On One Knee

I got an email out of the blue today from a friend telling me that he is thinking about proposing to his girlfriend. I called him and got all the goss but while we were talking I couldn't help but ask 'why?'.

His answer was simple and beautiful

"Because I want to spend the rest of my life with her, I want her to know it, actually I want everyone to know it!"

I am one of very few couples I know that have chosen not to marry. It constantly surprises me that so many of my friends have chosen to engage (excuse the pun) in such a conventional act.

Maybe it's easy for me to live happily in a defacto relationship? I have watched my dad and stepmother live happily unmarried for 25 years. For me there has never been a question of Andrew and I marrying except while we were living in singapore and then it was only so I could stay in the country.

When I think about marriage two things strike me:

1. I love the idea of a wedding. There is something gorgeous about the idea of a massive party that celebrates your union. I love the idea of a wedding ring as well, the idea that it tells anyone who looks that you are bonded to another person is lovely. And I love the idea of the day of preening. Fussing with hair and makeup and a gorgeous dress.

2. I feel married. Sure in the face of god we aren't but I think that in every other way we are the same as all married couples. We are devoted to one another. We want to live our lives together and yes we even want the world to know it as well. I guess we figure the house and two kids say that as loudly as any ceremony or ring could.

I have a lot of friends that I think of as 'unconventional' but even my most feral friends still donned white (or something close to it) and walked down the eisle (or path on the lawn) said their vows, put rings on each other finger and were pronounced man and wife.

Marriage it seems is still by far the norm.

When I ask why? There are a lot of answers but the most comon is the same 'we wanted to tell the world and declare it to each other'.

Trust me I get it. And maybe if we had decided to marry early on in our relationship I would be saying the same thing. But in the perfect words of my step mother whenever my Dad asks her to marry him (its an inside joke)
'If its not broken, why fix it?'

So In celebration of my friend working up the nerve to ask a woman to spend the rest of his life with him, I have attached a few YouTube videos.

The first is a truly great video proposal

The next is a video I think I have attached before and I think it really captures what you should be feeling when you walk down the eisle.

The last is exactly what I think a couples first dance should be like.

In a perfect world, proposing/getting married should be about celebrating love/each other and the best way to celebrate is by dancing.

Cerebral Shutdown

Well it's official !!! I have every reason to have been feeling and acting sick for the last few weeks. The doctor tells me I have not one but two superbugs ... yay (I'm being sarcastic).

So things are still quiet on the blog front. Mainly because I just have no energy but also because my brain seems to be shutting down. Just yesterday I started to write about the sounds I can hear from my house ... ok when I write it like that it sounds boring but trust me it was going to be a corker *grin*

Anyway yesterday I was writing about all the awesome noises (trust me) that wafted over my fence ... and after 30 minutes I had

* plane
* birds
* kids
* music

Not exactly what I was going for.

So as much as I want to blog, and I have ideas, it seems that my brain can't translate these into anything interesting ... Actually maybe I should have thought about that before I wrote this post as well.

Apologies and Excuses

Its school holidays and so it has been quiet on my blog of late. The whole holiday period has been gorgeous. There have been ups and downs as there always is when families spend this much time together but mostly it has been lovely to have so much free time with both boys.

Our kids have spent the majority of their holidays playing in the square. Almost every day my kids, the kids nextdoor, the kids up the road and the kids across the road have been out catching bugs, riding scooters/skateboards/bikes, catching lizards, playing cops and robbers, making cubby houses, playing hide and seek, and tips from 9am till the sun goes down. Sound idyllic doesn't it?

For the most part it has been. But having 7 kids (6 boys) running free for those sort of hours has not been without casualties. We have has 4 split lips, a broken arm, 20+ skinned knees or elbows, 50+ bruises, multiple clunked heads and 100's of other cuts and scratches. Luckily spread out between 4 houses none of us parents have copped to much. Except for our neighbour and her boys broken arm.

It has also allowed us parents to spend time, cleaning, working, relaxing, chatting and generally keeping life moving forward.

I have spent most of that free time finalising the teaching plan for my 6 hour prenatal class and then spending all of Friday teaching it. So that leaves the last few bits of my course. After months of procrastination it feels pretty amazing to be this close to finishing. Its also slightly terrifying because now I really have to get my head around what I'm going to do with this qualification (if anyone know of a CBE position that's available let me know *grin*)

So thats it. Tuesday school goes back, so I should have more time to blog and get back into the swing of the school routine. Jack is already excitedly talking about his return and although a big part of me is sad that the holidays are over already, a small part of me is ready for him to go back as well. Now thats something I bet you never thought you'd hear me say.

Todays Haul (5)

There are six second hand shops that I regularly peruse. Three are on the same strip, two are on the way from one to another, and one is near nothing but worth the 5-10 minute drive cause its big.

This week I have popped into all of them. Five on my rounds of doing other things and the big one today as an activity to get me and the kids out of the house before we killed each other. Yesterday started very well (a slightly broken but still working Scooter for $4) and then I saw nothing else at all. Today was one of those days where I saw more (and bought more) than I really needed but still feel quiet satisfied that my browsing was worth the trouble. So this weeks haul was:

• 1 Purple and Yellow flower pure wool rug, 1 x 1.5 meters
• 4 Books

(for Treen)

- Diana Wynn Jones - Fire and Hemplock

- Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked this way Comes

- Eric Idle - The Road to Mars

- Philip K Dick - The Penultimate Truth

• 1 broken purple shiny beaded curtain (Hamish pick) that made its way into the tree house
• 1 hand drawn picture of a rainbow buddha
• 1 razor scooter, a little broken but still in good working order for Hamish
• 1 small handful or miscellaneous toys (Jacks pick) to share with his brother
• 1 blue with red paisley pattern raincoat
• 1 red cardigan (for me)
• 1 white lacy top (for me but I don't know what I was thinking, maybe if I dye it?)

The Rug

The Beaded Curtain (in the tree house)

The Rainbow Buddha

The Books (for Treen *grin*)

iPod Drive Tunes (2)

So before I write this I am wondering if maybe its boring to others to read about the music that accompanied me when I drive? Its just that so often when I'm driving a song comes on and I think gosh this is so great/sad/bad/funny I wish I could share it. I add the links so that you can give it a listen and hope that you also think this is so great/sad/bad/funny I'm glad I heard that today. So if it's boring tell me and I'll ... well I'll probably still write it but at least I'm not thinking that everyone else is loving it *grin*

Saturday I drove up to see Dad on my own. It was a great drive. It reminded me of driving up the coast to see dad before I had kids. Music blaring, not noticing how long the drive is because there are no kids yelling in the background.

The hour drive meant I listened to a lot of music ... loudly !!! Here are a few that caught my ears:

Barry Louis Polisar - All I want is you. This is one of the things that I love about soundtracks. You come across songs that you would never hear elsewhere. I have visions of singing this song at a wedding. For someone who doesn't want to get married I often hear songs that I think would go great at my wedding, or someone else's. To be fair I often hear songs that I think I'd like to play at my funeral as well. There's a blog post (or 2) in that somewhere.

Brooklyn Funk Essentials - Istanbul Twilight. I love this album, its a mixture of global sounds and hip hop beats. Istanbul just happened to be the track that graced my drive but I don't think its my favourite ... actually I don't know what my favourite is.

Prodigy - Voodoo People. This is also a soundtrack favourite. Its from the Hackers soundtrack. If you haven't seen it you should but you'll need to be in the mood for a crazy young 90's flick. It's one of my top 10 (maybe 20) movies of all time. The song really needs to be played loud. My one criticism is that its a bit to long for such a repetitive tune. But really it does get into your blood if you play it loud.

Seth Sentry - The Waitress. I don't know if I actually like this song, but I like the lyrics "the relationship is built on breakfast, I'm waiting on her just to wait on me". Its from Triple J Hottest 100. Which has really become my best link to new popular music ever since I have let myself get sooo out of the loop.

Conversations with a 5 year old (Easter Bunny?)

This morning I snuck out to place easter eggs around the backyard like loads of other parents. Hiding the little gold bunnies and a few hollow eggs that I had brought lovingly all around the yard.

Andrew then gathered the boys together and reminded them that maybe the easter bunny had come overnight. And with a cheer both boys ran out into the rain to find their eggs. They took their time in spite of the rain and shared their cache to make sure it was even and then at last they both found their little gold bunnies with a red ribbon and gold bell around their necks.

They had grins from ear to ear and for a moment it was lovely. Then ...

Jack: Look mummy!! (Pointing at the bar code on the bottom of the bunny)
AB: (quietly to me) did you forget to take the sticker off?
Me: (quietly back) you can't take the sticker off its what holds the whole bunny wrapper together
Jack: what's that doing on there? .... Mummy is the easter bunny really real?
Hamish: (eagerly holding out his eggs as proof) yep Jack he is real!
Me: (after a pause) yes of course he is babe, I don't know why the sticker is on there
Jack: Really? (Looking at me suspiciously)
Me: don't question it babe, just eat your chocolate

Somehow I don't think I'm cut out for this mummy thing. I can't decide what felt worse? lying to him or knowing that he didn't buy my lie and that he no longer believes in the easter bunny?

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!

Easter Hat Parade

Here are todays photos. Jack with his orange (of course) easter hat getting ready to walk around to loads of cheering and applause (from me). And Hamishs self portrait taken while he waited for mummy and daddy to finish in the slowest place on earth aka centerlink.

iPod Tunes for the Day

Yesterday as I drove out to Camden I got stuck in the tunnel in traffic. At first I was feeling cranky about the fact that the traffic was making my drive take a lot longer than normal but then I noticed the tunes that were playing and I decided that maybe it was nice for the day to slow down a bit so I could use the time to enjoy the music my iPod decided to show me.

A few got a laugh, a few I just loved and of course a few I skipped cause they just weren't what I was in the mood for. I decided to share a few of the stand outs:

The Temper Trap - Love Lost I really love something about this song. I find myself turning the volume up every time I hear it.

Flight of the Conchords - Carol Brown Who wouldn't get a giggle from the lyrics " Hmm who organised all my ex-girlfriends into a choir, and got them to sing? Shut up, girlfriends from the past."

Kate Miller Heidke - Caught in the Crowd I wasn't ever bullied at school, but something about this song really brings a tear to my eye.

Lou Reed - Wild Side Really there isn't a day that goes by that can't comfortably handle a bit of Lou Reed. And this is the one that my iPod decided to give me.

Florence and the Machine - Dog Days I'm loving Florence and the Machine at the moment and this track is the one that seems to really get into my brain.

Ooh and I forgot Johnny Cash - Hurt Its a very heavy song but its amazing.

Im sure there were more, I was on the road for ages. But these were the ones that corresponded to me being stationary so I could note them down.

What's your iPod giving you at the moment?