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I came across this blog the other day. It’s incredible. Anissa and her husband Peter’s youngest daughter had leukemia. She’s now in remission but last week Anissa suffered a stroke. Read her story here: http://www.hope4peyton.org/ and I’m sure some prayers would be appreciated.

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Thanks to those of you who left a comment on my last post or emailed me about it. I appreciate your kind words and support! I apologise for the more aggressive tone of the post. It’s not how I prefer to communicate but I am glad I wrote it. I think that had I saved a draft and come back to edit it I would have had to dilute it so much it wouldn’t have been worth posting, and it’s important that I get it out there as it’s been on my mind every time I’ve even thought about blogging.

Moving on…I don’t have any pics of LP’s recent ‘art’ for you but I did take a photo of this…

You can’t quite see it in the photo but all the seats had matching pink head rest covers.

Speechless.

That’s all I’ve got. Happy Sunday!

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THIS LETTER IS ADDRESSED TO NO ONE IN PARTICULAR AND IF YOU THINK IT’S ABOUT YOU THEN YOU ARE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. IT CAN’T BE ABOUT YOU BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE ANY IDEA WHO ‘YOU’ ARE BUT I NEED TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST AND JUST HOPE AND PRAY THAT NO ONE DECIDES THAT I MUST BE WRITING ABOUT THEM.

ME

If we are going to be friends then there’s something I need you to know about me.

I’ve never been more exhausted, stressed or time poor than I have been this year. I have an active toddler, work 3 days a week – 2 of those from home, and this year have have completed a university degree.. When I am at home I want to be an engaged parent, and dammit I’m actually a bloody good one.

Yesterday I took 20minutes TO MYSELF to do some stuff online while the little one was playing. When I came into the kitchen I discovered that she’d DRAWN ALL OVER THE HOUSE in permanent marker. I then spent close to 2 hours cleaning up. THIS is life with my little girl. I love her for it but it makes life UNPREDICTABLE.

I am walking around covered in eczema up to my elbows and on my eyelids and don’t have time to make yet ANOTHER Doctor’s appointment about it.
I am in desperate need of some waxing let alone trying to get my hair cut, but hey what’s the rush on that, I only had one last in FEBRUARY?!

So, if I don’t call you back immediately after you ring me; if I take a couple of days to get back to you or God-forbid, I forget all together that you rang/texted me, IT’S NOT BECAUSE I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU/OUR FRIENDSHIP or because I have my head stuck up my ass.

If I CHOOSE (and I acknowledge the choice) to blog, email or use FB to contact you or others and not call you IT’S NOT BECAUSE I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU/OUR FRIENDSHIP, it’s because I don’t have the emotional (or sometimes physical) energy to have a dialogue. I need to communicate in a one way stream because I DO IN FACT CARE but can’t do it the way you want or need me too.

SO folks, this is why I haven’t blogged much this year. I am sick of being judged for how I use my time.

and QUITE FRANKLY HOW DARE YOU THINK I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU/OUR FRIENDSHIP? I have literally dropped everything to drive across town/ to cook/bake/babysit, I have jumped on a PLANE more than once, twice or three times to be there to support friends and family when they have needed me and I’ve done it all without asking. I am no martyr, I am a selfish human being just like the next person, but PLEASE don’t suggest that I don’t care about my friends. Just talk to me, and maybe offer to lend me a hand once in a while, that would be REALLY great and might see me picking up the phone with more ease.

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It was bound to happen one day and today was the day! I walked into the kitchen at my parents place to see my cherub, BLUE PERMANENT MARKER in hand – covered head to toe in “drawings”.

She’d also chosen to use the floor, coffee table, coasters and couch as a variety of canvas’.

:(

SO…WD40 is great for getting the top layer of ink out of the hard surfaces and turps + some elbow grease will get the rest out! Hairspray works really well on upholstery…oddly. You spray and blot until it comes out.

No, I have no photos for you – disappointing, I realise. I didn’t want the evidence!

Here’s my ethical dilemma for the day? I didn’t want to tell my Mum because she’s under a lot of stress at the moment and I didn’t want to add to it by telling her about something that she wouldn’t otherwise ever know about and could potentially only stress her out even more. BUT, I can’t help but feeling that an omission of the truth is often the same as a lie.

So, I told her. I can’t lie to my Mum! She laughed. We both felt very relieved that the BRAND NEW CREAM CARPET upstairs wasn’t one of her chosen canvases!!

What about your blogland? Do you lie or omit and under what circumstances??

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We’ve found ourselves in a bit of an awkward situation lately. I’ve hesitated blogging about it because basically, it’s a small world but if I’m going to think like that I might as well shut this blog down! In order to explain I’ll need to give you a bit of background.

We got married in Oct 2005 and for our wedding were fortunate to know a number of people with the “professional services” we needed – hair, flowers, photography. We paid the “going rate”, or close to, for these services though it’s certainly true that these lovely women went above and beyond for us in making it a really wonderful day.

The first photography hiccup came when we went to print some extra photos and were supplied with a new price list. Whoops! Thankfully I had the original quote which was honoured. But it was awkward.

4 years on and as we originally agreed it was time for the negatives to be handed over to us. Yay! My MIL often comments that she would like some photos and I would like to (finally) make an album! So I send a really friendly email, after all this was more than business, asking her how we do this. I receive a fairly formal email in reply informing me that the charge for the negatives is $1000 but she will do it for us for $700.

Um…excuse me?

Now this is awkward.

I search through my emails and find the one…the one where I specifically ask if we will receive the negatives after a certain period of time has elapsed as seemed to be standard practice by the other photograhpers we spoke to, and the reply email which say “Yes, after 4 years”.

Now what? I sent of another email, still friendly but following her cue of formality and get a prompt 2 line email today saying that she “inadvertently omitted” to tell us the fee and that because of this we can have them for free. She’s clearly not happy, or at least that’s how it seems.

So…now what? I feel like we are taking advantage of her if we take them for free and yet, it was what we agreed and what every other photographer we spoke to was offering AND having just returned from our Vietnam holiday and then spent several grand installing air conditioning it’s not really great timing to shell out hundreds of more dollars…oh, and Christmas is just around the corner too!

Blogland, what do you think?

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So much to say, so little time so this I will share.

I recently saw a Christmas Party invite that read something like this “Please come to my Christmas Party. There will be candy canes and carols. BYO food and drinks“. (italics mine)

Huh?

So basically, come to my venue and byo everything.

I’m sorry but at close to (ahem) 30, aren’t we a bit beyond this? Sure you might go to a party that’s BYO meat (but even that’s a stretch, in my opinion). We’re having a party that’s BYO booze, though we will supply some and even that feels a bit of a stretch to me.

Am I unrealistic?! Is a BYO everything party OK??