For Tess...

Your ATC's made me remember MY Strawberry Shortcake doll...and here she is! I don't have her hat any more, and her hair doesn't smell any more, but she still has her shoes and stripy tights! Not a great picture as my flash needs charging and I had to take the picture in the bathroom by the sink lol....but here she is :) She must be about 28 or so years old I guess......

Random questions........

What is one thing you said you would never do...but did?

I held a tarantula!! I am an arachnophobe!! I am totally terrified of spiders! Luckily here in Alberta we don't get very big spiders - not the big hairy fast European house spider type they get back home - I think they get them in damp BC and other parts of Canada, but I have never seen anything that really scared me here in Alberta - you sometimes get dime sized things here - maybe even quarter sized spiders but I've never seen anything bigger in the house at least here. Thin legged daddy long legs type things is all.....but in England they have these HUGE hairy spiders that come in and out of the house in huge numbers every Spring and Fall. I remember in the Fall of 2000 I think we had had a really damp Summer and the spiders were HUGE and their numbers so immense they were just everywhere - it was like every morning I would open the curtains and spiders would run down them...I could never sue a shower with a curtain because the curtains would have spiders in them. It is only after years of being in canada and getting used to no house spiders that I can use shower curtains again.

I remember one night when my Ex was at work...there was a huge spider on the stairs. the phone was upstairs - as were my children! they were asleep! I was downstairs and couldn't get to the phone to call my husband to get him to come home form work to get rid of the spider for me! So I had to go on the computer and ICQ a total stranger and give him my husbands cell phone number at work and get him to call him and get him to come home from work to get rid of the spider!!! THAT is how scared of spiders I am!!!

I always said I would never be able to hold a tarantula, but when I had moved in with lloyd, we went to a butterfly and INsect centre, and they had a tarantula there and were letting people hold her. Lloyd held her and I was beside him and then I just put my hand out and held her too. She just didn't seem very spider-like! She was too furry and slow!! I think for me its their speed....all those legs and how fast they can move. I woke up one night and had a spider on my forehead...YUCK :( But also one day one ran across my kitchen floor and I screamed so loud that I actually saw the spider jump in fear and run off - now I don't know if they can hear or if it was reacting to the vibrations but it was obviously very afraid! that didn't help my fear - I HATE them still - even after holding the tarantula!

Tarantula's don't scare me. Lloyd would like to have one as a pet and I WOULD let him except I don't trust Lloyd - I don't trust him to not play tricks on me - I don't trust him to not put it on me when I'm not expecting it - and it would scare me and I would fling it or squash it or something and that isn't fair....on the spider or me. So no we can NOT get a tarantula for that reason - he ahs bought toy ones and scared me with them before so I know he would.

But yes, I HAVE held a tarantula :) I think her name was Rosie and she was at Insect World at the Dobbies garden Centre in Edinburgh :) They have Trinidadian Leaf Eating ants racing around on string carrying bits of leaf all around the building above your heads - very cool to watch!!



Where did you live as a child?

I grew up at 8 Font Lane, in the village of West Coker, near the town of Yeovil in the County of Somerset, which is in the South West of England. Children made a rhyme up that went 'Jane the pain from 8 Font Lane' hahahahaha! which sounds like I was bullied but I never was! Which is odd because I was always small for my age so you'd think I would be the perfect 'victim' for bullying! But I guess I always was that 'pain' ;)


The village where Lloyd and I grew up:
www.somerset3d.co.uk/logos%20&%20pictures/town%20&%20village%20pages/westcoker.htm

This is Yeovil, our nearest town and where my Sister Clare lives with Oliver, Danny and Isaac. Where my parents get their groceries and where I went to high school etc:
www.yeoviltown.com/photogallery.aspx

This is the church I attended as a child and is the church that was linked to my school:

www.achurchnearyou.com/west-coker-st-martin-of-tours/

Here is a picture of the church. We had to walk through the churchyard on our way to and from school every day There was a huge tree in front of the Church - I think its a Yew (???) that is traditionally planted in front of every church in England....and the one in front of our Church was hollow and we could stand inside of it! English churches are cold and drafty places:

www.geograph.org.uk/photo/897165

And this is the local pub/ bar in West Coker my friend Rebecca lived there when I was growing up so I went there to play a few times and it was right by my school:
www.pubsulike.co.uk/pubs/images/BA229ATTC-1.JPG



What pets did you have as a child?

How did you decorate your room as a child? As a teen?

What was your favourite thing in your childhood home?

Did you play sports as a child?

(I'll be back later to answer these)

My Monday...

I was going to meet a friend at Kidz Quarterz today to pass on my homeschooling magazines and some other homeschooling bits that I no longer need, but last night I was feeling so ill - swollen glands and a sore throat and ear ache and as Lloyd has not felt well for days I thought it best to let my friend know that we are full of germs - to give her the option to postpone! I always think its best to warn people - especially coming up to Christmas - I hate to make people sick by spreading germs without warning them! We ended up postponing KQ.

Anyway I have been taking some high dose garlic oil tablets and a C-Boost smoothie drink that brovides something like 2000% of your vitamin C needs and this morning I didn't feel too bad!! I decided that instead of going to KQ I would go to Dollarama with Sam and and take him to see the animals in Pet Smart as a treat instead! I was going to mention this little trip to Val because I know her views on germ sharing....ie we often go to breakfast together when our kids are off school sick....yes we are terrible Mothers who put our own socialising needs first!!! ;)

The funny thing is that I woke up to find a message from her asking if I'd be interested in heading to Dollarama with her and her youngest!! So we both had the same idea! So thats what we did! We did some shopping there, headed to the pet store to look at the fish, birds and animals - saw the cutest Harley davidson gear for their piggy - too funny! Had a quick stroll around Winners and then headed to McDonalds so the boys could play in the play place while we chatted some more!

It was a really nice day :)

I came home to find the workmen had filled in the window in my pantry - something I have wanted done since we moved in!!! Yay! And they have started putting on the lovely new white siding on the house at the back - it looks soooo much nicer than the horrid grey :) The house is going to look so lovely and pretty when its all white with the wraparound porch all done :)

Now I am tired and my throat is hurting again - why are colds etc so much worse in the evening - I was fine all day but its catching up with me now :( Time for another garlic capsule!