Yesterday while jumping on the trampoline with the kids we soon found ourselves in a tricky situation.  I had tried to exit the trampoline but the kids wanted me to stay so they grabbed my legs and sat on me, the only problem was that I was hanging head first off the trampoline.  With weight and gravity getting the better of me I slipped further off the trampoline and the chair I was half leaning on dug further into my ribs.  Finally I slipped almost completely off and was holding my own weight (50kg) as well as the kids weight (52kg) with just one arm while using my other arm to try to stop Natalie from flying headfirst into the ground.  I yelled out to Luke but got no answer so with tears in my eyes and my head filling with blood we all yelled out… for 5 minutes… but no help came.  So I sucked it up and leaned harder on the chair (my ribs were not happy) and slid Natalie down my body.  That helped a lot, now I only had 32kg on my back.  I twisted around and Claire and I fell to the ground with a thud. We marched inside to find out why after all our yelling we were ignored and the answer was in Luke’s ears… his iPod (while doing the dishes)! He said he could hear noise but thought we were just having fun.  At that point fun was not the “F” word I was thinking of!!!

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.

I had a nightmare the other night, a nightmare to top all other nightmares. My family were homeless and on the streets because my husband suddenly found himself unemployed.  While friends of ours were joyfully buying Happy Meals for their children we were left hungry and longing to do the same for our kids.  Then all of a sudden Luke was behind the counter at McDonalds just making enough money to feed the kids. Now I don’t want ot offend people who work hard in such fast food chains but the feeling in my dream was one of humiliation. Here I was watching my husband who has a Bachelors degree, Masters Degree and a PhD asking customers “Do you want fries with that?”  Let me tell you, I woke up in a cold sweat after that dream!

On my last trip up to Hervey Bay to see my mother I discovered that she had a home breathalyser and I thought that was such a fantastic idea.  Drink driving is something I have no tolerance for but at the same time I realise it is VERY easy to go over the legal limit of .05, especially when you consider that a can of beer is 1.5 standard drinks not 1.  Not being a drinker myself I wouldn’t use one but if you are the average Aussie who like to have a few drinks I can see the practical benefit of owning a personal breathalyser.  In fact I happened to witness the practical benefit myself when after a late night then an early rise in the morning my step-father and mother both blew .07… no driving for them!  I would have assumed they were OK to drive… well maybe not my mother.  I saw her holding a digital alarm clock up saying “what did she do to this thing?”   She assumed the cat had knocked it over and that was the reason the clock was making no sense but then…’ding’… she realised it was upside down! It may have simply been a “blonde” moment or perhaps it was the alcohol but either way… it sure was funny!

Recently my husband completed some course that now makes him a qualified Workplace Occupational Health & Safety Officer, good for him… another qualification.  However I have now discovered the downside to living with an OH&S freak, they are constantly seeing the danger in every situation.  Just last night we were watching TV and Luke said “oh that’s not safe, according to (blah blah blah) you should only ever go past the third rung on the ladder.”  He will quote legislation about every little violation he sees, whether it’s in a real life situation or in the land of TV.  On the up side I guess he does have interesting stories about unfortunate deaths in the workplace… morbid I know but what can I say… I’m a big fan of The Darwin Awards.

I was talking with my aunt the other day and she basically said that because she owns land she has a right to own animals but as a renter I “shot myself in the foot” by having pets.  Now I see what she is saying in terms of rental properties being easier to secure if you don’t have pets but I’m an animal lover and couldn’t imagine life without them.  If I followed her logic and only got pets when I owned a house I’d never have them… houses are too expensive.  Without a genuine miracle from God (any time now Father) we will be renting for the rest of our lives, it’s just the way it is.  Animals in my household are treated just as well as my kids, even better as the photo above shows  (Yes that’s a dog sleeping on the lambskin rug while my daughter is sleeping on a regular blanket)  so why should I miss out?  I believe pets teach children a lot about responsibility, kindness, gentleness, love and ultimately death.  I feel every responsible caring family should have the right to own pets, regardless of  home ownership!

A while ago my husband sent me an e-mail from work saying “No sweets – I’m being punished!” I had to assure him that I just forgot and that he wasn’t “in the dog house” so to speak. You see every morning I wake up and make the kids their lunches for school and I make Luke his lunch as well. Now because Griffith University is a cheapskate employer the staff have to bring in their own coffee… oh they supply the hot water urn just no coffee, tea, milk and sugar to go with it! So along with Luke’s lunch I supply a coffee cup with a coffee bag, sugar portions, long life milk portion as well as a couple of biscuits or some other sweet. However this particular day I simply forgot the sweets hence Luke’s e-mail suggesting he was being punished. Now imagine what he thought when I found him making his own lunch the other day, poor guy must have thought he was headed for a divorce! The truth was however that with the school holidays I simply slept in so he had to make his own. Poor Luke.

Have you ever been mountain climbing?  Unless you count the steep street I walk up every weekday to get the kids from school then it’s a “no” from me but just an hours drive from my home are the beautiful Glass House Mountains,  that’s where the real mountain climbers go for a bit of action.  It’s dangerous though, back in January an experienced climber fell to her death and the local paper did an article about the lure of the mountains in what can end up being a fatal attraction.  People climb mountains for a number of reasons, fitness, fun, excitement or perhaps the solitude that greets them at the top but what ever the reason there is always that ever present risk of slipping, tripping or simply losing your balance.  People try to feel safer by using hiking boots, walking sticks, ropes etc but can you imagine doing it barefoot?  Well my Uncle does, here’s how the paper described him “Beewa John, barefoot and flying, tough as nails and fit as a mallee bull, and he has already been fishing for five hours before dawn.”  So while I tackle the incline of Dorkay Street in Stafford Heights my uncle is climbing barefoot up the Glasshouse Mountains.  Now dear reader if you are ever at the Glasshouse Mountains and you happen to see a pair of thongs at the mountains base, say hello to my Uncle John for me.  No doubt he will pass you three times over before you reach the top…. even without his shoes!

Now follow me on this one, I got a phone call from my sister telling me that she had heard from Pat (my ex step fathers sister)  that Eric (yep…he’s my ex step father) was in hospital with a perforated bowl and he was going into surgery. Not the best way to spend the Queens Birthday long weekend but at least he wasn’t six feet under pushing up daisies PLUS he still had my Farscape DVD collection so he wasn’t allowed to die!  Now let’s bring my mother into the picture right about now, you see she is a bit of a spooky person when it comes to dreams and premonitions.  So while Eric was probably under the surgeons knife I text my mother asking her if she had had any dreams lately because Eric was in hospital.  Well sure enough the last few days my mother had some very disturbing dreams that Eric was on his death bed.  She had not mentioned it to anyone not even her husband (yep…that would be my new step father) but then along I come with the confirmation that her dream premonition was correct.  So the next day rolls around and I got a phone call from Eric relaying the dramas and complications associated with his surgery and the fact that without the skilled surgeon who operated on him – he was a dead man.  He sounded like crap but like he always says “any day above ground is a good day”.  He also told me of his special cocktail of sorts… morphine line right into his vein.  With nothing to eat or drink he was handed a glass of ice so really he was celebrating the long weekend be enjoying some morphine on the rocks. As our phone conversation came to an end he asked me to tell my mother about it all to which I explained that I already had and then I went on to tell him about her dream.  Well to that he responded with  “you know your mother was always right”.   When I let my mother know what Eric said her reply was simple… “well duh”.

Natalie(5 years old) has just learned how to play UNO, it’s a great family game. We were all sitting at the table playing when Natalie put down her second last card. Wanting to help her I said “what do you say?”, she looked at her last card then yelled out “BINGO”. It wasn’t quite the word I was after and seeing that we all found this amusing she got all embarrassed and kind off slithered under the table. Eventually she returned to her seat and we were able to continue playing UNO… not bingo.