dirty, greasy, or it is something big
like pots for example. At the beginning kids may start with cups, glasses and
things that are easy to be washed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"> 9. Washing the car together.</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Don’t expect from them to do a lot in this task, but it will be
great fun in the hot summer days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"> <b>10. Keeping their room tidy.</b>
Yes, it is possible, however hard. It is a matter of habit. It just takes time,
sometimes very long time, of repeatedly and constantly reminding that it will
be easier for them to find things they need if they are always at the same
place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I hope you’ve liked, if not all, at
least some of the ideas. To make everything look more enjoyable, you can do it
like family tradition. Make <a href="https://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/institute/household-advice/cleaning-tips/14-cleaning-jobs-your-kids-should-be-doing" target="_blank">cleaning and maintenance duties</a> something the whole family is involved in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-51846163732592392232016-11-21T09:00:00.000+11:002016-11-21T09:00:01.800+11:00Product Review - Strider Balance BikeHere in Australia summer is just around the corner, and along with it comes the perfect weather for bike riding. I just recently upgraded Miss K's bike, and now she and her cousin Lexi love tearing around the footpaths on their bikes. The last time I took the girls outside to ride together my poor nephew Jacob had to be left out as he's only 2, so he's too little for the bikes I have here, and until recently he's been too little for his own bike. So when <a href="https://www.velogear.com.au/kids.html" target="_blank">Velogear</a> contacted me offering one of their Strider balance bikes for review I jumped at the chance.<br />
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Balance bikes are similar to ordinary two-wheeled bikes however they have no pedals, and they are designed to help train children to balance on a bike, hopefully eliminating the need for training wheels when children get to the point that they are ready for a pedal powered bike. By getting used to having to use your upper body to keep a bike upright from the beginning, and learning the way normal bikes move when not stabilised by training wheels early on in life, you can bypass a lot of the fear and frustration a lot of kids feel when they are learning to ride unassisted. Balance bikes are also a lot lighter and less unwieldy as traditional tricycles or two-wheeled bikes with training wheels attached.<br />
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Strider brand balance bikes are particularly good because they are so lightweight and generally simple to assemble. The clamp I received for the handlebars was a bit tight, and my brother ended up having to pry it open to get it to fit on the bike, but I had a look online, and no one else had that complaint, so I'm going to put that one down to a manufacturing issue. In the end we got it on the bike and it held the handlebars tight so all's well.<br />
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The bike even comes partially assembled, making your first job of putting it together even easier.</div>
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All that was left to do once the bike was assembled was let Jakey take it for a test ride. Because Jacob is naturally fearless, I knew he'd take to this bike like a duck to water, and I was right. He couldn't wait to hop on and start hooning around like his big cousins. Jacob got the feel for pushing himself around with his feet fairly quickly, and as he gets more confident he'll figure out how to get some momentum going and lift his feet up for a real rush. The bike even comes with grips on the foot rests to give some friction and reduce the risk of little feet slipping off the smooth metal.<br />
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We noticed at first that the steering was a little tight, but some quick research showed that this was an intentional design feature, included to keep the steering a little bit more controlled while children are still learning how to manoeuvre the bike. With use the steering column does loosen up, so the more confident the kids become, the more they will be able to control the way the bike steers.<br />
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We set the steering and seat height to the lowest settings at first, and they ended up being the perfect height for my very short nephew (Hopefully he'll be as tall as his dad when he grows up, but right now he's just a tiny tacker.) The Strider balance bike comes with EVC tyres that will never go flat, eliminating the need to do puncture repairs or continuously fill them with air. The 12" bike is suitable for kids aged 18 months to 5 years, and comes with an extra long pole to raise the seat high enough to accommodate taller children. <br />
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The Strider balance bike is an excellent first bike for any child, so if any of you know a little one who is in need of a first set of wheels, check them out at <a href="https://www.velogear.com.au/kids.html" target="_blank">Velogear</a> today.<br />
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With Christmas right around the corner, now is the perfect time to check out the range of bikes and accessories available at <a href="https://www.velogear.com.au/kids.html" target="_blank">Velogear</a>. They offer free shipping on all orders with no minimum spend amount, and they have some of the cheapest prices in Australia. They ship to both Australia and New Zealand, so check them out today and see the amazing range they offer.<br />
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**Disclosure**<br />
I received free products for the purpose of this review. All opinions given here are my own and have in no way been influenced by Strider or anyone else. Searching for Sanity is not affiliated with Velogear.com or Strider Sports International in any way.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-85017658153251352372016-11-19T01:00:00.000+11:002016-11-19T01:00:29.721+11:00November Fly on the WallWelcome once again to Fly on the Wall. The series where a group of bloggers join together to share all of the crazy that happens to us on a monthly basis.<br />
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This month there are six bloggers participating, be sure to visit them all, and share the love around.</center>
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2016/11/fly-on-wall-i-said-balls.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.gomamao.com/" target="_blank">Go Mama O</a> <wbr></wbr> <wbr></wbr> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/2016/11/chicken-cheesy-bacon-rice-dinner-fotw.html" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://dinoheromommy.com/" target="_blank">Dinosaur Superhero Mommy</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><a href="http://www.southernbellecharm.com/" target="_blank">Southern Belle Charm</a> </span></div>
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Me (reading) : What? butt pastel?</center>
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Kim: Ooh I love butt pasta.</center>
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Me: Oh wait, it says butt paste.</center>
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Kim: Well this is awkward, I just admitted I love butt pasta unnecessarily.</center>
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Mum: Oh look at this, it's a guest house for an elf, how cute. It's $53? Hell they can find their own bloody accommodation then.</center>
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Auto correct strikes again...</div>
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<i>My big sister Sam was complaining to me about her newly minted teenage daughter's antics.</i></center>
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Me: I dread the day Miss K becomes a teenager because she'll be a wog teenager. It's going to be drama plus loud.</center>
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<i>My sister in law Sam came over for a coffee earlier this week.</i></center>
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Sam: Lexi's end of year concert is coming up next month, if you wanted to come.</center>
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Me: Absolutely, we'll be there. (To Miss K) Lexi's school concert is in a few weeks, do you want to go watch?</center>
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Miss K: Yes please! I want to be a tree! (proceeds to do her best tree impression)</center>
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Me: Well luckily you don't need to wait until the concert to be a tree, you can be one whenever you like!</center>
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Nat: Did I tell you I talked in my sleep the other night?</center>
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Me: No, what happened?</center>
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Nat: So I sat up and said to Dave "Stop lying to Gotham City" so he asked "Why am I lying to the people of Gotham City?" and I said "Cos you're Batman." I remembered nothing of it the next morning when he asked me.</center>
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This seriously was easier than going directly to the birthday boy. Despite the fact it took over 2 hours to get my message to him.</div>
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<i>Ok so this story actually happened back in August, but I only just heard about my dad's antics this month. When Tristan's dad died, my dad and Kimberley went down to Melbourne for the funeral, and Natalie and Kimberley got to experience my dad's most graceful moment to date.</i></center>
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Nat: When we got to the funeral the parking was full, and there were heaps of cop cars there for a different funeral at the home, so we had to park a while away from the funeral home. At the end of funeral we were walking back to the car, and we were on the footpath, and dad passed a comment asking why we were walking on the footpath when we could cut across the garden, and then he does this majestic prance across the garden. I've never seen him so graceful.</center>
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<i>Nat and I were discussing her high school friends.</i></center>
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Nat: Ash stopped liking me when we started drinking together. She didn't like drunk Natalie.</center>
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Me: No one likes drunk Natalie, you're loud and obnoxious.</center>
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Nat: Dave likes drunk Natalie, he thinks she's fun.</center>
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Me: Dave thinks the sun shines out your butt, of course he likes drunk Natalie.</center>
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Any of my long time readers know that my baby sister Kimberley has had a slew of health issues over the past year. Well this month she ended up in hospital because her liver failed thanks to an accidental paracetamol overdose. thanks to the staff at our local hospital, by the time she came home she had a staph infection and a blood clot in her arm, and she was stuck with a PICC line in her arm so she can have constant antibiotic infusions for the foreseeable future. While it hasn't all been fun and games there were a few moments we could all find to laugh about.</center>
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<i>Nat and I were texting</i> </center>
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Me: So is there any news about Kim yet?</center>
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Nat: She has a staff infection</center>
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<i>At this point I had to call her.</i></center>
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Me: Ok, you do realise you just told me your sister has an infection of employees don't you? Staph is not spelt with a double f.</center>
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Nat: Well I'm just spelling it how Kimberley spelt it.</center>
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Me: Of course, why didn't I realise that?</center>
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<i>Nat and her new partner Dave were going to visit Kim in hospital after she'd found out about the staph infection, and when he told his mum, her only advice was not to touch the walls. We all had a giggle about it at the time as Kim's infection was in her blood, so just being in a room with her was not dangerous. Nat must have told Kim about it, because she had to have a dig at him when she finally got out of hospital.</i></center>
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Kim: Oh mum it was the weirdest thing, Nat and Dave showed up while I was in hospital, and all of a sudden he just starts licking the walls. It was so strange.</center>
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Couldn't start setting unrealistic expectations once I'd admitted I'm this lazy.</div>
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<i>We were trying to explain the concept of jealousy to Miss K and we each gave her examples of things we could be jealous of.</i></center>
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Eliza: I'm jealous of you Miss K because you don't have to wear a bra.</center>
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Me: I'm jealous of you because you play the piano so well.</center>
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Kim: I'm jealous of you because you get to go to kindergarten and play all day and I have to stay home.</center>
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Miss K: Mum, I'm jealous of you because everyone says Miss K, you're a d**khead.</center>
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Me: Ok first of all no one says that...</center>
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<i>I couldn't continue to correct her on her sentence because all of us were on the floor in stitches. That girl is going to be the death of me. </i></center>
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Well that's all from this crazy corner of the world, don't forget to visit the rest of the bloggers participating today, and also please let me know in the comments down below that my daughter isn't the only five year old with a mouth that would make a sailor blush. I'm beginning to think she is actually listening to everything I'm saying...</center>
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singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-28347718006604221932016-10-24T08:00:00.000+11:002016-10-24T08:00:28.109+11:00Timeline of a 2am spew fest<b><u>Scene:</u></b> It is very early in the morning and you are lying in bed enjoying a peaceful sleep as you do every night. Next to you is the tiny figure of a child, who makes their way into your room every night for snuggles, but tonight is not like every other night as you are about to find out.<br />
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<b>1:58am:</b> You notice that the figure next to you is more restless than normal. This fact barely registers in your sleeping thoughts, but you do notice it through your dream.<br />
<b>2:00am:</b> You are woken up by the first choking sounds of an impending spew by the body next to you. In your sleep addled state you have the presence of mind to throw the blankets off her before the spew-pocalypse begins. There is no time to do anything else after that.<br />
<b>2:01am:</b> You turn on the light and see the huge task that awaits you. There is now a vomit covered child sitting on a vomit soaked mattress crying. You run to the kitchen to grab a bucket in case there is any more vomit to come, but you might as well not bother, the damage is done. You insult the small child by offering her the bucket as she no longer possesses the desire to throw up.<br />
<b>2:03am:</b> You gingerly strip off the child and send her towards the bathroom to await cleaning. You figure that area is all tiles and lino so it will be easier to clean if her reassurances she doesn't feel sick anymore turn out to be all lies.<br />
<b>2:04am:</b> You turn to your bed, which now resembles a scene from Dante's Inferno and begin stripping the bedclothes. You sigh as you add this stain to the long list of pre-existing stains that your child has already kindly donated to your mattress. The bedclothes are piled up outside the laundry along with the pyjamas.<br />
<b>2:06am: </b>You grab some clean pyjamas and a towel for your child and head to the bathroom to break up the argument that has started between her and your mother, as she insists that YOU are the one who must now clean her up. You throw the clothes on the floor then remember that you forgot underpants. You dash to the bedroom, nearly breaking your next in the process on the mountain of toys on the floor that she insists is her shop. You run back to the bathroom where the argument has continued in your absence and confirm to your child that you are indeed going to be the one who cleans her up. Your mum heads off to make you a coffee. You are going to need it.<br />
<b>2:10am:</b> You end up having to get into the shower with your crying child, because she has just remembered she is terrified of the shower and is refusing to enter alone. It doesn't matter that you already showered today, you're now going to have a record breaking two showers in one day.<br />
<b>2:16am: </b>You have scrubbed your child from top to bottom and she is finally not crying, and no longer afraid of the shower. In fact she is now "swimming" on the shower floor and giggling, her recent stomach fireworks a distant memory. This is the point at which you realise you never grabbed a towel for yourself.<br />
<b>2:17am:</b> You are now standing naked and dripping wet in your bathroom drying off your child. Both of you are shivering, but only one of you is covered by a towel and receiving a rigorous drying off. The other of you is a grown adult and has to suck it up. You quickly throw on your nightgown after a quick check to make sure you ducked the contents of her stomach earlier and curse as it sticks to your wet back. You get your child dressed quickly and send her to the lounge room where your mum has turned on the heater. There is a coffee waiting for you, but you want to complete your next task with an empty stomach.<br />
<b>2:24am:</b> You have dragged all of the soiled bedding to the bathroom and commence rinsing everything off before you put them in the washing machine. This task comes complete with gagging and heaving, because of course, you are a sympathetic vomiter. This is why you needed an empty stomach. The mess compels you to ask your child exactly when they ate lettuce, because you know they hate lettuce, but you have evidence on your sheets that they have somehow consumed it today. <br />
<b>2:34am:</b> Gasping for fresh air you march to the laundry with your newly rinsed pile of laundry and get it into the washing machine. You add a double scoop of laundry powder and some soaking agent with anti-bacterial stuff in it. You hope this is enough to convince your brain that these bed sheets are not horror tainted evil forever more so you can put them back on your bed tomorrow.<br />
<b>2:35am:</b> Before you head to the lounge room you go back to your bedroom and throw open the window as wide as it will go. You hope this is enough to get rid of the smell.<br />
<b>2:36am: </b>You finally get to sit down to a coffee. This is the point where you realise you have nowhere to sleep tonight, as your bed needs to be scrubbed down and blessed by a priest before you will lie in it again. You decide to grab the mattresses from your child's bed and the trundle bed you keep for sleepovers and drag them into the lounge room. But first, coffee.<br />
<b>2:50am:</b> You watch your "sick" child dance around the lounge room with a seemingly endless source of energy. You wonder for about the millionth time since becoming a parent whether she is siphoning energy from you. It is at this point where you remember that her dad is meant to be taking her to the park tomorrow so you send him a quick message explaining that she is possibly unwell so tomorrow's excursion will need to be cancelled. You do not expect a reply because only an idiot would be awake at this time of the morning.<br />
<b>2:55am:</b> You drag the mattresses into the lounge room and set your child up to sleep. You turn on the TV to get her to sit still. Your mum returns to bed, having kindly kept you company during the grossest parts, she is relieved of her duties and free to fall back into the kind of sound sleep only someone whose child has not just thrown up can have. You envy her that luxury.<br />
<b>3:05am:</b> You turn off the lights and try to fall asleep to the sound of Dora the Explorer. This fails as you haven't seen this episode, so you can't resist the temptation to watch. This is why you watch the same movie every single night to go to sleep. You can't sleep through something new.<br />
<b>3:30am:</b> You finally turn off the television. Neither of you are sleeping and you can't handle the excitement of Nick Jr. any more. You spend the next twenty minutes reminding your "sick" child that she is meant to be sleeping right now and stroking her back. Every time she makes a new noise you feel compelled to ask her how her stomach is feeling, just to hear her say it feels good and calm. This doesn't fill you with as much confidence as it should. You do not trust your child anymore.<br />
<b>4:00am:</b> Your child is finally asleep. You think this would be your cue to sleep as well, however this is the point where you discover your daughter makes really loud noises with her mouth in her sleep. (Has she always done this?) Every new noise jolts you awake and you regret not putting a bucket on the ground next to her.<br />
<b>4:30am(ish):</b> You finally fall asleep somehow, but it isn't a restful sleep. You are still paranoid there will be a repeat performance and you can feel the ground underneath the paper thin mattress you are lying on. You resign yourself to the fact that tomorrow is going to be a bad day.<br />
<b>6:00am:</b> You are woken up by a bright eyed and bushy tailed child. She is feeling fabulous and wants food. You turn on the television to distract her and go back to sleep. Might as well catch some more sleep while you can.<br />
<b>9:00am:</b> You are woken up by the telephone. Her father has been trying to get on to you for an hour now and wants to make sure everything is OK. You reassure him it appears to have been a one off event, but she needs to stay home today just to make sure. He informs you he is coming over today to see her, and you resign yourself to the fact that your sleep is over. Thank God for coffee.<br />
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<b><u>End Scene</u></b>singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-62291966614289895582016-10-22T01:00:00.000+11:002016-10-22T01:00:03.956+11:00October Fly on the Wall - A Walk Down Memory LaneIt is time once again for Fly on the Wall. In this series, a bunch of bloggers get together and show all of the madness you would witness were you a fly on the wall in their house. This month there are seven bloggers participating, be sure to click on all the links below to witness hilarity.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/p/blog-page.html"> <img alt="Fly on the Wall" height="150px" src="https://i.imgur.com/TBBXcgm.png" width="150px" /> </a> </center>
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This month seven bloggers are participating, so be sure to click on all the links below to see all the hilarity.<br />
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.bakinginatornado.com/2016/10/fly-on-wall-zombies-and-spiders.html" target="_blank">Baking In A Tornado</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.menopausalmom.com/" target="_blank">Menopausal Mother</a> <wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Spatulas on Parade</a> </span></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://batteredhope.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Never Ever Give Up Hope</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://dinoheromommy.com/" target="_blank">Dinosaur Superhero Mommy</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://little-piece-of-peace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">A Little Piece of Peace </a> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></div>
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So this month has been pretty quiet for us, so this time I am doing something different. You see I've only been doing Fly on the Wall for about three years now, and there have been many hilarious moments that happened well before I joined this series that I haven't had a place to share elsewhere, so today's Fly on the Wall is actually a look back at some of the shenanigans that have happened before I started this blog. <br />
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<i>I was walking past my dad one day with a bag of cotton wool in my hands.</i><br />
Dad: Ooh marshmallows. <i>Proceeds to take a ball of cotton wool and pop it into his mouth.</i> That's not marshmallow.<br />
Me: Yeah dad don't eat those, they won't taste too good.<br />
Dad: Why didn't you say anything until after I put it in my mouth.<br />
Me: I didn't think it would take you that long to realise it wasn't food.<br />
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<i>Ben was living with me for a while back when I was about 24. One day we came home and found one of his cats had been hit by a car. I was given the task of collecting the remains off the road, so I scooped it up in a plastic bag and took the bag to Ben.</i><br />
Me: Hey, you know what? You could totally make a puppet out of this.<br />
<i>Ben looked like he didn't know whether to laugh, cry or punch me. Luckily for me he chose to laugh.</i><br />
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*Now I'm not sure if this story is an overshare, but my family still love to tease me about my stupidity.*<br />
<i>When I was 20 I booked an appointment for my first pap smear. I was very nervous, and the doctor could tell, so she was just making small talk to try to distract me. For the record, she was looking at my medical records when this conversation happened, I just didn't realise that until after I had put my foot in my mouth.</i><br />
Dr: So I see here that you smoke yes?<br />
Me: You can tell that from a pap smear?<br />
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Nat and I were arguing about a line from the song Linger by Cranberries.<br />
Me: I think it says do you have to pull my finger.<br />
Nat: No, that's not what it says, it's something about linger.<br />
<i>Sam walks past both of us to the bathroom, then sticks her head back out of the door.</i><br />
Sam: Let it linger Nat, let it linger.<br />
Me: Did she just fart and tell you to let it linger?<br />
Nat: I hope not.<br />
Me: Oh wait, I think that's the lyric.<br />
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Nat: Now don't laugh at what I'm about to say OK?<br />
Me: OK.<br />
Nat: Breakfast cereal scares me...<br />
Me:.....<br />
Nat: You're not saying anything.<br />
Me: I'm waiting for the rest of that sentence. It's really hard not to laugh at you right now you weirdo.<br />
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When Ben, Nat and Kim were still kids, they went to the pool together heaps one summer. Kim was always worried that Ben and Nat were going to do something to embarrass her. One day Ben decided it would be fun to scream "I'm the girl in the blue bikini's brother" as he did a belly flop into the pool, just to embarrass her. Unfortunately he hit the water before he could say the word brother, so he just ended up screaming "I'm the girl in the blue bikini!!" We still give him hell for this nearly ten years later.<br />
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Ok so today I am going to finish with a joke that Miss K told me this month.<br />
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Miss K: Knock, knock<br />
Me: Who's there<br />
Miss K: Banana<br />
Me: Banana who?<br />
Miss K: Knock, knock<br />
Me: Who's there<br />
Miss K: Banana<br />
Me: Banana who?<br />
Miss K: Knock, knock<br />
Me: Who's there<br />
Miss K: Banana<br />
Me: Banana who?<br />
Miss K: Knock, knock<br />
Me: Who's there<br />
Miss K: Orange<br />
Me: Orange who?<br />
Miss K: Orange you glad I'm not a banana in a fruit bowl?<br />
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Well that's all from this side of the world, be sure to visit the other bloggers participating this month and I shall be back with more madness soon.<br />
<br />singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-325722147275859702.post-86475977707508231952016-10-08T12:16:00.000+11:002016-10-08T12:16:28.997+11:00Teaching Good Sportsmanship Like a JerkOne of my biggest fears in life is that my daughter is not going to be a nice person when she's all grown up. I shudder at the thought of my sweet caring little girl being an absolute jerk to someone and not giving it a second thought. Of course there is nothing I have seen yet to indicate that this is going to be the case, and I take every opportunity to teach Miss K about being considerate and thoughtful, but human nature means we're all jerks sometimes. And I was a jerk this week.<br />
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A lot of Miss K's time these days is spent preparing for school next year. Kindergarten is teaching her the education side of things, and the social side of things, but it's still my job to teach her basically everything else. I assumed that teaching children to be good sports would be included in her learning at kindergarten, but either the opportunity has never come up before, or Miss K has never shown that she needs the lesson there. She's never really shown me before this week that she needed it either, but I found out this week that she is quite happy to gloat when she beats someone, and I wasn't ok with it.<br />
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Part of this problem will have come from me. I have always encouraged a healthy interest in competition in Miss K, as I feel it is necessary to get ahead in life. But because she is only five, I let her win a lot when we compete against each other. (Except when it comes to running, she beats me fair and square when we race, I'm just too chubby and lazy to really run.) So Miss K has a confidence that she can win with ease thanks to me. Now I know that confidence is key, but too much confidence leads to arrogance, and I don't want my child to be a fat head. So I've slowly started winning more and more, just to teach her that winning isn't always guaranteed, but that just makes the wins she does get bigger in her mind. And with her new victories came gloating.<br />
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Miss K and I were bored the other night so we decided to play a few board games for an hour before bedtime. We started with Kerplunk, which I've had in our games cupboard for years now, but we've never played so I was excited to introduce her to a game I loved as a child. (We even had a Star Trek version because my big sister is a giant nerd.) I won each game, but the longer we played, the harder I had to work for my victories, as Miss K got a feel for the strategy that is Kerplunk. This is where her sense of competition was good. She was happy to lose, but she learned from her losses and used that lesson to bridge the gap between us in each new round. Eventually we got bored with having to reset the game each time so we swapped to Hungry, Hungry Dinos (Yeah, yeah I know that's not the real game, but board games are expensive OK?) Now Miss K was in her element. She loves quick fire games and beat me hands down every single round. I wasn't letting her win either, these were real losses for me. I was impressed by her performance until she started calling my dinosaurs losers.<br />
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I was shocked by her attitude, I've never gloated around her as I find that behaviour really off putting. I tried the Mike Brady method of lecturing her on the dinosaur's feelings. (Yet another in a long list of bizarre conversations I've had to have with my daughter.) I let her know that it isn't nice to point out that someone is a loser if they don't win a game, and using words like that can hurt someone's feelings. She agreed with me and I thought the matter was settled, but she went back to calling the dinosaurs losers straight away. So Mike Brady lost round one. I decided it was time to lead by example, and this is where I became a jerk.<br />
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It's like the old lesson we used to teach our children when they learn how to bite, if they bite us, we bite back. (Of course I don't condone biting your children, please don't bite the kids.) But if you want a kid to know how something feels, you let them experience it. So I swapped the game to one where the odds were stacked in my favour; We had thumb war. (Another throwback to my own childhood and the many thumb wars I had with my big sister where she usually beat me easily.) I won the round of course, and then I proceeded to do a victory dance (which may or may not have included a song calling Miss K a loser).<br />
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Yeah, yeah, I know, I was a huge meanie. I can only imagine how many of you are burning up with rage right now, but Miss K got the point straight away. She now knew how it felt to be called a loser, and she knew how horrible it felt. Now you may think I overreacted, she was insulting a plastic moulded toy that is unable to feel emotions or even hear her words, but that wasn't the point. One day she is going to play sports with other children who do have ears and feelings that can be easily hurt, and I don't want her to be the jerk gloating over winning a stupid game when it actually matters. I reiterated how words can hurt feelings, and we talked about the correct way to behave whether you win or lose, and we finished our match by telling each other "Good game".<br />
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So while I don't officially condone calling your kids losers, or gloating around them, or deliberately beating them at games, sometimes you have to be a jerk to prove a point. Hopefully my daughter now has a better sense of humility, and will be more gracious with her wins and her losses. Or one day I'll get a huge bill from a therapist for all the damage I'm doing as I stumble through being a parent. Only time will tell.<br />
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I would love to hear about any other parents out there who have had similar ethical dilemmas that they solved by being less than perfect. Hit me up in the comments down below and let me know how much you now pay for therapy per month. I get the feeling I'm going to need to start a savings account very soon.singlemumplusonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15051328458409204822noreply@blogger.com0