The A-Z of me.... part 2

B is for

Best Friend/Bec

Bec has been my best friend for 10 years. Before I had even met her, I had heard about her… and not such nice things either. The day I first laid eyes on her I remember it well… the sun was pouring into the church windows, giving it a yellowy glow through the curtains, and up bounced a very smiley blonde girl.. There was an immediate connection. We were such kindred spirits. We loved the same things, we had lots to talk about, we found the same things funny. We both loved Doris Day, I Love Lucy, romantic soppy movies, Anne of Green Gables and lots of other old style movies.
I ended up living with her and her family for a while before I got married. It was lots of fun living with her. We never argued – probably because she is so laid back. I would do anything for her – in fact I did. I watched Titanic 3 times in one day with her the day she got it, because she loved it so much. I don’t think I’ve watched it since! LOL
She is an awful tease. When I first met Daz and thought he was pretty hot, she paid me out so much and in front of him too! Lucky he was so vague and didn’t see it. The poor girl heard me nearly everyday wondering if he liked me or not. She used to scoff and say “Are you blind?? You should see the way he looks at you!”
She put up with me practicing my beauty therapy on her, she let me wax her, put make up on her and do all sorts of other things. She seemed to love it though, she would almost fall asleep while I did it. And I put up with her learning to play the violin (aka dying cat), trumpet (aka elephant in labour) and the oboe… OMG how bad do those instruments sound in the first few weeks.
Bec was by my side the day I was married as my Matron of Honour. She had to perform the most awful tasks and she did it most cheerfully. She held my hair back while I puked in the street from sheer nervousness. She held my hoop and dress up while I pee’d. She threw me the best kitchen tea I had ever been to! It was so much fun!! I remember my cheeks ached from laughing and smiling.
She was one of the first person I told I was pregnant with Mop. She was so excited for me!! I was given the privilege to throw Bec’s baby shower and I had loads of fun doing it! She was the first to find out I was pregnant with Milly Moo – since I was at her house when I did the test. Her whole face lit up and she was so excited for me. Even though I wasn’t very excited at the time. She was very positive about it and it helped me accept it very quickly – even though I was in disbelief for a while!
Bec is the most beautiful woman. She is so kind and so sweet. She is very intelligent and creative. She plays the flute and sings like an angel. She has an incredible smile and is so patient. She loves my kids and she is the best honorary Aunty in the whole world.
She recently moved away to Brisbane and I miss her a lot.

I have lots of friends, but Bec is different. She has my heart.

Beauty Therapist
I was one. I studied for 3 years in TAFE and then launched out into the world of beauty to work for a few years. I discovered pretty quickly that this wasn’t the career for me. I did like doing make up for weddings and working with hair dressers to turn the bride into a Princess. It was so much fun!
I ran a salon as part of a hairdressers in the city for a year but the business never really took off. Besides the salon was in a corner in a side street, no-one knew it was there. My last job was in Price Attack close to home. I enjoyed working there, then fell pregnant and was puking too much to work!


C IS FOR

Christmas
My favourite time of year! I love decorating the tree, I love baking Christmas goodies, I love making gifts and buying gifts. I love wrapping my kids stuff up and putting it under the tree. I love filling the stockings. I love being with my family on Christmas Day. I love the kids (cousins) all playing together, enjoying each other’s company, while the adults sit back, all full and content and watch them.
I love my MIL’s baked goodie platter she makes every year. It’s soooo yummy. I love Daz’s work’s Christmas Dinners. I love Christmas Carols and listening to www.xmasradio.ca every year. I like the sounds of chimes and bells filling the shopping centres. I love the Christmas decorations in the malls. I love checking out what new Christmas decorations are for sale. I love seeing our neighbours Christmas lights.
I love surprising my husband, and I love hearing his “wow!” I love making my Mum’s Christmas present – because I know that she really appreciates it and genuinely loves what I make. The more tears that fall as she inspects what I made, the more I know she loves it.
I love making Christmas Crackers for my family. I love Christmas breakfast. I love the Christmas fruits of the season.

I hate Christmas pudding and cake! LOL

Caitlin
My darling first born. She was born after a 13 hour labour. She was a drama queen the moment she was born. She was whipped into the neonatal ICU and caused a whole lot of worry and stress for the doctors, nurses and her poor ol parents! Thankfully she got better pretty quickly and after less than a week in the hospital, we took her home.
Caitlin - well she is the most funniest and most feisty little girl I have ever known. She is so much like me it’s not funny. She looks like me, acts like me, thinks like me – it is so scary at times.
She is very forthright and if she has an opinion and she has no problem in sharing it. She recently told me I have “wobbly bits” – thanks sweetie. Mummy is only stretched out all over the place from having you kids!! She talks all the time – seriously! She talks while she plays, talks at the table, talks in the car, talk talk talk. At times she drives me mental, but at other times, listening to her when she thinks no is listening is fun.
She is strong willed and stubborn. She’ll fight me if she feels strongly enough about it and flat out refuse to do what she is told. She chooses the consequences because her will is made from iron. This could be a good thing – she may one day have a faith that is so strong and she will not be easily shaken or moved. I hope her stubbornness is shaped into a strong character. She has excellent leadership skills and qualities. She is quite bubbly and outgoing. She will talk to everyone and loves to have fun. She is easily excitable, and I often find her dancing like she needs to wee, but she doesn’t she says “I’m just excited!”
She says the funniest things, and I can’t remember them all, but usually it’s pointing out the obvious or telling the truth that we find so funny. Caitlin is also very intelligent. I’m not being biased either. She was reading before her third birthday. She now can read most words an 8 year old wouldn’t be able to read. She has great understanding as well of what she reads. She is always wanting to learn and I find trying to keep her stimulated enough quite difficult. I’ve started reading to her from a huge collection of Bible stories, which are quite indepth. If you ask her today why God made the air before everything else, she will tell you why. I bet a lot of you didn’t know that if there was no air, the rain that would fall would be like machine gun bullets being fired, and would destroy the earth! She knows that. We read it last night in her Bible books.
She is eagerly looking forward to “Big School” and can’t wait to be learning more and having lots more friends. She is also a very routined girl – and quite anal about it. Everything is done in order. If you dare mess that order up, she gets quite upset about it. We have probably created that rod , since we have always had a routine for the kids, so they knew what to expect and what was coming up. This is good because we don’t have to fight her to put her to bed, she knows that after teeth, prayers, cuddles, it’s bedtime. She’ll try to lag it out like all kids do! LOL
Mop is a very lovely little girl, and a real joy to me. I enjoy her fire and her passion. I love to see her laugh, and have a wonderful time. I love to hear her sing, and read to me and herself. I love to see her pictures that she draws and the notes that she writes. I burst with pride a lot at her accomplishments and the things that she knows. I love how she is planning to go to Uni – and she is 4 ½ years old. I love how she talks about growing up and having a pink Barbie car – now that’s MY girl!!

Church
I have been going to church ever since I was born. The first place I went when I was freshly out of hospital was church. Nowadays I am taking my kids to church and wondering how on earth Mum kept us quiet for so long. It’s tough going!!
Church takes up a huge chunk of our time. We go there Sunday’s, we have music practice on Tuesdays. We are the music directors there and are responsible for our music team. Thankfully we have a wonderful team behind us who are so supportive and helpful in every way they can be.
I also preach and lead the communion at times. I haven’t for a few months, obviously because I have been heavily pregnant and a new Mum. I hope I am on the next roster, because I really enjoy doing it.
Church is a place that is filled with family. There are strange old Aunties, stinky Uncles, favourite cousins, gentle Grannies, sweet Mum’s, practical and helpful Dad’s and brother’s that you can give a noogie too and they will tolerate it. When I step into our church, I know that we are going to have a wonderful rellie bash. People I know and love will be worshiping the same God as I do. Hearing the same message I do. Going in the same direction I will be going. It’s a great place to be.

Cooking
I love to do it. Always have, always will. I love to experiment with new dishes and try new flavours. My husband never complains about that!! I love having dinner parties and entertaining so I can try out a load of new dishes on them. I love cooking magazines, cooking websites, recipe books and anything to do with cooking. I love kitchen gadgets and appliances that make life easier in the kitchen.
I am in love with my food processor. It certainly was money well spent. I use it almost daily.
I suck at making cakes though, for some reason they just don’t work as well as they should. But I make a mean cheesecake!

Cleaning
I don’t particularly enjoy all aspects of this, but I do like to find ways to help make this job a lot easier. I started a website filled with some of my knowledge (still more to come) to help other people make their home neat and clean. www.domesticguru.com
I would love to be Australia’s version of “How Clean is Your House?” If any of my blog readers ever hear of an audition for this role, let me know!! I would be very happy going into other people’s homes to re-orgnaise, clean it out and make it a place they can relax in and be proud to have visitors come through.

Caravanning
My latest enjoyment in life. Caravanning. We have one now, and I love towing our little holiday home behind us to wherever we want. Our next holiday will be to Brisbane to see Bec and Nick and I can’t wait!!!
We have been all over Australia in our caravan and it has travelled many kms. My favourite thing to do in the caravan is in the middle of Australia, in the middle of dust, dirt, heat and flies – is to make a lovely lunch for my hungry family, and eat it in there – all you can hear are the flies on the outside, the wind, and the occasional passing semi-trailer. Bliss I tell you.

Coffee
I love it. My favourite type is Harrods Columbian coffee, I also like Nescafe Gold for instant coffee. I can’t stand any other instant. I love Gloria Jeans. I just love coffee. I try not to drink lots of it. Because I have been addicted once. Never again. Have you tried coming off a coffee addiction??