Yesterday afternoon I got this text from my mother:

Happy Anniversary…xx I have tried to ring you twice!!

After reading it I thought, ‘what the hell is she on about?’  So I looked on the calender but there was nothing marked.  Then I realised it was the 28th of June, my wedding anniversary.  When Luke got home he had three king size Cherry Ripes for me but he confessed that he had forgotten and it wasn’t until he received a text from my mother that he’d remembered.  In fact he said at first he thought my mother had text the wrong person because he had no idea what she was on about… anniversary… what anniversary???  Oh… our 14th wedding anniversary… darn it… we both forgot again!!!

I’m not big on the whole concept of “friends”, I find a handful of people in your life is all you need.  I wouldn’t call myself a true Loner because all through school I had friends, I just preferred my own company on the weekends… and the company of my Sega Master System!!!   (Gamers RULE) Now that I’m heading towards 33 I still enjoy a quiet weekend and the company of my Nintendo Wii.  I suspect that when I’ve got one foot in the grave I’ll still enjoy the silence of a library, good science fiction and the latest gaming experience… come on hologram gaming!!!  What I’m getting at is that way back when I was a child my personality predicted my future and I don’t think we really wander off track from our core traits.  Now looking at my own kids (aged 8 & 10 this year) I see the love of animals in both of them which will surely follow them throughout their lives.  I see the love of gaming in Claire but not Natalie, I see someone who sees things in black and white (Claire) and someone who sees shades of Grey everywhere (Natalie). I see great creative/ imaginary skills in both of them (that comes from their father) and I sure hope the schooling system doesn’t completely bash that out of them.  There are so many little things that I see now in them which I know is never going to leave them.  Some things Natalie says often leaves me wondering if she isn’t a bit of a Loner, but if she is… who cares? The world needs all sorts, well maybe not murderers and psychopaths. What I want to know is, where do these core personality traits come from?  It’s more than just home environment/nurturing parents etc… I really think the “spirit” of a person is more than just airy fairy whack job talk. Call it “conscience”, “soul”, whatever but behind every newborn babies eyes there’s a blueprint already set up… the core personality traits if you will.

While driving around with Luke we came to a T-Section and there before us was quite a lovely house.  The following conversation took place:

Luke: Will you look at that!

Me: Yeah it’s not bad, it’s got a little courtyard for Lil.

Luke: Not that, lower your sights sweetheart.

Sure enough there in the front yard was a caravan,  which goes to show… you can take the boy out of the caravan but you can’t take the caravan out of the boy!

Our Christmas tree is up and my youngest has done the decorating but I can assure you it wasn’t without drama.  We strung the fairy lights and plugged them it only to discover that half the bulbs were not lighting up.  Wasn’t it enough that they were in one giant tangled ball that took ages to unravel? Now I had to take them off the tree and check every bulb… all 250! I delegated the task to my kids, showing them how to test the bulbs and how to replace them but there was confusion so I had to recheck them anyway. After missing most of my T.V. show the lights were fixed and back on the tree, the kids were happy so I guess it turned out fine in the end.  However, next year I’m going to hide the fairy lights and it’s going to be tinsel and hanging decorations only!

I have mentioned before that I may very well be a comfort eater but now I know for sure… I am! Currently Luke and I are in a stressful situation and last Saturday while at the shops we took a detour down the sweets isle, that was a mistake.  We bought a jumbo bag of jelly babies, a bag of choc honeycomb, a bag of dark chocolate licorice bullets, a bag of soft licorice pieces a bag of chico babies and I had to tell Luke to put the packet of Tim Tams back. The kids seemed happy with our spontaneous purchase and I was thankful God gave me a great metabolism… it was time to find comfort in the joy of sweets!

Saturday night is family night in our home and we usually watch four episodes of the old black and white “Robin Hood” from the 1950′s.  This past Saturday however we only watched two episodes and spent the rest of the night entertaining ourselves in front of Luke’s Mac taking silly family photos. The above two minute movie is the result of another great night in with The Houghton Family.

trailer trash tea

While shopping last week I picked up some herbal tea for Luke and right next to it was trailer trash tea… Twinings Russian Caravan!  I like to have a bit of fun with Luke regarding his childhood caravan days so I seized the opportunity and bought some of that tea as well. While unpacking the shopping I informed Luke (with a smirk on my face) that there was a new tea made especially for him and …ta da… my punchline was delivered.  It was met with the usual grunts and groans and rolled eyes but I thought it was a classic! After tasting the tea he informed me that it was actually really good, in his own words “it’s like a kick to the balls” which I assume is trailer trash talk for ‘invigorating’.

This year  instead of going to the Riverfire fireworks we were planning on going to my mother-in-laws place for a dinner party, but once we found out it was to be the last year the F-111 were doing a dump and burn we blew off the dinner party and headed to Southbank.  It was fantastic, we got a great spot and the kids had a blast… 30 minutes of fireworks seems to go by in just a few minutes when you are right there in the heat of the action. The Airforce planes were spectacular and SO loud but simply breathtaking amongst the backdrop of colour from the fireworks.  In my photo above you can see the F-111′s fuel burn as the giant ball of fire and sad to say the very last for Brisbane’s Riverfire festival… I’m so glad we got to farewell it.

It’s good to have a partner who you can be honest with instead of having to lie or tip toe around things.  For example that famous question: “Does my bum look big?”  would be met in this household as a “Sure does, as big as a whales arse”,  IF that was the case of course.  Just the other day Luke came home with the crappiest haircut I have ever seen and he didn’t even have to ask what I thought, I jumped in as soon as that door opened… “wow, what a CRAP haircut!!!” and I strongly suggested that his mother (a former hairdresser) should try to fix it.  He didn’t get offended though because it was the truth and he knew it.  It goes both ways though because not so long ago Luke said to me “It’s when your mouth opens that problems begin”… ahhh… got to love honesty!

Last weekend we treated the kids to a ‘Hungry Jacks Stunner Meal’ and with my thrifty nature I discovered how to make a good deal great.  At $4.95 each the kids got a cheeseburger, chips, drink and sundae… that’s a good deal.  However since the store had free drink refills I filled the cups up with raspberry fanta and took them home to make ice blocks… now that’s a great deal!