Lightening Online

Cellobella from SultanaBlog has tagged me for this meme. Which is great timing really as it’s a good way of avoiding talking about the outcome of all my SHOPPING I did this week (and the figures I’m avoiding facing)…..

1. Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given below (family, friend, yourself, your love, anything you like).
2. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.
3. Don’t forget to read the archived post and leave comments.

FAMILY

I love my kids!!!  But some days I really LOVE them.  And they make me cry with the awesome little people that they are turning into (some days…… ).

Moments Like These

FRIEND

What is it they say?  In order to have friends, you need to BE a friend.

Help

YOURSELF

I think this post reflects something of a realisation in me that it’s okay if I’m not the “same” as the person next to me. That it’s okay (ish) to be me and to allow my current season in life to simply flow until it’s time for a new season to begin.

Seasons

YOUR LOVE

This post started out being about the new teddy bear my DH bought for me and ended up being a post about Love Languages. One thing that never ceases to surprise me with blogging is where some posts will take me and the things I learn and discover AS I’m writing about them.

Introducing……

FREE CHOICE

I’m going to break the “rules” a little with this category. I’m mindful of the fact that there are some fairly new readers to this blog who may not have yet read this series. So instead of choosing just a single post for the series, I’m going to choose a single series (of 9 posts). I haven’t yet had a chance to update the links that are within these posts so please backtrack to here to get the next link. If you follow the links within these posts, they’re take you back to my old blog and that could get rather confusing. This was a series I wrote outlining my journey so far from a life of mindless consumerism to embracing a life of simplicity (well, moving toward a simpler life…..).

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

Joe Dominguez

Tracking Spending

Fast Tracking Our Dreams

You Cannot Steer A Stationary Ship

Living the Dream

How Did This Happen?

Words of Wisdom

Fast Tracking Our Dreams

And now for the tagging part. Apparently I need to tag at least some “new” blogging friends.

Kate at A Byootiful Life

Lotus at Sarcastic Mom

Rachel at A Juggling Mum

Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum

Alyndabear

All of these blogs are reasonably new to my “regularly read” blog list and I haven’t gotten to know the authors all that well.  Not well enough that I’d usually “tag” them - in case they go “Lightening who????  Who does she think she IS tagging ME????????” LOL.  So I hope they understand the spirit of this. 

Yes, it’s time for a meme!  Thanks to Kin who tagged me for this. 4 quick questions (shouldn’t be too hard….. should it?????) followed by 4 quick tags (oh yeah, that’s the HARD part). 

1. What did you accomplish this past week?

* I FINISHED my Christmas shopping!!!!  Nernernenerner!!!!! 

You can hardly get into our bedroom at the moment. 

I have a HEAP of shopping stashed under blankets and sheets.  LOL.  I’m lucky my children aren’t TOO inquisitive (not that they’ve had a chance yet). 

The office has 2 plastic crates of food ready for Christmas.  And the bench is covered in food that won’t fit in my Humungous pantry.  DH is very excited about all the yummy food lying about the place. 

My credit card is currently in recovery mode after zinging itself red hot all day yesterday.  Don’t panic - we pay it off in full every month.  It just means that I have to be less accountable worried about having the right amount of cash on me when I have a big shop up day like that. How much did I spend???? Ask me again tomorrow when I have to enter it all into our spending/budget book (aaarrrhhhhh).

* Plus I figured out how to put a “contact me” page on my blog - of which I am VERY proud!!!

 2. Did anything not go as expected?

* Ummmmmm……… the housework?????  Not done……..

3. What was the highlight of your week?

* Seeing my beautiful children in their school Christmas concert this morning.  DD(6) was an angel and looked very angelic.  I think she might have a future in singing….. she seems to LOVE it sooooo much and does so well with it!  She got an award for spelling and maths.  And when DH went into her classroom to collect her costume so that she can wear it again Sunday, she was sitting at the teachers desk with half the class around her.  Wonder if she’ll end up being a teacher??????

DS(9) was a Christmas Tree.  Actually he just wore green clothes and held up a cardboard Christmas Tree. He got an award for challenging maths. He also got 90% in the maths competition. Don’t ask me….he certainly doesn’t get his mathematical ability from me!!!!!

4. Did anything exciting happen that you did not expect?

* I got an extra cuddle with my “Sunday” baby. We have discovered that holding babies actually boosts my serotonin levels which means I get first dibs on the only baby in our church. Apparently I’m also the only one who can put him to sleep. Usually he needs one of mum’s appendages (yeah, not technically an appendage but I’m sure you get the idea) in order to go to sleep. Guess what…..put him to sleep today too!!!! Go me!!!! LOL. It was a lovely cuddle. Oh yes, the extra cuddle was because he was at the concert as well. I sent DH over to babyknap him from his mother.

O.K.  Here are my “tags”.  If you’ve done this already….too bad!!!!  You have to do it again (even if you wait a week).  Or, you can at least link to me and say you’re not going to do it?  Is that fair enough????  LOL.  Only kidding. 

Bettina at her new wordpress blog.
Kelley - if anyone else has already tagged you Kelley, too bad!!! Just ignore them!!! LOL.
Meg who has probably been tagged a gazillion times already
Busy Woman if she’s not too busy to fit it in .

P.S.  Something just fell out of the freezer and DH calls out to me “don’t buy anything else please honey”.  LOL.

Jenn at Jenn’s Den has tagged me for this meme.

Here are the meme rules:

Rules:
1- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
3- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here goes with 7 things about ME:

1. My favourite soft toy as a child was named “Doggy Pussy”. I was obviously a rather confused child with a severe lack of creativity or ability when it came to naming my toys. LOL. He was a very faithful friend though and has absorbed truck loads of tears in his (and my) lifetime. I still have him. He lost his nose and both arms have been resewn a number of times. The fur is almost thread-bare. But he has pride of place stuffed in the bottom of my wardrobe somewhere! :-/

2. I eat chicken chips (the “Arnott’s” or “Smiths” kind that is - some of you may call them crisps) with ice cream. Yeah, I know it sounds disgusting but you have to TRY it before you ditch the idea. Don’t ask me why but the two go together quite well. It has become a favourite Friday night dessert in our house. It took my DH a LONG time to convince me to try it but once I did - I was hooked.

3. I have a tendency to end up in the middle of a circle of people. Someone in high school pointed this out to me. I’m still not sure if it’s because I like being the centre of attention or because I’m so short that everyone can just speak over the top of my head!

4. When my first child was born I made a conscious decision that I wanted to see him laugh at least once every day of their life. Not sure exactly where that came from or if it’s even a reasonable goal to have. That particular child is actually growing up to be quite a comedian and has the ability to make people laugh - what a gift!

5. I hate those hard 100s and 1000s on fairy bread (I like the soft “dollar sweets” or whatever they’re called) but still like freckles (they’re a chocolate covered with the hard round 100s and 1000s). In fact, I’m eating some right now (which is why I thought of this).

6. My favourite movie is “Pretty Woman” which I find rather strange given that I don’t agree with prostitution. My favourite part is where Vivien returns to Rodeo Drive with her hands full of packages to say “BIG mistake” to the stuck up boutique that refused to serve her because of the outfit she’d been wearing. I don’t like the attitude that having money makes you a better person.

7. My favourite number is the number 7!

So there you have it. Some a definitely weird. Some are just random. I’ll let you decide for yourself which are the weird ones. LOL.

Now for the hardest part, who do I tag? I know I’ve seen this meme on some other blogs so if I tag you and you’ve already done it, just let me know.

Tiffany
Trey
Christine
Kelley
FitCat
Kez
YOU (if you’d like to participate and haven’t yet been tagged - please consider yourself tagged and let me know and I’ll add your link here too! )

Thank you Erin for tagging me for this meme. I thought it was going to be a nice easy way to fill in a post for the day. I was WRONG! It’s hard to think of 8 things for each category! But it’s fun and I enjoy reading other people’s responses, so all is not lost. LOL.

8 Things I Am Passionate About

1. God (see my other blog.)
2. My husband (nearly 12 years and the passion is still growing!)
3. My children (*most* of the time lol)
4. Making people smile
5. Music (it has the ability to move in a way nothing else seems to)
6. Reading (especially when I *should* be doing housework)
7. My Garden (when it’s alive)
8. Food (and yes, chocolate IS one of the 5 major FOOD groups)

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die

1. Get old!
2. Spend time with my grandchildren (assuming I have some)
3. See more of Australia (travel grey nomad style - only I aint waiting til I go grey - 18 months until our “big trip”)
4. Learn piano (in the process of - but would like to get a LOT better)
5. Get back to 60kg (*sigh*)
6. Become more self sufficient - especially with the garden
7. Buy a sensational pair of shoes (preferably in pink)
8. Have something published (even if it’s only a short article in a magazine)

8 Things I Say Often

1. Whatever
2. No worries
3. Yes (I say this TOO OFTEN)
4. No (according to my kids I probably say this too often too!)
5. I Love You
6. I need a coffee (followed by “I wish I drank coffee”)
7. Are we out of chocolate AGAIN
8. I’m tired (and “I’m sick of being tired”)

8 Books I’ve Read Recently

1. Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal by Sheri Rose Shepherd
2. Leave a Candle Burning by Lori Wick
3. Affluenza by Clive Hamilton
4. Once I was a Princess by Jacqueline Gillespie
5. Living in Dependency and Wonder by Graham Cooke
6. Finding Liberty by Blaine Staat (still reading)
7. Hope in the Midst of Depression (still reading)
8. White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick (just started)

I have a tendency to have lots of books on the go at once. There are about 3 others I’m part way through that aren’t on this list either!

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over

1. I’m Gonna Fly by Amy Grant (my current theme song AND I now have it on CD!!!)
2. Here I am to Worship
3. That’s What Friends are For
4. Wind Beneath my Wings
5. Butterfly Kisses
6. Have Faith in God
7. Because You Loved Me
8. Over the Rainbow

Hmmmmm……I think they’re all rather “soppy” songs aren’t they?????? I used to like Bon Jovi until a guy in year 8 personally sang “You Give Love a Bad Name” to me. *sob* I’m a nice person really….!

8 Things that Attract Me to My Best Friends

1. Gentle honesty (as opposed to brutal honesty)
2. Caring
3. Fun to spend time with
4. Thought provoking
5. They like me
6. They bring me chocolate
7. They like me
8. They bring me chocolate (hint! HINT!)

8 People Who Should Totally Do This Meme

1. Lis at Altered Cutlery
2. Kez at Kez’s Blog
3. Kin at Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams
4. Snoskred at Life in the Country
5. Kate at Our Red House
6. Ali at Our Patch
7. Lisa at The Tin House
8. Cellobella at Sultana Blog

Well, I’d best be away to give these people the good news, or maybe they’ll just read it here???? Nah, better go tell them. Wouldn’t want them to think I was rude or something (or that I assume they read my blog lolol). Hopefully I’ve chosen people who haven’t already had a go. If you’re not on the list and you’d like to have a go…..TAG….you’re it.

Thank you Lisa for tagging me for the “Picture Me” Meme.

What I mostly want to talk about is my wedding dress. Trying on wedding dresses was a LOT of fun but it quickly became apparent that we weren’t going to find a ready-made dress that would suit my shape. I am short-waisted (have long legs for my height) and with a slightly swayed back, ready-made dresses hung off me in ways they weren’t designed to do.

So my mum decided perhaps she would MAKE my wedding dress. Now my mum is the kind of person who can do ANYTHING she puts her mind to. Problem is, she is also notorious for not quite finishing things. So it kind of disturbed me a little that she wanted to make my wedding dress. I had images of the night before the wedding and a dress that was half finished. Thankfully that didn’t happen.

Aside from the issue of finding a dress that fitted my shape, I had another problem with finding a wedding dress. When I was 18 I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and at this stage I was still struggling with lack of energy as well as struggling with a lack of strength in my muscles from not being able to use them as much. So the sheer weight of a wedding dress with all that fabric was too much for me to bear.

At the time my Aunty was head designer for a lingerie firm and she suggested we make the dress with lingerie satin which is a whole light lighter than regular satin. She was also able to source this for us at Wholesale prices - gotta love a bargain!

I also desperately wanted to have a train but again, the weight issue (of all the extra fabric) was a problem. So mum made me a long veil instead of a train. We decorated it with several pieces of lace (which I hand beaded myself, as well as the piece of lace on the front of my dress). The beauty of this was that we removed the veil before the reception and I wasn’t encumbered by all that length of fabric for the whole day.

My wedding day still stands out to me as the best day of my life. I’m the kind of person who stresses out easily and yet somehow I managed to make the decision to relax and enjoy the day “come what may” and I really did. Even when a few spots of rain fell just as I was entering the church (knowing that we had an outdoor reception).

All of my life I had wanted to have an “Anne of Green Gables” style wedding. When her friend Diana (I think that was the name - it’s been a while) got married they had the most beautiful reception outdoors with white tablecloths, fingerfoods etc. That’s the kind of wedding reception I wanted. Casual yet elegant. Kind of an English “high tea” type finger foods. Because of the casual setting, we didn’t have place names. We just set out tables and chairs for people to use and had a number of food tables dotted around. Like most brides, I didn’t get to eat much though which was a pity because I was STARVING. LOL.

We got a lot of comments about what a nice atmosphere it was on the day. There were still speeches and all the usual formalities. It just wasn’t a sit-down meal. Interestingly, according to our caterers, it was a more expensive option than having a sit-down meal because of the types of food you serve with finger foods as opposed to having say a roast with meat and vegies. Not that that mattered as it wasn’t a cost consideration that made me choose that style of reception (not that my parents had a lot of money either).

So there you have it. Me in my wedding dress on my wedding day. I have no idea of the hours of love that were poured into that dress. I know it took me literally hundreds of hours to do all the beadwork.

Ooh, I couldn’t stop at just 1 photo. Had to add this one that shows some of the lace and beadwork on the back of my veil. Not sure how clear it will be but it gives you an idea of what I’m talking about. Oh, and of course, this one has my very handsome hubby too! He looks like he’s just left school doesn’t he? LOL.

It’s funny isn’t it, how 21 can seem so OLD when you’re there but over a decade later it seems so young.

And now I need to *tag* 3 others to take part in this meme. I always find this the hardest part because well, who do you pick? Nevertheless, this time I’m going to tag:

1. Susan at Simply Living . Do you think this will encourage her to get back to blogging again? And no, this doesn’t mean you have to post the pic I sent to you!

2. Kelley at magnetoboldtoo cos we all want to see pics of her SHOES!!!! And not just the desktop pic (which reminds me, I haven’t forgotten that desktop thingy Kelley, I just need to revisit when I think I can follow the instructions - sooooo technical for me lol). P.S. You don’t *have* to post pics of your shoes. You get to choose for this meme. Perhaps I should start a “my favourite shoes” meme. LOL.

3. Rachelle at Seek First His Kingdom . Rachelle I have only recently had the pleasure of meeting through the Nablopomo pages. It’s nice to meet new bloggers from around the world isn’t it?

Have fun everyone!!!

Well I’ve been reading a few of these on other blogs and have always wanted to do one. So when snoskred posted one to her site and invited any of her readers to partake, I decided to go ahead and do just that. She has a great blog. If you haven’t already visited, go and have a look. I love her “thoughts for the day”. And reading her posts about blogging and HTML has gotten me trying things I never thought I would try.

The word “meme” is an interesting word. For starters, how do you pronounce it?

Is it “me-me”?

Or “may-me”?

Or what about “me (e as in egg) - me”?

I always pronounce it the third way, using a hard “e” in the first syllable and an “ee” sound in the second syllable.

So I decided to look up the word in wikipedia , the online authority in all things unusual. If you’re keen, go ahead and follow the link. I didn’t read it all - too over my head and not quite what I was looking for.

So I followed a link from Wikipedia to wiktionary . That even gives a pronunciation - if you can understand it! I *think* they’re saying it is pronounced “meem”. I think I like my own pronunciation better! LOL. How do you pronounce it?

Here is one of the definitions that Wiktionary offers:

“Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity.”

Are you any the wiser now? No, me either. I’m guessing it has something to do with being passed from one blogger to another and therefore becomes a “repeated action”. I don’t know. Anyone, feel free to enlighten me here.

Alright, enough with the boring research. Let’s get on with the actual Meme.

The Actors Studio 10 Questions Meme -

1. What is your favorite word?

“No worries”. I know, that’s 2 words. And it’s not actually my “favourite” word. It’s my “most used” word (okay, phrase). Which is really stupid because most of the time that I use it, it’s not even true!!!! Maybe I say it to convince myself?

I also like using the word “absolutely”. It has such a strong feel to it.

2. What is your least favorite word?

“Whatever!” My kids use it all the time when they want to dismiss what I’m saying to them. Funny thing is, it’s catching and now I use it on them as well. Which *really* annoys them. I don’t use it to annoy them. I just catch things really easily.

3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?

Worship music

4. What turns you off?

People who are constantly absorbed in their own problems. I’m not talking people who are “sometimes” absorbed by their own problems. I’m talking people who never seem to notice that they’re not the only ones doing it tough.

5. What sound or noise do you love?

The sound of the ocean. I could sit and listen to it for hours.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?

My kids fighting with each other.

7. What is your favorite curse word?

Bugger. It always makes me laugh because of the ads. And I guess I view it as a *soft* curse word (if there is any such thing). The funniest thing is that I *caught* it from my DH who hardly EVER uses curse words. He went through a brief phase of using it. I *caught* it and he stopped using it and I not only started, I haven’t been able to stop.

When I was a teenager we used to use the names of fruits to *swear*. Because you go to say the “f” word and instead say “fruit”. So then we started using apples, bananas and oranges as our own “curse language”. Meant we could swear without getting into trouble.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Counselling. I’ve always liked the idea but one of my year 12 teachers told me that it would completely destroy me. He was right. But now that I’m going through the process myself, I think I’m becoming stronger and it’s something I’d really like to try. I really like the idea of helping people.

9. What profession would you not like to do?

Secondary Teaching. I always wanted to be a Primary Teacher (I’m not) but the thought of all those teenagers and the stuff we used to put our teachers through….. especially the poor student teachers! I doubt I’d even make it through the student teaching placements to actually become a secondary teacher. I do admire those who do it though.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Heaven does exist! I think it’s going to be so awesome that I’ll be so happy to be there, words won’t matter.

Now I *think* the idea is that I now “tag” people to do this Meme on their own blog.

So I pick

Lisa

Scott

Emma

Kez

Kelley

Ali

Precious_1

Kin - except that she has already done this so I won’t make her do it again.

There must be an easier way to do this than having to visit all of these blogs to copy and paste all the links. HELP snoskred ! If you haven’t already done a blogpost on that - I might need you to. LOL.

If I haven’t tagged you, it’s not because I don’t love you (you know I do), it’s just taking me forever to copy and paste links. LOL. Plus, I thought I’d better leave a few people to be tagged by someone else.

So, copy and paste the questions below. Answer them on your own blog and then you can tag others (if you want to).

The Actors Studio 10 Questions Meme -
1. What is your favorite word?
2. What is your least favorite word?
3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?
4. What turns you off?
5. What sound or noise do you love?
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
7. What is your favorite curse word? *
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
9. What profession would you not like to do?
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

*If you do not wish to use the curse word on your site that’s ok and understandable - try and find one not so offensive instead, if you can, or alternatively star out some of the letters.