Well I love my blog. It's a part of me that I don't have to share with little people. So I guess it's about time I use it to achieve some great things... for friends.
A friend of mine is writing a book! Yes a book! When published, it will be a great read for new mums.
My friend is needing as many people she can get to fill in a survey to help her along the way.
If you fill it in before the 28th February 2010 you will go in to the running to win a Myer Gift Card to the value of $50.
It may take around 45 minutes to complete so please set aside some time. I filled mine out a bit at a time during the day. You need to be a Mum/Dad to young children to be able to fill it out.
When I fell pregnant the first time, I went to the local Chemart and bought a small swimming pool of BioOil in which to rub myself with. If you are not familiar with it, this is a lotion which promises to "improve the appearance of stretchmarks and scars". So in a dash to get "science" on my side I became a slippery little lady for 9 months. So much so, McDonalds rang and said they wanted to cook their fries on me.
But my efforts were wasted. I received hundreds of those tiny stretchmarks all over myself. EVERYWHERE. Apparently stretch marks are a genetic curse and there is nothing really you can do to avoid them. Not even a million bucks worth of BioOil will help you.
Thanks Mum.
With my second pregnancy I realised I was doomed and the damage was mostly done already so I saved my money and avoided all those lotions.
Now I am a lady of small stature. Vertically Challenged is the PC term. Alright. I am a short arse. I bore big babies with lots of fluid. This fluid possibly came from looking lovingly at large bodies of liquid and wanting to grab and straw and suck it dry. I am always a very thirsty pregnant lady. After birth, my tummy looked like a deflated balloon. With lots of extra skin. Nice.
So with the new addition to my body, The Wobby Tummy; I set about to try and find ways to hide him. To tuck him in. To just make him go away. Yes it is a HE. A woman would not do this to another woman.
Then I was at the local Big W. They were selling these bodysuits in the underwear section and Ricki Lee Coulter was wearing them. "Flattens Tummy" it said.
"Yes! I need this" I exclaimed to oneself (the kids were too busy whinging and sticking Rice Wheels up their nostrils). But they didn't have my size. So I went online and bought them there instead.
My "Hold Me Tight" bodysuit has changed my life. Well it changes my life in the Winter months when it is not too hot to wear it. Wearing it in the summer can be damn right uncomfortable. So, I have a wobbly tummy for one half of the year. That being Summer. And a flat tummy for the rest of the year. That being Winter.
And I enjoy those Winter months with a confidence like never before.... Ricki Lee. Thankyou.
It has just dawned on me recently that I am the polar opposite of an Earth Mother. This surprises me a little.
Before my firstborn arrived I had visions of childbirth. Possibly with or without epidural. Always natural. I also had visions of breastfeeding and birds sitting on their perch outside our home tweeting happily and gliding through motherhood with a calmness that everyone would envy. In this perfect world I am always wearing a kaftan (although I don't actually own one) and my hair is braided (even though it is not long enough).
Of course when all these things actually came to fruition nothing happened as planned. My quest for a natural labour ended in a non-elective caesarian. I never actually went "into" labour at all. I rocked up for an inducement and before I knew it I was signing on the dotted line for a C-Section. I was told my baby was a fatty and I the likelihood of being able to deliver naturally was very small as I am of small build. Armed with this information and the fact that I was utterly exhausted at 41 weeks gestation, I opted for a C section. Which was horrible. This is a story unto itself. I will post on this another time.
Then there is the breastfeeding. I wanted so badly to breastfeed but I just could not break through the pain barrier. It was a terrible time, trying to feed my baby while my hormones raged. Meanwhile my baby is crying because it is so damn hungry. My poor husband watched on with dismay. In the end I decided I would bottle feed. It was the best decision for me and one that I do not regret. I totally agree that breastfeeding is best for baby. Of course it is. Don't write a comment and tell me I am anti-breastfeeding because I am NOT. We all know breastfeeding is best for baby. Of course it is. What I am saying is that it is just not the right choice for everyone.
Looking back, I realise I was being judged, mainly by other mothers, people I didn't know. I was horrified with peoples comments when they exclaimed "You're not breastfeeding?!!". I was speaking to another mum the other day who told me she actually felt EMBARRASSED to bottle feed her child during a mother's group meeting. Because it has such a stigma attached to it now. It wasn't until some other Mums brought out the bottle that she suddenly felt at ease and would FEED HER CHILD. FEED HER CHILD!!! The insanity!
Sometimes I feel like the whole world has gone nuts. Please don't misunderstand me, breastfeeding is A Wonderful Thing and I wish that it was something I would be able to give my childen. But as the Breastfeeding Associations beat their drums, I think that we have created a situation where we can understand nothing else. All I am saying is breastfeeding is not for everyone and we should understand that the basic need to FEED OUR CHILD can happen two ways. As long as the core need is satisfied and mother is happy then everyone else should JUST BACK THE HELL OFF.
And the same is for C-Sections. I hate the stigma attached to it. Too Posh to Push?. Oh purlease!! You really think that a C-Section is a walk in the friggin park of child delivery. They are horrific. And painful. And while people do chose them, which is GREAT that is their choice, I do not know why because I hated mine and I had two of them. Again, I would love to have delivered naturally if I had been able to.
We as mothers are all in the same situation and we need to stick together and stop judging each other because we are not helping anyone. At the end of the day both my children were bottle fed and they are happy and well adjusted and healthy. Breastfeeding is NOT EVERYTHING.
Well I did upload a campaign speech on here last night but I deemed it relatively shit so I took it down. If I was a natural public speaker I would be a politician not a stay at home mumma.
So here is what areyouadam from Twitter did to assist Kerri's campaign. You can follow him on Twitter here. What a talent! Thankyou for support!
Well yes, you may be aware that I have been assigned as Campaign Manager for Kerri Sackville in her quest to be Queen of Bloggers in the 2010 Bloggie Awards. This all unfolded during some drunken tweeting tonight by ME, on account that I do actually have a Marketing degree. Might be nice to start using it.
I need to shut my mouth. I am always volunteering for stuff.
You can check out her fabulous blog here. Some of us think she really is quite funny. She thinks she is too!
Kerri is my Twitter mentor and she has taught me to become the Master Twitterer and Blogger that I have become in recent months. Thankyou Kerri.
So if you have a second please vote for Kerri Sackville for her blog Life and Other Crises. You can vote by clicking HERE. Just click the dot next to her name under Australian and New Zealand Webblogs.
Please note a Blog is a collection of a persons ideas and thoughts. It is not the same as a bog, dog, smog or log. Don't get confused. Just sayin.
Here is a picture of her during some recent piss taking of Marie Claire Magazine. You can read about it on her blog here.
Also I wrote this VERY QUICKLY so it probably have 500 spelling and gramatical errors. Also I have had a few wines so this might not read as well as I intended it to.
Well sorry it really has taken me AGES to get this up but there was a lot of scanning that needed to be done. A lot of you bloggies out there have done this and again I promised Thea that I would follow her lead and post about My Wedding Dress. If it wasn't for her I am not sure what I would post about!
We have been married for 7 years now, our anniversary is coming up in March. I just love my Wedding Dress. I tried two other dresses on first. And then I tried mine on. I instantly knew it was the dress for me.
It's not big and bouncy or anything like that, I am too petite to be able to carry that off. It has a simple A-line skirt that came to a gather at the front with a little train. It actually was a two piece dress. The bodice was encrusted with little chrystals.
It cost .. Ahem.. a little bit. More than I was hoping. I love it. I hope one day my little girl wants to wear it to on her Wedding Day. Although when the time comes she will probably make barfing noises and laugh loudly!
I really should not be posting this, instead I should be scanning a whole heap of photos of my wedding dress because I promised Thea that I would. Oh well. What can I say, I just was not in a wedding dress mood. Or rather. It was too hot to turn the scanner on. It just seemed a bit wrong to turn a source of heat. ON.
The past Saturday was, as I described it on my Facebook status as "Iphone Saturday" because I thought my husband was going to buy me one. I didn't tell him this, I just put it on my status so that he would see it. Yes, we are infinitely great at communicating.
Husband went to the gym in the morning and came home sullen and cranky. Maybe he didn't lift as many Big Heavy Things as he wanted to. Or maybe it was the heat. Perhaps he really is sick of singing along at the top of his lungs to the overweight, lesbian Beth Ditto of Gossip. One day he will get sick of that song "Love Long Distance". I live in hope.
Anyhoo, I think in the end the source of his grumpiness was making the realisation that his kids are slowly extracting everything from him. His energy. His money. His patience. His food. His television. Miss 3 is to blame here.
When Husband wants to watch a show. He can't because Miss 3 is always watching it.
Cranky Husband announces "I am going to buy a TV, do you wan't anything?". This was surprisingly off hand thing to say as big purchase electrical goods require a good deal of research in this house in order to get the BEST PRICE.
"Do you want anything while I am out?" he says
"Can you buy me a laptop, this one is fecked." I say.
And there it was. He went, he bought, he brought it all home and I got the laptop I wanted.
He set his TV up and he was beaming with happiness. Retail Therapy. An instant Pick Me Up. Good for the soul. Love it.
I spent the rest of the weekend getting to know my new little best friend. Mr Laptop. And we had so much fun taking video's of us being dipshits with the webcam and posting them on YouTube.
****It possibly could be Iphone Saturday next Saturday so I will be sure to communicate that to Husband via some internet social networking site and pray that he sees that.
That time has come around again where other bloggers tag me to post on certain issues. Megan and Thea have tagged me on "10 things I do not have the guts to do". This is going to be hard because I am a gutsy, strident and fiercly independent person who does not like to ask other people to do stuff for me.
1. I do not have the guts to confront people. Confrontation is something I would much prefer to avoid. Alternatively, I like to bottle things up until I explode. Needless to say this is not good for your mental health.
2. I don't like to lift heavy things. Even if I may be able to manage it. This is one of the reasons why I have a husband. He has big muscles. Let him lift heavy things.
3. I would not participate in what is termed "Extreme Sports". I can't manage normal sports let alone anything specified as being extreme.
4. Technical stuff. I will not attempt to connect cables, set up internet and other technical bizzo. Again this is why I found myself a husband.
5. I will not tell off kids I do not know in the playground. The whole etiquette of this issues still befuddles me (yes that is a new word. I made it up). Instead I like to tell my own children that THOSE other children have been naughty and speak loudly so they hear.
6. I do not have the guts to ring Dominos to order a gluten free pizza. They do sell them now but I am afraid that if I get into a discussion with The Dominos Man who doesn't speaka very good English, I will feel sorry for him. Order one in pity. And regret it because it had been cross contaminated by other gluten bearing pizzas and I will get sick.
7. I will not hang pictures on the wall or do anything of a handy nature around the house. Again this is why I have a husband.
8. I will not put the bin out. This is because I am lazy, not because I am gutless.
9. I will not pick up the take away. Again refer to number 8 (above)
10. I will not drink normal Coke because it has a lot of calories and I am terrified of getting fat.
If you follow me on Twitter and Facebook you would already be aware that I was fortunate enough to be relinquished from my job as a mother last Saturday night. My husband approved this on the grounds that I have been a very good wifey.
I made myself scarce for a whole weekend of Taryn Time with the lovely Mum's from my Mother's group. You can read about them HERE. The whole thing was booked about 6 months ago, so we were all very much looking forward to it. Wining, Dining, Swimming, Rest, Great company. And a great nights sleep... with a sleep in. Or so I thought.
After meeting for a lovely lazy long lunch and too many wine tastings, we head back to our hotel for a lovely swim in the pool. We decided to stay in for dinner. But not cook because this is a holiday after all. Lets just have some cheese and crackers and that will fill us up and we will have some more wine and booze up with Renee's Gin and let the good times roll.
After consuming Perth's yearly consumption of soft cheese in one sitting some of us were feeling decidedly ill. Or maybe it's because most of us are pregnant again. Relax. I am not talking about me.
So off we trotted to bed. I was feeling a little out of sorts. But I couldn't sleep. I ended up with about 3 hours sleep that night, catching shut eye on the couch because Kristie who was bunking with me, needed to keep running to the toilet during bursts of nausea. I am not complaining. The couch was way comfy.
But instead of getting that fabulous lay in, I wake up at somewhere close to 6am. After so many years of waking early, pushing the body to sleep a bit longer is just fecking impossible. Not only have two kids completely ruined my body, now they have stuffed my sleep cycles and I am REALLY NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS.
In the morning, some of us are feeling slightly nauseated and one of us is throwing her guts up.
So now we have the day to wine our way around our location. But we are not feeling too good. Wine? No thanks. Let's bugger off back to Perth and enjoy some brunch and a spot of shopping.
And that was a perfect way to end the weekend.
**Please note. I was feeling a little ill but thought it was the cheese to blame. Looks like I must have caught some kind of bug. Husband enjoyed a spew-a-thon on my return. Sharing is caring.
I love my Mum's. It was still a great weekend away.
Dissolve gelatine powder in a little hot water and put aside. Put cream, sugar and vanilla bean in saucepan and bring to boil, stirring regularly. Take saucepan off stove, stir in gelatine mix and stir mixture well. Take out vanilla bean and pour mixture into small dishes. Refrigerate immediately mixture will set in about two hours. Serve with sweetened strawberries or fresh mango or berry coulis. Eat with friends, enjoy and don't think about the calories!
Polenta is gluten free - it's made from corn and it is so yummy if you know how. It has a very odd texture so be prepared for it if you haven't cooked it before.
Ingredients 1 cup of instant or fine polenta 4 cups chicken stock Good seasoning of salt Few teaspoons dried mixed herbs (you can use fresh, or whatever you have) 1 cup cheese (any type). I use cheddar
Put the polenta, stock and salt in a saucepan. Mix well. Put on the stovetop. Bring to the boil. Let it simmer for 10 minutes or so. If you use "normal" polenta it will take longer - normally about 30 minutes or so. Just read the packed instructions. Let it simmer until it thickens nicely. Take it off the heat and stir through cheese. (This is how I eat it)
Now you can serve it like that OR
Pour mixture into a rectangle baking dish and wait till it has set. You can then cut it into slices and serve. OR
Pour mixture into rectangle baking dish and put in the fridge to set for a few hours. You can then cut into slices and either fry these or grill these. For extra crispiness coat them in GF flour and fry with a little oil.
You can try putting mushrooms, spring onions, tomatoes, spinach, feta, capsicum, sliced olives, garlic, zucchini or just about anything in with the polenta. Include this in the first step when all ingredients are combined before putting on the heat.
You can use polenta as a substitute to pasta in a lasagne. Its yummy topped with a tomato based sauce. The sky is the limit. Enjoy. xxx
I have been tagged (again) from one of my favourite bloggers in Blogland. Jodie has tagged me in her post about her favourite photo. You can check that out here.
Finding a favourite photo is a very hard task, because these days we take so many of them. My computer stores thousands of happy snaps of the kids. We have lots of photo albums of photos when we were kids and there are boxes full of photos of my teenage years.
But when I got tagged, I instantly knew which one I would chose. It is one with me in it...of course. Remember this is MY BLOG...... after all.
I had long forgotten about it until one day I noticed it sitting proudly in My Sister's wallet.
I am the boofy-haired one on the left and that is My Sister on the right. There are many reasons why I love this. One is that it is just so damn cute. Yes. Isn't it. Isn't it? I guess My Sister must have been about 1 or 2 in this photo, which means I must have been about 4 or 5. I keep forgetting to ask Mum. My Sister appears to be holding onto some of her baby fat which makes sense because it looks like it is winter here and she probably will be needing it to keep her warm.
The photo also makes me smile because we have NEVER looked like each other. Ever. Also My Brother is not in this photo... possibly because he hadn't been born yet. This is another reason why I like it...no boys.
Although My Sister and I look very different we have one major personality flaw/addiction in common. Shopping. We both do it very well and we have the same taste in just about everything. Especially clothes. We have a lot of the same clothes. Recently my sister bought some tops and she showed me and of course, I loved them too. So I bought the same ones. She doesn't care. Neither of us do.
So that is my favourite photo. I like this "tagging" business because it gives me a topic to write about without having to scour my small brain for ideas. And let's face it. There is only so much Husband bashing my readers can tolerate without slashing their wrists.
Please leave me a message. Click on comments below
Yes! After much consideration I have finally decided on a New Years Resolution. Here are some things I could have decided on but opted against:
1. Eat less chocolate and/or lollies. This is not possible. I try not to buy these things but in the end the "naughty" Taryn does seem to unleash at the supermarket and I do end up buying it all. When I get home the "good" Taryn gets pissed off that she was weak enough to allow "naughty" Taryn to once again have her way.
2. Exercise more. No it's too hot to exercise more. I might like... sweat too much. I don't like sweat it makes me mighty uncomfortable.. not to mention. Smelly.
3. Eat Healthier. Thanks to my husband I am afraid it is NOT POSSIBLE TO EAT HEALTHIER than we already do.
Options 4 (Buy more clothes), Option 5 (Get me an Iphone) and Option 6 (Let's buy a New Laptop) were systematically rejected by Husband on the grounds that they might force us into poverty. And they are not really legitimate Resolutions. They are strategies for nice, new, pretty things.
And so I tried to find other ways to make my year more worthwhile. This is where I tell you the story about how Option 7 (Use your wheelbarrow of Clinique stuff) was accepted by me and Husband because he is sick of looking at it.
Over the years I have amassed a very large collection of Clinique skincare and cosmetics. I like the skincare very much. I save my purchases for when they have "Bonus Time" promotions in which they provide you with FREE SAMPLES OF PRODUCTS. In fact the very thought of them gives me that tingly feeling. Now I have a very large collection of Clinique products. I could open an ebay store.
But no, as my New Year's Resolution I will Commit-to-Use-My-Clinique-Products this year. Because I always forget to use them. Because I am so busy. I don't use them at the start of the day because I don't have time to look in the mirror. I don't use them at night because I normally just collapse into a heap and fall asleep with my mascara on.
But this year will be different. I will use my make up. Because I have a lot of it. I will cleanse, tone and moisturise. I will put on my Night Cream. My Day Cream. My eye cream.
Yes I think I can do this.
Addendum - Ok so it is the 8th January. I have "Cliniqued" 7 out of the 8 days. I think I am on track
Here is my collection. I would have more if my sister didn't randomly take things!
I thought this might be an interesting topic to write about because in this blog, it seems I am always whinging about Husband's healthy lifestyle and his big, bulging muscles and the dramas it creates for me. Today I might write something nice about him and us. From years gone by.
I am 32 this year. I first saw my husband when I was 12. And with a few hiccups and stops and starts along the way- we have been together since. This is a true story. Here is how it goes.
Let's cast our minds back to 1990. I was in Year 7 at Primary School. It was Orientation Day at my new High School. My curly hair was fluffed to the max. One of the joys of having extremely curly hair in those days was that having it volumised (or just au natural as it is in my case) was very much in fashion. I wish those days would come again. How I long to be fashionable once again.
Anyway my hair was booffed to the maximus.. I was wearing a white cotton peasant top which cropped at the tummy paired with a denim skirt.
I gave much thought to my appearance for our Orientation Day because I needed to make a good impression. And be cool. So off we we trotted and we took our Mothers with us for some strange reason. Till this day I cannot compute why we did this, but it's too late to change it now. What's done is done.
So here I was at Orientation Day with some of the girls from the old Primary School hood. All the students had convened together. As everyone took their places and grabbed a seat I saw my 12 year old future husband and his identical twin brother* walk in the room. They both were quite small as the gangliness of puberty had not yet arrived and they were very much, still boys. They both had massive bags on their shoulders, the size of themselves really and were very very tanned. Which is typical of two Italian boys that loved soccer. I don't know if I thought they were good looking and I do not remember being attracted to him/them..remember I was only 12. What I do remember was seeing two people walk in that looked exactly the same and it peaked my interest.
As it happened. One of those twins ended up being in the same Tutorial as me and the other twin (my future husband) ended up being in the tutorial in the room next to us. So circumstances were in place for us to get to know each other better when we started High School.
I spoke to Husband many years after this encounter and he recalls the same day, same circumstances and he too, remembers what I was wearing. There were at least 150 people in the room that day and he remembered me. Exactly.
So that was the day I first saw my husband and he is still hanging around 20 years later.
*Ok so they are actually classified as being fraternal twins but it is hard to understand this because they are a mirror image of each other.
Above: Photo of me and my future husband. We are 17 in this one.
I got the inspiration to post this article from some of my many blogger friends and I thought it might make for some interesting reading...for you. For me, well.. I just copied them didn't I? Well not really.
Actually the lovely Jodie at Mummy Mayhem has challenged me to do the same and has tagged me on her lovely site.
See I am going to post about 10 things that make me happy that you didn't already know. So I am not going to list my family, kids, husband, friends because that's all a bit of a given really so here are some other inconsequential things you didn't know about. So listen carefully you might learn something new. 1. The Bureau of Meteorology. Just so informative. At the moment it is telling me that today (Sunday) is DANG HOT (like we didn't already know.. right?) so we will stay home. In fact, it is going to be DANG HOT all bloody week so we might just stay in our PJ's all week and watch Peppa Pig DVD's. But wait. No. It's been updated. Cooling down on Thursday, so we might head out later in the week. What would we do without the Bureau and all their smarty pant scientists and Meteorologists. God bless them.
2. The Dishwasher. I love my dishwasher. It washes dishes. What is there not to like. I have had it for about 2 years now and I wonder how I had done so long without it. What I love is that it is a great place to hide dirty dishes. And so your kitchen looks tidier. What I don't like is that they have not invented a model that unloads it and puts the dishes away nicely. I wait in anticipation for that model.
3. The Microwave. Oh yes it does seem I like my appliances doesn't it? Well. I use my microwave for just about everything. I would like to thank Mr Microwave for inventing this fascinating machine. It saves time. Thankyou for allowing me to cook vegetables at the press of a button. Thankyou for enabling me to feed my tribe..the reheat button is a savior.
4. Clothing companies that need to have their sizes re-assessed I love Cue Clothing. I don't have that much of it because they sell a lot of business type attire which doesn't suit my current occupation of Stay-At-Home-Mother. I totally dig them because they have big sizes. So you go to the rack and you're a size 10 for example, you will get that shrill of excitement because, you do not fit a size 10, you fit a size 8 at Cue. And I leave buying just about everything because I feel skinny and fabulous.
5. Kids at Play There is not much that makes me a happier Mum, than to see my kids playing-together-nicely. Because sometimes they do, and sometimes they do not. Their latest thing they play together is "shops" whereby they put everything in my house in their shopping trolley and/or bag and patter around the house until they find a secret place where the transactions will take place. It makes me smile. Unfortunately it does take 2 weeks or so to put everything away back in its place.
6. Shopping for Pretty Things Yes I love all pretty things. I love to buy pretty things and put them in my house. Mostly Pretty Things consist of clothes and. Clothes mainly. I love clothes. I could like wear them all day. Oh wait. I do!
7. Matching Socks When I do the washing I love it when there are say an EVEN number of individual socks and they all match up to a corresponding sock. So that the socks are all matching and there are NO LEFTOVERS.
8. Gluten Free Menu's I love it when we go to a Restaurant and I am anticipating my usual blabber about needing a gluten free meal blah blah and the waitperson pleasantly quips that they have a gluten free menu. It means I can just shut the hell up and enjoy my meal and the company around me.
9. Taryn Time. What makes Taryn so pleasant (yes that is me) is Taryn Time. Time spent my myself, doing things for myself make me exceptionally happy and pleasant to be around. That could possibly be why Husband is happy to provide it frequently.
10. Food that I have frozen Food that I have frozen makes me blissfully happy. Because that means I can just whip it out and cook it/reheat it.. whatever... and I don't have to go to Coles. Going to Coles could quite possibly make it to the list of 10 things I Dislike.
So that's it folks. What inconsequential things make you happy?
Well I love my blog. It's a part of me that I don't have to share with little people. So I guess it's about time I use it to achieve some great things... for friends.
