Monday, May 24, 2010

The Trials and Tribulations of a Teenage Girl

Since my life is so boring these days I have decided to share a little of my darling niece's last week or so as she actually HAS a life lol.

I just got off the phone to a heartbroken Miss 16. She had just spent the most amazing weekend (she thought) in Byron Bay with her boyfriend and his father, future step mum and his fathers married friends. They left Friday after school and got home Sunday afternoon. I was over there when she got home and she spent over 2 hours telling us how much fun she had laughing about the weird "hippy" locals and some of their crazy antics and generally seemed to have a fab time. Her boyfriend was going to teach her to surf but there was no surf and it was just way too cold apparently. Today she tells me that they broke up last night a few hours after they got home. She is not sure why but by mutual agreement they agreed to be "just friends". Now this boyfriend apparently has done this to her before. Wanted a serious relationship with her, then backs off, they go out as friends and then suddenly he is wanting a serious relationship again. This time Miss 16 has told him no more. Now he asked her to go to Mooloolaba next weekend as his dad owns a sailboat! Like she said to me this guy is a loser lol. So hopefully she will cut her ties to this guy once and for all. I mean what is it with teenage boys??

She is also fighting with her lifelong friend who lives across the road. This friend's ex-boyfriend is Miss 16's closest friend and they have known each for years, years longer than the friend has. But now this friend is not talking to Miss 16 because she "dares" to be friends with her ex lol. This friend has also been bad mouthing her ex all over Facebook as she usually does when she dumps a boyfriend. So naturally enough these ex boyfriends all seem to go to Miss 16 and talk about their woes to her making her friend very cranky with her lol. Thank god I am not 16 anymore!

Mum also called me tonight to tell me it looks like she has a buyer for her house so now she is stressing! And what's worse she has decided she doesn't really want to sell after all! To be honest it would be nice if she didn't sell as we all love that house but realistically she really isn't able to stay because she is already suffering arthritis in the hips and knees and with all the stairs it will soon be unmanageable for her. So she does need something smaller and cheaper and just somewhere nice she can live out her days. I tell you, I hope someone runs me over before I get to 70! It all seems like way too much hard work!

As an aside, my flu is finally gone and I am feeling much better. Work is dead quiet and my life right now is dead boring! That is all...until next time!!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Feeling *Bleah*

...So I'm back at work today...still feeling snuffly and chilled to the bone but not as bad as the last 2 days...But I love winter regardless just not when I am feeling *bleah*.

Don't think I have posted anything for the past couple of weeks. Like Sol, another Blogger, I keep telling myself to write stuff down each day so I can blog it later but then I forget and my blogs just become boring because I don't remember anything good that happens! Then after I have completed my blog for the week I remember lol. I don't even really have the imagination to make stuff up!

Anyway somewhere in that past couple of weeks was Mother's Day. I got pretty spoilt by the children in my life which nice. Even MM bought me a present...a new computer chair which is soooo much more comfortable than the old one and this one is more ergonomic so no more slouching and sore neck. On the Saturday before Mother's Day Mr 20 brought me home a huge bunch of flowers which cost him a small fortune (he had left the price tag on it!). I got it a day early as his mother wanted him to spend the day with her and he wanted to make sure he didn't miss me out. Sunday morning he brought me in the biggest box of choclates I have ever seen so I really was feeling quite special! Mother's Day morning we always spend with MM's mum and family. We generally go to one of the RSL clubs which always do a HUGE Mother's Day buffet for like $10 or $11 so we did that again this year. The Mother's always get a rose and a glass of champagne. Last year we got a really nice photo album courtesy of the Club. The breakfast are always really nice...lots of bacon, eggs, pancakes, danishes, sausages, toast, fruit and cereals, baked beans, scrambled eggs etc. Good value for money.

I rang my mum for Mother's Day and she invited me to go with her to a nursery up at Morayfield. They had a sale on terracotta pots so mum and I went for a drive and splurged on pots and plants. I had been after some really nice pots for my back deck and they had exactly what I wanted! And for a third of the usual price! So I was stoked. I bought some pots for mum as well for Mother's Day. I had already bought her a really fluffy dressing gown which was so soft and nice and she loved it as she didn't have one and my niece had bought her slippers which surprisingly was the exact colour of the dressing gown! How's that for luck?

We made plans to have a Mother's Day dinner with mum and the family. This was the first Mother's Day without Dad. Last year, as he did every year, he took us all out for dinner. He always spoiled mum on Mother's Day so I think she missed that but it was a really nice day. Miss 16 always buys me a Mother's Day gift as well as I am her Godmother and she always says I'm as good as her real mother anyway! She was so proud of herself as she went shopping for a gift by herself this year and used HER OWN MONEY lol. I got a box of choclates and a really cute moving sunflower with a cute happy face...it was so sweet and sits on my computer at home. it works on light or solar power and it wiggles back and forth...kind of reminds me of "Pop Up Little Weed" for those of us old enough to remember "The Flowerpot Men"! I tried to explain the show to Miss 16 but all I got was one of those "you've got to be kidding me...how lame!" looks that teenagers give!

Speaking of Miss 16...she now has her very first, SERIOUS, boyfriend. Now she has loads of male friends..more males than females in fact, but this one is THE ONE. She finally got the courage to confide in me about it and like a good aunty that I am gave her "THE TALK" about safe sex and being sure before doing anything that she wasn't sure about. I thought I would get another of THOSE LOOKS but surprisingly she was quite open about the whole and told me she wasn't sure she was ready for a sexual relationship and was happy that I understood as my mum would definately not understand! I told her that her grandmother was not quite as prudish as she thought and in fact mum and I had talked about it ourselves making sure she was on the pill as she was over 16 now and there was no way you could stop her doing it if that's what she really wanted. Anyway this guy is really nice...he is 17, his mum died a couple of years ago and he lives with his dad, his dad's girlfriend and his brother and sister. They are Canadian and he is super fit! Very into healthy living which is hilarious as the first time Miss 16 went to his place he had planned for them to go for a long walk and then for a jog around the park and Miss 16 just looked at mum and I when we dropped her off with wide eyes then look at him and said "We're doing what??". Mum and I giggled to ourselves and drove off leaving her to it. Miss 16 might be skinny as but she is definately not fit! Her idea of fun is sleeping till 1pm, getting someone to drive her to Maccas for lunch then coming home and vegging out in front of the TV! So we'll see how long this relationship lasts! Now I have been told that he wants her to spend Christmas with him in Canada as he is going home to visit family so she and mum are arguing about whether or not she can go. Ahh the life of teenagers...thank god all mine have grown up! I have been there and done that with all our three.

Which leaves me pondering our three kids. As you know I have Mr 20 at home with us doing quite well but with no signs of him EVER leaving the nest. Miss 21 comes and visits often and spends more time with us than she does at her mother's where she is living while her boyfriend is off in Dubai somewhere with the Air Force. She and her mother are constantly arguing and she says she hates it there but it's closer to the shops for her there than where we are so she won't move in with us either!

As for the oldest daughter, she is an enigma to us...we haven't seen or heard from her since Dad's funeral. It has been almost a year now. She has lost the plot completely and has told her father that she no longer wants to see or know him for whatever reason (well she does have HER reason even though its not a valid one). It hurts him and she still wants me to have coffee with her etc but I have told her that my loyalty lies with her dad and that we can't have a relationship behind his back and I won't do it. So I have also basically cut her from my life as well. She knows where we are and its sad as she was ALWAYS daddy's girl but since she has been with her boyfriend (who shall be known as Butthead) she has cut a lot of people out of her life. Butthead has always freaked me out from the time I met him and I know he is the reason behind all of this. Many times she has come crying because he slept with this friend or that friend and she is dunping him but then he smoozes his way back into her affections and she is lapping him up again. I know she WILL be hurt and she knows it too but she is drawn to him like a moth to a flame. The thing is Butthead has been a friend of the family since they were all small kids. His family and MM's family were neighbours so MM knows Butthead as a young kid and MM detested him even then. He was always an arrogant little so and so apparently and MM knows a LOT more about Butthead that even Miss 24 does and I think Butthead knows that which is why he keeps them separated. We have always known about his drug taking and Miss 24 told us about it but she swears she has never been involved in it. I hope for her sake she doesn't but time will tell I guess.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

50 Things to Do Before I am 50

Not a lot of time left I know lol...say around 6 years :) But here is the start of my list of things I want to achieve while I am still young enough to enjoy them...some things are very short term and can be done any time now but are things I keep on putting off...other things will require planning...but everything on this list is what I have wanted to do since forver but things and excuses hold me back...I will keep adding to this list as I think of things I want to do!

50 things to do before I am 50

1. Go to the Rocklea markets
2. Learn to play the guitar
3. Scuba dive at Lady Elliott
4. Publish my first fictional novel
5. Learn to paint
6. Finish at least ONE of my many unfinished craft projects
7. Scrapbook every single one of my photographs
8. Finish my dad’s book
9. Visit my long lost Montara cousins in New York/Philadelphia
10. Get married!
11. Study something I may never use but purely because I want to, for example literature or history
12. Clean and renovate every room in my house and declutter/downsize
13. Take up yoga
14. Save enough money to buy a block of land and build on it
15. Take my hubby overseas because he has never been
16. Travel around Australia or to at least a part of Australia that interests us because I have never been!
17. Go on a cruise
18. Stop being afraid of what other people think and JUST DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT just because you can
19. Read the entire “Lord of the Rings”
20. Learn to drive ANYWHERE in Brisbane without being freaked out! Includes driving to the south side of Brisbane! (See Visit Rocklea Markets!)