Its Just....A Little Crush

• ( Ok, so did i get that song stuck in anyone else's head ? )

  Do you remember your first celebrity crush? The one where you were ( most probably ) in primary school and you thought it was actually plausible that you would meet said hot celebrity and they would fall madly in love with you? Even though, in reality, you were probably at least a good decade younger than them? I do, and all those memories of the first sweet blush of celebrity-lovin' came rushing back to me this weekend after a conversation with our soon to be ex neighbours.
  

  

  
  

  Imagine, if you will, me chilling out the front with two pre-teen girls, one 9 years old and the other 11. The conversation may have involved the words 'cute' , ' totally hot ' and ' oh my god, i just love them all! '.... the them in question being One Direction. Apparently, when you are 9 years old, One Direction are just the bees knees and it is quite acceptable to write your name as Mrs A. Tomlinson/Styles/Malik all over your school books. ( Or not, because her mum told her off for it ). I had read all about the One Direction phemonenon in trashy mags and seen it on morning television, of course, it was just fun to see one of my little acquaintances so in love with the idea of ( unrequited ) love. I thought i was all cool and hip asking whether they had posters of Justin Beiber aswell, only to be informed that he's ugly. And a player. Way to show your age Amy....

  
  

  Which brings me back to my original question - do you remember your first celebrity crush? Because I remember mine.... at the tender age of 6 years old, i wrote my celebrity crush a fan letter. I dont remember exactly what i wrote but it probably went something along the lines of " You are so cute and i love you and i watch you on the television all the time and one day, when i grow up, i'm going to marry you! '. And, in all probability, i had to get my mum to help me write it because thats quite a lot to say when you're only 6 ( how. embarrassing. ). Its also quite young to have your tiny little heart broken when said celebrity crush does NOT write back with a proposal of marriage.
  

  

  
  

  So... Johnny Depp, if you're reading this, its not too late - I am off the market for marriage, but a declaration of your undying love, however late it may be, would go a long way to healing my broken 6 year old heart....
  
  And guess what? Its IBOT over at EssentiallyJess!
   

17/52 - Moving House

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  Tully - rocking the pixie ears

  
  

  Firstly, just to clarify, there is no photo of Flynn this week because he had his grumpy pants on and wouldnt sit still enough for a photo. In his words - " I dont be in photos Mummy! "

  Secondly - the move itself has gone relatively well. We still have a few small cleaning jobs to do, and the laundry needs painting, but that shouldnt take too long. We also still have some clothes in the cupboards that need moving to my mums house, though there isnt exactly much room left to stash anything else. Actually, thats been one of the trickiest parts.... trying to find room in my parents house for four peoples worth of stuff. The unpacking has been slow going, but i did have a few willing helpers for a while. Thats why Tully is wearing a hat thats too small for her now in the photo above - my neices thought the best place to put it would be straight on her head! I dont know about you, but i kind of think it gives her a cute, elvish quality....

  
  

Welcome ( Back ) To The Neighbourhood

• The time has come - the big move is tomorrow. And by big i mean " holy crap - i'm almost 30, married with two children, and i'm moving back in with my parents!! ". Yea, that big move. 95% of me is completely comfortable with it, and the other 5% is kind of worried about lack of personal space and how many other adults i have to share the bathroom with....

  
  

  I'm not kidding myself - it will be really noisy sometimes; undoubtedly there will be a time when someone sits in my spot on the lounge and I'll want to go all Sheldon Cooper on them; at some point i will huff and puff and run off crying to our room because i just CANNOT put up with my mum anymore. But those things will be small, and fleeting, in comparison to the reasons why we are making the big, backwards leap. I am keeping in the back of my mind that these several months sacrifice ( possibly up to a year ) mean we can save money for a better future for our children, and we'll be able to foster an unbelievable sense of family while we're at it.

  
  

  So, on the day that we celebrate the sacrifice others have made to defend the way of life we are so fortunate to have, Mick and I make a small sacrifice of our own, and know that in the scheme of our (hopefully) very long lives these months will no doubt pass in the blink of an eye....In theory. Ask me again in a month or two - i may have to poke an eye out by then, or at the very least have bought myself a set of industrial ear plugs....

You Can Choose Your Friends....

• ....but you cant choose your family, so the saying goes.... the key word in that phrase being 'you'. However, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, noted Australian child psychologist, would argue that not only can you choose your own friends, that you should be choosing your childrens friends aswell. As much sense as he usually makes, I cant say that i agree with him this time.

  
  

  

  
  

   By his logic, a parent should be active in choosing who their children can and cant play with from an early age, based mainly on whether an individual child is going to be a positive influence on their child or not. That is, if you think that little Johnny is a 'bad' kid, you should ban your little person from playing with him again, and only allow the 'good' kids to make the playdate list. I say 'pffft! ' to that. Yes, we all want our children to be friends with children who bring out the best in them, with children who have nice manners and come from a good home. Sadly, not all children have the good fortune of being born into a family who teaches them manners, or who disciplines them enough, and those children may be bratty, obnoxious little bullies by the time they hit kindergarten. But to deny a friendship between those children and yours, i think is a little harsh - both to your child, and to the playmate you are denying.

  
  

  I dont know about the rest of you, but i hope that by the time Flynn is in kindergarten i have been able to teach him what is and isnt appropriate behaviour. Hopefully this will make him naturally gravitate towards other children who exhibit the same 'good ' behaviours. ( And, by all accounts, this is already happening. His 'best friend' is a beautifully mannered little boy who has lovely, friendly parents ). But, if it doesnt, and he finds himself in a friendship with one of the 'naughty' kids, is it really so bad? If its possible for ' good ' children to be swayed to bad behaviour by a ' bad ' child - doesnt it then stand to reason that the opposite can be true? That by my well-mannered child inviting his new friend over to play, that the display of good manners and friendliness and sharing exhibited in our home may influence the ' bad ' child to change his behaviour?

  
  

   I would like to think that, as a mother and a human being, i would first try and help the 'naughty' child, to give them a positive influence, before shunning them altogether. It is a different kettle of fish when we're talking about teenagers - who have both the capacity to decide things on their own, and stubborness to keep on with bad habits and behaviours - but for small children i think a loving, positive influence is a far better tool than the old divide-and-conquer approach.

  
  

  Does that make sense? How would you, or do you, go about dealing with your childrens friends? Are you the type who handpicks playmates for your kids, or you do your best with the children your own child has accepting into their circle?
  
  You guessed it .... IBOT is on again over at EssentiallyJess!
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16/52 - Life's A Zoo

Flynn - he loves the giraffes

Tully - queen of the jungle

I'm a day late with this one, but I'm sure you'll forgive me. Remember how I said one of my favourite things about Dubbo is the zoo? Well, part of the reason why is because it has great - and free! - playground, where we like to play and picnic. Which we did, a few days ago, taking advantage of the last few days of autumn and warm the temperatures. And don't my kiddies look like they enjoyed it?

Another Win For New Zealand

I just wanted to say a quick congratulations to New Zealand, for getting in ahead of us again. First, they gave women the vote before us, and now they've legalised gay marriage.

Jubilant scenes in the NZ parliament, courtesy of the BBC

The last time I wrote about gay marriage - so controversial! - I got a few rebukes from readers. This time, whether your opinion differs from mine or not, you may say what you like, but I'll say this: Good on you New Zealand. Good on you for having the ability to see that the definition of 'marriage' is just a bunch of words, and that those words can be changed. Good on you for having a national heart that is accepting of that change, and compassionate enough to make it. And good on you New Zealand for making it possible for everyone, no matter what their sexual orientation, to commit to a lifetime of marriage with the one they love.

Australia, time for you to step up to the plate....

The Future of Beauty?

I recently read this article over at The Hoopla in regards to an exhibition by a photographer named Phillip Toledano. Mr Toledano has shot a series entitled ' A New Kind Of Beauty ' in which he has taken portraits of people with extreme plastic surgery. His intention seems to be to explore what beauty means within today's society, and what may be defined as beautiful in the future. I don't want to copy and paste his pictures without permission so please head over to the article or Toledano's own website and have a look, then come back. Go on, I'll wait....

Justin Jedlica is one of those featured in the series

I'm all for diversity in regards to what is beautiful, but I think that is the exact reason why I DON'T find these people beautiful. They all look so very similar - the same full lips, same cat-like eyes, the same narrow nose and sculpted cheekbones. The overtly feminine features on the men does not attract me at all. I know that these people feel that they're beautiful, and as long as they are happy within their own skin then that's what matters. I do feel sad for them though that they couldn't have felt beautiful as they were in the bodies and faces they were born with.

So if this ' sameness ' is where beauty his headed, where being a plastic carbon copy of the person next to you is the future of beauty, count me out. I'd much rather see the beauty in freckles, in crazy curly hair, in breasts that are only a handful and not massive, swollen, melons of rock.

How about you? Do you see beauty in these photographs? Do you think the people in them are representative of what beauty will be in the future?

Come join me over at EssentiallyJess for I Blog On Tuesdays....

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

This is a shout out to all lurkers - if you are out there. See, even though I don't write this blog for profit or fame ( ha - yea right! ) I would like to foster a bit of camaraderie around here. So every once in a while I look at my number of followers, or the number of ' likers ' on Facebook, and I wonder why the ratio of followers to commenters is so different. So, lurker type people, this is what I want from you:

Image from here

That's right - show yourselves! Whilst I'm busy trying to survive my first day back at work, I want you to leave me a comment. Tell me about yourself - who you are, what you do. Tell me how you got here - how did you find my blog? Tell me your favourite colour, favourite food, favourite song.... I don't mind, just leave me some comments that will put a smile on my face after a day of learning a new computer system and trying to remember everything I ever knew about my job.

Go people go - de-lurk!

15/52 - At Home

Tully - chilling in her activity centre

Flynn - a boy in his PJs

We've been spending quality time at home this week. Partly because I've started packing up the house for our move in a fortnight ( little by little! ), and partly because I wanted to just chill out with my babies before I go back to work part-time. So admits the slow packing there have been bursts of wrestling in pyjamas and reading books; of bouncing up and down in activity centres and pulling on Mummy's hair for a cuddle; of sorting toys then playing trucks with the ones that didn't get packed away.

It kind of makes me realise that, even though both my children are getting good at playing independently, I need to actively play with them more.....

Checking in with the '52 Project' over at CheAndFidel this week...

I Don't Wanna Be A Working Girl!!

And no, I don't mean THAT kind of working girl. What I mean is boo hoo hoo, poor me - after 8 months of maternity leave, I start back at work on Monday morning. Its only two days a week, and Tully will be at the same daycare as Flynn, and I should be grateful that I have a job to go to but, somehow, I can't help but begrudge this return to work. I don't wanna go, damn it!

But, hey, like the meme says, sometimes you just have to. So I'm going to suck it up, put my big girl undies on, and rejoin the ranks of the working mums. I will figure out how many bottles Tully is going to need over the course of a day; I will decide what to pack in her lunch box seeing as she loves herself some 'solids '; I will remember to pack her a spare outfit (or two ) in case she vomits/ explosively poops/ just generally gets grubby; and will not cry when I drop her off for the first time. 

Or when I can't fit into my pre-pregnancy work pants. But that, dear readers, is a whole OTHER  kettle of fish! 

Are you a working mum? Did you NOT looking forward to going back to work or am I just being a big sook?

Its All Fun an Games ( of Thrones )

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 12 months or so, you will have heard of ' Game of Thrones '. You may not have watched it, or read the ' A Song of Ice and Fire ' books from which they are adapted but you have heard of it. And if not, I feel pity for you because I, for one, am becoming just a little obsessed. I don't have pay TV so I have only seen series one of the TV show on DVD, but I've just started the 2nd part of the 3rd book ( there are five books in all ) and I'm hungry for more. Its kind of like 'Lord of the Rings ' mixed with ' The West Wing ' with a bit of classy porn and some blood and gore thrown in for good measure. There's some sex, some violence and lots of back stabbing, king-slaying, kingdom-making intrigue. In short, ' Game of Thrones ' is awesome sauce!

Jon Snow ( Kit Harrington ) = sexiest beast in Westeros!

Basically, if I come across any link that has anything to do with ' Game of Thrones ' I HAVE to click on it. It might be an interview with the cast, or an article dissecting the series; even better if its something like this cool name generator or a quiz to see which house you belong to ( for the record, I am apparently house Tully, which I found completely awesome since we named our daughter that before I'd even seen or read the series! ); or, the most fun so far? Making your own ' Game of Thrones ' house sigil! I made this one for my dad, who is also a fan of the series:

You can make yours here

So - am the only geek girl spazzing out a little about ' Game of Thrones ' ? Have you seen it? Love it or no?

My Hometown

I read a great little post over at Daisy, Roo and Two about why living in a country is a pretty neat experience, and it got me thinking about the things I like about my hometown. The town I still live in actually, despite swearing to myself on high school that I would escape to more exotic locale as soon as I was able. So where do I live? Dubbo, in central west NSW - and despite what you may have heard, or seen on trashy TV journalism shows, it is a pretty good place to live and raise a family. What do I like about it?

1. The zoo- for those of you have never heard of Dubbo before, we are home to the biggest open range zoo in the Southern hemisphere. We have ' zoo friend ' passes, which basically means we can visit the zoo every single day of the year if we like. I take the kids at least once a fortnight - we pack some morning tea, pick a few animals to visit and get out of the house.

2. The amenities - yes, I would love it if Dubbo were just that little bit closer to Sydney for all the big events, but we have some great facilities out here. We have plenty of schools, both public and private; both a public and private hospital; fantastic sporting ovals, with a premier athletics complex being planned; and a theatre and convention centre that is starting to host respectable mainstream acts like Guy Sebastian, Jimeon and The Wiggles (!)

3. Proximity to family - everyone in my immediate family ( on my side anyway ) lives within a 10 minute drive of my house. That may sound like a nightmare to some of you but for a supportive,m loving family like mine its great to be able to be so close to each other. And, as you know, we are soon to move in with my parents so we'll be even closer!

4. The playgrounds - it may not sound like much, but there are some really good playgrounds in town, plus an indoor play centre. When you have a very active 3 year old, playgrounds rate a mention! And, just like Daisy, we even have one with ducks!

5. The ease of living - not just the cost of living, which is of course much cheaper than a big city, but how comfortable it. What I mean is that there is no long haul daily commute; you can buy pretty much everything you need right here ( though yes, you can loads of it cheaper on the net ); there are some great resturants and eateries with more cropping up  all over the place; and most educational and medical needs can be met with no fuss.

So, there you go - my view of DubVegas in a nutshell! Have you ever visited Dubbo? What did you think? What do you like about the place you live?

Its Tuesday, so link up with IBOT over at EssentiallyJess!

Easter Adventuring

When you own your own business, and its just the two of you running it, you don't actually get any paid holiday leave. Well, at least not in only your second year of business anyway. Point is, with gne lack of scheduled time off, you need to take advantage of any long weekend that you're gifted..... Which is what we did this Easter long weekend. 4 days off that wouldn't effect our bottom line? Hell yea - let's go away! So we took advantage of the very kind hospitality of Micks aunty and uncle and took the kidlets down to Sydney for a couple of days.

Knowing that we didn't want to spend all our time hanging out in our rello's backyard, I did a quick Google search of things to do in Sydney over Easter. You would think that 'duh - the Royal Easter Show! ' would be obvious right? Well, yes, it was - but Flynn and Tully are both a little young yet for the R.E.S . Luckily, I stumbled upon the Sydney Family Show, which was being held over at Moore Park. It was perfect for us - aimed at younger kids it had little-kid-friendly rides, farm animal petting, a dinosaur puppet show and you could still get a show bag and a Dagwood Dog if you wanted to!As you can tell from the pics, we had a really great day, taking Flynn on the rides and sharing my spit roast pork roll with Tully!

Luckily the Easter Bunny managed to find us on Sunday morning and we had a big laugh watching Flynn hunt around his great-aunties garden for eggs. ( And doesn't Tully look cute in the outfit I made her for Easter? ) A 5 hr road trip home, a BBQ dinner with my family and a few more chocolates and our Easter adventure was over.... But it was fun while it lasted!

14/52 - Resuming Transmission

Flynn and Tully - this is the best I can get of them together!

Yes - I gave myself an extended break over Easter, but I promise I'm fully back on board now. We had such a great long weekend away ( we went down to Sydney for a few days, more to come about that ) and I still can't get over how beautifully behaved Flynn was. His great aunt and uncle were pretty impressed with his manners - and his awesomely funny jokes! - and I think they were just a little bit in love with their newest grand-neice. So after the fun and frivolity that was the long weekend I decided to extend my break a bit and concentrate on my kiddies and my house.

Not that you would believe me on the house - it still looks like a bomb has hit it but that's the way it goes when you're preparing for a move!

Why don't you play along with the 52 Project at CheAndFidel aswell?