Fun Monday and the book swap

Lisa is hosting this weeks Fun Monday and this is what she says:

I’d like to know more about you, what makes you tick. I’d like to know how you started blogging. Did you keep a diary under lock and key safely hidden as a child? Do you still? Do you share the same things on your blog that you would have, or do, in your diary? Why did you start blogging and why do you continue? May as well throw in any roadblocks you have run into while blogging. If you still have your old diaries we’d love to see them.

My old diaries and the corny poetry I wrote in junior high were all thrown away the day I moved out with my boyfriend when I was 19. I didn't need him reading that stuff. I should have known right then and there that we would never work out. If you can't trust your partner with your innermost secret thoughts from when you were 12 and 13 then you have a serious problem.

I started keeping a diary when I was about 9. I remember that diary well, it was one of those ones with a page for a day. It was fairly thick, but quite tiny. It had one of those locks that don't really lock. It was one of the gifts in my stocking. Here is quite possibly what it may have said (true story here!):

"Dear Diary,
Today in the line up when recess was over, Tony pulled my pants down. Everyone laughed because I was wearing underwear with 3 elephants on them. I went into the bathroom and cried"

God damn Tony Es.pirito. I've never gotten over that. Oh, and he used to call me stink bomb. God, he was mean to me.

I was not a faithful diarist, but I did always have a diary off and on until I was 21 and then, for reasons not to be mentioned, that final diary was thrown away. I meant to keep a journal when I went to Ireland in 2001, but I wrote in it exactly once. Before I left. I do still have a diary, two actually, tucked away in my pajama drawer. I started reading about blogs and in 2005 my first blog was born. It has exactly one entry and then I couldn't log onto it again and this blog was started. And here we are 2 years later. Today, this is my journal, it has been Saoirse and Sophie's baby record books and has even been a photo album, since I haven't printed a picture in ages.

Last week I wrote a post over at My 4 Kids saying what blogging has meant to me and being the lazy arse I am I will copy it here, with apologies to those of you who read it last week.

I started blogging just over 2 years ago. I was going to blog about motherhood, but my blog turned into my very own cheap brand of therapy, with a whole lot of fantastic people playing psychiatrists or just offering me a "Hey, I've been there and you will get through this." My house may be a little messier, but my sanity? That girl is intact. Mostly.

I have said before that I like my blogger friends better than the majority of my daily life friends. You are the people I tell about the troubles with my oldest daughter, who at 12 drives me absolutely mad. It is you that I sometimes tell about the fights with my partner. While I write for myself, I also write with the hope that someone will read my blog and know how I am feeling, or be sympathetic to what's been going on. Every once in a while a good kick in the ass works wonders too.

Once upon a time, I read a blog post that discussed whether or not bloggers could be considered friends. At the time, I thought "Maybe." Now, I think "Definitely!" No, I may not know most of you in person (although I was lucky enough to meet a blogger last week) and I may never have the opportunity to meet you (unless I win the lottery- then you're all invited to my new house for my very own mini blogher) but you are most definitely my friends. Surely a stranger would not send your daughter a gift for her birthday? A stranger would not send you an email telling you things she is not ready to put into her own blog. A stranger may tell you what you want to hear, but it is your friends who tell you what you need to hear.

So I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful ladies (and a few fellas!) that I have met on this journey. I really do adore you all.

What I had meant to mention in that post was that the girl who asked whether or not bloggers could be considered friends said no, that they weren't. When she turned off her computer she didn't give another thought to the bloggers she had just read. I am the opposite. I wonder about how things are going with you, there are tons of you that I would love to ring up and have a chat with, I talk about you about other people. I wish you were all on facebook (hint, hint.) There have been a few bloggers that have clsed their blogs and I quite often wonder what happened to them and how they are.

Hmmm...not so sure I actually answered that Fun Monday question.

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Remember you have until Wednesday to sign up for the book swap! There are currently 20 people, though I am still waiting for addresses from 3 of you. For those of you who didn't read the other post, you simply have to send a book you have read and enjoyed or a book by a local author to the blogger you get. Or you can send a book to their child(ren) or both. Whatever catches your fancy. I did have the mail by date as Wednesday, September 5th but I think I am going to move it forwarda week as I completely forgot that we Canadians return to school on the Tuesday and I, for one, cannot think about more than one project! Those of you who have been reading me for anything longer than 2 weeks should know this to be very, very true!

Bailing on Fun Monday once again

I really don't like this working until 10.30 on Sunday night and going back at 7.30 Monday morning deal. It is so not working for my blog and I. Although if I manage to get them to pay me time and a half for it I won't mind so much.

So work is why I have not done Fun Monday. I meant to do it Sunday before work but we went to Wal-Mart in the morning and I cleaned in the afternoon. Yeah, that fairy is still in hiding. She must have a sneaking suspicion that the exhaustion from cleaning my house top to bottom might actually kill her. Technically it's still Monday but who's going to be looking for Fun Monday posts on a Tuesday? People move on. Unless they are reading Chick's 12 days of how she and Jason ended up together in which case you are dying to go back to her blog in the hope of an update. If you aren't reading it, go. Go now. I will wait.

See? Wasn't that worth clicking that link? Told ya.

I will do the questions that were sent last week, but quite possibly not until Wednesday. I have to do the grade 6 pages of the school yearbook, which is due right away and I have done NOTHING. Plus I have to work tomorrow and Wednesday. Seriously, I don't know how you people do it.

I'm going to leave you with a conversation Saoirse and I had.

Background: We are working on potty training. I haven't been overly fussy about it, I really don't want her trained until after we get back from BC because I don't fancy potty breaks every hour during the car ride. She often chooses to wear panties during the day and if she wants she can hold that pee for hours. (Of course, I assume she wouldn't if we were actually in the car.) But when she needs to go it's wherever she is.

Me (noting that Saoirse has not peed all afternoon): "Saoirse, do you need to use the toilet?"
Saoirse: "No, thank you." (She is nothing if not polite.)
M: "Would you like to put on a nappy?"
S: "No, no thank you."
Saoirse walks off the rug and onto the carpet.
S: "I go pee on the carpet."
M: "NO!!!!!!!" I run over and pick her up by the arm (I'm nothing if not gentle) and run through the livingroom, into the entryway and to the bathroom. I sit her on the toilet.
M: "We don't pee on the floor, Saoirse. We pee on the toilet. Okay?"
S: "Okay."
M: "Where do we pee?"
S: "On the carpet."