Thanksgiving

We don't have thanksgiving in Australia, and I wish we did. Not because of the feast (because just between you and me, if I was going to come up with a dinner that everyone had to eat once a year, I'd pick better than green beans and candied yams...), but because of the opportunity to have everyone turning inwards and upwards with feelings of reflection and gratitude.

I'm thankful for so many things. I sometimes forget how much I am, and how much I have, and how much I enjoy. My family, friends, my knowledge of and testimony of my Heavenly Father and Saviour. My talents, opportunities and experiences. For music, for this beautiful, beautiful world, and for the tender mercies and teachings of the Spirit, and for prayer. All of these things bring me so much joy. I'm grateful for Jenna and the other two upcoming Munro/Easthopes, I'm grateful for technology, I'm grateful for my church callings, I'm grateful for Christmas. I'm grateful for rain, and running water - for their sounds and smells. I'm grateful for chocolate and watermelon and avocado (although I'd be just a tad more grateful if they were calorie-free), I'm grateful for my ward and the blessing it is to hear from church leaders. I'm grateful for the holiday I'm really looking forward to next year (and for the blessing it will be to escape the office for a month!). I'm grateful for my job, and the things that I've learnt. For my home, my bed, my desk, the kitchen, bathroon, family room. For the roof that covers it all, and the airconditioning that makes it so pleasant. For my car, for my education, and for my ability to read and have access to so many wonderful books. I'm grateful for a sound mind and a (relatively) healthy body. For the freedom, peace and sense of community and belonging I enjoy here in Oz. For the other wonderful places I've also been blessed to visit and live. For the tooth that's finally stopped hurting. For a lack of green beans and candied yams on tonight's menu. For laughter and humour and a Heavenly Father who's love I've never doubted.

Take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuwid8_O8dk. It's become a new favourite for me. They just get better and better, don't they? :)

And then drop me a line and tell me what you're grateful for....

xo Tammy

Chair Soccer in the Backyard

A few Saturdays ago, the family came over and we spent an hour or two playing Chair Soccer in the backyard. Nothing overly special, but it was a fun way to spend a few hours :) The general gist of the game (and you'll quickly see why I'm willing to play this kind of soccer), is that everyone has a chair that you place in a large circle, and everyone has to defend their chair. If someone manages to kick the ball so it hits your chair, than you're out and you have to sit down. Naturally, I usually don't stray too far from my chair... :)


Anyway, here are a couple of photos I took that afternoon, and 2 little videos I took on my digital camera. Obviously, they're not the best quality videos, but I thought they were kind of fun. The first one is just showing some of one of the games (it shows one of the few times when Jessima got out actually - she's pretty good at the old soccer, but she was trying to be careful since she's pregant), and the second shows a bit of video of Abby the beautiful (very) pregnant lady, followed by a random bit where the ball goes over the fence and everyone suddenly nominates Ben to go get it, followed by a little bit of Jenna toddling around the backyard. It's a miracle she wasn't hit by the ball actually...


Enjoy! xo Tammy


PS. Okay, I'm having trouble with the videos - sorry :( I'll see if I can load them as a separate entry under this one, but otherwise the photos will have to do :)

Video - Gorgeous Abby

A Day at the Beach

A few weeks ago we had our Stake Youth Beach day, and in spite of my standard 'I hate sand' (almost as much as Jess hates snow... so that's a lot!), it was a really lovely day, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself :) Rather than plan a lot of structured activities, we just picked a sheltered beach on the spit down on the Gold Coast, where there's a roped off shark net area with a platoon for the kids to jump off and swim around in. We also set up beach volleyball, and hired a bunch of water craft (canoes, kayaks and water bikes) for the kids to play on. It started at 8 (so us leaders were there at 6:30am), and went until about 1pm. It was a really gorgeous day, not too hot at all (we're only in spring after all), and there was plenty of shade. I had a lovely lazy time chatting with kids and other leaders, and just relaxing! We put on a steak burgers lunch for them all, and had cut up watermelons for dessert. I've pasted some photos from the day bellow... watercraft, the 5 Priesthood Leaders it took to light the BBQ, shots of the beach and a picture of my brother Oliver :)

My assignment for the day was the watermelons, and I wish I'd thought to take photos of them! Bethany and I stopped by the local IGA on our way home from work the night before the activity, and filled (and I mean 'filled') a shopping trolley with watermelons! In fact, we emptied the stand, leaving only 3 lonely looking watermelons in the grocery department. It was really funny when we got to the checkout - everyone was laughing at us, and quite a line formed behind us while they processed them all. Everyone was in a friendly 'thank goodness it's Friday' mood I think, because there was no shortage of jokey banter between them all... my favourite was the two biker guys who said to us "You know you'll be known as the watermelon girls from now on!" *raucous laughter*
Anyway - lovely day all round. Even if it was at the beach!
xo Tammy

The plan...

Greeting blog followers!

*Insert standard apology about how I'm sorry I haven't written for ages because I've been really busy etc. etc*

I've been up to a fair bit lately, and have actually kept you in mind with photos of the odd activity here and there, but these photos/stories never seem to get themselves onto my blog

*Insert standard excuse about how I'm too busy to write blog entries because my job is taking over my life etc. etc*

I'm just loading the photos onto my computer now, and I was thinking I'd write a mammoth entry about all the things I've been doing etc. etc. , but I think we all know that if I do that, the entry will be 13 pages long, and most of you won't have time to read it all. I'll also be unlikely to post again for another month or so... so instead, I think I'll write a few separate posts, and put them on time release, so they publish a couple of days apart for the next week or so. How's that?! I like the plan because it means I'll get more comments than if I just post once :D

But to give you a couple of tidbits now (because I know you'll all be going crazy with suspense waiting for the next posts.

(Which I should actually warn you aren't going to be THAT exciting... I mean, I haven't won an international trip or had dinner with the Queen or anything...)

I have been released from my Stake Young Women's calling, which was a little sad (I've really enjoyed it), but I've been called as the 1st counselor in our ward YW presidency - which is really exciting. It's going to be busier (ward callings always are!) but it'll be really nice to work directly with the girls for once - it's much more hands on, and I'm really excited to be working with Brodi (our president) and Sulla (our second counselor), so I'm sure there will be more stories to follow on that front.

I should also warn you that I've been signing up for choirs left right and centre at the moment, and I just realized that I'm likely not to have more than 1-2 nights a week at home over the next 3 weeks! I hadn't quite made that connection as I was signing up for them! But it should be fun anyway, if I don't die of exhaustion (I have a habit of biting off more than I can realistically chew, unfortunately)... I haven't done any real singing in a long time, so hopefully this will help renew my vocal chords a little :)

HANDEL'S MESSIAH
I've signed up to join the QLD Choir for a short stint for a concert of Handel's Messiah on Saturday 21st of November. They like to swell to a 200 voice choir for this concert, so they let people join, and I figured I could handel (get it, 'Handel'), I figured I could 'handle' a 3 week stint. I did it last year, and they perform in City Hall with a Baroque orchestra and 4 fabulous soloists, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm also doing it with a work colleague who was keen to sing with a choir, and so I'm singing alto to keep her company. Rehearsals will be Monday and Thursday nights until the concert. The only down side is that I won't actually be able to make the concert itself, because:

ELDER COOK YSA FIRESIDE
The apostle, Elder Cook is coming out to Brisbane over the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of November, and on the 21st (Saturday night), he's having a fireside just with the YSA (finally, an upside to being a YSA!). Anyway, I'm playing the piano for the YSA choir that will be singing at the EMP chapel. Quite excited about that - haven't played the piano for a choir for a long time! Rehearsals are Wednesday nights for the next three weeks.

GENERAL AUTHORITY STAKE CONFERENCE
And then, either Elder Cook or Elder Gonzalas will be speaking at a special stake conference for my stake on Sunday the 22nd of November. So I'm signing with the Stake Choir for that fireside. Rehearsals are Sunday nights until then.

CHRISTMAS FIRESIDE
My stake is having a Christmas musical fireside on Sunday December 20th, and the Stake Choir will also be singing for that, so after the stake conference, we'll continue rehearsing Sunday nights until then. Except for fast Sundays and Sunday the 22nd of November, when there's a stake youth fireside about using technology, and I'm giving (and need to prepare actually!) a workshop about social media and how to and to NOT use it...

YOUTH NIGHTS FOR YOUNG WOMEN
Are every Tuesday night, so those are blocked out in the calendar now... forever :) I went to the first one last week, and it was really fun. We were doing a night about first aid (to follow up on the Sunday lesson 'Health Care in the Home' and mum came in and took the workshop (she used to be a nurse, so she knows this stuff really well!). And of course, mum did a great job :) My favourite was when she put talcum powder all over her hands and then shook hands and touched people left right and centre to demonstrate how germs spread. We were all covered in powder and not a little freaked out about ever letting people near us ever again!

SO, that leaves Friday and Saturday nights free :) There's a few Youth Stake dances, Ward YSA activities and family things sprinkled through there (Abby's baby shower is coming up soon...), but otherwise people will just have to catch me in December :)

It should be a fun month - I really love Christmas :)

Okay - so your worst fears were confirmed, and I wrote a 13 page blog entry anyway. I'm afraid it wasn't very exciting... just another logistical information blog!

*Heavy sigh... did you really expect anything different?!*

But if it makes you all feel better, I think I've used the blog to organize my head a little better, and I'm now feeling better organized... so there's your silver lining!

Okay, I will take my leave to go and write other entries to post on timed release....

*If they don't appear, it means I never actually wrote them, because this entry has been going for AGES... but check back in a day or two anyway... *

xo Tammy :)

So how 'bout that weather?!

Wednesday morning was a gorgeous clear morning. And as I drove to work, I heard on the radio that other parts of Australia was having some really bizarre weather. Apparently there was a tornado in South Australia, A couple of earthquakes in Melbourne, bush fires in North Queensland, and a dust storm in Sydney. I think I thought something like "I really love this country!" but otherwise, I didn't think too much about the crazy weather.

When I got to work though, I heard a bit more about Sydney's little dust storm. Apparently Sydney woke up that morning to an orange world! Overnight, high easterly winds were bringing the red dirt in from Australia's inland deserts, and dumping it all up and down the east coast. Here are a few photos from online news sources. You'll see the dual photo of the Sydney Opera House (how it normally looks, and how it looked in the storm), one of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and a famous one (that I keep seeing everywhere) of that woman going for a run under the Harbour Bridge. Pretty crazy stuff!

A few hours later, we heard that there was a good chance that we'd get a bit of the dust storm hitting Brisbane, although not as bad as Sydney. By lunch time, I couldn't see the high rise city buildings on the other side of the river! Our dust storm was more yellow than orange, but here's a few photos (again, from online news sources). I picked a couple of the Story Bridge, because I work right under the bridge on one side.

What's strange about the photos is that you can't see any of the cliffs or buildings that you'd normally see in the background - pretty surreal! The dust didn't come inside toooo much, although you could taste it in your mouth, and the light coming in through the windows made everything seem a surreal amber colour. Visibility was down to about 100metres during the middle of the day. Luckily, people were home at our house, and shut up all the windows, but a lot of people had left their windows open in the morning when they headed off to work - and did they have a mess awaiting them when they got home that night - a layer of dirt over everything in their homes!

As the dust was coming in, I looked out at the park across the road and saw a bunch of elderly people having a picnic (the nurses and bus indicated that they'd come out for a lovely outing in the city). Obviously the didn't stay long! But they had a few of us worried as they dragged their oxygen tanks back to the bus!

The 'storm' lasted over a 2-3 day period up the entire east coast of Australia. At it's peak, they estimate that 75,000 tonnes of dust were being lost from the Australian continent (out into the pacific ocean) ever hour. That's crazy. Scientists are still arguing about what that will do to the barrier reef. If your interested in the details of the storm (and they're fascinating), look at the wikipedia entry. Do you know what I thought was strangest of all though? That we didn't know it was going to happen in advance. I'm a bit of a weather report junky, and I can always tell you what the weather is looking like for the next couple of days, but no one in Sydney really knew it was coming till they woke up that morning! We just knew it going to be windy :) And I didn't really know it was happening in Brisbane until I noticed the light in the office changing, and then went to look out the window.

It had subsided some by the time I drove home, but visibility was still low. As I walked out to my car, there wasn't really anyone around on the streets, and everything was really quite. The street definitely had a bit of a spooky nuclear winter thing going on. The air was really heavy, and the lights all looked really eery (and beautiful) as they shone down through the dust.

So there you have it. The dust storm that didn't hurt anyone, but has left behind a huge mess, and was incredibly interesting.

We should all encourage mum to post a post about an experience she had in a severe dust storm when she was a little girl and her family lived out in the desert - it's a really fascinating story!

xo Tammy

Um, are you sure you work here?

On Friday night my friend B and I decided to celebrate the end of the week in style: a girls night out with dinner and a movie. There's a plaza with several restaurants where the movie theatre is, and after wandering around for 20 minutes (we had to look carefully at each restaurant before we picked one), we decided on a Mexican place that looked really fun.

I'm all about the ambiance, and this one had oodles of it, and I love Mexican food. B had never had Mexican before, and was using her 'weekly-diet-free-day' on our outing, and her pre-requisite was that she be able to get a steak and mashed potatoes, and since this place was a Mexican grill, it was perfect. We went in, were seated, ordered some drinks, and settled in to look at the menu. There was no Caesar Salad, so it was obviously going to take me a while to decide what to get, but we weren't in any particular hurry, so it was fine. The menu was like a 17 page book, so it was taking a while to get through it all. B had zeroed in on the steak menu, and didn't take long to settle on the T-Bone with Mashed Potatoes and Corn. B absolutely loves corn, and once she saw it on the menu, that's all she wanted. I was tossing up between a couple of more Mexican dishes, and was close to deciding on a chicken Quesidilla.

Then the waitress arrived. She was a really contentious looking girl, with dark hair pulled up in a tidy bun, a fringe (bangs), and dark framed I-use-a-mac-computer type glasses that she pushed up her nose every 30 seconds. She could tell I was still trying to decide (pretty obvious, since I'm turning the pages back and forward and B's saying things like "yeah, just get that one. Or, okay, sure. That one.... Just pick one", more patiently than anyone should have to). So our waitress offered to give us some menu suggestions.

Waitress: Okay, well, let my start by just telling you what not to order. Definitely stay away from the xxxxx because we really don't do a good job with those. And whatever you do, don't order the xxxx - they're disgusting!

Us: Ahh, okay. (Wow, okay, but I'm glad she told us if they're that bad).

Girl: And our xxxx have no taste, at all - whatever you do, stay away from those! And definitely not the xxxx - they're really soggy. And we always overcook the xxxxx here, so just skip past that entire page. And (and here's my favourite one) stay away from anything with seafood in it, because the seafood we serve here is totally (she then made loud gagging noises for 10 whole seconds).

It was at about this point, that I (attempting to hide my delightedly confused smile) actually glanced to my left and my right looking for the hidden camera! Surely this girl was a paid actress for a candid camera stunt. This girl was hilarious! Was she for real?!

Me: Ahh, okay. Well what is good here.

Girl: Okay. I'd totally recommend the Quisidillas. But not the seafood ones because -

Tammy: (cutting her off before the gagging could start again) - yeah, no, not the seafood. I'll get the chicken.

B: And I was going to get the T-Bone with steak with the mashed potato and corn.

The girl hesitated....

B: What's wrong?

Girl: Well. The T-Bone steak is always really, really, really dry. I'd stay away from that one if I was you. Why don't you get the xxxx steak instead.

B: (her smile faltering just a little) uh, well, okay, but I really felt like the corn, and that only comes with the T-Bone.

Girl: No - you don't want the corn - trust me! Our corn is terrible!

B's face fell, and her shoulders slumped, and I lost it! I just started laughing - I couldn't help it! I couldn't even hold it together until after she walked away! It was like she was playing some private game with herself to make sure we didn't order anything. Or maybe the owner of the restaurant once killer her mother and this was her idea of revenge!

But the girl didn't even notice my laughing, because she was still talking:

Girl: - Trust me. Go to Woolies, buy yourself some corn and cook it up at home. It'll be way better than what you get here!

A debate ensued. The girl was pretty set on the xxxx steak, but B was worried that the sauce on the xxxx steak was too spicy (and the girl concurred of course), so they finally fixed on the xxxx steak, but with the T-Bone sauce. And B wouldn't budge on the corn and potatoes. The girl gave a long suffering sigh, pushed her glasses back up her nose again and finally left us.

20 minutes later, we got our food: B's steak was dry, her corn was no good, and the potatoes (which the girl hadn't said anything about) were the worst of the bunch - completely flavourless! (I advised B not to mention it to the waitress though - surely she didn't need another menu item to add to her list of never-order's!)

My dinner was completely and utterly delicious :)

Moral of the story: totally pays to listen to crazy waitresses! Although I'm not entirely sure that I shouldn't mention her to the management before she completely does them out of business...

xo Tammy

Ahhh!

I'm having one of those days.

You know, the kind that make you fantasise about relaxing on a beach in the Caribbean, or attending the funerals of certain people....

xo Tammy

Fresh faced

Mum's decided that she'd like to take photos of each of each us today for a project she's working on. And to save her time in photoshop afterwards (mum's an avid photoshoper of photos that need improvement), she's noted that the twins (my 17 year old brothers) could probably used a thorough face scrub to get off any layers of dead skin etc. etc. The solution: Cliniques 7-day scrub cream.


They resisted at first, but they should have known mum would win in the end.


It involved mum herding them around the kitchen with the tube of cream, until she'd managed to dab huge globs of the stuff on their faces. To be fair, she put giant globs of the stuff on her own face too, so that they could see exactly how it should be done.

Four minutes of vigorous face scrubbing then ensued, with all three of them standing shoulder to shoulder in the bathroom. Faces were rinsed, and the boys now look look incredibly fresh faced. But still manly.

And mum looks beautiful as always :)

xo Tammy

What do you think?

Is the new layout too annoying?!

xo Tammy

Attention Peta

It's time you started writing a blog.

A few compelling reasons for my suggestion:
1) Everyone else is doing it
2) You've graduated (yay for you!), so it's not as if you need to study in the evenings
3) It doesn't even take very long - they can be really short posts
4) For example, this post is taking me about 3 minutes to write
5) I miss you, and I never have ANY idea what's going on in your life because talking on the phone once a year (as lovely as it always is), just isn't enough.
6) You made my join facebook
7) You're a wonderful, fun and interesting person, and the cyberworld is missing out.
8) I've asked you very nicely (please Peta), and I've dedicated a whole post to you.

Okay. I'm done.
Looking forward to reading about you soon.

xo Tammy

PS. All in favour say 'aye'...

How technically savy am I?!

Of trips and phones

At the risk of talking about work on my blog (yet again) things have been very busy lately. Over the last fortnight, I worked 121 hours instead of the standard 80, which basically amounts to a whole extra week, and though it's been 'extra' busy at work lately, this 'extra busy' thing seems to happen an awful lot. I really need to find a way to get some balance back in my life - I seriously can't keep going on like this!

But since I'm not entirely sure how to do that, I guess I'll blog about other things :) I did spend time in Adelaide and Melbourne on work trips over the last fortnight, and though the Adelaide trip was a six day shoot that kept me very busy, I did manage to spend an evening with some of my Adelaide relatives (grandma, aunty Leah and uncle Joel), so that was really lovely. And then I was able to tack a short overnight holiday onto the end of the Melbourne trip, and Abby came down to spend it with me so we could go and see Wicked playing for it's last week in Melbourne, so all up I'm a pretty lucky girl. Abby and I had a great time (I even managed manage to finally clear my mind of work related things about an hour before we had to catch the plane home again!). I was going to write all about our trip on my blog, but Abby put such a great post of it up on her blog that I think I'll just direct you there for a good read. She titled it "Sorry my nose is tilted so high in the air I can't see you properly down there". Like I said - a lot of fun :)

In other news, I now have an iphone (work got it for me, so I can check my emails when I'm not in the office - I've been out shooting almost constantly lately, and it's hard to be so behind on emails when I get back into the office again). Anyway, I've fallen in love with the new phone. I'm sort of convinced that the thing could fly me to the moon and back if I can just find the right application to download :) We had a show holiday on Wednesday, and it was great to finally run a bunch of the errands I've been needing to run for a couple of weeks - went to the bank, got new clinique facestuff since my old stuff had run out (and a new shirt and skirt that just happened to be discounted at Myer), etc. etc., anyway, I also got a really cute pink leather case for the new iphone, so now it looks like it's owned by a six year old girl in pigtails. But I love it :)

Anyway, I'd better run. We've got stake conference this week, and I need to start getting ready. I'm going to try and blog a little more frequently (at least to keep up the pretense that my life is balanced), so hopefully this site won't be such a boring place to visit over the next few months! :)

Have a lovely weekend!
xo Tammy

I've decided....

I've decided to lose weight.
So I can date.
So I can get married.
So I can get pregnant.
So I can have a kid.
So I can QUIT MY JOB.

:)

xo Tammy

*sigh*

One of the girls I work with just called 'Have a good weekend!' out to one of the guys leaving the office.

I had to tell her it was only Monday.

Yep. It's definitely been one of those days :)

xo Tammy

You never know when a couple of crazy producers might be looking for you....

Last Friday at work I spent almost all day in a casting session. We were auditioning lots and lots of people for a couple of very last minute television commercial for company X, that we then shot on Monday and Tuesday this week. We saw lots of great actors - I was particularly happy about one particular couple who were going to play a certain role during Monday morning's shoot.

Fast forward to Monday. We had a large crew on site (about 2 hours out of Brisbane), and I'm waiting for Mr. Y - the male half of the starring couple - to arrive on set. He was late. I got out the mobile and started calling. He wasn't answering the either of his phones, and when I finally got on to his agent, I found out that he'd been in a car accident! So he wasn't going to be there after all (he was okay, but his car was totaled). It costs a lot of money to shoot, and we had the whole crew there (on the clock) and the female actor, and Brisbane (and the other male characters) was at least 2 hours away...

So my boss and I found ourselves driving through small town Z looking for trendy young guys who might be good at acting. It involved us splitting up, and stalking rows of shops/offices: Open door, stick head in, look from side to side, realize for the umpteenth time that only older-not-so-good-looking-guys work in town Z, close the door again, and move on to the next shop/office.

We met up at the local newspaper office, and asked them about trendy young guys. The giggling receptionist and her friend (over the partition) told us the podiatrist next door was hot, so we went next door. He wasn't there, but his mobile number was on the side of the building. We called him. He assured us that he was indeed hot, but that he was in Brisbane for the day. We asked if he had any hot friends. He told us he did, and gave us a phone number. So we called the hot friend - Mr H. He was down the street from us at the store, so we went to see if he really was as hot as the podiatrist had said. We all said hi, we looked him up and down, asked him to take his sunglasses off so we could see his face, and decided that he was indeed young and trendy enough to be in our ad.

He was very excited. The money was very good, but he only had 1 and a half hours to spare. So we followed him to his house (around the corner), and up into his bedroom so we could look through his wardrobe and help him pick out a couple of outfits that would work well. Then we drove like crazy people to the set, where he then spent the next hour picking up the very pretty actress and twirling her around and around. Mr. H seemed to have a very nice morning. I think his favourite part was the moment when the director yelled out to the actress "Good! now kiss him on the cheek". Turs out Mr. H wasn't too bad at acting at all.

So all that casting, with all of those actors, and we went with the the man off the street!

Mr. H enjoyed his lucky break, and he's now caught the bug. He emailed me yesterday asking if I could recommend a good talent agent for him...

xo Tammy

Random thoughts

It's 12:36am, and I'm a bit tired. But I scared of falling into 'Tammy who doesn't blog for months' land again, and this is the last thing to do on my list before going to bed tonight. So here it is.

Another post.

Ta-da!

Had stake meetings tonight. I always enjoy them, but they always go for a looooong time. 7pm to 10:45pm tonight... but we got some good stuff done. The priests/laurels ball, the next fireside, a stake dance, and a upcoming YM/YW service project are all on the agenda for the next month.

My mum and sisters all went to an advanced screening of "the Proposal" at the movies tonight. I had invited them all so we could have a girls night, bought the tickets, and made up cute little gift bags for the night. Then I noticed that a few of the constant YW emails I get were making references to tonight's meetings, and a quick check in my diary (you know, the book that I keep now, so that I'll stop double booking myself) pointed out that I had meetings tonight and couldn't actually GO to the movies... Apparently they had fun.

Someone just signed into MSN and my computer made a 'bing' sound so loud I actually jumped! Bing sounds should automatically get softer when it's late at night.

Last night, when I was driving home, there was a full moon, and it was REALLY yellow. I loved it. It was other-worldly looking. The kind of moon that makes you wonder if maybe magic isn't going on somewhere in the world... Fairies, goblins, wizards. Basically, yellow moons make me think of Enid Blyton books.

And speaking of moons makes me think of the song 'Blue Moon' which makes me think of you Emily. There are few things more entertaining then 26 consecutive key changes.

Myer has a stock take sale on the moment. It's wonderful! (If you read mum's blog you'll notice all the toys she got there last week). I went shopping on Saturday, and bought some really nice winter stuff. I also bought a really nice new pair of shoes. I wore them to work yesterday, and they killed my feet all day. I didn't care though, because my feet looked so good. This is something I suspect members of the opposite sex will never really understand.

Okay. I'd better go to bed. I've put my mobile phone (aka my alarm clock) up on a high shelf in my room, because I'm pretty sure it's going to be a battle between the 'Tammy who remembers that she has to get into work early tomorrow' part of me, and the 'Tammy who'll kill anyone standing between her and the snooze button' part of me.

May the best girl win.

xo Tammy

PS. I make more sense in the mornings than I do late at night. I've really never been a night person. I'm a morning person. Accept for those times when I have trouble getting out of bed. Which was pretty much the entire 5 years that I lived in the US, so I realize that this whole 'Morning Person' thing may come as a shock to some of you...

PPS. I'm really tired.

The problem with not blogging for 2 months

is that it's really hard to get back on the horse! I've just tried to start this entry 3 or 4 times, and I'm not having much luck. Constantly, over the last 2 months, I've composed blog entries in my head - mostly while driving - and let me tell you: some of them were really great! I've been laugh out loud funny, spiritually poignant, edge of your seat interesting, and life changingly thought provoking. Well, in my head, anyway :) Of course now that I've finally committed myself to an evening at the computer, I'm going completely blank!


Hmmm... So what have I not written about... well, my brother got married (he's so happy!). My grandmother come up from Adelaide and stayed with us for 2 months (it was so nice to be able to spend some time with her). I flew down to Melbourne and saw 'Wicked' with Mum, Dad and Grandma (what a great show - totally loved it!). We had the Stake Young Womens Camp (which totally consumed our lives for a good couple of weeks and kept me busy for a month or two - but the girls had a wonderful time when all was said and done, so it was all worth it in the end). My niece is getting cuter and cuter and I love hanging out with her and her parents. Bethany and I have discovered that we're mystically lucky when it comes to getting the best car spots (touch wood). Abby cut my hair (a great story, check out this entry on her blog). My family has had lots of fun activities, including a BBQ in the bush (2 hours later we managed to get a fire going and cook our breakfast!) and a video day (we got ourselves into two teams and each spent the day making a movie). I've had some fun evenings with the twins - they're such great boys. General Conference came and went again (I love, LOVE, general conference - what a boost!). An old friend got married, which made my heart hurt but also helped it finally start to mend. I've actually managed to have a few conversations with people my own age, even a few members of the opposite sex (*gasp*) so that's a good sign :)

I had a really nice night out with Dad - we went to see Barry Douglas a concert pianist play (we were the only people under 87 there, but I loved it! I hadn't realized how much I miss beautiful classical piano music). We had a lovely mothers day (with my wonderful mum who is honestly the best mother I could possibly imagine). Work got crazy busy, then crazy slow (yucky global financial crisis), then crazy busy again (why oh why can't it just be nice and steady. I could do nice and steady!). I've been busy in an ongoing way with Young Womens, and I've accidentally become a sort of video specialist in my stake, being asked to shoot and/or edit videos for Young womens, the stake Welfare committee and the stake activities committee. I'm really happy to serve in these ways because I feel quite strongly that with all of the bad Satan's doing with media, it's important that a few of us are trying to use it in good ways, but editing is really time consuming!


And just recently, I was lucky to fly down to Canberra for a few days last week - the church asked 80 of us YSA from around Australia to go to a day of meetings at Parliament House to be ambassadors for the church. We had several training meetings leading up to it, and they'd put in a lot of preparation. I really enjoyed it. We met with several really prominent government leaders and Ministers of Parliament in small groups, and it was heartening for me to realize that we're not the only one's trying to uphold high morals. It also made me really feel like getting more involved in my local community, or joining a political party - I think it's important that we stand up and make sure our voices are heard. I guess I'll do that in my spare time! I had the chance to spend several hours at the national war memorial too, which was a really moving experience. I'm always touched when I realize how much was sacrificed for us all. I had to blink back tears a few times as I read old letters and pieced together people's stories. I spent some time looking for my great-grandfathers name on the two giant walls of people who died serving in Australian's armed services. It was moving to say the least, and I felt proud and saddened.


While we were in Parliament, it was also a wonderful surprise to catch up with Elder Holland. He was in Parliament the same day we were (meeting with various government leaders I believe), so he took some time to come and speak with us, which was lovely. And then, the night after I got back to Brisbane, I went to a special fireside for the Priest, Laurels and Young Single Adults, where Elder Holland (who'd also flown to Brisbane) spoke to us for the evening - what a wonderful uplifting experience that was :) I really needed to hear some of the things he had to teach us.


So there's a lot going on. Lots of good stuff. I'm trying to learn how to enjoy things as they happen, rather than stressing constantly about how I'm going to tackle the next deadline. The last couple of weeks I've been feeling like one of those crazy rodents in a hamster wheel - always exhausted from running so fast, but not really getting a whole lot done!

And to make matters worse of course, this giant Tammy holding hamster wheel is only figurative, so the running hasn't resulted in ANY weight loss at all :) But not to worry. Last night I got some personal paperwork done, and tonight I've checked in on ALL the blogs I used to follow (before this 2 month mystery disappearance), so I'm getting some things done :)

Well, I'd better head to bed. But it's been nice to read through your blogs and catch up a little. I hope you're all doing really well.


Lots of love,
xo Tammy

PS. I was looking for pictures of hamster wheels to post with this entry, and I found this one. It has nothing to do with my entry of course, but I loved the idea of it :) A way to walk on soft grass wherever you went - I love going barefoot! Of course, I realize this idea would never work for me. I'd be terrible at steering, and I'd spend the whole time climbing OUT of the wheel in order to move it away from the pole, wall, road, etc. etc. etc. But this guy seems to be doing pretty well. So good for him :)

Tick Tock Tick Tock

My little sister Bethany is a hoot. She’s taken Abby’s place as the part-time receptionist where I work, so now she’s the one surfing the net at the front desk whenever the phones are quite.

About half an hour I walked through the reception area, and she was online filling out a survey that would determine her ‘biological age’. I heard about this on the radio last week, and it seems to be a bit of a cool thing to do at the moment – figure out what age your ‘body’ is: are you aging prematurely or cheating mother time?

Anyway, a few minutes ago, the slim, pretty and 19 year old Bethany came upstairs to give me the results:

Bethany: (resigned) So... Apparently my body is 26.
Tammy: (laughing) Oh no! What was the problem?
Bethany: (rolling her eyes) Apparently it’s my lifestyle!

Who knew that ‘exercising zero times a week’ and ‘avoiding staircases’ could cost you 7 years!

Don't worry Beth - you're pleanty young at heart :)

xo Tammy

Bits and Bobs

Friday, when I got home from work, there was a really cutely wrapped present waiting on my pillow! My mum had ordered "Together Again For the First Time", a movie I worked on in my last year at BYU. It's out on a DVD now, and I hadn't seen it yet. It was really thoughtful of her, and I had fun watching it :) It was like a fun little trip down memory lane. It's a little record of several really great weeks in the middle of a several really bad months, and reminded me just how kind Heavenly Father is too us all.

Emily, I know that Parker will come 'when he's ready', but seriously! When is his actual due date? I keep checking your blog over and over because I'm all nervous and excited about his arrival :) I don't know how I'm going to go through all of this again in September with Brecken and baby Cook! *long, melodramatic sigh*

My brother's engagement party is on this coming Saturday. It's a tropical theme (luau), and our family (aka Mum with our help) are in charge of decorations! It should be a very good night. We'll be up decorating most of the day. mum's got flowers and banana leaves, and laes, and lights and palm trees!... The list goes on - I'll have to send you photos.

And guess who'll BE at this engagement party? Jenny! Ahhhh! So exciting - she's coming for a 1 week visit :) She flies into Perth for a month on Thursday of this week, and then is turning around to fly to Brisbane on Friday. She'll be here for a whole week, and we're going to 'do Brisbane'... I'm taking a week off work, and I'm almost as excited about THAT as I am about Jenny's visit.... lol

Tomorrow, I'm buying a car! Ahhh! It's a very cute car, and it's way more expensive than I had ever planned to spend.... I've been worrying and worrying for 2 and a half weeks over this purchase, and I'm finally biting the bullet. I'm hoping I'll be more excited when I actually drive the thing, because right now, I'm just stressing about how much money it all costs :( Stay tuned.

I followed a link on the church website yesterday, and stumbled on a new youtube channel that the church is sponsoring. It's called Mormon Messages and if you haven't seen them already, it's worth a look. I think the church has done a really nice job of producing little bite size videos on various ideas and themes, and I really liked them.

Okay, that's all for now - must run!

xo Tammy

Pay It Forward....

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch...You have to have a blog in order to play!

Post this on your blog then come back and leave a comment, telling me you're in. Fun, huh?

Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift. Let's see who looks at my blog! OK! Now don't fight!! But be one of the first 3 people and I will make you an AWESOME homemade gift. This is a lot of fun! Ready? Set? Go!

This was on my friend Sara's blog, and I decided to join in (the promise of a present, plus the thought of an 'already written blog entry' were just too much to resist!).

However, I make no guarantees. What you receive may be cool....it may not :)

However, I am my mother's child, so there must be some sort of crafty gene somewhere within me.

xo Tammy

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...

My country's been having a difficult time of it over the last few weeks. I know many of you have been hearing about the unbelievable bush fires down in Victoria that have taken so many lives in an awesome and terrifying rage. In South Australia they've been struggling with soaring heat waves that have devastated the elderly and the very young. In NSW they've had fires too - though not as bad as Victoria's (and they've been sending many of their own firefighters over to Victoria to help). And then my state, Queensland, has had such severe rain and flooding that by the end of last week, more than 60% of my state was under water! 60%. And QLD is a really big state.

Nothing has affected me directly - we've been fine in Brisbane - but my heart as really really ached for all of those who have been facing such devastating natural disasters. It's difficult to see the images and hear the stories and not be able to rush to their side. Prayers help I hope. I've been really proud of my country though, and the way we've all pulled together, and been so generous. I was humbled the other day to hear about the people up in Northern QLD (some of whom are completely cut off from the rest of the world by flood waters), who have received monetary government assistance to help with the floods, and who have then turned around and donated it directly to the bush fire appeals. We've only got a small population in Australia, and yet we've raised over $100,000,000 in that appeal. And people are sending everything from clothes to beds to fridges to those who have lost everything.

My Mum's just started a blog now too: Sandy Speak, and she's posted 2 really fabulous articles about the things that have been going on. One is just photos, and the other is written. She's managed to say what I feel but haven't been able to put into words. Please go have a read if you have a moment (and leave her a comment - she loves comments too!).

xo Tammy

PS. I know, I know. I haven't written in ages and I was supposed to write every day! My Internet at home has been down, and then I've been really and honestly flat out with everything I have to do each day.... :)

A hop, skip & a jump

Today, to get to work by 7am, I will be:

1) Walking a few blocks to the bus stop
2) Catching the 5:58am bus at Lyndale Street approaching Marana St
3) Arriving at Edward St approaching Mary Street at 6:42am
4) Walking 235 metres (according to Translink - my online trip planner) to the Eagle St ferry terminal
5) Catching the Eagle street ferry at 6:57am
6) Arrive at the Holman Street Ferry Terminal (across the river) at 7:02am
7) and walking 180 metres to the front door of my office

a) This is a succinct public transport option, really. And I'm glad it's not any worse!
b) I can read on a bus/ferry (unlike a car) so that's fun.
c) I love the river, so the 3 minute ferry ride is always pleasant - especially first up in the morning, or late in the afternoon (love that light on the water!)
d) Unfortunately, it's not fun enough to make me want to do the public transport thing permanently
d) I would really, really, like to find a car that works now.

xo Tammy

PS. My watch stopped working yesterday.... Ahhh! What will I do without my watch?! Does nothing work anymore?!

My new job :)

I received a new calling just before Christmas: I'm the Stake Young Women's specialist, and my role is essentially to act as a sort of 3rd councillor in our very busy stake young women's presidency. My special responsibility is to look after Personal Progress and Camp Craft within the stake, but it extends to doing anything else that needs to be done too.

And I'm absolutely loving this calling :) It is much more time consuming than I had expected, but I was really ready for it (Heavenly Father knew that long before I did of course!). It's good for me to be spending a good portion of my time doing service and working actively in a spiritual cause, and I've already noticed huge differences in my life.

This coming week, for example, I've got some practices with a 'choir' of priests in our stake (who are the musical item for a Stake Youth Fireside we have on Sunday night), I'm also meeting with a member of the Stake Relief Society Presidency to go through music for a musical item at the upcoming Young Woman's/Relief Society fireside in a month or so (I'll be helping a group of young women put together that musical item). And then on Wednesday night, I've got a Stake YW Presidency meeting, followed by the YW/AP Stake Council meetings. On Sunday we've got that Stake Youth Fireside (we're using the A Brand New Year program that was launched on New Years Eve in Salt Lake for the youth World Wide). I've got to bring 4 x 7-layer dips and chips to that for the supper after the fireside. Sometime during the week I've got to contact each of the ward Young Women presidents in the stake to go through some personal progress stats that we need to collect, and I've got to talk to a few different sisters in the stake about possibly helping us with some other upcoming activities. Thursday night I've also got to attend a training session (and present a spot on Personal Progress) with the YW's presidency in one of the wards.

And that's just all between tonight and next Sunday night! And let me tell you - each week looks about as busy! There are stake dances, young women in excellence evenings, new beginnings evening, beehive nights, ward conferences, regular ward visits, stake dances, stake youth activities, firesides, ward and stake trainings, camps, meetings, meetings, and meetings!

This last week, I was getting very stressed about things. Between working, trying to figure out what to do with my evil car, trying to keep up with the new goals I've been trying to meet, doing several calling things and sleeping, I was starting to feel like this lifestyle is crazier than life at the climax of a few infamous exam weeks during uni! I've got a bit of a Martha tendency I'm afraid, and I've been feeling 'careful and troubled about many things'. BUT, today, in Stake Conference, I started to feel like I could just stop running around frantically in circles and just 'be still'. I get frustrated - I want to do things really well, and I want everything to work, and when you've got so many things tugging at your time, it's hard to feel like it's possible to do anything right! That's when we really need to turn to the Lord, and let Him help us. I tend to try and handle things all on my own :)

So, it's obviously going to teach me more humility :) And honestly, the women I work with, are powerhouses of energy! Ana (the stake YW president) has a bunch of kids, a part time job, AND is the busiest YW president I have EVER seen. Between them and my mum, I'm totally set for 'women-who-can-do-it' examples ;)

So there you have it :) I thought I'd mention it, because I think you'll probably hear quite a bit about this new calling throughout future blog entries. I think I'll be learning a lot, and having a bunch of fun doing it!

xo Tammy

New blogs I'm following

So two of my sisters started blogs recently. It was very exciting :)

Abby: http://faithhopehappinessandlove.blogspot.com/

Jessima: http://jonnyandjessima.blogspot.com/

They're worth a read if you get a chance....

(And if you do and you have a moment, leave a comment - even if they don't know you - so they know that someone besides me and mum are reading it!)

I'm hoping mum will start one too sometime.... will let you know :)

xo Tammy

First, I want you all to close your eyes....

.... now, pretend it's still yesterday.....

Good.

See? I told you I'd write every day in February :)

Okay, I so on my way home today (by which, of course, I mean yesterday), and I was thinking how much I love late afternoon light.

I mean, I really love late afternoon light. That moment, on the way home where you glance at the city over the river, or birds flying toward the trees, or people jogging after work, or hundreds of cars stuck in traffic... and suddenly, the picture takes on a timeless weightlessness. The late afternoon rays turn the scene before you to magic, and the worries and cares of the day, or of the coming night, cease to exist. Just for that moment. You find yourself marvelling that a scene that beautiful exists.

I love the freshness and promise of light in the early morning as well. The gleam of the boats on the river as I head to work. But really, it's that afternoon light that gets me. It holds me for that brief moment, and then releases me happier and more content than I was the moment before. It makes me smile, and start singing along to a song on the radio. Or I find myself starting to reflect on things more important than whatever had been occupying my thoughts in the moments before.

Afternoon light is right up there with blustery rainy days, mountain streams, and silent moonlight over a pristine snowscape.

xo Tammy

The death of an ex-friend...

Fritz-Errol-Wilson has turned out to be a real lemon.

*sigh*

It's terribly tragic, and the 86 year old car mechanic genius from up the road who looked at it today, began his subsequent conversation with me "I don't usually slap girls, but with you I think I'll make an exception", because the thing is running so badly, no one should be driving it! I mean, I sensed it had some issues, but apparently the car was out of oil because it had exploded all over the engine (or something like that - obviously, I had no idea what he was talking about, although I do remember the part where he said "your car's engine has been on fire, at least twice, the burn marks are there under the bonnet!"). The air conditioning unit is broken and is leaking a river of some sort of liquid that has pooled in the carpet on the passenger's side of the car - water is actually seeping up through the carpet and sloshing around. The transmission is shot. The speakers have blown , the sun visor above the drivers side fell off the other day, and last week, the door handle on the drivers side broke, so I can't get in very well and have had to resort to climbing in through the passengers side a few times. (Obviously, that doesn't bode well for the fire that may start again in the engine at any time - I'll probably die because I can't get out the door and away from the flames!). I'm also in need of new tires... apparently!

Anyway, I'm disheartened. And I've started hating Fritz-Errol-Wilson. He's a money sucker! and He's ruining my life! Apparently, I need to buy a new car, and no one will want this one because it's got serious problems.

I tell you what, next time, I'm getting a girl car! With a name like Fritz Errol Wilson, is it any wonder he's insisting on going down in such a "general's last great battle" kind of a way?!

xo Tammy

Road Kill

I accidently hit a possum with my car the other night. It was terrible! The poor thing jumped out in front of my car and I didn't have time to stop. As I glanced back, I noticed that the poor thing was still moving (tail spasmatically flicking, head feebly stretching), so I turned the car around and went back to help it (I think I had some vague notion about taking it to an animal vet place at 11:30pm at night), but by the time I got back to it, 3 other cars had hit it, and the poor thing was dead. It was horrible. A big pool of blood and fur everywhere. I felt terrible! .... Only, I didn't quite feel as terrible as I knew I was supposed to, because an itsy bitsy tiny part of me was glad that I didn't have to find an animal vet place at 11:30pm at night!

Could I be any less horrible?!

*gasp*

xo Tammy

PS. It just occurs to me that possums are marsupials, and therefore don't exist outside of Australasia... so for those who would like an opportunity to learn and grow, please take advantage of the weblink (that I've just figured out how to use) in the earlier part of this sentence :)

PPS. I just ran the spell check, and it didn't pick anything up.... that's never happened to me before.... I can only assume that the spell check is broken.....

Led by the hand

The last couple of weeks have been really hard and really wonderful all at once. Thinking back yesterday, I could see what I've been suspecting - that Heavenly Father's been perfectly and lovingly putting things in my path that have helped me take some needed changes in direction. A couple of those have been really hard, and pretty painful, but as I've tried to turn to Him, I have felt more loved, and closer to my Heavenly Father than I have in a long time. I love Him for not forgetting about me and for never giving up on me. I love Him for reminding me of important truths that I've been forgetting of late, like the fact that he answers our prayers and will give us personal revelation in many ways, that He will meet us half way (or much more than half way) as we take even a shaky, single step towards Him. I love Him for the trials and challenges He sends my way, and for His gentle reminders that it is wisdom in Him to have dealt with me after this manner. I love Him for weakening me in some ways so that He can help me be strong in others. I love Him for new and old callings that give me the opportunity to be useful and to serve. That stretch me, and force me to look (uncharacteristically) outside of myself. I love Him for the wonderful family that He blesses me with, and for parents who have both, over the last few weeks, said things that I have really needed to hear. Things that have come as answers to pleading prayers (though I probably haven't acknowledged it as such to them). I love Him for friends and siblings who have done the same. I love Him for the gift of hope, and for the wonderful healing and 'sun-rising' nature of that precious gift. I love Him for the words of unspeakable comfort and strength that I've been guided to in the scriptures and in the words of the modern day prophets. I love Him for my testimony, and for the gift He's blessed me with of believing easily (the 'following' I'm still working on, but the believing is never a problem, and I am always grateful for the enormous blessing that that is). I love Him for making me feel, over the past few weeks, like I can do hard things. Most of all, I love Him for His many, many tender mercies. For those times when I've asked Him to hold me hand and He has, and for those many times, when I should have asked and didn't, but that He held it anyway.

xo Tammy

My fabulously interesting life x 28

I've gotten into the bad habit of replying "absolutely nothing" whenever someone who hasn't seen me in a while (usually because I tend to hide from 'people'), asks "So, what's new?" or "So what have you been up to lately?" They're friendly questions, and I realize that they're just trying to start a conversation, but the questions always makes me cringe, because in my very Eeyore way, I usually feel like I literally have nothing to tell them about my life!

I've been thinking lately, that this is a really negative way to look at things. Especially since the truth is that there are lots of positive and great things going on in my life. They might be small, and maybe work is the biggest thing in my life (which, admittedly, is a pretty boring way for life to be), but I suspect that there are more exciting and interesting things going on, and that I'm just out of the habit of paying attention to them, or being grateful for them. My crazy and ever growing family, for example, could fill volumes of a best-selling memoir (or at least supply endless fodder for Justin's screen-writing classes). So my life obviously can't be as drudgery-ish as my internal moaning monologues make it seem.

So, in an attempt to teach myself a little more gratitude for the incredibly charmed and blessed life that I do indeed lead, in an attempt to dwell more on the positives and the opportunities and possibilities that life holds, and in an attempt to have my friends stop begging for more consistent blog entries, I thought I'd try something new in February: I'm going to post something every day. I warn you that on some days it will probably be short (Brecken suggests that if I can teach myself to write short entries on occasion, than I'll realize that it's actually not as hard to 'blog' as I always think it is); I warn you that what I end up deeming 'of interest' may not actually be interesting; and I warn you that I'll probably get mopey if I don't get comments back on each of these posts (how needy am I?!). But I'm hoping it will be fun :)

So tonight, the experiment begins! Drum roll please.......

Okay, now go post a comment :)

Till tomorrow.....
xo Tammy

Why Emily is today's "king of the lab"

So yesterday at work, I got a phone call from my mum that went something like this:

"Hi Tam, I'm not feeling very well today, and I was thinking of sitting down and watching something for a bit.... you got a little package in the post.... do you mind if I watch one?!" Ahhhh! How exciting!

I knew what she was talking about of course, because we've been anxiously waiting for this particular package.... it was..... BONES SEASON THREE! Not actually out on DVD in Australia for at least another year! Luckily, we have a person on the inside (aka a resident of the United States), who also happens to be a fellow Bones lover... Enter Emily!

Emily, like the angel she is, spent several dollars (I know, because it was printed on the box) to send the Munros the next season, so that we wouldn't be left hanging after we finished watching Season 2 on DVD last month.

So THANK YOU EMILY. You are totally our KING OF THE LAB here in the Munro house at the moment :) We've watched a few episodes already, and my favourite is the Santa in a Sewer one (I think you'll know why!)

You're totally fabulous :)

xo Tammy

Happy Birthday Reuben

Dear Reuben,

Happy Birthday sweetheart! I can't believe you're three already! I remember the day that you were born, and going to see you in the hospital for the very first time. You were very very tiny, and one of the most beautiful babies I had ever seen. It was so exciting, and it was wonderful to meet you. I got to hold you for a few minutes, and you were so light - we could all hold you with one arm! And of course, we could tell straight away what a special little boy you were going to be :)

As you got a little older, I loved coming over and playing with you while you're parents went out. Or sometimes, we all went out somewhere fun together. You're such a funny boy, and you always made us laugh!

So did you get lots of fun presents today?! And did you have a fun day with Mummy and Daddy?! I hope so :) I wish I could be there to give you a hug and celebrate your birthday with you, but I think we'll just have to settle for an email and a photograph this year :)

So happy birthday Reuben!

You're loved by people all over the world :)

xo Tammy

Happy 2009

I'm writing from the future. Ta-da! ... (Well, if you're reading this over in America, then I'm writing from the future.... if you're reading this as a member of my family, then I'm writing from another room in the house...). But yes, that's right - on this side of the international date line, it's 2009. And I gotta tell ya - it's looking good.

I always love the first day of a new year, but today, I'm in an especially good mood. I feel like this is a year to take back some control and make some good and exciting things happen. A year when I can be more pro-active than re-active. Life offers so many wonderful experiences and opportunities, and it's just a matter of deciding where you want to go, and the kind of person you want to be. There's so many things that I want to do and be and I'm glad for another chance. Another new start.

So welcome, 2009. I've very pleased to have you here!

xo Tammy