My Nan - The anniversary I wish I didnt have!

Well how do you put into words a year of grief, especially when it is the 1st anniversary of the death of someone that you loved so much.

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I didn't want to put a memorial advert in the paper because I find that tacky so this is my personal memorial to my nan - and hey she would have told me off for wasting money on the Advertiser, and she would have been amazed that she had made it into the world of cyber space!!!
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This is my nan taken about 6 weeks before her death, I always told everyone that for a lady of 82 years she lived independent and was so proud of herself for doing so. If it was not for the factor of the big 'C' I think she might have lived to 100 with all her senses!

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I am lucky to have so many wonderful memories of nan, school holidays and waking up with cinnamon toast then a trip to town for the movies - some times two! She would make me dinner every time I had a shift at the Entertainment Centre which was often followed by a game of 'Skipbo'. Nan was the queen of the Country shows that she attended, where she floated round the building as if she owned Nashville!
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I am grateful that I was able to always share a very special bond with nan, she looked after me and kept me sane - she was always there for a cup of tea if you needed one.

If anyone spoke to nan one of her proudest achievements was that she was able to say that she was a great grand mother to so many children. I am so happy to have been able to add to that tally and I can say that it makes me so happy that she adored Harrison so much.
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Harry when you are old enough to read this blog, you may not remember your great grandma, but know that she loved you so much and you gave her so much joy every time we bought you round to visit!

They say it gets easier to deal with the grief of loosing someone that you loved so dearly, but too be honest I don't want it to get easier. Yes I get sad, and have a cry, but then the grief helps me to remember the good times, the laughs, and every precious moment that we shared that I will always hold dear to my heart.

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I have sent through a donation to the Mary Potter Hospice on behalf of my family, which I will continue to do so every year for nan - The wonderful staff and volunteers at Mary Potter gave my nan the dignity to die as someone more than just an elderly cancer patient, but to go as "Joyce Anderson - Mother, Nana, Great Grandma and Friend"
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'Joyce Anderson'

Nan & Great Grandma

Rest in Peace

3/3/1924 - 30/1/2007

Aged 82 Years

A Mad Hatters Story

Now to tell the tale of wonderful lady who had the dilemma of sometimes wearing too many hats.

Well to start with the story of this woman is metaphorical, in the sense where it would be nice to say she owned lots of actual hats and enjoyed over accessorising, but the ‘hats’ in this story actually has a meaning of lots on the agenda!!

For the sense of the story we shall name this lovely lady “Laura”. (purely fictional name, and taken from the song “Laura” by the Scissor Sisters)

Laura’s first hat which is probably the largest hat on the hat rack, carries the responsibility of being the 'mum' hat – yes Laura deals with the trials and tribulations of two year old tantrums, of kissing away the pain from squished fingers, mending broken toys, giving cuddles to help forget sickness, the mediator between other children that dare to touch the sacred toys, interpreter to others as only the owner of the mum hat can understand 2 year old jargon.
When Laura decided to purchase the mum hat, being the bargain hunter that she is, she received a special deal of ‘buy one big hat, and you get a bag full of smaller hats for free’, some of these freebee hats included: Cook, Childcare Worker, Cleaner, First Aid Officer, Mediator, Swimming Instructor, Artist, Storybook Reader, Entertainer, Chauffeur, Toy Inspector, Interior Decorator, Clothing Designer and many more.

Laura’s other big hat on the rack is the 'Wife' hat, while not quite as challenging as the mum hat, owning this hat comes with many responsibilities, this is the Auditor, the Housekeeper, the friend, the decision maker, the Budgeter, the Cook, The Secretary, The worrier and many more too numerous to mention.

Further down the hat rack Laura has two work hats, one she wears to be paid to work at concerts and to show people to their seats, (by choice Laura would love to wear this hat on a more regular basis but unfortunately this hat does not pay the bills as well as her other work hat). The other work hat involves more complicated matters such as Auditing, Maths, computing and dealing with clients that would generally prefer not to hear from poor Laura at all. This work hat has both advantages and disadvantages, but on the plus side she gets to also wear her friend hat on a regular basis because the people she works with make the days worthwhile.

Next hat is the family member hat – while Laura loves to wear this hat, unfortunately sometimes this hat has a hidden agenda of mediator, referee, and problems solver, or could be summarised as the matador between two raging bulls. This hat can sometimes be a stressful one to wear, but one Laura loves to wear regardless.

The friend hat is a good one to wear, this hat allows Laura to go out and socialise, have fun, and helps brings Laura back to earth when all the other hats start weighing her down. Laura’s friend hat does give her some worry when other associates wearing their own friend hats are hurting or sad, but thankfully Laura’s hat also allows for a shoulder to cry when needed - Wearing the friend hat is a special privilege – one she wears with pride.

Recently Laura just purchased a new hat that she will also have to wear at the same time as all the other hats. This hat is titled the University Student. Laura has not worn this new hat yet, and frankly makes her a little terrified at what the future will bring and if she will be able to walk around balancing all the hats at once. It does however give Laura the confidence of wanting to achieve more for herself than what she had previously thought possible.

While the balancing act of wearing all these hats at the same time might be a struggle, Laura is the type of person who will work it through with lots of determination.

When all the other hats are off, Laura wears the ‘I am an individual hat’ this hat makes Laura the person that she is – and love her or hate her she is achieving everything that she has wanted to do with her self with very little regrets.

Maybe one day this lovely lady will stop wearing so many hats and slow down a little but that may make life a little boring.

The end

(well for now anyway)

This fictional story was written by one mad hatter who actually had a little spare time to be mildly creative.

A Christmas 2007 and New Year 2008 Summary!

Well it is a few days past New Years 2008 and Christmas 2007, but I thought I would do a bit of a wrap up on what we have been up to!

Christmas was great in that it was the first year that Harrison has really been excited about seeing Christmas lights and decorations, and was curious as to what 'Santa' was all about.

We spent Christmas Eve with Amanda, Tre and Mum and had a lovely Turkey salad for dinner. Amanda was working Christmas day which meant we would not be able to catch up - The joys of being a Nurse.

Christmas morning we were up at about 6:30am (unfortunately there is nothing unusual about that) and we all ventured into the lounge room to see what goodies Santa brought. Of course Harrison ripped into his presents as soon as he saw all the millions under the tree. I filmed him opening his pressies, and it honestly took about an hour to get through them all - he would open one then want to play with that before moving on to the next one.

His main present came from Santa being a huge sand pit arriving in the back yard - those reindeer's must have been relieved to get rid of that heavy load from their sleigh!

Christmas morning here in South Australia was actually quite cool so we didn't get a chance to spend too much time building sand castles - but plenty of time to play with the cars, trucks, Thomas the Tank and all the other bits and pieces he got!

Then we had a visits from the grandparents (Granddad, Nana Karen and Nana) and once again more presents arrived! My boy was very spoilt.

For lunch we went to Grahams Parents (Nan and Pops house) and we had a lovely Barbecue with lovely Scotch Fillet Steak and Chicken, with some lovely salads, the food was lovely but of course we all ate way too much. More grandparents meant more presents for Harrison so he had the present unwrapping down packed by this stage.

After an afternoon nap (I think for all of us) we then went and spent a bit of time with Rachel, Michael and the Kids! We went home exhausted and kind of glad it was over!

Boxing day was spent down south with a visit to my dads house for a few hours and then after to a friends from work for a swim in their pool.

Well for New Years the temperatures here in Adelaide soared, we hit I think 43 degrees (Celsius) and we were all sweltering!

We did however manage to leave the house in the evening to go to Elder Park for a family fire works show held at 9pm. This was Harrison's first experience of fireworks and he loved them, I was a bit worried that it might hurt his ears especially since sounds are a bit more sensitive to him, but he was in awe of it all.

We then got home and met up with our friends Rachel and Michael, put Harrison to bed and had just a few beverages of the alcoholic nature to see 2008 in!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 TO ALL OF OUR FRIENDS