The Christmas Grinch

A certain little someone left me a present under the tree this morning. Considering the fact that it was a big nasty poop, I wasn't really that thrilled.

Such a blatant disregard for Christmas deserved a very special punishment. So I dressed him up in his Christmas outfit and let him know that the photos would most definitely be posted on the internet. I bet he thinks twice about pooping under my tree next year!

(Please ignore the concrete floors, we still don't have tiles down in our new home........)






Happy Holidays!

xx Tamsyn

The First Time

Lightening (one of my fav bloggers) answered these questions earlier today and then sent out and open invitation for other bloggers to do the same. Seeing as I love filling out questionnaires I thought that I would give it a go!

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?

It wasn't a prom because I live in Australia, but when I was in year eleven I went to my boyfriends year twelve formal. My mum made me my dress and it was a gorgeous blue Chinese style gown (I still have it in my wardrobe, but I don't think I will ever fit into it again!).

2. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?

Midori. I didn't realise that you were supposed to mix it with soft drink..... needless to say I ended up very drunk and vomited all through my (then) best friend's room. Which caused her Mum to harbor very ill thought towards me for a very long time :(

3. What was your FIRST job?

My first paying job was a paper run when I was 12. On my first day I got up at 4am in the morning and rolled up all of my newspapers and then stacked them all up on my bike, got on my bike and promptly fell off. My Dad tried to help me out with better ways to stack them, but we couldn't get it to work. So we loaded all of the rolled papers into his car and he drove along whilst I threw them out of the window. We continued to do this together every Wednesday and Friday morning for the next two years. God bless my Dad!

4. What was your FIRST car?

An early 1980s Holden Camira, it was a really daggy car. But I bought it for myself and I absolutely loved it! I was so proud to be independent :)

5. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?

My friend Jacqui texted me at 8.05 this morning, but because I had (still have) a hangover I didn't get the message until I turned my phone on at 11.

6. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?

Does The Pooper count as a person? He woke me up with cute puppy kisses around 10.30. I gave him extra breakfast to say thanks for letting me sleep in!

7. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?

I can't for the life of me remember, but I do have happy memories from my first year of school, so she must have been pretty good. Maybe my Mum will remember what her name was......

8. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?

My first ever plane ride was when I was seven years old and my Mum, Dad and little sister all flew to Australia on our way to Papua New Guinea.

9. Who was your FIRST best friend, and are you still friends with him / her?

A girl called Christina Jury. We lived down the street from each other in Hamilton, NZ. We stayed in contact after I left New Zealand, but I lost touch with her sometime in my teens.

10. Who was your FIRST kiss?

My first kiss was with a boy called Troy and it was really gross. Thankfully my husband is a much better kisser!

11. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?

The Big Man.

12. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?

I went and found The Big Man and gave him a big hug.

13. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?

It was a Silverchair concert. They actually came to Hervey Bay, so it was a really big deal. I had a ball :)

14. What was your FIRST tattoo or piercing?

I had my ears pierced when I was eight and three quarters. It was the most painful thing I had ever experienced. When I turned 21 I had my belly button pierced and it was the second most painful thing I have ever felt. NB. I still wear earrings, but have definitely grown out of the belly button stage.

15. What was the FIRST foreign country you went to?

Australia.

16. What was the FIRST movie you saw in the theater?

It was Space Balls and an older girl that was a family friend took me. I felt so grown up to be at the movies without any adults. But I don't think I really understood the movie though.

17. When was your FIRST detention?

I don't actually recall specifically when I had my first detention but it was probably in year nine and ten. It definitely would have been given to me by Mr Wu, that man had some sort of crazy vendetta against me.....

18. What was the FIRST state you lived in?

Queensland. I love the Sunshine State!

19. Who was the FIRST person to really break your heart?

A guy called Darren. He was my first boyfriend after high school and he was 10 years older than me. I don't know what I saw in him, he was an absolute loser and was fresh out of jail when I met him. Our ideas of what love involved were very different and he was the first (and unfortunately not the last) man to hit me.

20. With whom was your FIRST date?

It was with my first true boyfriend. A guy named Robert who was also my first love. He didn't have his licence yet so his Mum drove us to the movies :)

21. What was your FIRST pet?

Mum and Dad had a huge cat called Leppy Puss and he was there from the time I was born until we moved to Papua New Guinea. He was a huge cat, he was bigger than me until I got to about 10 months old.

22. Who was your FIRST roommate?

My first roommate was the a fore mentioned evil boyfriend.

23. Who was your FIRST love?

Robert. We dated for about a year whilst I was in high school and even talked about getting married one day. I'm pretty sure he ended up married to the next girl he went out with after me :)

24. What was your FIRST screen name?

Mixie. I still use it from time to time, it's also one of the Big Man's pet names for me. Awwwwww

25. When did you have your FIRST baby?

Does the Pooper count? No? Ok then, no children and not yet pregnant..... But definitely trying!

That was fun!! Don't forget to check out Lightening's answers and if you fill it out for yourself leave me a comment so that I can see what you wrote :)

xx Tamsyn

Our Family Home

The Big Man, The Pooper and I finally have our home to ourselves. It still feels special :) We wake up in the mornings, as a married couple, in our own home, on our own. I'm loving it!

It's not that I didn't love having my BFF stay with us, or that I didn't like having a steady stream of pre and post wedding visitors. But it does feel great to be married and living on our own. Kind of makes me feel like a grown up!

It's more about the fact that where we were living was such a horrible place for me. We went back to the shop/house a couple of afternoons ago to do a walk through with the landlord and hand over our keys and it was at that point that I realised how much negativity I associated with living there. It was just one of those places that slowly, but surely sucks the joy out of your life.

The negativity started on the first Sunday after we leased the place. I was there on my own whilst the Big Man was out and about (at the hardware store I think). There was a knock at the door and I assumed it was one of the neighbours coming to say hi. The man at the door was visibly angry and demanded to see 'the old bloke'. I (naively thinking that he would leave once I explained that he was mistaken) told him that we had just moved in and that my fiance was only young and not the man he was after. The guy got really angry and called my a 'lying b***h'. At that point I started to feel nervous. I explained again that the man he was after must have moved because we were the only people living there now. It was then that the man yelled 'I know that he is here you lying b***h, tell him to come out here and see me, or I will come in there and I will get you. Stop lying to me or I will kill you.' That got me moving..... I slammed the door in his face, sprinted to the back door and locked it and then broke down on the floor bawling my eyes out. I have seen irrational and angry people before and I have felt scared before, but that was a lifetime ago and I was completely caught off guard. I called The Big Man and tried to explain to him what was going on, it took a while because I was hysterical and he thought that I must have cut myself with his new circular saw (that he had banned me from using). When I finally explained to him what was going on he told me to hang on and then hung up the phone. I figured that he was driving straight over, but he called me back in 5 minutes to tell me that he had called emergency and that the police where on their way. Hearing that actually calmed me down and I had the presence of mind to sneak up to the window and write down his car registration and a description of him in case he did a runner.

When the police arrived they did so in a spectacular fashion, three cars pulled up with their sirens blarring and they pulled into the yard blocking the guys car in. Whilst two of the officers quickly worked out the guy didn't have a gun or knife another one came to the door to talk to me. Which set me off again, I couldn't stop crying and it took ages for me to get my story out. About ten minutes later The Big Man arrived and sat with me whilst I talked to the police officer.

The guy out the front was charged with something, I'm not sure what and eventually all of the police left.

A couple of hours later the guilt kicked in for me. I figured that the guy was probably all talk and that I had over-reacted, but I still think that I would take the same course of action if something like that happened again. I also felt bad because he didn't seem very switched on, it turned out the had his girlfriend and kid in the car (which was unregistered) and didn't even realise that if he sat in the yard long enough that the police would catch him.

The policeman came back several months later to go over my statement for the guy's court hearing and he filled me in about the tenant before us. Alan Smith was his name and he had ripped a lot of people off (including the angry guy at the door) before doing a disappearing act. So now I feel angry, frightened and sorry whenever I think about what happened.

The Big Man and I stuck it out at the house anyway because we didn't think it would be long before our house was finished. But our home was delayed so many times and we ended up living there for a year. I hated answering the door though, which was tough considering we were running a business from there and I flat out refused to answer the door after dark.

Now that we are into our beautiful new home I really feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. We have a safe neighbourhood, great neighbours and nothing to fear. Home sweet home.

Sorry if that was all a little bit dark, but I felt the need to get it off my chest. Regular, light hearted content will resume tomorrow!

Tamsyn xx