The Blog Strut blog hop and contest

Thank you so much for stopping by this week's Blog Strut #12 - The Special Swapiversary Edition! Our Linky Parties are always rule-free! There are a set of guidelines below but they are just that, guidelines! We want you to post what you want, share what you want, and not have to do anything in return but share the bloggy love!

We encourage you to Pin the posts of the bloggers before and after you! We understand that there may be a lot of entries so just pick a few of your favorites and pin them!

Every week we pick our favorite posts The top clicked post and a random wildcard choice and Feature them! We'll also send out a social blast to ask everyone to check out your posts! From last week's Strut we have:

Angela's Pick 22 Re-Purposing Ideas by Family Home and Life

Sande's Pick Tasty Breakfast Casserole by In Him We Live and Move and Have our Being

Amber's Pick How to Make a Halloween Witch By Penny's Vintage Home

Top Clicks chosen by you DIY Fall Monogram Door Hanger by This Ole Mom

Wildcard Pick Make a No Sew Apron for Under $5 by Erin's 2 Cents

Congratulations! Don't forget to pick up your free Featured button!

<a href="http://www.mypersonalaccent.com/linkyparty" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.mypersonalaccent.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/featuredbutton.jpg"></a>

We really are rule-free but we ask you that you take a look at and consider these guidelines.
Please post only family friendly content
Please post a link to any of your favorite or most recent posts
You can post as many as you'd like.
If you would like to link to your giveaway or contest please use our giveaway/contest page link up instead
After you link your posts, don't forget to scroll down and add your Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and Blog Lovin' profiles!
Be kind and follow your hosts and co-hosts!
Share the bloggy love! Check out the links before and after you and follow some of them at the social linky below!
 

Want to share the Blog Strut on your page? Pick up our snazzy little button by copying the code below!

<a href="http://www.mypersonalaccent.com/linkyparty" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.mypersonalaccent.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bsbutton.jpg"></a>

We need your vote! Today the Secret Subject Swap is joining the Blog Strut for a very special occasion. It is the one year anniversary of the Swap and we’re celebrating with a Strut!

The Secret Subject Swap is a challenge open to all bloggers. It’s meant as an exercise to push our writing boundaries. Each participant sends in a writing prompt and is secretly assigned someone else’s prompt. Two weeks later, on an assigned day and time, we all divulge the subject we received, who it came from, and publish our posts linking to each other.

And now on the one year Swapiversary we want you to tell us, who is the Queen of the Swap? Read them all and strut back here to cast your vote. Who will win the Award? It’s all in your hands!

An InLinkz Link-up

Featured Post: DIY Bold and Beautiful Vanity Trays

Meet the Ladies of the Secret Subject Swap

Featured Post: Things To Do on a Rainy Day	Featured Post: *Gasp* Paparazzi Are At My Door
Featured Post: Hello My Name Is Hypocrite	Featured Post: Fort Worth Is All Kinds of Awesome

Featured Post: One Time In High School I...	Featured Post: Don't Let Fear Take Over
Featured Post: Keeping Up With the Hansons	Featured Post: It's the End of the World as we Know it And Google Feels Fine

Featured Post: Why is Halloween Liked/Disliked in Your Home?	Featured Post: Behind the Scenes of an Insomniac
Featured Post: A Moving Starring Me And...	Featured Post: Be Okay

An InLinkz Link-up

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Blog Lovin'

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.

September Fly on the Wall

Have any of you wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall of someone's house? I often wonder what it would be like to get an uncensored view into the way people live when the outside world isn't looking, but I've always been a bit of a voyeur like that. I think that's part of the reason why I love reading blogs, because it's a tiny glimpse into the minds and lives of people that I would otherwise never know.  Well luckily for me I'm not the only voyeur out there, the lovely Karen from Baking in a Tornado is also a bit of a Peeping Tom, (albeit one who is mindful of the laws against stalking) so she started the Fly on the Wall series.  She has invited bloggers of all ages and sizes to give their lovely audiences a peek into their day to day lives by sharing conversations, anecdotes and other bits and pieces that otherwise would stay hidden behind closed doors.  Now I have loved reading the Fly on the Wall series ever since I first discovered Karen's blog many months ago, but this month I have been given the opportunity to join in the fun for the very first time, and boy am I excited.

Now before I terrorise you all with the uncensored truth that is what happens in my house when no one is looking, I'll introduce the other wonderful bloggers who are partaking in Septembers Fly on the Wall post.  Be sure to visit them all, and don't forget to bring some popcorn because there is some quality entertainment to be found in these posts.

Baking in a Tornado                                  

Just a Little Nutty                      

Follow Me Home                       

Stacy Sews and Schools             

 The Sadder But Wiser Girl                        

Menopausal Mother                  

Moore Organized Mayhem           

The Insomniac's Dream                

The Momisodes                  

Spatulas on Parade         

The Rowdy Baker                      

Writer B is Me                 

Sorry kid, Your Mom Doesn’t Play Well With Others                

So as far as anyone looking in knows, we're a normal family. But if you look a little deeper, you'll see we're all a little mad here...

Giving mum instructions before I go to work.

Me: Oh I’ve almost run out of wipes so you’ll need to put the wipes from the change table into the nappy bag right before Sam picks her up.

Mum: That’s too much like hard work. I’ll just put them in there now.

Me: But what will you wipe her bum with in the meantime?

Mum: I won’t wipe her bum

Me: Fine then you can buy the antibiotics when she comes down with a yeast infection.

Mum: I’m not wiping her bum with bread…

Describing my shopping trip with Miss K to mum

Me: I kept whacking Miss K in the head with the roast chicken.

Mum: Really?

Me: Yeah. I was trying to get the shopping done and you know what it’s like, she’s right at chicken whacking height…

Me: I’m glad to see people tipping their pizza delivery boy

Mum: Good grief

Me: Hey! They provide an important service mum.

Mum draws my attention to the fact that Miss K is playing with an (unused) tampon.

Me: Where did you get that from? I don’t even use tampons.

Mum: Yuck

Me: Let’s chuck it in the toilet and see what happens.

Mum: You do amuse yourself don’t you?

Me (to Miss K): Are you licking me again? Oh gross you little feral!

Miss K: Mum….MUM, STUCK!!

Me: You’re not stuck, you’re in bed. There’s a difference

Miss K: NOOO

Dealing with yet another of Miss K’s temper tantrums.

Me: Do you want to go to bed?

Miss K: NO

Me: Then cheer up.

Miss K: NO

Me: Then go to bed

Miss K: NO

Me: Then cheer up.

Miss K: NO

This game can go on for hours.

Mum (to Miss K): You are the most beautiful baby did you know that? I wouldn't have anything to do with you if you weren't so good looking.

Miss K is playing on the floor with granny when she gets the brainwave to climb on her back.

Mum: I don’t do horsey rides.

Me: Get off granny’s back honey, she’s a dead horse

Mum: Yeah I’m an old nag.

Me: I know.

While working on Miss K’s words

Me: Can you say c, c, Clock?

Miss K: cock (she can’t say L, this is normal OK?)

Me: Good girl. Now can you say big pink clock?

Mum: You’re naughty.

Me (to Miss K): Stay away from the oven OK, It’s hot and you’re naked.

I look over and see Miss K snacking on the ham she had refused to eat yesterday at lunch time.

Me: Miss K NO!!

Mum: What is it? Meat?

Me: Yeah from yesterday.  You wouldn't eat it when I served it for lunch, you’re not having it now.

Mum: That child will eat anything.

Me: Yeah, 24 hours after you serve it to her.

Mum: You don’t want any nutty chocolate?

Kim: Nah I’m too tired to chew.

Nat: I'm thinking of going on one of those smoothie diets.
Kim: Nat, drinking nothing but MacDonald thick shakes is not considered a smoothie diet.

After Kim had left to go to a friend's house to study
Mum: As they say in the classics, YAY!!!

Me (to mum): Did you hear Miss K screaming this morning at 6:30?
Mum: No
Me: Yeah she was stuck under the mattress again.

Well that's all the clean stuff I could muster up, the rest of our conversations were filled with enough curse words to make a wharfie blush so I might have to save them for an after dark post one day.  If there is anyone left who hasn't fainted from shock head on over and visit the rest of the blogs now. 

The mother of all inventions - Secret Subject Swap

Hello one and  all and welcome to another Secret Subject Swap take one. This is the fun series where twelve bloggers from around the world swap subjects with one another through the clever and mystical Karen from Baking in a Tornado. She decides as the leader of all the swappers who gets what subjects, and using her super powers gets us to simultaneously post our writings for the enjoyment of you wonderful people. Before I get to my post I'll introduce the rest of the bloggers taking part in take one of Secret Subject Swap this month.

Baking In A Tornado

The Momisodes

Just a Little Nutty

Follow Me Home

Moore Organized Mayhem

Stacy Sews and Schools

The Sadder But Wiser Girl

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

Crazy as Normal

Menopausal Mother

Moms Dont Say That

So today my subject is You've invented something that will revolutionize motherhood as we know it. What is it? and it was submitted by The Sadder But Wiser Girl. 

"Eureka!!!" I screamed as I threw my goggles to the ground. I had finally done it, I had finally figured out how to give mums the one thing they wanted most of all. The one thing I wanted most of all, but had seemed so elusive since Miss K had come along was just 5 minutes more. 5 minutes to finish my meal before it went cold, 5 more minutes sleep, 5 minutes peace and quiet so I could go the toilet by myself. (I get performance anxiety you see.) For two years it seemed like I would never get the 5 minutes I so desperately needed, until I discovered I had the secret in my own hands the whole time. And it was all thanks to my extensive knowledge in Quantum Physics developed while watching the Big Bang Theory. 

I built a secret lab in the one place no one in my family ever goes to, the laundry room, and spent months slaving away at my new creation. Of course it wouldn't have taken so long, but given I don't even have 5 minutes to take a toilet break around here, I had to do all my work while everyone else was asleep. On the plus side I did manage to get on top of the mountain of washing at the same time, so it was a win-win for everyone. I had a few setbacks of course, like the time I accidentally put my creation in the spin cycle and had to start again, but finally all my hard work and swearing paid off and I now held in my hand the answer to every mother's prayer. "I will call you the Five Minutes More-inator" I whispered as I cradled the small black box in my hand. Now all I needed was to test it out. 

Right on cue Miss K woke up from a bad dream and started screaming out for me. "Perfect!" I cried. I ran into the kitchen, ignoring Miss K's screams of protest as I rushed past her room, and held the Five Minutes More-inator up towards the clock on the wall. I held my breath and pressed the power button. It began to softly vibrate in my hands and then a bright green laser shot out of it and hit the clock with a flash. I could almost feel the whole earth shudder as time slowed down to a complete halt. I listened out for Miss K's next scream, but everything was silent. The LED screen on the Five Minutes More-inator came to life flashing with the numbers 5:00 and started counting down the seconds until time would start up again. "It works" I screamed as I did a happy dance around the kitchen, for once not afraid that anyone would walk in during yet another of my embarrassing displays of uncoordinated jigging. I snuck into Miss K's room and sure enough she was frozen mid scream, her face contorted into an angry grimace. I gingerly poked her, to see if she was just messing with me, but her face didn't even flicker.

This was brilliant. I had finally gained myself some much needed time, except I was wasting it staring at my frozen child. I wracked my brain trying to think of something I could never do because there were children around, and then remembered the one thing I always dreamed of doing, eating a chocolate pudding without having to share it. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a tub of pudding out of the fridge. I looked at the Five Minutes More-inator and realised I only had three minutes left to myself. I grabbed a table spoon out of the drawer and started shoveling the pudding into my mouth as fast as I could eat it. It was bliss. Until I gave myself a stomach ache from eating too fast. I groaned and sat down on the kitchen floor cradling my tummy. As I sat there feeling sorry for myself the Five Minutes More-inator beeped at me, and Miss K's screaming resumed at full volume. 

"Dammit" I groaned as I tried to muster up the energy to stand up again. I aimed the Five Minutes More-inator in the general area of the clock on the wall and hit the power button again, but nothing happened. I looked at the machine, and noticed the battery low button flashing at me. "Wow you eat through the power fast" I said to no one in particular, as it slowly dawned on me I'd have to deal with Miss K by myself, stomach ache and all. I pulled myself up off the floor and slowly trudged towards the wailing, wishing I could join in the screaming too. I got into the bedroom and nearly fainted in shock at the sight that was waiting for me. Miss K was still partially frozen in place, and the look on her face was terrifying. I rushed towards her and started shaking her, begging her to start moving again. Slowly she began to unfreeze, bit by bit, with some extra coaxing from me, as I flexed her limbs in a calisthenics type fashion, until after about twenty minutes she was back to normal. Well almost back to normal, but I could always just say she'd inherited her father's wonky nose. But it did look like it was back to the drawing board for me, which was too bad, because I could probably have used all those millions of dollars the Five Minutes More-inator would have made me on the inevitable nose job for Miss K.

Once I had Miss K calmed down and back to bed I went and threw the Five Minutes More-inator in the bin. "I will have to find another way to become rich then" I said to myself as I made my way to bed. "Maybe I should get Miss K into show business and become a stage mum, that's always worked well for others in the past..."

image source

Oh yeah...

Well that's all from me, now do yourselves a favour and head on over to the rest of the blogs I listed at the beginning, and check out their posts too. I promise you now, you won't regret it.  Stay awesome y'all!

Five things (Old School Blogging)

Ok so for any of you wonderful readers out there who follow Baking In a Tornado you will know that she tagged me in a post earlier this month called Five Things. And for any of you who don't follow Baking in a Tornado, what on earth is wrong with you people?? Get your backsides over there now and meet a classy lady and brilliant writer who is responsible for the Secret Subject Swap that I partake in every month, as well as the Fly on the Wall series, which I will be joining as of next month. (Stay tuned, it's going to be legen...(wait for it)...dary)

Any way the five things tag is another chain blog post which apparently was a popular thing when blogging was in its infancy, but seems to have been lost over time. This one doesn't come with any fancy trophies or dinner for two at the Olive Garden, but it comes with seven lists of five things about me. (Well technically the seventh list is five bloggers who I pass the tag on to, but now you're just splitting hairs.)

Because I have just run out of witty banter, I'll plow straight into the lists.

5 Things I Have a Passion For

1. Paper crafts
2. Music
3. Food (seriously, have you seen the size of my butt? that should have been a no brainer.)
4. Word puzzles. I can't get to sleep until I've done at least one at the moment. Just as well I have a massive collection of puzzle books to keep me company
5. Writing. Of course I never did manage to write the best selling novel I dreamed of as a kid, but that's why this blog is one of my happy places.

5 Things I'd Like to Do Before I Die

1. See Miss K grow up happy (Isn't that all any parent ever wants? I don't care if she grows up to  be a secretary like mum, or a cleaner like grandma, or a rocket scientist like....OK I don't know any rocket scientists, but I'm sure they're all very happy)
2. Visit the birthplace of my ancestors
3. Own a house
4. Become a grandma (my mum makes it look like so much fun, I can't wait to try it for myself. Actually I can wait. Until Miss K is 25 at least OK young lady??)
5. Retire near the beach

5 Things I Say a Lot

1. For the love of monkeys! (I don't really love monkeys, although some of them are pretty cute, it's just better to say that than to keep swearing like a fish wife when the children are around.)
2. I can live with that. (Any time my little sister tries to insult me by calling me horrible names that's my come back. She can never beat it. Ever.)
3. I'm going to count to three. (This one has saved Miss K's bacon so many times over the last year, she knows that if I've gotten to the counting stage, things have just gotten real and she needs to pull her head in.)
4. I love you. (This one is usually aimed at Miss K, but sometimes I'll feel comfortable enough admitting it to other people.)
5. You weirdo. (This one is also usually aimed at Miss K, but it's always when she's doing something totally bizarre like pressing her stomach up to the fridge because it's cold, or spinning around on the ground in circles.)

5 Books I've Read Lately

1. The Hunger Games trilogy. I love this series so much I've finished the last book and gone straight back to the first book several times. I never get tired of the story.
2. Girls Night In. This is a massive omnibus of short stories written by some brilliant women from around the world. All the profits from the sale of the books go to the charity War Child which was just one of the warm fuzzies reading this book gives me. Again another book I can read over and over again.
3. Puzzle books. I know technically you don't read puzzle books like a story, but I still have to look at words with my eyes so I'm counting this as reading.
4. There's a Reason for Everything. This is a very old trivia book that was written in the 1970's so some of the trivia has since been disproven, but it is still full of so much interesting information about topics like the origins of superstitions and rituals.
5. You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News. This is a book written by the people from the hillarious and brilliant website cracked.com, and basically includes some of the articles you can find on their website, but in book form so it makes you look more intellectual when you read it. I bought this book when Miss K was a baby, and it has helped get me to sleep on many a night.

5 Favourite Movies

Thank you for finally giving me a list that asks for more than one favourite movie. How can I only love one movie the most? There are too many awesome movies out there to just pick one. So I'm happy to finally be given a place to list in no particular order just some of my favourite movies.

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. Cry Baby
3. Despicable Me (Hey don't judge ok I've got a kid now so it's totally ok for me to have a wallet full of kids movies.)
4. Shock Treatment
5. Mystery Science Theatre 3000 the movie. Americans may recognise this one, but I don't think it was even released in Australia. I had to buy our copy from an American seller on eBay. Thank heavens for multi region DVD players.

5 Places I'd Love to Travel to

1. Ireland. In particular Tipperary because that's where my mum's family originated, but the country as a whole would be fabulous to see
2. Italy. This is where Miss K's other family come from, and I'd love to take her to her Nonna's home town so she can see where her family started.
3. Fiji. The people seem to be so friendly, and the beaches are stunning. It's always been a dream destination for me.
4. The rest of Australia. I've been to two of the territories in Australia and three of the states. I'd love to visit the rest of the country that hosts me as a citizen and see more of the beauty that is out there.
5. Tokyo. I think there are just so many fantastic things there that you just need to see for yourself to believe, and I'd love to be amazed. Oh and I've always wanted to go to a cherry blossom festival in Japan too.

5 Blogs I'll Tag

Now this one was tricky because I didn't want to tag anyone who had already had a turn, but I also have so many blogs on my favourites list, I didn't want to leave any of them out.

1. When Crazy Meets Exhaustion
2. Life, Unexpectedly
3. Dinosaur Superhero Mommy
4.We Band of Mothers
5. Ms. Adventures

Now if you were tagged and you don't want to play along, that's totally cool. And if you weren't tagged and you want to play along, that's totally cool also. For anyone at home who is playing, tagged or not, answer all the questions yourself and then send me a link to your post and I'll even advertise the hell out of it for you.

Well that's all from me for now, I'm off to charge my camera batteries and use up some more of my immensely impressive and slightly over the top collection of pretty papers. What's that? you don't believe I have too much crafty stuff??

Yeah, I may have a problem...

Stay tuned people, soon I'll have a post showing what to do when you have too much crafty crap.

The chair killing bottom strikes again and other stories

Hello again people, I know it's been waaay too long between posts, but I've been slowly trying to get into a groove between work and home, and that sadly leaves very little time for extra curricular activities like sharing with you guys. But I'm still here, and things are still going well, and hopefully I will have more to share with you wonderful and patient people soon, especially about my current downsizing. I've been having a huge cull, and have taken the mantra "if you're not going to use it then get rid of it" to extremes by trying to use up a heap of my craft stash so I don't have to throw it away. I'll have more on that as soon as I remember to charge the batteries in my camera so I can take pictures.

So for a bit of a back story, and for anyone who doesn't know how deadly my backside can be to a common chair, check out this post here which goes into details of chairs that I have killed in the past.  Well this week my butt struck again, destroying my office chair at work. Now this time I can't blame sitting on my feet, which is my excuse for most other chairs I've broken (that and shoddy workmanship when building the chairs) as I can't sit on my feet at work. First it is incredibly bad OH&S so I'd get into heaps of trouble, and second I can't operate the dictation machine unless my feet are on the ground. But I have gotten into the terrible habit of throwing myself into my chair while at work, usually because I'm insanely busy, and I don't have time to sit down like a lady, so a lot of my day is spent just diving onto the chair as quickly as possible so I can do the mile long to-do list the boss has just given me before I forget any of it.  Sadly the standard office chair is not designed to be used in such a manner, and my poor chair has been creaking and groaning at me for several weeks now, so  I had a feeling that what happened this week was really inevitable, but it still came as a shock when it finally happened.

It was close to the end of the day, which happens to be the worst time to work in a law firm. That's usually the time when my boss checks over the correspondence for the day, and signs the letters that are good to go out, and returns the ones that need corrections done. So I usually have a massive pile of letters that need to be folded and stuffed into envelopes, another massive pile of letters that need adjustments before they can be signed, stuffed and posted, and yesterday I had a handful of people I had to call to reschedule their appointments because there had been a massive double booking in today's calendar. So needless to say I was incredibly frazzled, and not very worried about being delicate with the office furniture. But this time when I flounced to my desk and threw myself down, my poor chair decided it had had enough, so there was a huge crack sound, followed by a very unprofessional scream from me as I jumped up to save landing ass first on the ground. My office manager happened to be standing next to me when I decided to go all Incredible Hulk on the chair too, so I couldn't even hide the fact that I was destroying the office in front of her. Of course she was more concerned about me than the chair, but I explained that I was so used to chairs breaking underneath me I wasn't even scratched. (Gotta love ninja like reflexes at times like these.)

I inspected the chair and found that one of the five legs had snapped clean off and escaped somewhere to enjoy its new found freedom. I still can't find the leg so it has done a good job of falling off the grid. I just hope the boss doesn't find it on one of her random trips to the front office because then I'll have some explaining to do. Of course if she notices I'm using one of the crappy spare chairs I'll still have some explaining to do, so I can only pray she's too distracted for the next few weeks to start asking any uncomfortable questions. Of course if she does find out about my amazing skills of destruction, I could use it as a bargaining tool in the future. I'll start threatening to break all the chairs in the place simply by sitting down unless I get a longer lunch break, or a higher rate of pay. (Of course she could just use my pay rise to fund the replacement of every chair in the place.) In the meantime I may just start looking at the office catalogs to see if any of the office supply stores in the area sell steel reinforced chairs for flouncers like me.

And so with that I've had to say RIP to yet another brave chair, it tried its best to support my ample frame, but the stress was just too much. Memorial services will be held this Friday, and we ask that instead of buying flowers, you donate the money to the science of finding a chair that I cannot break.

© Reystleen | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Oh the humanity!

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