Flashback Friday drunken shenanigans

Well it's Friday again, and you lovely readers know what that means don't you?? It means another Flashback Friday, where I go through the vault of all my oooold photos and find some to share with you. For anyone who wants to see my first Flashback Friday, please see here.

So today I'm not going back as far as I did last time, this time I'm going back about 5 years ago to when I was still young and carefree and Miss K was not even a gleam in my eye. They were days filled with nothing more concerning than whether to have pizza for tea again or walk across the road to KFC for dinner. And for a good time my little sister Nat would come over for a night of heavy drinking, and for some reason, photography.

 

That's right, there is physical evidence of us at our absolute worst.

Now sadly because of the large amounts of alcohol involved in these evenings, I don't have a lot of stories to tell, mainly because everything about that period is so very fuzzy. I know there was one night where Nat chased me out of the house with a tube of toothpaste in her hand trying to use it on me as make up, but the chase stopped when I opened the gate on her foot and removed part of her toe nail. 

 

I was too cool for hair moustaches, I wanted a beard.

I had a Playstation at the time, so we'd spend a lot of time playing Singstar, or Guitar Hero, there would be lots of laughing and absolute mayhem. 

 

We look like a pair of Hell raisers don't we?

If we were feeling girly we'd give each other drunken make overs, which went about as well as you'd expect them to go. Occasionally I'd have a boyfriend and he'd be invited into the fold for the evening, and then we'd drink him under the table. I remember one guy, (who I'm still good friends with, and he is a seasoned drinker from way back) passed out on the couch after a quickfire Family Guy drinking game, leaving us to continue our party alone. Given that every other time I've drank with this guy he is able to keep drinking well after I'm finished I was always proud of that night. (Is that a bad thing?) 

They are nights that I will always look back on with great fondness, and just a touch of regret that I've grown up so much in the past few years that I probably won't ever have a repeat of them again. Of course Miss K will never know exactly how well I used to handle my drink, and I'll never look at her drinking sessions in the same way that I saw mine, but I can say with great certainty that those were the good old days.

Well that's my flashback for this week, if you would like to see the rest of the participants, or you want to add your own flashback to the website, you can do so here.

Going Green with Prudence Claire

Hello everyone and welcome to another Wednesday morning. Now because I truly hate Wednesdays and would spend the entire day in bed if I can, I have decided to get someone else to do my work for me today. I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to the lovely Prue from Prudenceclaire, and she is something of an expert when it comes to sustainable living. Today she has very kindly offered to come along and teach us all a little bit about how we can change to a greener lifestyle, so please sit back and enjoy some of her wisdom.

Hi, I'm Prue.

Let's talk green.  Somehow over the years I've morphed into one of those annoying environmentally conscious people.  Everything I've learned along the way about "going green" has made me something of an accidental expert on the subject.  I can tell the difference between a genuine green brand and a green wash.  I even know what some of the numbers mean on the ingredients list (925 is chlorine, for example).

Most of us are concerned to some extent about the environment, our bodies and our kids.  It's not hard to introduce a few changes to your everyday life which can reduce your exposure to chemicals and have a huge environmental impact.

Here's my list of easy things you can do to green your life:

• While running your shower waiting for the hot water to come in, collect the water in a bucket and use it to water plants.  You can also collect the water from your kitchen sink.
• Plant a veggie patch.  Check out which plants deter bugs and you can intersperse them amongst your vegetable plants - a lot of herbs that you might want in your garden anyway will also keep the bugs off your other plants.
• Get yourself some chickens.  If you have chickens and a vegetable garden there's wonderfully complete cycle where you eat the eggs, feed the chickens your food scraps, and you can crush the egg shells to deter slugs and snails from eating your veggies.  Plus, later you can kill the chickens and eat them.  Just kidding.  Or am I?
• Get rid of your lawn. This is a little radical, I know. But a dead lawn is an ugly lawn, and watering it is such a waste of water. Install synthetic turf or if you don't like the look of that, pave, install garden beds with drought tolerant plants, whatever - just get rid of the water sucking lawn.
• Always choose drought tolerant plants that flourish with minimal water. Or better yet, choose plants that are local to your area. Tropical plants are beautiful but all that bright green fleshy foliage needs LOTS of water. If you live in an arid area like me in Perth, for heaven's sake choose plants that aren't going to struggle in the blistering conditions.
• Compost your food scraps to use on the garden. Start to look at your rubbish bin as a last resort. You want to put as little in there as possible.
• Don't use your toilet as a rubbish bin either - the less solid waste to be broken down in the sewer system, the less chemicals they have to use to break it down.
• Sort your rubbish as you throw it away - get a dedicated recycling bin to put next to your normal waste bin.
• When throwing out plastic bottles, remove the lids. They're a different type of plastic and therefore have to be processed differently at the recycling plant.
• Things that should go in your recycling bin - plastic wrap, al foil, tin cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles.
• Buy your groceries from farmers' markets or independent supermarkets instead of Coles or Woolies.  You can learn more about the Coles/Woolies duopoly here (this video is from 2010 but the information is still relevant and accurate).
• Walk, take public transport or ride a pushbike to places nearby - if you ride a bike, BONUS! Incidental exercise!  You'll be green AND hot.
• Choose local sellers online.  On eBay you can refine your search for items near you only.  This saves on fuel and transportation costs.
• Buy secondhand: search for secondhand items instead of new ones on eBay and Gumtree.  I often hear people say "Oh, it already exists so I may as well buy it" about buying new items.  In actual fact, by buying something brand new you're adding to the demand for new items.  Go op shopping!  The great thing about op shops is they're not really in vogue at the moment so there is SO MUCH great stuff.  I remember in the 90s when everyone was into grunge all the op shops had been picked over so many times it was impossible to find anything but mom jeans and Bill Cosby jumpers (although nowadays that stuff would be really popular).
• Take reusable bags to the supermarket.  I'm from SA where plastic bags are practically illegal and when they're not readily available at the shop (or when you pay 20c per crappy compostable bag) it's amazing how quickly you get used to bringing your own.
• Choose bamboo over cotton.  You can find bed linen, towels and even clothes made out of bamboo.  It is about a thousand times softer than cotton, it's a fast growing crop, requires about a third of the amount of water that cotton does, has no natural pests.  I have some bamboo towels and every time people come to stay they marvel over how fluffy and soft they are.
• Choose glass instead of plastic e.g. I buy my tonic in the little glass bottles instead of the big plastic ones. Bonus is that it doesn't go flat.
• Get a front loading washing machine - saves water, electricity AND much gentler on your clothes.  Not only that, it actually cleans them better than a top loader.  True story.
• Do your washing in cold water instead of hot.
• Dress to the weather - put on a jumper and socks instead of turning on the heater, wear cool clothes in summer instead of cranking up the air conditioner.
• Don't use your air conditioner unless it's less than 15 or more than 35 degrees.  If you must run the air con, set it to 20 in winter and 25 in summer.
• If you're lucky enough to be building your own home, choose an energy efficient design.  A roof full of solar panels doesn't count, although it is a great start.  A truly energy efficient building uses less power and water and creates less waste, and in some cases actually contributes positively to the environment.
• Choose energy saving light globes and it goes without saying, don't leave them blazing all day and night. 
• Turn off or better yet unplug your appliances at the wall.
• Invest in Enjo cleaning products and do away with chemicals altogether.  Enjo is amazing and cleans better with less effort than using chemicals.  I don't know how it works, I just know that it does.
• If you're not into Enjo, tear up old clothes to use as cleaning rags instead of paper towel - reduce waste and the incredibly toxic pulping process required to make paper products.

Let's be realistic.  This is a long list.  I don't do all of them.  I can't be bothered to turn off and unplug my appliances at the wall.  My sister does this and I salute her.  I just cannot be bothered to plug in and unplug the TV every time I want to watch it.  I also can't be bothered to collect the water from my kitchen sink, although I do collect it from the shower.  My fiancé Blair feels the heat and so we run the air conditioner in summer more than I'd ever do on my own.  Sometimes I just grab the spray and wipe and the paper towel instead of the Enjo glove.  We're all human.

The point is to find a system where you're doing what you need to for the environment without getting pissed off at the inconvenience.  Anything that you do is better than nothing.  Don't beat yourself up about the things you don't do and just be proud of those that you do.

The fact is that living responsibly is not as easy as being lazy.  You do have to make an effort and change your habits and if you don't really care then it will always feel like a massive pain in the ass.  To me, it's become so ingrained that I barely think about it anymore.  It wasn't until I wrote this post that I realised just how much I know about this stuff now.

I hope this has been helpful or got you thinking about the things you can do.  The difference you can experience in your own health and well being when you do away with chemicals in the home, as well as the positive impact on the environment when we're all using less power, less water, less EVERYTHING, is tremendous.

xxx Prue 

Ok so how many of you learned something today?? I know I certainly have, and even though there are a lot of things on this list that we all already do, I believe we can all do a little bit more. I'd like to give a big thank you to Prue for coming by today, if you want to learn more about sustainability, or read anything else this lovely lady has to say, please stop by her website and show her some of your wonderful love. 

Well that's all from me for today, I'm now going to go and remove all the lids from the bottles in my recycling pile. I'll be back again soon, and in the meantime, please pop over to Prue's website to see some very important secrets about being a parent, that I have shared with her readers.

May is for Moms - An Interview with My Daughter

And we're back with the third and final installment of the May is for Moms series today. I have had the best fun with these posts, and I'm very sad to see the end of the interviews today.

Now today's interview is special for me because it's my baby girl's turn in the spotlight. Of course around here she is the centre of attention all the time, but given her inability to read, write, or even really talk, it's hard for her to be a part of my blog except for me to tell stories about her to you guys.

Now given Miss K's above mentioned inability to talk or write; how did I get any answers out of her? Well that's simple of course, with a video camera. And how did I get her to sit still long enough to actually get any answers out of her? Naturally I bribed her with food. Now even though I sat through all of her answers and even responded to her, I have no idea what the heck she is saying here, so please, please don't ask me to translate.

If for any reason you can't see the above video, you can view it on Youtube here

Well that's it, I don't think television is really ready for my hard hitting style of interviewing just yet, but it was fun to sit and chat with Miss K for your amusement. I'm glad to know that Miss K appreciates the sandwiches I make for her so much, especially since she gets one every single day. (Except when she decides she wants a banana.)

A huge thank you to Amy at Not Your Average Crazy for coming up with this awesome series, and for allowing us to join in the fun with her. I hope you've all enjoyed the glimpse into the life behind the scenes around here. To check out the rest of the interviews, please visit her website and enjoy some more fun.

May Secret Subject Swap

Welcome to take two of May's Secret Subject Swap. This week 11 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 our posts.




Below are links to all the sites now featuring  Secret Subject Swap posts. So sit back, grab a cuppa and check them all out.

Baking In A Tornado
The Insomniac's Dream
Dinosaur Superhero Mommy
The Pursuit of Normal
The Momisodes
Searching for Sanity
Black Sheep Mom
Moore Organized Mayhem
Daily Dose of Damn
Tiny Steps Mommy
Mom Rants and Comfy Pants

My subject is When you were asked as a child what you "want to be when you grow up" what did you say? Are you doing what you thought you would be doing? and it was submitted by Tiny Steps Mommy

When I was a kid, what I wanted to be when I grew up changed fairly regularly. At various times I wanted to be a writer, a nurse, an actor, a beautician, a librarian, a singer and Mrs Johnny Depp. Now there are slight problems with wanting to become every one of those things, which I shall go through with you guys now, in list form, because hey, who doesn't love a nice tidy list?

A writer
I love to write. I have loved it for as long as I can remember it. The problem is I hate my writing. I write here as often as I can, and while I think some of the stuff I put on this website is freaking hilarious, I'm always terrified I'm the only person who enjoys it. And writing here is actually pretty easy because I'm just writing about stuff I know. This is just like the most public diary I have ever owned. The minute you ask me to write a piece of fiction my brain goes into overdrive with every big and fancy word it knows, and before long, the reader needs a thesaurus just to understand that I'm talking about a meadow. My dad suffers from the same disease, except he doesn't proof read his stuff as well as I do, resulting in one descriptive piece where he described a field as "verdant, emerald". (For anyone who doesn't understand the irony, he just said green, green.) Every time I think of this piece of writing I start singing the green green grass of home. Now I actually took a creative writing class with my mum when I was about 12 or 13. I was the only child there in a room full of brilliant adults, my mum included, who could write with the best of them. One or two of these wonderful people have actually gone on to have works published, which makes me verdant emerald with envy, but their success is well deserved. I on the other hand struggled to make sure every piece I wrote didn't turn into an essay, and I ended up giving up on my dreams of being a famous writer.

A nurse
I come from a long line of nurses. My mum was a nurse, all of my aunts are nurses, one of my uncles is a nurse, my grandma was a nurse, my great grandma was a bartender. (That has nothing to do with anything, I just think it's cool.) A lot of my best friends from high school went on to become nurses, and one of them even works in the maternity ward of the local hospital where Miss K and I spent 3 weeks after she was born. It was nice having a familiar face around, especially during the long nights where hospitals can be pretty lonely and scary. But it takes a very special person to be a nurse.  For one, you can't be squeamish. I am a sympathetic vomiter, and I can't even watch a scene on television where there is puking. I've watched Youtube videos where people squeeze pimples, or pull cactus spikes out of various body parts, and while it is absolutely fascinating to see, I couldn't actually bear to see it in person. Of course when you have no choice but to cope with stuff like that, I'm OK, but I turn to jelly as soon as the crisis is over and I can go back to being a sook. So that ruled out becoming a nurse.

An actor
So from grade 3 to about year 11 I was convinced I could become an actor. I even got all the enrollment information from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts so that I knew what I had to study in order to be accepted there. And then I got to year 12 drama and hated it so much I decided I never wanted to become an actor ever. I think I suddenly realised that I didn't enjoy making a fool of myself in public anymore, which kind of makes acting a bad career move.

A beautician
I actually held on to this dream well into my twenties, and even though I couldn't even get my local TAFE to accept me into their course, I went and took a couple of short courses that would help me get my foot in the door. But then I learned that the world of beauty salons is actually pretty cutthroat, and being a plus size beautician is not an asset when you are trying to get established. So I could have tried anyway, and put in a lot of hard work just to be accepted, but I realised quickly that I didn't have that kind of fight in me.

A librarian
I love the library. I have ever since I was a kid and mum used to take us up every few weeks to pick out some new books. I decided given how much I love libraries and books in general, then a librarian would be a good career. Then I found out you have to go to university to become a librarian. Why the heck do you need to do that? Does it seriously take 4 years to learn the Dewey Decimal system?? Do they have a special class to master the art of shushing loud patrons? Can I take an elective in the best disapproving stare to give to someone when they return a book in a terrible condition? I was not going to spend thousands of dollars and years out of my life learning those things, so that put an end to my dreams of being a librarian. (Apologies to any librarians reading this now, I'm sure the course was entirely necessary for you all, and you must now all be masters at wheeling trollies full of books around bookshelves.)

A singer
Now I spent years thinking I was a terrible singer. In school musicals I would hum quietly or just mouth the words if I could get away with it, and when we sang the national anthem every Monday at school I would sit there quietly mouthing what I thought the words were hoping that no one noticed that I was stuffing up our country's song every single week. In year ten my music teacher pulled me aside and told me I had to come and get singing lessons with him every single week. I thought it was because I was so terrible that I needed extra help, but apparently he thought I had a good voice and needed guidance to make sure I was using it properly. So for the next 3 years I had weekly voice lessons, and I joined the school choir and the blues band and got lead singing roles in the school musicals. But I still didn't think my voice was all that good. Which is why when I left school and there was no longer a whole team of music teachers propping me up every day, I quickly gave up on any illusions that I could be a singer. And now the only person who hears me sing with any regularity is Miss K, and she quickly tells me to shut up as soon as I begin. So I guess that answers that question once and for all.

Mrs Johnny Depp
Ok this one should be pretty obvious, but just in case you can't tell why this one would never work, let's compare the two of us.

 

Johnny Depp

 

Me

It's simple really. Until I look like Vanessa Paradis, I'll just have to settle on dreaming of becoming the next Mrs David Boreanaz.

 

That, I want that.

Well that's all from me, thank you to Karen from Baking In A Tornado for letting me be a part of the May Secret Swap, and thank you also to Nicole from Tiny Steps Mommy for my subject for this week. Be sure to check out the rest of the bloggers before you leave here today, in that list is some of the funniest and most brilliant bloggers I know, so you're in for a real treat.

Baby's got a brand new bed

Well I don't know about you guys, but right now I am dying. I have the man flu. Everyone keeps telling me that I just have a little cold, but they couldn't possibly be right. I feel like absolute crap, and I'm about to go visit WebMD just to find out exactly how long I have to get my affairs in order. And then I'm going to disown Miss K for passing this horrible cold on to me. Of all the things she shares with me, her bugs are definitely the worst.

Well I'm not actually here tonight to complain about how sick I am (which I really am), I'm actually here to share a pretty big milestone for Miss K and I. And like all milestones, this one comes with photos.

 

Believe it or not, she is the spitting image of her aunty Sam in this photo.

Now it may be hard to tell from that photo, but what you are looking at is Miss K's first night in a big girl bed. It's really just her cot with the wall taken off, but it's just a temporary bed until I can get her a real big girl bed. We've had to do this because with her jumping on the bed every morning she's managed to break one of the slats, so I had to do something to put a stop to the jumping, and this was really my only option. 

The photo was taken last night while I was madly trying to get her to settle down and actually stay in her bed. She was fine while I was in the room, but the moment I stepped out she'd be up and running after me with Elmo in tow. I actually tried at both nap time and bed time to get her to sleep in there. Nap time was much worse, because she cried the whole time, and I ended up taking all her toys out of the room, because as soon as my back was turned she'd be up and playing with something new. My favorite time was when I walked in to find her having a bash on the drum kit. Subtlety has never been her strong suit.

So I decided to skip the nap yesterday and try again at night. This time I sat in the room with her, slowly getting closer and closer to the door, but again, as soon as I left the room she'd be up. We ended up taking a break from bed time for five minutes so I could have a breather, and she fell asleep on the couch in less than ten minutes during this break.  I'm considering this one a win even though she technically didn't fall asleep in bed, because once she was down she stayed down till 7 this morning. 

So tonight I decided to try again. She'd missed her nap again today, and we went to speech therapy this morning, so that's always good for wearing her out. Plus she spent the afternoon at my big sister's house playing with her cousins so that I could have a much needed rest, so needless to say by the time bed time came around she was well and truly ready for sleep. I tried sitting in the room with her again, but this time I didn't move. I sat on the ground at the foot of the bed very quietly ignoring her, and within 10 minutes of going to bed she was fast asleep. So even better.

I'm going to keep doing the same thing for another couple of days, and hopefully by this time next week she'll be OK with going to bed by herself and we'll be one step closer to her being a big girl. I've actually been dreading this step for a long time now, but we'll get through it like we do with every big change, I guess I just hate the fact that my little girl really isn't a baby any more. 

Well that's all for me, I'm off to go sit on the couch and feel sorry for myself until bed time. And maybe eat an entire bag of jelly beans too. Stay awesome everyone.

May is for Moms; an Interview with my Mother

Hello again and welcome back to the second part of the May is for Moms link up parties, as hosted by Not Your Average Crazy.

Today is all about my mum, and although I talk about her a lot around here, as she has been kind enough to let Miss K and I live with her for almost 4 years now, she has never come and talked to you guys herself. It's probably just because she is such a shy and retiring person, just like me really.

So the deal is the same as last week, Amy has asked a series of questions, and I've asked mum to come along and answer these for me, and then you guys come along and read it and marvel at how awesome my mum is. So please be upstanding and give a big round of applause for mum.

1. How did you feel the moment you found out you were pregnant with me?
I was very excited because I had been trying for you.

2. Was I a wonderful surprise or carefully planned?
Not carefully planned. We wanted another child, but we got you instead. Thanks mum, I feel the love.

3. What was the most challenging time in my childhood? Why?
When we discovered that you had Epilepsy, getting you tested for that and treated was nerve wracking because we'd never come across any of that before. You were also a very introverted and introspective teen who had a lot of trouble at school, and you made a lot of silly mistakes, so it's a toss up between those things.

4. Did you worry more about me as a child or now that I am an adult?
I worried more about you when you were a teenager. Now you have settled down and you don't do silly things. You were a VERY silly teenager

5. What is one thing that you thought was deeply important when I was a baby that you now realise did not matter at all?
The one thing I worried about when you were young that I didn't worry about so much with the other kids was not letting you get hurt, and protecting you too much. You made your mistakes, you had your accidents but you're still alive today so it's all good. 

I certainly am. Well thank you to Amy for another awesome set of questions. To check out Amy's post, plus the link up to the rest of the party goers, visit Not Your Average Crazy here. And be sure to tune in again next week for my last interview with Miss K. You won't want to miss this one, trust me.

Well until next time, stay awesome.

Mother's Day again

Well we're here at yet another pseudo holiday designed to get people to buy chocolates and flowers. But because I get gifts this time, I say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY BITCHES!!!

This morning I had a wonderful sleep in until 9:30, and then mum and I exchanged gifts through Miss K. She got the new My Kitchen Rules cook book, and I got a brand new pair of winter pyjamas and a box of Malteasers. You may not think that a person could get excited about pyjamas, but given that the last time I was given a new set was when I was getting ready to go to hospital to give birth 2 years ago, they were well overdue, and I was super glad to get them. So much so I even took a photo of them.

They're so warm and fleecy.

Some of you may remember last year I made a card for mum for her Mother's Day. Well this year I did exactly the same, but given how much things have changed over the past 12 months it only took me an hour to complete this one, instead of the 3 days I spent last year, and I'm just as pleased with the results.

The colours aren't that purple in real life, my camera just hates taking photos indoors with energy saving light bulbs on.

Miss K and I also spent an hour at the park with her dad and his new girlfriend, and I got a second gift there too, a dolphin statue like the ones I used to collect while Miss K's dad and I were still together. 

Again, not that purple. Stupid camera

Firstly I was surprised I even got a gift today, given that yesterday we had an argument at the end of his visit with Miss K, so to have a civil conversation with him today was going to be good enough for me, but I got more. Secondly thanks to my darling daughter, the statue you see there isn't exactly what I received, as I let her play with it when we got home, and it got dropped, so one of the dolphins is now missing a head. 

Well that's all from me, I'm now celebrating the best present I could have asked for today, and that is complete silence. Miss K is in bed, mum is at my big sister's house babysitting, and my baby sister is staying close to work tonight, so I have a whole house to myself and a big box of Malteasers begging to be eaten.

So Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there, you know who you are, and an especially big Happy Mother's day to my own mum, plus a big hug and kiss for putting up with both Miss K and I for as long as she has, anyone who has lived with me can tell you that can be difficult at times, but she does it with love and patience, and it is because of this that I still maintain that she is the best mum in the world. 

Be sure to tune in tomorrow, because as a special treat, my awesome mum has agreed to answer some questions for the May is for Mom's series linky party, so that will be posted up some time soon.

Stay awesome everyone, and I'll be back again with reinforcements soon.