Christmas Toy Sale

Well the time has arrived, today the Christmas toy sale catalogue arrived from Big W this is the big toy sale of the year with no deposit layby and pick up as late as Christmas Eve so it is a good layby to have. I am a big fan of layby always have been although my daughter Jessica says she can’t see the point she would just rather save the money then go and buy all the toys at once I would rather layby and pay it off if by some chance I layby something that by the end of the year I no longer thing the child I bought it for would still like the toy I can take that toy back and get a refund and get them something different.

Kelli is like me she loves layby and like me she feels that if she picks something that is no longer appropriate by the end of the year she just returns it and gets something different.

When I was younger and had three young daughters to buy for and little money I relied of layby to get stuff and to be able to spoil my girls at Christmas time, I have always been a giver just like my mum, I have found memories of my parents spoiling us as children at Christmas time. I now love to spoil not only my daughters but also my grandchildren and other members of my family.

So how do you get your Christmas presents do you go and buy outright or do you use layby, do your prefer to pay cash or do you get presents on credit cards. I have never used a credit card to get presents I do not like the idea of spending a year or more paying off a credit card which is why I prefer to use layby.

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Smoking

Hello everyone, it is Wednesday here in my part of the world and for the second week I have Summer for the day while Kathy is at work, at the moment I have both Summer and Daemon, Kelli & Jess left Daemon here so Summer would have someone to play with and guess what Summer fell asleep within minutes of them leaving, she is now asleep on the floor near me and Daemon is busy watching telly.

So today I have another question for you, have you ever smoked or do you smoke now?

I am a non-smoker and will usually say I have never smoked but that isn’t the whole truth when I was a teenager I gave it a try but never really took to it, when I meet Tim I was still smoking at times when we went out but that only lasted a couple of weeks and I stopped completely and have never had any interest in doing it again.

I have three daughters and only one of them is a smoker, of course that would be Natasha my wild child although she did stop when she was pregnant with Blain but took it up again not long after he was born. You would think if one hadn’t smoked for 8 months they would not want to take it up again but not the case. My sister in-law also stopped smoking when she was pregnant but took it up again after she had my niece and my sister Sandra smoked during her pregnancy with Denni but not when she had Temika if I remember rightly.

Tim is a smoker but he has not smoked in this house ever, although I think when we lived at Gateshead he might have smoked in the flat, I don’t really remember it was so long ago. We have lived her for 26 yrs and I know he hasn’t smoked in this house, ok hang on that is not completely true he has and still does smoke in the bathroom with the exhaust fan on when it is raining outside.

Now I have to say I am not one of those people who have a problem with smokers, it doesn’t bother me and I have been known to go outside and talk to those who are out there smoking.

I know some people worry about second hand smoke or what was that phrase that was bantered about years ago………….passive smoking that’s it. Yes I know breathing in other peoples smoke may not be good for me but there are many things that are not good for us and if we worry or stress over all of them we will have a sucky life.

It is illegal to smoke in a car with a child under the age of 16 here in New South Wales in Victoria it is under 18, I am not sure how I feel about that I guess it is good but hell 18 some 18yr olds are smokers anyway.

 

Dear Dave

I guess it is time for another letter, so who to write to this time well since I have done my parents, sisters and daughters so I guess it is time for my brother David so here is goes

Dear Dave

You are my baby brother, but you tower over me not as much as you do Jeannie but still you do, you are mum’s favourite and everyone knows it and no none of us have a problem with that it is just the way it is and it has been like that since you were born.

You have always been a mummy’s boy and not ashamed to say it, as a child you were the most annoying child and would talk to me like I was trash at times and I often would think if you spoke to any other adult the way you spoke to me you would get into trouble but because I was your sister you got away with it.

Even now you seem to think because you are Dave you can get away with bloody murder but we love you and you are our baby brother so we just accept that it is like that.

I know you are there for me whenever I need you, not that I have needed you to have my back, I have Tim and he is always there for me more or less.

You have this cheeky grin that makes you adorable and forgivable, I knew when you were little you would be a heart breaker and I reckon you have managed to break a few hearts in your time.

I never thought you would be the awesome dad your are, I remember when Dawson was born I wondered how you would take to being a dad but you took to it like a duck to water and was an amazing dad, you still are which is why I think Liarna is a daddy’s girl. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised since you had a bloody marvellous teacher when it comes to how to be a dad……………

When you married Leigh you looked so bloody handsome and I was proud to be your sister, I still am proud to be your sister because you are a wonderful, loving and caring man. Like dad you are the type of man all men should strive to be, maybe that is one of the reasons we are not jealous of you being mums favourite.

You have this aura that radiates from deep inside that draws people to you, I love you bro or as Sandy would call you “bud” that is her name for you and it suits you.

Dear Sue

Ok how slack am I when it comes to posting for some reason I am pretty slack but let’s all move on past that and onto another letter this one will be going out to my second sister Sue.

Dear Sue

Well you and I have not always been close, for many years I envied you and you despised me thankfully those days are gone and we are now pretty close. Why did I envy you, well you had something I always wanted, twins, of course I had no idea how much work it was to raise twins but that wasn’t the point I wanted to have twins and I didn’t you did.

I didn’t really like that you lived so far away either and I know you will say it isn’t that far but let’s be honest here sis it was, when you consider we all pretty much live within 20 minutes of each other you being what 40-50 minutes away was far away. It was because of the distance that we didn’t see you much and you rarely came to family functions, I don’t know why that was maybe you didn’t have the fuel or the time or maybe there was some other reason but it’s all water under the bridge now.

When you moved back to Newie and started living within the 20 minute range we started to see you more and you and I developed some kind of relationship. I think you realised how much I understood how difficult it could be raising somewhat hard to handle children, we may love our children but there is no escaping the fact that they could be difficult to handle at times. I also know what it is like to have a child you just clash with no matter how hard you try not to, you just rub each other the wrong way and sparks fly.

Now sis what does annoy me a lot is that you often think you are the black sheep of the family and that being so is in some way a bad thing, this makes me want to “Gibbs slap” you because even if you were the black sheep of the family that would not be a bad thing, it would only mean you are an individual but sis I don’t think you are.

Sometimes I think you are your own worst enemy by that I mean you get your life running smoothly and you do things to derail yourself, like now you have a car but for some bloody reason you have times when you talk about giving the car back and not having it because you think it keeps you tied to Garry. The only thing that keeps you tied to Garry is you; you are the one who chooses to have an on/off relationship with him.

I have worried about you more than you know, you have had to battle addictions in your life and that caused me a lot of worry but I never let one I couldn’t see the point and I had no advice to give so I said nothing and pretended I didn’t know that was wrong on my part. I have seen you pick one loser after another when it came to men and that upset me but it is your life so I said nothing.

Sometimes sis I think you are afraid to be alone, now I will not pretend to know what that is like since I have been with Tim for 30yrs and have no idea what it is like to be alone. That said I think you do not have a high opinion of yourself which is why you have a bad track record with men. You need to love who you are in order to choose the right partner for yourself and I don’t thank you do that, you choose men who make you feel good some of the time and rotten at other times. One thing I can say about Tim is that he has never made me feel like deserve to be treated badly or rotten in any way. Ok I can say a lot more about him but this letter isn’t about Tim it is about you.

Growing up we had a love/not love relationship notice I didn’t say hate well that is because I have never hated you I have not always loved how you acted but I have never hated you ever. Sometimes sis I have felt that you thought I had some kind of perfect life but I guess that is normal because I thought you had some kind of great life better than mine at times.

I love you sis and I want to see you happy, you are so blessed you have 4 wonderful children (I wanted more than 3 children) so another thing I am jealous of you have 5 beautiful grandchildren another thing I am jealous of (I want more than 4 grandchildren) siblings who not only love you but like you, the best parents ever, trust me I know this…………. they rock.

I have told you before and I will tell you again, you are one of the strongest most amazing women I know, you are a survivor, but you need to stop just surviving and start living your life and doing things that make you truly happy, if you are already doing so than that is great because you are an amazing woman who deserves the best in life.