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

The worlds most beautiful little girl

It's been almost 2 months since my last post, so I thought I'd better make a return ;) A huge thank you to abby for her post - it totally cracked me up, and it was the most fun I've ever had reading my own blog. I'm thinking we should make her a regular guest poster (what do you think flabby?!). I will try and jump back on a little later to give you a bit more of a written post, but I wanted to post some photos of the gorgeous Jenna Munro - the cutest little girl/niece on the planet earth :) For Christmas, Jonny & Jessima's friend took a bunch of photos of the three of them (mainly of Jenna) at our house, and Mum put together a really cute little wall display of photos for Jessima as her Christmas present. So here are a few of the (hundreds) of photos their friend took (mum's doctored some of them, that's why you might see a little bit of a difference in quality). She's just the most special little girl and she's so funny. She was born in September, so she's just over 3 months old, and in the last couple of weeks she's gotten better at following everyone with her eyes, grasping things with her hands, and she rolled over (3 times) all by herself. She'll probably be talking by next week! She's also incredibly good at sleeping through large volumes of noise (since the poor thing was sent to this rather large and noisy faimly!)

On Behalf of Tammy...

First of all, Tammy's not dead. I thought it was important to put that there, because if she were dead, that might be the title of a blog I'd post on her blogspot... especially because now that I know her password.

This is her personal assistant, phone-call screener, room-temerature-water-fetcher, door-opener, window-opener, lunch buddy/eater, AKA sister. Sadly my actual job description does right now involve doing basically eveything she tells me too, because she is a high-powered producer and I am the part-time receptionist on my days off from uni, but it just mirrors the roles she forged for us when I was born. This is okay because the pecking order flows down throughout our family and I have a little sister who does the same for me, but that's another story. Just know that Tammy was a very shrewd little 3-year-old, and planned things out very clearly and satisfactorily in relation to future siblings...

Obviously Tammy's been beyond slack with her blog, and since she's rushing around working like mad and I'm sitting at my great glass escritoire wishing businesses closed when schools did for Christmas holidays, she asked me to post for her, and tell you what's going on in her life.

CHRISTMAS PARTY: Every year for as long as we can remember, whether or not to have a Christmas party has been a generally debated topic leading up to Christmas.

Arguments FOR: It makes people happy, we enjoy it once the guests arrive, we learn to cook and work together, we get heaps of leftovers for Christmas Day, it gets us 'in the spirit'
Arguments AGAINST: We go nuts with preparations for weeks before, and every year we say 'never again' as we shake our heads with fatigue and clean up.

Last year my big wedding a month before Christmas ruined it for everyone, so this year it was a hotter-than-ever topic. Dad said 'Not even a topic of discussion' all the way up until 3 days ago or so when he approached mum about having it, much to almost everybody's delight. So it's tomorow night. Which is short notice. But when you're mother is superwoman and she has the kind of first class help you only get when you've given birth to it or married it, we hope we can pull it off!

In past years we've tried to 'downscale' to make ourselves think we won't go overboard, by calling it a 'gathering', holding it on Christmas Even in hopes that nobody will come (apparently nobody has anything on that night), etc., but it does nothing, and they are growing, as old friends are as dear as ever and new friends pop up each year. This year's tactic is to just not to stress, and to focus on 'yay, we're having a fun party' instead of 'okay we have 2 days to do the kind of extravaganza only mum would imagine normal and expected'. (These parties are HUGE, and involve hundreds of people, decorations and food that you see at classy weddings on movies).

Tammy's Christmas presents have gone to hell (haha - sorry, I just said that cause I know this is basically a 'Northern Hemisphere'-audienced blog and I know Tammy would want me to..) because now every spare second is cooking etc, but we are very excited. Speaking of Tammy's Northern Hemisphere friends, if you ever decided to be here around this time of year, we'd totally have this party, so you could come. We wish you would! :)

What else is new in Tamster's world? On Sunday at church she sang 'O Holy Night', which my Dad makes her do every year, so he can cry and be grateful for her beautiful gift, and help him think of the Saviour. We love it, if you haven't heard her sing, because in America she was 'film girl' instead of 'singing and piano girl' when it came to general perception from what I gather, you should hear it. We are blessed to have her and her wonderful talents in our family!

Okay, I just called up to Tammy's office to see if there was anything she actually wanted me to write about, and she said there are tons of things she's been meaning to write about but hasn't gotten onto it!

Here are some of them, as far as I remember them from her telling me over the last little while...

1. 'Manhole' - Okay Tammy fell down one. Yup, legitimately, fell down a manhole. It boggles my mind, it's amazing and funny and I love that story. Unfortunately, I forget every single portion of detail. Maybe ask Tammy...


2. 'Body Lotion' - So Tammy wanted some new body lotion, she went out and bought some nice Dove lotion, went home and began using it. She was especially generous around her knees and feet, because these are the dryer parts of one's legs. One day, Tammy was in the shower, washing herself, when she noticed she couldn't get her feet very clean. After a little while, Tammy noticed other dirty spots on her knees. I can't remember how it all came together, but if the brown bottle, and brown 'lotion' weren't enough to tip her off, and Tammy never did notice the 'a soft glow will develop after multiple uses' label, or become aware of the fact that she was shopping for moisturiser in the 'tanning lotion' section, maybe it was the 'dirty' knees and feet that did the trick. Hahaha. My favourite bit is when she quite seriously asked mum (who was nearby, convulsed with laughter) if she should 'redo' the normal parts of her legs so they all looked the same colour. Bless Tammy!


3. 'Jenna is soooooooo Cute!' - Tammy was going to rave about how cute our niece is, and how we have the cutest niece in the whole world, and she was going to be right. Jenna is adorable! She grows every day and becomes more aware and cute and gorgeous, and is bringing our whole family so much joy that you can only know if you are part of a big family who had for a long time only 1 second-generation member to 'coo' over for hours at a time. If you are on facebook and this works (I don't know anything about facebook) look at Jonathon or Jessima's page (her parents) - you'll find them amongst Tammy's friends, I'm sure, but they have pictures up. She is so grumpy, and when you try really hard to make her smile she looks at you with one eyebrow up like a schoolteacher who is beyond, unimpressed, but then she'll break out in a big grin a second later. The other day Tammy was holding her and her nappy exploded down her legs. The look on Tammy's face was priceless, as she fought herself over whether to hold dripping with poo baby over the carpet or over her dress!


4. 'Christmas Day' - we had a 'home-holiday', which means we saved the money from accomodation and did fun stuff with it, like go on high ropes courses and ate yummy big dinners etc. Tammy wanted you to know that her favourite day was the 'Christmas Day', when we dressed Christmassy, baked cookies together, learnt 'Ring Christmas Bells' in 4-part harmony (go us!), watched Fred Claus and went carolling. It was really nice and fun and Christmassy and yummy, and we were all a little chuffed by ourselves with our 4-part harmony


5. 'Can't Wait!' - for a break. Work is obviously very busy for Tammy

Okay you must all be sick of reading - what a long blog entry! But just think of all the time you've saved not reading any blog entries in the past few weeks!

Tammy will, I'm sure check the comments on this blog, so just write like you're writing to her! I'm sure also that she wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas - I'll crack my little and somewhat insignifiant but well-meaning whip and see if I can get her to post a Christmas entry... wish me luck, have a great season!

Abby xo

Hip, Hip, Horray

So I'm 27. The birthday came and went, and I'm pleased to say that there's little evidence of extra wrinkles or grey hairs. For all my sincere and passionate whining and winging though, I sort of figured that once the day actually passed I'd feel pretty much the same as I had the day before, and just keep moving forward.

But despite the fact that it turned out to be a really lovely day in the end (I always remember how much I actually love birthdays when I suddenly find myself sitting there with the first present on my lap), I still can't actually shake the niggling in the back of my mind that things really AREN'T the same. I'm older. Which is less scary to me in a 'I'm closer to death' way than it is in a 'have I accomplished the things I was supposed to by this point?' way.

And honestly, I don't think I have. I've done a couple of good 'things to be proud of' in the last year or two, but mostly, I've just let time pass. And now that I'm 27, the reality of 'wasted time' is really bothering me. I just don't want to get to 28 feeling the same way!

So, though it's not really 'new years day' until January, I'm feeling quite the 'set goals, quick!' surge! I've been ironing some specific goals out in my head over the last few days, and I think I'm ready to start working towards them. I just can't bear the thought of getting to my next birthday, knowing that I didn't have an 'accomplished and worthwhile' year. I want to be excited to turn 28, and I think the key to that will be to be excited about the year I've just had. So I've got some spiritual goals, some physical goals, some financial goals, some social goals, and some life-experience goals.

I'm a little nervous - I've been less successful with the goal conquering thing over the last few years, but I figure it's imperative to try. I'll definitely need Heavenly Father's help and I'm 100% confident that he'll come through - It's really just my ability to deliver that terrifies me! But that fear's what's kept me from actually 'setting' goals for the last few years, which in turn, has kept me from 'conquering' any over the last few years, and that just makes me miserable! So with a little nudge from President Uchtdorf's wonderfully inspired conference talks, and from the reminder that time marches on, I figure it's time to give me another chance.

Wish me luck, and say a prayer for me - I'm going to need some strength and encouragement beyond my own.

xo Tammy

This made me think...

Just down the road from where I live they've been building a new bookstore, and the other night as I was driving home, I noticed that it was open. It looked like a big Borders which was really exciting because Borders is one of my favourite places on earth, and our closest Borders is a good 20 minutes away. I was excited as I parked my car and walked in the door, but it didn't take me long to realize that I was actually in a Christian bookstore! It looked exactly like a Desert Books! It had a music section with CDs and DVDs, there were sections for teenagers, women, men and kids (with colour in books, storybooks, toys and boardgames about bible stories etc.). They had a big artwork section with paintings and pictures, and those wooden 'love at home' type plaques. They even had a giant section for bibles, with nice leather or fabric bible cases (didn't realize other churches had those!). There was a little children's playground, and a cafe up the back, and as I walked around browsing through the different sections, I felt happy.

It reminded me of Utah, and being surrounded by people who feel like I do. I looked around at all the people in store (I was surprised really, at how many people were there), and felt excited to think that there are this many Christians in my neighbourhood! As Australians we're not known for our religious fervor and I don't have any non-mormon friends who go to any church at all, so it was exciting to me to think there was more of us Christians around than I'd realized.

As I was wandering, all warm and fuzzy, through the store, I noticed that their books were a little different, and written mostly by men and women who I recognize as television evangelists, but I figured there was probably a lot of good stuff in the store. I was keeping an eye out for any mormon-type literature, because it looked like it would fit nicely in the store,but I couldn't see any. I passed their 'world religion' section, and saw a book called 'World Religions 101', and I picked it up - curious to see if mormonism was listed...

Well, did I learn a few things! Turns out I'm not Christian after all - I'm actually a brainwashed and disillusioned cult worshiper. According to the chapter on mormons (which came first, and was apparently seen by the author as the most dangerous of them all), I believe that Christ was just a man, and not divine at all. Apparently I think that God is flawed and finite, and that - well, I think I'll just stop there. It went on and on, and I really should have just stopped reading - but i was too shocked and stunned at first. Some fellow named 'Dr. Hazam' wrote little boxed in commentaries on the 'facts' as they were revealed, sounding a warning voice to all so they couldn't be led astray by our terrible falsehoods, and I confess that I was ready to punch Dr. Hazam in the nose after about 5 minutes - especially since he claimed to be giving an 'unbiased presentation of the facts so that all could decide on the truth for themselves'. The thing was, it wasn't even based on facts.

The book really upset me. Not because it made me doubt my faith at all, but just because they were such lies! I felt like my eyes were suddenly opened, and found myself looking at the store through new eyes. I'm not saying that there wasn't some good found in the store, or that people can't feel uplifted or learn good things there, but isn't that how Satan often works? He's the master of taking 'some' good, or 'some' truth, and then slyly mixing it all in with some terribly destructive ideas or teachings. He'd rather give people 'some good' if that's the best way to keep them from 'all of the good' they could have. Here was an entire store that apparently existed to help bring people to Christ, and yet here in the book, they made a mockery out of His church and it's restoration on the earth. They refused to accept doctrine and scriptures that Christ himself has re-established in this dispensation. Most of all, it just upset me because it was hiding a truth so wonderful it should be being shouted from the rooftops.

It also upset me because I hold my Saviour and his teachings really close to my heart - my testimony and my relationship with my Heavenly Father are really personal, and I was hurt to have it ridiculed and mocked. I realize that the battle was only between me and the illusive Dr. Hazam, and that it took place entirely in my head, but it was still hurtful.

I've thought a lot about that incident over the last few days, and I've realized just how important it is to respect and honor other people's faith. I thought about the experience Emily and Chris had when they went to a friends church several months ago, and had to leave when the minister started 'railing on the mormons'. I'm so glad that as Mormons we're taught from primary to respect everyone's right to worship according to the dictates of their own heart. Spiritual stirrings are so personal, and while I think it's wonderful to share with each other, and teach those who would like to learn, I'd never belittle someone's personal and sincere feelings.

Anyway, I was just thinking about that. It's wonderful to live in a country and in a society where I have true religious freedom, and I feel a little more grateful for that freedom this weekend.

xo Tammy

*sigh*

It's 10 minutes past nine in the evening, and I'm still at work. It's been a very long week, and it's only Wednesday. One of the editors and I have been cutting a 45 sec TVC that's come in at the last minute and is on air Friday (that's only 2 sleeps people). I've come back to my desk and left him to do the 30 sec cut-down version so I can then send them on to the client for approval. I have a mountain of emails to answer and scripts to write and budgets to update and invoices to process and quotes to write and shoots to schedule and to be honest, I just don't feel like doing any of it at the moment.

Today was really hectic. One of our editors were sick, and I had both editors completely booked out doing things that had to be done by today, so it all fell to poor Shannon to do two lots of work in one day. I spent 4 hours in meetings with new clients (meetings went well - we won their work - I don't have time to do it), directed 2 voice over recording sessions, spent 2 hours with a couple of the graphics guys doing pre-prod for an upcoming job, wrote a script, scheduled a shoot (since my assistant was out today) and was constantly on the phone, writing and replying to emails. I haven't done a single thing that I had on my list of 'absolutely must get done before you leave todays'. I'm also hungry, because I didn't have time for lunch or dinner, and haven't stopped until now - when I got online to whinge :)

I'm listening to the country station online as I type. I like country. But it seems awfully melancholy sometimes, doesn't it? Such sad songs a lot of them. Maybe it's just my mood that's making them seem melancholy. Or maybe it's just the kind of country that stations play at 5am (which is the current time from where the station is broadcasting).

Yep. Definitely feeling melancholy. If my life had a soundtrack, I think we'd be featuring the string section at the moment...

haha! I'm such a whiner :)

Anyway, that was my whinge. I've got to get back to work now :)

Love to all!
xo Tammy