New Year Old Me

As always I'm a step behind the rest of the blogging world when it comes to timely posting, but I know you guys will forgive me as always because I'm just that awesome.

So yesterday I wrote about what happened in December 2013, and why it was by far the worst month I've had for a long time. But December was only one month. What did I think about the rest of the year I've just had? To be perfectly honest I can't remember the past 12 months too well, probably because I was just too damn busy to stop and store much in my long term memory, but according to my phone's calendar and photo gallery, below are some of the things I managed to accomplish this year.

I kept Miss K alive for another 12 months

So according to the photos on my phone, the last photo I took of Miss K was on 24th December in the emergency room at Sunshine Hospital while she was driving dangerously. (Luckily if there was an accident we were surrounded by trained professionals.) But according to the lump in her bed she's still very much here so I'm considering that my biggest accomplishment to date. Anyone who has kids will tell you exactly how hard they are to keep safe, with their desire to touch everything they shouldn't touch, and jump off all the things you don't want them to jump off, so every day you can get them to bed in one piece is a win. Miss K and I have had a lot of ups and downs this year, a few major changes to our routines and quite a bit of stress and worry, but she is definitely blossoming into a beautiful child (despite her love of temper tantrums) and not a day goes by when I don't feel proud of her.

I finished my schooling

This one I still remember pretty well (probably because I ended up taking my final exam at McDonalds.) I have since gotten my final results, and while I didn't get a perfect score for the exam, I am pretty sure I got enough to pass the unit and I'll graduate along with everyone else in March. I haven't heard anything from my tutor to say otherwise, so I now just need to sit back and wait for my certificate to show up in the mail. I'm pretty proud to say the least that I managed to stick it out with this course, and I will finally have a piece of paper to show people that I know stuff about things. I still don't know if I'll ever actually use my new qualification outside of taking payments from clients, but at this stage that doesn't really matter as much as the fact that I actually managed to finish something.

I got a job and managed to keep it

So for anyone who saw the post I wrote when I first decided to try going back to work, you will know that the last time I worked for my boss I made it through 6 months before quitting and moving to another town over 100 Km away. (Not because I was scared of my former boss, just because the pickings are richer out west.) Well the 6 month mark came and went in December and I managed to ride out the storm and not quit my job this time. To be fair though I had no intentions of quitting this time, and given that I am older and wiser than I was in 2007 it wasn't hard to stick around this time. The work is still challenging, and I see more horrible things in a week than I ever wanted to see in a life time (such is the way when people start fighting over their children), but my boss is super generous, totally understanding about how hard it is to juggle kids and employment, and brilliant at her job, which makes my job easier. I still have to wear a monkey suit to work every day, and now I've been told I'm not allowed to put my hair in a pony tail while at work, so the demands will never stop, but I'm determined to keep my head down and just keep bringing in the moolah.

I started a business

Yes I am still a business owner, even though things are pretty quiet on the business side of things, but I managed to hit a pretty big sales target that Kaszazz give all new consultants and I'm loving all the perks being afforded to me as a consultant. We have officially gone multi-national so any of my crafty readers out there, check out the link and come see the awesome things you can do with our products. (Ok sales pitch over, I'll go back to being a blogger now.)

I got my teeth fixed

So this one I never blogged about, partly because it was too awful to talk about at the time, and partly because I hate my teeth, so talking about them is never high on my list of things to do. But I did get sick and tired of all the holes and pain so I gave in and visited a dentist. Two extractions and seven fillings later I'm still in pain while I continue to heal, but at least my smile looks normal. There was also one fun visit where the anesthetic wore off before the dentist was finished, and being the scaredy cat I am, I didn't have the nerve to tell her to stop playing with my teeth and drug me up again. That tooth took forever to stop hurting, and there is now a lump on the gum directly above it, so I need to go back to the dentist again this week to get her to check it out, but I'll get my teeth cleaned at the same time so it's not all bad. Seriously guys, brush your teeth every day. It saves you a hell of a lot of pain in the long run.

Miss K started day care

I know I swore black and blue that I would never send my daughter to day care and let strangers take care of her, but as always life had different plans for me. My big sister Sam has valiantly taken care of her for the past 6 months while I went off to work, and she did it without a single complaint (ok that's not entirely true, my daughter is a handful) but the strain of taking care of her own two children plus mine did get a bit much in the end. So I decided for her sake, and also to help Miss K learn to socialize with children who she isn't related to, that the time had come to put her into a program. We had a few weeks of orientation in December, which was actually timed perfectly because they came right after Sam's brother in law died, so she was really too busy taking care of her own family and didn't need the worry of Miss K as well. Orientation went super smoothly and Miss K is loving going to day care two days a week. She starts again on the 6th of this month while I'm still on holidays so if anything goes wrong I'm still close enough to deal with it for the first week. Sam's baby is starting school this year as well, so she won't know herself, being totally child free while Miss K is in day care, but she'll still get her one day a week, plus pick ups the rest of the time, so she won't be totally deprived of her time with Miss K. (Her words not mine)

I met long lost family members

So again this is something I didn't discuss at the time, but I actually got to meet one of my big sisters for the first time. I've mentioned before that my dad had 5 children with a previous wife, and I had met all of them except one. Well the Gods of fortune smiled on us this year and nearly 20 years after I met the first of my half brothers and sisters, I finally met the last one. The meeting was strange to say the least, as I could see the similarities that come with sharing a genetic bond, but given that her and her brothers and sisters were fed lies about our family their whole lives, things were slightly strained at first while we tried to figure each other  out. But my big sister and her partner are lovely ladies, and great mums and I am proud to be able to say I now know them. Miss K also got to meet a missing link in her family tree when Ady and his father finally reconnected after I don't know how many years of being estranged, and things there are going great. We make sure to pop in to visit him every month while we're down visiting Nonna, and while she has no idea we have anything to do with him (Ady hasn't gotten up the nerve to tell her and I refuse to get involved), it is lovely watching him develop a relationship with his only grandchild. He spoils her absolutely rotten any chance he gets, but he also genuinely loves her. He drives trams for a living, and lives very close to the route he drives, so any time a tram passes us as we walk down the street, they stop where they are so they can meet Miss K. It's fun watching my daughter disrupt Melbourne traffic and get away with it. If only she knew exactly how much power she held.

I made some wonderful blogging friends

So for anyone who has read anything before this blog, you'll know I have a blog crush on Karen from Baking in a Tornado. This lady just comes up with the best ideas for blogging, and I look forward to taking part in her blog series every chance I get. I get three chances this month, so I'm over the moon excited right now. But she certainly isn't the only wonderful blogger I've had the joy to cross paths with this year. From Vanessa at Babbling Bandit who writes about her daily struggles with depression with such raw honesty you can't help but feel her pain, to Stephanie at The Pursuit of Normal who makes me feel so much better about my own screw ups, and everyone else I have spoken to this year, (there are too many to mention), I will just say you ladies are all wonderful, and your writing has touched me so much over the year, so thank you.

Well I think that's a pretty good year. I'm sure other things happened too, but if I really gave you a play by play of the entire year, we'd be here until 2015 so I'll leave you now with my absolute favourite photo of 2013, Miss K as a fairy.

October Secret Subject Swap Wild Ride?

Hello again my lovelies and welcome to take one of the October Secret Subject Swap.  I'm sure you all know the drill by now, twelve bloggers who have taken leave of their senses decide to play blog lottery and let someone else choose their topic for the day. We then post at exactly the same time (give or take a few minutes and several different time zones) for your entertainment.

Now I introduce to you the eleven other bloggers who are partaking in this swap, you must go visit them all (once you've read my post and left me some love that is.)

http://BakingInATornado.com                              Baking In A Tornado

http://themomisodes.com/                                  The Momisodes

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/                          Just A Little Nutty

http://mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/  Moore Organized Mayhem

http://crazyasnormal.com                                     Crazy As Normal

http://www.homeonderanged.com                         Home on Deranged

http://dawnsdisaster.blogspot.com                        Dawn’s Disaster

http://www.theinsomniacsdream.com/                 The Insomniac’s Dream

http://www.outsmartedmommy.com                    Outsmarted Mommy

www.theblacksheepmom.blogspot.com                 Black Sheep Mom

http://www.bethteliho.wordpress.com/                  Writer B is Me

So my topic today was submitted by Crazy As Normal, and it is: Not many people know this story, so strap yourself in for an amazing ride.  One time in high school I...

Hoo boy, so many stories so little time. There was the time I travelled back in time and managed to both jeapordize and then save my parent's relationship, oh wait that was Back to the Future. Well how about the time I got detention for skipping class and ended up spending my entire Saturday with a jock, a rebel, a nerd and a weirdo, ending up best friends with them by the end of the day? No that was the Breakfast Club. There was that time I met a sparkly vampire and fell in love with him and....yeah we all know where I'm going with that one.

To be perfectly honest I don't know that anyone needs to strap themselves in before hearing any of the stories of my youth. I'm not so much a super fast sports car as I am a child's tricycle, built more for safety than excitement. You see once upon a time I was actually a Good Girl. I didn't smoke, I only drank with my parent's permission, I stayed a virgin until my last year of school, (OK that one is probably not so much what a Good Girl would do but the guy and I had been dating for nearly 2 years at the time.) I never talked back to the teachers, I got straight A's in most of my subjects (except sport but I never cared about that) and I never skipped school without spending the time at home with mum.  Wow when I say it like that I actually sound boring. 

I guess the most reckless thing I did in my teen years was the night I snuck out of the house to meet a boy I had found in a chat room. Hey if you're going to rebel you might as well go big right??  Now I actually tried to sneak out of the house twice to meet him, but the first night I got cold feet and told my big sister what I was going to do. She convinced me to stay in and watch Beaches with her instead of breaking the rules. But I was determined to meet this boy, so I arranged to meet him again the next night. This time I kept my plans to myself and managed to get out of the house unnoticed and met up with him a few doors down from where I lived.  I don't know what I expected from that night, but needless to say he acted like a typical teenage boy who had been given the keys to the castle and got very grabby very quickly.  Luckily for me I had a my body my business policy even back then (I was still a good girl) so I put an end to the evening very quickly before I lost control of the situation. Unfortunately for me my sneaking skills have always been terrible so I got sprang by my big sister trying to creep back into bed. (The perils of sharing a bedroom.) Needless to say I was in very big trouble.

When mum found out the next day what I had done, she hit the roof. I got banned from the internet for months, banned from chat rooms forever and grounded for what seemed like an eternity. The grounding also came with hard labour so I spent the next few days cleaning places that hadn't seen a duster in ages. I was also made to send an email to the boy I'd snuck out to see telling him I could never see him again. That part wasn't so bad because I had no intentions of ever seeing him again so I wasn't absolutely heart broken, but I was humiliated at having to tell him I'd been sprang. But the months went past and eventually I was allowed back on the computer, but I never went into another chat room again. This all happened nearly 15 years ago and I still haven't visited a chat room since that night. Once a good girl always a good girl.

So that's it, you can unbuckle your seat belts now every one, the wild ride is over. I hope I didn't shock you guys too much with my wild and crazy antics, I'd hate to think you guys would start thinking about me differently.  I'm just thankful Miss K is too young to read just yet, I'd hate for her to start getting ideas for when she's a teenager just yet.

Well you've heard from me, now go and visit everyone else and keep the fun going. I'll be back again soon.

Secret subject swap ~ treasured memories

Welcome to Take One of August’s Secret Subject Swaps. This week, 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting them for your viewing pleasure. Well everyone else posted theirs several hours ago but due to technical difficulties and the fact that I seem to be late everywhere these days, mine is being posted at 10:30 Australian Eastern Standard time instead of East Coast Standard time.



So I'll start as always with the list of lovely bloggers you absolutely MUST go and visit today, as all of them have posts on their wall right now that are GOLD! 

http://BakingInATornado.com                              Baking In A Tornado

http://themomisodes.com/                                     The Momisodes

http://www.justalittlenutty.com/                           Just A Little Nutty

http://followmehome.shellybean.com                   Follow me home . . .

http://mooreorganizedmayhem.blogspot.com/      Moore Organized Mayhem

http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/         Stacy Sews and Schools

http://thesadderbutwisergirl.com                           The Sadder But Wiser Girl

http://menopausalmother.blogspot.com/                Menopausal Mother              

http://dinoheromommy.com/                                 Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://hypnoticbard.blogspot.com/                        The Insomniac’s Dream

www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com                       Evil Joy Speaks        

So today my subject is What’s your most valued possession and why?  Tell us the story behind it.

It was submitted by: Moore Organized Mayhem          

So this one was a bit tricky for me because I own so little these days, and less of any value. I told mum of my subject and she guessed I'd say Miss K, but given I don't really own her, I'm just borrowing her till she becomes an adult I can't  really use her today.  Anything else I truly treasure has been locked up in storage for so long I can't even remember what's in the boxes. I look forward to the day I finally have the space to start bringing my crap back into the house because it will be like my birthday, Christmas and a walk down memory lane all at once.

There is one thing in storage that I remember very clearly and it is probably the thing I miss the most out of everything. It's a little green box, a little bit larger than a shoe box. The box itself isn't much to look at, but inside the box is every single card I have ever received, as well as a few special school certificates, photos, letters from old friends and a lot of smiles. Opening that box takes me all the way through from my childhood and people I haven't seen in over twenty five years to my youn adulthood to people I haven't seen in over eight years. I think my absolute favourite thing in the entire box (and probably the strangest thing too) is an old rusty horse shoe a work friend's husband gave to me when I moved from Melbourne back home again for the last time. 

I'd always joked with him that he must have had a horse shoe rammed into his nether regions because he always managed to dodge near catastrophic events with ease. So when I was leaving work on my last day he gave me the horse shoe (which he claimed he removed from his nether regions himself, but I'm skeptical) so that I would have his good luck with me wherever I went. I have no idea where he got a real horse shoe from, but I've learned in the past to just not ask. I still smile whenever I see the horse shoe though, a private joke shared between friends that I will remember forever.

From Christmas cards I received from old high school friends to the get well soon card my dad gave me when I broke my foot at eighteen, my little memory box has everything I love to reminisce about...well almost everything. You see I packed it away in dad's storage shed while I was still pregnant with Miss K so all of my special cards I have received since she was born are still here with me now. And of course there are other special treasures of hers that needed to be protected, so we've started a memory box for her too. The outfit she wore home from the hospital, a newspaper from the day she was born and her very first pair of shoes are all packed away safely with her very first swaddling blanket to remind me of the most terrifying and exciting part of my life so far. And one day when she out grows Elmo he'll be popped away too, as well as every birthday card she ever gets and any special school certificates, just waiting to be given back to her one day when she is an adult.

So there you have it, my most valued possession. Completely worthless to anyone else, but certainly the one thing I'd run into a burning building for. Oh, after Miss K of course.

So that's all for now, be sure to go visit the rest of the lovely bloggers taking part in the subject swap today and enjoy the rest of the fun.

image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Pictured: not a good place to store your memory box...or your children